in maintaining and promoting the doctrine and kingdome of Christ Seventhly That sweet and admirable harmony and consent which is found in the sacred Scriptures cannot be rationally ascribed to any but to the Spirit of God and the divine wisdome each part agreeing so exactly with it self and with the whole which sufficiently appears by comparing the Prophesies of the old Testament touching Christ the calling of the Gentiles the reception of the Jews and other remarkable things with the accomplishment of them as the same is plainly declared and revealed in the new Testament Such exact consent and agreement as is here to be found is impossible to be feigned of men or Angels from whom the things foretold were hid till they were revealed Nor could there be forgery in these writings if we consider in a way of reason the length of time in which these writings have continued and been judg'd Authentick that they were not written in one or two but in many ages that there was a multitude of Books and of writers imployed in this Service and that these writers were distant in place one from another so that they could not confer together and withal if we consider the deep silence of the Adversaries who in all that long time whilst the Scripture was in writing could never detect any thing in those books as false or forged whose silence in this case is of great importance because they were eye witnesses of those things which our Saviour taught did and suffered according as it was prophesied of him so that they knew the prophesies saw the accomplishment of them and were acquainted with that which the Apostles had written Yea many or most of the things relating to Christ and his Apostles and the accomplishment of prophesies are mentioned and recorded in the writings of some heathen Authors that lived and wrote not long after those times If the Prophets and Apostles in their writings seem to dissent one from another for it is but a seeming not a real dissent in any circumstances this derogates nothing from their Authority for in themselves they differ not the fault is in our ignorance and misapprehension for by a right and just interpretation they may be easily reconciled and that dissonancy that seems to be amongst them in small things doth free them from all suspition of fraud and their sweet harmony and consent in all matters of importance may in reason convince us that they wrote by the guidance and direction of one and the same Spirit of truth If they had all written one thing they might seem superfluous if each had written a new History there could not have been such a full harmony and agreement when they relate the same story with the same circumstances they have their use and benefit one sometimes speaking more plainly then the other and when they agree in matter and only seem to dissent in some circumstances the truth is the more confirmed and an argument of fuller credit and certainty may be drawn out of that seeming dissent for as it is truly and wisely observed too exact diligence in every little circumstance is neither approved by all nor doth it want suspition There is in the holy Scripture as a learned man writing in defence of their Authority saith a Majestick kind of security under many seeming contradictions which yet neither the honour of their truth nor that harmony which they have in and with themselves do or shall at all suffer by Nor do the Scriptures stand to excuse and purge themselves as if there were any cause to suspect them of any contrariety or contradiction No they speak from place to place whatever they have a mind to say with that liberty and freedome as if there were nothing said by them elsewhere that either was like to suffer the least prejudice by it or to cast the least prejudice on it To that sweet agreement and consent that is in the holy Scripture with it self we may further add that it agreeth with all other truths whatsoever there is nothing true in Divinity which is false in true Philosophy nothing in Philosophy is repugnant to the truth in Divinity but it may be overthrown by the principles of right and true Philosophy which are and ought to be subject to Divinity Eightly The matter treated of in the Scripture is divine and wonderful which may convince us that it is the word of the eternal God it opens and reveals the greatest and most glorious Mysteries as the nature properties attributes and high acts of God and how he will be worshipped and adored It describes the person natures virtues and excellencies of Christ so fully so clearly that if the mind of man consider it attentively he must of necessity acknowledge that it doth far exceed the reach of a finite understanding and humane capacity it discovers to us the corruption and misery of man by nature the great and unparalled love of God in Jesus Christ towards lost man and the happy agreement of his infinite justice mercy and wisdome in ordaining Christ to be our Mediator and reveals the covenant of grace which God made with man after the fall for restoring him again to Gods favour All which can be derived from no other fountain but the Spirit of wisdome and Revelation 1 Cor. 2.7 8 9 10. Eph. 1.17 18. The Scripture also contains the law of God which teacheth the whole duty of man towards God and towards men in the precepts of Scripture there are divers notes of a divine power and wisdome as First The surpassing excellency of the acts required of us namely that we should deny our selves and conform our hearts and lives to the Image of the word of God Secondly the wonderful equity that doth appear in every Commandment Thirdly The admirable strangeness of some acts and duties as regeneration self-abasement the renouncing of our own righteousness and parting with all we have for Christ which a meer natural man would count foolishness and madness yet prescribed as necessary Fourthly The manner how obedience is required to be performed by us it must proceed from an inward spiritual principle even from a pure heart a good Conscience and faith unfeigned Fifthly The perfection of the holy law of God commanding and allowing all good and forbidding and condemning all sin and wickedness whatsoever in thought word and action not only the filthiness of the flesh but also the filthiness of the Spirit and that with reference to all persons times and places without exception binding the Conscience and reaching the very thoughts and secrets of the hearts of men And do not all these things which would fill a great Volume if I should treat of them at large clearly and convincingly set forth the divine Authority of the Scriptures so as we should acknowledge no other Author of those sacred writings but God himself for who can contrive these things but he who is infinite in power and wisdome who can give eternal life
