Quest 1 Is there a way then for a man to attain eternall happinesse Phila. Yes First if there were no eternall happinesse God had made man in vain with so vast a mind which no finite thing can satisfie and then there must be a way to this happinesse or else that happinesse is ordained in vain also for man Mathe. Some think it is not necessary to know any more happiness then nature sheweth and dictates to us Phila. Nature sheweth in part that felicity which is necessary for man to know but not fully but as in the wrong end of an optick glass which makes things appear farther off or lesse then they are or else sheweth us a false felicity as in a magnifying or multiplying glasse wherein it appeareth bigger or more then it is all which sheweth there is an happinesse though nature mistakes it or cannot perfectly shew it though it be necessary for us to know it Mathe. How prove you it is necessary for us to know it Phila. 1. Because I have a soule capable of such a knowledge nor is an industrious soule quiet till it find either it or something like it wherein it may find a rest and content Therefore the spirit of a man is the candle of God to search hidden secrets Pro. 20.27 yea even the things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 and by desire a man having separated himselfe seeks and intermedleth with all wisedome Pro. 18.1 2. Because man is made for it God intended him for happinesse For as the world was made that God might be revealed so God was revealed that man might know him which is felicity God sought to bring man to it first by obedience wherein he failing thereby shewing the mutability of created nature God next set before him the object of beleeving viz. his promise of Christ to know whom in God is life eternall John 17.3 and felicity 3. Because man is a future not only a present creature for he hath a soul which will be existent after death in joy or sorrow and therefore necessary for him to know felicity and to avoid misery Mathe. How prove you that he hath such a soule Phila. From our immortall desires to live either in memory or posterity for ever which argueth the immortall nature of the soule though it be deceived in the choise of it by placing immortality where it is not So Absalom set up his monumentall pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 and some call their lands after their own names Psa 49.12 and men desire tombs which argueth a desire of perpetuall life No creature hath this desire but man for things without life desire to preserve themselves in their particular being Secundum numerum pronunc Vid. Scor. Dist 94. and beasts desire the continuance of their kind only for the present time but man desires a perpetuall being included in no bounds 2. Because it hath a kind of infinit apprehension comprehending singular things and universall things and the kinds of all things which argueth an immortall nature 3. Because God hath made a perpetuall covenant with man Numb 18.19 and therefore the soul hath a continuall being in or out of the body else is the Covenant ended But God is not the God of the dead Mat. 22.32.33 but of the living for all do live to him therefore he cals himselfe the God of the Patriarchs after their death Exod. 3.6 so some in scripture are said to be gathered to their fathers in peace though slaine as 2 Chron. 35. as good Josiah But it is meant to the spirit of the Fathers which were at rest and peace with God bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29 among the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 4. Because men undergo losse and crosse and death without cause joifully which were madnesse if the soule were not immortall and expected after death some felicity to enjoy 1 Cor. 15.19 But many love not their lives that they may find them hereafter Mar. 8.35 5. Because God in the last judgement may shew himselfe just as Gen. 18.23 for in this world good men suffer and evill men flourish Psal 37. Psal 71.2 3. so Jer. 12.1 yet it is but to fat them for the slaughter Jer. 12.3 Therefore the soule is immortall that every man may find the justice of God at last 6. The learned heathen did acknowledge this Arist Cic. Tusc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling the soul the first motion as if it were the beginning of motion so by their letting an Eagle flie aloft when the bodies of their Heroes were put into the funerall fires It is true that the Scripture saith the soul that sinneth that shall die but the meaning is not that the soul shall be dissolved in his essentiall life but in the relative life to God-ward by whose goodness and mercy it obtaineth an eternall felicity Mathe. But how can I prove that it hath any existence after the death of the body Phila. Because it is distinguished in this by all wise men from the souls or life of bruits for the spirit of a man goeth upward and the spirit of a beast goeth downward Eccles 3.21 And again Eccles 12.7 the dust shall return to the earth and the spirit to God that gave it which returning to God signifies the souls immortality Psallus that is as God alwaies is so the soule is subsisting with God for if the soule be immortall it cannot wax old Phocylid but must live ever so that you must denie the soule to be immortall or else grant that it never dieth But the old Chaldeans and Egyptians shall rise against such Christians whose precept was that a man should make haste to the light and splendors of the Father and to seek Paradise which is the splendid and cleer region of the soule Trismegistus confirms the perpetuall being of the soul Cic. Tusc Pythagoras saith as much and Tully from him Epictetus saith we are the kinsmen of God and return from whence we came Plat. in Phaed. Comment Mo◠Zill Hisp in Plat. Plato is more clear then any And St Paul himselfe makes use of Aratus in the Acts saying We are Gods off-spring Acts 17.28 But beside Christ gives us greater light in the point John 3.36 saying He that beleeveth in me hath life eternall and to the thief he said This day thou shalt be with me when as that day both their bodies were dead 1 Cor. 5.1 So St Paul saith We know when this earthly house is dissolved we have a building of God in the heavens He doth not say when this house shall be repaired as at the resurrection but so soon as it is dissolved So in the fifth verse saith he When we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and therefore are willing to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord therefore he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ And St Stephen praieth God to
