may immediately work Miracles in behalf of following Errors what assurance we have that he could not do so in reference to such as preceeded I know no argument that can be brought in proof of the Negative in the latter Case but what will equally conclude in favour of the Negative in the former For if we resolve it into the Nature of God that he could not do so in the last Circumstances the same Essential Perfections in God which lead us to judg so of him in them will persuade us to have the like thoughts of him in all Circumstances that we can imagine Thirdly It is expresly against the Evidence of Scripture-Testimony that God should work a Miracle to confirm either the Mission or the Error of a false pretender See Joh. 9.16.29 30 31. Christ having restored Sight to one that was born blind the Pharisees do notwithstanding question whether he was an Embassador from God yea expresly affirm him to be an Impostor as for this Fellow we know not whence he is Now let us observe after what manner that miraculous Work is urged in Justification that Christ could be no Deceiver p. 16. How can a man that is a Sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one that falsly avoucheth himself to be sent of God do such Miracles and 30 31 The man answered and said unto them why herein is a marvellous thing that ye know not from whence he is and yet he hath opened mine Eyes now we know that God heareth not sinners i. e. doth not by miraculous Works bear witness to them that come in their own Name I know that we are to distinguish between what the Scripture it self saith and what is only â—aid in the Scripture And that the Scripture it self is true though there be many false sayings Historically recited in it because though the expressions themselves be false yet it is true that these Untruths which it reports were spoken But he that looks into the Chapter will plainly perceive that the Holy Ghost doth not only Register these Sayings but Adopt them And that he doth not barely affirm that such Pleas were made but that the Pleas themselves were true and solid The Exceptions why Miracles are not in themselves an Incontestable Evidence of the Doctrine they are wrought in Confirmation of and of the Divine Mission of the persons that work them may easily I think be taken off The 1 st is That Miracles have been wrought by Hereticks Pagans and others whose Persons were neither Authorized by God nor their Doctrine true And here the Wonders reported in History to have been done by Aesculapius Vespasian and especially Apollonius Tyaneus whom Hierocles durst in point of Miraculous Works compare with Jesus Christ are alledged To which I return these Five Things 1. We may justly question the matter of Fact as to many of them nor are the Reporters such as that we are bound to yield them an Implicite Faith Piaefraudes have found Entertainment not only among Heathens but Christians Nor do I doubt but that most of the Ethnick and Popish Miracles are meerly Romantick and that it is enough to discharge our selves from them by putting the Patrons of them on the proof that ever any such things were wrought 2. Many of these seeming Miracles may be salved by Natural Causes We use to Baptize the extraordinary Phaenomena of Nature with the Name of Wonders because of our Ignorance of the Ability of Natural Agents How many things were look't upon by the Pagan World as the immediate Effects of a Supernatural power that we can now give a distinct and Philosophical account of 3. Many of them are to be ascribed to the Power and Operation of the Devil who can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make a Lye as well as tell one Next to Oracles Satan hath served his Ends on the World by counterfeit Miracles and in both he hath set himself to Ape God And though we cannot so readily in every one of them detect the Imposture yet in most of them we meet with some Circumstance or other which may induce us to give the Devil the Honour and Reputation of them 4. Some of them and those such as descend to us with the greatest certainty seem to have been wrought to prepare the World for some strange and new Providence that God was to bring upon the Stage or to give reputation to some person that God designed for some solemn undertaking and not in the least to confirm any erroneous Doctrine or false Religion and as to such miraculous Works I know nothing hinders why they may not be ascribed to God Thus would I resolve the Cures wrought by Vespasian on the blind and lame Men to have been done for the better introducing and establishing him in the Romane Empire God haveing intended him for the Minister of his Wrath against the Jewish Nation But that from some Circumstances of the Story as it is related by Suetonius and Tacitus I am apt to think that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enemy not easily discovered or the Agency of the Devil was in the whole For I find the infirm Persons alledging their being advised by Serapis to make their Address to Vespasian for Relief against their Maladies Now it is not likely that God should employ the Daemon for the Herald of what himself would accomplish or that he should encourage Idolatry by Communion with Votaries at the Devil's Temple 2 dly The Method of restoring the blind Man to his Sight by spitting upon his Eyes seems plainly to have been done in Imitation of Christ and that Satan was the principal Agent in the whole intending hereby either to disparage some of the Miracles of our Saviour or to maintain his own Kingdom in the way that He had erected his 5. Some of the wonderful Works urged in the proof of what we are contending against might be wrought in Confirmation of the Truth of God and yet without any respect to the justifying the Mission of the Publisher of it And with reference to such works I know no danger in entitling God to be the Author of them An instance to this purpose we have Mark 9.38 Where the Person casting out Devils was neither Commissioned by Christ nor did so much as directly own and embrace Him and yet God lent him his Power to accomplish these Effects And supposing a Truth in the Matters of Fact as reported of the Romish Missionaries in the Indies I should think this Key sufficient to unlock them The second and great Exception why Miracles are not always a sufficient Proof of the Doctrine in whose behalf they are wrought is fetch 't from Scripture And truly if the Texts pressed in this Service be not found either mistaken or urged beyond their true Intendment we will readily resign both our selves and the Cause we have been pleading Nor shall any Shew or Appearance of Reason in favour of it weigh with us there being no Reason so great as
one of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have alledged by which I am not able to demonstrate the Divine Inspiration both of the Bible in general and of most of the particular Books in it so if there be any Books received into the Canon where any of these are wanting they are such as are Narratives of things done among Men and most of those are born Witness to in such other Books as have all the fore-going Characters and if there be any of them that are not Testified to yet we have all desirable Evidence that they were Written by Persons Divinely inspired and though all the preceeding Signatures do not occur in them yet some one or more by which they manifest themselves to be of God do and in none of them is there any thing inconsistent with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have produced Upon the other hand it is easie by the preceeding Marks to discharge from all Interest in Divine Inspiration a vast Number of Books that pretend to a Share in it By such I mean not only the Sibylline writings the Prophecy of Enoch the Epistle of Christ to Abgarus the Gospels of Nicodemus James and Andrew the Canons of the Apostles the Revelation of Paul his Epistles to Seneca and the Laodiceans the Missals of Mathew Mark Peter c. but all those Books which are Commonly stiled Apocryphal § 7. Besides the Characters impressed on the Scripture by which the Divine Inspiration of it is plainly evidenced There are many External Motives by which the same might be further demonstrated And here may be pleaded the quality of the pen-men their candor sincerity inability of being the immediate Authors of such a contrivance that they had no base nor secular Ends that they are impartial in laying open their failings and that they always father the whole upon God 2 The antiquity of Scripture Records at least some part of them to which all the rest are consonant and upon which they superstruct 3 The preservation of the Bible through so many Ages when so many of Wit Power and interest in the World had set themselves against it 4 It s spread success and entertainment in the World with the manner of its propagation without force of Arms or aft of Eloquence 5 The effects it hath wrought in great sudden lasting changes that it hath produced in men principled in their Judgments prepossess'd with Educations and prejudiced by Lust against it 6 The attestation of Miracles which are Gods Seal to authorise the person in whose behalf they are wrought and Doctrines to which they are annexed For a Miracle is an extraordinary work transcendent to the powers and capacities of natural Agents It is either the altering and stopping the Course of Nature or the producing some effect above its Laws and power A Miracle is an operation of God in Nature either without interposure of a Second Cause or above its abilâ—ty In a word it is the production of something out of nothing either as to matter or manner of production Now such Works are the immediate effects of Almighty Power It is the Peculiar Title of God to do Wonders and he only can do Wonderful Things Were there not some things impossible to Natural Agents there were no room for a real Miracle and were there not other things which we only think to be impossibles in Nature we were not capable of being deluded by an appearing one Effects exceeding the lines of ordinary operations may be produced by a combination of material Agents and Sathan may wonderfully ape a Miracle by the impressions he is able to make upon matter but every true Miracle is the product of a Power that is infinite As God alone can work Miracles so he never exerts His Power in the production of any but in order to humane instruction The Devil loves to be acting his Power to fill men with Amazement and to make them Wonder but God reserves his Power to seal some portant Truth to relieve men in some Urgent straight or to afright them from some destructive Practice Miraculous Works are one of the greatest attestations that God can give either to person or thing and are usually his Seal to some great Truth God is a spirit cannot be seen to give Testimony yea should he assume a shape and in that declare himself there would be still a great deal of lyableness to exception and therefore one of the most convincing