their Enemies Is it not more truly honourable and glorious to serve that God who commandeth the whole World than to be a slave to those Passions and Lusts which put men upon continual hard service and torment them for it when they have done it Were there nothing else to commend Religion to the minds of men besides the tranquility and calmness of spirit that serene and peaceable temper which follows a good Conscience wheresover it dwells it were enough to make men welcom that Guest which brings such good entertainment with it Whereas the amazements horrors and anxieties of mind which at one time or other haunt such who prostitute their Consciences to a violation of the Laws of God and the Rules of rectified Reason may be enough to perswade any rational person that Impiety is the greatest folly and Irreligion the greatest madness The wisest and greatest of men in all Ages at or not long before their death when freest from worldly designs and sensual delights have owned that God and His Truth which they did not embrace and acknowledge as they ought to have done in their lives and the nearer death did approach to them the more serious were they in Religion and did disclaim and abandon those Atheistical and irreligious courses wherewith they or some of them had been formerly entangled Nimrod the Founder of the Assyrian Monarchy when carried away by Spirits at his death as Annius in his Berosus relates the Story cryed out Oh one year more Oh one year more before I go into the place from whence I shall not return Ninus that great King next from Nimrod save Belus at his Death left this Testimony Look on this Tomb and hear where Ninus is whether thou art an Assyrian a Mede or an Indian I speak to thee no frivolous nor vain matters Formerly I was Ninus and lived as thou doest I am now no more than a piece of earth All the Meat that I have like a Glutton devoured all the Pleasures that I like a Beast enjoyed all the beautiful Women that I so notoriously abused all the Riches and Glory that I so proudly possessed I am now deprived of And when I went into the invisible state I had neither Gold nor Horse nor Chariot I that wore the rich Crown of Gold am now poor Dust Cyrus the Persian left this Memento behind him to all Mankind as Plutarch and others tell us Whosoever thou art O O Man and whence-soever thou comest for I know thou wilt come to the same condition that I am in I am Cyrus who brought the Empire to the Persians Do not I beseech thee envy me this little piece of ground which covereth my Body Alexander the Great who conquered the World was at last as we find in Plutarch Curtius and others so possessed with the sense of Religion that he was under much trouble and anxiety of spirit and look'd upon every little matter as portentous and ominous so dreadful a thing saith Plutarch is the contempt of God which sooner or later filleth all mens minds with fears and terrors Julius Caesar who Conquered so many Nations and at last subdued and possessed the Roman Empire could not Conquer himself and his own Conscience which troubled him with Dreams and terrified him with Visions putting him upon Sacrificing and consulting all sorts of Priests and Augures though he found comfort from none in so much as a little before he died he was as heartless as the ominous Sacrifice was that he offered professing to his most intimate Friends That since he had made an end of the Wars abroad he had no Peace at home The like may be said of Tiberius Caesar Nero and other Roman Emperours Hadrian the Emperour celebrated his own Funerals carrying before him his Coffin in triumph when he lived and when he was a dying cried out lamentably Animula vagula blandula quae abibis in loca Ah poor Soul whither wilt thou go what will become of thee Thus the greatest Princes have especially near their latter end a deep sense of Religion of the Souls Immortality and their Eternal estate in another World Nor did ever any Prince Captain or Law-giver go about any great matter but at length he was glad to take in the assistance of a God as Numa Lycurgus Solon Scipio and others Titus and Nerva two Roman Emperours had such serious thoughts and were so sensible of a Deity in the Government of the World that neither of them as the Historian saith was ever seen to smile or play Septimius Severus that Victorious Roman Emperour having had experience of the vanity of this Worlds Riches and Greatness said at his Death I have been all things and it profiteth me nothing Charles the Fifth that Famous German Emperour after twenty three pitch'd Battels six Triumphs four Kingdoms won and eight Principalities added to his other Dominions resigned all these in his life time to his Son and betook himself to a retired life and to his private Devotions This great and wise Prince had his own Funeral Celebrated beforre his face and left this Testimony of the Christian Religion That the sincere profession of it had in it those sweets and joys which the Courts of Princes were strangers to grounding his hope and assurance of Salvation upon the sole Righteousness and Satisfaction of Christ his Mediator and not upon his own Works and to this purpose divers little Papers were written by him and found immediately