wander and so help to nourish Christian communion which is almost lost And this is all he aimeth at and praieth for who is and ever by Gods grace will be Thine as thou art Christs Benjamin Spencer These Books following are printed and to be sold by William Hope on the North side of the Royall Exchange at his shop next door to St Bartholomews Church THE Faith Doctrine and Religion professed in this Realm of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging Expressed in Thirty Nine Articles by Thomas Rogers The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the Distressed Also his Devout Soule and Free Prisoner by Jos Hall D. D. and B N. The New Covenant Or The Saints Portion by John Preston D.D. Bethel Or A form for Families in which all sorts of both Sexes are so squar'd and fram'd by the Word as they may best serve in their severall places for usefull pieces in Gods building by Matthew Griffith The Holy Lives of Gods Prophets by J. H. The Abridgement of the Body of Divinity of that Famous and Reverend Divine Mr William Perkins A True Relation of the Unjust Cruel and Barbarous proceedings against the English at Amboyna in the East-Indies by the Netherlandish Governor and Council there Godly Meditations upon the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Christopher Sutton Doctor in Divinity late one of the Prebends of the Collegiate Church of Westminster A Fountain of Teares by that Reverend divine Iohn Featley D.D. Chaplain to his late Majesty Some Sacramentall Instructions Or An explication of the Principles of Religion by T. B. B D. Pastor of M. O. London A Triumphant Arch Erected and Consecrated to the Glory of the Feminine Sex By Monsieur de Scudery Englished by I. B. Gent. The Generall History of Women Containing the Lives of the most Holy and Prophane the most Famous and Infamous in all ages exactly described not only from Poeticall Fictions but from the most Ancient Modern and admired Historians to our times by T. H. Gent. Heroick Education Or Choice Maximes and Instructions for the most sure and facile training up of youth in the waies of eminent learning and vertues by I. B. Gent. Gerardo the Unfortunate Spaniard Or a Pattern for Lascivious Lovers Originally in Spanish and made English by L. D. Poems By Francis Beaumont Gent. Colloquia Plautina viginti Ex totidem M. Plauti Comoediis excerpta Annotatiunculis marginalibus illustrata Opera Alexandri Rossaei A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHETES Mathetes REverend Sir I have presumed upon your goodnesse and long acquaintance you being a lover of truth and of all those that love it to designe this day to wait upon you and to give you the trouble to satisfie some questions whereby my mind may be established in this wavering world wherein severall societies of Christians do all lay claime to truth as theirs only with as great fervency as the two women pleaded before King Solomon for the child which could not possibly have two mothers So surely there is but one truth and but one right and true profession of it Philalethes I hope your Religion is not now to seek Mathe. Not altogether but I confess I would be glad to find satisfaction more fully about that religion in which I was born and bred that so I may not beleeve implicitly as because my parents were of this or that religion but that I may be able to render a reason of mine own faith Phila. Your endeavour is good but I fear you are troubled with the staggers or vertigo a braine giddinesse bred by the inordinate motion of spirits in the ventricle of the brain so I beleeve your mind is made light and frothy by some evil notions unwarily received or by a multitude of good notions not wel disposed like unto good meat that being not well digested will breed a disease as well as vicious diet this may be some cause of your wavering Mathe. I think Sir you say right For I confesse to you that I have met with some spirits that have made me in such a maze and brought me into such alabyrinth that I have turned Seeker of what I had and a Shaker in what I held yet I find my first tenets in the Protestant Religion to be the best but I want confirmation For some tell me that I cannot prove there is a God or that man hath asoule immortall more then other creatures and that it comes only by generation and hath no existence after death And when I endeavour to confute them by Scripture they bid me prove the Scriture to be the word of God when I seek to prove that by Scripture they say it cannot bear witness to its selfe for that is to prove the same by the same If I flie to the tradition of the Church they aske me what Church is the true Church Or if I offer them the sence of Scripture to prove what they demand then they ask me who shall be judge whether that be the true sense or no If I say our Church of England Gabr à porta Bicl in can miss lect 23. they deny her to be true If I say the Church of Rome others prove her and her Pope too Hereticall If I say the reformed Churches of Geneva Helvetia or Scotland they tell me they are schismaticall so that I am in a great straight with Job to know where wisdome is to be found Job 28.12 or where is the place of understanding Phila. You need not seek far the word is neer thee from whence such reasons may be deduced that will answer all these opinions But if men will not hear these reasons I must tell them they have no faith but either humane or divelish not divine faith which beleeves that there is a word of God and beleeves God upon that word But I will not anticipate tell me therefore what was the first thing which troubled you Mathe. Even the same with which I troubled my selfe being a child or something else troubled me by casting into my mind what that God was of whom my parents had told me whether he was before the world what he did then before he made it And I have met with some of as little wit as I my selfe then had or else of deeper reach either to bring us into some form which yet we have not had or else to bring us all to confusion and then out of that chaos to raise up a Church of their own framing and boast of it as did Nebuchadnezzer Is not this great Babel which I have built Phila. As these thoughts came into your mind for want of knowledge of God at first so do these scrupulous queries come into it for want of subjecting your selfe to that knowledge which God hath offered to you of himselfe For the soul of man being rational and discoursive will run into many vagaries and grow extravagant without rule and so misse God wherein standeth mans eternall happinesse Mathe.
