display Himself and His Glory and will give Admirable Manifestations of his Wisdom Power Goodness and other Perfections beyond what either eye hath seen or eare heard or what can enter into the heart of Man Tâ—…irdly The excellent company which are in Heaven is no small Addition to the Happiness thereof They are Persons far from Malice and Envy from intertaining Suspicions and Animosities or from being ready to fall out in jars and contests But as they are Enriched with the best Endowments so they are Acted with the largest Charity and Good-will loving each other intirely and intertaining one another with all the Indearing expressions of Friendship Of all pleasures Friendship and the society of Excellent Persons is the greatest it affects the mind most and fills the Heart with the greatest Measure of Joy and Gladness what Delight and Satisfaction then may be expected in the Society of Angels and Arch-Angels Cherubims and Seraphims and the Spirits of just Men made perfect But fourthly in the other life we shall find our selves not only in a far better State as to Externals but shall also feel great and Glorious Changes in our selves For first we shall not be tyed to the necessity of Eating and Drinking and Sleeping in which mean exercises the one half of our time is consumed there we shall not be cloged and fettered to a crazy infirm and sickly Body as now for then this Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and this Mortal Immortality And CHRIST IESUS shall change this vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things to himself 1 Cor. 15. Phil. 3. 21. There shall be a vast Change in the â—…rame and Constitution of our Body For there shall be given to it Glory and Power and Splendor and some other Subtile and Excellent Qualities so far above the common Nature of Bodies that the Apostle thought fit to term it a Spiritual Body Secondly As such Glorious Changes are to be wrought upon our Bodies so the like shall be done to our Souls the Body is thus changed into the better because the Soul is also made more perfect these excellent Endowments are bestowed upon the Body because the Perfection and Dignity to which the Soul is now raised require that it should be solodged For being our inward Faculties are much better then Formerly the outward Organs and Instruments of Action should be better too Now our Souls shall not only be delivered from Ignorance and Errour and all the Disorders which sin hath involv'd them into but shall also have all their Faculties rectified and elevat to the outmost hight of Perfection of which Creatures are capable Truth shall not then be vail'd with Absurdity nor shall we be oblidged to seek the Knowledge thereof by such tedious and uncertain inquiries as now we are necessitate to But shall be endowed with all desirable Wisdom Now sayes the Apostle We see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know as also I am known 1 Cor. 13. 12. And to make our Souls compleatly perfect there shall be added unspotted Puritie and Holiness and a participation of the Divine Nature Beloved saith St. Iohn now are we the Sons of GOD and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is 1 Iohn 3. 2. The Image of GOD shall be renewed upon our Souls and that more clearly and brighty then it was at our first Creation the Divine Perfections shall be transcribed upon us and thereby we shall be brought into a near and inconceivable Union with GOD. And now seeing this doth appear what needs more Here we may well stay our Thoughts for indeed there is no climbing higher GOD is Perfection it self and the Fountain of all Happiness he therefore must needs be most Happy who is like GOD and United to him It is simply impossible to conceive greater Happiness and Satisfaction then this Enjoyment of GOD and likeness to him David doubted not of receiving Satisfaction from this when he said As for me I will behold thy Face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Psal. 17. 15. This is true Felieity and should be aspired after 't is a shame for any Man to sit down lower or to content himself with less Degrees of Happiness seeing GOD is willing to bestow this upon him The obtaining Heaven and Eternal Life should be our main Project and the great Design we should be alwayes dryving on nothing should divertâ—…us from this but all our Endeavours should be to further it on And our Prayers to GOD should be chiefly that he would be pleased to favour this aim of ours and not suffer us to miscarry Some whom Worldly Love and Carnal Affections have seized and enslaved may with Reuben and Gad wish to have their Tabernacles set up this side Iordan And providing they could get their Portion in this Life would never seek after the Land of Promise But such certainly Act contrary to Reason and unbecoming the Dignity of their Natures They must put off the Man very much who intend no higher Pleasures then what are Bodily and arise from the Enjoyment of Earthly things Which though gluted to the full can never satisfie the Soul As all Mens Experience do testifie As Noahs Dove found no rest untill she returned to the Ark So neither can the Soul of Man have any solide content until it ascend into the holy hill of GOD and rest in the bosom of him from whom it had its