beyond appearances Ans. Yes and the prospect of that animated the Apostles to go on couragiously in converting the World an attempt impossible in all human judgment And all Ancient and Modern Worthies to set on any Publick Reformations in evil times and do the World good against their wills And all honest Men whose cause was good and dear to God to hope he would stand by it and restore it even when they saw it reduced to the last extremities In summ in licentious times it has heretofore and must still strengthen Magistrates in asserting Laws and Justice and Ministers in preaching down prevailing errors and reigning vices and all Publick Spirits in pursuing Pious or Charitable Projects and all Good Men in supporting the oppressed in curbing vice in breaking wicked customs in setting on any great honour of God or good Men in their several stations They must not hastily think they shall not be able to effect what they have cause to hope God will set forward but believe as S. Paul said that they can do all things through Christ strengthening them Phil. 4. 13. But then their hope and confidence must still be fixed in God not in themselves or outward aids and when they go to meet difficulties it must be as David did to meet Goliah only in the Name of the Lord of hosts 1 Sam. 17. 45. Quest. Must this consideration of God's having in him the Power of all his Creatures teach us any thing else Ans. Yes to trust his Providence for the supply of any wants especially where he has given us any Word and Promise Nay then to hold on trusting even in the most destitute cases and against all probabilities For all things even the hardest and most improbable are equally easie unto God so that nothing must seem improbable which he declares he will bring about When Faith and Trust is in Man or any Earthly thing it is ruled by probability But when it is in a Power Almighty it makes no difference of likely or unlikely As Abraham's Faith did not when he believed Gods Promise to send him a son though at that time both Sarah and he were too old in course of Nature to have one and to make that Son a numerous seed which he firmly believed at the same time he was commanded to offer him up and so could have no Son by him unless he were first restored to him from the dead Quest. This indeed shows a high esteem and confidence in God to relie upon his Word when there is not the least sign of its taking effect but things look as if there were no way for it to be effected Ans. Yes so it doth And therefore among all acts of Religion there is none that doth more endear Men to God. This our Father Abraham found it being upon this account that he became so dear to God as to be called the friend of God Jam. 2. 23. and the father of the faithful Rom. 4. 11. 16. and that his bosom should be made the receptacle of the blessed Luke 16. 22. For his Faith saith the Apostle above all his other virtues was imputed to him for righteousness Rom. 4. 3 9. And among all his acts of Faith those God was pleased to impute to him as the most notable which were shown in these two difficult instances He staggered not at the unlikelihood of his having a son but was fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform and therefore saith S. Paul it was imputed unto him for righteousness Rom. 4. 19 20 21 22. And when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar says S. James then the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God Jam. 2. 21 23. Such is the extraordinary value and recompence of trusting God in a seemingly most improbable and desperate case where 't is visibly put to a push of Omnipotence to make good his Promise Quest. I see God can do whatsoever any things in the World can do But can he also hinder any things in the World from doing whatsoever they are naturally bent or wont to do Ans. Yes for as by him they were all made so as the Apostle says in him they still subsist and move and operate and therefore whensoever he pleases to suspend or withdraw their Power they have no longer use of it Thus the fire could not consume nor singe Shadrach Meshach and Abednego nor the hungry Lyons fasten on the Prophet Daniel nor the venemous Beast sting the Holy Apostle nor the destroying Angel touch an Israelite nor the Plague or Pestilence or other contagious Disease infect or seize the Psalmist nor the wicked Jews act their spite on our Saviour Christ nor the Infernal Spirits touch Job or try his Patience whilst God was pleased to withhold them He suspends the Operations of all hurtful Creatures evil Men and wicked Spirits at his Will so that they invade no Person and act at no time but only when and so far as he allows them Quest. And what must this teach us Ans. Not hastily to conclude any case of good Men desperate and incapable of cure or ease For when dangers or disasters from the most hurtful things or Persons threaten most 't is but for God to interpose and either divert or suspend their power and then the most fierce and mischievous things become tame and harmless and the dangers from them little or none at all And thus he is wont to interpose for good Men rescuing them as he did Holy David frequently out of the very jaws of Death and saving them as he did S. Paul after he had the sentence of death in himself 2 Cor. 1. 