Evidences that God can give to Person Doctrines or Cause is by the effecting of some such Work as is only possible for an Almighty Power to produce Hence those ancient Impostors that usurp'd the Title of Prophets either among the Jews Christians or Heathens pretended to Miracles and Signs knowing that without that counterfeit Seal their Doctrine would never have been received by the People and the better to Ape a Miracle the greatest part of pretenders to Enthusiasm were in all Ages Magicians True Miracles being the effects of Gods immediate Power the Notions which we have of his Wisdome and Goodness do not admit us to suppose that he should lend His Omnipotency to confirm a falshood For this were the way to induce men into error in a matter of the greatest Moment And therefore while I believe God to be True and Good I will never believe that He will lend his power to Impostors to cheat and abuse mankind Yea were it consistent with Divine Truth and Justice so to do yet it is repugnant to his Wisdome in that he should hereby not only weaken but wholly take off all the Evidence that Himself can give to Truth by miraculous Operations For if God can exert his Power in the confirmation of a Falsity in one Case what security can we have that He may not do so in another To say that God doth never work a Miracle for our Tryal in reference to a false Doctrine till he hath unquestionably confirmed his own Truth before and that the having an established Rule to examine after Doctrines by is enough to preserve us from being imposed upon by Error though it should come backt with the attestation of Miraculous Works I affirm that this plea is not sufficient and and that there are objections to the contrary which it doth not resolve For First As primitive Revelation is not capable of receiving confirmation from its consonancy to any Revelation formerly acknowledged it being it self the first so after Revelations that are either really or according to the best judgment that we can make New are as little tryable by their congruency to what went before And if we allow Miracles to be an Authentick attestation in such cases I see not how we can admit them to be fallacious in any Secondly The ancientest portion of Scripture are the Mosaick Writings now antecedently to the giving forth of these as the Standard of after Doctrines Idolatry Superstition and Error had greatly over-spread the world I would therefore ask if God
from all coaction and necessitation by the influence of any Principle forreign to it Now all these are impossible to Matter because That acts always according to the swing of Irresistible Motion nor can it be courted and solicited to Rest when under the forcible Impulse of a stronger Movent 3dly The Immortality of the Soul is plainly demonstrated from the Attributes of God and his Government of the World Without the supposition of a Future State there is no preserving the Authority of God from contempt no due means provided for the preventing men from gainful sins or the encouraging of them to hazardous Duties And accordingly there have been few in the World who have believed a Providence but they have likewise asserted the Immortality of the Soul these two being inseparably connected While we contemplate the state of things in the World we find Prosperity for the most part attending Vice and Misery the Companion of Virtue Good men are usually accompanied with Crosses and have the least proportion of present things while Bad men are often glutted with success and swim in pleasures Now if there were not an Immortal state where both the Virtue of the Good might be compensated and they receive comfort for their Sufferings and the Vice of the Bad might be punished and they receive Vengeance for their Crimes both the Wisdom and Goodness as well as Justice of the Rector of the World would be lyable to censure and Impeachment Yea it seems the better of the two wholly to deny the Providence of God than to think that he should administer humane affairs with so much irregularity and injustice In a word there is nothing can administer a satisfactory resolution in reference to the present dispensation of things in the World but a firm persuasion of the Immortality of the Soul and the Certainty of a Future state Judgments inflicted on Sinners in this life cannot fully clear the Righteousness of God because the best of men are as well involved in them as the worst yea it is but now and then that the greatest Criminals are made as remarkable in their punishments as they have been in their lives Besides an Infinite Eternal God is the Object of Wicked mens contempt and it s his Law who lives for ever whose Authority they despise nor can any punishment be proportionable but what is Eternal also 4ly That inbred desire which is in all men after Immortality argues that there is such really provided for the satisfying this Natural and Universal appetite For 't is not to be Imagined that Nature should furnish us with longings when there is nothing that may content them To have such desires wrought into the complexion and constitution of our Souls were there provision made of nothing that might answer them would not only reflect upon the Wisdom of our Maker who hath produced us with these longings of which there is no use but his Mercy Goodness and Justice also in implanting those Appetites in us which serve at once to abuse and torment us And this leads me to the other particular which I promised to discourse namely the Certainty of Divine Providence This is one of the Truths also which besides the attestation given to it in the Scripture hath evidence enough in the Light of Nature I confess that if we take our Measures in this Matter from the sentiments of the Wisest Heathen we should be ready to think there is no foundation in Reason to convince us otherwise but that all things go at Random It was not the opinion of Epicurus alone but of many others that the Gods concerned not themselves in sublunary affairs Nor did the Poets only discharge God from the Government of the World but their very Moral Philosophers did the same Horaces Deos didici securum agere aevum And Lucans Nunquam se cura Deorum Sic premit ut vestrae vitae vestraeque saluti Fata vacent Are not worse than Plinies Irridendum curam agere rerum humanarum illud quicquid est summum and Senecaes Deus nihil agit nec illum magis beneficia quam injuriae tangunt Even many of them that owned some kind of providence either confined it to Heaven holding it Unsuitable to His Glorious Nature to concern himself about frail and visible things but that he governs them by subordinate Causes as the Grand Seigniour doth his Provinces by his Bashaws Lieutenants or they limited it to effects which depend on a concatenation of Natural Causes to which they are ligu'd by trains and connexions excluding God in the mean time from any Care of Contingent Events or Administration about the Understandings and Wills of Men or lastly they bound it up to Universals and Generals allowing it little or no interposure about particulars and singulars And this seems to have been the opinion of the Author of the Book de Mundo who whether it was Aristotle or Philo or any other is not material The reasons that prevailed with them to question yea deny the providence of God were 1st That 't is beneath and unbecoming the perfections of God and an interruption of his Felicity to concern himself in the affairs of the sublunary World and to distract himself with the cares of it But this is 1. Rather to describe some effeminate Prince than the Deity And 2. It proceeds upon a Foolish mistake an unworthy supposition namely that it is pain and trouble to God to govern the World which none can imagine but they who are ignorant of his Attributes and Being Whatever God can do he does it without trouble to his Infinite perfections Nor 3. Is the Happiness of God more impeached in Governing the World than in making of it If without molestation to Himself he could produce it at first he can without encumbrance Rule it still The 2d Motive that sway'd them to doubt the Providence of God was the Impunity of Wicked Men. But in this they concluded as Illogically as in the former God 1. may have aims in the prosperity of Criminals that we are not aware of and therefore we ought not to reflect on his dispensations when we know not the grounds of them He hereby testifies that severity is not the inclination of his Nature but that punishments are extorted from him He hereby also allows offenders time as well as Inducements to Repentance He also herein sets us a pattern of mercy and forbearance and teacheth us Meekness and Lenity by his own Bounty and Patience He withal gives assurance to the World by this of a future judgment The Prosperity of the Wicked here is a pledge of their punishment hereafter 2. Bad men are not so happy as they are commonly imagined to be How can they be reckoned happy who have nothing succeeding according to their Scope and Meaning Every man intends well to himself but it is the perpetual infelicity of the Wicked that they never reach the mark they aime at For by doing ill they
sensual Appetites clogg'd and hindred by the distemperature of indisposed Organs not to mention the prepossessions and anticipations of Infancy the prejudices of Education with the deceits and impositions we are liable to by the delusion of external Objects for such the World is filled with since disorder and confusion arrested it However Reason considered thus namely as denoting the rational Faculty though even corrupted by the Fall is First That which disposeth and adapteth us for converse with objects of Revelation As the Light of the Sun had been useless to us had we not enjoy'd an Organ suited to receive the impression of its Beams so all supernatural Revelation had been both impertinent and superfluous were we not endow'd with Faculties fitted to converse with it God in all his Transactions with us supposeth us Rational and he is a degree worse than an Enthusiast who affirm's that the way to be a Christian is first to be a Brute Revelation doth not cassate the use of our Intellectual Powers but supposeth them and by enriching them with discoveries which they could not by their own search have arrived at it perfects them and they plainly acquiesce that these are the things they sought for but could not find There neither is nor can be any thing in Divine Revelation that overthrow's the rational Faculty or crosseth it in its Regular and Due Exercise There is a Spirit in Man And the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding Job 32.8 For as Austin saith Possâ— recipere fidem est Naturae licet actu credere sit Gratiae De praedest Sanct. cap. 5. Both external Revelation and internal Illumination presuppose us to be Rational and through the want of a Faculty that is so Brutes are incapable both of the one and the other Secondly Reason taken for the intellectual Faculty or the Principle of Apprehension