end of Faith. If a man believes firmely but not soundly nor truely his faith like to the knowledge acquired by our first Parents upon the eating of the forbidden fruit brings him to shame and confusion of face And of this sort are innumerable mistakes not to be here instanced in that only excepted which is of most generall evill consequence whereby men are wont and willing to divide and rend faith from it selfe I mean the Forme or inward act of believing from the power and effect of Faith perswading themselves that Faith alone so taken gives us Justification and if so it must needs give us Sanctification too For none are justified but such as are thereunto prepared by a competent degree of Sanctification And so in trueth at length it will be found that whatever is pretended and more dangerously presumed no man is more Justified alone by Faith than he is Sanctified by it alone and the workes of Faith are in no place of holy Scripture opposed to Faith it selfe the cause of such workes in reference to our Justification And it is altogether as derogatory to Christs merits and the freenesse of Gods Grace to rest upon such Faith for justification and salvation as upon such workes of Faith. But this I speak as I passe 4. However therefore the Authours of such Doctrine or at least formes of speaking as have lately prevailed disown the necessary ill consequences of the same and allow yea urge much good workes and with many flourishes commend the use of them yet advancing immoderately and injudiciously the Act of Faith creeple it and binde it up from the free course and full influence it may and otherwise would have upon mens lives to the purging of the Soule from evill and impregnating it to good works of vertue and holinesse 5. But leaving that Controversie let us proceed to what is without Controversie shewing by plain instances what we have propounded concerning the power of Faith in our militant state here And let it be ingenuously judged how a man by Faith thorowly convinced of that one first Principle that there is a God Creatour of all things Judge of all things and of all Men especially and their hearts and actions and infallibly rewarding the good and the evill can easily omitt the good so amply hereafter to be remunerated or rashly fall into the evill of Sin-tempting standing by his Christian Faith assured that his temporary trifling vanishing as soon as felt pleasures shall end infallibly in bitternesse and never-failing sorrowes Who would sow that seed in his Field which he might easily believe will rise up to an harvest of Serpents which will sting him to death Or can a man stedfastly believe that Article of his Creed teaching and assuring him that Christ that righteous Judge shall appear a second time in glorie and severe Justice towards quick and dead rendering to every man according to the good or evill he hath done in his bodie viz. Life Everlasting or shame and torment everlasting and not feare or fear and yet committ such things as will weigh him down into the place of such miserie What wise man would be tempted so with the beautie and desireablenesse of drinking out of a Golden Cup when he knowes it is filled with deadly Poison Or would any man eat of that bread fair to the Eye and perhaps pleasant to the palate which he knowes will suddenly after breed gravell and stones in his reins and bladder and infinitely torture him Certainly such a mans perswasion which in Religion we call Faith must needs be verie weak and his fondnesse strong which can impose so hard things on him unrejected 6. No more can any man have a sound and sufficient perswasion of the heavenly Mansions and the unspeakable Glories thereof yea the perfection and beautie of Vertue and Divinenesse of holie Life and good Conscience and neglect or contemn the same for the fallacies vitious practices put on the outward senses for a moment or lesse if lesse we can imagine Is not this next to a Miracle if we may allow the Devill to be able to work Miracles contrary to the Doctrine of the Schools For what way we call a Miracle if not deluding the senses and so far changing the natures of things to mans eye and common sense that he shall call good evill and evill good and have no other opinion of Flames into which he must be cast than of a Feather bed 7. To him that lives by Sense the present sweet is most sweet and the present bitter most bitter but to him that lives by Faith and not by Sense the future exceeds in both kinds And to a truly wise man knowing the worst of troubles and hardships in this world no more to be compared to the miseries wicked men suffer hereafter than the joyes of sin in this life are to the glorie to be hereafter enjoyed in Heaven by the Righteous it may seem most reasonable to choose the least of Evills and to run the least of hazards too as that poore simple austere man vilely and coldly clad and as ill fed did with whom as our own histories tell a boisterous and soft Gallant meeting demanded of him Why he used himselfe so hardly and was answered by him I doe this to escape Hell-fire But said the Gallant again If there be no Hell what a Fool art thou to use thy selfe so ill But he more wittily and sharply replied But what if there be an Hell how much more Fool art thou to live so as thou doest Put the case to common Reason for true Faith is infallibly assured of it that it was a doubtfull point Whether there were an Hell or not a Heaven or no Heaven and the Scales weighing both sides were equall would not generall Reason advise so to believe as to take the safest course and live that life which may lead to the supposed happinesse and escape the threatened torments What hurt befalls that man that lives continently temperately modestly justly soberly yea and selfe-denyingly as to those things which are not necessarie though no reward followes upon his rigours but the ordinary comforts of health and peace of minde which are greater to him than the riotous liver and pleaser of his appetites and senses without restraint But what hurt doth not befall him hereafter who by indulging to his sensible Soule bereaves himselfe of everlasting happinesse in the world to come that not being all neither as our Religion truely informes us 8. Let us therefore truely examine our selves as St. Paul exhorteth whether we be in the faith and prove our selves knowing of our own selves that Jesus Christ is in us except we be reprobates 2 Corin. 13. 5. Surely if Christ be in us it must be by Faith and if Faith be in us it will discover so much of the events of an holy and wicked life as not to be like a Horse and Mule which have no understanding nor like such men who have