being And as Man's true Felicity lyes not in this but in the other World so the chief Satisfaction which we can have at present flowes from the sure and well grounded Hopes of that after Happiness even as the greatest content of a Merchant while he is Trafficking abroad is in the Expectation of the Gain he will make when he comes home And as the chiefest delight of an Heir while he is Minor is in his hopes of succeeding to his Father's Honour and Fortune when he arrives at full Age. Here we are as it were in the Quality and Condition of Minors and therefore have no Reason to grudge though we be not put actually in the Possession of full Happiness We may be very well satisfied for the present that the same is surely reserved to us and waiting upon us till that we be ripe for it Blessed be the GOD and Father of our Lord IESUS CHRIST which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of IESUS CHRIST from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. The Design of this present Treatise is to direct to true Felicity which as it is of great Importance
man hath seen nor can see He being infinite and we finite we are not capable of such an exact full knowledge of him Wherefore it will not follow that One is ignorant of the True God because his knowledge of him is imperfect for the knowledge which the best have or can have is no other Nay farther it is not reasonable to infer that men are mistaken about the true God because they err about these things which are deduceable from the right consideration of some of his Attributes or because they have not right or true apprehensions of some of the effects of his wisdom power or goodness Every one is not capable of drawing proper consequences from truths and the consequences are not alwayes so clear as the truth it self it would be too severe to charge one with the denial of a truth because he does not close with what may follow upon it Unless the one be as clear and evident as the other when two things are not a like evident neither their connexion very palpable though in themselves they may be really inseparable Men may err very innocently and excusably about them and cannot be said to reject what is evident because they do not hold the other which is not so As to the present case that God is Almighty Wise. Iust Holy Good is clear and demonstrable so that they are altogether inexcusable who do not believe it But the most proper methods and manner of exercing his Power Wisdom and Iustice c. Are not so discernable by us and therefore if men differ about them it is no great wonder and it savours somewhat of arrogancie to offer to determine them too particularly If silly Country-clowns were to speak of State Policie and Regal Grandeur 't is not to be doubted but that they would err grosly because they have not true or exact notions thereof But it is less to be doubted that it is more beyond the wisest man's reach to tell exactly what is sutable to the glory of God and agreable to infinite wisdom power and justice What boldness were it tosay peremptorly God should have done or not have done this that if he had or not had done so so he would have acted unworthily What of the divine actions are plainly revealed we see clearly are agreeable to the most perfect conceptions of a Deity and what is kept secret we ought rather to admire in silence then to sit down and curiously resolve And if men will needs attempt the resolution of the hidden mysteries of GOD's Councill and prescribe Rules for that end they should rather be check'd for their bold and too curious medling then unbraided with a false god because their sentiments cannot be so exactly adjusted to the more common notions of justice and equity which men have Wherefore the deriding the God of the Calvinists * as one of late hath done deserves a severe censure and chastisement For whither these Calvinistical tenets concerning Gods Decrees be true or false the believing or not believing them will not infer a denial or not owning of the true God and seing the Calvinists acknowledge all the essential Attributes of a Deity and believe in him only who is declared the true God therefore they cannot be said to worship any other and he who mocks at the God whom they worship mocks at the true God himself and how great a sin this is I leave it to any to judge But to return whence we degressed it is requisite that every one study to get the highest and most worthy thoughts of GOD and it is absolutly necessary that they acknowledge what is expresly contain'd in the very Idea of God as that he is Almighty most Wise most Iust Good above all things and the cause of all things For God is only a short term used to expresse these perfections by and therefore who takes any of them away destroys the very nature of God and who worships what he doth not ascribe these properties to worships not God but some other thing Even as he is altogether ignorant of a circle or triangle who does not consider the one as a figure made up of three lines with three distinct angles and the other of one round line whose parts are all equally distant from the center who knows not this is quite destitute of the notion of these figures But if one knows this much he cannot but be said to have the right notion of a