took care of him saith the Text and said to the Host Take care of him Care is to all good works the Girdle of Truth without which they are neither true nor good Had not the good Samaritan though he had done all he did besides taken care of him he had wholly omitted his Christian duty For as Faith without Charity is dead so Charity without care is dead A true christian care to do good is the edge of Charity and the life of it It 's the grand misery and mistake of Men and Saints to do perhaps many good works carelesly whereby they become not good works but deceits Such works though commonly practised by sealed or Wilderness-Saints are far from that practice which they should perform but are the proper works of the members of of Antichrist and the Characters of them By those Characters therefore we shall discover who are or appear to be careless Professors and who are careful in the practice of Christianity And first They that are careless to collect and consider the incomplex-principles of right in it self are careless in their conversations and cannot come to the knowledge of the Truth in Practice These Incomplex-principles rightly collected are the Basis and Grounds of all Mercy and Equity to Men And that which the Scriptures and we commonly call The cause of any man Plantiff or Defendent stated Neither doth the cause of the Widow saith the Text come unto them Isa 1.23 That is They do not collect nor consider the Incomplex-principles aforesaid of Mercy and Equity Such Professors Judges or Magistrates it matters not what their Church-Society Sect or their repute for Learning Strictness or Religion is are corrupt and unjust Professors and at least in appearance Members of Antichrist But we shall illustrate the Premises for the Reader 's better understanding by one or two Examples And first A Prophet's poor Widow made her address to Elisha and stating her own cause her self thus laid down the principles of Right in it self necessary and due to be satisfied unto her Thy servant my Husband said she is dead 2 King 4.1 There 's the Cui a desolate Widow to whom mercy and equity was due to be done A second Incomplex-right in it self was A quo or from whom which is implyed in the same words of the poor Widow To wit Prophet who was principally concern'd and bound both by the Levitical Law and by the royal Law of Love to make her Incomplex-condition Complex or to take notice of it and duly consider it Levit. 25.35 to the end Deut. 15.8 11. A third Incomplex-right is exprest in these words Thou knowest that thy servant that Widow's late Husband did fear the Lord That was a further tye though he must do right and shew mercy to all men to the Prophet to make her condition Complex or to have full knowledge of it A fourth Principium praecognoscendum or truth in it self which the Prophet was bound to know is exprest in these words And the Creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen These Principia praecognoscenda or Truths in themselves thus lay'd down were the Cause of the poor Widow stated before the Prophet And they that are not truly careful and diligent to know and rightly apprehend the causes of Plantiffs or Defendents stated by word or writing are unjust Judges corrupt Magistrates careless Christians make themselves at least appear to be the Members of Antichrist The cause of the Poor of the Widow of the Fatherless and of strangers in distress comes not before those careless Christians nor can they discharge any duty of Mercy or Equity to men But the Prophet did not tell the poor Widow she was a trouble to him or that he was busie about matters of much higher concernment nor did he bid her come two moneths hence and talk with him Nor tell her to encourage her he would move it to friends at his best leisure as many Professors commonly do and at last perhaps revolt from all he had promis'd to little purpose and she expected But he immediatly bid her borrow many Vessels and pour Oyl out of a Vial she had into those Vessels and filling them with Oyl sell so much as would pay her Creditors and live her self upon the rest Thus the Prophet took effectual care to make the poor Widows Incomplex cause Complex or to take full cognizance of it Secondly He took care to make her Complex or by him known cause Triplex by conforming his will that he might relieve her to his right informed intellect Thirdly He took care to conform his works to his right-informed will and intellect wherein he had due respect to another incomplex-right To wit Quantum The fruit of his charitable care was not a fragment or piece of a good work nor an half-performance but a plenary supply of full relief to all her wants with due respect to all Principles of Right in it self Such works only are Christian and shall be the practice of that incontaminate company of conscript Harpers that shall be found without fault in Gods sight We shall shew a contrary Patern in Pilat's careless practice Pilate was careful to do right by halves or but half careful Christ's Cause came under his disquisition The first incomplex Truth in his Cause was that he was blameless or without fault Pilate made that Truth in it self half-complex or took half cognizance of it For he having examined him said thrice I fina in him no failt John 18.38 Ch. 19.4 Luke 23.4 He was willing to release him but not effectually careful to do it For overpowered by his adversaries importunities he gave sentence to put him to death So all Laodicean half hot half cold half careless half careful Spurious Professors though never so strict devout or zealous will but talk trisle cavil delay promise not perform practise by halves falsifie forget or before they begin be weary of well doing and thereby wear out the Saints of the most high and destroy his faithfullest Witnesses as Pilate by like practices caused Christ to be put to death For All Professors Judges and Magistrates half-careful only to collect and consider the Systems of Incomplex-causes cannot expect to exceed Pilat's unjust practice by whom our Lord was crucified Had Pilate been faithfully careful to do right he had not regarded the Jews favour nor been by any business or other means drawn or deterr'd from doing of it A second Incomplex-Truth in Christs Cause was That the Scribes and Elders as Judas had betray'd him to them through covetousness had delivered him into Pilates hands out of envy who was but half-careful to make this Truth it self Complex or to know it He knew saith the Text that for envy they had delivered him Mat. 27.18 But his care to know the cause of Christ was but by halves For To this end said our blessed Saviour was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should