Judgment and Ratiocination is both the instrument whereby we certainly discern the grounds and motives of Faith and the vital Principle of the Act it self Faith is not only an Elicit act of our minds but besides there can be no act of Faith without a previous exercise of our Intellects about the things to be believed Faith being nothing but an unwavering assent to some Doctrine upon the account of a divine Testimony our Reason must be antecedently perswaded that the Testimony is Divine before it can assent to the Doctrine upon the Authority and Veracity of the Revealer Though in many things we can give no Reason for what is believed distinct from Divine Testimony yet we ought to be always able to give a Reason for the Authentickness and the Divinity of the Testimony For as Austin saith Quod intelligimus aliquid rationi debemus quod autem credimus auctoritati Lib. de utilit Credendi cap. XI The Authority of God in the Scripture is the formal reason of Assent to such and such Doctrines but it is by the means and exercise of our intellectual Faculties that we come to understand such a Declaration to proceed from God and that these things are the sense of such and such Propositions Thus the Understanding of Man is the Candle of the Lord resolving us in the Authentickness and Sense of Revelation though Faith be built upon the Credit only of the Revealer To this purpose is that of Maximus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Should I neglect the Scripture Whence should I have Knowledge Should I relinquish Reason How should I have Faith Secondly Reason is taken Metonymically for common Maxims or principles whose Truth is inviolable And these are 1. Such as be so connate to Sense and Reason that upon their bare Representation they are universally assented to These Principles are not borrowed from Reason as their first Spring and Original but having their Root in the nature of God and Essences of Things are only discerned by the Rational mind and Intellect I do not say that we are brought forth with a List and Scroll of Axioms 〈◊〉 Imprinted upon our Faculties 〈◊〉 that we are furnished with such Powers upon the first Exercise of which about such things without any Harangues of Discourse or previous Ratiocinations we cannot without doing Violence to our Rational Nature but pay them an Assent Those Truths whether Logical Moral Physical or Mathematical Whether General because of their Universal Influence upon all Disciplines or Particular from their being confined in their Use to some one Science are justly stiled Natural being Founded in the Nature of God the Essences of things and the intrinsecal Rectitude of the Rational Faculty These are the Foundations and Measures of all Science Knowledge and Discourse being in themselves certain and incontestable Nor is there any other proof to be Assigned of them besides their Consonancy to the Rational Faculty to which they are centrally co-united And forasmuch as all men paâ—take of the same Reasonable Nature the certainty of these Principles is Universal What is disconvenient to the Essential Nature of one Man being so to the Nature of another nor is it possible to dissent from them without doing Contempt to our Faculties Of this sort are these That a Thing cannot at the same time be and not be That every Effect supposeth it's cause and many such like Nor doth Theology borrow these from Philosophy but they are pre-supposed to both and Science as well as Faith builds upon them 2 dly There are others whose Truth and Certainty are not understood nor do they win our Assent upon their first and naked Representation but they are discovered by a Chain of Ratiocinations and their Verity established by a Harangue of Inductions These are stiled Acquired Principles being by an Industrious Exercise of the Discursive Faculty raised and superstructed upon the former Nor are they less True than the other though more Remote from the first View of our Understandings Whatsoever is rightly deduced from Unquestionable Premisses hath the same stamp of Truth upon it that the Principles have from which it is inferred Where there is a just Connexion between Conclusions and Principles the latter cannot be denied without questioning the former from which they are fetch 't The Deduction of these by regular Trayns of Argumentation is the work of a Philosopher and these being Systematically digested constitute Philosophy So far then as Philosophy includes only Conclusions duly inferred from Unquestionable Principles so far there is not only a Friendly Alliance between it and Divinity but a wonderful Subserviency in it to Faith Nor is any thing true in Philosophy that is not so in Theology For as Aristotle sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever is true must be Consentaneous to all that is so lib. 1. Prior. Analyt cap. 32. And as he adds elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Truth is consentient to Truth lib. 1. Ethic. cap. 8. What our Souls in the Regular Exercise of Reason instruct us in is as much the Voyce of God to us as any Revelation he vouchsafeth us
express and explicite Authority of God upon it For whosoever explicitely reveal's the thing defined reveals in effect all those things which we have enumerated concerning it While the Scripture for example assureth us that Christ is a man it doth at the same time assure us that he is a Rational Creature and by telling us that he is a man it doth in effect tell us that he is not an Angel And however some late Papists talk in this Matter not to speak of others that they may shift the Protestant Arguments which they cannot Answer Yet I am sure the most learned that ever espoused the Romane Cause are at an agreement with us in this point That is an Article of Faith says Bellarmine which God hath either revealed by the Prophets and Apostles or which may be evidently inferred from thence Smiglesius against Mascorovius proclaims it ridiculous to think otherwise That is not only a part of the Christian Doctrine which is expressly revealed by the Apostles but whatsoever can be evidently deduced thence though one of the propositions going to the deducement of it have its certainty only in Natural Light saith Canus And whereas they say that Conclusio sequitur debiliorem partem the Conclusion receives it specification and is denominated from the weakest proposition I reply 1 Were that Logical Maxime to be taken in the universal Latitude which they affix to it they are yet so far from gaining any thing thereby that their whole Cause in this Matter is supplanted For if both Propositions be evidently true their Dogm's must be evidently false seeing the Conclusions that lye in repugnancy to them are our Enemies being Judges deduced from true propositions God is as much the Author of the Rational Faculty in its Regular Exercise as of Scripture and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be persuaded by God and to be persuaded by Right Reason is one and the same thing 2. That proposition in a Philosophical sense is the weakest which is remotest from self evidence and therefore where there are two premisses whereof the one hath no other Evidence but what it borrows from the Authority of the Infallible Revealer the other in the mean time havâ—ng â—ts Evidence from a light residing in it self and from its Congruity to the Essential Rectitude of our Intellectual Faculties if the Conclusion follow the fortune of the weaker proposition it must be a Conclusion of Faith and not of Science For though the Certitude of Faith be not only equal but transcendent to the Certitude of Reason Sense and Experience 2 Pet. 1.16 17 18 19. Yet the Evidence of Reason and Sense is with respect to the Object assented to the habitude it stands in to us beyond the Evidence of Faith 2 Cor. 5. â— 1 1 Cor. 13.12 Nor do the School men only allow a proposition grounded on an Axiome of Reason to be more evident than a proposition founded only on Revelation but withal not a few of the Learned'st Romanists both School-men and others will have the former to be also more Certain at least quo ad nos than the latter See Bellarm lib. 3. de justifiâ— cap. 2. Durand in 3. d. 23. quest 7. Compt. Tom. poster disp 9. 3. The forementioned Logical Axiome referrs only to the Quantity and Quality of the premisses and not to any other affections incident to them If one of the Premisses be Negative the Conclusion in the virtue of the alledged Maxâ—me must be Negative also or if one of the propositions be a particular nothing beyond a particular can be concluded though the other be an Universal And howsoever in some cases it may hold further yet this and no more was the intendment of the first establishers of it Nor indeed is it admittable in the full Latitude which the Terms seem to bear seeing of two propositions whereof the one only is true there may follow sometimes a Conclusion that is true though the other proposition be in the mean time palpably false But ere I undertake the probation of the thing it self two or three things must be necessarily premised 1. That all Fundamental Articles are contained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in so many letters and syllables in the Scripture Nor is there any thing necessary in order to our assent to them but that we understand the Terms of the Enunciations in which they are delivered 'T is true there are Terms and Phrases made use of to declare them unto the edification of Believers to secure the Minds of men from undue apprehensions of them that are not in the Scripture but this is no more than what is needful in the explaining of all Divine Truths yea all Moral Duties For example That there is One God and that the Father is this one God and that the Son is so also and the Holy Ghost likewise is declared in many express Testimonies in the Bible but in the Explication of this Doctrine and in the application of it to the Faith and Edification of Believers namely how God is One in respect of his Nature and Essence how being Father Son and Holy Ghost He subsists in these three distinct Persons what are their mutual respects to each other and what are the incommunicable Properties in the manner of their subsistence by which they are distinguished the One from the other there are such woâ—ds and phrases made use of as are not literally and syllabically contained in the Scripture but teach no other thing but what is there revealed 2. That these very Fundamental Articles may be also confirmed by consequences and logical deductions from express literal Testimonies nor do probations of this nature alter or enervate the quality of them The thing is in it self the same though the method of proof be varied For example the Doctrine of the Trinity is equally a Fundamental whether we prove it from express Texts or by consequences from literal Testimonies or by its connexion with the whole Systeme of the Gospel the Incarnation of the Son of God the Oeconomy of Redemption c. 3. That though all Fundamentals be in Terminis expressed in the Scripture that yet these very Truths do include others in them which cannot be proved but by Consequences For instance That God is a Spâ—rit is revealed in so many letters and syllables in the Bible but that therefore he hath not hands nor feet nor any corporeal members can only be concluded by way of Consequence In lâ—ke manner the Incarnation of the Son of God that the Word was made Flesh is expresly taught in the Scripture but yet there are many things predicable of the Word Incarnate which cannot be otherwise demonstrated but by Consequences and by borrowing some proposition or other from principles of Natural light Now these things being premised the lawfulness of arguing from express Scripture-Truths by deduction of Conclusions which though they be not mentioned in the Bible in letters and syllables are
