believer to think that GOD IS Even that such a perfect glorious being is existent As if we heard of one man in another land whom we were never like to see who in wisdom love and all perfections excelled all men that ever were in the world the thoughts of that man would be pleasing to us and we should love him because he is amiable in his excellency And so doth the holy Soul when it thinketh of the infinite amiableness of God. 6. But the highest Love of the Soul to God is in taking in all his amiableness together and when we think of him as related to our selves as our Creater Redeemer Sanctifier and Glorifier and as related to all his Church and to all the world as the cause and end of all that is amiable and when we think of all those amiable works which these Relations do respect his Creation and Conservation of the whole world his Redemption of mankind his Sanctifying and Glorifying of all his chosen ones his wonderful mercies to our selves for Soul and Body his mercies to his Church on earth his unconceivable mercies to the glorified Church in Heaven the Glory of Christ Angels and Men and their perfect Knowledge Love and joyful praises and then think what that God is in himself that doth all this This Complexion of considerations causeth the fullest Love to God. And though unlearned persons cannot speak or think of all these distinctly and clearly as the Scripture doth express them yet all this is truly the Object of their Love though with confusion of their apprehensions of it But I have not yet done nor indeed come up to the point of tryal It is not every kind or degree of Love to God in these respects that will prove to be saving He is mad that thinks there is no God And he that believeth that there is a God doth believe that he is most powerful wise and good and therefore must needs have some kind of Love to him And I find that there are a sort of Deists or Infidels now springing up among us who are confident That all or almost all men shall be saved because say they all men do love God. It is not possible say they that a man can believe God to be God that is to be the Best and to be love itself and the cause of all that is good and amiable in Heaven and Earth and yet not love him The will is not so contrary to the understanding nor can be And say the same men he that loveth his neighbour loveth God for it is for his goodness that he loveth his Neighbour and that goodness is Gods goodness appearing in man He that loveth Sun and Moon and Stars Meat and Drink and pleasure loveth God for all this is Gods goodness in his works and out of his works he is unknown to us and therefore they say that all men Love God and all men shall be saved or at least all that love their Neighbours for God by is us no otherwise to be loved For answer to these men 1. It is false that God is no otherwise to be loved than as in our Neighbour I have told you before undeniably of several other respects or appearances of God in which he is to be loved And he that is not known to us as separate from all Creatures is yet known to us as distinct from all Creatures and is and must be so loved by us Else we are Idolaters if we suppose the Creatures to be God themselves and love and honour them as God Even those Philosophers that took God for the inseparable Soul of the World yet distinguished him from the World which they thought he animated and indeed doth more than animate 2. And it is false that every one loveth God who loveth his Neighbour or his Meat Drink and fleshly Pleasure or any of the accommodations of his sense For Nature causeth all men to love life and self and pleasure for themselves And these are beloved even by Atheists that believe not that there is a God! And consequently such men love their Neighbours not for God but for themselves either because they are like them or because they please them or serve their interest or delight them by society and converse as Birds and Beasts do love each other that think not of a God. And if all should be saved that so love one another or that love their own pleasure and that which serveth it not only all wicked men but most Brute Creatures should be saved If you say they shall not be damned it 's true because they are not Moral Agents capable of Salvation or Damnation nor capable of Moral Government and Obedience and therefore even the Creatures that kill one another are not damned for it But certainly as man is capable of Salvation or Damnation so is he of somewhat more as the means or way than Brutes are capable of and he is saved or damned for somewhat which Brutes never do Many a thousand love the pleasure of their sense and all things and persons which promote it that never think of God or love him And it is not enough to say that even this natural good is of God and therefore it is God in it which they love for it will only follow that it is something made and given by God which they love while they leave out God himself That God is Essentially in all things good and pleasant which they love doth not prove that it is God which they love while their thoughts and affections do not include him 3. But suppose it were so that to love the Creature were to love God is not then the hating of the Creature the hating of God If those same men that love Meat and Drink and sensual Delight and love their Neighbours for the sake of these or for themselves as a Dog doth love his Master do also hate the holiness of Gods Servants and the holiness and justice of his Word and Government and that holiness and order of Heart and Life which he commandeth them do not these men hate God in hating these And that they hate them their obstinate aversation sheweth when no reason no mercy no means can reconcile their Hearts and Lives thereto 4. I therefore ask the Infidel Objector whether he shall be saved that loveth God in one respect and hateth him in another That loveth him as he causeth the Sun to shine the Rain to fall the Grass to grow and giveth Life and Prosperity to the World but hateth him as he is the Author of those Laws and Duties and that holy Government by which he would bring them to a voluntary right order and make them holy and fit for Glory and would use them in his holy Service and restrain them from their inordinate Lusts and Wills How can love prepare or fit any man for that which he hateth or doth not love If the love of fleshly interest and pleasure prepare or fit them to
And the popular croud are usually or oft as self-conceited in their way And if they never so unreasonably oppose their Teachers how hard is it to make them know or once suspect that they are mistaken O what mutinies in Christs Armies what Schisms what Confusions what Scandals what persecutions in the Church what false accusations what groundless censures do proud self-conceited understandings cause But scarce any where is it more lamentably seen than among injudicious unexperienced Ministers What work is made in the Christian world by Sect against Sect and Party against Party in cases of controversy by most mens bold and confident judging of what they never truly studied tried or understood Papists against Protestants Protestants against Papists Lutherans or Arminians and Calvinists c. usually charge one another by bare hear-say or by a few sentences or scraps Collected out of their writings by their adversaries contrary to the very Scope of the whole discourse or context And men cannot have leisure to peruse the books and to know before they judge And then they think that seeing their Reverend Doctors have so reported their adversaries before them it is arrogance or injury to think that they knew not what they said or else belied them And on such supposition the false judging doth go on Of all the Pulpits that oft trouble the people with Invectives against this side or that especially in the Controversies of Predestination Grace and Free-will how few do we hear that know what they talk against Yea those young or unstudied men who might easily be conscious how little they know are ready to oppose and contemn the most ancient studied Divines When if ever they would be wise men they should continue Scholars to such even while they are teachers of the people I