the writing of his Gospel and not the consigning the Canon For indeed the Apostle did compile his Gospel Rogatus ab Asiâ— Episcopis at the desire Euseb l. 4. c. 18 l. 5. c. 6 Irenaeus l. 0. c. 1 l. 5. justin warâ— heronim in catalogo ut magdeb lent 1. l 2. c 10. p 569. l 2. c. 4. p. 67. of the Bishops of â—â—sia as Eusebius and Jerom and others relate that 's very true Now tho some hence would deem that his Gospel was the last book of Scripture written by any Apostle yet I rather understand it as I said before that he was the last that wrote any Gospel of the life and acts of our blessed Lord. For so the words of Jerom imports novissimus omnium c. â—he was the last of all that wrote any Gospel History not that he novissimum librum novi Testamâ—nti conscripsit wrote the last book of the Testament that cannot be fetcht out of these words of Jerom but is a force put upon them From whence they would seem to draw that if his Gospel were the last book written then he thereby consigned the Canon of the whole Scripture But the former not being clear from thâ—se words that because he was the last that writ a Gospel that therefore the Gospel was the last book of Scripture that was written by any Apostle that 's not consequent But if we can clear that the Gospel of John was the last book of holy Scripture that ever was written by the appointment of God it were to purpose indeed that the Canon were sealed up by it But if the Revelations should prove to be the last book written by command of the Spirit and pen'd at the desire of the Asian Churches according to his visions in Patmus then it must be Sigillum Canonis the finisher of the holy canon But this as yet I cannot certainly find and therefore at present must acquiesce Yet as to this Revelation book there being of old much debate it was at last determined among the Heresies to question its Authority now its being so late received it seems to imply that it was the latest penned Whatsoever hath been hitherto said I rather incline to think that this great work was not concredited to Angels or any holy men or Primitive Churches at first but performed by the Majestical Authority the Lord and King of his Church and that he himself in his own person commanded the sealing of the Canon to his Servant John from heaven in the close of the Revelation-book however it comes to pass that we have not as yet this testimony of John formally set down by any Ecclesiastick Writer of the Primitive Times that I have had the happiness to peruse happy they that shall produce it authentick just and true Eut it seems to me that our Lord himself performed this work when he added those direful and fearful curses to fall upon any that dare to add or diminish from it which looks like a sanction of heavenly Majesty Pro. 22 18 19 not only pronouncing that particular Prophecy but as extensive to the whole Bible since it was foretold by Daniel that the Messiah should not only suffer for transgression Dan 9 24 Grasserus but also seal up vision and Prophecy Which I well know may be construed in reference to all the ancient visions concentring in him but the phrase may comprehend also his sealing and determining and putting an end to all visions and prophecies after which there should come no more he being the great Prophet of his Church and his holy Spirit the great dictator of Scripture This I humbly take to be the full final and utmost period of all Scriptures according to the foretelling of Daniel and the practical consignation by our Lord himself and therefore needs no further authority Whether then this or the Gospel were written last it matters not so much as to the signing of the Canon but since the Apostles in their times did attest it and the primitive churches worshipped and walked by its light and that ever since by some notable providence it hath stood in the rear of the Canon in all ages we have received it in connexion with the other holy Scriptures as the complex or body of Divine Truths let down from heaven and therein as Tertullian expresses it we adore the fullness of the Scriptures Rom 3 2 1 Tim 3 16 2 Pet 1.21 To draw toward an upshot since we find the Scriptures of the Old Testament cited in the New as the Oracles of God-and thereby made authentical by the Spirit of God assuring us that the Prophets of old time spake as moved by the Holy Ghost and what they wrote was received by the Jewish Church which is dignified with that honour to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the keepers of the divine law since also that the New Testament is confirmed by divine miracles and oracles and the attestation of our Lord himself in the close of the Revelations what remains but to conclude that they are of heavenly original and have supremacy in and over the Church and over the whole world as the rule of life and are as a star shining in a dark place directing us in the path to eternal life Whatever the Romanists talk of their Church or any other of the Patriarchal Seats especially Jerusalem and Antioch where we are sure that Peter sat yet the Church can give no Authority to Scriptures Eph. 2. 