controlled in nothing we say or do c. were ever intended for the Felicity of an Intellectual and Rational Being The Soul of a Brute would have served all the Ends that some men propound to themselves but surely the bestowing of an Immortal Spirit on us ought to instruct us that Blessedness consists in something else than Gauds Trifles Grandeur Airy Titles and the like And he who cannot want these things without thinking himself Miserable at once reproacheth his Maker as if he had Created him for nothing more worthy and degrades and dishonours himself by intimating that such gratifications are suitable to Him 6. The advantages which Good men receive by afflictions do amply compensate their feeling of them They hereby both discern their sincerity themselves and discover it to others Nor is it easie to imagine the satisfaction that the Consciousness of a constant sincerity ministers to a Soul To find that we love God notwithstanding the narrow allowance he affords us is a more soveraign Cordial to the Mind that would approve its self to God than the flushest enjoyment of sublunary things can yield Their Adversity also gives them either relief in Mortifying those Corruptions which endanger them or in exercising those Graces which glorifie God And who dare reproach the Wisdom or Goodness of God for disposing things in such a manner as may turn not only most to his own Honour but our advantage Storms and Frosts are as Useful to the Universe as serene and clear weather Nor are Sugar and Honey more necessary than Salt and Brine are If after all this there remain Inexplicables in the works of Providence 't is no more than what we daily meet with in the Works of Creation Nor must a finite Understanding hope to comprehend the Methods of an Infinite God And the future state will set all that straight which we now judge Crooked Having vindicated the Providence of God from those Objections which seem to affront it my next task is to suggest those Arguments which Reason abstracting from all Revelation can muster to attest it 1 Were there not an Omnipotent Power and an Omniscient skill to restrain and govern the quarrelsome Spirits that are in the World it would soon sink under the bottom of its own Confusion This the Heathen intimated in the Fable of Phaethon who being admitted to drive the Chariot of the Sun but for one day burnt both himself and it together It was well said by the Stoick that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not worth the while to live in a World empty of God and Providence Nay it were the greatest unhappiness imaginable to be brought forth into the World to be perpetually tossed up and down by blind Fortune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there were not a Providence there could be no Order in the World And as another Philosopher saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there were no Supreme Orderer whence comes order to be in the World 2. Preclude Providence we remove one of the greatest foundations of venerating the Diety 'T is not a persuasion of the Excellency of his Nature that can engage us to a hearty Adoration of Him if we once discharge him from all concernment in us and our affairs Though there be the like Eminency of Dignity in the French King as in the King of Great Brittain yet we have a greater reverence for the one than the other because the one protects us which the other doth not Nor can we well believe the Divine Nature to be excellent should we assert it devoid of Goodness which is the greatest perfection much less will it be easie to honour him for a God whose Felicity we judge to consist in Idleness We find our selves capable of yea endowed with the affections of Fear and Love and God is an Object most adapted for them but seclude him from the administration of the World and there is no Foundation left for the begetting and maintaining either the one or the other in the hearts of men towards him For if he regard not what we do instead of having provided due means for our fearing and loving of him he hath left us under an unavoidable temptation of acting towards with him with slight and contempt 3 If there be no Providence there is not the least ground for addresses to God out of hope of assistance or the thanking him for the benefits we partake of and yet the chief of natural Religion consists in these Who would pray to God to be delivered when in straits or praise him when he hath scaped his entanglements if God no ways interest himself in us and our affairs 4 If God govern not the world it is either because he Cannot or because he will not to say the first is to represent him contemptible for his Weakness and besides he that made the World cannot be supposed unable to Rule it to affirm the Second is to bestow Omnipotencie upon Him in vain and to impeach every one of his perfections because of a faileur in their most natural and agreeable effects 5 God is Soveraign of the World and therefore he must needs Govern it Through all things being the products of His will and Power he hath an incontestable Dominion over them Now we cannot fasten a greater reproach upon a Soveraign than that he throws off all the Care and Gubernation of his Subjects 6 We see effects in the World which could proceed from no cause but God and discoveries made to it which he alone can reveal and by consequence he hath not wholly withdrawn himself from the Rectorship of it 7 He must needs Rule the World who hath given it Laws for Law is the Relative of government and that he hath given it Laws the inbred Notions which we have of Good and Evil the Fears and hopes that haunt us do abundantly demonstrate These he hath woven into the composition of our Natures and by these order is maintained in the World Now 't is the greatest affront that can be offered to Reason to think that God should make use of a Fiction to preserve Truth Justice and Righteousness amongst mankind or that he should keep up the Respect of himself by falsehood and Deceit Thus by singling out one or two Truths that have evidence given to them in the Light of Nature as well as in Revelation we have shewn what belongs to Reason about all Doctrines of this Genius and complexion § 13. The next concernment of Reason in about Religion is to defend the whole of it from the Clamours and Objections of gainsayers For as Bisterfield says Though they who reject arguments levied from Reason against the Mysteries of Religion act modestly yet they do not throughly serve the interest nor hereby deserve well of the Cause of Truth which they own and profess 'T is true that the Authority of Divine Testimony is enough to warrant our Faith whatever Objections lye against the thing so testified
will add that if there be no principles in Nature to check Scepticism the principles of Revelation can never do it for without presupposing both that our Senses Reasons do not universally deceive us we can have no assurance that there is any such thing as a Supernatural Revelation at all I would not say that the Cartesians are Scepticks but I say they owe it not to the principles of their Philosophy that they are not so Supposing us once to disband lay by and to take for false all that we have imbib'd from Education or otherwise embraced I would fain know where we can begin and upon what foundation we can superstruct Science They who propose it as a Principle that we are to doubt of every thing ought in pursuance of their Hypothesis to suspect those very principles with they lay down for Certain If there be not some principles incontestable and beyond the precincts of being gainsayed it is not to be imagined but that we should be endlesly bewildred and entangled in a perpetual and inextricable maze According to this new Hypothesis no man can be sure that there are any Material effects or Beings in the World for we can have no other Certainty of the Existence of Corporeal Beings but by their affecting the Organs of Sensation and of this according to the principles of Des-Cartes there is no assurance can be obtained For 1. How can I be certain that there are any impressions made by forraign Objects upon the Fibres and Nerves seeing all may be but meer Phancy and Imagination 2. How shall I be ascertain'd that those impulses upon the Nerves which we ascribe to outward Objects are not begotten and caused by the Malus Genius we just now heard of And as I must in pursuance of this Principle abide in a perpetual Suspension of Mind whether there be any Material Beings in the World so I can no ways be assur'd from any effects which I observe in the Universe either that they have a second Cause at all or which particularly is their Cause not the latter seeing God may produce the like effects by different Causes not the former because whatsoever is brought forth by the ministry of second Causes may be produced immediately by God himself I will only subjoyn that if there be any Truth in this Cartesian Notion no man can be assured of his own Cogitation or whether he doth cogitate at all For we cannot otherwise know that we do know but by a latter reflex act of the Mind upon the former and of this I can have no certainty seeing I am not sure whether the Act I reflect upon were elicited by the mind it self or only an impression begotten in me by some powerful and malicious Guest which doth continually haunt us I am not ignorant of the restrictions limitations and expositions with some Cartesians give of the fore-going Principle but upon an examination of what is alledged against it by Gassendus Schoockius Daniel Voetius Vogelsangius and others and what is pleaded in justification of it by Claubergius De Bruin c. as well as Des-Cartes himself I must needs say that all the Cartesian plea's in behalf of it do either overthrow what themselves would establish and contradict what they endeavour to obtrude or that they are wholly weak and impotent But I am not without thoughts of discoursing this more largely some other time and therefore shall at present supersede the further prosecution of it The Second Cartesian principle which I impeach as disserviceable to Religion is