own Will And if our Reason will not rest satisfied with that it will but weary it self in fruitless inquiries and dangerously miscarry by its bold determinations For instance what account can our Reason give why God should provide a Saviour for lost Man and none for the lapsed Angels Why he should cloath his only begotten Son with our dishonoured nature and expose him to so bitter Sufferings for the Sin of Man Why he should 〈…〉 severely punish the Crucifiers of his Son when what they did was fore-determined by himself in order to Mans Salvation And why he should suffer so much wickedness to be done which himself hates and could if he pleased by his Almighty Power hinder These and many more such instances might be given wherein Mans Reason is puzzl'd as not finding any thing wherein it can acquiesce but the Will and pleasure of God that thus it should be Again God requires we should believe him upon his naked Word though we know not which way that which he says can be And accordingly he so manifests to us his Mind that he will not gratifie our vanity or pride in resolving the queries and satisfying the objections that our curiosity may start about the Truth revealed It is enough for us to know what he hath said and to take it upon the Authority of his word without asking how or why And it is indeed the highest Reason imaginable that we should give absolute credit to what he speaks God's Sovereignty saith the learned Lord Verulam reaches to the whole Man extending itself no less to his Reason than his Will so that it well becomes man to deny himself universally and yield up all to him Wherefore as we are bound to obey the Law of God notwithstanding the reluctancy of our Will so are we also to believe his Word though against the reluctancy of our Reason I shall conclude this with the Words of the learned Grotius who having asserted the Doctrines of Scripture to be no way contrary to sound Reason but agreeable thereunto he he hath this remarkable passage Ultra haec pro comperto aliquid affirmare aut de Dei natura aut de ejus voluntate solo ductu humanae rationis c. How dangerous and deceitfull a thing it is to affirm any thing for certain either of the Nature or Will of God beyond what we have in Holy Writ by the sole conduct of Humane Reason we are taught by the many dissentient opinions not only of Schools but of particular Philosophers among themselves Nor is this any great wonder for if they ran out into very differing apprehensious when they disputed about the nature of their own Mind much more must it needs be so with those who are desirous to determine any thing concerning that Supreme Mind that is so far above us If prudent Men count it dangerous to search into the Counsels of Kings which by all our search we cannot discover who is there so sagacious as can hope by his own conjectures to find out what God will do among those things that depend upon his meer pleasure CHAP. V. A third Argument from the absurdity of resolving a Mans Faith into himself and his own Reason IN the third place If the Sense of Scripture be to be regulated and determined by Natural Principles then the last resolution of a Mans Faith in those points as to the formal object of it will be into Man himself and the dictate of his own Reason For the ultimate reason or ground of our believing in this case will not be the veracity of God speaking in the Scripture but the Voice of our own Reason persuading us from its own Principles when we can see nothing in the Words of Scripture to require it And this plainly falls in with the absurd conceit of the Quakers who commonly profess to own nothing that is laid down in the Bible as the Mind of God but what is witnessed by the light within them Which is no more in other terms than this That they will take nothing from the Scripture but what is agreeable to their own Reason For the light they speak of with which they say every Man comes into the World for which they alledge that in Joh. 1. 9. is nothing else but Mans Reason and the common notions of it which though some of them have heretofore denied yet now their chief Heads and Leaders do openly avow And this is that which they make the standing Rule of what they believe and practise and not the Holy Scriptures We rather say with an ancient Schoolman Apud Aristotelem argumentum est ratio rei dubiae faciens fidem sed apud Christum argumentum est fides faciens rationem The way of arguing in Aristotle's School is by Reason begetting assent but in Christ's School it is by Faith which is instead of all Reason CHAP. VI. A fourth Argument from another absurdity viz. That in Matters of pure Revelation the Mind of God may be better known by Natural Light than by Scripture Or that all supernatural Revelation is to be shut out FOurthly It will follow from this supposal That in matters of pure Revelation the Mind of God may be better known by the common principles of Natural Light than by the Holy Scriptures which carries with it