uniting of the male and female seed the corporall parts whereof although they must have a time to ferment 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 Obj. But then you will say 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 Ans To this it is answered 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 crâ—â—â—ed 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 bâ—â— 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 can there be no ground for imputation and so it cannot passe but by propagation Mathe. But how prove you Christs soule not immediatly created Phila. Because he was to take mans nature body and soule that both by him might be redeemed Therefore he took whole humane nature of the blessed virgin as was promised The seed of the woman shal break the serpents head and Rom. 1.3 He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Beside if soules and so his soule were immediately created of God then Adams sin must be imputed to him as he was man as well as to us and so he should be a sinner but sin was not imputed to him but only reputed his And then if it came not by immediate creation then it came by formation in the womans seed as ours by propagation And if we understand it not thus that it was immediately formed in the first conception i. when the holy Ghost separated that part of the blessed Virgins seed for his Manhood to the soule whereof the divinity was immediatly united to the body This dilemma will trouble us namely that either his divine nature was united to a bruit body or else the body subsisted by it selfe our of the Divine nature Mathe. But if Christs humane nature were thus formed or propagated I see not yet how he can ever the more escape the taint of originall sin Phila. I suppose you beleeve that he was conceived by the holy Ghost and so the matter of his humane nature was sanctified and purged from that stain Mathe. I beleeve he was conceived by the holy Ghost yet I know not how to beleeve that that conception was sanctifying or purging away of sin from his humane nature nor his humane nature from sin but only a separation and consecration of that part of the blessed Virgins substance to that holy work and endowment of it with all graces sit thereunto For there can be no sanctification without a Mediatour and there is but one Mediator 1 Tim. 2.5 by whose blood all are cleansed from sin yea the holy Ghost cleanseth none but by his blood so that if Christs nature did need sanctification then it also needed a Mediatour and then he must be a Mediatour for himselfe which he could not be for a Mediatour is not a Mediatour of one Phila. You say true and have almost wound your selfe out of this labyrinth For indeed the holy Ghost in this conception did not cleanse Christs nature from sin but did separate that substance which was not sinfull from a sinfull person for a person only is sinfull substance is not Now Christ did not take her person but substance only leaving the accident of sin which adhereth only to a person and so though Christs nature were in Adam and so in the Virgin who was of that sinfull line yet his person was in neither for he was the eternall son of God who in that instant that the humane nature was conceived or separated by the holy Ghost from the blessed Virgin Mary did assume it into himselfe to be one person and thus his nature could never be tainted with originall sin for his humane nature before that was never a person and when it was a person it was propagated not after the ordinary and naturall way and so without sin Nay more the substance of his humane nature though it were sinfull subsisting in the blessed Virgins person yet so it could not be Christs because personality cannot be imparted but it was made his by separation from her by the holy Ghost and his own immediate assumption and so great is the mystery of Godlinesse 1 Tim. 1.16 The not conceiving this rightly made the Marcionites and Manicheans say Christ had no true body and Apollinaris to say he had no humane soule Mathe. I thank you for these solutions but yet one thing stichs namely how the soule can be said to be immortall if it be propagated Phila. Consider that mortality proceeds not from generation so much as malediction of God for Adams sin who if he had not sinned his body might have been as immortall as the soule so that the propagation of the soule doth not make it meerly mortall but the act of Gods immediate power in the production of it makes it immortall because whatsoever is so produced cannot be dissolv'd but by the same power by which it first took life though the body may because it is bred only by the power of nature beside the soule is not made of any corporall matter and therefore is not corruptible though congenerate with the body Mathe. Now being somewhat satisfied about the soule I pray tell what principles are there to lead it to felicity Phila. Some principles there be which God hath given to nature and left in nature to seek felicity but as some know what happinesse is so others make no use of those principles Mathe. I pray what is felicity Phila. Mans soveraign and chiefest good consisteth in the enjoiment of God which confers to man concurrence of all good without any contrarieties which is opposed to that misery into which he is fallen by the first mans sin namely blindnesse of mind fondnesse of affection stubbornnesse of will inclineablenesse to all evill way wardnesse from all good for which cause we are subjected to vanity corruptibilitie all miseries of body and soul temporal and eternall death and damnation Now mans felicity is an estate contrary to all these After this many learned Philosophers searched but could not find it and why Because they knew not God from whom it proceeds and is the giver of it by redeeming man from all misery and from death to life by his free grace in Christ which is life eternall and true felicity to know aright John 17.3 Mathe. What principles lead thereunto Phila. Not the principles of nature only for they teach no further than there is a felicity but not what it is which made the Philosophers in such a labyrinth about it some placing it in pleasure some in poverty Vid. Varro some in knowledge some in riches some in honours as many people doe now For as some aim at no end or mark at all but like foolish children shoot their arrowes up in the aire some aim at a bad end in which can be no happinesse some at a seeming good which is not good in it selfe some at felicity in generall but go blindly and lamely about it wanting right leading principles The principles are such therefore as God hath revealed who is in himselfe the chiefest good and therefore can best ordaine the way whereby man may enjoy him This way is set down in the holy Scriptures for which Scriptures sake the world was made that so in time that might be revealed 〈◊〉 which in God was hidden at the beginning namely that Christ should come and redeem