this That whatsoever we have a clear and distinct perception of is infallibly true and that we are no ways longer to doubt of it This they make the only test of discerning and distinguishing Truth from Falsehood Nor do they allow any other Measure or Standard of discriminating betwixt Verity and Errour If we should be deceived in these things which we have clear and distinct perceptions of God himself saith Des-Cartes would be Fallax Deceptor horresco referens and all our Errours and Mistakes must be attributed to him Unless the Cartesians be infallible in what ever they imagine themselves to have a distinct perception and cognizance of God must be cease to be Good and True and must undergoe the blame of all their hallucinations I do the rather touch on this Cartesian Axiom because I not only find it introduced into Divinity by some Outlandish Writers but by some Modern Theologues at home particularly by the Author of Deus Justificatus Nor will it be amiss a little to enquire into it as well upon the account of its being erected by the Cartesians for the first and only principle of all Certainty and Science as upon the Score of the bad effects it is like to have upon the minds of men in Matters of Religion Now the meaning and sense of this Theoreme must either be this That whatever we apprehend and perceive as it is it infallibly is so and our perception of it is true But then according to this paraphrase of it there cannot be a more nugatory and ridiculous proposition form'd for it is as much as if we should say what we have a true cognizance of that we have a true cognizance of and what is truly known by us that we do truly know But this cannot be the meaning which the Cartesians intend by it for as much as they make the clearness and distinctness of perception the Rule by which we ought to judge of the Existence of Objects and things For according to them our perceptions are not therefore clear and true because of their congruity to the Objects about which our minds are conversant but on the contrary they determine concerning the Object from the clearness and distinctness of our perception The sense therefore of this Cartesian Axiom if it have any at all and be not perfect non-sense must be this namely That every thing really is as we perceive it provided our perception of it be clear and distinct That those Idea's of things which offer themselves to our Minds by clear and distinct perceptions are infallibly the true idea's of the Natures and properties of the things themselves Now admitting this to be the sense of it I affirm it to be the most silly fallacious and lubricous principle that ever men pretending to Philosophy laid down I shall wave that Medium that there may be clearness and distinctness of perception in acts of simple apprehension and consequently that whatsoever we clearly and distinctly perceive is not true because Acts of simple Apprehension are not capable of verity This I say I shall decline the urging of seeing I judge both Verity and Falsity to obtaâ—n in all the operations of the Mind For Verity being nothing else but the conformity of the Act to the Object there is as well an Incomplex Verity in acts of simple Apprehension as there is a Complex Verity in Acts of Judgment I may as well
rationally in surrendring themselves to the guidance of it The Article it self may be plainly revealed and yet not only the reason and mode of it lye altogether hid but the thing it self may over-power our Faculties and dazle them with its Majesty and Splendour 1. Reason is often non-plust and puzled about its own proper Objects and the phaenomena of Nature and shall we think it a competent judge of Objects it was never adapted for It is below many of the Works of God and therefore much more below Mysteries of Revelation See this Argument elegantly and strenuously handled by Bradwardine de causa Dei lib. 1. c. 1. Here are many things which we ought to admire but must never hope fully to understand Our work here is to believe not to enquire 2. If our minds will not submit to a Revelation until they see a reason of the proposition they do not believe or obey at all because they do not submit till they cannot chuse Faith bears not upon demonstration but upon the Authority and Veracity of the speaker and therefore to believe nothing but what we do comprehend is not to believe but to argue and is Science not Faith Ye that will believe in the Gospel what you please and what ye think fit ye will not believe you renounce the Gospel saith Austin to the Manichees for you believe your selves not it 3. To believe nothing but what we can fully comprehend is to remonstrate to the Wisdom and Power of God at least to challenge to our selves an Omniscience proportionable to the Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence 4. The Rule and Measure of Faith must be certain but no mans Reason universally is so because one Mans Reason rejects what anothers assents to Every man pretends to right Reason but who hath it is hard to tell If it be lawful for one man to reject a plain Revelation in one particular because he cannot comprehend it why may not a second do the same with reference to Revelation in another particular As the Socinians by making their Reason judge of what they are to believe will not admit many of the prime Articles of the Gospel so the Philosophers would make their Reason judge of what they should receive their Reason would not admit the Gospel at all 5. The certainty of Revelation is preferred to all other Evidence and we are commanded to subject our Reason to the Authority of God in the Scripture and by consequence Reason cannot be the positive Measure of Religion The Sacred Writers do every where remit us to the Scripture it self as the Rule of Faith and not at all to the Tribunal of Reason Herein are the Socinians justly impeachable for though sometimes they acknowledge Religion to be above Reason as we lately heard yet at other times they speak in a very indifferent Manner By Reason alone saith Smalcius can we define what is possible and what is impossible in matters of Faith See to the same purpose Ostorod Instit. cap. 6. Schlicting de Trinit advers Meisner p. 67. c. Hence that of Socinus that he would not believe Christ to have satisfied for our sins though he should read it not only once but often in the Scripture and that the Infallibility of the Revealer had not been enough to establish it supposing Christ to have said it and to have risen from the Dead to declare his own Veracity unless he had declared it by its Causes and effects and so shewn the possibility of it To which agrees a passage of Smalcius in reference to the Incarnation of the Son of God that he would not submit to it though he should meet with it not only often but in express Terms in the Bible I wish others did not say the same in effect But while they renounce Doctrines upon no other account but their incomprehensibleness or because we cannot fully fathom them they must give us leave to think whose principles they have drunk in and whose cause they plead Thus have I discoursed the whole Interest of Reason in Religion and as I know not that I have said any more in this Matter than what is generally maintained by all the sober Nonconformists so I hope I may say that the charge which some men have fastned upon us as if we wholly renounced Reason in all Concernments of Religion and that no Contradiction can astonish or stagger us and that this is the foundation and support of the Credit of the party especially amongst Vulgar Hearers is a false aspersion groundless calumny and an impudent Crimination And though I do not think that it savour's of over-much Modesty that a few young Theologues of the Church of England if indeed they be so should monopolize to themselves the name of Rational Divines yet for my own part I neither envy them the Title nor have any quarrel with them upon that account it being indeed their want of Reason that I find fault with And as it hath generally been the unhappiness of others who have too much boasted of and relyed upon Reason to fall into the most irrational sentiments so I do not see but that it is in a very great measure the misfortune of our New Rationalists As the Philosophers of old made Reason their only Rule and yet most of their Religious opinions whether in reference to Faith Worship or Moral Obedience were perfectly Irrational And as the Socinians pretend to pay more than an ordinary veneration to Reason and yet there are none in the world whose Tenets lye more cross to the Fundamental Maxims of it than some of theirs do For to give Religious Adoration to a meer Creature for such they allow Christ only to be to deny God the fore knowledge of future contingents to ascribe passions and affections to God in the manner they are incident to us are such Repugnancies to Reason that a man had need renounce that as well as Revelation ere he can admit them So I account it of easie proof that many of the Darling Notions about Original Sin Converting Grace the Nature of Regeneration and Justification it self c. of our pretended late Rational Divines are as well repugnant to Reason as they are to Scripture CHAP. II. Of the Import and Vse of Scripture-Metaphors SECT I. SOme men having espoused corrupt designs in reference to the Truths of the Gospel are in pursuance thereof led to Methods which may subserve and countenance their Undertakings For the End being fixed Means must be found out and adapted for the compassing of it Now among other little arts and contrivances supposed conducible to their Undertaking I find some late Writers improving their skill and industry especially in these two things First under pretence of banishing all wrangling brawling and vain talking they study to cashier and discharge all Disputes in and about Religion and 't is become their Interests upon two accounts so to do 1. That they may have the liberty to vent