bear witness unto the truth John 18.37 38. This is the final cause and supreme end for which Christ was Incarnate Man created Saints regenerated That they should bear witness to the Truth in Words and Works Not in words only as the leaves of a fruitless Tree but in works also as the Fruits All hearing reading preaching praying are but subordinate duties to this supreme end That they should let their works wrought in a foursold conformity so shine before men that they seeing them may glorisie God must be every mans chief christian care But Pilate though much more careful than many strict and Orthodox Professors are was scarce so much as half-careful to make Christs Cause and this Truth in it self Complex or known to himself What is Truth said Pilate and when he had so said he staid not for an answer but went out again to the Jews and said unto them I find in him no fault at all John 18.38 What is Truth A cursory careless Question of regardless Pilate Si licet exemplis in parvo grandibus uti If we may by the Patern of one man manifest the practice of many If we may by the example of one Heathen express the Manners almost of all Modern Christians Then this is their manner of advancing Virtue and the way of their seeking the Truth Sic virtutis Alumni sumus sic Veritatem quaerimus Men and many Saints are now as Pilate was more cursory swister than Asahel in running Doth the cause of the Widow of the Fatherless of the stranger come before them They can run by it or glide over it and take no notice of it Is any thing spoken to them They can run over it by a rash answer before they hear it Is any work in writing requisite to refel errours to reform manners offered to them They can run by it or run over it by a cursory reading and never understand it Is any man faln amongst Thieves and wounded like the Wayfaring man They can run by him and never mind him Is any thing that is right in it self laid before them They can run by it and take no notice of it What may I say of such men of such Saints but this Their feet are swift too swift to shed blood These are not the works of the good Samaritan This is the practice of Pilate Pilate examined Christ once with some seeming meekness and sobriety Thrice did he justifie him as a man in whom he had found no fault Once he washed his hands in water before the multitude to signifie his guiltlessness of his innocent blood Five times did he refist the rash violence of that blind zealous Councel What Professor now or perhaps what Saint would take that care and pains that Pilate took for Christ for the most innocent man manifestly injured Pilate took care for the Pharisees did not not to credit Christ's false-accusers and found them Lyars but Professors now and I am affraid I may say many sealed Saints take little or no care how they credit false accusers according to Scripture-Rule Deut. 19.16 17 18 19. But they by believing their lyes they seeming to them devout and zealous justifie the wicked and condemn the most innocent wherefore eveu Pilate by whose wicked Sentence Christ was condemned and crucified shall rise up in judgment and condemn many careless Modern Professors and Saints But the good Samaritan was faithfully careful to do all good works in a fourfold-conformity He took care for him saith the Text and said to the Host Take care of him Go and do likewise said Christ to all Saints and Professors in all Ages and Nations Lastly Had the good Samaritan poured Wine Oyl into the wounds of the Way-fairing man had he bound up his Wounds had he also given him Money for his relief with a liberal hand and had so left him He had no doubt perished in the place and had been re-exposed to Robbers to kill him outright for that money for all times aftord many Theeves sew Samaritans Such careless care and helpless half-help had not exceeded the Righteousness and Mercy of Locusts Hypocrites And such pains and expences had but been the price the blackest Simony of exemption from performing good Works For Simon the Sorcerer sought to purchase the gifts of the Holy Ghost with money But double-minded men deceive themselves and deceive others with far more depraved Simony in seeking to purchase by careless half-performances not the gifts of the Holy Ghost but their exemption from them or from bringing forth the fruits of them The Man of Sin is a man of mistakes and deceits His coming and continuance was with all deceivableness But this is the Master-piece of deceit Saints scarce excepted in that son of perdition That his Members mistake the purchase of their exemption from good Manner by half-performances for true Christian-practice False sincerity the Parent of half-performances is the Fountain of Deceits in the Apostacy of Antichrist and is it self a deficiency in the knowledg of that Incomplex-truth of degree or quantity and in conforming the Will to the knowledg of it Lovest thou me said Christ to Peter more than these That is Than these Earthly or Wordly things Covetous Professors deceive themselves but can never be sincere nor their practice more than half-performances Peter lovest thou me said Christ Peter reply'd Lord thou knowest that I love thee Feed my sheep said Christ And so he said thrice Covetous professors can never be sincere nor fit to feed Christ's sheep For Covetousness is quite contrary to sincerity which is the Superlative degree in the quantity of love pains and expences to promote the Truth in Doctrine and Practice Had Peter loved the things of this life as much as the living God or as much as his Kingdom and the righteousness thereof he had not been sincere but an Hypocrite in his heart and his Religious actions had been but Hypocritical half-performances Half-performances or a constant falling short of the quantity of love care pains or expences to practice good works are the fruits and infallible Characters of Hypocrites and do denote in incult barren Wilderness-Saints that commonly perform such works great want of sincerity Sincerity is a sufficient care pains and expence to perform good works in a fourfold conformity and such practice is the express command of God Deut. 15.7 8. Thou shalt open thine hand wide to thy poor brother and shalt surely lend him sufficiēnt for his need Thou shalt surely give him and thine heart shall not be grieved vers 10. Shalt surely lend him sufficient Sufficient care pains and charge is the substance of sincerity and the due measure of Right and Mercy as we shewed in the foresaid examples of Elisha and the good Samaritan But Quantum deficit deficient care pains and charge is the false measure of Impostors in the Apostacy of Antichrist And the fruit of it the deceitful price of exemption from the practice of good Manners
