By doing thus the Church notoriously declared that they took not all the Scripture to be equally necessary to be understood but that the Govenant of Grace and the Catechism explaining it is the Gospel it self that is the Essence of it and of the Christian Religion and that all the rest of the Scriptures contain but partly the Integrals and partly the Accidents of that Religion He is the wisest man that knoweth Most and Best and every man should know as much of the Scriptures as he can But if you knew all the rest without this the Covenant of Grace and its explication it would not make you Christians or save you But if you know this truly without all the rest it will. The whole Scripture is of great use and benefit to the Church It is like the body of a man which hath its Head and Heart and Stomach c. And hath also Fingers and Toes and flesh yea Nails and Hair. And yet the Brain and Heart it self fare the better for the rest and would not be so well Seated separate from them Though a man may be a man that loseth even a Leg or Arm. So is it here But it is the Covenant that is our Christianity and the duly Baptized are Christians whatever else they do not understand These are the things that all must know and daily live upon The Creed is but the Exposition of the three Articles of the Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Though the Jews that had been bred up to a preparing knowledge were quickly baptized by the Apostles upon their Conversion Acts 2. Yet no man can imagine that either the Apostles or other Ministers did use to admit the Ignorant Gentiles into the Covenant of God without opening the meaning of it to them or Baptize them as Christians without teaching them what Christianity is Therefore Reason and the whole Churches subsequent Custom assure us that the Apostles used to expound the three great Articles to their Catechumens And thence it is called The Apostles Creed Marcus Bishop of Ephesus told them in the Florentine Council as you may see Sgyropilus that we have none of the Apostles Creed And Vossius de Symbolis besides many others hath many Arguments to prove that this so called was not formally made by the Apostles Bishop Usher hath opened the changes that have been in it Sandford and Parker have largely de Descensu shewed how it came in as an Exposition of the Baptismal Articles Others stifly maintain that the Apostles made it But the case seemeth plain The Apostles used to call the Baptized to the profession of the same Articles which Paul hath in 1. Cor. 15.1 2 3 c. and varied not the matter All this was but more particularly to profess Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Two or three further Expository Articles are put into the Creed since Otherwise it is the same which the Apostles used not in the very syllables or forms of words but in the same sense and the words indeed being left free but seldom much altered because of the danger of altering the matter Of all the Antientest Writers not one repeateth the Creed in the same words that we have it nor any two of them in the same with one another Irenaeus once Tertullian twice hath it all in various words but the same sense That of Marcellus in Epiphanius cometh nearest ours called the Apostles and is almost it Afterward in Ruffinus and others we have more of it Yet no doubt but the Western Churches at least used it with little variation still The Nicene Creed is called by some Antients the Apostles Creed too And both were so for both are the same in sense and substance For it is not the very words that are truly fathered on the Apostles About 30â— years a go Mr. Ashwel having published a Book for the Necessity and Honour of the Creed I wrote in the Postscript to my Reformed Pastor Ed. 2. a Corrective of some passages in which he seemeth to say too much for it or at least to depress the Scripture too much in comparison of it But long experience now telleth me that I have more need to acquaint men with the Reasons and Necessity of the Creed Seeing I find a great part of ignorant Religious people much to slight the use of it and say It is not Scripture but the work of man Especially taking offence at the harsh translatiâ—n of that Article He descended into Hell. which from the beginning it 's like was not in It is the Kernel of the Scripture and it is that for which the rest of the Scripture is given us even to afford us sufficient help to understand and consent to the Covenant of Grace that our Belief our Desires and our Practice may be conformed principally to these Summaries It is not every Child or Woman that could have gathered the Essential Articles by themselves out of the whole Scripture if it had not been done to their hands Nor that could have rightly methodized the Rule of our desires or gathered the just heads of natural duty if Christ had not done the first in the Lords Prayer and God the second in the Decalogue Obj. But I believe these only because the Matter of the Creed and the words also of the other two are in the Scripture and not on any other Authority Ans If you speak of the Authority of the Author which giveth them their truth it is neither Scripture nor Tradition but God for whose Authority we must believe both Scripture and them But if you speak of the Authority of the Deliverers and the Evidence of the Delivery be it known to you 1. That the Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue and the Baptismal Covenant have been delivered down to the Church from the Apostles