II. A brief description of the Illuminative Purgative and Vnitive way of Religion p. 9 SECT III. Of the necessity of Illumination and of Faith with its subordinate Graces especially conducing thereunto p. 12 SECT IV. That Faith and naturall Reason improved is the onely proper cause of Illumination being taken for the things revealed whereof some principall heads are here given p. 20 SECT V. Of the Grace and act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and meanes of believing p. 40 SECT VI. Of the gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination the abuse and true uses of it noted And of the necessitie of believing p 51 SECT VII Of Illumination Reflexive whereby the Christian Soule comes to the knowledge of its selfe in its Spirituall State. p. 63 SECT VIII Of Revelations or Illuminations extraordinarie by Spirits and the discerning of them with the use of such Revelations p. 76 The Second Part. Of the Purgative part of Religion SECT I. THAT Action and good Works must be added to true knowledge and Believing And of the distinction of sins to be purged Page 99 SECT II. Of the Office of Faith in purging the Soule from sinfull defilements p. 105 SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall regard is to be had to the puritie of Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities p. 114 SECT IV. Of the proper meanes and methode of cleansing the Soule And first of Baptisme p. 124 SECT V. Of the Grace and power of Repentance in cleansing the Soule p. 129 SECT VI. That this purgative Repentance must be generall of all sins and perpetuall p. 147 SECT VII Of Selfe deniall required to true Reformation and that both of Vnderstanding and Will. p. 156 SECT VIII Of the custodie and discipline to be had over the outward man especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue p. 174 SECT IX Of outward moderation and modestie to be used in abstinences and Apparell p. 189 SECT X. The connexion of what hath passed with what followes concerning the Seven Capitall Sins p. 201 SECT XI Of Pride the first deadly or Capitall Sin. p. 203 SECT XII Of Anger a Second Capitall Sin its Concomitants and Remedies p. 219 SECT XIII Of the deadly sin of Envy its nature and Remedies p. 233 SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse p. 244 SECT XV. Of Luxurie and Vncleannesse p. 254 SECT XVI Of Gluttonie its sinfullnesse and Cure. p. 265 SECT XVII Of Slothfullnesse the last Capitall Sin. p. 277 SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein p. 288 The Third Part. Treating of the Unitive Way of the devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and of Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof p. 297 SECT II. That this Vnion consisteth chiefly in the true knowledge of God and Love experimentall and reciprocall p. 304 SECT III. Of the excesse of Vnitive Love of God in Extasies and Raptures with their abuses and uses noted p. 309 SECT IV. Of the Vnion of the Soule with God by Divine Contemplation and Meditation with some instances of particular Subjects for this latter p. 317 SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe p. 328 SECT VI. Of the defects incident to the Act of Praying and their Remedies p. 334 SECT VII Of the due use of Publique and Private Prayer p. 342 SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed or fixed as allso of Singing of Psalmes p. 350 SECT IX Of Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain instructions are premised p. 359 SECT X. Of the difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holy Communion here discussed p. 367 SECT XI Other impediments and scruples observed against Communicating especially with their proper Remedies p. 378 SECT XII A brief recapitulation of what hath been treated of before with advices and directions concerning the interruption and recoverie of actuall Communion with God and of Consolations p. 387 THE Methode and Means TO TRUE SPIRITUALL LIFE The First Part Treating of Spirituall Illumination SECT 1. Previous advice concerning the Necessity Reasonablenesse and Vsefulnesse of being truly Religious 1. THERE being three principall Stages as I may so speak which every true Christian is to passe over in his travail towards that Sabbath of Blessednesse hoped for hereafter and aspired to it may seem both very methodicall and profitable to that great end to prepare the way thither by cleering up the defaced Characters written by Gods own finger on the tables of Mans heart concerning the sense of God and Religion towards him in generall that such a fundamentall perswasion being well received the edification in our most holy faith may be more firme absolute and better advanced 2. For what may we call Religion speaking here more practically than artificially but a thorow conviction of a Supream Being and Power able to save and destroy everlastingly inferring a strong and just obligation upon all creatures especially Man to pay the debt of veneration and obedience to that God