a palpable contradiction For matters of pure Revelation are supposed to be supernatural and if these as laid down in Scripture cannot be understood from the Scripture it self but must have such a Sense given them as the Maxim of Natural Reason shall determine then certainly it is not Revelation but Reason that discovers them And so what need will there be of Scripture Indeed this conceit looks very like that absurd dotage of Weigelius if it be not the same with it that Mans knowledge of all things whatsoever must be fetcht from within himself not from without Tenôris says he omnia nôris omnia enim es non minus quam Deus Which besides many other prodigious absurdities plainly shuts out all supernatural Revelation And that this lies at the bottom of the Exercitators Discourse I find reason enough to suspect if not conclude For besides what he says in his sixth Chapter the first Paragraph which I shall wave insisting on in his Epilogue at the end of his Book he propounds an Objection against his whole Discourse viz. That if Philosophy be the Rule of Interpreting the Holy Scripture then the Scripture is useless and written to no purpose for seeing the truth of all the Senses of Scripture which are to be search'd out and tryed by Philosophy must first be perceived before they be drawn out and examined to what end is it that we should have recourse to Scripture to learn any thing from it This is the Objection which himself makes against his own Position In answer whereto he runs out into a long Harangue of words and as his manner is propounds a frivolous
distinction and tedrously dilates upon it to amuse his Reader But the sum of all comes to this That the words of Scripture are of no further use than as they are signs of conceptions and things and under that consideration they cannot be understood unless the things signified by them be first known at least in some gross and confused manner Whereof he gives us this instance that where we sind in Scripture that God is Omniscient we cannot understand this unless we first know what God is and what Omniscience is Therefore says he all the benefit that any can get by any Book that is written is but this that it stirs up the Mind of the Reader to reflect upon the clear and distinct Idea's of those things in his Mind which the Book treats of not that the Book can of it self bring him to the true knowledge of things much less that it can beget any clear or distinct Ideas in his Mind which were not there before And thus he tells us it is with the Scripture all the use of it is to stir up the Reader or Hearer to think of the things that it propounds and inquire into them and examine them whether they be so as they are there propounded and that they may do this they must make use of Philosophy to try what is there written Therefore adds he the Scripture is to be used not that it should of it self inform us in the truth or render the truth more clear and distinct or make it more firm to us but that it may give us occasion and matter of meditating on those things which perhaps otherwise we should never have minded Therefore says he still the utility and excellency of the Scriptures above other Books consists onely in this That the things it speaks of are of so great concernment to our everlasting blessedness not for any use they are of to instruct us in the Truth This is all the use that he allows the Scripture from whence I think will inevitably follow that he owns the necessity of no knowledge of God or Religion but what is natural And so all supernatural Revelation or at least all necessity of it is denied And if there be no other use of the Written Word but what this Author assigns it it s put into the same rank with a Crucifix or a Deaths Head Indeed the whole design of his Book and of that other Tract that is prefixed to its latter Edition written as is supposed by the same Author is utterly to undermine and overthrow the credit of the Scriptures We need not wonder that he so often derides and calumniates the Protestant Doctrine of the Spirits internal illumination of the Mind which consists in curing the indisposition of the Subject and fitting it for the right understanding of Heavenly Things of which more hereafter in an Appendix to my present Discourse when he will not allow the necessity of so much as an Enternal Light for the Revelation of Supernatural Objects as acknowledging no such things And he that is thus principled must needs be very ignorant of himself and of the ruines that Sin hath made among the whole Race of Adam and the woful depravation of Mans Nature by his first Apostasie But for the Readers full satisfaction about the necessity of Supernatural Revelation I dare commend to his perusal besides many other useful Discourses that might be named that excellent Piece of the Eminently-accomplish'd Sir Charles Wolsly concerning the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief CHAP. VII 1. A fifth Argument That this would