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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	wonder_n	world_n	year_n	28	3	3.9236	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27017	The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633.	1650 (1650)	Wing B1383; ESTC R17757	797,603	962

Whatsoever any man affirmes to me and works a real Miracle to confirme it I must needs take my self bound 〈◊〉 believe him Object But what if some one should work miracles to confirme a Doctrine contrary to Scripture Would you believe it Doth not Paul say if an Angel from Heaven teach any other Gospel let him be accursed Answ. I am sure God will never give any false teacher the power of confirming his Doctrine by Miracles else God should subscribe his name to contradictions The appearance of an Angel is no Miracle though a wonder Secondly But the maine assault I know will be made against the Minor proposition of the Argument and so the question will be de facto whether ever such Miracles were wrought or no I shall grant that we must not here argue circularly to prove the Doctrine to be of God by the miracles and then the miracles to have been wrought by the Divine Testimony of the Doctrine and so round But yet to use the Testimony of the History of Scripture as a humane Testimony of the matter of fact is no circular arguing SECT II. TOward the confirmation of the Minor therefore I shall first lay these grounds That there is so much certainty in some Humane Testimony that may exclude all doubting or cause of doubting or there is some Testimony immediately Humane which yet may truly be said to be Divine That such Testimony we have of the Miracles mentioned in Scripture If these two be cleared the Minor will stand firme and the maine work here will be done First I will therefore shew you that there is such a certainty in some Humane Testimony Both experience and Reason will confirme this First I would desire any rationall man to tell me Whether he that never was at London at Paris or at Rome may not be certaine by a Humane faith that there are such Cities For my own part I think it as certaine to me nay more certaine then that which I see and I should sooner question my own sight alone then the eyes and credit of so many thousands in such a case And I thinke the Scepticks Arguments against the certainty of sense to be as strong as any that can be brought against the certainty of such a Testimony Is it not somewhat more then probable think you to the multitudes that never saw either Parliament or King that yet there is such an Assembly and such a person May we not be fully certaine that there was such a person as King James as Queen Elizabeth as Queen Mary c. here in England Yea that there was such a man as William the Conqueror May we not be certaine also that he conquered England With many other of his actions The like may be said of Julius Caesar of Alexander the Great c. Sure those that charge all humane Testimony with uncertainty do hold their lands then upon an uncertaine tenure Secondly It may be proved also by reason For if 1. the first testifiers may infallibly know it and 2. also by an infallible means transmit it to posterity and 3. have no intent to deceive then their Testimony may be an infallible Testimony But all these three may be easily proved I had thought to have laid down here the Rules by which a certaine Humane Testimony may be discerned from an uncertaine but you may easily gather them from what I shall lay down for the confirmation of these three Positions For the first I suppose none will question whether the first testifiers might infalliby know the truth of what they testifie If they should let them consider First If it be not matter of Doctrine much lesse abstruse and difficult points but only matter of fact then it s beyond doubt it may be certainly known Secondly If it be those also who did see and hear and handle who do testifie it Thirdly If their senses were sound and perfect within reach of the object and having no deceiving medium Fourthly Which may be discerned 1. If the witnesses be a multitude for then it may be known they are not blind or deaf except they had been culled out of some Hospitalls especially when all present do both see and hear them 2. When the thing is done openly in the day-light 3. When it is done frequently and neer at hand for then there would be full opportunity to discover any deceit So that in these cases it is doubtless sense is infallible and consequently those that see and hear are most certaine witnesses 2. Next let us see whether we may be certaine that any Testimony is sincere without a purpose to deceive us And I take that for undoubted in the following cases 1. Where the party is of ingenuity and honesty 2. And it is apparent he drives on no designe of his own nor cannot expect any advantage in the world 3. Nay of his Testimony will certainly undo him in the world and prove the overthrow of his ease honour estate and life 5. And if it be a multitude that do thus testifie How can they do it with an intent to deceive 6. And if their severall Testimonies do agree 7. And if the very enemies deny not this matter of fact but only refer it to other causes then there is no possibility of deceit as I shall further anon evince when