the others vice Phila. Nothing can be said to this but only Gods secret will and wisedome For men cannot be elected out of any foreseen vertue for an eternall cause cannot depend upon an externall or temporall effect caused thereby but upon the eternall counsell of Gods most free will and favour So rejection is not moved in God by the foresight of mans sin though his punishment be determined thereupon otherwise God may reprobate all as well as some because he foresaw all would sin Therefore these operations depend upon Gods secret will It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth Rom. 9.16 but in God that sheweth mercy for neither predestination is not in the power of the elected nor reprobation in the power of the rejected but in the will and wisedome of God who is the potter and we clay he is our father and we his children and we ought not under pain of cursing say to our Father what hast thou begot Therefore God in his electing of us must be understood to do it either before mans fall which the Scripture best approveth calling us elect before the world or else after mans fall by the first offence Now in what estate of Man soever God did it he looks upon all men all alike and so no reason can be given why he should elect one and reject another For if he looked upon man in his nocency Calv. Instit lib. 3. cap. 22. we can find no reason of predestination if in his innocency we can find no reason of reprobation therefore it is best to sit down with admiration at the unsearchable wisedome of God as St Paul did Rom. 11.32 and to rest content with Gods will as Christ doth Mat. 11.25 And no man can be reprobated that doth so except he neglect Gods revelation or his own duty in purifying himselfe 1 John 3.3 as God is holy that hath called him 1 Pet. 1.9 Mathe. Is not this partiality in God Phila. No for God being a most free agent may as the potters do make severall vessels to honor and to dishonour without acception of persons for there was no persons when God elected men Mathe. But God gives grace to the elect but prevents the reprobate of it Phila. It is true that he predestinates his elect to the means as well as the end and giveth them an influx of grace by which they are voluntarily lead to will and do of his good pleasure But in reprobation or rejection of men God neither destinates them to sin nor prevents them of grace nor gives any influx of evill into the soul but leaves men to themselves So that the predestinate are like the aire warmed and enlightned with the Sun the Reprobate like the aire left to it own coldnesse and darknesse without the Sun Mathe. But methinks this doctrine of predestination leads men into licentiousness because if predestinated they shall be saved however they live and reprobation leads to despair because how well soever they live they are damned Phila. Though predestination be the free grace of God yet it leaves not men to live as they list but rather leads them to make it as sure to themselves by a good life as it is a sure foundation in God for whomsoever he predestinates he sanctifieth them Rom. 8. And therefore there is a conditionate decree joined with the promise of salvation i. if we repent and beleeve we shall certainly be saved so that we may more safely say that those that live licentiously and repent not are not elected for men predestinate lay hold upon the absolute decree by the conditionate and yet they know that this conditionate decree may be published to all and yet no man saved by it but because a conscionable performing the condition is a sign of election they will not neglect it nor doth rejection of it selfe leave men in despaire saving in their own ill grounded opinion Therefore 1. You must conceive that there is no absolute decree casting off men from all grace which may possibly lead them to happinesse As the Angels not elected had grace possible to stand Adam was not predestinated to stand yet he had grace possible to stand 2. You are to judge that by this decree of reprobation is no cause of mans sin for he only permitteth what he is not bound to hinder God foresees evill will be done but he causeth none only he prevents it not he commands the contrary he threatens it with punishment neither of these is a cause of sin no more then not giving an alms to every begger causeth him to steal or a law against stealing makes men theeves 3. Aug. de praed Fulgentius Calvin Know that God denying election to some men doth not therefore damn them for his pleasure but as he permits them to sin so he resolves to punish them 4. Consider that this deniall of election to some doth not produce any sinfull actions as sinfull for though the naturall act of sin as it is a reall being must needs flow from him in whom all things have being but the obliquity of mans will which cleaveth to the action is not of God nor caused by his decree of non-election but of permission 5. Nor doth God by this decree of reprobation over-power the will of such a man though no doubt he that made the will can over-rule it but leaves it to its own deficiency by not creating the heart anew as Psal 51. For he that beleeves not the word it is not caused by Gods constitution in not electing a man but by mans proclivenesse to infidelity And seeing this work is secret and internall in God we must remember Moses saying secret things belong to God Deut. 29.29 and revealed things to us And therefore let us alwaies look to Gods revealed will which insures us salvation upon faith and repentance and by these try their estate and find their election by the effects thereof à posteriore and be content to know God as Moses by his back parts as the Father by the Son and the Sons redemption by the spirit that he hath given us 2. Be not too eager to know by some other way and thy assurance of salvation by some extraordinary revelation lest you fall into some dangerous temptation As 1. To despair if you find it not 2. highly to presume if you find it 3. Or else sullenly to neglect all good works till you have found it but live holily Psal 50. ult and trust God to shew it you in his time Must we not all live by faith and hope in this world yet if we could have the certainty of election we shall think faith and hope needlesse We are saved by hope but hope seen is no hope Rom. 8.24 Be content with adherence and cleaving to and holding fast by him This is a certain signe of election Psal 42.11 and for assurance leave it to God to give it thee as a comfort and
which we attaine so great honour that those Angels that never sinned Heb. 1.14 are yet made our servants to minister to us And the rather we should endeavour to know him because now he may be known though in former time he hid himselfe yet now he hath revealed himselfe not only by his attributes in Scripture but also in his Son Heb. 1.2 by whom we may apprehend him by operations in himselfe and toward us Mathe. What are the operations of God in himselfe Phila. They be such as concern the three persons among themselves in relation one to the other as the Father begetting the Son eternally Opera ad intra or divisa the Son giving from the Father procession to the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost receiving this proceeding and returning the glory thereof to the Father and the Son so glorifying themselves in themselves This operation never had beginning nor never shall have ending because God can never cease to be what he is in essence nor as he is in subsistence Now these operations distinguisheth one person from another because in these what the one doth the other doth not The Father is not begotten but the Son and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both for Christ sends him from the Father John 1â— 5 John 15.26 And this is part of that glory which Christ saith he had with the Father before the world was But beside this God may be said to have other operations in himselfe Opera ad extra or indivisa which are common to all the three persons And these are said to be either internall or externall The internall are such as his praescience and predestination Interna by which he decrees all things to their proper ends and man also and this is an operation wherein the whole Trinity hath an equall hand wherein is contained the whole counsell of God 2 Tim. 2.19 which is the firm foundation on which every thing depends and by which he knoweth among men who are his And by this determinable counsell Christ was delivered into the hand of wicked men and men are predestinated to the adoption of children in Christ Jesus according to his will and so by him we obtaine an inheritance Acts 2.23 Eph. 1.5 being predestinate according to his purpose Eph. 1.11 who worketh all things after the counsell of his own will And so he hath saved us and called us to an holy calling not according to our works but his purpose and grace which was provided for us in Christ 2 Tim. 1.9 before the world began In whom those that he foreknew Rom. 8.29 them he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son which are called elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Pet. 1.2 By which we may perceive that God was never sedent nor cessant before he made this world but had both his personall and internall operations by which also he did in time produce his externall works of creation and providence Mathe. How is predestination to be understood rightly Phila. 