will not presume to open the Calamities of the World for want of Rulers true knowing their Subjects case but judging hastily by the reports of Adversaries But that Rebellions ordinarily hence arise I may boldly say When Subjects that know not the reasons of their Rulers actions are so over wise as to make themselves Judges of that which concerneth them not And how few be they that think not themselves wiser than all their Guides and Governours And Lastly by this sin it is that the wisdom of the wisest is as lost to the world For let a man know never so much more than others after the longest hardest studies the self-conceitedness of the ignorant riseth up against it or maketh them uncapable of receiving it so that he can do little good to others I conclude again that this is the Plague and misery of mankind and the cause of all Sin and Shame and Ruines that Ignorant unhumbled understandings will be still judging rashly before they have throughly tried the case and will not suspend till they are capable of Judging nor be convinced that they know not what they know not but be confident in their first or ungrounded apprehensions Chap. 11. The Signs and Common discoveries of a proud self-conceited understanding and of pretended knowledge BY such effects as these the most of men do shew their guilt of overvaluing their own appprehensions 1. When they will be confident of things that are quite above their understandings or else which they never throughly studied some are confident of that which no man knoweth And most are confident of that which I think they are unlike to be certain of themselves without miraculous inspiration which they give us no reason to believe that they have Things that cannot ordinarily be known 1. Without the preparation of many other Sciences 2. Or without reading many books 3. Or without reading or hearing what is said against it 4. Or at least without long and serious studies we have abundance that will talk most peremptorily of them upon the trust of their teachers or party without any of this necessary means of Knowledge 2. The hastiness of mens conclusions discovereth this Presumption and Self-conceit When at the first hearing or reading or after a few thoughts they are as confident as if they had grown old in studies the best understandings must have a long time to discern the Evidence of things difficult and a longer time to try that Evidence by comparing it with what is brought against it and yet a longer time to digest truths into that Order and Clearness of Apprehension which is necessary to distinct and solid Knowledge when without all this ado most at the first lay hold of that which cometh in their way And there they stick at least till a more esteemed teacher or party tell them somewhat that is contrary to it It is but few of our first apprehensions that are sound and need not reformation but none that are well digested and need not much consideration to perfect them 3. Is it not a plain discovery of a presumptuous understanding when men will confidently conclude of things which their own tongues are forced to confess that they do not understand I mean not only so as to give an accurate definition of them but really not to know what it is that they talk of Many a zealous Anabaptist I have known that knoweth not what Baptism is And many a one that hath disputed confidently for or against Free-will that knew not at all what Free-will is And many a one that hath disputed about the Lords Supper and Separated from almost all Churches for want of sufficient strictness in it and especially for giving it to the ignorant who upon examination have not known the true Nature of a Sacrament nor of the Sacred Covenant which it sealeth Many a one forsaketh most Churches as no Churches that they may be of a right constituted Church who know not what a Church is What abundance will talk against an Arminian a Calvinist a Prelatist a Presbyterian an Independent that really know not what any of them are Like a Gentleman the other day that after long talk of the Presbyterians being urged to tell what a Presbyterian was could tell no more but that he was one that is not so merry and sociable as other men but stricter against sports or taking a Cup. And if I should tell you how few that can judge the controversies about Predestination do know what they talk of it were easy to evince it 4. May I not discern their Prefidence when men that hold contraries five men of five inconsistent opinions are yet every one confident that his own is right When at best it is but one that can be right When six men confidently expound a text in the Revelation six ways When five men are so confident of five several ways of Church Government that they embody themselves into several Policies or parties to enjoy them Is not here Self-conceitedness in all at least save one 5. When men themselves by turning from opinion to opinion shall confess their former opinion was false and yet made a Religion of it while they held
censuimus Is it possible that all the Clergy and Nobles of the Roman Kingdom can be so Ignorant of their own and other mens Ignorance as to take all the Decrees of the huge Volumes of their Councils for Certain Truths Either they were certain in their Evidence of Truth before they decreed them or not If they were so 1. How came the debates in the Councils about them to be so hard and so many to be dissenters as in many of them there were I know where Arrians or other Hereticks make up much of the Council it is no wonder But are the Certainties of Faith so uncertain to Catholick Bishops that a great part of them know not Certain Truths till the majority of Votes have told them they are certain Have the poor Dissenting-Bishops in Council nothing of certainty on which their own and all the poor peoples Faith and Salvation must depend but only this that they are over-voted As if the dissenters in the Council of Trent should say We thought beforehand the contrary had been true But now the Italian Bishops being so numerous as to over-vote us we will lay our own and all mens Salvation on it that we were deceived though we have no other reason to think so O noble Faith and Certainty It 's possible one or two or three poor silly Prelates may turn the Scales and make up a majority though as Learned men as Jansenius Cusanus or Gerson were on the other side And if the Jansenists Articles were Condemned or Cusanus his Antipapal Doctrine lib. de Concordia or Gersons for the Supremacy of Councils and de Auferibilitate Papae they must presently believe that they were certainly deceived But what 's become then of the contrary evidence which appeared before to these dissenters As suppose it were in the Council of Basil about the Immaculate conception of Mary or the Question whether the Authority of the Pope or Council be greatest decided there and at Constance and whereof at Trent the Emperor and the French were of one opinion and the Pope of another Was it evidently true before which is made false after by a Majority of Votes 2. And if all these Decreed things were Evident Truths before the said Decrees why have we not those Antecedent Evidences presented to us to convince us 2. But if they were not Evident Truths before what made those Prelates conclude them for Truths Did they know them to be such without Evidence This is grosser than a presumptuous mans believing that he shall be saved because he believeth it or their Doctrine that teach men to believe the thing is true that Christ died for them that thereby they may make it true As if the object must come after the act For then these Prelates do decree that to be true which before was false for ex-natura rei one party had evidence of its falshood that so they might make it true by decreeing that it is so A man might Lawfully have believed his own and other mens senses that Bread is Bread till the Council at Lateran sub Innoc. 