fit to discharge it Therefore whiles many pretend to remove mistakes they make many and remove none For all Professors few excepted are wilful by earnest contending to defend their errours in opinions and manners as the strong man that kept the house would not forsake his holds Therefore the world sits in darkness by means of mistakes because the written Word the derivative Fountains of Light are darkened by them so that men draw missuppositions for truth from them and rather multiply than remove their errours in opinions and manners The smoke saith the Text of the bottomless pit darkned the light of the Sun and the light of the Air possibly the light of Reason and the light of Religion and what was that smoke but mistakes instead of truth exalted that even the Scriptures are darkened thereby therefore the inevitable necessity of their removal is manifest But As this Christian duty is the chief duty of all of all Ministers and Magistrates especially so the difficulty to discharge it further appears from those oppositions that attend it If any man fit for it does endeavour it so far is he from finding due assistance that all envious competitors of pride and ignorance as Corah's Company against Moses cry out against him as one that boasts in vain seeks praise of men they tell him he 's too proud and takes too much upon him For it hath ever been the Infallible character and practice of proud Hypocrites to deprave in this manner those men Howbeit the ingenuous concession of very many convinced of their mistakes I must acknowledge But the chief strength of all difficulties in the discharge of this duty is from the censorious and rash detractions of many of the most Learned and seeming most Religious that mistake of all mistakes the most dangerous the rash Spirit of truth contradicting pride for the spirit of truth not knowing of what spirit themselves are For even they if any man be fit for this duty detract as if they were impatient to abstain from unbridled temerity from his works before they know them from his words before they hear them and from his writings before they read them So are they too ready to aspire unto that Pharisaical pride by which Christ was crucified and fall into the condemnation of the Devil whereas were they so noble as not to censure before they see hear or read they might possibly find no cause of cavil nor perhaps of dispute And this is all I humby request at their hands The Priests of the Lord bore the Ark upon their shoulders so should all Saints support the truth which the Ark figured in Theory and Practice But nititur hoc humer is hominum genus this sort of censorious men I say not men of any sound judgments set to their shoulders not as the Priests of the Lord to support the truth but to cast it down to the ground and tread upon it that so minding the praise of men and private gain they may establish their own brain sick conceits for substantial truths These are men for the most part of much confidence that consider little Men of much velocity in lavish loquacity whom the multitude admires Too quick to move a question to make objections most slow to see and remove mistakes Men prodigal in endless disputes of verbal impertinency From these men the most irrational and greatest oppositions arise to retard all hands held forth to discharge this needful Christian duty But he that minds this necessary and indispensible duty to God and man must not regard besides sordid neglects the worst insolencies of vile ingratitude nor many difficulties I shall therefore humbly endeavour in this Treatise to remove those mistakes in Opinions and Manners that chiefly hinder the true Prosperity and Unity of all Church-Societies Sects and Nations CHAP. V. Which of those three Heads of the aforesaid threefold City was the chief Builder of it or when and by whom it was built THe Founder of it was the false Prophet For the times and the Laws saith Daniel were given into his hands Chap. 7.25 That is dominion over all Powers Spiritual and over the Potentates of the Earth was given him therefore he was the fittest and most able to be the Master builder of this threefold Mystery of Iniquity He began to build about the year 407 and had brought his Fabrick to a good forwardness had almost finish'd it in 607. The threefold matter of which he made it what it was we shewed before and likewise its threefold form Of that threefold matter sensual worldly and proud Professors he made Antichrist sensual secular and spiritual in the once Decapolite pale of Pagan Rome and brought all those three into one great City called saith the Text Spiritually Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was Crucified He also bound the three Heads of it the Dragon the Beast and himself in a seeming firm bond of deceitful amity Connubio aajanxit stobilitria Numina mundi He bound Antichrist sensual secular and spiritual and those three Heads of their triplicit body as it were in a bond of Wedlock The tenure of that Obligation was the false Prophets supposed Catholick Religion confirmed by many dreadful false miracles Doctrine for the most part fundamentally sound but shallow carelesly contentedly shallow and by his peremptory claim of priority from his pretended right of Apostolick Succession The Premisses are plain First from Scripture Rev. 13.12 And he causeth the Earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast For that beast next himself the Head corner-stone was the strongest support of his City of Apostacy therefore it follows and he deceiveth them that dwell upon the Earth by means of those Miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast ver 14. That beast was the seven headed Hydra of Rome-Papals Power Secular that bod ten horns and all though not at first crowned Rev. 13.102 He causeth saith the Text the Earth to worship the first beast to wit that beast that is he â—new by deceit them that dwell upon the Earth â—as supposed living but indeed dead stones into the building of this threefold City and made that ten crowned beast though he intended himself Supream Secular head of it For what was this Unity or Grand Faction of Iniquity thus wrought by the false Prophets deceit upon those that dwelt upon the Earth but the tenfold body on Apostacy which the false Prophet built by rallying the Nations through his lying miracles which he wrought in the sight of the first beast Thus and by this means chiefly did the false Prophet build this threefold City as it appears plainly from Scripture and will no less appear in its due place from Church-History He also by that beasts joynt help built this City therefore the Text saith And he deceiveth them that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast And why