1. Predestination and election are much of one likenesse only election argueth that God chuseth one and not another and predestination argueth that God ordains some to glory and passeth by others though all taken out of the same nature and lump and though both these are in the divine mind at once yet election relates more to person and predestination more to the means by which those persons should be made happy For predestination is a decree of God Mat. 24.24 causing in time such effectuall grace in those that are elected that it will infallibly bring them to glory and therefore it is said that the elect are not to be seduced for it is Gods pleasure to give them the Kingdome Luke 12.32 who hath chosen them in Christ before the world that they should be unblameable before him 2. You must know that predestination looks upon all men in the same condition as Israels father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite even of those Nations whom God cast out of Canaan But that in predestination there is such grace prepared that makes the elect become both holy and happy 3. You are to conceive neverthelesse that this grace prepared for the elect doth not impose any necessity or violent constraint upon their wils Abul in 3. Reg. c. 12. Cant. 1.4 Aug. de lib. arbit but causeth a free endeavour to vertue by a sweet perswasion of the heart to make Gods will ours who makes us by his divine motion of unwilling man to become willing Nor doth Gods passing by others called reprobation or not electing exclude such from all possible means of happinesse but it permits them by the freedome of their own will to neglect or abuse the means which is the just cause of their damnation Hos 13 9. for mans perdition is of himselfe God destinates none to sin but to punishment for sin and therefore predestination is not in Scripture applied to the reprobate because predestination in Gods is of the means i. grace and the end i. glory But reprobation is of the end i. punishment not of the means i. sin for predestination doth direct a man to that which by nature he cannot attain but reprobation destinates no man to aim at sin to which nature of it selfe is too prone when God passeth by it in his election but only preordains men to punishment deserved by sin So that as predestination necessitates no man to good works so Gods not predestinating some doth not necessitate anothers will to evill works no more then a Kings chusing one for his favorite doth necessitate him to do vertuous actions against his will nor another to be traiterous with his will For the decrees of God takes not away the liberty of mans will Mathe. But surely as predestination causeth salvation so Gods preterition or rejection of men causeth their damnation Phila. Wicked men are not damned because they are not predestinated but because they live and die in sin For rejection in God is only a deniall of election which may stand with a possibility of avoiding sin and damnation So all men in Adam were not elected yet all men in Adam had a certain power to stand so that as predestination is not a bare ordination of a man to eternall life by such a sufficient means as makes the event possible but it provides to make the means efficacious So reprobation excludes no man not elected from all means of salvation necesarily but permits them to be lead by their own will so that predestination of some 2 Tim. 2.19 doth not damn others by necessity of consequence but in the infallibility of Gods prescience as Joseph did foresee the seven years famine but did not cause it Mathe. But why doth God looking on all in the same condition predestinate one and not another unlesse it be out of some foresight of ones vertue and
blind Mathe. What be their errors Phila. 1. That the morall Law is of no use to beleevers not so much as a rule of life or examination and yet Christ preacheth it and presseth it Mat. 5. and more closely then ever it was before even to rectifie the spirit and passions as well as the outward manners So they say that it is as possible for Christ to sin as a child of God But as Christ did never sin so now being glorified it is impossible he should but we have sinned and though regenerate yet so long as we carry about this body of flesh in some things we shall offend but not to condemnation So they say that a child of God ought not to ask pardon for sin and it is blasphemy so to do But I will trust Christ before them who taught us to say Forgive us our trespasses Vid. Cypr. in Dom. Orat. and will imitate David who did ask God forgivenesse as you find Psal 25. and Psal 51. So they say God doth not chasten any of his children for sin but yet sin is the moving cause and subject of Gods punishments though not alwaies the finall cause of Gods chastisements but rather for probation of faith and patience If these doctrins were true these men may sin by authority and no conscience being made of sin who would deal with them but upon good security These doctrins opening so easie a way to heaven it is no wonder but they have many followers For they say that in conversion a mans soule hath no operations but the spirit of God only instead of them yet Christ opened his disciples understandings to apprehend the Scriptures Luk. 24.45 So they say that the soul may be united with Christ and yet he an hypocrite yet he that hath the new man is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.24 So they say that a man must take no notiee of sin or repentance yet David doth Psal 51. Also that it is a damnable error to make sanctification an evidence of justification yet St Paul saith otherwise Rom. 8.1.30 namely Vid. Mr. Wels his tract that such walk after the spirit and those that are justified are glorified i. sanctified which is the inchoation of glory Mathe. How may one farther discover them Phila. As a Familist is best discovered by trying whether he will abjure Henry Nicolas and his doctrine so may Antinomians by certain phrases which they commonly use and by other teners which they hold very strange and dangerous which I have not yet told you Mathe. I pray what are they Phila. 1. That the Law or preaching of it is of no use to drive us to Christ yet Paul cals it a Schoolmaster to that purpose 2. That a man is justified without faith and that from eternity yet Paul saith we are justified by faith and so have peace with God Rom. 8.1 We know God justifieth his people in his purpose from all eternity but it is conveied to them in time actually by their faith 3. That we are united to Christ by the work of the spirit without any act of ours yet Paul exhorts us to give up our selves to God Rom. 12.1 and saith that we work together with God 4. That a man is not Christs till he have full assurance yet David sometime was beside the rock Psal 41. and Paul was buffeted 2 Cor. 12. And 5. That the witnesse of the spirit is without any respect to the word or concurrence with it But then how shall I try the spirit whether it be good or bad Paul saith beleeve not every spirit then I must trie it or else beleeve it or censure it without triall and if I must try it I must have a rule to try it by and that must be the word or nothing 6. When a man hath this witnesse of the spirit he never doubts yet David did Psal 37. Psal 71. And 7. Assurance must not be questioned though one commit murder or adultery yet David praied for the spirit after those sins committed Psal 51. This doctrine will make a bold sinner and a presumptuous insurer of himselfe So 8. They say that sanctification is no evidence of a mans good estate yet Paul saith that holinesse is the end of our calling and if so then holinesse is an evidence that I am effectually called 9. They say that to see I have no grace will give me comfort yet St Paul finds no comfort seeing in his flesh he found no good thing but rather crieth out upon himselfe O miserable man Rom. 7. yea they say to take comfort at the sight of any grace is legall and yet grace came not by the Law John 1. but by Jesus Christ and so it is evangelicall to find Gospell grace in us and to take comfort in it 10. They say that an hypocrite may have the same grace that Adam had in his innocency yet most conclude that Adam was created in Gods image which consisted in righteousnesse and true holinesse which two qualities no hypocrite can have So 11. They say there is no difference between the graces of the Saints and hypocrites yet Iob saith the hope of the hypocrite is like the web of the spider spun out of their own phantasie and easily removed so is not the hope of the Saints for it is woven out of Gods