charity which is the end of them though not the exact severity So many holy men had dispensation in those times which is not competent with us Abraham to make his halfe sister his wife Iacob to have many wives which is not competent with other ages Mal. 2.15 and therefore reproved by the Prophet So neither are those actions imitable which many were agitated to by zeal and fervour of spirit for Gods cause as that of Moses to excite one brother to slay another nor that of Phineas in transferring Zimri and Cosbi for what actions are exorbitant from common Law are not to be made exemplar Mathe. What may we judge of those that are called Apocryphall books Ph. We are to think them as helps to understand Scripture in many places especially Solomon Wisd and Eccl. Judith Tobie Esdras Mac. and to know the State of the Jewes before the Prophet Malachies time in their captivity and after it also And so neither to contemn them nor yet to build our faith upon all things there written as the Church of Rome injoineth people to do under penalty of a curse as we are to beleeve the Canonicall Scriptures Conc. Trid. but to trie what analogy they hold with truth and so make use of them as in Heb. 11.35 takes an instance of faith from the mother of seven sons 2 Machab. 7.7 Mathe. Some make doubt of the Scriptures Canonicalness because they say there be more books in the world then we have inserted in our Bibles and all that we have in our account Canonicall are not thought to be so Phila. You need not trouble your selfe with that but rather make an holy use of that we have by building our selves up in our holy faith and thank God that he hath reserved for us by his Church a copy of sacred writ sufficient for our salvation which is written that we may beleeve and the rest lost or left out John 21.25 that we may not look after more then is necessary The Jewes reckoned but 22 books of the old Testament we find more Joseph cent Appion Vid. Concil Lao. de lib. Canon Magd. cent 4. fol. 838. c. 4. yet they contained as much as we have but their compiling differed from ours And these were consigned by Ezra the scribe after the return from Babylon in the time of Hagge Zachary and Malachy all in Hebrew Which tongue though it be a good signe of Canonicall Scripture yet it is not the only signe for many of the Apocryphall books were so written at first as Ecclesiasticus seems to be by the Preface a book of great worth and next sure to the Wisedome of Solomon So Tobit and the fourth of Esdras but rather the consignation of the Jewish Church and their continuall receipt of them for such Atha in Synop. So some write of more Psalms of David then 150. but if we should admit of more I feare it would encourage many selfe conceited men to make Psalms too under pretence that they had the spirit of God as well as David as did some in the Councill of Laodicea Conc. Lao. ut supra c. 59. and urged for it Ioel 2. your sons and daughters shall prophecy which Council excludes or at least omits the Epistle to the Colossians and the Apocalyps yet it reckons 14 Epistles of St Pauls of which that to the Colossians must be one or else there is but 13. Kirstonius in Arab. notes on the Evangel Calv. vid. Bod. method hist c. 7. And why the Apocalyps was left out it may be was because more lately written and divulged except the Councill were of their minds who reckoned it Apocrypha or theirs who slighted it as Ambrese did Persius the Satyrist because of its obscurity We read also of the Gospell of St Thomas and St Bartholomew all which is nothing to us so long as we know that our old Testament and the Jewes agree together still and are the same they were in the time of Christ And for the New Testament we have those that have been generally received as Orthodoxall by the Church and for 1300 years together consigned as Canonicall by the Councils as Nice Laodicea and Carthage Mathe. But whether have not the Iewes corrupted the old Testament Phila. 1. Aug. They would not certainly out of envy to the Gentiles rob their own posterity of the truth Philo. Beside they held it as a sin inexpiable so to do Polanus leb 1. cap. 37. and would die an hundred deaths rather then change one jot of them They know also that the world was created for the Scriptures sake and therefore the world would be turned to a chaos ere they should be altered and so they were faithfull trustees Rom. 3.2 But 2. They could not do it for there was so many Copies dispersed by reason of their dispersion over the world that it was impossible to corrupt it Bellarm. Beside certainly God would not suffer that to be corrupted by which he meant to save the world and therefore Christ said Luke 16.17 that not one iota should perish till heaven and earth passed away Mat. 5.18 And 3. They did not for then they would above all other places expunged or altered those that related to Christ as Esa 7. ver 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive Gnalemah Bethulah not a young woman for that had been no wonder nor worth the world Behold So Esa 9.6 To us a child is born and a Son is given called Wonderfull c. Nor did they deface his passion though they deformed him foreprophecied so clearly Esa 53. Bellarm. Which words in their own language do more forcibly convince the Jewes then the Vulgar Latine doth as in Psal 2.12 Kisse the Son Nesheku Bar. i. embrace Christ not Discipline And therefore certainly the Old Testament was not corrupted by the Jewes 4. Our Saviour never charged them with corrupting the Text but only with misunderstanding or mis-interpreting nor any of the Fathers in their writing against them Just Marr. except one for wronging the Septuagints translation So that it is void of corruption however in the reading there may be some variation yet no deprvation of the Copy Mathe. But methinks they deliver things impossible and some things contradictory and some things in them seem doubtfull in regard of difference of text and margent in the old Testament and diversity of readings in the new Phila. Not things impossible to him whose word it is who to his works requires our faith more then our understandings else his works did not exceed magitians 2. Nor is there any contradictions in them if you observe the rule of contradictions which must be a assertion of the same thing at the same time according to the same part notion or apprehension You must know therefore that there is a vast difference between Scriptures and other books For they do not omit somethings out of mis-knowledge as other books