3. decreed Transubstantiation And O what a change did that Council make All Christ's Miracles were not comparable to it if its Decrees be true From that day to this we must renounce sense and yet believe we must believe that by constant Miracles all Christians senses are deceived And so that this is the difference between Christians and Infidels and Heathens that our Religion deceiveth all mens senses even Heathens and all if they see our Sacrament and their Religion deceiveth no mans senses saith the grave Author of the History of the Trent Council Ed. Engl. p. 473. A better Mystery was never found than to use Religion to make men insensible And what is the Omnipotent Power that doth this such a Convention as that of Trent while with our Worcester Pate and Olaus Magnus they made up a great while two and forty things called Bishops And after such a pack of beardless Boys and ignorant Fellows created by and enslaved to the Pope as Dudithius Quinqueccles one of the Council describeth to the Emperour and which Bishop Jewel in his Letter to Seign Scipio saith he took for no Council called by no just Authority c. where were neither the Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria or Antioch nor Abassines nor Graecians Armenians Persians Egyptians Moors Syrians Indians nor Muscovites nor Protestants pag. 143 144. For saith he after pag. 489. Now-a-days merciful God! the intent or scope of Councils is not to discover truth or to confute falshood For these latter Ages this hath been the only endeavour of the Popes to establish the Roman Tyranny to set Wars on foot to set Christian Princes together by the Ears to raise Money to be cast into some few Bellies for Gluttony and Lust And this hath been the only cause or course of Councils for some Ages last past So here And can the Vote of a few such Fellows oblige all the World to renounce all their senses who were never obliged to it before And all this consisteth in PRETENDED FAITH and KNOWLEDGE when men must take on them to know what they do not know and make Decrees and Canons and Doctrines suited to their conjectures or rather to their carnal Interests and then most injuriously Father them on God on Christ and the Apostles II. And as the number of Forgeries and Inventions detecteth this publick Plague so doth the number of Persons that are guilty of it How many such superfluities the Abassines in their oft Baptizings and other trifles and the Armenians Syrians Georgians Jacobites Maronites the Russians c. Are guilty of the describers of their Rites and Religion tell us Some would have the State of the Church in Gregory â—sts days to be the model of our Reformation that Pope whom Authors usually call the last of the good ones and the first of the bad ones But is there either Necessity or Certainty in all the superfluities which the Churches then had and which that Great Prelates Writings themselves contain Or were there not abundance of such things then used as things Indifferent of which see Socrates and Sozomene in the Chapters of Easter and must all their Indifferents be now made necessary to the Churches Concord and Communion and all their uncertainties become certainties to us some will have the present Greek Church to be the Standard But alas poor men how many of these uncertainties crudities and superfluities are cherished among them by the unavoidable Ignorance which is caused by their oppressions To say no more of Rome O that the Reformed Churches themselves had been more innocent But how few of them unite on the terms of simple Christianity and Certainties Had not Luther after all his Zeal for Reformation retained some of this Leven he could better have endured the dissent of Zuinglius Carolostadius and Oecolampadius about the Sacrament And if his Followers had not kept up the same superfluities
unknown to you in the secresie and variety of Diseases difference of temperatures and the like which may make that hurtful which you conceit is good Therefore do nothing rashly and in self-conceited confidence but upon the best advice ask the Physician whether your Medicines and Rules are safe 4. And be sure that you do rather too little than too much What abundance are there especially in the small Pox and Feavers that would have scaped if Women yea and Physicians would have let them alone that die because that Nature had not leave to cure them being disturbed by mistaken Usages or Medicines Diseases are so various and secret and Remedies so uncertain that the wisest man alive that hath studied and practised it almost all his riper days were it an hundred years must confess that Physick is a hard a dark uncertain work and ordinary cases much more extraordinary have somewhat in them which doth surpass his skill And how then come so many Medicining Women to know more than they But you 'l say We see that many miscarry by Physicians and they speed worst that use them most I answer But would they not yet speed worse if they used you as much If they are too ignorant how come you to be wiser If you are teach them your Skill But I must add that even Physicians guilt of the sin which I am reproving doth cost many a hundred persons their lives as well as yours Even too many Physicians who have need of many daies enquiry and observations truly to discover a disease do kill men by rash and hasty judging I talk not of the Cheating sort that take on them to know all by the Urine alone but of honester and wiser men It is most certain that old Celsus saith that a Physitian is not able faithfully to do his Office for very many Patients A few will take up all his time But they that gape most after money must venture upon a short sight and a few words and presently resolve before they know and write down their directions while they are ignorant of one half which if they knew would change their Counsels And such is mans body and its diseases that the oversight or ignorance of one thing among twenty is like enough to be the patients death And how wise expedient and vigilant must he be that will commit no such killing oversight And as too many medicine a man whom they know not and an unknown disease for want of just deliberation so too many venture upon uncertain and untryed medicines or rashly give that to one in another case which hath profited others In a word even rash Physicians have cause to fear lest by prefidence and hasty judging more should die by their mistakes than do by murderers that I say not by Souldiers in the world And lest their dearest friends should speed worse by them than by their greatest Enemies For as Seamen and Souldiers do boldly follow the trade when they find that in several Voyages and Battels they have escaped but yet most or very many of them are drowned or killed at the last So he that is tampering over-much with medicines may scape well and boast of the Success a while But at last one blood-letting one Vomit one Purge or other medicine may miscarry by a small mistake or accident and he is gone And there are some persons so Civil that if a rash or unexperienced Physician be their Kinsman Friend or Neighbour they will not go to an abler man lest they be accounted unfriendly and disoblige him And if such scape long with their lives they may thank Gods mercy and not their own wisdom Souldiers kill enemies and unskilful rash Physicians kill their friends But you 'l say They do their best and they can do no more I answer as before 1. Let them not think that they know what they do not know but sufficiently suspect their own understandings 2. Let them not go beyond their knowledge How little of our kind of Physick did the old Physicians Hypocrates Galius Celsus c. give Do not too much 3. Venture not rashly without full search deliberation Counsel and Experience O how many die by hasty judging and rash mistakes Physicians must pardon my free speaking or endure it for I conceive it necessary It hath not been the least part of the Calamity of my Life to see my Friends and other worthy persons killed by the Ignorance or Hastiness of Physicians I greatly reverence and honour those few that are men 1. Of clear searching judicious heads 2. Of great reading especially of other mens Experiences 3. Of great and long Experience of their own 4. Of present Sagacity and ready memory to use their own experiments 5. Of Conscience and cautelousness to suspect and know before they hastily Judge and Practice I would I could say that such are not too few But I must say to the people as you love your lives take