by a distinct Tradition besides the Scripture Tradition Even to all the Christians one by one that were Baptized and admitted to the Lords Table and to every particular Church So that there was not a Christian or Church that was not even Constituted by them 2. Be it known to you that the Church was long in possession of them before it had the Scriptures of the New Testament It 's supposed to be about eight years after Christ's Ascension before Matthew wrote the first Book of the New Testament and near the year of our Lord one hundred before the Revelation was written And do you think that there were no Christians or Churches all that while Or that there was no Baptism Or no Profession of the Christian Faith in distinct Articles No Knowledge of the Lords Prayer and Commandements No Gospel daily preached and practised What did the Church-assemblies think you do all those years No doubt those that had Inspiration used it by extraordinary gifts But that was not all Those that had not did preach the Substance of the Christian Religion contained in these forms and did Pray and Praise God
the Reformation must be presently answerable to the apprehension of the evil Yea sometimes the very injudicious sort of zealous people make the cry of the greatness of this or that corruption how Antichristian and intolerable it is And then the Reformation must satisfie this vulgar errour and answer the cry and expectation of the people I would here give instances of abundance of mis-reformings which all need a Reformation both in Doctrine Discipline and Worship but that I reserve it for another Treatise if I live to finish it and can get it printed called Over-doing is Undoing 12. Lastly This Vice of pretended certainty and knowledge hath set up several false terms of Christian Unity and Peace and by them hath done more to hinder the Churches Peace and Unity than most devices ever did which Satan ever contrived to that end by this Church-tearing Vice abundance of falshoods and abundance of things uncertain and abundance of things unnecessary have been made so necessary to the Union and Communion of the Churches and their Members as that thereby the Christian World hath been grinded to powder by the names and false pretences of Unity and Peace Just as if a wise Statesman would advise his Majesty that none may be his Subjects that are not of one Age one Stature one Complexion and one Disposition that so he might have Subjects more perfectly concordant than all the Princes on Earth besides and so might be the most Glorious Defender of Unity and Peace But how must this be done Why command them all to be of your mind But that prevaileth not and yet it is undone Why then they are obstinate self-will'd Persons Well but yet it is undone Why lay Fines and Penalties upon them Well but yet it is undone All the Hypocrites that had no Religion are of the Religion which is uppermost and the rest are uncured Why require more Bricks of them and let them have no Straw and tell them that their Religion is their idleness stubbornness and pride and let your little Finger be heavier than your Fathers Loins But hearken young Counsellors Jeroboam will have the advantage of all this and still the sore will be unhealed Why then Banish them and Hang them that obey not till there be none left that are not of one mind But Sir I pray you who shall do it and who shall that one man be that shall be left to be all the Kingdom You are not such a Fool as to be ignorant that no two men will agree in all things nor be perfectly of the same complexion If there must be One King and but One Subject I pray you who shall that one Subject be I hope not he that counselleth it Neque enim Lex justior ulla est quà m necis artifices arte perire suâ But hark you Sir shall that one Man have a Wife or not If not the Kingdom will die with him if yea I dare prognosticate he and his Wife will not be in all things of a mind If they be take me for a mistaken man. By this Vice of pretended knowledge and certainty it is that the Papacy hath been made the Center of the Unity of the Universal Church Unity we must have God forbid else There is no maintaining Christianity without it But the POPE must be PRINCIPIUM UNITATIS And will all Christians certainly Unite in the Pope Well and Patriarchs must be the Pillars of Unity But was it so to the Unity of the first Churches Or is it certain that all Christians will Unite in Patriarchs But further all the Mass of Gregory the too great and all the Legends in his Dialogues or at least all the Doctrines and Ceremonies which he received and the form of Government in his time must be made necessary to Church Union Say you so But it was not all necessary in the Apostles times nor in Cyprian's times no nor in Gregory's own times much of those things being used arbitrarily And what was made necessary by Canons of General Councils in the Empire mark it was never thereby made necessary in all the rest of the Churches And are you sure that meer Christians will take all these for certain truths Why if they will not Burn and Banish them This is as Tertullian saith solitudinem facere pacem vocare But hark Sir this way hath been tryed too long in vain Millions of Albigenses and Waldenses are said by Historians to be kill'd in France Savoy Italy Germany c. The French Massacre killed about Forty or Thirty Thousand The Irish Massacre in that little Island killed about Two Hundred Thousand But were they not stronger after all these cruelties than before