condition predestinate one and not another unlesse it be out of some foresight of ones vertue and 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
govern of of Judea but Augustus made him King and the Senate confirmed it Now was the full time for Shiloh to come and set up another Kingdome that never should have end For he began with death where all Empires do end and riseth again in despite of death and so reigneth over the quick and the dead which Kingdome is everlasting and never shall end as God promised David Mathe. But what necessity is it that Christ should be born of a Virgin Phila. I say First It was so And secondly It must needs be so First it was so you may see in the Prophet Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and if he had meant a young woman Betuloth the Hebrew word given of Rebekah signifying one ripe for marriage or Ishah a virago a match for a man as was given of Adam to Eve might have served Alamoth is writ with ס clausum so Jaâ—ob called him Sbiloh the son of the Secundine which belongs not to a man 1 John and not Alamoth a covered virgin And indeed such an one she must be that he may be of womans seed not mans Nay more that he may be a fit Redeemer For if we suppose man a sinner against an infinite God either he must be subjected to infinite wrath or satisfie that wrath some other way If a man doubt that he be a sinner and so deceive himselfe by conceiving that sins are nothing but mans properties and inclinations which beasts have and yet sin not let him consider that meer nature will do nothing to destroy it selfe Prov. 1. though depraved nature will An horse drinks no more then will do him good but man will In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird yet men are caught by that they know and which they wilfully offend This argueth something of sin by which we remain not in the honor of our creation but became worse then the beasts that perish Now for this sin all men must suffer eternall wrath except God can be satisfied Now Angels cannot for they be not of our kind or if they were they be so many severall personalities as there are Angels and as the sin of one taints not anothers nature except there be a personall consent so neither can one merit for another though there be consent And for the other creatures irrationall they cannot because they are of lesse value then mans nature The blood of buls and of goats and sheep Heb. 10.4 5. and birds though sacrificed yet that was not to satisfie but to shew what man deserved and in reference to a more full satisfaction to be done in due time For which cause God dispensed with such sacrifice for a time Heb. 9.22 for mans relative instruction that without bloodshedding could be no remission Therefore this redemption must be made by a man because that man had offended so in the old law a brother must redeem But he must be more then a man too for no man that is meerly a man can redeem his brother out of Gods hand of justice Psal so then he must be one that is equivalent with God that the sword of justice must be exercised upon Zach. 13.7 Awake Osword against him that is my fellow Therefore if he must be a man then he must not be begotten by the ordinary way of generation by man and woman for then he is a sinner in the first conception Psal 51. and so had need of a Redeemer himselfe Nor by a man only for nature hath denied conception breeding and bearing to a man Then he must of necessity be made of a woman without a man and then she must needs be a virgin and though this Virgin her selfe came of a sinfull line yet sin being but an accident is left and the substance of her was only taken and immediately united to the divine nature by the power of the Holy Ghost so making both natures one person by which he becomes so meritorious a Redeemer for all mankind Mathe. What Prophecies are there of his Death Resurrection and Ascension Phila. Not to trouble you with heathen oracles or the prophecies of those twelve Exotick women the Sybils though such be enough to confute the heathens who deny Christ and have been used by some ancient Doctors to that purpose yet because I would that your faith should neither be diabolicall nor historicall but divine I shall only commend Scripture to you Therefore as his Nativity was prophecied by Jacob Gen. 49.10 under the name of Shiloh and fulfilled Mat. 2.1 in the daies of Herod the King And the place of his birth prophecied by Micah Mic. 5.2 Thou Bethelem Ephrata out of thee shall come the Ruler of Israel i. the Israel of God in a spirituall sense and government Rom. 9 6. for all are not Israel that are of Israel by nature no more then they are Jewes that are so outwardly by Nation or Country Rom. 2.28 Which prophecy of Micah was fulfilled Mat. 2.1 when Jesus was born at Bethelem And the condition of his Mother prophecied by Isaiah 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive fulfilled also Luke 1.27 The Angell Gabriel was sent to a Virgin called Mary espoused to Joseph but not carnally known by him Mat. 1.25 yea his very name Immanuel was foretold by Isaiah which was the name of union God united to man Isa 7.14 and so the beleevers as it is said should call or apprehend him Mat. 1.23 But in regard of the effect of his redemption his Mother should call his name Jesus Mat. 1.21 and so she did Luke 2.21 And thus as Isaiah said cap. 9.6 To us a child is born and to us a Son is given Luke 2.7 so to us he was born Luke 2.11 that was wonder by his wisdome and miracles the everlasting Father by his divine essence not subsistence and the Prince of peace by his reconciliation of God and man And this birth of his was not only sanctified by circumcision on the eight day Luke 1.21 as Isaacs figure was Gen. 21.4 but also it was graced by a star foretold by Balaam Num. 24.17 and fulfilled Mat. 2.9 which conducted the wise men out of the East to Jerusalem and then to Bethelem where they worshipped him and offered precious things to him which was foretold Psal 45.12 the rich among the people shall do thee homage and the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift And Kings shall bring presents to thee Psal 68.29 And the Kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts Psal 72.10 And to him shall be given of the gold of Arabia Psal 72.15 and all this was fulfilled Mat. 2.11 when those great wise men of the East did worship him and offer to him gold incense and myrrhe So also was his death prophecied of First by God himselfe Christs death Luke 22.53 in Gen. 3.15 saying to the serpent thou shalt bruise his heel And this was done by the power of darknesse when