open a gap to the most pernicious Errors in Matters of Faith 2. And Practice AGain fifthly This Assertion le ts loose the Bridle to proud and wanton Wits to overthrow the Foundations of Christian Religion for though there be not the least real repugnancy between the Doctrines of Christianity and the Principles of Right Reason and Sound Philosophy which undoubtedly there is not as I have already premised and asserted yet there being no certain and infallible Record of these Principles by which as by the Rule of Judgement particular Mens Reasonings may be tried If Scripture Revelation must be interpreted by Mens Reasonings I know not the any Error that hath ever crept into the Church of Christ either in matter of Faith or Practice since the first publication of the Gospel but may be introduced anew by this Engine The heretical Blasphemies of Servetus and Socinus which sprang up of late years and those of the Marcionites and Manichees that infested the Church in former times together with the loathsome impurities of the Gnosticks who esteemed themselves the only knowing Men or to speak in the new mode the onely Rational Divines have fair way made them by this Trim Device First Let us instance in Matters of Faith whatsoever is said in Scripture about the Creation of the World the Conception of our Saviour in a Virgins Womb the Personal Union of the two Natures the Resurrection of the Body at the last Day these with many more that might be named let them be brought to the Bar of Reason and tried by its Principles as they are to be found in the Minds of Men and what will it come to We have seen already what use some Men have made of this way to subvert the weightiest Truths of the Gospel But here it will be excepted perhaps by some That the Fundamentals of Christian Religion being clear and plain in Scripture there is no fear of this inconvenience To this I answer First If Divine Revelations must be no otherwise received or understood than as Men see ground for them in their own Reason the plainest and clearest Doctrines of Scripture will be rejected I shall here give two Instances as I find them quoted by a late learned Author The one is of Socinus who says That he would not believe Christ to have satisfied for our Sins though he should read it once and again in Scripture the infallibility of the Revealer not being sufficient to establish it unless he had declared it by its causes and effects and so satisfied Mens Reason concerning the possibility of it Smalcius is the other who says That he would not believe the Incarnation of the Son of God though he should meet with it in express terms in the Bible The same Author says elsewhere that by Reason alone we determine the possibility and impossibility of the Articles of Faith To which I might add the bold assertion of a late English Remonstrant in a Volume publish'd some years ago where he says I verily believe that in case any such unchangeableness of Gods love viz. as should assure the Saints infallible perseverance were to be found in or could regularly be deduced from the Scriptures it were a just ground to any considering Man to question their Authority or whether they were from God or no. And a late Belgick Tractator having affirmed that the
perspicuous Revelation of God's Will Whatsoever may be the ignorance or darkness of Men which hinders them from knowing what God hath said in these Sacred Records yet the objective perspicuity of them is generally asserted by Protestants against the Romanists Not that all Truths revealed in Scripture are so low and common as in their own Nature to be obvious to Man's Understanding but that as to the manner of their delivery they are so laid down in the Scripture as that they may be understood by and from the Scripture yet we mean not that every part or passage of Scripture is clear For that there are many difficulties therein we acknowledge But that the mind of God is somewhere or other in Scripture plainly propounded so far as it is necessary for us to know it one part of it giving Light to another so that the whole Scripture taken together is a Perspicuous Manifestation of his will This is proved by Moses's words in Deut. 30. 12 13 14. Speaking of the Law and the Apostles words Rom. 10. 