heed of all the rest A high-way Robber you may avoid or resist with greater probability of safety than such men How few are they that are kill'd by Thieves or in Duels in comparison of those that are kill'd by Physicians especially confident young men that account themselves wits and think they have hit on such Philosophical principles as will better secure both their Practice and Reputation than old Physicians Doctrine and Experiences could do Confident young men of unhumbled understandings presently trust their undigested thoughts and rashly use their poor short experiments and trust to their new conceptions of the Reasons of all Operations and then they take all others for meer Empyricks in comparison of them And when all is done their pretended Reason for want of full Experience and Judgment to improve it doth but enable them to talk and boast and not to heal and when they have kill'd men they can justify it and prove that they did it Rationally or rather that it was something else and not their error that was the cause They are wits and men of rare inventions and therefore are not such fools as to confess the Fact. How oft have I seen men of great worth such as few in an age arise too who having a high esteem of an injudicious unexperienced Physician have sealed their erroneous kindness with their blood How oft have I seen worthy persons destroyed by a pernicious medicine clear contrary to what the nature of the disease required who without a Physician might have done well Such sorrows just now upon me make me the more plain and copious in the Case And yet alas I see no hope of amendment probable For 1. Many hundred Ministers being forbidden to Preach the Gospel and cast out of all their livelyhood for not Promising Asserting Swearing and doing all that is required of them many of these think that necessity alloweth them to turn Physicians which they venture on upon seven years study when Seven and Seven and Seven is not enough though
advantaged by the help of other mens experiments 2. And others rush on Practice in their youth partly because they have not yet knowledge enough to discern uncertainties and difficulties in the Art or to see what is further necessary to be known And partly because they think that seeing Skill must be got by experience use must help them to that experience and all men must have a beginning 3. And when they do their best they say God requireth no more 4. And they hope if they kill one they cure many But O that they had the Sobriety to consider 1. That the Physician is but One man And will his maintenance or livelyhood excuse him for killing many 2. That even one mans Life is more precious than one mans maintenance or fuller supply Is it not honester to beg your bread 3. That killing men by virtue of your trade without danger to you doth but hinder your Repentance but not so much extenuate your sin as many think Which is aggravated in that you kill your friends that trust you and not Enemies that oppose you or avoid you 4. Your experience must not be got by killing men but by accompanying experienced Physicians till you are fit to practice And if you cannot stay so long for want of maintenance beg rather than kill men or betake you to some other trade But if you be too Proud or Confident to take such Counsel I still advise all that love their lives that they choose not a Physician under fourty years old at least and if it may be not under sixty unless it be for some little disease or remedy which hath no danger and where they can do no harm if they do no good Old men may be ignorant but Young men must needs be so for want of experience though some few rare persons are sooner ripe than others And whereas they say that they Cure more than they Kill I wish that I had reason to believe them I suppose that if more of their patients did not live than die they would soon lose their practice But it 's like the far greatest part of those that live would have lived without them and perhaps have been sooner and easier cured if nature had not by them been disturbed And what calling is there in which hasty judging and conceits of more knowledge than men have doth not make great confusion and disappointment If a Fool that rageth and is confident be a Pilot woe to the poor Seamen and Passengers in the Ship. If such a one be Commander in an Army his own and other mens Blood or Captivity must cure his confidence and stay his rage For such will learn at no cheaper a rate How oft hear we such Workmen Carpenters Masons c. raging confident that their way is right and their work well done till the ruin of it confute and shame them If this disease take hold of Governours who will not stay to hear all parties and know the Truth but take up reports on trust from those that please or flatter them or judge presently before impartial tryal and hearing all woe to the land that is so governed The wisest and the best man must have due information and time patience and consideration to receive it or else he may do as David between Mephibosheth and Ziba and cannot be just What an odious thing is a partial blind rash hasty and impatient judge that cannot hear think and know before he judgeth Such the old Christians had to do with among their Persecutors who knew not what they held or what they were and yet could judge them and cruelly execute them And such were Tacitus and other old Historians that from common prejudice spake words of contempt or reproach of them The Christians were glad when they had a Trajan an Antonine an Alexander Severus c. to speak to that had Reason and Sobriety to hear their cause Among the Papists the old Reformers and Martyrs took him for a very commendable judge or Magistrate that would but allow them a Patient hearing and give them leave to speak for themselves Truth and Godliness have so much evidence and such a testimony for themselves in the Conscience of Mankind as that the Devil could never get them so odiously thought of and so hardly used in the World but only by keeping them unknown which is much by expelling and silencing their defenders who speed well sometime if an Obadiah hide them by fifties in a Cave and by tempting their Judges to hear but some superficial narrative of their cause and to have but a glimpse of the outside as in transitu and to see only the back-parts of it yea but the clothing which is commonly such as are made by its Enemies Good men and causes are too oft brought to them and set out by them as Christ with his Scarlet Robe his Reed and Crown of Thorns and then they say Behold the man and when they have cryed out Blasphemy and an Enemy to Caesar they write over his cross in scorn The King of the Jews Cain had not Patience to hear his own Brother and weigh the Case no not after that God had admonished him But he must first hate and murder and afterward consider why when it is too late Judas must know his Masters Innocency and what he had done in despair to hang himself And so wise Achitophel cometh to his end If David would have pondred his usage of Uriah as much in time as he did when Nathan had awakened his reason O what had he prevented If Paul had weighed before the case of Christians as he did when Christ did stop his rage he had not incurred the guilt of Persecution and the Martyrs Blood But he tells us that he was exceedingly mad against them And it is madness indeed to venture on Cruelty and Persecution and not stay first to understand the cause and consider why and what is like to be the end How ordinarily in the world are the excellentest men on Earth for Wisdom and Holiness such as Ignatius Cyprian and the rest of the Antient Martyrs and such as Athanasius Chrysostom c. reviled and used as if they were the basest Rogues on Earth laid in Jails banished silenced murdered and all this by men that know not what they are and have no true understanding of their cause Men of whom the world was not worthy wandred up and down in Dens and Caves and suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods yea and death it self Heb. 11. from men that Judged before they knew Many a Great Man and Judge that hath condemned Christ's Ministers as Hereticks false Teachers unworthy to preach the Gospel have been such as understand not their Baptism Creed or Catechism and have need of many years teaching to make them know truly but those Principles that every Child should know There needs no great learning wisdom sobriety or honesty to teach them to cry out You are a Rogue a Seducer a