Phaenicia and Palestina and beat the army of Heraclius also and composed the Alcoran for their Religion by the help of some Jewes and Sergius the Nestorian Heretick that denied the personall union of two natures in Christ and also by the help of John of Antiochia an Arrian Heretick who made it a medlie of the Pagan-Jewes and Christian Religion Saracen per. to the acknowledging of which Mahomet ordained all whom he conquered should be compelled by fire and sword which proved a terrible plague to many Christians Mathe. But what other persecutions arose from one Christian to another Phila. As they suffered from the Arrians and Eutychians so they did afterward from the Roman when ambition and covetousnesse 〈◊〉 made the Bishop of Rome rich potent and universall Therefore you must know that after the Empire began to stand like Nebuchadnezzars image on two legs the East and West part much decaied till Pope Leo the third perceiving the decay of the East proclaimed Charls the great Emperour in the West Mathe. How did the Pope first get to such an height to proclaim the Emperour Phila. You must know that before the reign of Constantine most of the Bishops of Rome were Martyrs or Confessors to the number of thirty from Linus the first Bishop who began to govern the Church of Rome after Peter and Paul had suffered But after the reign of Constantine and his sons the Bishops of Rome grew in higher esteem more and more First in being made Patriarchs together with the Bishops of Alexandria and Antiochia by the generall Councill of Nice for the timely suppressing of heresies But he got the start of them all and was accepted as the prime Bishop both in regard of the antiquity of his See and also because his seat was in the most ancient imperiall City Rome But he began to encroach and usurp authority exceedingly as others did who succeeded him But when I say such an one succeeded next I mean not alwaies the next in person but in regard of his office though some came between for my intent is not to make an absolute direct chronology or catalogue of them but to shew which of them was most active in advancing Antichristian Tyrauny though here and there some of them were of better condition Therefore as Pope Zepherinus before the Emperour Constantine Popes pride begins to appear Zepherinus Innocent Caelestius would have no Bishop condemned till his cause was heard by the Bishop of Rome So afterward Innocentius the first the predecessor to Zozimus writ to the Councill of Carthage that no Decree could be firm till allowed by the Chair of Rome whom Caelestinus followed and urged submission of the Church of Carthage to the Chair of Rome and therefore they should receive Appiarius whom they had excommunicated for appealing from his own Bishop to the Bishop of Rome but they regarded him not Faelix the third did also excommunicate Acacius Bishop of Constantinople because he absolved Petrus Moggux the Eutychian heretick without his leave upon which Acacius did as much for him But Gelasius his successor was more peremptory Gelasius for he plainly declared that the Church of Rome should be the Judge of all Churches but be judged by none nor would be reconciled to the Eastern Bishops except they would excommunicate Acacius and raze his name out of the catalogue of Bishops He also made bold to excommunicate the Emperour Anastasius for favouring the Eutychian heresie which example was by his successors put in execution upon Emperors without being hereticks So Faelix the fourth excommunicated also Athanasius Patriarch of Constantinople for heresie And Bonifacius the second Faelix upheld the authority of the Roman See against the Church of Carthage and Hippo and maintained Eutalius appeale to Rome against Aurelius Bishop of Carthage and Augustine Bishop of Hippo and a Councill of two hundred reverend Fathers so much did Rome affect superiority And by all these proud Prelates Vigilius had got stomack enough to resist the Emperour and his fifth generall Council of Constantinople though he came in not by the door but by means of Theodora a wicked Empresse who had caused Silverius Bishop of Rome to be banished who succeeded Boniface the second and placed Vigilius for bribes and base promises in his Chaire Pelagius the first that succeeded Vigilius was more crafty then peremptory for though he was vexed at Honoratus Bishop of Millain because he ordained Paulinus to succeed Macedonius Bishop of Aquileia without his leave yet he put it as a contempt of the Emperour Justinian in his relation of it to Narses the Emperours generall hoping to creep into sovereignty the more securely under colour of respect to the Civill Magistrate John the third and Benedict the first did not stickle much because the Lombards at that time much oppressed Italy Pelagius the second was elected without the knowledge of the Emperour but that was excused by the Popes Embassadour Gregory because that Rome was so strictly besieged that no messenger could be sent unto him This Gregory the first succeeded Pelagius by the choice of the Clergy and people of Rome he seemed unwilling to accept it and wrote letters to the Emperour to refuse their choice which were intercepted and other letters sent to desire the Emperours condescension He first set up the stile that the Popes use still in their title the servant of the servants of God in opposition to John the foster-Patriarch of Constantinople Servus servorum Dei who usurped the stile of universall Bishop and called him the forerunner of Antichrist yet he basely flattered Phocas the Emperour in his Epistles who had murthered his Lord Mauritius his wife and children This Gregory forbad spirituall men to marry Marriage forbidden to the Clergy but was forced to recall it because of their fornication and murthering of young infants so begotten But though this Pope did declaime against the title of universall Bishop and Fabianus his successor did not claim it yet his next successor Boniface the third did obtain it of Phocas by absolving him the murther of Mauritius namely to be Bishop of Bishops and that the Church of Rome should be the head of all Churches After him came Boniface the fourth obtained of Phocas the heathen Temple called Pantheon because it was built to the honour of all the heathen gods and dedicated it to all Saints and appointed an holiday to be kept in their honour so Idolatry crept in which afterward was the cause of much persecution for he took it from the heathen gods and by it made gods of the Saints Theodalus succeeds him and brings in Antichrist by an Ordinance that none should marry that woman that had been witnesse with him at Baptisme which was never forbidden by Gods Law or Gospell So Boniface the fifth who succeeded him constitutes that no man who took sanctuary for any crime should be violently taken out from thence Popes usurpation over civill power