arose a Smoake and out of the Smoake came Locusts Chap. 9.2 3. And on their heads were as it were Crowns like Gold Ver. 7. And on theirheads c. Here 's deceptio coronata crowned deceit Deceit hath its Exaltation in these grand deceivers of themselves and others The right solution of this Question What is Truth may seem to be the summe of satisfaction to all Sects people and Professors And the diligent disquisition of it that all might know what Truth in Opinion and practice is is the summe of the design of this Treatise But here it seems not needful only but of necessity and our prime duty to endeavour to discover unto all what the truth of those Gold-like Crowns of the Locusts is or if there be no truth in them what their deceits are The deceits of the Locusts are in Form and profession And Secondly In Practice and Power Their deceits in Form and Profession are shadowed forth by their concomitant Smoake Their Deceits in Practice and Power are presignified by their Crowns as it were like Gold And first Their deceits in Form and Profession are shadowed forth by Smoake For All Profession all Zeal Prayer Prophesie without practice is but Smoake whose bottom is no where True practice is the bottom of true Profession and the substance whereof that is but the shadow To seem and not be Religious is but groundless appearance and deceit and all gifts be they never so great give no bottom to a fruitless Profession Though I speak with tongues of Men and Angels saith the Apostle and though I have the gift of Prophesie and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and though I have all Faith and have no Charity I am nothings 1 Cor. 13. If Paul having all these had been nothing without Charity Then all these and all strict Profession and gifts of Prayer and Prophesie without practice-producing Charity are at best but Smoake What that product is and what produceth it claimes our more serious care to enquire in this place Faith Hope and Charity the first fruits of attentive animadvertency are subordinate to Christ that threefold Tree of Life that bears the true fruits of all obedience to God and good manners towards men That Tree during the time of the grand Apostacy seems like that Tree in Daniel that was hewn down and had its branches cut off and its fruit scattered but it shall bear twelve manner of fruits saith the Text Dan. 4.14 Revel 22.2 We shall shew here the Series of it and so proceed Faith is the Root Hope the Stem Charity is the Branches that bear and extend the fruit of it Faith is Faith Hope and Charity impressive as the threefold life of the Tree is in the Root Hope is Faith Hope and Charity intensive as the threefold life of the Tree is in the Stem also Charity is Faith Hope and Charity expressive as the threefold life of the Tree is likewise in its Branches And first True Faith is Faith Hope and Charity impressive For Faith without Hope and Charity is but a false pretence Hope is Faith Hope and Charity intensive For Hope without Faith and Charity is but Smoak Charity is Faith Hope and Charity expressive For Charity without Faith and Hope is but like Locusts Crowns a Crown of deceit Faith works in Hope by Charity Hope works from Faith by Charity Charity works from Faith and Hope The fruit of this threefold Tree is true Christian practice We have shewn what the deceits of the Locusts are in Profession we shall now shew what their deceits are in Practice Secondly As the deceits of the Locusts in Profession are figured by Smoake So their deceits in Practice are shadowed forth by the false appearances of Crowns like Gold Crowns of Gold in Scripture are Hieroglyfick-intimations of Equity and Emblems of Righteousness But the Crowns of the Locusts are deceptious appearnces of truerighteousness and most contrary to it And what 's most like Gold and most contrary to it Nothing is more like it and less the same then Straw The Locustâ— liberality though it look like Gold is Chaff or Stâ—â—w for levity and withall so dilatory that it tends to destroy those that receive the deceitful benefit of their seeming good works Their Crowns are made of Gold-like Straw which many besides them mistake for pure Gold But because Contraria juxtase posita maxime clucescunt contraries appear clearest by being set together we shall here handle the Locusts deceits in practice and true Christian practice and that the difference betwixt both may better appear compare both together The Righteousness of Locusts as is the Righteousness of all Hypocrites is clipt dilatory or accompanied with censorious insolence or performed by halves or however inconform to Gospel-Rule But true Righteousness in practice is not dilatory defalked or performed by halves or inconform to Gospel-Rule For The Kingdom of God must be a Kingdom of Righteousness and the Streets of the holy City shall be not Gold-like-Straw but pure Gold Revel 21.18 That is All the wayes and works of her inhabitants shall be right in practice conform to Gospel Rule And wherein consists this conformity Truth in practice is a Quadruplex conformity and containing these gradual parts is Incomplex Complex Triplex Quadruplex Truth Incomplex Derivative is a Conformity Est conformitas rei cum principiis a quibus orta est vel est ipsius rei veritas A Conformity in itself with its own Principles Complex Truth is a Conformity Est Conformitas saith Swarez judicii cum rebus unde provenit ut res ita vere dicantur sicut judicatae It 's a conformity of the judgement with things whereby they are rightly called as they are judged to be Verit as triplex Truth triplicit is a threefold Conformity more comprehensive then the two former it comprehends Incomplex and Complex Truths Conformity of things in themselves and of the judgement with things and is itself a conformity also of the will with both And therefore in truth Triplicit is first Truth simplex which is the first Principle of true Practice and the Extrinse Subject of true Righteousness The mind of man is the intrinsick And Secondly Therein is Complex-Truth conformit as intellectus cum rebus a conformity of the judgement with things wherein practice-producing animadvertency must of necessity be first versant For De ignotis nulla agendi ratio There can be no right of Action where there is no right understanding of the Incomplex Principles of true Righteousness or of things to be done And Thirdly Truth Triplicit comprehends a third Conformity Est conformitas non solum rei in se cum re intellectus sed voluntatis etiam cum rebus agendis It 's a conformity of the Will as well as of the Understandng with causes or things to be understood willed and done whereby they are willed as they are rightly understood This is that Truth in the inward