more accurate than any Logical Author doth prescribe And the Lords Prayer and Decalogue especially will prove this when truly opened And the Doctrine of of the Trinity and the Baptismal Covenant is the Foundation of all true method of Physicks and Morality in the World. What if a novice cannot Anatomize Cicero or Demosthenes doth it follow that they are immethodical Brand-miller and Flaccher upon the Scripture Text and Steph. Tzegedine Sohnius Gomarus Dudley Fenner and many others upon the Body of Theology have gone far in opening the Scripture Method But more may be yet done VI. Consider also that the Eternal Wisdom Word and Son of God our Redeemer is the Fountain and giver of all Knowledge Nature to be restored and Grace to restore it are in his hands He is that true Light that lighteneth every one that cometh into the World The Light of Nature and Arts and Sciences are from his Spirit and Teaching as well as the Gospel Whether Clemens Alexandrinus and some other Ancients were in the right or not when they taught that Philosophy is one way by which men come to Salvation it is certain that they are in the right that say it is now the gift of Christ And that as the Light which goeth before Sun-rising yea which in the night is reflected from the Moon is from the Sun as well as its more glorious Beams So the Knowledge of Socrates Plato Zeno Cicero Antonine Epictetus Seneca Plutarch were from the Wisdom and Word of God the Redeemer of the World even by a lower gift of his Spirit as well as the Gospel and higher illumination And shall Christ be thought void of what he giveth to so many in the World VII Lastly Let it be considered above all that the grand difference between the teaching of Christ and other men is that he teacheth effectively as God spake when he Created and as he said to Lazarus Arise He giveth wisdom by giving the Holy Ghost All other Teachers speak but to the Ears but he only speaketh to the Heart Were it not for this he would have no Church I should never have else believed in him my self nor would any other seriously and savingly Aristotle and Plato speak but words but Christ speaketh LIFE and LIGHT and LOVE in all Countreys through all Ages to this day This above all is his witness in the World. He will not do his work on Souls by ludicrous enticing words of the Pedantick wisdom of the World but by illuminating Minds and changing Hearts and Lives by his effectual operations on the Heart God used not more Rhetorick nor Logick than a Philosopher when he said only Let there be Light but he used more Power Indeed the first Chapter of Genesis though abused by Ignorants and Cabalists hath more true Philosophy in it than the presumptuous will understand as my worthy Friend Mr. Samuel Gott lately gone to God hath manifested in his excellent Philosophy excepting the style and some few presumptions But operations are the glorious Oratory of God and his wisdom shineth in his works and in things beseeming the Heavenly Majesty and not in childish Laces and Toys of Wit. Let us therefore cease quarrelling and learn wisdom of God instead of teaching and reprehending him Let us magnifie the mercy and wisdom of our Redeemer who hath brought Life and Immortality to light and certified us of the matters of the World above as beseemed a Messenger sent from God and hath taught us according to the matter and our capacity and not with trifling childish notions Chap. XVIII Inference VI. The true and false ways of restoring the Churches and healing our Divisions hence opened and made plain HAving opened to you our Disease it is easie were not the Disease it self against it to discern the Cure. Pretended knowledge hath corrupted and divided the Christian World. Therefore it must be CERTAIN VERITIES which must Restore us and Unite us And these must be Things PLAIN and NECESSARY and such as God hath designed to this very use or else they will never do the work One would think that it should be enough to satisfie men of this 1. To read Scripture 2. To peruse the terms of Concord in the Primitive Church 3. To peruse the sad Histories of the Churches Discord and Divisions and the Causes 4. To peruse the state of the World at this day and make use of Universal Experience 5. To know what a Christian is what Baptism is and what a Church is 6. To know what Man is and that they themselves and the Churches are but Men. But penal and sinful Infatuation hath many Ages been upon the minds of those in the Christian World who were most concerned in the Cure and our sin is our misery as I think to the damned it will be the chief part of their Hell. But this subject is so great and needful and that which the Wounds and Blood of the Christian World do cry for a skilful Cure of that I will not thrust it into this corner but design to write a Treatise of it by it self as a second part of this This Book is since Printed with some Alteration and called The true and Only way of the Concord of the Churches Chap. XIX Of the Causes of this Disease of Prefidence or Proud Pretended Knowledge in order to the Cure. THE Cure of Prefidence and pretended knowledge could it be wrought would be the Cure of Souls Families Churches and Kingdoms But alas how low are our hopes yet that may be done on some which will not be done on all or most And to know the causes and oppugn them is the chief part of the Cure so far as it may be hoped for 1. The first and grand cause is the very Nature of ignorance it self which many ways disableth men from knowing that which should abate their groundless confidence For 1. An ignorant man knoweth but little parcels and scraps of things And all the rest is unknown to him Therefore he fixeth upon that little which he knoweth and having no knowledge of the rest he cannot regulate his narrow apprehensions by any conceptions of them And all things visible to us not light it self excepted which as seen by us is Fire incorporated in Air being Compounds the very Nature or Being of them is not known where any Constitutive part is unknown And in all Compounds each part hath such relation and usefulness to others that one part which seemeth known is it self but half known for want of the knowledge of others Such a kind of knowledge is theirs that knowing only what they see do take a Clock or Watch to be only the Index moving by the Hours being ignorant of all the causal parts within Or that know no more of a Tree or other Plant than the Magnitude Site Colour Odour c. Or that take a man to be only a Body without a Soul or the Body to be only the Skin and Parts discerned by the Eye in converse
our Enemies conquered our fears removed our wants supplied our Bodies and all that is ours under the protection of Almighty love and we are secured by Promise that all our Sufferings shall work together for our good And what will cause love if all this will not When we perceive with what love the Father hath loved us that of Enemies we should be made the Sons of God and of condemned Sinners we should be made the Heirs of endless Glory and this so freely and by so strange a means we may conclude that this is the Doctrine of Love which is taught us from Heaven by love it self 3. And especially this work of love is promoted by opening the Kingdom of Heaven to the foresight of our Faith and shewing us what we shall enjoy for ever and assuring us of the Fruition of our Creators Everlasting Love yea by making us fore-know that Heaven consisteth in perfect mutual endless love This will both of it self draw up our Hearts and engage all our Reason and Endeavours in beginning that work which we must do for ever and to learn on Earth to love in Heaven 4. And besides all these objective helps Christ giveth to Believers the Spirit of Love and maketh it become as a nature in us which no other Teacher in the World could do Others can speak reason to our Ears but it is Christ that sendeth the warming Beams of holy Love into our Hearts