to himself and would obtrude upon the World such harsh and uncouth Tropes as none but himself and some Socinians ever dream'd of Thus while other Interpreters expound Christs being made of God unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 of his being the Author of all these not only in the revealing wherein Wisdom Righteousness c. do consist but in way of Causality by an easie Metonymie of the Effect for the Cause yet after a different manner in Analogy to the things themselves that are spoken of Mr. Sherlock tells us That by Christs being made Wisdom to us he can understand no more than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of Gods Will to the World p. 103. I would willingly know how he would paraphrase the rest of the verse so as to make sense of it yet preserve a Consistency to his commentary upon the first paâ—â— without framing other Tropes than those do whose miscarriages in this particular he so much blames in their Interpreting of Scripture Likewise whereas other Commentators expound Joh. 14.6 where Christ sayth of himself I am the Way the Truth and the Life by admitting only a simple and familiar Metaphor in the Term Way Mr. Sherlock doth over and above fancy a Metonymie in the Pronoun I. For p. 31. he paraphraseth the Text thus I alone declare the True Way to Life and Happiness which he again repeats p. 229. I will not be so severe as to railly upon his manner of expressing himself in this Matter p. 135. where he say's that it is not the Person of Christ i. e. Christ himself but the Gospel of Christ which is the Way the Truth and the Life because I suppose his meaning to be that though Christ is so yet that it is not otherwise than by the Gospel though I could have wished that out of respect to Sense as well as Modesty he had otherwise declared himself than there he doth 4 I am the less surprised to find the Popular Discourses of some Non-Conformists arraigned as stuft with Metaphors and their Sermons and Didactical Writings not only branded upon that account as unintelligible and that their Notions would appear Jejunâ— and ridiculous stuff did they want the varnish of fine Metaphors and Glittering Allusions but their Persons loaded with Calumnies as if they trifled away the Duties of the Gospel by Childish Allegories and similitudes I say I am the less surprised at this in that I find the Scripture it self impeached in the same manner by others upon the like accounts For as upon the one hand the Scripture is blam'd as Dull flat and unaffecting by men of a wanton and prophane wit because of its not being adorned with Flowers of Rhetorick so upon the other hand there are some who find fault with it as dark and obscure because of the many Rhetorical Tropes and Figures with it is replenished which Nor is there any one Topick which the Papists to justify the with-holding the Laity from the reading of the Bible and to serve the design of erecting a living Infallible Judg manage with more confidence in opposition to the perspicuity of the Scripture than that there are many Tropes Figures and Rhetorical Schem's in the stile of it The Divine Ends in interweaving so many figurative expressions into the phraseology of the Bible shall be inquired into and declared afterwards and the Scripture acquitted from any just imputation of Darkness and Obscurity upon the account of the Rhetorical Ornaments with which it is embellished But as to the charge fastened upon some of late of obscuring Religion and darkning what is otherwise plain and easy meerly for indulging themselves now then in the use of a Metaphor and Similitude I shall briefly return these things 1 That it is for the most part in Popular Discourses where less accuracy and propriety in expression is required than in Polemical and Controversal Writings that this is to be met with Our great End being to instruct and perswade and the Modes of speaking and Writing being but an Organical Art in order thereunto all Methods of Discourse must be estimated by their Commensurateness to this End 2 Many of the expressions quarrelled with in Sermons and Practical Tracts are nothing else but the very Terms and Phrases which the Holy Ghost condescendeth to declare sacred things by Nor can any reproach be fastned on them in the Writings of men where they occurr without reflections on the Wisedom of God who useth them in the like cases and to the same purposes Fitter and more Emphatical Expressions to declare Divine things there are none than what the Holy Ghost hath preceded us in there being none that teacheth like God Nor is the Scripture only the Rule of what we are to believe and practice but also the Measure of our expressions about sacred things which we are to declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the Words which Mans Wisedom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth God not only inspired the Minds of the Prophets and Apostles with a knowledge and apprehension of the things they were to reveal but he suggested the very words by which they were to express what their Minds had conceived Hence we are not only obliged to teach no other Doctrine but what the Scripture Authoriseth but we are advised to pay a particular regard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wholsome Words even the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle there perstringeth refers not only to the teaching of Doctrines unadapted to the promotion of Godliness but the declining Scripture Words Phrases in the unfolding Mysteries of Faith the sacred Oracles being not only our Standard in the former but also in the latter Hence likewise it is that we have in command to observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Form of sound Words i. e. to conform our selves in the explicating of Gospel Mysteries to the Terms and Expressions which the Apostle had manifested and declared them by And it is made a Character of a good Minister of Jesus Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nourished up in the Words of Faith and of Good Doctrine The mysteries of Faith require a Rhetorick proper and peculiar to themselves And as it is only from the Scripture that we can be supplyed with Glorious Images and excellent Idea's of the things themselves which we treat of so it alone can best fuâ—nish us with all Ornaments of Speech and Eloquence as well to beautify as declare them 3. Rhetorical Tropes and Figures have been usually accounted for Lights Colours to illustrate things and not for shades and Clouds to darken and obscure them As of all Tropes Metaphors are the most usual in Prophane Authors so unless perhaps we except Metonymies they are more obvious in sacred Writers than any other And as they add a wonderful
pulchritude and suavity to an Oration so they hugely conduce to our more easy conception of the things treated of Nor doth this obtain so much any where as in Mysteries of Faâ—th for they through a greatness and Majesty peculiar to themselves do so far transcend all expressions that in order to their being duely conceived they require a being accommodated attempered to the weakness of our Faculties in Allusions Metaphors such like Pâ—â—aseologies in which they are display'd by sensible Resemblances but more of this afterwards 4. Those of the differently-minded in matters of Discipline Ecclesiastical Order from the Church of England who seem especially guilty of an affectation of Metaphors Allusions and Allegories in their Popular and Didactical discourses for all of that sort are not Criminal in this Matter do appear to me to have imbib'd it from the most fam'd Writers of the Church of England Nor were it a difficult Undertaking to declare when Inordinacy and excess this way as well as Pedantick quibling with Letters and Syllables turning the Scripture into clench and paraphrasing Texts by the sound and chink of Words and feeding the People with the Chiming of Terms took its rise and commenced and who were the chief promoters of it And in reference to the more ancient amongst the Non-Conformists who are charged in this Matter why may not the plea of Tacitus in behalf of Seneca that he had Scribendi genus temporis illius auribus accommodatum that they accustomed themselves to a stile suâ—ted to the Genius and Gusto of the Age be allowed And for the younger sort though I suppose there are but few of them that can be justly charged with it yet if there be any such it may be said that they owe it either to the Unhappiness of their Converse with an ill sett of Books or that they as well as the former do it in complyance with the Capacities of their Heareâ—s who can neither be edified nor affected by any other stile However as the Phantastical trifling with Words and Syllables and the Boyish affectation of Cadencies is wholly grown into difuse and distast as unbecoming the Sanctity of the Mysteries we treat of the Majesty of God in whose Name we speak and the Gravity of the Ministerial Function so I hope a care will likewise possess us in reference to the other viz. that we coyn no Metaphors of our own to express things by but what are modest cleanly and carry a due Proportion Analogy and Similitude to the things they are brought to illustrate But our Adversaries must in the mean time pardon us if we be not so fond of their Effeminate amorous stile as to introduce it into the Pulpit For indeed it savours more of the style of the Grand-Cyrus Cleopatra Parthenissa c. than any style that the Doctrines of Faith and Precepts of Morality have been heretofore delivered in I will take the liberty for once to say that their Preaching with an air more brisk and unconcerned and a countenance more debonair and lightsome than becomes those who would work Compunction in others or reconcile their Hearers to Mortification together with their polisht artificial dress of Words hardly admitting a Quotation from Scripture for fear of spoyling their Oratory seem as justly lyable to blame as the Methods and Modes which they not only censure but traduce others for § 3. I intend not to discourse of Scripture Rhetorick in General nor of the various kinds of Figures as well as Tropes that the sacred style is adorned with This task hath been prosperously undertaken by Glassius Flac. Illyricus Alstedius Westhemerus c. in Latine and not many years ago Mr. Lukin laid out his endeavours this way in English not to mention others who have done something in this matter It is to Metaphors alone that I confine and circumscribe my thoughts yet I am not without hope that by explicating of them Light will be administred to the better Understanding of other Scripture-Tropes Anciently Tropes were not so throughly distinguished the one from the other neither were those several Names invented to design them by nor were the Lines Measures Bounds Cognations and Habitudes of each a part and to one another so described and set forth as now they are And this may serve as an Apology for Aristotle's confounding Synechdoches and Allegories with Metaphors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which occasioned Cicero to observe that Aristotle used the Term Metaphor in a larger acceptation than after Rhetoricians are wont to take it Augustine defines a Metaphor to be the traduction of a Word from its proper signification to a sense that doth not originally and properly belong to it Terms thus applyed are called by Hermogenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because inverted and transferred from their proper meaning to a significaon which doth not primarily belong to them A Metaphor then is a Form of speech whereby one thing is put for another to illustrate it It is the traduction of a Word from its immediate and proper sense and the extending it to the denotation of some other thing upon the account of some similitude or proportion betwixt the one and the other It hath this in common with Metonymies Synechdoches and Ironies that in all of them things are misnamed and words transferred from what they peculiarly denote to manifest something else But herein they differ an Irony is the usurping of a word to an Intention opposite to what it seems to imply and is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a speaking by Contraries which may be easily discerned either by the thing it self which is spoken or by some circumstance or other in the Oration A Metonymie is the mis-naming of things or the putting of one thing for another when though they have a connexion as Correlates yet absolutely considered the one is not of the Nature and Essence of the other Thus the Cause is Frequently put for the Effect and the Effect for the Cause the Subject for the Adjunct and the Adjunct for the Subject The Act or Affection conversant about any Object for the Object it self and the Object sometimes for the Act the Sign for the thing Signified and the thing Signified for the Sign c. A Synechdoche is a Form of speech where by one thing that is of the Essence of another or that hath a necessary Connexion with it is put for that other to which it hath such a cognation and affinity Thus the Gender is put for the Species and the Species for the Gender The Integral for a Part and a Part for the Integral the Species for the Individuum and the Individuum for the Species c. But a Metaphor is the Stiling of one thing by the Name of another which as they have no necessary connexion absolutely considered so they stand in no such relation but that the one may be apprehended without the other only because of some Similitude or proportion the one is