promises which makes the Saints so settle upon an everlasting foundation So 12. They say that all grace is in Christ as in the proper subject of it and that we have none in us as if Christ beleeves and Christ loves for us 2 Tim. 1.5 yet Paul finds faith in Timothy and Christ supposeth love to be in his disciples when he said if you love me keep my Commandements Iohn 14.15 So 13. They say Christ is the new creature yet Paul saith 2 Cor. 5.17 he that is in Christ is a new creature So 14. They hold that God loveth a man never the more for his holinesse nor the lesse for his wickednesse but Moses tels us otherwise saying God had respect to Abels offering not to Cains So 15. That sin in a child of God must not trouble him but surely then David might have saved much sorrow expressed in his penitential Psalms and Christs affirmation of the Angels rejoycing at a sinners repenting may be dis-believed for they rejoyce not at our doing amiss So 16. Trouble of conscience for sin shews one under the covenant of works yet Paul commends godly sorrow in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.9 who were believers But what if such trouble of minde do argue one sometimes under the spirit of bondage or the law of works yet this may be a means to make us sigh the more after freedome and doth commonly bring his children to Sion by Sinai to freedome by bondage Rom. 8.15 So 17. They say a Christian is not bound to take the Law as a rule of his conversation But why did not then Christ abolish the Law as well as
Stephens sermon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which argued only vexation envy and malice This kind of repentance may go before faith and be without faith but the true repentance to salvation is caused by faith or else it is meerly sinfull Rom. 14.23 nor can it purifie the heart without faith Acts 21.24 and therefore the arguments for repentance are drawn from the promises of grace exhibited in Christ Mat. 3.2 Two things must especially be observed in repentance 1. That it be not put off and deferred 2. That it be continued because the faithfull do continually sin little or much as appeareth Psal 32. and Psal 51. Mat. 18.2 and therefore even the very regenerate are exhorted upon their fals to repentance and pardon is promised them Ezek. 33.11 and Rev. 2.9 notwithstanding the rigid doctrine of the Novatians and the Catharists who denied repentance to those that had sinned after baptisme For though God in Christ takes away the power of sin yet not the power of sinning the dominion of sin is destroied but sin is not quite taken away out of our nature in this life that so we may the more aspire toward heaven where no sin shall remain Now the parts of this repentance is 1. A turning of the heart from evill with hatred and mortification of the old man and a turning of the heart to good with a love thereof and practice of it by enlivening of the new man Esa 61.2 V.d. Aug. lib. de vera falsa penit cap. 13. from whence floweth a sadness for offending God and a joy that arises from the hope of pardon Psal 51.10 for we need not hold contrition confession and satisfaction to be essential parts of true repentance because that reprobates have them and yet have not true repentance as Judas yet may they be the effects of true repentance in them that have it but not a cause of remission nor have power to blot out all sin as the Papists suppose as not the sin of a reprobate nor the sin against the Holy Ghost Nor need we think confession is absolutely necessary to salvation for Peter wept but said nothing as we read of yet sanctification produceth a confession of sin first to God either publickly as Neh. 9. or privately as Psal 32.5 and that generally of all sin Luke 18.13 or parricularly of the sins of our lives Jam. 5.16 as Psal 19.13 And 2. To my neighbor Mat. 18.15 that I may receive counsell and comfort from him and he satisfaction from me and so reconciled one to the other as Mat. 5.23.3 There is another confession which is made before the Pastors of the Church of some sins which burden conscience Luke 19.8 So there is a publick confession of sins made by Priest and people to God in the publick place and exercise of religion either ordinarily of the common sins that cleave to nature or extraordinarily on the times of humiliation for some peculiar sins that have infected both Priest and people Neh. 1.7 So there is a confession which hath been used in the Church by those which for disobedience have been excommunicated and could not be received into the congregation again without such confession But these confessions prove not papisticall auricular confession of all sin to be either forced upon men as lawfull or necessary to our reconcilement with God for as it is impossible to confesse all sins Psal 19.13 so it is not any where commanded in Scripture nor any example given that it should be so done to a Priest or to that end and the rather because there is another rule of remission and justification with God set down Ezek. 18.21 and Rom. 4.23 namely repentance and faith Indeed confession of sin was not established as the Papists urge it till the time of Pope Innocentius the third who did order in the Councill of Lateran at Rome about the year 1215. that all of either Sex after they came to the years of discretion should confesse all their sins faithfully once in a year to their own Priest which was seconded by the Councill of Trent which enjoined confession before Easter but we find it not imposed by any divine authority as it is of no great antiquity Therefore though a man may in case of a troubled conscience go and confesse to one that is a true minister and lawfully called thereunto having the word of reconciliation and Gospell dispensation committed to him yet he is not to be forced thereunto for in that there is too much formality and something of tyranny or if thou hast wronged thy neighbour thou maist confesse thy fault to him but if thou beest ashamed to confesse it Chryl hom 2. in Psal 50. lest it prove approbrious to thee yet confesse it daily to God and thine own soule and devise some means or way to make him satisfaction Aug. lib. 10. conf cap. 3. Amb. lib. 10. in Luke cap. 96 as the case requireth for some sins as Peters are confessed by the eie in tears when shame stops the mouth of confession and let those exactors passe that are very curious in the search of other mens sins but too sloathfull to amend their own Now the effect of repentance is a christian holy life by which we come to be of the communion of Saints And such a life we must lead that we may recover that chiefe part of Gods image lost consisting in righteousnesse and holinesse And this is necessary because our God is holy and we are joined to this holy God and made his people by covenant and he hath in Christ purged us redeemed us and adopted us his children and because Christ hath inserted us into his own body as his members and the Holy Ghost hath dedicated us as temples to God and hath appointed us to heavenly incorruptibility and therefore a Christian life consisteth not in an outward profession of the Gospell in tongue but in an imitation of Christ having his word for the rule and Gods glory for our end and scope simplicity and sincerity for the mode and manner of it with a continuall perseverance and daily progresse in it Now of this life there be three parts 1. A deniall of our selves 2. A meditation of life to come 3. A right use of worldly goods Mathe. I pray declare how Phila. First a deniall of our selves there must be the foundation whereof is because we are not our own but Gods who by Christ hath redeemed us Rom. 14.7 8 9. and therefore we must renounce all our affections that resist the law of God as impiety pride and hypocrisie and have an humble and voluntary subjection in all things to the will of God and a practice of those things that God requireth of us as of sobriety righteousnesse and godlinesse as Tit. 2.12 Therefore this life must have respect both to God and men First to men so that is honor we prefer before our selves those whom we ought and as much as we ought and so by