must have due regard to every incomplex-right A Quo Quid Cui Quantum Quoties And Lastly Quomodo or how true practice must be performed This Principle comprehends the five former But we shall here add something more peculiar to it to clear the former more fully because there 's the most need of it imaginable For as the Augean Stables were said to be so full of dirt that it seemed impossible to cleanse them without letting the River Alpheus into them so the System of the Practice even of Saints is so silled with filth of evil Manners that it seems a Hercules-labour to cleanse and wash it forth The work is difficult but must be done we shall therefore set about it by Gods assistance And first Insulting Pride destroyes true Practice because it destroyes animadvertency the ground of it Let therefore every true Christian be sincerely affable and friendly to all Not insolent to the Poor whom he relieves not void of due regard to the Rich. Moses from Mount Pisgah saw a large part of the Land of Promise But Pride is the Mount of Ignorance and evil Manners whence Formal Professors and Saints too overlook good works and therefore tread them under foot For their punishment bears the express Signature of their sins They were given into the hands of proud Heathens to be troden under foot for 1260. dayes Annual because they not with unlike Pride trod under foot profainly contemned all that time the Practice of good manners and made them the least matters of their due care All men must study with greatest care chiefly in these times to be peaceable as the Apostle gave charge But then they must not be reciprocally proud for only through Pride come contentions Prov. 13.10 And the many Animosities Schisms and Divisions in Churches and States seem to be the Branches of that cursed Bryer whence the fire of strife to devour each other issueth forth Men therefore that hope to find peace with God and Man must be very careful to cast this Quomodo of Pride far from their Christian practice Hear now ye Rebels said Moses must we fetch you water out of this Rock Numb 20.10 What a Storm is here of unbridled passion in the mouth of Moses the meekest man on earth The sin no doubt was greatest in those that gave the provocation too great in Moses and might doubtless humble him much and be an exemplary means to humble true Saints in all future Ages by shewing them that they may sometimes have like passions as Moses and Eliah had But this insolent comport procured not to Moses peace with God or Man But the anger of the Lord was kindled against him and he by shortning his life cut him off from entering into the Land of Promise Contumacious Pride is the Floodgate of froward manners makes a man much worse then an unbridled beast Nebuchadnezzar was turn'd as it were into a beast the very same hour wherein he made himself a beast by swelling Pride Pride is no part of the Quomodo of true Christian practice Secondly Avarice also destroyes Animadvertency from whence truth in practice proceeds For Due Adnimadvertency informs the Intellect and a well-informed Intellect reforms the Will But where these are wanting there can be no Will to do right conform to Gospel-Rule and consequently no true Christian practice The practice therefore of worldly Professors wanting conformity of the Will is done if at all either by halves or grudgingly and with an unwilling mind Therefore They readily receive lies and Lyars that pretend to be religious gladly that they may help them as Balaam helpt Balack what he could to curse Israel to asperse the pious and traduce the well-deserving That so they may seem to have just cause to decline their furthering of them and to shun all occasions to perform or perfect any good work Covetousness is Calcar acutum a most sharp Spur to cursed-speaking in the hearts of Locusts and Hypocrites Where the Will for want of complex-Complex-truth is not well informed and is kept back by covetousness from that care there the practice is repining and grudging unwillingness reflecting opprobrious obloquy and lying imputations The Herd of Swine Christ permitting the Devils to possess them perish't in the Sea And why did our blessed Saviour inflict a punishment of such evil upon Swine whom he himself had created good Many Creatures were made for slaughter and Swine serve for no other use But Christ made the best use of the most useleless Creature and that their life being altogether unprofitable in their death For that signal destruction of those Swine stands like Lot's Wife a lasting Monument and Memorandum to be a necessary caveat and admonition to all Men Saints and Sects in after Ages that they make by no means Swinish repining greedy murmuring and grudging unwillingness the Quomodo of their Christian practice This is the Locusts Quomodo and practice of Swine Thirdly Let all true Saints and sincere Professors use no Leaven of Lies and Deceit in their Quomodo or manner of their practice The Prophet that liv'd in Bethel reliev'd his brother a true Prophet with a meal and destroy'd him with a lye Lyars though true Saints are too oft guilty of this sin slay their brother but are in most danger to destroy themselves The Pharisees sometimes entertain'd our Saviour and through lyes at last put him to death Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees saying and not doing Slaunders and detractions joyned with trivial helps that it be no part of thy Quomodo in thy Christian practice Nor was that the least evil in the Leaven of the Pharisees when they charged our Saviour that he wrought the works he did by Belzebub which false charge was near unto that unpardonable sin Nor is that sin now or what seems something like it a stranger in Israel though the objects of it are infinitely more unworthy Howbeit Christ imputes it though done to another as done unto himself I may and must as a duty to God and Man best affirm it that have found it by experience Very many impute to me that I am not the Authour of this Book but it must be done say they by some other more able This Leaven is a deadly mixture to destroy both me and mine and those most that raise this false charge I must not let so great a sin a dangerous Lye of vile ingratitude lye upon my brother but reprove him or them plainly that he or they in sincere obedience to God may better bridle their tongues least their Religion be in vain I wonder much that some saints if such be Saints are not more careful to keep themselves far from a false matter For I never found from any though they seemed somewhat scarce so much as the least contribution to the matter of it And the truth is I scarce ever found any so well furnished to be so bountiful Nor can any claim but my self only under God the doing of it My