2â— but commendatory and all else is but Sophism For the Church is built upon the doctrine of the holy Apostles and Prophets So that altho at first we receive the scriptures in and from the ministry of Christ in his church Yet as Austins saâ—ing to this point may be glossâ—d The whole Autâ—ority both for Ministers to preach and churches to act is deduced only from thâ— holy scriptures so that the Churches of Christ ought to do nothing in doctrine worship or manners but as the holy scriptures are their best their unerring and most authentick guide There rests yet a small objection before I conclude this chapter which is that if citations in the new as I said above do ratifie the Old then the Septuagint translation should receive a higher character than the Hebrew because in some places it s cited when differing from the Hebrew Then Aratus being cited in the Acts and Menander in the Corinths acts 17.28 1 Cor 15 22. T it 1â— 12 and Epimenides in Titus are all authorized by the Apostles I answer That the Septuagint Greek is cited only as a Translation which by wonderful providence was composed at the command of Ptolomy to prepate the Grecian Gentiles for receiving the Gospel But I must not enlarge As to the heathen authors Aratus and Epimenides are urged ad hominem as arguments from their own Prophets to convince theâ— of some heathenish follies and impieties As for Menander he is cited as
and then the Glory of Heaven shall continue to all eternity when God shall be All in All. SECT II. The Miracles in Scripture HAving Treated somewhat of the infallible Prophecies I shall now by the Grace of God rehearse some of the notable Miracles mentioned in Holy Scripture For as much as they are works above the power of nature therefore all Nations stand gazing at such mighty exhibitions of Gods Majesty such as curing blind-born Persons the restoring the dumb and lame who were so afflicted from the Mothers Womb yea reviving of many from death to life are they not undeniable Testimonies that such a one that performs these is a God or transacted by the immediate assistance and presence of God whence we may very well infer that what such a one speaks is to be embraced as by divine Authority For that glorious Person that manifests in his works such heavenly and coelestial power must be believed to be God and a God of supream Truth and highest verity as well as of surpassing power For infinite power and truth are and can be centerd no where but in a God. trey where their Brethren of the Race of Cham of near alliance to the Canaanites then lived which is toucht as I remember by Procopius in his Vandalick Wars others Procop The standing still of the Sun seems hinted at by Plautus in the double day I think in his Amphilryo 4. The fourth wonder may refer to the retrocession or going back of the Sun in the dayes of Hezekiah which engaged the King of Babylon to send an Embassy on purpose to search out the truth of that Prodigy In reference to which this is remarkable that some Eclipses mentioned to have happened before Hezekiahs dayes are all found by our modern Astronomical Tables as exact as if those Prodigies had not been extant which may give to some a little more facile apprehension of the motion of the earth then the Perepatetick School will as yet admit For the Phoenomenon or apeearance may be solved by a miraculous stopping of the Earths diurnal motion though its annual in the Zodiack might continue 5. The fifth concerns that extraordinary Star which aypeared at the Birth of our Lord to the Magi in Kedemah or the East by the River Euphrates Mat 2 2 who came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Jobs East Countrey whereof before and which presaged as they thought in those dayes the rising of some Grand Emperor out of some Eastern Nation whereof Suetonius speads Percrebuit in toto oriente c. that there was a presage of one that should Rule the whole World sueton in Vespas c 4 Tacit hist l 5 pluribus persuasio inerat c which they applied to Vespasian but more truly concerned our blessed Lord whose Kingdom was to be universal and eternal There is a passage also about Herod at this time which tho no miracle yet it was a prodigy of cruelty which that infamous Prince perpetrated in the Land of Judah and herein may somewhat concern this Treatise that it sets the time of the Epiphany or coming of the Magi or wise men to our Lord a little before that Lunar Eclipse in March which preceded that Tyrants death who slew so many innocent children and his own son among the rest that gave occasion to the Emperor Augustus to taunt him with that scoff Macrob saturn l 2 c 4 that he had rather be Herods Hog than his son counting him for a Jew and I think he was a proselyte tho indeed he were an Idumaean of Ascalon by birth that is