Alas Sir all your labour is lost and your party is taken for a Blood-thirsty Generation and humane Nature which abhorreth the Blood-thirsty ever after breedeth Enemies to your way This is the effect of false Principles and terms of Unity and Peace contrived by proud self-conceited men that think the World should take their Dictates for a Supream Law and obey them as the Directive Deities of Mankind If all this be not enough to tell you what proud pretended certainty is read over the Histories of the Ages past and you shall find it written in Ink in Tears in blood in Mutations in Subversions of the Empires and Kingdoms of the World in the most odious and doleful Contentions of Prelates Lacerations of Churches and Desolations of the Earth And yet have we not experience enough to teach us Chap. XIII The Commodities of a suspended judgment and humble understanding which pretendeth to no more Knowledge or Certainty than it hath THE commodities of an humble mind which pretendeth not to be Certain till he is Certain you may gather by contraries from the twelve forementioned mischiefs of prefidence which to avoid prolixity I leave to your collection Moreover I add 1. Such a humble suspended mind doth not cheat it self with seeming to have a knowledge a Divine Faith a Religion when it hath none It doth not live on air and dreams nor feed on shadows nor is puft up with a tympanite of vain conceits instead of true substantial wisdom 2. He is not prepossessed against the Truth but hath room for Knowledge and having the teachableness of a Child he shall receive instruction and grow in true Knowledge when the proud and inflated wits being full of nothing are sent empty away 3. He entangleth not himself in a seeming necessity of making good all that he hath once received and entertained He hath not so many Bastards of his own Brain to maintain as the prefident hasty judgers have which saveth him much sinful study and strife 4. He is not liable to so much shame of mutability He that fixeth not till he feel firm ground nor buildeth till he feel a Rock need not pull down and repent so oft as rash presumers 5. Unless the World be Bedlam mad in proud obtrudings of their own Conceits methinks such
and celebrate the Lords Supper provoking one another to Love and to good works 3. Be it known to you that these three Summaries come to us with fuller Evidence of Certain Tradition from God than the rest of the Holy Scriptures Though they are equally true they are not equally Evident to us And this I thus prove 1. The Body of the Scriptures were delivered but one way but the Covenant Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue are delivered two ways They are in the Scripture and so have all the Evidence of Tradition which the Scriptures have And they were besides that delivered to the memories of all Christians If you say that the Creed is not in the Scripture or that the Scripture is not altered as it is I answer 1. That it is in the Scripture as to the matter signified in as plain words even of the same signification 2. There is no alteration made but a small addition which is no disparagement to it because the ancient substance of it is still known and the additions are not new made things but taken out of Scripture And if yet any Heretick should deny that God is Wise and Good and Just and Merciful it were no dishonour to the Creed nor weakening of its certainty to have these attributes yet added to it 2. These Summaries as is said were far ancienter than the rest of the New Testament as written and known and used long before them 3. These Summaries being in every Christians mind and memory were faster held than the rest of the Scriptures Therefore Parents could and did teach them more to their Children You never read that the Catechizers of the people did teach them all the Bible nor equally ask them who Jared or Mehaleel or Lamech was as they did who Christ was Nor put every History into the Catechism but only the Historical Articles of the Creed 4. Therefore it was far easier to preserve the purity of these Summaries than of the whole Body of the Scriptures For that which is in every mans memory cannot be altered without a multitude of reprovers Which makes the Greeks since Photius keep such a stir about Filioque as to think that the Latines have changed Religion and deserved to be separated from for changing that word But no wonder that many hundred various Readings are crept into the Bible and whole Verses and Histories as that of the Adulterous Woman are out in some that are in others For it is harder to keep such a Volume uncorrupt than a few words Though writing as such is a surer way than memory and the whole Bible could never have been preserved by memory Yet a few words might especially when they had those words in writings also 5. Add to this that the Catechistical Summaries aforesaid were more frequently repeated to the people at least every Lords day Whereas in the reading of the Scriptures one passage will be read but seldom perhaps once or twice in a year And so a corruption not so easily observed 6. And if among an hundred Copies of the Scripture ten or twenty only should by the Carelesness of the Scribes be corrupted all the rest who saw not these Copies would not know it and so they might fall into the hands of Posterity when many of the sounder might be lost 7. And Lastly The danger of depravation had no end For in every age the Scripture must be written over anew for every Church and person