from whom he received his present being and to whom he owes his subsistence and upon whom depends his future state of happinesse or misery 3. But may it not here allso be said Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the Arme of the Lord been revealed too many obstinately refusing any better guidance or conduct of their Lives but such as may favour their degenerous and dangerous humour of gratifying their sensuall appetites hurrying them to a liberty inconsistent with that whereby we are made free to God by Christ Jesus For his service being perfect freedome ' when we are dedicated to him in Baptisme we renounce the servitude and turpitude of the world and enter our selves Apprentices to learne and doe the will of God by Religion the Art of all Arts God at the same time Indenting and Covenanting with Believers so faithfully serving him when their times come out by death in this world to give them a more noble and desireable freedome by making them Citizens in Hierusalem which is above the Mother of us all than which the heart of man can desire no greater or better event of all his labours and services in the world nor so good nor great remuneration 4. Who would not then sometimes retire into the chamber of his heart and seriously consider these things And who considering these things would not apply himselfe to this so necessary so divine and beneficiall a work shall we see so many Artists of this world strive to excell one another not only for lucre sake but esteem of men in their severall professions and trades and shall we be cold indifferent and carelesse in this of Religion the glory of all How many have become poor infamous
comes to their share 6. For this reason God sends such tempestuous and dark weather at Sea to the skilfull Navigatour that he shall not be able readily to know or say where he is till the restored calme Light better informes him And sends Shipwracks sometimes to the subtill Merchant that he may understand better who it is that gives skill and strength to get Riches And diappointeth the hopes of the understanding and painfull Husbandman And as the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 44. maketh diviners mad and turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish teaching them all and us too and that in all senses more perfectly that necessary lesson of humility Deuteronomy 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth c. And as it is with the riches of this world it is with the riches of the world to come or being rich towards God as the Scripture speaks Luke 12. 21. For undoubtedly God may and doth apparently denie the ordinary meanes of Salvation sound knowledge and holy faith in him and of divine mysteries to some To others he grants to be initiated and to have some knowledge of the saving trueth who there stop and proceed no farther as tender plants rising out of the earth wither and perish for want of the blessings of heaven falling on them without which they can proceed no farther towards perfection and some proceed farther and promise fair and for the same reason attain not to the intended end 7. But nothing of this nature can reasonably be taken into an Apologie or defence of the unprofitable servant whom God hath delivered such talents and meanes unto that in themselves tend unto such progressions and consummations as are saving and beatificall But admit thou art becalmed and canst make no way through want of divine aspirations and influence How canst thou how darest thou impute this cessation and oscitancie of thine in not doing the known Will of God unto an unknown cause or rather a not cause of doing which whether it is so as thou imaginest or givest out at least that thou imaginest when thy heart contradicteth thy tongue thou knowest not For who can say that God denies him the inward power and meanes of Salvation that is of effectuall Grace to whom he giveth the outward meanes of Illumination Faith and Salvation Whatsoever may be wanting in the abstruse counsell and dispensations internall of God and known to him cannot be so known to a man without divine Revelations It is an uncharitable and rash act in any man directly to charge his Neighbour with denying him his due or taking away his goods from him when he can prove nothing against him and much more injust it is and impious for a man to say directly that God denies him grace or doth harden his heart so that Rules and exhortations and sufficient reasons of becoming faithfull righteous and holy before God and man are of no effect upon him 8. It is not so much pardonable as commendable in all Good Christians to be sensible of their naturall insufficiencie and infirmity to doe any good act St. Paul having taught us 2 Corinth 3. v. 5. That we are not able to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiencie is of God. But doe not the very next words as well as the latter part of that argument plainly tell us that God hath a sufficiencie for us and God doth make us able Ministers of his Will And doth not St. James tell us that every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights James 1. 17. And doth not our Saviour Christ direct us how we should fill our selves from that Fountain when he saith Matth. 7. 11. If ye being evill know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more should your Father which is in heaven give you good things that ask him And this good thing is the best and fullest of all good things being interpreted in St. Lukes Gospell Chap. 11. 