6. c. Speaking the same of the Gospel Hence the written Word is frequently compared to a Light and is said to give understanding to the Simple Had not the Scriptures been Perspicuous how could Timothy in his Childhood have understood them How could our Saviour out of them have convinced the Sadduces of the Doctrin of the Resurrection Or the Apostles out of them prove irrefragably the truth of their Doctrin against the gainsaying Jews Or how could the Bereans try the Apostles Doctrin by searching the Scriptures These are undeniable Proofs that the Scriptures are Perspicuous and that they have a plain and certain sense obvious to a considerate Reader But all this will signifie nothing if the Scripture have not that Light in it that may discover it self and clear up its own meaning without borrowing Light from some other Principle Now because much of the stress of this Cause lies on this we must a little consider what is said against it The late Romanists do generally cry out that the Scriptures are obscure partly that they may have the fairer colour to take them out of the Peoples hands lest they should mistake or pervert them though none among them have been more guilty of that than their Doctors of greatest name for Learning partly that they may bring in their unwritten Traditions as expository of Scripture-Revelations and partly also that they may establish a necessity of an Infallible Visible Judge here on Earth to Interpret Scriptures and decide all Controversies Yet I know not any of them but will own that many things in the Scripture are clear But there is a late Writer that denies this My next work therefore shall be to deal with him and clear the Truth from his exceptions in some of the following Chapters of this Discourse CHAP. IV. The Exercitators exception against the Scriptures Perspicuity from the ambiguity of words Answered THe Belgick Exercitator whom I have oft mentioned before that he may make sure work rises higher in denying the Scriptures Perspicuity than any that I have ever met with and with confidence affirms the Scripture to be universally obscure and that no part of it is of it self clear and plain and thereupon denies that one part of Scripture can be expounded by another Yea this he laies as the foundation of his main Assertion against the Scriptures Interpreting it self And one great Reason he gives is what he hath taken a great deal of tedious pedantick pains to prove in his third Chapter That all speech being made up of Words and Phrases is abscure and doubtful because the words whereof it consists are capable of different significations and consequently may be taken in a various sense and thus it is with the Scripture it is universally ambiguous and therefore obscure To this I Answer 1. If this Reason hold then there is no Speech or Writing in the World but will fall under the same unhappy fate No Law of the Land no letter of a Friend no Oral Discourse no Treatise of whatsoever Subject and how accurately soever written shall be accounted Intelligible For all Writings and Discourses are made up of the same kind of Words and Phrases and capable of being adorn'd with the same Tropes and Figures that the Scripture is and every whit as liable to be taken in for different senses And thus no man shall know how to speak or write any thing that can be clearly understood and that excellent gift of Speech which God hath bestowed upon men to be an instrument of society and converse shall be of no other use but to be made an Engine of deceit and treachery Secondly if things be thus to what end did this Author trouble himself to Write and others to read this Book of his if all Speeches and Writings be ambiguous and obscure and not to be understood without an Interpreter of what use is this Jewel of his fancy Did he hope to lead the whole World of Interpreters out of their Labyrinths into the right path by such an ignis fatuus that by its ambiguities and uncertainties may scare and amuse them and carry them hither and thither according to the wind of their own imaginations Or hath he attain'd to a faculty above all other Writers even the best and holiest to write in such Words and Phrases as might open his meaning without entangling his Readers in ambiguities If he thinks his Book be free from this blemish methinks he might have had the modesty to conceive that the Pen-men of Scripture knew how to write as well as he If his thoughts of his Book were otherwise he might have kept it to himself and fed the Moths with it Thirdly yet again if it be thus that all words in whatsoever contexture be so ambiguous and obscure what will become of this Infallible Interpreter which our Author would set up For whatsoever Interpretation be made of any Scripture it must be framed in such words as other men use and as all kind of Writings are drawn up in and if when all is done these be obscure what are we the better For certainly according to this Authors argument even the first Principles of Nature and the most unquestionable Maxims of Philosophy when turn'd into Words and Sentences will be as ambiguous and consequently as dark as the Scriptures Fourthly whereas his impeaching the Scriptures of Ambiguity and Obscurity is not only to disable them from expounding themselves but that he may set up Philosophy as the only Interpreter he instances in several Scriptures which he says are thus Ambiguous and Obscure in the clearing whereof Philosophy cannot possibly afford us any help As for Example when he supposeth of our Saviour's Words in Joh. 5. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it 's doubtful whether this be to be taken Imperatively search the Scripture or Indicatively ye do search the Scriptures Can any