of the Gospel we acknowledg it to be but to style it a metaphysical subtilty is to betray high Irreverence towards the great Mysteries of Faith as well as shameful Ignorance in the Fundamentals of Religion The Notions of Suppositum Person Hypostasis personality as distinct from the Idea of Nature or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so far from having their first rise in the Schools of Philosophers or being Originally ow'd to Metaphysicks that they sprung from the Mystery of the Incarnation which both gave occasion of framing distinct and different Conceptions of them and by the account which the Scripture gives of the Mystery did illuminate us concerning them Though the person of Christ do not at all differ from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Humane Nature as they are considered united yet as we conceive of God-head and Man-hood in the abstract there is an inadequate difference betwixt them and the Person of Christ. And although there be no third Nature in the Person of Christ besides his Divine his Humane yet His Person is neither his Divine Nature nor his Humane And had Mr. Sherlock been either acquainted with Metaphysicks or conversant in the Canons of the Ancient Councils not to mention his being familiar with the Fathers he would never have charged the maintaining of that upon his Adversaries as a Reproach and Crime the not holding whereof would have justly exposed them to the Imputation of Heresy But when men are under the conduct of Passion and their Ignorance is answerable to their Rage what less can be expected than the throwing out accusations at adventure and the listing the most momentous Truths of Christians either in the Roll of subtil Querks or pernicious Errors rather than such whom out of prejudice they oppose should escape being blazon'd for Fools or Hereticks Fourthly By the Person of Christ then we mean the Humane Nature assum'd into Union with the Person of the Word and subsisting by the Hypostasis and personality of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second Person in the Trinity As the Humane Nature of Christ is of it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 't is assumed into Union not precisely the with Divine Nature but with the second Person of the Trinity which connotate's somthing more than barely the Divine Nature though what that is be beyond the Territories of Reason to conceive or declare Now with respect to the operations communications fruits and effects which proceed from the person of Christ constituted and consisting of the second Person of the Trinity and the Humane Nature we are to consider these four things 1. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Agent or Cause and that is the Person of Christ. The effective Principle of the whole Mediatorial Work is Christ personally considered and the things done wrought bestowed or any effected are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the works and operations of God-Man 'T is not this or that nature simply considered but the Person of Christ that is the Fountain and Causal Principle of Actions and denominated from them Though we cannot conceive any operation to proceed from Christ but what belongs either to his God-head or Man hood as its Formal principle yet as there are many things predicated of the person of Christ wherein the Humane Nature is united to the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot in any single proposition be affirmed of or ascribed to either of them So whatsoever is attributed to him as the Christ He is as a Person the efficient Principle and cause of it 2. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Formal Principle of all his operations and that is either the Humane Nature or the Word Though the Man-hood be brought into conjunction with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet as both retain what is proper and essential to themselves so they remain distinct Formal Principles of operation Agit utraque forma cum alterius communione quod suum est Verbo operante quod Verbi est Carne exequente quod Carnis est 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Action which ceeds either from the Humane Nature or from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its Formal Principle And as This or That is its Formal Principle it is of such a Specificate Nature i. e. a Divine Action or a Humane Though the things wrought for us communicated to us and effected in us be all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and though Divines use to style the Actions themselves so as proceeding from the same Effective Personal Principle yet I think it better to forbear that appellation of them seeing no Action proceeds both from the Humane Nature and from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its Formal Principle 4. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The thing wrought or effected by the concurrence of the Humane Nature and the Word as they are united in constitute the Person of Christ. And here the distinct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Formal Principles occurring in the person of Christ do in their influence meet and center each of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an Action congruous and peculiar to its own respective Nature And though the God-head and Man-hood in Christ remain distinct Formal Principles of Operations yet through the Union of the Humane Nature to the second Person of the Trinity in Him those things come to be effected by Him personally considered which he could not have wrought either as God or Man separately conceived Now Christ being our Mediator only considered as God and Man in one Person and not meerly as God or as Man And it being from Christ as Mediator though in ways congruous and proportionate that we receive Grace Life and all vital Influences Therefore we contend and plead that the Union of Believers with Christ is through their being united to his Person § 5. The last Term whose import and meaning we are to state and fix is Union And being a Transcendental Term 't is not easy to assign such an uncontroulable and clear Notion of it as may adequately agree to and univocally express it wheresoever it occurs But though Union be one of the greatest secrets of Nature and that which affronts our Understandings when we enquire into the Quality and Mode of this or that Union in particular yet so much Light may be reflected upon it in general as may serve to declare the value and meaning of the Term. Union then is either taken for Unition or for the Effect Modification or Mode caused by the â—â—itive action in the Extremes or at least one of them that come to be copulated or Thirdly For the Relation exsurging between the extremes knit and ligu'd one to another In the First acceptation 't is to be conceived of Efficiently in the Second Formally and in the Third as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Habitude resulting from arising upon the two former In the First usurpation it
1 Joh. 4.9 10. In a word it is Love which is eminently ascribed to the Father in the Oeconomy of the Blessed Trinity about the Work of Mans Salvation And this property of his Nature which he chose to display in the work of Redemption he hath acted to the uttermost whereas he did not so by his Power which he manifested in the Works of Creation it being within the compass of his Omnipotence and Exuberant Bounty to produce a World more glorious than this And though all this respects Gods Love of Compassion to the Elect yet we may hereby guess what his Love of Delight in Believers is on whom his Love of Goodness hath compassed its designs When his Love of Benevolence hath attained so much of its End as the renewing us in part to his Image and the recovering us back to our obedience He views over with delight the births that his compassion went with and beholds the effects of his good Will with unspeakable complacence That similitude which his Love in its first consideration designed anâ—â—ntended his Love in the second Notion of it embraceth and settles its delight upon And that Believers do embrace the Father with a Love equal and proportionate to that which they have for Jesus Christ I hope I need not spend time to prove Besides the Allective and attractive perfections which the illuminated Understanding discovers in both as they partake of the same Divine Nature and Essence it meets with enforcing Motives of Love in the Oeconomical actings of each as they are represented in the Scripture operating towards about our Redemption with different peculiarities in the manner of their acting How doth the Father's Love in being the Author and Fountain of our recovery in his contriving the means of it in giving his Son to be our Ransom and Propitiation in order to the effecting it and in pursuance of his accepting the Sacrifice of his Death as an Atonement for sin and a meritorious price of sanctification his being the Original disposer in way of Authority and Order of all that Grace by which we are rendred meet objects of Gods delight inflame the souls of renewed Ones with Love to him 4. This Love-Union as it terminates upon Christ from us or as it implies our Affections being set upon him is so far from being the formal Reason of our Mystical Union that it doth suppose us already cemented to him There can be no true Love to Christ without a previous conformity seeing all love includes a supposition