13. to be the Holy Spirit it selfe the fountain of all Grace which he giveth to them that ask him The Querie then must needs be made to our selves whether upon sense of our infirmities and defects we ever did and that as we ought invoke Almighty God implore the gift of his Spirit and its concurrence and whether we ever submitted to its Dictates and directions to that power God hath given us For to doe this as well as believe that we have an excellent president from the wise Man Wisdome 8. v. 21. Neverthelesse I perceived I could no otherwise obtain her i. e. True Wisedome comprehending all intellectuall graces except God gave her me and that was a point of Wisedome also to know whose gift she was I prayed unto the Lord and besought him and with my whole heart I said O God of my Fathers and Lord of mercie c. Which prayer for that illuminating gift and Grace so necessarie might not very unfitly be transcribed hither and used by all true lovers of light rather than darknesse at least untill the Day-star shall arise in their hearts according to which true Believers may shape their course more steadily towards Heaven but I shun prolixnesse SECT VI. Of the Gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination The abuse and true use of the same and necessity of Believing 1. BUT the use or act of the grace of Faith resteth not here but is wonderfully assistant to the naturall understanding in discerning the minde of God revealed unto us in his Word For as the discreet and diligent Master doth not only set his Schollar whom he teacheth to write an exact and fair Copie to imitate and follow but also guides his hand in the making the Letters and joyning them together according to their true shape and order in like manner doth he whose Chair is in heaven teaching the hearts as his Instruments and Officers doe the eares and eyes of men below to understand receive believe and act according to the Rule and scope prescribed For man naturally is apt to believe those things only which his Reason assures him of but his reason how acute soever cannot demonstrate the Scriptures to be the Word of God which we believe and must believe to be so if we would be accounted good Christians And having the Scriptures in that esteem we cannot out of our promptitude and acutenesse of wit discerne clearly and readily many usefull things therein contained without the direction of that great Authour the Blessed Spirit principall in the composing them For 't is truly said The Scriptures must be understood by the Spirit that indited them According therefore to the gifts and grace given unto Mee doe they understand the mysteries of Faith Rom. 12. 6. And to every man is given grace according to the measure of Christ Ephes 4. 7. whereby that light revealed shineth unto the true Believer as out of a dark place So that
of himselfe that infallibly he shall be saved while he remains very deficient in the common and known duties of a true Christian mistaking the true notion and office of Faith which is not so much to teach us what we are our selves but what God is and what is his Will and what our dutie is to him and the effects of obedience and holy life prescribed by him So that justifying and saving faith is Godliness in the power of it and Godlinesse in the power of which St. Paul speakes is a Confluence of all Christian Graces and Vertues the principall of which are reckoned up by St. Peter where he counselleth 2 Epist 1 5 6. to Adde to faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindenesse and to brotherly kindnesse Charitie And having profited so far as to be possessed of such Graces to strive as the same Apostle hath it to abound in the same which having competently attained unto gives the best assurance of the good purpose of our heavenly Father to give us the Kingdome promised to them that believe 4. But the presumptuous and preposterous faith whereby men are prone to phansie themselves into the highest favour of God before they have passed through the discipline of Faith which is laboursome and uneasie to Flesh is that which leadeth men into blindnesse of minde and perhaps perdition in the midst of strong perswasions of the contrary our Saviour Christ teaching us so much where he saith Luke 17. 7. Which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he is come from the field Goe and sit down to meat And will not rather say unto him Make ready wherewith I may suppe and gird thy selfe and serve me and afterward thou shalt eat and drink Which teaches us that it sufficeth not presently to take up our rest of assurance of our salvation by faith speciall so soon as we are called home to God from the wide and wild conversation in the field of this world but must yet farther attend the service God hath for us to doe and then to expect his farther favour of an eternall rest 5. And because amongst various acceptations in holy Scripture of the word Faith it is sometimes used for the Grace of faith and sometimes for the works and fruits of faith every prudent and pious Christian must be very carefull that he puts not such a fallacie upon himselfe as to inferre to himselfe the whole vertue of faith taken in its full latitude upon some particular branch thereof found in him crouding all duties of pietie into one and that rather a preparation unto true religious life than the principall part of it such as knowing and believing and the meanes thereunto tending reading and hearing of Gods holy word For being well initiated in those necessarie principles and helps of devotion there so to stop or in them to improve that acts of faith hope and charitie should be neglected overthrowes the whole design of faith it selfe whereof no small part is to confesse our sins to repent heartily and thorowly to attend to good works and acts of mercie to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance and not to think to commute with God that when he requires private or publique worship we should think it as well and perhaps better to read certain Chapters in the Bible or to be present and heare a Sermon and when God calls to performe good deeds of Charitie in visiting the sick and being at charges for the relief of the poor to exceed in reading and praying supposing such cheaper parts of splendid profession will answer all obligations to God and our necessitous neighbour Whereas it is one principall point of true Christian Illumination by faith to understand what it teacheth us by the Apostle saying Coloss 4. 12. Stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God to the effecting whereof Faith is ordained and given us by God as a tool and Engine not as the work it selfe 6. And therefore the ancient and more experienced Father we read of handsomely and truely reproved the mistakes of three well inclined novices in the sounder part of Piety when the First declaring the course of his Life said with expectation of applause I have got the Old and New Testament by heart Then said the Old man thou hast poured out many words into the air intending he should understand that all that was to very small purpose without proportionable acts of holinesse And the Second said I have wrote over all the Old and New Testament with mine own hand Then said the ancient Father thou hast filled thy windowes with store of paper And the third glorying that the grasse grew on his hearth implying how much cold and hunger he had suffered was answered by the same person Then hast thou driven away hospitality intimating that no man abounding in some good duties must perswade himselfe that he shall thereby make compensation for such defects in other graces willfully neglected being better informed from St. Paul that knowledge and the Scriptures themselves were entrusted with us by God that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished unto all Good workes 2 Tim. 3. 17. And as Davids practice was to have an eye to all Gods commands without exception or limitation Psal 119. 6. 7. Against this if it chances to be objected what vulgarly is said that there is no perfection in this world we may answer without great difficulty That perfection there is in the Scriptures themselves and Christian Religion above what is to be found in any other Authours Sciences or Religions There is a perfection of integritie or of parts which St. Paul to Philemon ver 6. calleth Communication of faith becoming effectuall by the acknowledging of every good thing so that not one vertue or dutie prescribed to a true Christian must be wanting to the true believer however the degrees of those vertues may be and generally are imperfect And yet again having in some degree been initiated into all Christian vertues we are not there to rest as if we had alreadie attained the end of Religion but must prosecute those mean yet good beginnings till we arrive to that pitch which God hath not revealed unto us that he will accept to our justification and salvation but only have a sound firme and comfortable Hope of the Favour of God which some are pleased in these last ages to call Faith justifying But faith properly so called hath for its object truth and that as relating to all men but Hope hath for its object Good and that as pertaining to particular persons of which nature is the perswasion we have of the foresaid Good as truely belonging unto us and thereby as St. John speaks 1 Epist 3. 19. We assure our hearts before him SECT IV. That Faith and not naturall Reason improved is the only
proper Cause of Christian Illumination being taken for the things revealed whereof some principall Heads are here given 1. IT is a common and usefull distinction of Faith by the Learned not difficult to be understood by the unlearned into the matter or articles of our Faith propounded to our assent by God himselfe in his Word and the Gift and Grace of Faith enabling us to believe things so revealed and necessary to our Salvation It will be therefore very expedient for the better informing every plain and sincere capacity to make some recitall of those things our Faith Christian is founded upon and which we are to believe and that principally by Revelation and not wholly to be silent herein any more than St. Luke was in writing his Gospell Luke 1. 1. For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order those things which are most surely believed amongst us because severall formes and phrases may help towards the same sense and end of believing and illumination 2. And here first of all is to be considered and believed the great Prerogative of Christian Religion above all other discoveries made to Man when our Saviour Christ in St. Matthew saith Ch. 11. v. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and revealed them to babes Not that Christ maligned the knowledge of these things to others but that he admired the priviledges conferred by God upon his mean flock And what these things are and how and to whom revealed St. Paul certifies us 1 Corinth 2. 6 7 8 saying Howbeit we speak wisdome among them that are perfect yet not the wisdome of this world which cometh to naught but we speak the wisdome of God in a mysterie even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world to our glory For God hath revealed them by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God. Meaning hereby to teach us that whatever knowledge man may attain to in the search of the mysteries of Nature Revelation is absolutely necessarie to the knowledge of the deep things of Gods counsell and pleasure concerning his own Nature and Being and our service of him and salvation by him discovery should be made unto us some other way than by our natural reason darkened by our own apostasie and infatuations So that the whole Bible may be called one entire book of divine Revelations the Jew having received many things from God which were denied unto the Gentiles and the Christian having received from God more clear dispensations and sublime than were granted unto the Jew for he beheld things as in a glasse darkly but the other face to face that is the very things themselves and not the darker shadowes which were to flee away at the rising of the Sun of righteousnesse which is by the Apostle called the Mysterie of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit Whereupon St. Peter 1 Ep. 1. 