or concoct before they can mix to make a perfect conception yet no doubt the spirituall parts being more quick and active do move in a lesse time and are conceived at the first meeting of the parents seed and so become the form of man from his very beginning which if the seed should want the generation comes to nothing because it wants a form to inform and dispose the matter towards quickning But then you will say Obj. the soule must needs be weak at first but it groweth and increaseth with the body and then it must decrease and die with the body To this it is answered Ans That the soul of man is at first what it will ever be but wanting organs and fit means to exercise her power she lyeth still as seed in the ground for a season till the means to expresse it selfe be administred yet the vegetative soule of the seed is as perfect in it at first as at last and so is the soule in man for it being the essentiall form of the creature and the prime act it must be perfect at first as well as in the processe or else it cannot give perfection to the other parts of the creature because it is not perfected in it selfe Mathe. But all this that you say doth but yet probably set forth that it is so but doth not directly prove it Phila. You say true for indeed the generation of mankind is more wonderfull then any other creature as in Psal 139.6 14. David confesseth the knowledge too wonderfull for him But when I conceive how that some main points of Christian Religion depends upon this opinion I had rather speak something against reason then any thing against Religion Mathe. Make that forth namely that the production of humane souls by propagation hath ground in Christian Religion Phila. If it be found in Scripture or by just consequence drawn therefrom then it may be founded on true Religion And that it is so I find 1. By Gods institution Increase multiply and fill the earth Gen. 1.27 i. not with bodies only but with persons of men consisting of soule and body or else other creatures had power to preserve their own kind and not he who is the best of all 2. We find that God so ordered nature in the creation that every thing in nature should persist by themselves and multiply their kinds that he might make no new creatures after that he ceased from all his work which he had made 3. So we read that God took Eve out of Adam yet no mention is made of a new soule infused into her Nor can I understand lesse in Gods promise That the seed of the woman should break the serpents head but that a person should come of the womans seed who should do it which person must consist of a soule as well as a body or else Christ redeemed mankind by a body without a soule Mathe. Was not Christs soule created immediately of God Phila. No otherwise then ours is and that ours is not we have proved in part and will prove it farther and next that Christs soule was not First that ours is not is plaine from the description of Adams begetting Seth after his own likenesse Gen. 5.3 if by likenesse and image we understand the spirituall form rather then the bodily frame as it is said When God made man after his image Gen. 1.27 So when God said to Abraham I will be the God of thy seed it must be understood of an informed seed not a seed inanimate for God is not said to be the God of a senslesse no more then of a livelesse or dead substance Mat. 22.32 To this purpose also I conceive that the Scriptures say so many souls came of Jacobs loins which if some say it is figuratively spoken yet I know not how a man may be said to be a father of that to which he contributeth the least and more base part of substance Nor is that of Zachary the Prophet to be neglected which saith Zach. 12.1 The Lord formeth the spirit of a man within him for it sheweth first the Lord to be the externall efficient without whose immediate act of providence the soule cannot be traduced and the word forming which is not creating sheweth the manner of it as done by his power yet not created only as not propagated only but formed within man of the spirituall matter of the parents informing their seed in this regard it is said of David Psal 51.5 Ps 51. in sin my mother conceived me not my body sure but my whole nature So when our Saviour saith that which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3.6 he meaneth the whole man and if so then the soule which if immediately created of God cannot possibly be called flesh nor properly fleshly that is sinfull beside if the soule be not propagated how may originall sin be possibly conveied for by one man sin entred and by him therefore it must be conveied to his off-spring for the doing whereof propagation is the most apt and likeliest way because every like begets his like so sinfull man begetting man propagates with him a potentiality of sinning from the first mans privation of originall righteousnesse and inclination to evill but this cannot be unlesse the soule be derived from the parents for the body is not the subject of sin but the whole man for if the soule be immediately created of God it must be good and pure and if so then he cannot justly cast it into an evill condition without a first guiltinesse Gen. 18.25 nor can the soule but unwillingly unite with the body to become sinfull But surely I understand not if the soule be immediatly created how it can be corrupted or made sinfull for from whence should the corruption arise from the soule it cannot being created good from the body it cannot being meer matter neither capable of vertue or vice because it wants intellect will and affection If you say it ariseth from union how can that be if the soul be created good and the body be uncapable of evill If you say it comes by imputation you make God to do and undo to give good and take it away again without cause and so an unjust at least a vain work to give goodnesse to the soule and presently to take it away again by infusing it or uniting it to the body by which it should become sinfull I know some will say God may impute it to man for Adam's fall as well as righteousnesse to us for Christs merits but friend the case is much unlike for imputation of righteousnesse is a work of mercy which is to be done without cause but the imputation of sin is a work of justice which canot be done without some cause but if the soule be created pure and the body untainted with sin both because it is meer matter and sin of a spirituall nature which cannot taint meer passive matter then
angels called an Abysse and bottomlesse pit but whether it be under the waters where the old Rephaims or giants buried in the deluge of which is spoken Pro. 21.16 a man that wandereth from the way of understanding shall remain or in any subterraneous fires Pro. 21.16 which break out in divers places of the world Surius Hecla Aeina which fires I take to be not subtile enough to torment such spirits But that there is a place of torment to which they are reserved is typed forth to us by a place under the waters where the dead lie sighing Which place of hell is naked before God without any covering which is called also Job 26.5 6. Abaddon Prov. 15.11 the place of destruction And such a place seems to be under the earth from which Esay eloquently saith Esa 14.9.10 that the hell from beneath is removed to meet the King of Babylon after his ruine saying to him in an upbraiding manner art thou become like one of us So the vallie of Hinnom is a type of it from which hell was called Gehenna after the captivity from the detestable use of that where they burnt their children in Tophet to the Idol Moloch for which God made it a place of abomination First by the burning of 185000 of the dead Assyrians there whom the Angel slew 2 Kin. 19.35 prophecied of therefore Esa 30.33 and there likened to hell And 2 ly by King Josiah who made it a common lay-stall Jer. 7.22 And thirdly by buring the bodies of the Jews there who were massacred by the Babylonian army when Jerusalem was taken till no place was left to bury there therefore afterward called the vallie of slaughter Jer. 19.6 all which together with the burning of Sodom with fire and brimstone argueth such a dreadfull place to be reserved but where it is or whether yet it is till all these lower places be dissolved is doubtfull Mathe. Where are these evill spirits Phila. About the earth and the aire Therefore St Paul cals Satan the Prince of the power of the aire Hieron in Ephes 6. O ig in Num. cap. 22. 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude ver 6. And all the Doctors for the first 400. years held the same opinion Indeed the devill durst adjure Christ not to torment him before the time whereby it seems they were not as yet cast into hell but as St Jude saith and Peter also they were cast downward and are reserved in chains or for chains of darknesse to the last judgement when they shall be confined by the divine workman when the mystery of God is finished to their terra damnata the Abysse of blacknesse of darknesse for ever Mathe. What doth or can this knowledge profit me Phila. Very much As 1. Ovid. rudis indigest moles Since God first made a rude Chaos as a subject to work upon though he could have made all rightly formed at first but to shew how he intended to work upon us whom he foresaw would make our selves a deformed lump namely that his spirit must move upon us and that he would call light out of darknesse that we might become children of light for the Creation was a type of our recreation and the first Adam of the second and making all so excellent as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a prototype of what he meant to do by his personall and declarative word by whom and for which all things were created 2. Out of light he made the highest heavens the place of the blessed for them to dwell in a light never to be extinguished that we might know there is a rest for the people of God and therefore not to set up our rest here nor mind things below but above to have our conversation in heaven and seek another City whose builder and maker is God 3. He began with light not that he needed it but to teach us not to doe the works of darknesse but walk in light and to begin our works with the light of true understanding not with blind affection or rashnesse 4. Because some of the Angels of light fell because they would not stand by the way God had determined as by his grace power or order but rather by their own devise and so fell from heaven Take heed of desiring to be independent which God hath granted to nothing in this world for all depends on Gods power or love or grace or order Jude Ep. that he hath set except such as will fall by envy pride or rebellion into destruction especially men if they go in the way of Cain or the gainsaying of Corah or love with Balaam the wages of unrighteousnesse they must needs fall with the apostate Angels Mathe. What order did God observe in creating the world Phila. 