largest Magnitude must needs amount to a Redemption from death Righteousness saith the Text delivereth from death But the want of this Righteousness is as Death to those that want it and their usual both Temporal and Spiritual overthrow Vespasian asked Apallonius what was Nero's overthrow Nero said he could touch and tune the Harp well but would sometimes screw up the Pins too high sometimes too low And this ill-tuned Harp a Heart tun'd too high or too low like the Harp of Nero is the almost Epidemick overthrow They thereby usually perish that have it and are the cause that others perish I shall but present this perfect pattern of a wel-tuned Harp The man wounded by Thieves wanted help There was res rect a in se right in itself The good Samaritan the best Harper considering that Incomplex-right made it Complex took care to know it and to conform his Will and work to that known right They that are so busse as to pass by that which is right to others or take no due notice of it have not the Harps of David but Nabals voice Folly is with them be they never so wise or Learned But God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.4 God therefore as the greatest meroy to fallen Man and Saints revolted hath promised to call raise and draw them by the delicious harmony of the Harps of God that so they hearing his call may come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved For Truth is the Door of Life and Knowledge the Key to open it Knowledge of the Truth is twofold In Theory In Practice Theorical knowledge chiefly from Scripture as its Fountain is the knowledge of sound Doctrine Practick Knowledge is the Knowledge of that which is right in it self and due to be done to every man The first is opposite to Heresie The second opposeth Heathenism and Hypocrisie The first serveth to acquire a Form of Godliness The second conduceth to procure the practice and power of it The first is the Extrinse ground of Faith The second is the fruit and proof of Faith and the immediate Foundation of all good manners The Object of the first is Janua Doctrinae Truth in Doctrine The Object of the second is Janua justitiae Truth in practice Both are the Key or Means to Men Saints and Sects to come to the Door of Life that they may be saved without both can none come They that read not the Scriptures nor hear them read or seek not diligently to understand them by reading such Books or hearing such Teachers as fitly unfold them come not to the knowledge of the Truth Therefore such slothful Professors that would be saved by a Faith Implicit or wanting practice come not to the Door of Truth that they may be saved For God would have all men to be saved by a Regular means in a rational way and come to the knowledge of the Truth truth in Doctrine Truth in Practice without which they cannot be saved He that will come to the knowledge of the Truth must try all things Try all things saith the Text 1 Thes 5.21 Jacob wrastled with God by prayer all night not without much corporal labour prevailed and obtained the blessing So they that would come to the knowledge of the truth must not only wrastle with God by Prayer but expect to take serious pains in trying all things that they may find that which is pleasing to God and profitable to men Which Beroean-disquisition is the greatest pleasure to such as are sincere but a burden to base minds Heathens and Hypocrites Therefore Few find the strait-Gate the door of Life by coming to the knowledge of the Truth because they wrastle not like Jacob with God by Prayer nor take the pains to try all things But If Prayer without Pains will procure it many will not want this blessing But De Caelo ignavis precibus Deus ipse repugnat God resists the slothful though they make many prayers Hence we may demand why such Sects Jews Papists Turks c. and many Formal Professors so long abide in their blind Schisms and fruitless Formalities The Answer is almost as Obvious as the demand easie They count it Sacriledge to try their own Tenents Filthy Heathens hold it the highest Profaneness and so do Formalists and Hypocrites to examine what themselves mis-suppose to be true Religion But Sola nobilitas est unica virtus Virtus consist it in actione Actio virtutis est disquisitio veritatis None are noble but who try all things to find the Truth Ther 's no Nobility but what 's faithfully and soberly disquisitive A second Answer to the same demand may be this Therefore Sects Saints and Nations are so far from agreeing and so ready to make and maintain Divisions Because these Harpers that by their exemplary practice shall appease their Rage scarce yet appear to be the presidents those predicted first-fruits for others to follow Samuel's sons the Text sayes not they knew not the Law but walked not in his wayes turned aside after lucre took bribes perverted judgment They gave no good examples for others to follow Samuel was sufficient to teach his sons the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and manners but they were so wicked that they would not learn to know that particular Truth that attends upon practice for which cause they were cast out and their Government translated For men may and many do attain to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners and may add the greatest Gifts and Parts to the strictest Profession and soundest Doctrine and yet never come to the knowledge of the Truth to be saved but remain as Eli's sons did men of Belial and most wicked if they seek not to come to the knowledge of the Truth that particular Truth that attends upon practice That is If they do not duly consider that right and mercy that is due to be done and that they may do it to every man For the doers only of the truth in practice and not the sayers hearers or knowers of the Truth in Doctrine are justified and accepted in Gods sight But it 's the common practice of many strict Professors of Locusts and Hypocrites especially and too much of true Saints to take competent pains to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith But to the knowledge of the Truth in practice they come not or scarce come They have hired Farms or are busie in seeking perhaps to come to the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith without regard to the knowledge of it in practice whereby they may be saved and by which true conviction and peace may be procured to all people Lastly Supercilious Pride surpasseth all other means that most oppose the peace of Men Sects and Nations Who is David sayes Nabal who 's the Son of Jesse Nabals folly might further thus plead I