of that Idumaea or Edom so called in the days of our Lord as may be observed in Ptolomies greek Geography lying in the south-part of Judah 6. But the most remarkable miracle was that of the Suns Eclipse at our blessed Lords passion because it disappeared and was mantled with pitchy darkness near the Full-Moon of the Passover paul Diacon max in scholl ad Dionys Orig tract 29 30 in mat Euseb edit scalâ—austin Eph 156 which is impossible in the course of nature For proof whereof Eusebius gives in ample testimony in his Chronical Canon citing the 14th Book of Phlegon of Trallis who asserts it to have happened in the fourth year of the 202 Olympiad Dionysius also the Areopagite is mentioned by the Magdeburgenses for an Epistle of his written to the Citizens of Heliopolis or On in Egypt wherein that common saying is avouched for his Deus naturae patitur Magd cent 1 l 1 c 11 p 381 august in Ep Rom de civit Deil 10 c 27 Euseh in vit Constantini aut mundi machina collabitur The God of nature suffereth or else the frame of the world is flying in pieces Besides what Petrus Comester records where ever he had it that the Philosophers of Athens disputed about this Eclipse as being the occasion of building that Altar to the unknown God Tho Pausanias as I remember declares it to have been erected upon the great devastation made by that fearful pestilence at Athens pausan in atticis Laert in Epimedid Lucian philopatri Oecumenius c. in the time of the Peloponnesian War so notably described by Thucydides But passing that the aforesaid admirable Eclipse of the Sun being celebrated near the Full-Moon of the paschal solemnity It must needs follow that the Moon her self must be prodigiously and totally Eclipsed being near her opposition at the same time Nay there was moreover another Eclipse of the Moon in her natural course in the Evening of the same day as by calculation out of the Tables doth manifestly appear the scheme whereof is exhibited by Buntingius in his chronology and I think declared by others also So that there were three Eclipses in the compass of one natural day that all the inhabitantsround the globe might read in the heavens some wonderful work about that time Lang. de christ annis had they known the language of those glittering lamps whose places being then near the Equinoctial the sun in Aries the Moon in Libra they might be seen almost from Pole to Pole. Such a Spectacle as never had happened from the foundation of the World and possibly may never again It being a superlative attestation to the glorious sufferings of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Concerning the darkness of that time how dreadful and universal it was others having discoursed I shall not enlarge Many other wonderful Miracles transacted by the Prophets in the Old Testament and thousands by our Lord and many of his Apostles in the new are set down for the confirmation of the holy Oracles Several things and some persons mentioned in the Sacred Books are likewise glanced at by the Heathen Writers Such persons as the Magi are hinted by Laertius some things mentioned by Celsus in Origens refutation of his Heathenish Opinions by Julian Porphyry Apollonius c. who endeavouring to undermine the Authority of the Scriptures
beginners insist a little according to what I may by the help of grace and ponder on the first discoveries and discernings of this work in the heart under the beginning work of Regeneration that is under the present agitations and breathings of the holy Spirit To which purpose I may genuinely compare the sense which the mother of an Embrio begins to feel when discerns an inward conception by some secret pulsations â—s of a little wind in her bowels and some nauseous ebullitions from her stomack Ferneli de c. Weckerus de Secretis l. 4. P. 85. Bas. 1629.8 thereby perceives there is a new work of impregnation formed with in bevond all observations of the state of body since her birth and begins to give a right judgment that in Gods due time she may become a happy Mother indeed of some beautiful creature Or give leave to behold it in the glass of another Emblem It fares here as when persons by some unobserved and unforeseen emanations of spirits from the heart Plin. l. 11. c. 37 Song 6.5 4.9 and pressing through the optick nerves flow into their mutual eyes and dart themselves into one anothers breasts whence they become suddenly taken and as it were inkindled by certain lineatures in their feitures and are rapt into deep admiration of somewhat in each other which neither themselvâ—s nor the wifest Philosopher in being can give reason fagacious enough to unfold the surprizing influence when they are constellated to conjugal union So true is that I think of Lucretius Multa tegit sacro involucro natura neque ullis Fas est scire quidem mortalibus omnia c Nature with sacred mantle things does hide Nor can Man's wit such mysteries decide Much more deep shall we find it to be in