1. He made the generall and more imperfect creature as the elements under the name of heaven and earth 2. Things composed of them some with life as trees herbs beasts birds fishes some without life as stars meteors stones and minerals with which when he had furnished the world like a fair house then he made man and put him in possession of all 3. He made some in actuall being Homers Chain as the vegetative and chiefe sensitives some only in potentiality of being as those many creeping things which heat and moisture is apt to produce 4. In this great work he hath ordained certain midling natures by which as by certain links of a chain we may be led to the highest natures As 1. Water and earth is coupled by slime air and water by vapors fire and air by exhalations So chrystall is a middle nature between water and the harder sort of precious stones So Quicksilver between water and mettals Corall between roots and stones so some vegetals are of a middle nature between a plant and a living creature as the Mandrake and the Zeophytes so some sensitives as the Amphibions are creatures of a middle nature between fish and flesh such are Crocodiles Seals and Sea-Morses so Estriges are a middle nature between a beast and a foul a Bat between a creeping thing and a bird an Ape between man and beast Hermaphrodites between man and woman a man between a bruit and an Angell an Angell a middle nature between an intellectuall and rationall spirit Christ a mediator uniting God and man together Mathe. Whether had God no coadjutor in this work of Creation Phila. He had none For God is the sole cause of creation and Being is the first effect of creation and nothing can come between the first cause and the first effect but a meer nothing and therefore God had no instrument or coadjutor to assist him No not Angels for they can do nothing in an instant as God doth in creation by an efficacious word only which doth distinguish him from all false gods and heathen vanities as Jer. 10.11 your gods that made not the heavens and the earth shall perish Mathe. Of what did he make
many as the beauty of Absalom the swiftnesse of Asahel the proportion of Eliab the son of Jesse So that his body exceeded others no doubt as much as Gods tables exceeded Moses workmanship and as Christs miraculous wine exceeded the naturall at the wedding But yet mens are exceeding the creatures in posture shape and compact and in being an epitome of the whole world Also because many of the better sort of creatures and parts of the Fabrick are set forth by the parts of man as the finest gold likened to his head cant 5.11 the purest wheat to his kidnies Deut. 32.14 and the center of the world in which all the lines of the circumference meets is called by the name of his heart Mat. 12.40 Again all manner of measures are taken from the dimensions of his body as the inch foot palm cubit Beside God hath expressed his attributes by the parts of mans body as head hand heart ear eie mouth foot Lastly because it pleaseth God to make it his Temple and also Christ to take it into the divine Nature an honour not vouchsafed to Angels This was Gods love to him that he made last as if when he had made man he had left nothing more to do but to make himselfe man O Lord what is man that thou shouldst so honour him Mathe. What are the most considerable parts of his body Phila. Every part is considerable but Gods wisdome is admirable in all as in making some members radicall and some officiall in great variety and yet in sympathy one with another The radicall is the Liver for the naturall spirits the Heart for the vitall and the Brain for the animall The officiall members are inward or outward the inward as the Veins to convey the naturall spirits the Arteries to convey the vitall and the Sinews to convey the animall spirits The outward are the eie ear hand and foot all which work for the body as well as the mouth eats and stomack digests for the good of the body And for all they be divers yet are they sympatheticall and helpers one of another For as one feels the other grievs or joies so do they one assist and supply in the defect of another as the blind mans eies are in his fingers and the deafe mans eares are in his eies yet none can say to the other I have no need of thee This teacheth both sympathy and unity in the body politick and mysticall and order too not to intrude one upon anothers office but to supply and help as need requireth Mathe. What usefull contemplation may one make of the other particular members that I may the more glorifie God and esteem more preciously of every part Phila. When I consider the head I look upon it as a most excellent part because God hath placed all the sences there and but one sence all the body over beside and that is feeling 2. That it is super-eminent in office as place and directeth the whole body and is the most honourable part and therefore we uncover it when we give honour and worship to any as our reason doth lead us and therefore the name Head is given to that which is eminent and chiefe as Deut. 28.24 thou shalt be the head and Psal I will make thee that is Christ the head of the heathen Eph. 5.23 1 Cor. 11.23 So Christ is the head of the Church the man is the head of the wife and the head of Christ is God So the eies though two for ornament and for the help of each other in case one should be deficient yet they look both but upon one object at once because both the optick nerves meet in one to teach us when we lift up our eies to God to be intentive upon him only and not give him a squint-eied devotion It hath a guard of five tunicles beside the brow and so sets forth the care of God to his children whom he keepeth as carefully as one would the apple of his eie Before the fall it let in no evill but now it is sins broker an evill eie by envy an adulterous eie by lust a covetous eie by desiring yet it is not the cause of sin but the occasion and so contracts to the inward eie many diseases as the murderer may be said to have a bloodshot eie and the lustfull a pearl in his The ear is the sense of discipline and the gate of faith which comes by hearing Before the fall it was the gate of life 1 Cor. 15. now the portall of death by letting in evill words to corrupt good manners The tongue is called mans glory Psa 16.9 because by the good use of it we bring honour to our selves and glory to God It is made single to teach us that we should not be double-tongu'd It was once like the pen of a ready scribe Jam. 3.6 to set forth the praise of God but now a world of iniquity James 3.6 It is like a dung-fork casts abroad mire and dirt It is forked in a tripple manner like serpents tongues when they be angry and kils three at once the slanderer the hearer and the reporter So the hand is a most rare instrument that guideth all others The tongue of the dumb who speaks by signs It is the counting table of the ancients and is yet in use in many Countries Of old they used to account on the left till they were 100. years old and then on the right because they were in the years of wisdome in whose right hand are length of daies Prov. 3. It hath been the instrument of divine worship in oaths or vowes Gen. 14.22 I have lift up my hand to the high God So the heathens worship of the stars was when they kissed their hand which Job renounceth Ose 13.2 Job 31.27 Lastly it is the instrument that feedeth the mouth or else we should feed like beasts yet the sloathfull man will not bring his hand to his mouth i. not use this excellent instrument to get his living So the foot is an instrument of supportation to uphold and carry the body and answereth to the affections which are as feet to the soul my foot standeth right saith David Psal And Solomon bids us to look to the foot when we enter into Gods house that is to the mind and affections It also puts us in mind of our morall and spirituall going in the conversing with God and man So Solomon saith the wise man considereth his steps Pro. for the way of the wise is above to keep him from hell beneath because as Psal 116. he walketh before God in the light of the living that every part of a man may be a document as well as an usefull ornament if it be well considered of But the breasts of a woman are more considerable then mans because it is the vessel of nourishment to a child placed neer the Liver for the better concoction of the milk and neer the heart to excite