If the love of God and holiness were no better than common Philosophical Speculations then Aristotle or Plato or such other Masters of names and notions might compare with Christ and his Apostles and Athens with the Primitive Church and the Schoolmen might be thought the best Improvers of Theology But if thousands of dreaming Disputers wrangle the World into misery and themselves into Hell and are ingenious Artificers of their own damnation and if the love of God and Goodness be the healthful constitution of the Soul its natural content and pleasure the business and end of life and all its helps and blessings the Soder of just Societies the Union of Man with God in Christ and with all the Blessed and the Fore-taste and First-fruits of endless Glory then Christ the Messenger of Love the Teacher of Love the Giver of Love the Lord and Commander of Love is the best Promoter of Knowledge in the World. And as Nicodemus knew that he was a Teacher come from God because no man could do such works unless God were with him so may we conclude the same because no man could so reveal so cause and communicate Love the holy Love of God and Goodness unless the God of Love had sent him Love is the very end and work of Christ and of his Word and Spirit Chap. IX The fifth Inference What great cause men have to be thankful to God for the Constitution of the Christian Religion And how unexcusable they are that will not learn so short and sweet and safe a Lesson SO excellent and every way suitable to our case is the Religion taught and instituted by Christ as should render it very acceptable to Mankind And that on several accounts 1. The brevity and plainness of Christian Precepts greatly accommodateth the necessity of Mankind I say his necessity lest you think it is but his sloth Ars longa Vita brevis is the true and sad complaint of Students Had our Salvation been laid upon our Learning a Body of true Philosophy how desperate would our case have been For 1. Mans great Intellectual weakness 2. His want of leisure would not have allowed him a knowledge that requireth a subtile wit and tedious studies 1. Most men have wits of the duller sort Such quickness subtilty and solidity as is necessary to great and difficult studies are very rare So rare as that few such are found even amongst the Preachers of the Gospel Of a multitude who by hard Studies and honest Hearts are fit to Preach the Doctrine of Salvation scarce one or two are found of so fine and exact a wit as to be fit judiciously to manage the curious Controversies of the Schools What a case then had Mankind been in if none could have been wise and happy indeed but these few of extraordinary capacity The most publick and common good is the best God is more merciful than to confine Salvation to subtilty of wit Nor indeed is it a thing it self so pleasing to him as a Holy Heavenly Heart and Life 2. And we have Bodies that must have Provision and Employment We have Families and Kindred that must be maintained We live in Neighbourhoods and publick Societies which call for much Duty and take up much time And our sufferings and crosses will take up some thoughts Were it but Poverty alone how much of our time will it alienate from contemplation whilst great necessities call for great care and continual labour Can our common poor Labourers especially Husbandmen have leisure to inform their minds with Philosophy or curious Speculations Nay we see by experience that the more subtile and most vacant wits that wholly addict themselves to Philosophy can bring it to no considerable certainty and consistency to this day except in the few Rudiments or common Principles that all are agreed in Insomuch that those do now take themselves to be the chief or only wits who are pulling down that which through so many Ages from the beginning of the World hath with so great wit and study been concluded on before them and are now themselves no higher than new Experimenters who are beginning all anew again to try whether they can retrieve the errours of Mankind and make any thing of that which they think the World hath been so long unacquainted with And they are yet but beginning at the Skin or Superficies of the World and are got no further with all their wit than Matter and Motion with Figure Site Contexture c. But if they could live as long as Methusalem it is hoped they might come to know that besides Matter and Motion there are Essential Virtues called substantial Forms or active Natures and that there is a Vis Motiva which is the cause of Motion and a Virtus Intellectiva and Wisdom which is the cause of the Order of Motion and a Vital Will and Love which is the perfection and end of all In a word they may live to know that there is such a thing in the World as Life and such a thing as Active Nature and such a thing as Sense and Soul besides Corporeal Matter and Motion and consequently that man is indeed man. But alas they must die sooner perhaps before they attain so far and their Successors must begin all anew again as if none of all these great attempts had been made by their Predecessours and so by their method we shall never reach deeper than the Skin nor learn more than our A B C And would we have such a task made necessary to the Common
they love him not also as he is the Wise and Holy and Righteous Ruler of Mankind and as he requireth us to be holy and would make us holy and love not to please his Governing will they love him not as God with a saving love I have elsewhere mentioned the saying of Adrian after Pope in his Quodlib that an unholy person may not only love God as he is the glorious cause of the World and natural good but may rather choose to be himself annihilated and be no man than that there should be no God were it a thing that could be made the matter of his choice And indeed I dare not say that every man is holy who had rather be annihilated than one Kingdom should be annihilated when many Heathens would die to save their Countrey or their Prince much less dare I say that all shall be saved that had rather be annihilated than there should be no world or be no God But saith the foresaid Schoolman it is the love of God as our holy Governour and a love of his holy will and of our conformity thereto that is saving love II. And I fear that no small number do deceive themselves in thinking that they love Holiness as the Image of God in themselves and others when they understand not truly what Holiness is but take something for it that is not it Holiness is this Uniting love to God and Man and a desire of more perfect Union To love Holiness is to love this love it self to love all of God that is in the World and to desire that all men may be united in holy love to God and one another and live in his praise and the obedience of his will. But I fear too many take up some opinions that are stricter than other mens and call some things Sin which others do not and get a high esteem of some particular Church order and form of manner of worshiping God which is not of the essence or holiness and then they take themselves for a holy people and other men for prophane and loose and so they love their own Societies for this which they mistake for holiness and instead of that uniteing love which is holiness indeed they grow into a factious enmity to others reproaching them as rejoicing in their hurt as taking them for the enemies of God. 2. And as God must be loved in his Image on his servants so must he in his Image on his word Do you love the holy Laws of God as they express that holy Wisdom and Love which is his perfection Do you love them as they would rule the World in Holiness and bring mankind to true wisdom and mutual love Do you love this word as it would make you Wise and Holy and therefore love it most when you use it most in reading hearing meditation and practice surely to love the Wisdom and Holiness of Gods Laws and Promises is to love God in his Image there imprinted even in that Glass where he hath purposely shewed us that of himself which we must love 3. But no where is Gods Image so refulgent to us as in his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ In him therefore must God be loved Though we never saw him yet