of Scripture may have correspondency with another and this so far as that the one may expound the other But now the case is alter'd If it be replied in his behalf That these places by him quoted were penned by one and the same Writer and therefore might well have correspondency each with other but this makes nothing for those who interpret one part of Scripture by some other that was not written by the same Hand I rejoin That the first and second Book of Kings were endited by the same Spirit I grant and shall make some use of it in my third Answer to this Authors Objection But that they were both written by the same Hand or suppose they were that the Writer intended by the latter to explain what he had written in the former is more than he or any other for him can prove 3. The Scriptures though written by parts and at several times and by several persons yet they all own God for their Author by whose Spirit they were endited and they are all together to be taken for his Counsel to Sinners And then what injury or incongruity is there in making use of what one hath written more plainly to unfold what was more darkly written by another When we compare the Evangelists together to explain what one says more briefly by what another lays down more fully we do not in this so much inquire into the sense and meaning of the Evangelists as into the Mind of God whose Secretaries they were The like may be said of the Prophets If the Prophets or Apostles spake of their own heads or wrote only a signification of their own private Sentiments there might be some colour for this Objection But the Apostle tells us That no Prophesie of Scripture is of private Interpretation that is the Prophets in their Writings were not the Interpreters of their own Mind but of the Mind of God by whom they were sent and by whose Spirit they were acted as it follows in the next Verse For Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And thus much the Exercitator acknowledgeth where he saith That God is the Author of the Scriptures and that he did always guide his Amanuenses to write the Truth giving them the assistance of his unerring Spirit and that whatsoever they wroteâ—… pure Truth free from all mixture of Fâ—â—shood or Errour But there is another Discourse prefixed to a latter Edition of the so oft-mentioned Exercitation and thought by many to come from the same Author the Writer whereof sticks not to assert this audacious Falshood That the Prophets in their Narkatives and in all matters of Speculation that is whatsoever was not matter of moral Duty did disagree among themselves and â—onsequently that what is said by one is not to be explained by the words of another Which with other passages of like import does at once call in question the whole Truth and consequently the Divine Authority of the Scriptures For if the Pâ—â—men of Scripture elash one against another in their Writings either God was not the Author of whâ—â— they wrote but themselves or the God of Truth must be charged with Falshood for of two diâ—…ent Opinions both cannot be true Whose design it is that the Author of that Theologico-Political Tractat drives except that of the great Enemy of Mankind I know not But he sufficiently manifests a vile esteem of the Holy Scriptures and a desire to beget the like in others For he takes very earnest pains with the utmost of his art and skill to â—â—ke up and exagitate their seeming disagreements as real contradictions casting a great deal of scorn upon all Expositors as Fools or Madmen that attempt to reconcile them His discourse in this and sundry other odious passages which I abâ—or to mention doth apparently tend to promote the cause of the Antiscripturists besides the help 〈◊〉 affords which is not a little to the Romish Interest The Author indeed would seem by some Expressions here and there to intimate his dislike of the Ponâ—ifician Party But we know it is consistent enough with the Politick Principles of Men of that way to speak much more than he hath done against that very Cause that they are studiously projecting under that Covert to advance But I return from this Digression to what I was about If any thing in the Laws of a Kingdom be difficult and perplex and there be something in some other Law of the same Kingdom though written or printed by other hands that speaks more clearly of that matter what wrong is it to the Law or the Law-maker or Printer if a Learned Council comparing one with another expound that which is more dark in one part of the Laws by that which is more perspicuous in another both proceeding from the same Authority and both obliging to the same persons Judge alike in the present case This Objection therefore is of no force But it is further urged That there are some difficult places of Scripture that are no where explained in any other part and some things that being but once spoken in Scripture cannot be explained by any parallel place And here our