scabit mutum said that God had revealed to him that Iohn should be King of the world and should destroy the Princes of the world by a mighty army but spare the simple multitude and such as would imbrace righteousnesse and that he should send forth twenty eight Apostles to convert the world to Anabaptisme And Iohn himselfe pretending to awake out of a trance seemed dumb like Zacharias wrote in tables that it was the will of God that twelve men of his naming should govern the City and that a man might marry as many wives as he pleased and he beheaded some that opposed it He himselfe took fifteen and many of these brethren upon this ordinance lay with the hansomest women without marriage or contract He was called King of New Ierusalem and proclaimed King of Zion But his Apostles were executed as seditious persons and he and his Prophet were hanged in iron chains upon the high steeple of St Lambert after Munster was taken 1535. being besieged halfe a year The madnesse of this man was strange for one of his wives pitying the distresse of the City he cut off her head himself in the market place Sleid. 154. And another time at his great feast to which another false Prophet had called Thuscocuvar had excited him as being sent from God he accused a man of treason and cut off his head and returning administred the communion with those bloody hands But for all he took on him the title of a King yet this shewed him a Butcher as the stealing the Churches rich vestments and making them into robes for himselfe argued he had been a Tailor After Iohns death the Anabaptists chose another King Hort. p. 74. who killed his wife in a wood that he might quietly lie with her daughter and killed a poor wench lest she should discover him This man had his house well stored with Church-plate He and his Treasurer were burned After him succeeds Iohn Cordwainer John Cordwainer Cornelius Appleman Ch. Nelles p. 52 55 56. John Wilhelms and then Cornelius Appleman both which were executed at Brussels as the Captains of theeves and committers of sacriledge Then Iohn Wilhelms executed also at Vtrecht He wrote a book in defence of Polygamy and affirmed that to rob the ungodly was no sin and that the land belonged to Jesus Christ and his disciples He had one and twenty wives some mother and daughter and some sisters daughters He was burned It is lamentable to behold these peoples hypocrisie Sleidan Bullinger They pretended nothing at first but holinesse humility and honesty They used no swearing nor obscene speech yet being once got aloft they broke all lawes of humanity and honesty so they would bear no office Hortensius Gastius yet at last would be Kings They said it was unlawfull for a Christian man to bear arms or punish offenders yet they made nothing of murdering many you may read more of them in divers authors Of this sect was David Georgius in Holland who said he was Jesus Christ David Georg and held many other wicked errors He fled out of the Low Countries to Basil and very covertly dispersed his errors but being dead they were revealed and by the Councill of Basil his bones were digged up and burned in detestation of his blasphemies Mathe. What be the common received opinions of these men and your judgement of them Phila. You are to understand that their opinions in divers times and places varied they not holding alwaies the same Anabapt opinions But their opinion first and last are neither fit for Church Commonwealth nor Families First not for the Church for they have affirmed that Christ did not take flesh of the Virgin Mary yet they can shew no other save her and for that the Scriptures prophecie that he should come of a woman Gen. 3. and of Davids line Psal 132.11 and that woman should be a virgin Isaiah the 7. and that her name was Mary saith Luke cap. 1. and yet she could not be his mother if he had not taken flesh of her nor our flesh have any hope of eternall life These are worse Christians then Turks Bulling adver Anab. fol. 6. for they beleeve he was so born but these curse the flesh of the Virgin and so deny Christ to be come in the flesh 2 Ioh. v. 7.2 they say in Moravia that Christ was not true God but only better gifted then other men yet St Iohn saith The Word was God Joh. 1.1 and Christ said he and his Father were one Joh. 10. and he that sees him seeth the Father Iohn 24.9 10. Michael Servetus a Spaniard held the same who was burnt in Geneva And Valentinus Gentilis who called the Creed of Athanasius the Creed of Satanasius he was justly executed at Berne Thirdly they hold we are not saved by faith but by the works of charity and affliction yet Christ saith we obtain eternall life by beleeving on him Iohn 3.16 So Paul Rom. 3.24 28. for afflictions they are either punishments of sin or Gods corrections but no causes of justification or salvation But the blood of Christ only clenseth us from all sin 1 Iohn 1. and by him only we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 And fourthly they deny originall sin because Christ hath taken away the sins of the world but that is the penalty not the being of it So they say that children doing neither good nor evill are under grace and without sin But then how comes death to lay hold on them Rom. 5.14 and cap. 6.23 And therefore fifthly they may well deny baptisme to them if they have no originall sin But Christ said let little children come to me and yet none can tell how they should come but by this Ordinance Sixthly they rebaptize people which is no where commanded in Scripture nor allowed by the Church nor the imperiall lawes which put them to death that did or suffered it to be done Seventhly they expect a Kingdome by some called the fist Monarchy wherein they hope to reign alone and destroy the ungodly This savours of carnall and worldly wisdome for Christs Kingdome is not of this world Iohn 18. but is spirituall so is the meat and drink of it Rom. so are the weapons of it 2 Cor. 10. Nor can they reign alone and kill all the ungodly unlesse they kill themselves too But both must grow together till the harvest Mat. 13. These people do but furbush the old error of the Chiliasts or Millenaries who said the Saints must raign 1000 yeers on the earth before the last judgement who were by the Church condemned above 1000 yeers since Eighthly they say with the old Pelagians that man by his own free will can do all that God hath commanded or else God gave his law in vain nor would he punish delinquents if he had not given them power to do it which is contrary to Scripture for the Law is holy Rom. 7. just and good but we
or born in wedlock for so an heathens child may be as holy as they but holy as heirs to the covenant the vertue whereof is so powerfull that it can rather entitle a wife by an husband or a husband by a wife unto it and therefore much more the child than contrary Mathe. Hath baptisme of Infants been from the Primitive Church or not Phila. I conceive it hath because no man can tell when it began but we find by all ancient writers and Churches Aug. l. 4. â—â— bapt infant and l. 10. de gen ad lit c. 23. that it was practised in their times and things of that nature were alwaies held to be of some decree of a generall Councill or else of Apostolicall tradition Some would bear you in hand that Pope Innocent the third brought it in first who lived about the year 1213. which is about 356 years since whereas we read of childrens baptisme 1000 years before that For Origen that lived about 226 years after Christ alledging Ps 51.5 Orig. in Com. in Ep. ad Rom. cap. 6. In sin my mother conceived me saith that for this cause the Church received a tradition from the Apostles to baptize children Many of the ancient Fathers as Austin and Jerome mention this custome of the Church against those that denied originall sin 1 Cor. 15. as St Paul instanced in the baptizing of the dead to refute those that denied the resurrection So St Cyprian about the year 250. affirmed that children might be baptized before the eighth day And the Milevitane Councill decreed such to be accursed that denied children baptisme especially if sick or in danger of death And Irenaeus before this the Bishop of Lyons Iren. cont Her cap. 39. the Martyr and Disciple to Polycarpus who was scholler to Saint John wrote that children as well as elder people were saved by their new birth in Christ viz. by water and the spirit And from those ancient times look upon all Christian Churches confessions and practice from the beginning you will find it alwaies in use As 1. Among the