brought upon such Mathe. I pray let me know that Phila. First Heresie and Schisme is a greater sin against humane society then murther for that destroieth but some men but Heresie and Schisme destroieth or endeavoureth to destroy the Church 2. Murther can but destroy the body but this the soule Murther destroies only naturall life but this destroieth life spirituall and eternall Beside Heresie rents a man from the truth and Schisme from the communion of the Church and so breaks the bond of unity and charity by which God is forsaken as well as the Church and if they think to maintain these rents they have made from the Church of England to be lawfull let them tell you what Church hath lesse error or lesse evill manners and yet maintains none either by her doctrine or authority I beleeve they will find even the Church of Corinth and many of the Churches of lesser Asia to be guilty of greater error and worse manners then the Church of England was when they separated from it and yet Paul cals one the Church of God and Christ in the Revelation doth call the other Churches yet these men while they condemn the Church of England of tyranny they have been more cruell to themselves by separation then the Church could be or was by excommunication Mathe. I pray before you tell me of their punishments let me know what other kind of Sectaries have vexed the Church Phila. Papists when they were in authority they persecuted the Church when they were supprest Papists then secretly they corrupt the Church By Papists I mean not the old before the Trent Councill or rather Conventicle begun in the year 1546. in the time of Pope Paulus the third though they were bad enough but the Papists that sprung up since because they have brought in new errors as other new Sectaries have done As 1. Concerning free will that it works by it selfe with grace in our conversion though the Apostle saith that the naturall man receiveth not the things of God 2. 1 Cor. 2.14 They say originall sin is quite taken away in baptisme so that it ceaseth to be sin yet St. Paul saith that when he doth that which is evill it is by sin that dwelleth in him Rom. 7.17 So they hold that the certainty of salvation depends only upon hope not on faith contrary to John 1.12 saying Christ gave them power to be made the sons of God that beleeved on his name They say the merit of Christs death and obedience is our satisfaction not our righteousnesse but Paul saith he was made to us righteousnesse and made sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So they say we are justified by a generall faith of apprehension by which we beleeve the Scriptures to be true but Paul saith by a particular faith of application of Christ and all his merits to our selves as Gal. 2.20 who died for me and gave himselfe for me So they say a man is not justified by faith alone but by other vertues but Paul saith we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law for indeed good works do but justifie our faith not us nor do they justifie us as a cause but are signs and fruits of our justification So they say a man may merit at Gods hands because God hath promised to reward us and Christ hath deserved that out works should merit but Paul refuseth all for Christs merits and desireth only to be found in him Phil. 3.9 and not in his own righteousnesse So they say that Christ hath satisfied for our sins and eternall punishment belonging to them but the temporall we must satisfie in this world or in purgatory It is true we must satisfie men for wrongs done this is but a civill satisfaction So we must fatisfie the Church by some testimony of repentance if we have offended the Church but we know of none we can make to God but only in Christ and for purgatory after life we find none in Scripture but beleeve as death leaves us so judgement finds us So they talk much of traditions to be beleeved as necessary to salvation because the Apostle bids the Thessalonians to hold fast the traditions which they had been taught 2 Thes 2.14 whether by word or by our Epistle But then they ought to prove to us that the traditions which they would have us receive are such as were delivered of Christ to his Apostles or from the Apostles to the Church 2 Tim. 3.16 or else give us leave only to hold that the Scriptures alone hold forth to us all things necessary to salvation So they hold vowes of things not commanded are a part of Gods worship such as is a vowed single life wilfull poverty and blind regular obedience which destroy Christian Liberty and therefore till they prove such things commanded in Scripture they must give us leave to hold only our vow in baptisme and to reject the other as humane inventions of seducing spirits spoken against 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. So they hold the worshipping of images to be a religious work but that is forbidden in the second Commandement which they have taken away and divided the tenth into two Pascha Raubertus first sets it forth in lib de Corp. Christi sang cap 14. Ioannes Diaconus in vita Grego 1. Legend of Simeon Metaphrastes in vit Arsenii the better to bring the people to image-worshipping So they hold Christ to be bodily present in the Communion Bread and Wine a strange opinion which was at first but at School-Question afterward maintained by tales and fictions of Christ appearing in the Sacrament like a little child A shamefull opinion to subject Christ to orall eating and gutturall swallo wing True it is that Christ is really there present in a spirituall and mysticall manner in a Sacramentall relation to the signs and by faith to the beleeving receivers yet I know the Church of Rome hath peremptorily condemned them for hereticks that would not hold the bodily presence For Pope Leo the ninth and Victor the second and Nicolaus the second called Councils against Berengarius who had disproved it by Aug. and Scotus Yet Pope Innocent the third in his Conventicle of Lateran gave it the name of Transubstantiation and ratified the doctrine thereof and hath been the destruction of many a godly Martyrs life in the time of Queen Mary So they call the Lords Supper a sacrifice which they call the Masse and it serves for the quick and dead with them But it is not properly so called but only as it is a memoriall of Christs offering up himselfe or because then we do in Christ offer up our selves a living sacrifice or because we make an offering at that time for the Minister and the poor So they make fasting it selfe a part of Gods worship Rom. 14.17 whereas the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meat or drink nor in fasting from it