after his Death as is Recorded by an Author who wrote the Life of Don Carlos his Grand-child Philip the Third King of Spain lying on his death-bed the last of March 1621 sent thrice at Midnight for Florentius his Confessor who gravely exhorting him patiently to submit to the will of God the King could not choose but weep saying Lo now my fatal hour is at hand but shall I obtain eternal felicity at which words great grief and trouble of mind seising on the King he said to his Confessor You have not hit upon the right way of healing Is there no other Remedy Which words when the Confessor understood of his Body the King replied Ah ah I am not solicitous for my Body or temporary Disease but for my Soul Cardinal Wolsey that Great Minister of State who for some years gave Law to England and to other Nations poured out his Soul in these sad words Had I been as diligent to serve my God as I have been to please my Prince He would not have forsaken me now in my gray Hairs Sir Francis Walsingham that great and wise Statesman towards the latter end of his Life grew very melancholy and wrote to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh to this purpose We have lived enough to our Countrey to our Fortunes and to our Sovereign it is now high time we begin to live to our selves and to our God In the multitude of Affairs which have passed through our Hands there must needs be great miscarriages for which a whole Kingdom cannot
make our Peace Hereupon some Courtiers being sent to divert Sir Francis Ah said he while we laugh all things are serious round about us God is serious when He preserveth us and hath patience towards us Christ is serious when He dieth for us the Holy Ghost is serious when He striveth with us the Holy Scripture is serious when it is read before us Sacraments are serious when they are administred unto us the whole Creation is serious in serving God and us They are serious in Heaven and Hell and shall a man that hath one foot in his Grave jest and laugh Sir Philip Sidney his Son-in-Law that brave accomplish'd Knight whom Queen Elizabeth call'd her Philip and the Prince of Aurange his Master whose Death was lamented in Verse by the then Kings of France and Scotland and by the two famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge repented at his death of writing his Pembrokes Arcadia and would have committed it to the flames himself to prevent the kindling of unlawful heats in the youthful Readers of it leaving this farewel amongst his Friends Above all things govern your Wills and Affections by the Will and Word of God In me behold the end of this World and all its vanities Sir John Mason Privy Counsellor to several Princes upon his death-bed spake thus to some of his Friends I have seen five Princes and been Privy Counsellor to four of them I have observed the most remarkable Occurrences in Forein parts and been present at most transactions for thirty years together And I have learned this after so many years Experience That Seriousness is the greatest Wisdom Temperance the best Physick a good Conscience is the best Estate and were I to live again I would change the Court for a Cloister my Privy Counsellors Employment for an Hermit 's Retirement and the whole Life I lived in the Palace for one Hours Enjoyment of God in the Chappel all things else forsake me besides my God and my Duty The Lord Henry Howard that Learned Earl of Northampton being troubled with Atheistical thoughts and suggestions put them all off with this Consideration viz. If I could give any account how my self or any thing else had a being without God how there came so uniform and so constant a consent of Mankind of all ages tempers and educations otherwise differing so much in their apprehensions about the being of God the Immortality of the Soul and Religion I could then be an Atheist And when it was urged that Religion was a State-policy to keep men in awe he replied That could not be true for the greatest Politicians have sooner or later felt the power of Religion in the grievous lashes of their Consciences and the dreadfulness of their apprehensions about that state wherein they must live for ever Cardinal Richlieu that great Politician after he had governed the Affairs of Europe many years together confessed to Peter du Moulin a Learned Minister of the Reformed Church in France That being forced upon many irregularities in his life time by that which they call Reason of State he could not tell how to satsifie his conscience for several things and therefore had many Temptations to doubt and disbelieve a God another World and the Immortality of the Soul and by that distrust to relieve his aking Heart but in vain for so strong said he were the apprehensions of God in his Soul so clear the impressions of a Deity upon the frame of the World so unanimous the consent of Mankind so powerful the convictions of his Conscience that he could not but taste the power of the World to come and so live as one that must die and so die as one that must live for ever And being asked one day why he was so sad he answered Monsieur Monsieur the Soul is a serious thing it must be either sad here for a moment or be sad for ever Cardinal Mazarine his Successor who had for several years managed the Crown of France and the greatest Affairs of Christendom discoursing one day with a Sorbon Doctor concerning the Souls Immortality and Mans Eternal estate he wept repeating that Emperours saying O my poor Soul whither wilt thou go and immediately calling for his Confessor he vowed ten Hours of the Day for Devotion seven for Rest four for Repasts and but three for Business saying one day to the Queen Mother Madam your favours have undone me and were I to live again I would be a Capuchin rather than a Courtier Salmasius that great Scholar whom the Learned men of his time never mention without some title of praise and commendation left this World with these words in his mouth Oh I have lost a world of time that most precious thing in the World