I apply it to the Question Thirdly VVe are to prove that there are infallible means of transmitting such Testimony down to posterity without depraving any thing substantiall And then it well remaine an undoubted truth that there is a full certainty in some humane Testimony and that to posterity at a remote distance Now this tradition is infallible in these cases 1. If it be as beforesaid in matter of fact only which the meanest understandings are capable of apprehending 2. If it be also about the substance of actions and not every small circumstance 3. And also if those Actions were famous in their times and of great note and wonder in the world and such as were the cause of publike and eminent alterations 4. If it be delivered down in writing and not only by word of mouth where the change of speech might alter the sense of the matter 5. If the Records be publike where the very enemies may see them yea published of purpose by Heralds and Ambassadors that the world may take notice of them 6. If they are men of greatest honesty in all Ages who have both kept and divulged these Records 7 And if there have been also a multitude of these 8. And this multitude of severall countries where they could never so much as meet to agree upon any deceiving councells much lesse all accord in such a design and lest of all be able to manage it with secrecy 9. If also the after preservers and divulgers of these records could have no more self-advancing ends then the first testifiers 10. Nay if their divulging and attesting these records did utterly ruinate in the

called Christians so named from him do remain Thus far Josephus a Jew by Nation and Religion who wrote this about eighty six years after Christ and fourteen years before the death of St. John Himself being born about five or six years after Christ. 20. Consider also how that every Age hath afforded multitudes of VVitnesses who before were most bitter and violent enemies And divers of these men of note for Learning and place in the world How mad was Saul against the Truth Surely it could be no favour to the Cause nor over-much credulity that caused such men to witness to the death the truth of that for which they had persecuted others to the death but a little before Nor could childish Fables or common flying Tales have so mightily wrought with men of Learning and Understanding For some such were Christians in all Ages 21. Nay observe but the Confessions of these Adversaries when they came to believe How generally and ingenuously they acknowledg their former ignorance and prejudice to have been the cause of their unbelief 22. Consider also how unable all the enemies of the Gospel have been to abolish these sacred Records They could burn the Witnesses by thousands but yet they could never either hinder their succession or extinguish these Testimonies 23. Nay the most eminent Adversaries have had the most eminent ruine As Antiochus Herod Julian with multitudes more This stone having faln upon them hath ground them to powder 24 It were not difficult here to collect from unquestioned Authors a constant succession of VVonders at least to have in several Ages accompanied the Attestation of this Truth and notable judgments that have befaln the persecutors of it And though the Papists by their Fictions and Fabulous Legends have done more wrong to the Christian Cause then ever they are able to repair yet unquestionable History doth afford us very many Examples And even many of those actions which they have deformed with their fabulous additions might yet for the substance have much truth And God might even in times of Popery work some of these wonders though not to confirm their Religion as it was Popish yet to confirm it as the Christian Religion for as he had then his Church and then his Scripture so had he then his special Providences to confirm his Church in their belief and to silence the several enemies of the Faith And therefore I advise those who in their inconsiderate zeal are apt to reject all these Histories of Providences meerly because they were written by Papists or because some Witnesses to the Truth were a little leavened with some Popish errors that they would first view them and consider of their probability of Truth or Falshood that so they may pick out the Truth and not reject all together in the lump least otherwise in their zeal against Popery they should injure Christianity And now I leave any man to judg whether we have not had an infallible way of receiving these Records from the first VVitnesses Not that every of the particulars before mentioned are necessary to the proving or certain receiving the Authentick Records without depravation for you may perceive that almost any two or three of them might suffice and that divers of them are from abundance for fuller confirmation SECT IV. ANd thus I have done with this first Argument drawn from the Miracles which prove the Doctrine and VVritings to be of God But I must satisfie the Scruples of some before I proceed First Some will question whether this be not 1. To resolve our faith into the Testimony of man 2. And so to make it a Humane faith And so 3. To jump in this with the Papists who believe the Scripture for the Authority of the Church and to argue Circularly in this as they To this