9. Quest. But what if we are at the last extremities must we hope still when evil is fastning upon us or at the very door Ans. Yes if we have any express promise of deliverance for God as I noted formerly never forgets his Word though sometimes he may delay the performance of it to the last Or if we have an express command for the work wherein the danger meets us as S. Peter had for coming to Christ upon the water For since Christ bid him do the thing he should have hoped to the end that he would stand by him and therefore was rebuked for doubting and staggering in Faith though it were when the wind was boistrous ready to bury him in every Wave and he already began to sink Matth. 14. 29 30 31. Or lastly if we have no other claim for relief but only from God's Providence whose Protection we may generally presume on in his own ways and in pursuit of all good and prudent enterprizes as our Lord intimates when he rebukes the Apostles for want of Faith in fearing Shipwrack though they neither had any particular command to Sail nor express promise of a safe Voyage but were to ground this Faith
tender plant out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him being ashamed to own him Isaiah 53. 2 3. By these accounts in outward appearance he was to come more like a Peasant than a Prince But his Kingdom so much cried up was to be Spiritual giving Laws not only to Overt-Acts which are triable in Secular Courts but to Mens Hearts and Consciences protecting and aiding them by unseen Providences and Spiritual Assistances rewarding and punishing not with Temporal but Eternal Recompences not medling with a Secular Domination over Mens Persons or Purses in things relating to this Life but leaving that Power in the same hands where it was lodg'd before And such a principality as this our Saviour claimed telling Pilate he was a King but that his kingdom was not of this world for if it had his servants would have fought to have delivered him from the Jews John 18. 36. Quest. Was Messiah to do any other notable thing which would still be a further manifestation of him Ans. Yes Sixthly He was to convert the Heathen world from their Idol-worship and make Pagan-Idolatry fall before him In that day saith Isaiah describing Christ ' s Kingdom both over Jews and Gentiles the Lord alone shall be exalted and the Idols shall he utterly abolish Isaiah 2. 17 18. In that day says God by Zechary I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the land and they shall no more be remembred Zech. 13. 2. All nations then shall serve him all nations shall call him blessed saith the Psalmist Psal. 72. 11 17. Quest. Did Jesus perform this when he came Ans. Yes he drave the proud Spirits out of their Temples and silenced them in all their Oracles and other Divinations and convinced the World that those they had hitherto worshipped for Gods were Devils and that those are no Gods which are made with hands And of this there were so many instances as there were of Heathen Men and Heathen Nations that turned Christians Quest. Those Converts indeed are so many plain proofs of the overthrow of Idols since the first step in Christianity is the renouncing of the Devil and of all Idol gods But how doth it appear that he put an end to their Oracles and other Divinations which were the strongest argument of their Divinity among their Worshippers Ans. As his Birth drew near they all grew dumb God stopping all their false mouths against that time that his own Eternal Word might be heard alone The famed Apollo was then so sparing of his Responses that Cicero thought his renowned Oracle at Delphos had ceased in his days And though afterwards he did speak sometimes as I shall note in several instances yet by the Power and Spirit of our Lord when his Religion had got footing in the World his Mouth was wholly stopped and locked up with the Keys of never Divining silence as he himself says in a Farewel Answer recorded by his Champion Porphyrius And so were also the Mouths of Jupiter Ammon and of all other impure Spirits most famed for Oracles in other places This their devout Worshippers with grief beheld and admired and Plutarch a learned Heathen who lived within an hundred Years after Christ writ a Book about it still extant wherein he inquires the best he can into the causes of it Quest. I see their general silence is beyond question But can you show that Jesus silenced them Ans. Their own professed Advocates make him the cause of the Demons withdrawing themselves from Men both in this and in other effects of their presence with them For since Jesus began to be worshipped says Porphyry the Gods are no longer conversant with Men nor has any Man received any publick benefit by them Nay the vanquished Spirits themselves who gave so many Testimonies to him when he drove them from before his personal Presence here on Earth in their Oracles and other Divinations confessed so For when Augustus in whose time our Saviour was born inquired of Apollo who should succeed him in the Empire his Reply was as Suidas reports That an Hebrew Boy who rules the blessed Gods had commanded him to pack away to Hell and leave that place so that he was like to give them no more answers Again in the days of Diocletian as