circle and triangle though he do not understand all which knowing and skilfull Mathematicians demonstrate about them But it is not enough for preserving our selves from Idolatry that we get and maintain some right true and proper notions of a Deity Men may have these and yet be Idolaters in that they fix these notions where they ought not and ascribe them to that which in it self is not God Thus the Heathens were guilty of Idolatry for many of them were not so much mistaken in their conceptions of God as in the application of their general conceptions to the particular objects of their worship when they spake of God at least the wise understanding persons among them they shewed that they believed him a Supreme Beeing of great Wisdom Power and Goodness and therefore they term'd him alwayes the Summum Numen Deus ter optimus maximus So that their sentiments concerning the Nature and Attributes of GOD could not be so much found fault with as their gross absurdity in misapplying these properties of the Divine Nature For some affixed the Numen or Deity to the Sun others to the Moon or to some other of the Celestiall Bodies as the Author of the book of wisdom speaks they deemed either Fire or Wind or the swift Air or the circle of the Stars or the violent water or the lights of Heaven to be the Gods which govern the World Wis. 13. 2. And though this was a sotish errour yet not so detestable as theirs who worshiped four footed beasts and creeping things and roots and herbs as we read the Egyptians did They may have been misled into these abominations through the infirmity of their Minds which could not fix steedily on a thing so Spiritual and so wholly abstracted from Sense as GOD is without the help of Sensible representations which might affect their imaginations Wherefore the better to bring GOD to their Minds that they might keep him the more easily in their Thoughts thy have have devised such Bodily figures and gross representations Or not attending to the True Nature of GOD they have imagined that he was confin'd to some peculiar place and seeing none more Glorious then the Sun or other Celestiall Bodies therefore have at first only fancied these to be the Seat of Divine Majesty But in Processe of time have degenerate into the grosser belief of their being Gods Being delighted with there beauty saith the foresaid Authour they took them to be Gods And as to that Astonishing as well
as the Papists have gone And certainly nothing can be brought in defence of the Papists which may not as well be alledged for the Heathens Nay except some few logical distinctions which prove very frivolous all the specious pretexts which the Papists make for justifying their Practice are to be found in the Apologies of the Heathens Do the Papists say that their Worship terminats not in the Image it self but is carried by it to what is thereby represented the Heathens said the same Do the Papists say that they use Images only to remember them of the Invisible objects of their Worship So did the Heathen as appears from Maximus Tyrius and some others Are the Heathens taxed with a gross conceit that the Gods inhabited their Images and that some divinity resided in them The Papists entertain the same fancy of theirs at least a great part of the Vulgar do else what means the high esteem of one Image of the same Person above another Why are tedious Pilgrimages undertaken to visit the Images of the Virgin or some other Saint in such and such places when the Images of the same Saints are every where How comes it that miracles the gifts of healing c. Are ascribed to Images if they do not think that there be something of Divinity in them Therefore the Papists opinions and practices anent Images are one and the same with the Heathens for which they are accounted Idolaters in Scripture and consequently all subtilties of the Roman Doctors will not free their Church from this horrid and provoking crime And as both reason and Scripture declare against them so they cannot plead here the practice of the Ancient Church for nothing is more manifest then that the Primitive Church abstained from the very appearance of this Idolatry and Superstition so far were they from practising it witness that known Fact of Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus in tearing a Linnen cloath whereon the Image of Christ was painted which he found in the Church lest it should be an occasion of Idolatry to the People this was about the end of the fourth Century And about the sixth Serenus Bishop of Massile brake to pieces all the Images of CHRIST and Saints which were in the City fearing the People who were then Declining from the Purity of the Christian Religion should be drawn to worship them And that the worship of them was not at that time Publickly allowed nor brought into the Church appears clearly from Gregory the first his Letter to the said Bishop wherein he hath these words that thou didst forbid Images to be Worshipped we praise altogether but that thou brakest them we blame who would be fuâ—…ther instructed in the Judgement of the Fathers in this point of Image-Worship let them read the English Homilies where also they will clearly see the great Disagrement betwixt the present Church of Rome and the Primitive Church