that would use it And who that knoweth what writing is could expect that one Copy could be written without errors and that the second should not add to the errors of the 1st as Printers now do who print by faulty Copies And though this danger is much less since Printing came up that is but lately And the mischiefs of Wars and Heretical Tyrants burning the truest Copies hath been some disadvantage to us Obj. Thus you seem to weaken the Certain incorruption of the Scriptures Ans No such thing I do but tell you the case truly as it is The wonderful Providence of God and care of Christians hath so preserved them that there is nothing corrupted which should make one Article of faith the more doubtful I assert no more depravation in them than all confess but only tell you how it came to pass and tell you the greater certainty that we have of the Essentials of Religion than of the rest And whereas every man of brains confesseth that many hundred words in Scripture by Variety of Copies are uncertain I only say that it is not so in the Essentials And I do not wonder that Virgil Ovid Horace Cicero c. Have not suffered such depravations For 1. It is not so easy for a Scribes error to pass unseen in oratione ligata as in oratione soluta in verse as in prose 2. And Cicero with the rest was almost only in the hands of Learned men whereas the Scriptures were in the hands of all the Vulgar Women and Children 3. And the Copies of these Authors were comparatively but few Whereas every one almost got Copies of the Scripture that was able And it 's liker that some depravation should be found among ten thousand Copies than among a hundred So that I have proved to you that the Creed Lords Prayer Commandments and Covenant of Baptism are not to be believed only because they are in the Scripture but also because they have been delivered to us by Tradition and so we have them from two hands as it were or ways of Conveyance and the rest of the Scriptures but by one for the most part I will say yet more because it is true and needful If any live among Papists that keep the Scripture from the people or among the poor Greeks Armenians or Abassines where the people neither have Bibles commonly nor can read or if any among us that cannot read know not what is in the Bible yea if through the fault of the Priest any should be kept from knowing that ever there was a Bible in the world Yet if those persons by Tradition receive the baptismal Covenant the Creed Lords Prayer and Commandments as Gods Word and truly believe and Love and Practice them those persons shall be saved For they have Christs promise for it And the very Covenant itself is the Gift of Christ and Life to consenters Whereas he that knoweth all the Scripture can be saved only by consenting to and performing this same Covenant But having greater helps to understand it and so to Believe it and Consent he hath a great advantage of them that have not the Scripture And so the Scripture is an unspeakable mercy to the Church And it is so far from being too little without the supplement of the Papists Traditions and Councils as that the hundredth part of it as to the bulk of words is not absolutely it self of necessity to Salvation Yet I say more If a man that hath the Scripture should doubt of some Books of it whether
till you have true evidence to establish them 1. It is only Christians that I am now instructing and if you are Christians you have already received the Essentials of Christianity even the Baptismal Covenant the Creed the Lords Prayer and Decalogue And I need not tell you that moreover you must receive all those Truths in Nature and Scripture which are so plain that all these dissenting sects of Christians are agreed in them And when you have all these and faithfully love and practice them you are sure to be saved if you do not afterward receive some contrary Doctrine which destroyeth them Mark then which is the safe Religion As sure as the Gospel is true he that is meet for Baptism before God is meet for pardon of sin and he that truely consenteth to the Baptismal Covenant and so doth dedicate himself to God is made a Member of Christ and is justified and an Heir of Heaven Your Church Catechism saith truly of all such that in Baptism each one is made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Heir of Heaven So that as sure as the Gospel is true every true Baptized Christian whose Love and Life doth answer that Faith shall certainly be saved Ask all parties and few of them but impudent designers can deny this Well then the Baptismal Covenant expounded in the Creed Lords Prayer and Commandments is your Christian Religion As a Christian you may and shall be saved that a True Christian is saved all confess But whether a Papist be saved is questioned by the Protestants and so is the Salvation of many other sects by others You are safe then if you take in nothing to endanger you And is it not wisdom then to take heed how you go further and on what grounds lest you over-run your safe Religion Obj. But then I must not be a Protestant For the Papists say that they cannot be saved Ans A Protestant is either one that holdeth to the ancient simple Christianity without the Papists manifold additions Or one that positively also renounceth and opposeth those additions In the first sense a Protestant and a meer Christian is all one and so to say that a Protestant cannot be saved is to say that a Christian as such cannot be saved If it be the meer name of a Protestant