Constantine relates in his Edict to the Provincials of the East he gave out another Oracle Declaring he could give no true Answers because of the just Persons upon the Earth And when Diocletian asked Who were those just Persons the Priest answered They were the Christians Which Constantine declares and calls God to witness was said in his hearing who being a very Youth attended the Emperour at that time Afterwards in the Reign of Julian when his Temple at Daphne celebrated for Oracles was confronted by a Christian Church wherein were laid the Bones of the Martyr Babylas he presently grew speechless And when Julian pressed him for an Answer by magnificent Gifts and Sacrifices at last he told him He was hindred from giving Oracles by the dead Bodies in that place Which the Emperour well understanding singled out the Coffin of Babylas without disturbing the other dead whereof many lay there interr'd and ordered the Christians to remove it Indeed when the Heathens at any time consulted their Gods by Sacrifice and were to read their Answer painted upon the entrails if any of their Christian Servants happened to stand by the wicked Spirits fled away without giving the accustomed signs and their deserted Prophets could make no Predictions Which being complained of to their wicked and superstitious Princes was several times the chief cause as Lactantius notes which enraged them to persecute the Christians In particular it inflamed Diocletian to begin his Persecution the Bloodiest of all others For his madness against them as the same Author reports was because their presence and profession of Faith in Jesus stopped the mouth of his Gods and troubled all his Sacrifices So that whilst any of them was there though he offered often one time after another this superstitious Man an insatiable inquirer into Futurities could receive no answer Nay to shew further the Power which as I say not only Christ himself but every common Christian had to command and controul these unclean Demons Tertullian desires the Emperours to make the Experiment and bring any that is vexed by a Demon or any Prophet that is thought inspired by him before the Judgment-seat and there set any poor Christian to command that Demon to speak who he is And if saith he not daring to lye to him he doth not as truly there before you all confess himself a Devil as he had falsly otherwhere proclaimed himself a God then let that malapert Christian be put
Predictions and which startled Cicero when the Quindecemviri who had the custody and exposition of them were bringing out thence the news of a King into the Senate were spoke of Christ and fully verified in him who was no abandoned Person And did not Demons here foresee and foretel such futurities as depend on God and were wrapt up as you said in his Counsel Ans. No for very probably the Spirit that revealed those things to these Heathen Sibyls was not any infernal Spirit but the Spirit of the true God which sometimes inspired Heathens as it did Balaam the Aramite to Prophesy of several events particularly of Messiah thereby even among the Gentile World to raise an expectation of him who was to be the desire of all Nations Or if they had it not from the Spirit of God at the first hand yet had they it thence at the second viz. by reading it in the Jewish Prophets by whom God had before foretold these things which is a thing not improbable since they express them sometimes in their very Forms and Allegories The Demons revealed not these things to their Prophets or if they did the Prediction was not their own but as Tertullian says they stole their Divination Quest. The powers of darkness then can only guess at such futurities whose causes are at work and whereof they see signs and appearances like Politicians or discover things ready to take effect when they have been in the club of the Actors and Conspirators or presignifie what they intend to do with such as God has delivered into their hands or repeat Predictions from God's true Prophets in the Holy Scriptures in some one or other whereof did their fore-sight consist in Heathen Divinations But as for the voluntary actions of all under God's Protection and all such remote and contingent futurities as are not determinable by natural causes but depend upon Mens free-will and God's free Providence they are above their reach so that we are sure of the true God where we have such Predictions Ans. Yes and therefore it is evident Jesus came from God because he as I said and his Apostles after him by his Spirit did foretel such as these as I have shewn in several instances Quest. What other Miracles did Jesus work which are peculiar to God and above the power of a wicked Spirit Ans. Secondly He saw into Mens hearts and secret thoughts discovering before any outward proofs and manifestations the fickleness of some Disciples John 2. 24. and the veil'd falshood of the Scribes and Pharisees who stood as insidious Spies upon him Luke 6. 8. and adapting his Answers and Discourses not only to Mens Questions but also to their inward Thoughts and Surmizes before they expressed and proposed them to him as he did with the Pharisees Matth. 12. 