of likeness Now to imagine either a resemblance between us and Christ without a New Nature previously form'd and wrought in us or to conceive that there are any principles communicated to us as the ground and matter of similitude and yet we remain unconnected to Christ are fancies that the Gospel obligeth us to account absurd To apprehend a Person renewed by Grace and not implanted into Christ is to bid defiance to the Gospel and to conceive a soul cleaving to Christ by a Love that is sincere without an Antecedent Principle of Grace adapting and connaturalizing it is not only to contradict the Scripture but to denounce War against Metaphysicks which tell us that every Effect presupposeth a cause proportion'd to it In brief As we are not naturally imbued with a Love to Christ so no man will by a prevalent Love embrace him till he be first connaturalized attempered brought into a suitable habitude of mind to him Every act supposeth a Power nor is there hopes of Fruit where there is not a Root that can communicate sap to the branches that are to bear it Though the soul be the Vital Principle of all actions and Affections yet it is Grace that gives holy actions and affections their constituent form The Union which we have with Christ by love saith the Reverend Bishop Reynolds presupposeth an Unity we have in him by Faith Faith is the immediate tye between Christ and a Christian but Love a secondary Union following upon and grounded on the former By Nature we are all Enemies to Christ and his Kingdom of the Jews mind we will not have this Man to raign over us therefore till by Faith we are throughly perswaded of Christs love to us we can never repay love to him again Herein is love saith the Apostle not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son 1 Joh. 4.10 Now between Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us one with Christ. § 12. That there ought to be nothing in Religion which is incomprehensible or of which we are not able to form adequate Notions is a fancy espoused by the Socinians Hence it is that though they do not wholly renounce the Gospel yet by designing to accommodate the mysteries of it to the Level of Humane apprehensions they supplant the prime Articles of it That there are Doctrines in the Christian Religion which our Understandings cannot fathom seems to have been the chief thing that influenced Celsus Hierocles Porphyrius Lucian and other Heathen Philosophers of old in their opposition of it This their upbraiding the primitive Believers for receiving things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an Irrational Faith and their styling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons of easie belief that had no reason for the things which they embraced abundantly declare And truly admitting the Principle which they proceeded upon namely that there ought not to be any thing in Religion but what our Intellects bear a proportion to they seem to me to have acted more rationally in refusing the Gospel altogether than those do who embrace it and yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Model the Oracles of God to their private fancies that so they may level the Mysteries of Christianity to our weak and shallow capacities That there are Mysterious Doctrines in the Gospel and particularly that our Union with Christ is of that Number the Holy Ghost who should best know the complexion of every truth in it hath plainly informed us We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones This is a great Mystery says the Apostle Eph. 5.30.32 Mr. Sherlock who seems to judg all such things foolish and fanciful Notions which men cannot fully conceive comprehend is pleased to tell us that there is nothing more easie to be understood than our Union and Communion with Christ but how he can reconcile himself to Paul unless great Mysteries be of easie conception and comprehension I know not 'T is true he hath taken care to present us with such a Notion of Believers Union with Christ as may be understood on this side Heaven and without sending for Elias to unriddle it that I may use his own expression Now what that Notion is and whether it fully answer the account which the Scripture gives us in the Matter of Christians Union with the Lord Jesus is that which we are now addressing to the ventilation of And that neither he
together Animation by one Spirit is both a nobler and firmer way of Union than adhesion even by continuity of parts is Now by one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12.13 And hereby we know that we dwell in Him and He in us namely by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 4 13. Hence as upon the one hand If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 So upon the other hand He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 I know that Mr. Sherlock glosseth both these Texts of our having the same temper and disposition of mind which Christ had but most ignorantly as well as falsly 'T is true such a temper and disposition of Mind as Christ had is the fruit and effect of the Spirit of Christ but it is no more the Spirit of Christ it self than an effect is its own cause Our having the Spirit of Christ is assigned as the cause of our having a Spiritual temper of mind and I hope our Author will admit a cause and its effect to be distinct and different things The Spirit which we are said to have is the very same Spirit by which Christ will at last quicken our Mortal Bodies and I suppose this will not be the produce of any temper or disposition of mind of ours In a word the whole context lyes in a direct repugnancy to our Authors paraphrase of Rom. 8.9 For that Hypothetical proposition If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his is an inference from the fore-going words if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you And this Spirit of Christ is said to be the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the Dead v. 11. And to have the Spirit of Christ is the same with being led with the Spirit of God v. 14. This Spirit of Christ which Believers are said to have is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Spirit it self that beareth witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God v. 16. and the Spirit that helpeth our Infirmities the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that maketh intercession for us v. 26. All which lyes in a direct contradiction to Mr. Sherlocks Gloss. And whereas our Author objects that what the Apostle calls the having the Spirit of Christ v. 9. he expresseth by if Christ be in you v. 10. and that this is no more than our being possest with the same love of Virtue and Goodness which appeared so eminently in Christ I reply that though the having the Spirit of Christ and Christs being in a Person be coincident yet 't is most false that we are to understand no more by Christ in you v. 10. but a being possest with the same love of Virtue and Goodness which appeared so eminently in Him And my reason is because the Apostle makes Christs being in them the ground principle and cause of their minds being connaturalized to Virtue and Goodness for that is the import of those words but the Spirit is Life i. e. the inward man is quickened and renewed and surely to establish an Identity betwixt Causes and their Effects is to impeach the first Principles of Science And as for our Authors exposition of 1 Cor. 6.17 namely That He who is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit signifies no more but our having the same temper of mind which Christ had it is not only too dimininutive and scanty a sense to bear a proportion to the words but it is plainly contradictory to the scope of the Text. For not to insist upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render joyned though it be a very emphatical Term importing no less than such a near and close conjunction between Christ and Christians as is between things which are strongly cemented and glewed together Nor yet to dwell upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one Spirit though it be the highest phrase in the stores and treasuries of language to express an intimous conjunction by I shall only take notice that the Apostle having asserted v. 15. That our Bodies are the Members of Christ and having subjoyned by way of inference from thence that we ought therefore by no means to take the Members of Christ and to make them the Members of an Harlot He gives this reason for it v. 16. because whosoever doth so becomes One Body with her and so cannot be One with Christ those two lying in a direct repugnancy the one to the other So that now I argue if the Union betwixt a Man and an Harlot in the virtue of which they are One Body import more then meerly a likeness of Temper and Moral Dispositions as surely it doth forasmuch as there may be a similitude in sensual propensions and inclinations where the becoming One Flesh through Carnal Conjunction interposeth not Much more doth a Believers being One Spirit with the Lord imply a higher kind of Union than an affinity of Dispositions For this being it which the Apostle setteth in opposition to the former it must at least bear a proportion to it in respect of neerness of cohesion although through being compared to it as an oppositum it can have no agreement with it in its Principles Bonds and Media I shall only add that the Affinity between our Authors paraphrase and that of a certain Socinian upon the place gives me some ground to suspect whence our Author imbib'd the Gloss which he would obtrude upon us But to resume what I was upon namely that the Spirit being the Vinculum and Ligament by which we are united to Christ our cohesion therefore to Him must be somthing more than a Political Relation That Believers are inhabited and actuated by the Spirit is a Truth which the Scripture gives Testimony to in an hundred places Nor is he only present in the Hearts of Believers in respect of that New Creature Divine Nature and Spiritual Being which he hath wrought in them but even immediately also Thus the Ancients in a manner unanimously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit is not only in Believers now as heretofore meerly by his operations but he exists and dwells in them as it were after a substantial manner saith Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He knits us to himself by a kind of Immediate contact while he maketh us partakers of the Divine Nature saith Cyrillus Alexandrinus Non per gratiam visitationis operationis sed per ipsam praesentiam majestatis atque in vasa non jam odor balsami sed ipsa substantia sacri defluxit unguenti saith Austin He who desires to know the Harmony and agreement as well as the sense of the Fathers in this matter may consult Petavius who treats it at large And if any have a mind to understand the Opinion of the Schoolmen concerning it they may advise with Ruiz de Trinitate d. 109. Sect. 7. Vasq. 1.2 d. 205. Valentia 1.2 d. 8.