that the Papist accounteth damnable tell him that you will not stick with him for the name You are contented with the old name of Christian alone But Protestantism in the second sense is not your Religion but the Defensative of your Religion as flying from the Plague is not my Humanity or Life but a means to preserve it And so Protestants are of many sizes Some oppose some points and some others some more some less which the Papists have brought in And yet they are not of so many Religions But whoever condemneth you if Christ save you he doth but condemn himself as uncharitable Christianity is certainly a State of Salvation but whether Popery be or whether the Greek Opinions be or whether this or that difference and singularity stand with Salvation is the doubt Cast not your self then needlesly into doubt and danger Obj. But then you will have us be still but Infants and to learn no more than our Catechisms and not to learn and believe all that God hath revealed in his Word Ans No such matter This is the sum of what I advise you to 1. Hold fast to your simple Christianity as the Certain terms of Salvation 2. Receive nothing that is against it 3. Learn as much more as ever you can 4. But take not mens words nor their plausible talk for Certifying Evidence And do not think if you believe a Priest that this is believing God nor if his Reasons seem plausible to you and you are of his Opinion that this is Divine Knowledge If you do incline to one mans Opinion more than another tell him that you incline to his Opinion but tell him that you take not this for Divine Knowledge or any part of your Religion If you will needs believe one side rather than another about Church History or the matters of their Parties Interest tell them I believe you as fallible men but this is none of my Divine Faith or Religion To learn to know is to learn Scientifical Evidence and not to learn what is another mans Opinions nor whether they are probable or not much less to read a Councils Decrees or the Propositions of a disputing Systeme and then for the mens sake to say This is Orthodox Nor yet because it hath a taking aspect To learn of a Priest to believe God is one thing and to believe him or his party Church or Council is another thing Learn to know as much as you can and especially to know what God hath revealed to be believed And learn to believe God as much as you can And believe all your Teachers and all other men as far as they are credible in that case with such a humane belief as fallible men may justly require And where Contenders do consent suspect them the less But where they give one another the Lie in matters of Fact try both their Evidences of credibility before you trust them and then trust them not beyond that Evidence But still difference your Divine Faith and Religion from your Opinion and Humane Faith. And let men sollicite you never so long take not on you to know or believe till you do that is not beyond the Evidence I do but perswade you against Presumption and Hypocrisie Shall I say SUSPEND TILL YOU HAVE TRUE EVIDENCE and you are safe why if you do not you will know never the more nor have ever the more Divine Faith For I can mean no more than SUSPEND YOUR PRESUMPTIONS and do not foolishly or hypocritically take on you to know what you do not or to have a Faith which you have not If you can know truly do it with fidelity and be true to the Truth whoever offer it or whatever it cost you But suspend your Profession or hasty Opinions and Conceits of what you know not Obj. But every side almost tells me that I am damned if I do not believe as they do Ans 1. By that you may see that they are all deceived at least save one which ever it be while they differ and yet condemn each other 2. Thereby they do but give you the greater cause to suspect them For by this shall all men know Christs Disciples if they love one another Right Christians are not many Masters as knowing that themselves shall have the greater condemnation else for in many things we offend all And the wisdom which hath envy and strife is not from above but from beneath and is earthly sensual and devilish introducing confusion and every evil work Jam. 3.1 15 16. Christs Disciples judge not lest they be judged 3. By this you may see that unless you can be of all mens minds
analogically or equivocally called a Christian or Member of Christ And such among the sincere are not a distinct Church or Society if they were they should be called the Hypocritical Church and not the Political or Congregate Church But they are as Traytors in an Army or as stricken Ears in a Corn Field But the true Church being One is considered as consenting with Heart and with the Tongue As a Corn Field hath Straw Chaff and Grain and as a Man hath Soul and Body So that it is the same Church that is visible by Baptism and Profession and Invisible by Heart-consent or Sincerity But it is the same thing and not divers that is in the Hearts of the sincere and that is to be professed by the Tongue Even that voluntary practical Faith which is described in Baptism and no other The same Faith which is accepted to Salvation in the sincere and invisible Members of the Church as they are called must be professed by all that will at Age be visible Members And the Knowledge and Belief required in Baptism is so much as prevaileth with the Person to give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as his Reconciled Creator his Saviour and Sanctifier And he that hath so much