profess ingenuously I could never yet observe the deserts of this David What 's his merit or worth if well examined I am not now to learn what he can teach Nor are his supposed sacred Notions of necessary use at least not new to me Once I read but five lines of his learned work and was so weary it was so ill composed and to little purpose I could read no more He observes no Method and is too tedious in all he writes I could have contracted his matter to better purpose in the tenth part of his words But why sends David upon such a a day as this which he knows to be a busie day He should have first sat down and cast up the cost of keeping so many men so all wise men do and not send to me to maintain them I was ever bountiful ti 's well known to the well-deserving But who is David who 's this Son of Jesse Sic bacchantur Moriones Thus proud Professors folly's Off-spring swell with brutish insolence against the knowledge of the Truth in Practice and those by whose examples they might come to the knowledg of it Virtutis hoec merces meriti hoc praemium Thus proud Professors cast down Peace and Truth by their folly as the foolish woman pull'd down her house with her hands This is not that Peace-producing harmony of those Harps that are the Harps of God But Because two contrary Paterus set together must needs make each other more elucid and apparent I shall in such sort set two by comparing the good Samaritans perfect pattern with those evil-examples of that Priest and Levite that passing by came not to the knowledg of the Truth in practice A certain Priest saith the Text saw the man wounded and passed by A Levite likewise looked on him and passed by on the other side Luke 10.30 The Text chargeth neither as nescient or not knowing the Scriptures Both might come to a large measure of the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners but took no notice of considered not that which is right in it self and due to be done to the wounded man They passed by Truth in practice What profit to what purpose is it for formal Professors to attain a large measure of the knowledge of the Truth in the Doctrine of Faith and Manners to attain all Faith all Knowledge if they pass by obedience to God mercy and equity to Men For it was the Trade not of that Priest and Levite alone but of the whole Tribe of Pharisees and Apostate Jews by whom our Lord was crucified to say and not do to assert the Truth in Doctrine and pass by the practice of it And so their Antitype Locusts and Hypocrites by whom our Lord is more spiritually crucified in his Mystical Body make it their chief business to come perhaps to the knowledge of the Truth in Doctrine that they may the better by that means pass by the practice of it For the Pharisees searched the Scriptures that testified of Christ that they might find testimony in them against him to put him to death Death they found due to Blasphemers This Doctrine was true And this misapplyed to Christ was enough they needed no more to put him to death Omnia sunt hominu tenui pendentia filo Surely the lives of Men and Saints and the lives of Princes depend upon a very slender thred if one Text of Scripture misapplyed by blind Hypocrites be sufficient to make them to pass by all Equity to Men and Loyalty to Princes Certainly such Professors be their Doctrine never so sound their Professions most strict most deserve effectual refutation and rebuke For misapply'd sound Doctrine is the Doctrine of Devils that very Doctrine which the Devil delivered when he tempted our blessed Saviour and the very same Doctine which the blaspheming Pharisees practised when they put him to death And this way of blasphemy by which the son of perdition slayes the witnesses of the Truth draws so near though in these times of the grand Misadvertency almost Universal to that sin unpardonable that it is a desperate misaffection of the Will more than a mistake of the Intellect I know said Christ the blasphemy of them who say they are Jews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan Revel 2.9 where we clearly see that to boast of a lye is blasphemy And such blasphemers are most contrary to those Harpers that have the Harps of God We shall therefore handle both briefly together that both may more clearly appear And first Such blasphemers are so far boasters as to become rash Judges of other meus persons and actions of which and whom they are least able to judge But Secondly Such blasphemers misapply by sacrilegious and most wicked uncharitableness the same Text that the Pharisees did against our blessed Saviour and sundry others against the witnesses of the Truth whereby they ruinate their Estates and destroy their lives Such rewards must the best deserving find almost from all hands Unhappy Saints of the living God! unhappy witnesses of his Truth In this unhappy That any envious ignorant and unworthy Hypocrite needs but falsly charge them for their faithful Testimony with boasting or blasphemy and the business is done to their utter undoing What need we any more said the Pharisees But we shall here labour to remove the common mistake that 's the principal cause of that boasting and blasphemy that brings the greatest mischief to mankind and especially to the witnesses of the Truth And first Though I would desire saith the Apostle to glory I shall not be a fool for I will say the truth 2 Cor. 12.6 Whence it 's undeniably manifest That he that speaks or writes the Truth but then most when it makes for Gods glory or a general good is no fool nor a boaster though he seem to fools and Hypocrites so to be but a faithful witness of the Truth and do's therein but discharge charge his inevitable and indispensible duty to God and Man But it 's the common Opinion of Depravers and Hypocrites that to speak or write any thing true or false if it but reflect to the praise of him that speaks or writes it is boasting or vain-glory Then all the Prophets Apostles Saints and Martyrs must needs be boasters and blasphemers This was the mistake of Korah and his 250 conspiring Princes that told Moses and Aaron They took too much upon them were proud but were themselves signally proved to be sinners against their own souls Rebels in Gods sight Exod. 16.38 Ch. 17.10 This was the mistake of Aaron and Miriam when they said Hath the Lord indeed spoken by Moses Hath he not spoken also by us Numb 12.2 They imputed pride self-exalting to Moses the meekest man upon the face of the earth Thus we see that the most faithful Prophets and Martyrs such is the envious pride even in many Saints have been and may be grosly misled by this almost