I Answer First I make in this Argument the last Resolution of my faith into the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine If you ask why I believe the Doctrine to be of God I Answer because it was confirmed by many undeniable Miracles If you ask why I believe those Miracles to be from God I Answer because no created power can work a Miracle So that the Testimony of man is not the Reason of my believing but onely the means by which this matter of Fact is brought down to my Knowledg Again Our Faith cannot be said to be Resolved into that which we give in Answer to your last Interrogation except your Question be onely still of the proper grounds of Faith But if you change your Question from what is the Ground of my Faith to what is the means of conveying down the History to me Then my faith is not Resolved into this means Yet this means or some other equivalent I acknowledg so necessary that without it I had never been like to have believed 2. This shews you also that I argue not in the Popish Circle nor take my faith on their common Grounds For First When you ask them How know you the Testimony of the Church to be Infallible They prove it again by Scripture and ther 's their Circle But as I trust not on the Authority of the Romish Church onely as they do no nor properly to the Authority of any Church no nor onely to the Testimony of the Church but also to the Testimony of the enemies themselves So do I prove the validity of the Testimony I bring from Nature and well known Principles in Reason and not from Scripture it self as you may see before 3. There is a Humane Testimony which is also divine and so an Humane Faith which is also divine Few of Gods extraordinary Revelations have been immediate The best Schoolmen think none of all but either by Angels or by Jesus himself who was man as well as God You will acknowledg if God reveal it to an Angel and the Angel to Moses and Moses to Israel this is a divine Revelation to Israel For that is called a divine Revelation which we are certain that God doth any way Reveal Now I would fain know why that which God doth naturally and certainly Reveal to all men may not as properly be called a Divine Revelation as that which he Reveales by the Spirit to a few Is not this Truth from God That the Senses apprehension of their Object rightly stated s certain as well as this Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin c. Though a Saint or Angel be a fitter Messenger to Reveal the things of the Spirit yet any man may be a Messenger to reveal the things of the flesh An ungodly man if he have better Eyes and Ears may be a better Messenger or Witness of that matter of Fact which he seeth and heareth then a godlier man that is blinde or deaf especially in cases wherein that ungodly man hath no provocation to speak falsly and most of all if his Testimony be against himself I take that Revelation whereby I know

his chariot so long a coming Why tarry the wheels of his chariots Hovv long Lord Hovv long SECT XX. 11. COnsider vvhat if God should grant thy desire and let thee live yet many yeers but vvithal should strip thee of the comforts of life and deny thee the mercies vvhich thou hast hitherto enjoyed Would this be a blessing vvorth the begging for Might not God in judgment give thee life as he gave the murmuring Israelites Quails or as he oft times gives men riches and honor when he sees them over-earnest for it Might he not justly say to thee Seeing thou hadst rather linger on earth then come away and enjoy my presence seeing thou art so greedy of life take it and a curse with it never let fruit grow on it more nor the Sun of comfort shine upon it nor the dew of my blessing ever water it Let thy table be a snare let thy friends be thy sorrow let thy riches be corrupted and the rust of thy silver eat thy flesh Go hear Sermons as long as thou wilt but let never Sermon do thee good more let all thou hearest make against thee and increase the smart of thy wounded spirit If thou love Preaching better then Heaven go and preach till thou be aweary but never profit soul more Sirs what if God should thus chastise our inordinate desires of living were it not just and what good would our lives then do us Seest thou not some that spend their days on their cowch in groaning and some in begging by the high-way sides and others in seeking bread from door to door and most of the world in laboring for food and rayment and living onely that they may live and loosing the ends and benefits of life Why what good would such a life do thee were it never so long when thy soul shall serve thee onely in stead of Salt to keep thy body from stinking God might give thee life till thou art weary of living and as glad to be rid of it as Judas or Ahitophel and make thee like many miserable Creatures in the world who can hardly forbear laying violent hands on themselves Be not therefore so importunate for life which may prove a judgment in stead of a blessing SECT XXI 12. COnsider how many of the precious Saints of God of all ages and places have gone before thee Thou art not to enter an untrodden path nor appointed first to break the Ice Except onely Henoch and Elias which of the Saints have scaped death And art thou better then they There are many millions of Saints