for hundreds of years so little Reason have they to plead Antiquity But though all should be admitted which the Papists say for their Vindication in worshipping Angels Saints and Images yet this would not free them altogether from Idolatry so long as they Worship the Host or Consecrated Bread For though there were no other Reason to tax them with this Crime yet this were sufficient which we come now in the last place to speak to And the rather because they go not about to excuse this nor do they collour it with subtile Glosses as in former Instances they do not cry out that they are wrong'd and calumniat when they are said to worship the Host for they publickly allow it and the Council of Trent hath pronounced an Anathema upon all who do not think the same Worship due to GOD ought to be payed to this Sacramental Bread That whereon the worship of the Host is founded is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or a total Conversion of the Bread into the Body and Blood of the Lord IESUS CHRIST and therefore if this Doctrine be taken away or shew'd unsufficient it will clearly appear that they are guilty of Idolatry as some of themselves plainly acknowledge Now as to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation it cannot be expected that we should here treat of it fully and particularly for this would carrie us too far from the design of this Present Treatise and make it swell too bigg All we shall say at present is that there is no Evidence for it no Ground to believe it and consequently no Reason for establishing this Worship which they make to follow upon it If we examine the several ways by which we come to know and to be assured of any thing it will easily appear that there is no Evidence for Transubstantiation no Ground to believe that the Host is the real Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST All things are Manifest to us either by Sense or Reason or Revelation and what appears by none of these is a groundless conceit a Fantastick Opinion which ought not be made the Foundation of any Religious observance and such will the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be found to be For first if we examine our Senses and believe their Testimonie there is no Transubstantiation but the Bread continues Bread after consecration the Figure Shape Cllour smell and Taste are the same were before and if it be keept any while it moulds and corrupts as Bread so that to the appearance of Sense there is nothing but Bread And if we have recourse to Reason it will not contradict but confirm the Testimony of our Sense And farther shew what an absurdity it is to think otherwayes because it would quite destroy the Nature and Properties of Bodies if the Body and Blood of IESUS CHRIST were in the Host For then it would follow that one body might be in Diverse places at once that Matter might be without Extension that the Accidents Effects and Properties of a Body may remain when the Body it self is destroyed and such like absurdities Thus Transubstantiation is founded neither upon Sense nor Reason but is contrare to both And therefore if there be any such thing it must appear by Revelation but it will appear as little this way as any other for there is no Revelation to be trusted but what is set down in the Scripture and they are altogether silent What ever was the occasion of this Doctrine sure the Scripture was not for it is not plainly asserted nor is it to be deduced from clear or Positive Truths Nay the Scripture gives so little ground to fancie this that on the contrarie it speak so of this Sacrament as may assure us there is no such thing as the Papists dream for it calls it Bread both before and after its Consecration and the usuall Phrase for the celebration of this Sacrament is in Scripture the breaking of Bread which would have been a very mean expression if the Bread were turned to the Body of IESUS CHRIST The pretext for Transubstantiation from Scripture
pay the same Adoration when it is no Sacrament as when it is for without any scruple they worship alwayes and every where the Bread which is pretended to be Consecration when it is certain sometimes nay oftimes it is not Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST because of the want of those necessary conditions which infer that change And when it is but simple Bread will it take off the guilt of Idolatry to say I worship thee if thou art CHRIST Which is as if a Woman should pretend to excuse her Adultery by saying when she admitted a stranger I do this if thou art mine Husband A woman is not honest and faithfull if she embrace another upon light pretences and appearances she should be alwayes certain that he is her real Husband to whom she payes the duty of a wife in like manner none are faithfull to God who throw away the worship due to him only upon uncertain objects He is a jealous GOD as jealous of his glory as any earthly Husband is of his honour and therefore will never be pleased with us if we worship rashly when we are not sure that it is him we worship Thus though it were granted that the Bread and Wine should be turned into the Body and Bloud of Iesus Christ yet seing it is so uncertain when it is de facto thus turned it is much safer not to worship then to