knowledge as will do this hath as much as is necessary to his reception into the Church Doubtless he that is capable of Baptism is capable of Church Membership and he that is capable of Church Membership is capable de jure as to right of so much Church Communion as he is capable of by real aptitude An Infant is not naturally capable of the actions of the Adult nor half-witted Persons of the receptions and performances of the judicious some cannot understand a Sermon or Prayer or Praise the twentieth part so well as others can do and so cannot receive and do beyond their understanding Some may not so well understand the nature of the Lords Supper as to be really fit at present to receive it And some may be unfit through some extraordinary doubts opinions or lapses But still de jure a Church Member hath right to so much Church Communion as their real qualifications make them capable of For that right is part of the definition of a Church member And to be made a Church member is the work of Baptism And here we must consider of the reason why God would have Baptism to be the Profession of that Faith which maketh us Christians Sometime we are called Believers and said to be Justified by Faith as if it were Faith alone that were our Christianity And yet when it cometh to Church entrance and to the solemn profession of our faith and reception of a Sealed and Delivered pardon we must do more than profess that we believe with the understanding We must give up our selves absolutely by a Vow and Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost renouncing the flesh the World and the Devil which is the act of a resolved Will. And to Will is rationally to Love and Choose By which Christ telleth us that as words of Knowledge in Scripture usually imply affection so the Faith that he means and requireth to our justification is not a meer assent or act of intellection but it is also the wills consent and a practical Affiance As a man Believing the Skill and Fidelity of a Physician doth Desire Will or Choose him for his Physician and Practically Trust him or cast himself upon his Fidelity and care for cure Therefore Christ joyneth both together Mark 16.16 He that Believeth and is baptized shall be saved not principally intending the washing of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience as Peter expoundeth it that is He that so believeth as by hearty consent to devote and give up himself openly and absolutely and presently to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost shall be saved And so the Apostle saith Eph. 4.4 5. There is one Baptism as part of the uniting bond of Christians That is there is one solemn Covenant between God and Man in which we profess our Faith and give up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and are stated in a gracious Relation to him and one another And thus it is that Baptism is reckoned Heb. 6. among the principles And that the ancient Doctors unanimously conclude that Baptism washeth away all sin and certainly puts us into a present state of life That is The delivering up our selves sincerely to God in the Baptismal Covenant is the condition of our right to the benefits of that Covenant from God. From all which it is plain that the Head is but the guide of the Heart and that God looketh more to the Heart than to the Head and to the Head for the Heart And that we are not Christians indeed till Christ have our Hearts indeed Nor Christians by profession till by Baptismal Covenant and profession we deliver up the Heart to Christ Now so far as Consent and Will may be called Love fo far even Love is Essential to our Christianity and to this faith which is required to our baptism and justification And no other faith is Christianity nor will justify us But to them that are here stalled with the great difficulty How Love is that grace of the Holy Ghost which is promised to believers in the Covenant as consequent if it go before it in the Covenanters I answer at present that they must distinguish between 1. Love to Christ as a Saviour of our selves proceeding principally from the just Love of our selves and our Salvation and Love to God above our selves for his own Infinite Goodness as our ultimate end 2. Between the Act of Love and a Habit 3. Between that spark of Love which consisteth in the said consent and is contained in true Faith and that Flame of Love which it self carryeth the name as being the most eminent operation of the Soul. And if hereupon they cannot answer this question themselves I must refer them to the Appendix of the third Chapter of my Christian Directory in which I have largely opened this case with as much exactness as I could reach unto All that remaineth very difficult then as to our judging of the Knowledge of men to be admitted to Christian Church Communion is but what knowledge is necessary in the adult unto their lawful Baptism And to that I say so much as is necessary to an understanding consent to the Baptismal Covenant or to an hearty giving up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost And here we must know that the same Covenanting words being comprehensive are understood in different degrees according to mans different Capacities even of true believers Insomuch that I do not think that any two men in the world have in all notions and degrees just the same understanding of them And therefore it is not the same distinctness and clearness of understanding which we must expect in all which is found in some or