â—â—ercitator refers us for instances to his great Friend Stapleton For answer 1. Whereas it is said there are difficulties in some parts of Scripture that are no where cleared how does any Man know this Doth it follow that there is no such thing because we cannot find it Do we think our selves of so piercing or capacious understandings that nothing in the Scripture that is intelligible can escape our discovery Those who have acquainted themselves with Antient and Modern Expositors do know that many difficulties which former Interpreters have in vain struggled with and some that they have wholly left untoucht either as not apprehending them to be difficulties or conceiving them insuperable have been made very clear and plain by some later Writers Verily God will have us know that the opening of his Mind doth not depend only or chiefly upon the pregnancy of Mans Wit but upon his gracious assistance and blessing which he affords or withholds when and where himself sees fit Again the Scriptures were penn'd not only for the past and present but for all succeeding Ages of the Church to the end of the World And as some parts of them which peculiarly concern'd some Ages past were perhaps better understood in those Ages than they can be by us now as certainly many things were that belong'd to the Jewish Oeconomy so I know not but we may rationally suppose that some other parts of Scripture which to us seem unintelligible may have special reference to the Church in after-Ages and that those whom they so nearly concern shall have more light afforded for the understanding of them in their days than we have in ours As without doubt some Prophetick Scriptures not
the largest portion shall know that there is a wide difference between Earth and Heaven and that they are yet but Pilgrims and in their wilderness-state though he sometimes gives them for their encouragement a Pisgah-sight of that Heavenly Canaan towards which they are passing But what must all the forementioned joys and refreshing comforts that the Holy Scripture speaks of and the experience of the Saints bears witness to be counted no better than a juggle or a cheat the transport of frantick raptures or the mere illusion of an Enthusiastick fancy refresh'd with brisk and active spirits and filled with warm and sprightly imaginations Was it such an imaginary comfort that David pray'd for when he says Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice And again Restore to me the joy of thy Salvation And when the Psalmist says In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my Soul And again To the upright there ariseth light in the darkness Is this nothing but the raising of the Blood and the breaking out of the natural spirits from the oppression of melancholick fumes and refreshing the drooping fancy When the Apostle professeth that he was filled with comfort and exceeding joyful in all his tribulations Was this nothing but the effect of a Sanguine Complexion or the product of pleasing Phantasms Did this make Paul and Silas sing in their chains or was it this that cheer'd the hearts of those Blessed Martyrs who with so much joy and triumph embraced the Stake and clapped their half-consumed hands in the midst of the flames To say nothing of the many instances that might be given both in elder and later times of Persons eminent for Wisdom and Holiness who in languishing sicknesses when their Bodies have been so wasted and their strength so impair'd that they could not stir to feed or help themselves the whole frame of nature being broken by cruciating and consuming pains yet have then felt those inward Joys in their Souls which they could not siother but as Men that stood upon the threshold of Glory and had a ravishing sight and sense of the unconceivable pleasures of that other World have with that vigor and alacrity and yet with judgment and prudence poured out Praises and Thanksgivings to their Gracious Redeemer that it hath at once delighted and astonished the hearts of their intelligent Friends that came to visit them I cannot think it possible that the truth of these things should be question'd by any that do indeed believe the Scriptures and have felt the power of the Word upon their hearts But there is a Scoptick Generation of Men whose minds are so tinctur'd with a profane gaiety that the whole Bible is become to them no better than a Play-Book or a Romance upon which they love to exercise their drolling Wits by putting the Doctrines and Discourses of the Prophets and Apostles into a ridiculous dress the better to expose them to the scorn of Infidels as if they read that sacred Volume to no other purpose than as a late Author speaks of some to enable them to blaspheme God in his own stile I have indeed oft wonder'd what should betray any to this fond and iâ—rational conceit of resolving the Agonies of distress'd Consciences and the contrary Joys of serious Christians under assurance into the different temperature of