25. and in several other places And this is another work which God claims as peculiar to himself stiling himself the searcher of hearts and trier of reins yea claiming the knowledge of them for this reason which is peculiar to him because he is to judge and recompence them I the Lord search the heart and try the reins to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings Jer. 17. 10. And thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men saith Solomon 1 King. 8. 39. Quest. Did Jesus any more Miracles which are performable only by the finger of God and are above the force of Magick Ans. Yes Thirdly He raised the dead as Jairus's daughter and the widows son of Nain when he was carried out to be buried and Lazarus after he had been four days dead And this again is peculiarly God's work For when once Souls are separated from their Bodies they undergo God's Sentence and are secured in such places as he allots whence they cannot return or be remanded but by his Licence and Power that effects all things There is no God with me for I kill and I make alive saith God by Moses Deut. 32. 39. All separate Souls are under Locks and Keys and 't is a Divine Hand which holds the keys of hell and of death Rev. 1. 18. Quest. Have you any more instances Ans. Yes Fourthly Casting out Devils And those not only where they were of the most stubborn sorts which had proved too hard for his Disciples but also where they were in greatest numbers the Devils ejected by him out of one Man being called by themselves Legion which notes a Roman Army of six thousand Men Mark 5. 9. Yea not only expelling but as their awful Judge whose Rod they dread and at whose frown they tremble terrifying them and forcing them often to cry out Let us alone thou Holy One of God thou Son of God we beseech thee torment us not art thou come to torment us before the time Mark 1. 24. Luke 8. 28. Nay he impowered the seventy Disciples and afterwards the very meanest of his followers in virtue of his dreadful Name with like Triumph to eject them Luke 10. 17. And what is more when some that did not adhere to him would try to scare and controul them by his Sacred Name the trembling Devils fled before them Mark 9. 38. And this is another work peculiar to God which whatsoever some Potent Demons can to be sure they never will imitate Indeed in some particular instances the higher Orders may command and eject some particular inferiour Spirits and thereby serve their own designs But to go on ejecting all Ranks and Orders and those where they are in the greatest numbers and combinations and that with terrors consternation and torments is plainly to commence an open War among themselves which as our Saviour argued must needs destroy the Devil's Kingdom and therefore is a thing too foolish and absurd to be imagined of intelligent subtle and designing Spirits Matth. 12. 25 26. Quest. I see the Miracles of Jesus were evidently distinguished from the lying wonders of Satan by the very kind of them in these instances Pray now show also how they were as convincingly discriminated by their intent and design in all others Ans. Because all the Miracles of Jesus were apparently wrought to exalt the honour and service of the true God and to promote the real good of Men and to plant Tempers and Practices diametrically opposite to the way and genius of evil Spirits aiming to root out all those Errors and Superstitions which they had cultivated with utmost care through all former Ages to overthrow their Altars reduce their Worshippers and utterly exclude them from all that Domination which they had so long usurped among Men. And 't is certain that a worker of Miracles for these Pious Heavenly and Charitable purposes is not acted or directed by wicked Spirits For if they cease to be God's Enemies and ours they cease to be Devils If they turn Preachers of Humility Purity the Love of God and of
the Tenor of Christ's own Laws For then they only speak the Language of Christ's own Rules and as Tertullian says are a true anticipation or Fore-hand Draught of the great Judgment And when his Officers only pronounce and say after him there is no doubt but he will confirm what they have pronounced in his Name Quest. But from what you have formerly discoursed I perceive that some things in Religon being against the Prime and Fundamental Doctrines are so Damnable in themselves as not to be capable of any Favour or Allowances And that others being only against inferior Truths are Damnable only as accompanied with an Evil Mind but capable withal of being incurred under Pardonable circumstances Now in these last Points many Persons that mean well and serve Christ sincerely in the main and essentials of a Christian may yet be unhappily mislead into wrong Opinions or Practices And if for their fixedness and obstinacy in these they happen to be cast out of any Church do you think they are always cut off from Christ too and that he will Finally Anathematise and condemn them in his Sentence Answ. No. For the Church as all humane Judges being unable to see into Mens Hearts give sentence in these cases according to outward Actions But Christ in his judgment of them looks also at the mind and heart of the Actors Rateing exactly not only the Punishableness of the Offences but also the Degrees of voluntary and involuntary which makes a Pardonableness or Punishableness