Greeks who do annually excommunicate the Pope to whom St Paul was preacher 2. The Russian punisheth all with death that refuse or deride it or neglect it and yet call the Pope an Heretick which I think they would not do if they had received baptisme from him To these St Andrew preached So the Abyssins and Aethiopians who received the Gospell by St Mathew So the Armenian Christians to whom St Bartholomew brought the blessed tidings of the Gospell So the captive Christians in Aegypt who received the Gospell by St Mark and yet have no communion with the Pope So the Indians to whom St Thomas preached So did the Brittains who were taught by Simon Zelotes with other sorts of them and it being so generally received one may wonder with Erasmus what devill entred them people that forbad baptizing children which had been evidently done above 1400 years Beside as we find it done long before the Popes corruptions came in so we find it still used by those that are reformed from Popish doctrines even the Protestant reformed Churches as you may see in all their Confessions and Articles of Religion as well in England as France and Germany as the French Galatius de exord Anab. l. 8. Helvetian Bohemian Dutch Saxon and Augustan Confessions all which States and Churches have punished with death those of contrary opinion that either have denied baptisme to children or rebaptized any Cod. Just lib. 1. tit 7. Justinian the Emperour made it a law At Vienna they drowned them England hath burned them Mathe. But they say that they rebaptize because they were not rightly baptized before And they were not rightly baptized because they dipped them not Phila. This is indeed one of their tenets but surely to baptize with though not in water in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost cannot be denied to be true baptisme the washing sprinkling or drenching is but the circumstance only and therefore one may fully and rightly be baptized without dipping as I have already shewed you from the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath divers significations and signifieth as well to die colours and wash as well as to dip And whereas they urge the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in alwaies to signifie in because it is said John baptized in Jordan yet they may find it in the third of Matthew to signifie with where St John saith of Christ he shall baptize you with the Holy-Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with fire Beside they consider not the place where they were so baptized in the Primitive times which was an hot Country where it was ordinary for people to wash themselves often in a day nor the time of the first age of the Church when they had hardly Churches or Font nor consider they the multitude of converts which could not be well baptized but in places of much water as Aenon was where John baptized If we should use the same way now and in these cold Countries it might be the death of many tender creatures I know they say our children may stay while they be older Christ was not baptized till he was thirty years of age But they consider not that Christ could not be baptized sooner for John was but new sent with commission from God to baptize nor they perceive not that by deferring it that they indanger the childs salvation it wanting the means appointed whereby they should be brought to Christ their Saviour Mathe. Were not these tenets held by some in the Church before Anabaptisme sprung up in Germany Phila. Yes for about the year 250. after Christ some taught that all that were baptized by Hereticks ought to be rebaptized by the Orthodox Ministers of the Church and their reason was because Hereticks themselves had no part in the Church and therefore could give no baptisme Cyprian Of this opinion was St Cyprian a Bishop of Carthage in Africa martyred in the daies of the Emperour Valerian who beheaded him Against him Stephanus Bishop of Rome opposed himselfe by calling a Synod at Rome against it which concluded that according to the tradition and custome of the Church hereticks and those that were baptized by them might be received into the Church upon submission and recantation of their errors without rebaptizing And I beleeve this opinion of Cyprian hath been the ground of the Anabaptists rebaptization who will not recant it 1. Concil Nic. Can. â— 19 though St Cyprian is reported to have recanted his which they might wel do if they would distinguish of hereticks for some hereticks destroied the foundation of faith as the Samosatenians who said that Christ was not of the substance of the Father but called the Son of God only for his vertues So the Arrians who denied the consubstantiality and coeternity of Christ with the Father and such as did deprave
Religion or to set fasting in absteining from flesh for conscience sake and yet at the same time to eat that which is far more delicious is meer hypocrisie yet we agree in the end of fasting that it is profitable to make the soule more attentive in Gods service that the rebelliousnesse of our flesh may be subdued and to professe our unworthinesse of Gods creatures and to testifie in humiliation for the aversion of judgements which we either feele or fear So they teach that a man may not only do all the Commandements of God but also do more than they require which they call works of supererrogation But it is said that by nature we are not subject to the law neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 and by grace we cannot do it of our selves but Christ is the end of the Law to them that beleeve and so we do the law only by faith in Christ Gal. 2.16 and thereby are justifi'd Again they adore and worship Saints and yet they know not what knowledge the Saints have of them Isa 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel doth not acknowledge us said Isaiah We may have a reverend remembrance of them and give God thanks for their patterns and lights of godlinesse to us and we ought to imitate their examples but to give them civill worship now they are absent is simplenesse and to give them religious worship is idolatry I know they pretend they intercede for us and present mens praiers to God which if it could be proved it might perswade some men to give them a petition in speciall as to a Kings favourite to prefer our suits But we know of no mediator between God and man but the man Christ Jesus So they say that if one beleeve the generall points of faith it is enough we are for the doctrins built thereupon to believe as the Church believes which beliefe is called implicit faith It is true that at first we do assent to truth out of respect and regard to the Church that relates it as the Samaritans did believe at first for the womans sake but at last for Christs sake So they hold praying for the dead John 4.42 because they hold also there is a purgatory where men are purged by pains which satisfie for veniall sins and for their temporall punishment of their mortall sins But we know of but one satisfaction for sin the least of which we cannot be freed from but by the infinite merit of the blood of Jesus Christ therefore no particular man being dead can lawfully be praied for because he is determined of God in his condition So they hold the Pope supreme over all causes and persons Kings and Bishops and all because he was they say Peters successor yet Peter was not Bishop of Rome and so his succession is surreptitious nor would the Greek Church ever acknowledge the Pope of Rome to be supreme but only the Bishop of the chiefe See because Rome was the imperiall City So they say that Sacraments do not only represent to us Christ and his benefits and instruments whereby God conveies them to us but also that they have a physicall force to give grace and also that the very administration giveth grace as it is a work done which doth much invade Gods prorogative So they make repentance a meritorious cause of remission of sin but how can a temporall penance or a finite sorrow merit for an infinite transgression let them shew that and they shall make many an Esau glad and a sullen Ahab to rejoice The next turbulent people are the Papists called Jesuits Jesuits Their order began in the time of Pope Vrban the fift Their patron or founder was Ignatius Loyala a Spanish souldier they pretend to Visions and Revelations like the Anabaptists and say that the Virgin Mary appeared to this Ignatius with Jesus in her arms and perswaded him to erect this order upon which it seems they call themselves Jesuites though they supplant his Gospell wheresoever they come This order was confirmed by Pope Paul the third and Pope Gregory the thirteenth gave them a place in Rome to build them a Collegde which cost a vast sum of monie Some say 25 tun of gold They have a Governor called their Generall who hath power to command them what he please and they respect his commands as divine oracles and to send abroad his Emissaries who transform themselves like Proteus into all