their Bodies and the suitable workings of their Fancy till I met with a piece of new Divinity in a late Belgick Tractator and then I began to suspect out of what Chimny came all this smoke For this account doth that Gentleman give us of the Holy Prophets mentioned in Scripture That their Revelations proceeded from the strength and heighth of Imagination and were diversified according to the different temper and constitution of their Bodies which caused different workings in their fancy Hence he says those Prophets that were of cheerful and debonair complexion prophesied altogether of Peace and Prosperity Victory over Enemies and all things to Mens hearts content these being such things as best suited with their Imaginations On the other side those Prophets that were sad and melancholick or of angry and morose tempers they altogether prophesied of War and Blood-shed Desolation and Destruction these being such things as their drooping and dejected Fancy did most run upon Accordingly he tells us that whatsoever Revelations the Prophets received they did not at all better or advance their Understandings or beget in them any solid knowledge They were good honest Men indeed but none of the wisest for Men of note for Wisdom never were Prophets that being a work that belong'd to the Imagination and not to the Judgment In the same Chapter he undertakes to give us a reason why Josiah when he had heard the Book of the Law read in his ears and was thereby made apprehensive of some impendent calamity would not send to the Prophet Jeremy though then living because forsooth he was a Melancholick Man and one who by his many sufferings and hard usage was grown weary of his life and therefore was not likely to prophesie any good But he chose to send rather to the Prophetess Huldah who being a Woman and so it seems according to the softness of that Sex more inclined to tenderness and compassion was a fitter instrument for God to reveal his Mercy by This is a piece of that Authors Political Atheology And truly I know no kind of Divinity if we may call any such thing by that name from which this conceit that we have under consideration can more fairly be thought to derive its original But if we must look any higher for its pedegree I cannot tell whom to father it upon next to the Father of Lyes unless it be that Arabian Philosopher of great note for Learning who is said to ascribe the Miracles wrought by the Primitive Christians to the power of an exalted Imagination by virtue of which he says they had entertain'd a strong conceit of the Deity of their Master and this fancy in his apprehension was that which wrought such Wonders in Christs Name Whether that which heightened this Pagans confidence to so bold and absurd an assertion were any extraordinary skill he had in the Anatomy of the Brain or the Laws of Mechanism I know not But whatever grounds he might be supposed to have I think none that heartily owns the Christian Name will ascribe such a ridiculous perswasion to the depth of his Philosophy but to the heighth of his Infidelity CHAP. III. 1. Regular Zeal in the Duties of Religion justified 2. And vindicated from the charge of Enthusiasm 3. Madness 4. Dissimulation and placing the whole of Religion in such fervors 5. And of aiming at ill ends I Come now in the last place to speak something of the prejudices taken at those fervors that appear in some in the Exercises of Religion breaking forth
Devotion as may stand with the quiet enjoyment of their lusts and not disturb their dead and sleepy Consciences And therefore the less life and vigour there is in those exercises of Religion wherein they think good to bear a part the more pleasing they are to them they dread all other as much as a Child doth the sound of a Trumpet or the terrible crack of Thunder as that which amazes and affrights them and breaks them of their beloved ease Who is there that looks abroad in the World and sees not this And therefore whenever any have harden'd themselves into the confidence of casting reproaches upon such as are observed to be most hearty and fervent in the Worship of God they usually have the Vogue of the profane multitude to side with them and are by that advantage embolden'd more freely to pour out their venom though sometimes they run so far beyond all bounds of Candâ—r Modesty and Truth that they give the deepest wounds to their own reputation in the esteem of those who are sober and ingenuous Did the Persons thus accused take to themselves the honour of what good they have or do or did they endeavour or attempt to gain or exercise any Dominion over the Faith or Consciences of their Brethren there might be some better colour for this Imputation But it is evident to all that they disown all such self-admiring and self-exalting conceits making themselves Servants to all in order to the furtherance of their Masters honour to whom they desire to sacrifice all they have not seeking their own emolument or advancement