what he was even the holy Son of God separate from sinners the Gospel doth make known to us as also what wonderous love he hath manifested to lost mankind In him are all the treasures of Wisdom and Goodness both an example and a doctrine and law of wisdom holiness and peace he hath given to the World In this Gospel Faith seeth him yea seeth him as now Glorified in Heaven and made Head over all things to the Church the King of love the great high Priest of love the Teacher of love and the express Image of the Fathers person Are the thoughts of this glorious Image of God now pleasing to you and is the wisdom holiness and love of Christ now amiable to you in believing If so you Love God in his blessed Son. And as he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father so he that loveth the Son loveth the Father also 4. Yet further the glory of God will shine most clearly in the Celestial glorified Church containing Christ and all the blessed Angels and Saints who shall for ever see the glory of God and Love obey and praise him in perfect Unity Harmony and Fervency You see not this heavenly Society and Glory but the Gospel revealeth it and Faith believeth it Doth not this blessed Society and their holy work seem to you the most lovely in all the world Is it not pleasing to you to think in what perfect joy and concord they love and magnify God without all sinful ignorance disaffection dullness discord or any other culpable imperfection I ask not only whether your opinion will make you say that this Society and State is best but whether you do not so really esteem it as that it hath the pleasing desires of your Souls Would you not fain be one of them and be united to them and joyn in their perfect Love and Praise If so this is to Love God in that most glorious appearance where he will shew forth himself to man to be beloved But here true believers may be stopt with doubting because they are unwilling to die and till we die this glory is not seen But it 's one thing to love Heaven and God there manifested and another thing to love death which standeth in the way Nature teacheth us to loath death as death and to desire if it might be that this Cup might pass by us Though faith make it less dreadful because of the blessed State that followeth But he that loveth not blood-letting or Physick may love health It is not death but God and the heavenly perfection in glory which we are called to Love. What if you could come to this glory without dying as Henoch and Elias did would you not be willing to go thither 5. And he that loveth God in all these his appearances to man in his works and Image on his Saints in the wisdom holiness and goodness of his word in the wisdom love and holiness of his Son and in the perfection of his glory in the heavenly Society doth certainly also love him in the highest respect even as he is himself that blessed essence that perfect greatness Wisdom and Goodness or Life Light and Love which is the beginning and end of all things and the most amiable object of all illuminated minds and of every Sanctified will and of all our harmonious praise for ever For whatever become of that dispute whether we shall see Gods essence in itself as distinct from all created glory the word seeing being here ambiguous it is sure that we can even now have abstracting thoughts of the Essence of God as distinct from all creatures and our knowledge of him then will be far more perfect It should be most pleasant to every
on his truth and mercies But God will not lose his knowledge of me nor turn away his mercy from me The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his and let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 He can call me his Child when I doubt whether I may call him Father He doubteth not of his right to me nor of his graces in me when I doubt of my sincerity and part in him Known unto God are all his works Act. 15.18 What meaneth Paul thus to describe a state of grace Gal. 4.9 Now after ye have known God or rather are known of of God but to notify to us that though our knowledge of God be his grace in us and our evidence of his love and the beginning of life eternal Joh. 17.3 yet that we are loved and known of him is the first and last the foundation and the perfection of our security and felicity He knoweth his Sheep and none shall take them out of his hand When I cannot through pain or distemper remember him or not with renewed Joy or Pleasure he will remember me and delight to do me good and to be my Salvation 8. And though the belief of the unseen World be the principle by which I conquer this yet are my conceptions of it lamentably dark A Soul in flesh which acteth as the form of a body is not furnished with such images helps or light by which it can have clear conceptions of the state and operations of separated Souls But I am known of God when my knowledge of him is dark and small And he knoweth whither it is that he will take me what my state and work shall be He that is preparing a place for me with himself is well acquainted with it and me All Souls are his and therefore all are known to him He that is now the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as being living with him while they are dead to us will receive my departing Soul to them and to himself to be with Christ which he hath instructed me to commend into his hands and to desire him to receive He that is now making us living Stones for the new Jerusalem and his heavenly temple doth know where every one of us shall be placed And his knowledge must now be my satisfaction and my peace Let unbelievers say How doth God know Psal 73.11 But shall I doubt whether he that made the Sun be Father of lights and whether he know his dwelling and his continued works Be still O my Soul and know that he is God Psal 40.10 and when he hath guided thee by his counsel he will take thee to Glory and in his Light thou shalt have Light And though now it appear not to sight but to Faith only what we shall be yet we known that we shall see him as he is and we shall appear with him in glory And to be KNOWN of God undoubtedly includeth his PRACTICAL LOVE which secureth our Salvation and all that tendeth thereunto It is not meant of such a knowledge only as he hath of all things or of such as he hath of the ungodly And why should it be hard to thee O my Soul to be perswaded of the love of God Is it strange that he should love thee who is Essential Infinite love Any more than that the Sun should shine upon thee which shineth upon all capable recipient objects though not upon the uncapable which through interposing things cannot receive it To believe that Satan or wicked men or deadly Enemies should love me is hard But to believe that the God of love doth love me should in reason be much easier than to believe that my Father or Mother or dearest friend in the World doth love me If I do not make and continue my self uncapable of his complacence by my wilful continued refusing of his grace it is not possible that I should be deprived of it Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me Psal 146.8 The Lord loveth the righteous John 16.27 2. Why should it be hard to thee to believe that he loveth thee who doth good so universally to the World and by his love doth preserve the whole Creation and give all Creatures all the good which they possess When his mercy is over all his works and his Goodness is equal to his wisdom and his power and all the World is beautified by it shall I not easily believe that it will extend to me The Lord is good to all Psal 145.9 Luk. 18.19 None is good essentially absolutely and transcendently but he alone Psal 33.5 The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 52.1 The goodness of God endureth continually He is good and doth good Psal 119.68 And shall I not expect good from so good a God the cause of all the good that is in the World 3. Why should I not believe that he will love me who so far loved the World yea his Enemies as to give his only begotten Son that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 Having given me so precious a gift as his Son will he think any thing too good to give me Rom. 8.32 yea still he followeth