5. tells us of Gods Elect that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation readie to be revealed in the last times which last times were the same of which the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks that in the last dayes God hath spoken unto us by his Son and those last dayes were the dayes of the Gospell revealing the mysteries of Godlinesse unto us and not these last dayes phansied by some 3. Now notwithstanding innumerable are the divine documents and notices extraordinarily deliver'd through the New Testament and more especially there be a fair Catalogue given us Heb. 11. of the singular vertues and uses of Faith in revealing divine things yet because we now speak chiefly to babes in Christ or St. Johns Little children it may not be amisse to assist the weaker without offence of the stronger in giving some speciall instances whereby the knowledge of a green Christian is either actually improved or improveable to a greater degree than can readily be found in aliens from Christ 4. There have been in former years some leading men in the Reformation and learned who have collected ten severall and considerable grounds in which all Religions concurre and this was the ingenious contrivance of Bibliander since which divers with tolerable designe but I fear with no good event at all but rather the contrary have in these very late years written about Naturall Religion and the Reasonablenesse of Christian Faith manifested by naturall Light hoping it may be to begett a better opinion in many rank Rationalists of Christian Religion but perhaps they considered not what evill consequence followes from hence viz. that the very first principle of our Christian faith is hereby weakened and more slighted as judged from hence not to be so necessary as commonly is received For Revelations divine and that these writings we call Scriptures are divinely revealed is the most fundamentall part of our Religion which to make credible by sundrie Topicks of reason have been alwaies the practice of the Ancients as it is still of the moderne not illaudable but to offer demonstrations and those such upon which they would constrain belief of that first principle is to cause the whole fabrick of Christian faith to rest on that tottering and unstable foundation and of divine to dilute our faith into humane perswasion all superiour articles of our faith having no stronger stay than such a bottome will allow them 5. And I must confesse for my part I am so far from being pleased with the pretended Golden sayings of Pythagoras or the divine sentences of Plato Seneca and especially that moderner vapourer or rather vapour it selfe Hierocles and such as Eunapius presents unto us that they rather turne my stomach at their aemulation of Christian perfection thereby to lessen the value of Christian Religion it selfe than draw me to affecting or admiring them For St. Paul 2 Corinth 1. 14. tells us 't is By faith we stand and again that our faith it selfe should not stand in the wisdome of men but in the power of God. And it will be found by experience that humane reason thus coming officiously to the aid of divine Faith unable to satisfie the doubting minde about the doctrine proper to Faith will in the end prove so sawcie and domineering as to give law to faith and like Ivie which clings to the tree for a subsistence will weaken it and suck out the heart of it in time Herein therefore consisteth the very soule or as scholasticall men speak the very formall reason of Christian faith illuminating otherwise than the humane Lights of this world that we believe what we have not seen by sence nor learned by experience viz. That the Scriptures we now are possessed of are the Revelations which God hath given us for our instruction and direction in the knowledge of him and holy conversation
before him and the world 6. Now from this foundation laid this principle granted this fountain of all spirituall wisdome and understanding opened doe issue all particular branches of our faith illuminating us some few of which articles reduced into the three eminent Creeds of all Christian Churches viz. The Apostolicall the Nicene and Athanasian which may yet be more plainly and vulgarly thus ordered to easie capacities 1. First that there is a God and this God but one in nature and substance of an infinite eternal immutable Being and there is or can possibly be no more number herein destroying all perfection proper to the divine Being which article though some of the wise Naturalists did give their cold assent unto yet scarce ever so but they tolerated such opinions and religions of others as maintained the contrary feeling rather as the Apostles phrase is after God than finding him or holding him fast by such a strong faith as Christians are and must be indued with knowing assuredly that Religion and our Salvation receive by no one superstition so deadly a blow and destructive to all sound Christianity as to erre about this first principle by acknowledging directly or indirectly more than one God that is either in the Proposition professing more than one which totally subverts Christianity or in Practice worshipping that for God which is not God though under a strong perswasion that what we worship is that one true God and though in mind and intention we design to worship only the true God. For such a fact upon involuntarie errour and all errour is said by wise men to be involuntarie may mitigate the offence before God and man but it cannot