dead more then do now remain on Earth What a number of thine own bosome friends and intimate acquaintance and companions in duty are now there and why shouldst thou be so loth to follow Nay hath not Jesus Christ himself gone this way hath he not sanctified the grave to us and perfumed the dust with his own body And art thou loth to follow him too O rather let us say as Thomas Let us also go and die with him or rather let us suffer with him that we may be glorified together with him Many such like Considerations might be added as that Christ hath taken out the sting How light the Saints have made of it how cheerfully the very Pagans have entertained it c. But because all that 's hitherto spoken is also conducible to the same purpose I pass them by If what hath been said will not perswade Scripture and Reason have little force I have said the more on this subject finding it so needful to my self and others finding that among so many Christians who could do and suffer much for Christ there 's yet so few that can willingly die and of many who have somewhat subdued other corruptions so few have got the conquest of this This caused me to drawforth these Arrows from the quiver of Scripture and spend them against it SECT XXII I Will onely yet Answer some Objections and so conclude this Use. 1. Object O If I were but certain of Heaven I should then never stick at dying Answ. 1. Search for all that whether some of the forementioned c●uses may not be in fault as well as this 2. Didst thou not say so long ago Have you not been in this song this many yeers if you are yet uncertain whose fault is it you have had nothing else to do with your lives nor no greater matter then this to minde Were you not better presently fall to the tryal till you have put the Question out of doubt Must God stay while you trifle and must his patience be continued to cherish your negligence If thou have played the loyterer do so no longer Go search thy soul and follow the search close till the● come to a clear discovery Begin to night stay not till the next morning Certainty comes not by length of time but by the blessing of the Spirit upon wise and faithful tryal You may linger out thus twenty yeers more and be still as uncertain as now you are 3. A perfect certainty may not be expected we shall still be deficient in that as well as in other things They who think the Apostle speaks absolutely and not comparatively of a perfect assurance in the very degree when he mentions a Plerophory or Full assurance I know no reason but they may expect perfection in all things else as well as this VVhen you have done all you will know this but in part If your belief of that Scripture which saith Beleeve and be saved be imperfect and if your knowledg whether your own deceitful hearts do sincerely beleeve or not be imperfect or if but one of these tvvo be imperfect the result or conclusion must needs be so too If you vvould then stay till you are perfectly certain you may stay for ever if you have obtained assurance but in some degree or got but the grounds for assurance said it is then the speediest and surest vvay to desire rather to be quickly in Rest For then and never till then vvill both the grounds and assurance be fully perfect 4. Both your assurance and the comfort thereof is the gift of the Spirit vvho is a free bestovver And Gods usual time to be largest in mercy is vvhen his people are deepest in necessity A mercy in season is the svveetest mercy I could give you here abundance of late examples of those vvho have languished for assurance and comfort some all their sickness and some most of their lives and vvhen they have been neer to death they have received in abundance Never fear death then through imperfections of assurance for that 's the most usual time of all vvhen God most fully and svveetly bestovvs it SECT XXIII OBject 2. O but the Churches necessities are great and God hath made me useful in my place so that the loss vvill be to many or else me thinks I could vvillingly die Answ. This may be the case of some but

having lost their strength and Afflictions less grievous as having lost their sting and every Mercy will be better known and relished Reader it is under God in thine own choice now whether thou wilt live thus blessed or not and whether all this pains which I have taken for thee shall prosper or be lost If it be lost through thy laziness which God forbid be it known to thee thou wilt prove the greatest looser thy self If thou value not this Heavenly Angelical life how canst thou say that thou valuest Heaven And if thou value not it no wonder if thou be shut out The power of godliness lieth in the actings of the soul Take heed that thou stick not in the vain deluding form O man VVhat hast thou to minde but God and Heaven Art thou not almost out of this world already Dost thou not look every day when one disease or other will let out thy soul Doth not the Bier stand ready to carry thee to the Grave and the VVorms wait to feed upon thy face and heart What if thy Pulse must beat a few strokes more and what if thou have a few more breathes to fetch before thou breathe out thy last and what if thou have a few more nights to sleep before thou sleep in the dust Alas what will this be when it is gone And is it not almost