worship because there is no crime in not worshipping but by worshipping we may run the hazard of Idolatry No King would find fault with one that were blind or half blind for not falling down and paying homage to him when he were Ignorant of his presence But if such a one upon presumption of the King's presence should prostrat himself before the empty Chair of State or mistake a Courteour for the King and accoast him with all the Titles of Soveraignity and pay him all the respect proper to Kings both he should render himself ridiculous in the sight of all and also what he did would be altogether vain and unprofitable for it would find no acceptance with the King nay would very readily displease and incense him because it would imply that the Majesty of the King were as much to be seen in others as in himself The case is the same in the Sacrament which any one may easily apply But lastly we shall suppose in general that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is true and also in particular that the Sacrament it self is duely consecrat so that the Bread and Wine is actually transubstantiated into the Body and Bloud of Iesus Christ yet it will not from hence follow that the Sacrament is to be adored for which there is neither precept nor example in all Scripture Our Saviour did not enjoyn it himself nor yet the Apostles after him neither did they look upon themselves as oblidged to this for we read that at the first institution of the Sacrament they received it in the same manner they did their other common Meals And we cannot conclude that the Eucharist should or may be adored because it is said this is my Body even understanding the words literally for if this reason hold good it would follow that all things might be adored The body of Iesus Christ is only the object of adoration because of its union with the God-head wherefore if we may worship the Sacrament because it contains that which is united to the divine nature we may and also ought to worship every other thing where the essence of God is and therefore every Stone and Tree and Animal all Animat and Inanimat Creatures should be worshipped for God is in them all But to worship God in and by the Creature is flat Idolatry God is not to be worshipped with a particular reverence to any thing but either when it is expresly commanded or when he sheweth there visible rayes of Majesty and Glory and even then we are not to worship the thing it self but God who sheweth himself thus present at it as the Israelites worshipped not the Ark but toward the Ark and as Moses worshipped God who manifested himself in the burning bush but not the bush it self But where God or Christ is not present by such visible rayes of Majesty there worship should not be payed we are sure Christ dwelleth in all the faithfull but I hope none will say that every believer should be worshipped so though Christ should be really present in the Sacrament yet it will not follow that the Elements whereof it is constitute should be adored no more then the Manger wherein Christ lay or the Cloaths which covered his Body and therefore the Papists who adore the Sacrament it self that which they see feel and taste with their bodily senses they adore the creature with the Creator and commit as great absurdity that is to say as gross Idolatry as they who should have ador'd Christ's garments as well as his person Thus whatever way we consider the Sacrament and the words of its institution whither we take them Figuratively as certainly they should or even Literally as the Papists would be at it is clear that the Sacrament is no object of adoration and they who religious adore it do service to that which by nature is no God which is down right Idolatry And as the Papists are most unreasonable in looking upon the Sacrament as a due object of Adoration and by entertaining no less esteem of it then they do of JESUS CHRIST himself so they commit gross absurdity and are guilty of unaccountable stupidity in eating chewing and digesting and consequently letting forth to the draught what they have such a high Opinion of to believe it to be no less then the GOD whom they should adore and yet at the same time to treat it thus seems most disagreeable and inconsistant For this is both to elevat and to depress it to raise it as high as is possible and at the same time to debase it as much as can be Adoration is the highest honour which can be payed but it speaks out the greatest contempt of a thing to eat and devour it Wherefore I think it would be very agreeable to the tenets of the Romish Church that the Pope should interpose his Authority to discharge people to treat the Lord Iesus Christ as they do common food which is to put upon him the greatest indignity 'T is true Christ hath said take eat this but that needs be no hinderance to the Pope to enjoya the contrary who pretends to have power to alter and dispence with Divine Commands Christ said of the Cup too drink ye all of it and yet this hath not hindred the Pope to take it away from the People and there cannot be alledg'd greater inconveniences in giving the Cup then in giving the Bread to be eaten and chew'd If the People saw the Host only in the Priests hands when it is elevat their respect and esteem thereto might be