but the profit of many that they may be saved But it 's usual with those whose Worldly Interest is their Summa Ratio to measure others by themselves and to lay that at the doors of those whom they distaste which they are conscious of in their own hearts and which every one can discern to be too conspicuous in their lives I shall conclude this with those words of the Apostle Judge nothing before the time till the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every Man have praise of God FINIS Books to be sold by Rob. Boulter at the Turks-Head in Cornhil over against the Royal-Exchange FOLIO RUshworth's Collections Baronage of England in two parts by William Dugdal Esq Hooker's Ecclesiastical Policy Cursellei Opera Bishop Taylor 's Cases of Conscience Spiritual Refinings in two parts by Anthony Burgess His 145 Sermons on John 17. His Treatise of Original Sin Curia Politiae or the Apologies of several Princes justifying to the World their most eminent Actions by Reason and Policy A Concordance to the Holy Scriptures with the various Readings both of Text and Margin by S. N. Sixty five Sermons by the Right Reverend Father in God Ralph Brownrig late Lord Bishop of Exeter Published by William Martin M. A. sometime Preacher at the Rolls in two Volumes QUARTO An Exposition with Practical Notes and Observations on the five last Chapters of the Book of Job by Jos. Caryl Husbandry Spiritualized or the Heavenly use of Earthly things by J. Flavel A Treatise of the Sabbath in four parts by Mr. Dan. Cawdry Vindiciae Legis or a Vindication of the Law and Covenants from the Errors of Papists Socinians and Antinomians by Anthony Burgess The Saints Everlasting Rest or a Treatise of the blessed state of the Saints in their enjoyment of God in Glory by Richard Baxter His plain Scripture-proof of Infant-Baptism The saurus medicinae practicae ex praestâ—ntissimorum tum Veterum tum Recentiorum Medicorum Observationibus Consultationibus Consiliis Epistolis summa diligentia collectus ordineque Alphabetico dispositus per Tho. Burnet A Treatise of the right use of the Fathers by John Dailly Annotations on the Book of Ecclesiastes by a Reverend Divine The Doctrine of Justification by Faith by John Owen D. D. Man of Sin or a Discourse of Popery wherein the numerous and monstrous Abominations in Doctrine and Practice of the Romish Church are by their own hands exposed to open sight that the very Blind may see them By no Roman but a Reformed Catholick De Origine Moribus rebus Gestis Scotorum Libri decem Authore Joanne Lesâ—aeo Episcopo Rossensi Large OCTAVO A Discourse of Growth in Grace in sundry Sermons by Samuel Slater late of St. Katherines near the Tower The Grounds of Art teaching the perfect work and practice of Arithmetick both in whole Numbers and Fractions by R. Record A Cloud of Witnesses or the Sufferers Mirrour made up of the Swan-like Songs and other choice Passages of several Martyrs and Confessors to the end of the Sixteenth Century in their Treatises Speeches and Prayers by T. M. M. A. A Treatise of the Divine Promises in five Books by Edw. Leigh Esq The unreasonableness of Infidelity in four parts by R. Baxter His Method for getting and keeping Spiritual Peace and Comfort His safe Religion against Popery Quakerism no Christianity clearly and abundantly proved out of the Writings of their chief Leaders with a Key for the understanding their sense of their many usurped and unintelligible words by John Faldo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiodi ASCRAEI quae extant Cum notis Cornelii Scrivelii A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World wherein the Greatness Littleness and Lastingness of Bodies are freely handled with an Answer to Tentamina de Deo by N. Fairfax M. D. Small Octavo and Duodecimo A Saint indeed or the great Work of a Christian opened and pressed from Prov. 4. 23. by J. Flavel Artificial Arithmetick in Decimals shewing the Original Ground and Foundation thereof by R. Jagar § I. * Flac. Illy Cl. Scr. parte 2. Gerard. Loc com de Int. Scr. cap. 2. Glass Philol lib. 2. pag. 280. And. Riveâ— Isagog cap. 18. § 2. Lud. Croc. praeloq in S. Theol. c. 3. ex Ludov Granatensis § 3. * Dr. Stillingflect Dr. Tiliotson Mr. Pool c. §. 4. Philosophia S. Scr. Interpres Exerciâ—atio Paradoxa In Prologo Ib. cap. 5. par 1. Cap. 16. par 8. §. 1. * Ph. Scr. Int. c. 5. par 1. * Lud. Walzog in Censura Censur p. 59. § 2. Aqu. 2. 2â— Q. 2. 〈◊〉 4. § 3. * Lib. de Author Script cap. 1. p. 16 c. 4. p. 66. 71. * Phil Scr. Int. cap. 16 par 7. 8. * Aâ—g Retract cap. 14 de utilitate credendi cap. 1. § 1. Arg. 1. § 2. Duâ—…or Dubitâ—… l. 1. c. 2. Exception 1. Schlicâ—tingiâ—â— Velâ—husius alii Sol. 1. Expos. ep ad Coloss. in cap. 2. 8. Exception 2. Phil. Scr. Int. cap. 7. par 4. Sol. 1. §. 3. Aug. de C. D. l. 61. c. 10. § 1. Exception 1. Sol. § 2. Exception 2. Sol. Duct Dub. lib. 3. c. 3. Inst. Sol. §. 3. Exception 3. Sol. Exception 4. Phil. Scr. Int. cap. 5. par 7. c. 8. par 1.