gone already Very shortly thou wilt see thy glass run out and say thy self My life is done my time is gone its past recalling there 's nothing now but Heaven or Hell before me O where then should thy heart be now but in Heaven Didst thou but know what a dreadful thing it is to have a strange and doubtful thought of Heaven when a man lies dying it would sure rowze thee up And what other thoughts but strange can that man have that never thought seriously of Heaven till then Every mans first thoughts are strange about all things Familiarity and acquaintance comes not in a moment but is the consequent of Custom and frequent Converse And strangeness naturally raiseth dread as familiarity doth delight What else makes a Fish or a wilde Beast flie from a man when domestick Creatures take pleasure in his company So wilt thou flie from God if thou knewest how who should be thy onely happiness if thou do not get this strangeness removed in thy life time And is it not pity that a childe should be so strange to his own Father as to fear nothing more then to go into his presence and to think himself best when he is furthest from him and to flie from his face as a wilde Creature will do from the face of a man Alas how little do many godly ones differ from the world either in their comforts or willingness to die and all because they live so strange to the place and Fountain of their comforts Besides a little verbal or other outside duties or talking of controversies and doctrines of Religion or forbearing the practice of many sins how little do the most of the Religious differ from other men when God hath prepared so vast a difference hereafter If a word of Heaven fall in now and then in their conference alas how slightly is it and customary and heartless And if their Prayers or Preaching have heavenly expressions they usually are fetcht from their meer invention or memory or Books and not from the experience or feeling of their hearts O what a life might men live if they were but willing and diligent God would have our joyes to be far more then our sorrows yea he would have us to have no sorrow but what tendeth to joy and no more then our sins have made necessary for our good How much do those Christians wrong God and themselves that either make their thoughts of God the in-let of their sorrows or let these offered joyes lie by as neglected or forgotten Some there be that say It is not worth so much time and trouble to think of the greatness of the joyes above so we can make sure they are ours we know they are great But as these men obey not the Command of God which requireth them to have their Conversation in Heaven and to set their Affections on things above so do they wilfully make their own lives miserable by refusing the delights that God hath set before them And yet if this were all it were a smaller matter if it were but the loss of their comforts I would not say so much But see what abundance of other mischiefs do follow the absence of these Heavenly Delights First It will damp if not destroy our very love to God so deeply as we apprehend his bounty and exceeding love to us and his purpose to make us eternally happy so much will it raise our love Love to God and delight in him are still conjunct They that conceive of God as one that desireth their blood and damnation cannot heartily love him Secondly It will make us have seldom and unpleasing thoughts of God for our thoughts will follow our love and delight Thirdly And it will make men to have as seldom and unpleasing speech of God For who will care for talking of that which he hath no delight in What makes men still talking of worldliness or wickedness but that these are more pleasant to them then God Fourthly It will make men have no delight in the service of God when they have no delight in God nor any sweet thoughts of Heaven which is the end of their services No wonder if such Christians complain That they are still backward to Duty that they have no delight in Prayer in Sacraments or in Scripture it self If thou couldst once delight in God thou wouldst easily delight in duty especially that which bringeth thee into the neerest converse with him But till then no wonder if thou be weary of all further then some external excellency may give thee a carnal delight Doth not this cause many Christians to go on so heavily in secret duties like the Ox in the Furrow that will go no longer then he is driven and is glad when he is unyoaked Fifthly Yea it much endangereth the perverting of mens judgments concerning the ways of God and means of Grace when they have no delight in God and Heaven Though it be said Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum That Judgment perisheth when things pass into Affection yet that is but when Affection leadeth the Judgment and not when it followeth Affection holdeth its object faster then bare Judgment doth The Soul will not much care for that Truth which is not accompanied with suitable goodness and it will more easily be drawn to believe that to be false which it doth not delightfully apprehend to be good which doubtless is no small cause of the ungodlies prejudice against the ways of God and of many formal mens dislike of extemporate Prayers and of a strict observation of the Lords day Had they a true