at all change the thing it selfe making that to be no idolatrie which is Idolatrie or that no heresie which is heresie in it selfe but only by certain circumstance may alleviate and yet we know not how little or much the crime of the offender which crime is in it selfe directly damnable and so by the doctrine of our Christian faith to be reputed and even with the losse of our lives to be avoided 2. And the same faith likewise teacheth us as necessary to salvation to believe aright of the severall and distinct wayes of the subsistence of the Deitie in the Trinity of the persons which we commonly call Father Son and Holy Ghost which as we must believe to be three and not one Person so must we believe to be one in nature and substance and not three so that the Father begetteth the Son and is not begotten of any and the Son is begotten of the Father by an Eternall and incorrupt generation not to be parallel'd in any other productions though dimly represented unto us And the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son by such a divine emanation as is not imitable by any created procession And in this article of our Faith Christians being wholly destitute of all naturall assistance to believe the whole must redound to the power and pleasure of God revealing these things and rendering them credible our faith upon that ground receiving them 3. And a third point of our Faith proceedeth to reunite as it were in our mindes and perswasions those persons we acknowledge to stand so distinguished by their intrinsecall Relations mentioned in their outward operations such as are acts of Creation Preservation and Governing by a most wise and just providence all things which are in this visible world and in that or those worlds which are to us invisible called Celestiall 4. And hence it is that by the same faith we are taught more expressely and particularly that the One God Father Son and Holy Ghost gave a being to all the world and out of nothing produced what we see and what we understand and more than we can behold and apprehend determining that knottie controversie which the Philosophers could make no work with concerning the Creation of the world which some would have never to have been but subsisting from eternitie of it selfe and not only so but we understand by divine Revelation and Illumination how the world was made and that not by the contriving of the brain or a modell laid before the eyes or by the labour of the hand the sweat of the face and tedious but necessarie toyl of many dayes years or ages but by the lightest and easiest way we could possibly understand any thing to be wrought For thus we read Heb. 11. 2. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear And so we read Psalm 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth And yet not so by the word or mouth of God as that any such part is to be admitted in God or that properly God so spake vocally For to what or whom should God speak so when there was no bodie yea nothing to hear but it was a mere simple pure velleity or willing of him so effectuall as to produce the Universe without the labour of his hands or of any other Agent or Instrument under him as some have vainlie imagined contrary to our divine Faith. For by the same power that God could create a worme he could create an Elephant and with the same ease that he could create a Mite he might create the hugest Monster that ever the earth bare yea the earth it selfe and that without delaies or distances of times though to shew his libertie and not necessity of working and to teach us advisednesse in all our Actions of importance he vouchsafed to distribute his acts into severall orders and spaces of duration called Dayes For as 't is said in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and all that is therein c. 5. And from this generall working or acting of God we are lead to an higher degree more nearly concerning our selves For it must necessarily follow from hence that as the Psalmist affirmeth He hath made us and not we our selves Psalm 95. And that as he made all things very good so the more noble in rank such things were the more perfect and unblameable they must needs be as they came out of Gods hands For God doth not work or proceed after the manner of nature from imperfect to perfect as all naturall productions are ill formed and defective at first and in tract of time arise to their ordained perfection but God made all things and especially Man at once most perfect both as to inward endowments and outward forme stature and parts so that nothing was wanting either to the ornament of his minde or the perfection of his bodie Crowning both with holinesse and happinesse immortal wherein his own Image and likenesse principally consisted adding unto them here in this life power and dominion under him over all earthly things 6 Furhermore the same faith teacheth us the Original
of the soule or spirit of man which was variously canvased by the wise men of this world without resolution satisfactorie and that he and not naturall generation was the true cause thereof and that Christ and his Father worketh hitherto and he worketh John 5. 17. 7. Seventhly we learne from holy Writ concerning the government of the World that God leadeth not such a sedentarie and carelesse life as some Philosophers imagined after the manner of many Great Men who build fair and stately Houses and furnish them richly but so leave them to fall to decay and the things therein to be lost and spoiled neither doth he trouble his head or vex his heart as some men doe about the management of their Houses and Lands but by a mean way of sufficient protection and providence disposes all things even Good and Evill so wisely and harmoniously that no molestation is given to himselfe nor any damage to the Universe it selfe though innumerable changes are constantly wrought to the detriment of some particulars there and the like advantage to other things not before noted So that what for its time lay hid and contemptible is raised as it were out of the dust and exalted to greatnesse and splendour and for a season having so continued by the same all-disposing hand relapses into its ancient obscurity and this by a perpetuall vicissitude which some times an Age or two declareth some times not many Centuries of years And by the same Faith we according to St. Peter's Doctrine 2 Ep. 3. 