shapes of professions to do mischiefe Their errors are very destructive to policie and piety for they hold the oath of allegiance unlawfull but lawfull to lay violent hands on Kings and Princes Vid. Mariana adv Anticot if the Pope do but frown upon them by his curse or excommunication They say that the Pope is only a Bishop by divine right and that all Bishops hold their power and office from him But some Cardinals and Bishops that be Papists Vid. Hist of the Councill of Trent are not of that mind but hold just contrary These are by their learning the chiefe maintainers of Antichrist and all its abominations Index Expurg and have corrupted the writings of the Fathers and makes them speak what they list They have been the fathers of all foule plots and treasons the most vile cozening imposters that ever were as you may read of their presenting the head of a dead man to the King of the Georgians Hist of Grego Hieromonachus 1626. making him to beleeve that it was his mothers head who was taken and slain by the Persians because she spake against Mahomet Another disturber of the Churches peace in these latter times were the Familists Familists whose patron or founder was David George of Delfe who called himselfe John of Bridges and affirmed that he was the true David that should restore the Kingdome to Israel That the Scriptures were only to keep men in order till his comming but he was able by his doctrine to save those that would beleeve him and that he was the right Messias and that the spirit of Christ was given to him and that the Church of Christ must not be built up by patience and suffering but meeknesse and love and that whosoever spoke against his doctrine should never be forgiven He died in August 1556. though he had promised he should never die After him appeared Henry Nicolas born at Amstelrodam in Holland who maintained the same doctrine in his own name He was called the New man or the Holy nature Vid. Disco of Anab. errors p. 89. They teach that Adams state of perfection may be attained in this life and that all of their Family of Love are as innocent as ever Adam was and that the resurrection of the body is fulfilled in them and they acknowledge no other like Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2.17 His followers accounted him the Son of God that was to come to judge the world and whosoever obeieth not his doctrine shall
as by remembring his love expressed to us in his death than which none could be greater being endured for us while we were enemies Rom. 5.8 or the horrour of his death being most painfull shamefull fearfull enduring not only the spight of wicked men but an abstraction of the divine comfort for a time so that never was sorrow like his Lam. 1.12 all which was most properly due to us nor remembring the benefits of his death which concerns us as by it the sting of death is taken away though a stain is left the curse of the law is abolished it is to us no killing letter the exaction of the law is nullified we being not bound to every jot and tittle of it for our justification but our weak performances are excepted of God in Christ because we have a right to all Christs righteousnesse and a just claim in him to all the blessings of the law so that neither the corruption of nature can reign over us Rom. 6.14 nor sin bind us over to punishment everlasting and for temporall afflictions they shall all work to our good and glory as they did to Christs Rom. 8.28 Phil. 2.9 Mathe. How may one then rightly remember Christ in receiving the Sacrament and so become a faithfull receiver Phila. These do one include the other For as faith looks upon Christ and his benefits so remembrance cals those things to mind which faith beleeves so that this remembrance must be a beleeving remembrance that the Sacrament presents to us under seal the benefits of Christs death and passion It also must be a thankfull remembrance for those inestimable favours of which I told you Next it must be an obedient remembrance to what he hath commanded and now God in him entreats us to do out of love By all which you may discern how a communicant must be qualified and in what he must especially examine himselfe namely in faith which is the speciall condition of the covenant of grace of which the Sacrament is a seale Now faith must be considered in the cause the nature and the effects of it The causes of faith are the word which is the seed of it and the spirit which is the vertue of this seed both these brings light to discover the darkness of our naturall estate and the comfort in Gospell light Then next a power to regulate and conform us to its own rules and to subdue all opposition 2 Cor. 10.4 Now for the nature of faith it being convinced that the word is of divine authority it gives both an intellectuall assent to the truth of it because God doth avouch it and a fiduciall assent to the goodnesse of it for our own salvation and as to the Word so to the Sacrament which is the seal thereof which goodnesse breedeth in us a love longing and delight in the holy mysteries Upon which followeth an heavenly and holy effect of faith as to desire and hunger after the food of the soule and a strong conversion of it into our soules nutriment and growing in grace by the strength of it more and more Rom. 13. 2 Pet. 2.2 Next a sympathy with Christs members in their griefs and joies Then a readinesse to every good work and a strong repulse of evill upon which followeth affiance in God hope in his promises peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost and a continuall fructification in an holy life by the strength of the Word and Sacrament while we walk here in this wildernesse of sin as the Israelites did in the strength of Manna and the Rock-water till we come to the land of everlasting rest Mathe. I thank you for your patience and resolutions of my generall and disordered queries I shall make bold hereafter if God give leave and you will affoord me your assistance in resolving me to trouble you with some other more particular cases But before I part I desire you since there is such divisions among us to tell me what Church you think most safest for one to cleave unto in life and death and what congregation is best to associate my selfe withall Phila. I suppose you find by what hath been said that the Protestant Church is the soundest for doctrine and therefore hold you to their principles of doctrine as they have been set forth and maintained by our * The 39. Articles of the Church of England Church of England in the time of King Edward the sixt and Queen Elizabeth and her successors And for matters of discipline it is to be wished that some were setled among us for the suppressing voluptuous living and libertinisme But if it may not be had let us be content with the Gospell preached and pray for reformation As for the Congregation you speak of I hold the publike generally best because Preachers in Churches will make more conscience of what they preach then those of the private conventicles or chambers except it be some that are forced to make such places their refuge to exercise their ministry which in conscience they cannot give over though prosecuted much like as the primitive Doctors were persecuted Mathe. But they that do preach in publike some are of one opinion some of another as Prelaticall Presbyterian and Independent Phila. Let no titles trouble you but trie the spirits whether they be of God by their teaching faith and an holy and good life Let men impose upon others or take up what names they please to themselves be thou content to be a Protestant Christian And for mens private opinions except they publish them to seduce others they must stand or fall to their own master And for joining your selse to a Congregation I will give you no advice but only since you have liberty given use it to the best advantage for your soule by hearing ministers of the soundest judgement and most edifying And because all Congregations are mixed it is best to consort with those that are the most pious in their lives and unanimous in their worship of God Mathe. But some say the learned are not the right Preachers but the plain man though a Tradesman who preacheth by the spirit Phila. Surely the learned are more to be trusted for the soule as a learned Physitian for the body but they go by rule others by rote so do these mechanick preachers they despise learning as some do riches because they despaire to get and so they entitle the spirit to their ignorance of which the spirit is no author but the devill and mans presumptuous sins for the spirit never imploied any about his Church but either he made them able by infusion which they cannot prove he hath them or else by acquisition He gave Isaiah the tongue of the learned as well as Bezaleel and Aholiab the gift of handicraft So Christ took plain men to preach his Gospell but he made them learned by the gifts of the Holy Ghost which he hath not done these So he imploied Paul the learned and