his Enemies with his mercies not leaving himself without witness to them but filling their hearts with food and gladness and causing his Sun to shine on them and his Rain to fall on them and by his goodness leading them to repentance 4. Why should I not easily believe his love which he hath sealed by that certain gift of love the Spirit of Christ which he hath given The giving of the Holy Ghost is the shedding abroad of his love upon the heart Rom. 5. I had never known desired loved or served him sincerely but by that Spirit And will he deny his name his mark his seal his Pledge and Earnest of Eternal life Could I ever have truly loved Him his Word his Ways and Servants but by the reflection of his love shall I question whether he love those whom he hath caused to love him When our love is the surest gift and token of his love shall I think that I can love him more than he loveth me or be more willing to serve him than he is willing and ready to reward his Servants Heb. 11.6 1 Joh. 3.24 and 4.13 5. Shall I not easily hope for good from him who hath made such a covenant of Grace with me in Christ Who giveth me what his Son hath purchased who accepteth me in his most beloved as a member of his Son Who hath bid me ask and I shall have And hath made to Godliness the promise of this life and that to come and will with-hold no good thing from them that walk uprightly Will not such a Gospel such a Covenant such promises of love secure me that he loveth me while I consent unto his covenant terms 6. Shall I not easily believe
that he will love me who hath loved me while I was his Enemy and called me home when I went astray and mercifully received me when I returned Who hath given me a life full of precious mercies and so many experiences of his love as I have had Who hath so often signified his love to my Conscience So often heard my prayers in distress and hath made all my life notwithstanding my sins a continual wonder of his mercies O unthankful Soul if all this will not persuade thee of the love of him that gave it I that can do little good to any one yet have abundance of friends and hearers who very easily believe that I would do them good were it in my power and never fear that I should do them harm And shall it be harder to me to think well of Infinite Love and Goodness than for my neighbours to trust me and think well of such a wretch as I What abundance of love-tokens have I yet to shew which were sent me from Heaven to perswade me of my Fathers love and care 7. Shall I not easily believe and trust his love who hath promised me eternal glory with his Son with all his holy ones in Heaven Who hath given me there a great Intercessor to prepare Heaven for me and me for it and there appeareth for me before God Who hath already brought many millions of blessed Souls to that glory who were once as bad and low as I am And who hath given me already the Seal the Pledge the Earnest and the First-fruits of that Felicity Therefore O my Soul if men will not know thee if thou were hated of all men for the cause of Christ and Righteousness If thine uprightness be imputed to thee as an odious crime If thou be judged by the blind malignant World according to its gall and interest If friends misunderstand thee If Faction and every evil cause which thou disownest do revile thee and rise up against thee It is enough it is absolutely enough that thou art known of God God is All and All is nothing that is against him or without him If God be for thee who shall be against thee How long hath he kept thee safe in the midst of dangers and given thee peace in the midst of furious Rage and Wars He hath known how to bring thee out of trouble and to give thee tolerable ease while thou hast carried about thee night and day the usual causes of continual torment His loving kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 but thou hast had a long unexpected life through his loving kindness In his favour is life Psal 30. And life thou hast had by and with his favour Notwithstanding thy sin while thou canst truly say thou lovest him he hath promised that all shall work together for thy good Rom. 8.28 And he hath long made good that promise Only ask thy self again and again as Christ did Peter whether indeed thou love him And then take his love as thy full and sure and everlasting portion which will never fail thee though flesh and Heart do fail For thou shalt dwell in God and God in thee for evermore 1 Joh. 4.12 15 16. Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel A Christian Directory or Body of practical Divinity 1. Christian Ethicks 2. Oeconomicks 3. Ecclesiasticks 4. Politicks Resolving multitudes of Cases on each Subject By Rich. Baxter Folio Mr. Baxters Catholick Theology Folio Mr. Baxters Methodus Theologiae Christianae Folio A Third Volume of Sermons Preached by the late Reverend and Learned Tho. Manton D.D. In two parts Folio A Hundred Select Sermons on several Texts of Fifty on the Old Testament and Fifty on the New. Folio Choice and Practical Expositions on four Select Psalms Folio Both by the Reverend and Learned Tho. Horion D.D. late Minister of St. Hellens London The true Prophecies and Prognostications of Michael Nostrodamus Physician to Henry the Second Francis the Second and Charles the Ninth Kings of France and one of the Best Astronomers that ever were Folio Sixty one Sermons Preached mostly on publick occasions whereof five formerly Printed by Adam Littleton D.D. Rector of Chelsea in Middlesex Folio The Novels and Tales of the Renowned John Boccasio the first Refiner of Italian Prose containing a hundred curious Novels Folio A Key to open Scripture Metaphors in two Volumes By Benjamin Keach and Tho. Delawn Folio The Saints Everlasting Rest or a Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in their Enjoyment of God in Glory 4 to The English Nonconformity as under King Charles II. and King James II. Truly Stated and Argued By Richard Baxter 4to A discourse concerning Liturgies By the Late Learned and Judicious Divine Mr. David Clarkson 8vo A discourse of the saving Grace of God. By the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson Minister of the Gospel 8vo The Vision of the Wheels seen by the Prophet Ezekiel Opened and Applyed Partly at the Merchants Lecture in Broad-street and partly at Stepney on January 31. 1689. being the Day of Solemn Thanksgiving to God for the great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Slavery By his then Highness the most Illustrious Prince of Orange Whom God raised up to be the glorious Instrument thereof By Matthew Mead Pastor of a Church of Christ at Stepney 4to A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live. 12mo The right Method for settled Peace of Conscience and Spiritual Comfort 8vo The Life of Faith in every State. 4to Alderman Ashursts Funeral Sermon 4to A Key for Catholicks to open the juglings of the Jesuits The first part of answering all their common Sophisms The second against the Soveraignty and necessity of General Councils 4to The certainty of Christianity without Popery 8vo Full and easy satisfaction which is the true Religion Transubstantiation shamed 8vo Naked Popery Answering Mr. Hutchinson 4to Which is the true Church A full Answer to his Reply proving that the General Councils and the Popes Primacy were but in one Empire 4to The History of Bishops and their Councils abridged and of the Popes 4to The Cure of Church Divisions 8to A full Treatise of Episcopacy shewing what Episcopacy we own and what is in the English Diocesan frame for which we dare not swear never to endeavour any alteration of it in our places 4to A search for the English Schismatick comparing the Canoneers and Nonconformists 4to An Answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock confuting an Universal-humane Church Soveraignty Aristocratical and Monarchical as Church Tyranny and Popery and defending Dr. Iz. Barrows excellent Treatise 4to FINIS Had I been supposed to have written this Book to hide my sloth and ignorance men would not have neglected my Methodus Theologie and Catholick Theology thro' meer sloth and saying That it 's too high and hard for them A Country-man having sent his Son