spiritual and divine concernments when the Soul having heard or read of the admirable and unparallel'd incomparable excellencies of Christ begins by the powor of heavens influence to hearken to Gospel motions whence the first beginnings of grace are coucht in faint and weak though sâ—eet and pleasing inclinations to hear more of that precious and excellent person Then the Soul proceeds with the Daughters of Jerusalem to enquire further of his dignities and the blessed disposition of this kingly Saviour Next after intelligence received it never rests seeking for him with the lovely Spouse In Niceph call and when once come to a sight of that glorious countenance in which Majesty and Love sit upon their Throne as 't is reported of his external hiâ—w then does the soul by this interview break forth into holy Ardors after the enjoymâ—nt of his everlasting kindness and the bottomless bowels of his infinite mercy and affection This is the point which I would endeavour yet further to exemplifie in the sequel of this Chapter and labour to state the first beginnings of grace to lie in secret motions holy wishes and inclinations of the will to Christ this Princely Saviour of the Elect. The desire of a man sayes Solomon is his kindness thâ— he cant accomplish his will yet t is acceptable with God for the deed Prrv. 19.22 2 Cor. 8.12 When some spiritual good is presented to the newly sanctified will by the light of a heaven-born judgment it draws the soul to think ponder and study how to attain that happiness and this volition or extension of the spirit is found in different persons at various times Some feel a blessed inclination from their very child hood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Religious courses and the holy wayes of God. 2 Tim. 3.15 You may observe in some Children at four or five years old a love to the sacred Bible and the wise instructions of godly Parents It would do ones soul good to see how prettily and earnestly the little hearts will lean their heads to the wall or hangings and suck in the sincere milk of a mothers instructions as Solomon did Only let Parents be prudent and heedful in pressing too much or powring too long into little Venice Glasses lest it nauseate or run over Gen. 33.13 Remember Jacob would not drive the little ones too fast lest they died Children are like a Chicken or little Birds feed them too much and by night and you endanger killing them Be wise towards such Isai 28.10 and sow here a little and there a little and the work of God may prosper sweetly In Persons at the first workings of the Spirit of God you may observe 1. First There appears some savouring of the things of God which shews there is a new palate formed by the spirit of God in the soul â— Cor. 2.14 Rom. 8.5 suited to the Manna of heaven they begin to mind the things of the Spirit with a disrelish of vain and frothy company a happy inclination to virtue and wholsom infusions with some reverent awe to their Teachers and instructors which when once taken off from the heart all the Argument or Rhetorick in the world shall never fasten any good maxim upon such a person but now you shall see very young ones love to have their heads in a Bible and the tears ready to spring at some sweet passages in that blessed Book intimating to us that the same spirit who penned it hath begun to write the faithful counterpart on the fleshy tables of their hearts 2. They find and feel the inward bent of their soul to be towards God the byas of the will alwayes inclined Heaven-ward tho some rubs and hillocks may divert a while They are like the Sun-flower ever turning to that glorious Lamp or as the needle pointing to the Northern Pole. It may suffer some variations and supervariations and misteries of Declination not hitherto fully determined to heip the longitude but in the main its course bent and delight is toward that point of the compass The soul no otherwise having received an affrication or touch from divine love evermore bends the motion towards God and is enamoured upon the goodness and Excellency of our blessed Saviour Vain things like vinegar upon nitre gives an odious hiss Prov. 25.29 Eccl. 2 2. and fumes away in a Stench so does this gracious soul pity carnal mens laughter as a touch of madness and sayes of foolish mirth what does it 3. Again There is in this new heart of flesh this covenant heart an inward sweet sensibleness of that great stone of impenitence that as yet remains unbroken in pieces which with its ragged points and angles wounds the tender fleshy part and makes it bleed with joyful sorrow The holy new convert is greatly sensible of its proud flesh and that heavy lump that hangs like a talent of lead at the feet and the worlds bird-lime that sticks to the wings of the soul when it would mount up to heaven in holy duties Or as persons after a great autumnal fever labour under a squeazy stomack with a mass of baked humours at the bottom So does the