his spirit that are not his members Indeed there be some things that beare a resemblance with it in which the world is received and that is 1. Civility or common honesty and the next is restraining grace by which they may be said to be sanctified sacramentally or putatively Heb. 10.26 or disposed toward it Heb. 6.4 5. but this is but to have it fieri but non in facto esse i. in a way toward it but not in throughly or truly and therefore men must distinguish between civility which is wrought meerly by morall education according to naturall principles without any knowledge or desire of knowing Gods word but they are carefull to maintain equity and common honesty for the keeping up of trade and commendation of themselves upon which ground also they keep themselves from drunkennesse whoredome and enormous crimes without relation to Gods word Now sanctification though it incline to the same things or duties yet it doth it by the true medium of heavenly light which is the word of God and they that do not so are as far from sanctification as the heathen morallists Now their civility and all meer naturall mens honesty stands principally in the duties of the second table where the light of nature is most clear but for matters of piety in the first table they observe it but ceremoniously and so far as they conduce to preserve their credit among those they live withall but true sanctification hath an eie to both to give to Caesar and to God their severall duties Mat. 22.21 So the morall holy man rests only in negatives and thinks it charity enough not to do hurt but true holinesse doth both eschew evill and do good 1 Pet. 3.11 So the morall man thinks it holinesse enough to professe a dislike of popery and to quarrell with a Bishops dignity though they be utterly ignorant of the orthodox faith and the grounds of the true worship of God Again civility never goeth beyond the outward man Mat. because it takes hold only of the outward letter of the law but passeth over the spirituall sense of it So he that hath restraining grace which he takes for sanctification is much deceived for the difference between them is that restraining grace hath painfulnesse and discontentment at the bridle that God puts upon them and at the bands wherewith they are bound at which they rage Psal 2.1 3. as horses that some upon the bit by which they are guided whereas a man that is truly sanctified desireth that his very inclinations to evill were utterly abolished that it might not rebell against the law of the mind Rom. 7.23 Again they desire to extend their Christian liberty to the utmost without enquiring after the bounds of liberty or the expedience of putting it in practice but a man sanctified desireth to subsist within his bounds 1 Cor. 6.12 and had rather live where nothing is lawfull then where all things are lawful Beside there is great difference in their absteining from sin for restraining grace makes one abstaine from sin for fear or shame because they would give the greater liberty to some sin which they desire to nourish Aug. de civit dei l. 5. c. 12. as some heathens abstained from injustice intemperance and covetousnesse by that unbounded desire which they had after glory and dominion but he that is sanctified escheweth evill because it is evill and displeasing to God of whose love he hath had so large experience that he trembles to offend him Psal 130.4 Again they that have only restraining grace when the means of that straint is removed grow licentious as Israel when they had no King Judg. 17.6 and the 18.19 but they that are sanctified are a law to themselves 1 Tim. 1.9 they need none of the terrors of it though they are willing to be led by the doctrine of it By these rules thou maist know whether thou art sanctified or not and from these marks arise an assured hope of eternall glory because we carry about us the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen of which at the first it may be we have but a conjecture i. a light inclination to the probability of Gospell truths next an opinion wherein the mind is more strongly swaied to think it true Next comes faith which makes a firm and undoubtfull perswasion of the truth of it Now in this case some have a little faith some a full assurance of it which is peculiar to Gods people and they may know they have it by the comfort that it affords to one under the pressures of sin and Gods justice Psal 73.23 24. and also by the ravishing of the affections to the love of those truths which is very strange and supernaturall for there is no greater antipathy in the world then there is between mans heart and Gods word and yet by faith is bred such affection to it that a man will give his life rather then one tittle of this truth should faile and beside it worketh a strange change in the whole man from sin to righteousnesse that one can hardly know him to be the same man Lact. de falsa sapient l. 3. c. 27 Non abscindit sed abscondit vitia This Philosophy could never attain to but rather hides sin then removes it but the word of God is so powerfull in operation that it not only removes sin but also all doubtfulnesse of the truth of Gospel-truth more then the authority of the Church can do which is variable and possibly erroneous So much of the rules of sanctification and hope of glory Mathe. Whereunto doth sanctification advance us more then common Christians Phila. To a true repentance and a communion with God and his Saints in the Catholick Church Mathe. I desire to know what these things are truly in themselves for I fear some do as much mistake true repentance as the Sectaries do the communion of Saints and the Papists do the Catholick Church Phila. You say true but repentance which is holy and sanctified is not a fretting griefe which some take at sin because it hath brought them into a dangerous condition for which they wish the sin undone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no place being left for other advice and counsell This hurts the mind and casts it from the hinges of deliberation except God turn it to a change of mind whereby one becomes more wise afterward to amend what he hath done amisse and to make amends for his error 2 Cor. 7.9 10. The cause of the one is the spirit of adoption whereby we are sealed the sons of God The cause of the other is the spirit of servitude the one arising from the Gospel-promises the other from the threatnings of the law for fear of condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both are well distinguished by St Luke The godly repentance Acts 2.37 they were pricked in their hearts for their unkindnesse to Christ but Acts