7. understand that as the heavens and earth were formed and stood out of the waters so the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement 8. By Faith likewise we know that the fine and admirable Masterpiece of God himselfe Man created in the foresaid perfection and being in great honour and happinesse through his own folly as did the Angels before him fell from his stedfastnesse into blindesse povertie and generall miserie of bodie and minde contracting thereby disorder of affections inward and diseases and death outward the seeds of all which he transmitted to his posterity and is that Originall sinne all are infected and infested with This the Learning of this world could hardly or not at all instruct us in but is the office of our faith to inform us From whence also we can only give account of the many and strange exorbitances of our minde and the severall infirmities distempers and pains of our bodie before our reason comes to that ripenesse as to entitle us to the guilt of erroneous actions or free election of Good and Evill 9. Neither could humane learning or books of the greatest Philosophers informe us how tied and bound in the chain of our sins and fallen into the depth of common destruction we should recover our losses and repair our breaches neither could we our selves devise any more than we could really desire to evade the evils we were surrounded with But that light from above which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world sheweth that God out of the Abysse of his Counsells and freenesse of his Grace and Love towards Mankinde first determined the redemption of him and when the fullnesse of time was come actually sent his Son into the world in the likenesse of sinfull flesh to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8. 3. Galat. 4. 4. 10. And this Salvation was ratified to man soon after his fall God entring then into a new Covenant with man to the re-enstating him into his favour and restoring him to the blessed hopes of salvation eternall upon Evangelicall faith and obedience answerable thereunto And that these termes of this Covenant may as well as ought be performed on mans part though not upon his own strength is a materiall point of our faith and a prime motive to our obedience For were it not that man bounden thus to God might come up to that degree of perfection as to be judged by God to have performed what is necessary to obtaining the promises made by God no wise man would trouble himselfe to begin such an impossible work and no faithfull man or true believer could be sure of his salvation as is often taught we may and ought to be but rather every man may be sure of his damnation knowing thar he can in no wayes doe that upon which his salvation depends 11. Furthermore It is necessary to salvation as the Athanasian Creed tells us that we believe rightly the Incarnation of out Lord Jesus Christ who by taking flesh of the Virgin Mary his Mother unto the divine nature became an apt and sufficient Mediatour between God and Man and Administratour of the New Covenant made between God and Man. 12. And this administration was wrought two wayes principally First by the divine doctrine and knowledge revealed unto the world delivered by himselfe and his elect servants to that end inspired extraordinarily and contained in the severall Books of the New Testament Secondly by his Passion and death upon the Crosse as a Lamb of God offered for the sins of the whole world in which God rested satisfied and became appeased and Believers had accesse to the throne of Grace and became accepted in the beloved 13. But to the effectuall application of so glorious a benifit as this is somewhat more required of all true Believers than a Faith passive it being necessarie that first we should use the meanes ordained by God to that great end before we can have any sound hope of attaining the same And supposing faith preceding the summe of what remains and to which other duties may be reduc'd may be three fold 1. The use of the Sacrament of Baptisme instituted as a laver of regeneration and a forme of initiation into the Covenant without which we are of the number of Infidells and aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and without hope of salvation and in our sins and naturall blindnesse which hereby was so cured that the newly baptised were said in Scripture to be illuminated or enlightened Heb. 6. 4. Hebr. 10. 32. 2. And unto this comes in as an Auxiliary improving and perfecting the low beginnings of those once initiated to an high degree of holinesse and comfort The Sacrament of the Lords Supper ordained by Christ to the ratification of our Covenant entered into with God and the memorie of Christs passion and death upon the Crosse for us and our being more strictly and intimately united to Christ as shall hereafter be more fullie declared 3. A third most necessary and effectuall meanes of applying Christs merits to us is that excellent gift of God as the Scripture termes it Acts 5. 31. Acts 11. 18. Repentance of which with the concomitants of it likewise we may speak farther hereafter 14. Of the Resurrection likewise of the bodie and the reuniting of the soule unto it and upon such restauration the receiving of the proper