of the Offenders And making these Allowances on such scores as fall not under their Notice 't is reasonable to believe he will still own and receive several compassionably mislead who are cast out on these accounts by the Churches Censures Quest. This validity and effect of Church-Censures you say is when they proceed according to Christ's own Rules and upon just cause But if they bind where the Gospel says they should loose and Excommunicate against Reason I suppose those Censures are meer Scare-crows that may serve to make a show but bring no hurt with them Answ. Very true Blessed are ye says our Saviour when Men shall separate you from their Company and expunge or cast out your Name as evil for the Son of Mans sake for so persecuted their Fathers the Prophets Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for your Reward is great in Heaven Luk. 6. 22 23. If good Christians are Excommunicated in any Church for not going against the Scriptures and complying with it in ill things as poor Protestants are by the Romish Church they lose nothing thereby with God who will not ratifie a wrong sentence but will increase their Reward for having bravely suffer'd in his Cause Quest. By what you have said I see how God forgives Sins But when they are committed against us we are bid to forgive them too and that as we our selves hope to be forgiven I pray you what doth that imply Answ. Not our remitting Future punishments which lye at God's mercy not in ours Nor always that we sit still without offering to defend our selves when we are assaulted or to seek redress when we are injured But only that we bear no malice to them in our hearts and if the case require Redress that we seek it not in Spiteful ways and that beside the Reparation of our own Wrong we aim not at our Adversary's Prejudice nor seek his hurt afterwards nor Pray to God or to the Magistrate for vengeance as the Jews might to ease an angry mind when we are able to do no more against him our selves Quest. What use must we make of this Belief of the Forgiveness of Sins Answ. Admire the mercy of God who can forgive such Profligate and Provoking Offenders And the wonderful love of Jesus Christ who could dye to procure this Forgiveness for his utter Enemies And not despair of mercy but stedfastly hope there is place of Pardon after any of our sins And above all to shew true Repentance and forgive others and perform all those things which are the condition and Terms of Forgiveness thereby to secure it to our selves Quest. And when we are once forgiven may we embolden our selves from God's readiness to forgive to Repeat our sins Answ. No by no means Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound in pardoning God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Now thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee said our Saviour Joh. 5. 14. Such ingratitude and abuse of Grace is not only most provoking to the Spirit and tempts him to withdraw from us and calls down from God heavier and surer Punishments But also it brings in force against us all the old scores which were all struck off as I said only on presumption of our Perseverance in repenting of them CHAP. XI Of the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting The Contents The Resurrection not meerly of our Spirits from sin but of our Bodies from the Grave This to be brought about by the Almighty Power of God. The Perfections of Glorified Bodies viz. Immortality Spirituality and Glory The Bodies of the Wicked Immortal And exquisitely sensible Some Inferences from the Resurrection of our Bodies Good Souls carried straight-way into a Place of Bliss Of Eternal Life wherin there is Full and unmixed Happiness Of the satisfaction of their Senses Their clear and distinct Knowledge Perfect Holiness And without Reluctance Blissful Companions Perfection of Love and Kindness Honour and Eminence of Place All these to be injoy'd in the Highest Heavens without satiety or weariness For evermore Of the miseries of the Damned in Tormenting Passions The worm of Conscience Fire and Flames Disgrace Under all which no favour of God. No company but of Tormenting Devils and damned Spirits None to condole when they cannot relieve No rest and sleep for Recruit of Spirits No end of their miseries The Use of this Quest. WHat is the Eleventh Article of the Creed Answ. I believe the Resurrection of the Body Quest. May not the Resurrection be interpreted only of a Spiritual Resurrection from sin Answ. So some taught of old as St. Paul testifies saying the Resurrection is passed already i. e. when Men rose from a State of sin to the fear of God and these says he get credit and overthrow the Faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 18. But the Resurrection we expect is a Resurrection of the Body Our Bodies after we have laid them down by Death shall at the Day of Judgment be quickned and raised up again Then all that are in the Graves shall hear Christ's voice and come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5. 28 29. This mortal Body must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on Incorruption that so all that being revived which Death destroyed Death may be swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. Quest. The