into his rest And what was the cause of such great wrath Because saith he they always erred in their hearts and have not known my ways They always erred c. Et quid error mentis what 's an errour of the Heart or rather what and how many are the Errors of the Hearts of Professors Saints not excepted in the Spiritual Wilderuess Had they utterance and indeed they have that they might auswer for themselves and say My Name is Legion for we are many So many are the Errors of the Hearts of men that they are as also their Prophetick Type predicted continual and universal scarce admitting any limitation So God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth towards the end of the Old World and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually Gen. 6.5 The limitation or exception was only of one or two men ver 8. So all Israel in the Type-Wilderness two or four only excepted had corrupted their wayes were faln away from Faith and Obedience And so Gospel Israel especially towards the end of her Wilderness aberration hath so corrupted her ways that scarce may Faith be found And they very few excepted always err not caring to know the wayes of God And wherein are all the imaginations of their hearts thus only evil continually It 's a continual Error in the Hearts of Men and Saints to imagine that a careless shallow trivial knowledge and like practice is sufficient to please God and purchase their own salvation This was the delusion of Laodicea and is the deceit of Locusts and Hypocrites Therefore Their practice conform to that knowledge is ever half-performances Good Works perhaps well begun but desisted from before they be finished Bede we noted before complained that Christians in his time were contented with a trivial literature His complaint then is not now without cause and it 's tâ—e fault of many that the Female Sex suffers most under the burden of this Misery By this means many Men and Women are at best like those silly Women that were ever labouring and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth These may be ready to hear like Herod gladly and to read Books that unfold the Scriptures but cannot understand what they hear or read for want of due literature whereby they may understand But this kind of incult Christians are usually through for did illiterature and beastial ignorance the railing Frogs of croaking convitiations against men of parts and deserts For Art and Desert hath no adversary like unto ignorance Nor is careless contented ignorance the Mother of Devotion but Parent of Divisions and the Fountain of Factions and Schisms in States and Churches that divides and destroys both But Bede's complaint in his time grievous hath now got another complaint more grievous than it self which is this Most men that have gained a competent Literature and many that have attained a large measure of Learning abuse those gifts to advance Avarice Ignorance and evil Manners and make themselves thereby much worse and more wicked than any careless incult and illiterate Professors are and having less cause are more confident than the most ignorant This careless contented ignorance and vain confidence is a continual Error in the Hearts of those Men and many Saints Their fruits are usually but the deceitful works of half-performances for which the plagues of the wrath of God are poured forth upon them as they were upon Hered Saul Judas for like contented shallow knowledge and half-practices And Secondly It 's an Error in the Hearts of men to imagine That the Witnesses Sackcloth-Prophesie can procure that promised vigorous Repentance which Prophets and Apostles predicted It may and doth oft work a weak barren scarce-visible Wilderness true Faith and Repentance whereby many are saved but it 's too weak to bring forth those generous fruits of the Conscript first-fruits in a four-fold consormity to the perfect and durable good of men and to Gods glory in all ensuing Ages For the Winesses were to Prophesie 1260 years in Sackcloth and thereby to smite the Earth with all manner of Plagues Rev. 11.3 6. But they that were not killed by those Plagues saith the Text expresly yet repented not Ch. 9.18 And that Particle of time yet is the period of the six Trumpets sounding and conterminates the Witnesses 1260 years Sackcloth-Prophesie And therefore Thirdly They much Err in their Hearts that imagine that the Ministry under which they live or the strictness of the Sect or Church of which they are Members or that their own Zeal and Devotion can exempt them from the Plagues and Wrath of God which he pours forth upon such Semiadvertists and half-performists For then had Herod Saul and Judas been free from such Plagues because the greatest Prophets were their Guides and Teachers And the Pharisees and the Church of the Jews might have been exempted from the final excision of them and that Nation because they were the peculiar People and Church of God and the Pharisees the devoutest and most Orthodox of all Sects Thus we see that Type and Antitype Apostate Israel in the Literal and Spiritual Wilderness erred do always err in their hearts and know not ineed for such works are far from them the wayes of God nor are Saints themselves there exempted from the same vail of universal darkness that overspreads all Nations For There is a Cloud of darkness that covers all people as barrenness the Wilderness or waters cover the Sea Isa 25.7 But that darkness of ignorance was to be more prevalent during the time of the Gospel-Churches abode in her place prepared in the Spiritual Wilderness but most effectual immediately before or after the period of that duration This Cloud of darkness was signally shadowed forth by that borrour of great darkness and deep sleep that fell upon Abraham Gen. 15.12 which Prophesie was fulfilled in his Literal and Spiritual Seed in the Type and Antitype-Wilderness But That the right-Series of the Mystery of God and of the Mystery of Iniquity may plainly appear and what the power of Religion is may be more evident we shall with some diligence further enquire First what the Wilderness Literal and Spiritual was Secondly What the place prepared of God was in both Thirdly We shall prove that place to be the Theater or proper Seat of the Apostacy of Antichrist Fourthly We shall shew what that Apostacy is And Lastly We shall shew that Antitype Sion shall be the derivative Foundation of the Churches deliverance and redemption from the grand Apostacy And first We need not describe the Desert wherein Egypt stands that is done already sufficiently for this purpose and we shall but hint it here But Egypt was the place or one place therein prepared of God to preserve his Church in a Figure It was chiefly a Figure of its Antitype in the space of its seven years Famine It was part of the Wilderness and of it self more