whereof had I but one year longer to live it should be spent in David 's Psalms and Paul 's Epistles Oh Sirs speaking to his Friends that were about him Mind the World less and God more all the Learning in the World without Piety and the true fear of God is nothing worth The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding The Learned Grotius after many Publick Embassies and Imployments managed and performed by him at home and abroad and after his many elaborate Writings in Divinity and other Sciences having taken an exact Survey of the Hebrew Greek and Latin Learning concluded his life with this Protestation That he would give all his Learning and Honour for the plain Integrity and harmless Innocency of Jean Vrick who was a devout poor man that spent eight Hours of his time in Prayer eight in Labour and but eight in Sleep and other necessaries And complaining to one that admired his astonishing Labours and Industry he uttered these words Ah vitam perdidi operosè nihil agendo And to another Friend that desired him according to his great Wisdom and Learning to shew him briefly what he should do he gave him only this direction Be serious Persons of great Estate and Dignity in this World must expect nevertheless to meet with great crosses and disappointments of which doubtless your Honour hath had and will have more and more experience in this vale of tears Now as the Sacred Scriptures do abundantly furnish us with grounds and motives of Patience and submission to the Will and Providence of God in every condition and under every dispensation so there are divers Heathen Moralists who have from the Light of Reason and moral Prudence propounded many excellent Arguments and Considerations to perswade us thereunto Especially Epictetus who though lame and old sickly and deformed poor and under servitude being a Slave to Epaphroditus one of the Roman Courtiers yet was he an excellent Philosopher and a man of a most noble and generous spirit some of whose excellent Sayings to this purpose I shall here recite This wise Moralist speaking of the unreasonableness of murmuring at any cross Events whatsoever hath this passage Dissertat lib. 3.
World Now this is a manifest token and proof as may be easily discern'd by the Light of Reason that there is a supreme Judge who hath given a Law that bindeth the Conscience and commandeth as well the inward thoughts as the words and actions of all men and who will call them to a strict account and reckoning Eighthly It appears that there is a God or supreme Being by the Soul of man which is a spiritual immortal substance as shall be evinc'd by Reason in the next Chapter and is endued with power to understand and will But now the Soul and the power thereof is not of and from it self but must proceed from a higher Cause which is Power Wisdom and Understanding it self and this is God In the Understanding of man there are certain principles whereby it discerneth truth and falshood good and evil this gift man hath not of himself nor from himself but it must needs spring from a supreme and most wise Understanding as an effect from its principal Cause which infinitely excels and transcends it Nor is the Mind of man satisfied with the knowledge nor his Will with the possession of all things in this Life but still they seek and earnestly thirst after some higher good And hence it is evident even to an Eye of Reason that there is a sovereign Truth and chief Good which being perfectly known and enjoyed will give full satisfaction to the Soul of man which seeing it is capable of happiness or the chief good this would be altogether in vain if there were not such a chief good to be possessed and enjoyed In our Immortal Souls there are principles of infallible and demonstrative Truth as to honour and obey our Parents to do as we would be done unto to defend our selves to perform our promises c. which Principles hold good in all men more or less unless they be horribly prophane and wicked Amongst which fundamental Principles this is one and the chiefest That there is a God and that this God ought to be Worshipped and though some other of these principles may fail in men yet this never faileth but they will Worship one thing or other as God unless they be downright and desperate Atheists Ninthly By the continual suggestions and assaults of the evil Spirit we conclude that there is a Devil and hence we may as certainly conclude that there is a God Doth not Satan by all means endeavour to extinguish the knowledge of God and the glorious Light of the Gospel and to lead men on in ways of Errour and Prophaneness and turn them out of the path of Truth and Holiness Now why should the Devil thus war against God His Word and Saints Why should he so earnestly seek the dishonour of God and the destruction of Men if there were not a God a Gospel and an Everlasting Life Why should he and his wicked Instruments with all their hellish power malice and policy labour to extirpate and root out all those that faithfully call upon the Name of God and are zealous for His Glory if there were not a God or Supreme Being Tenthly This great Truth is further made evident even to an Eye of Reason by the Lord 's miraculous hiding preserving and defending His Church and People from time to time How wonderfully hath he frustrated the Plots and Devices of the Enemies of His Church How hath His Church increased and flourished by the very same means which they designed and made use of to destroy Her How hath God fought from Heaven against the Persecutors of His Children Such dreadful Judgments did overtake many of them and such Horror fell upon some of them that they were forc'd to forsake their great places and power and betake themselves to a solitary and private life which plainly demonstrates that there is a sovereign God who is higher than the highest and greater than the greatest of them And as for His poor People whom they persecuted the Lord hath armed them with invincible Courage and Fortitude to endure disgrace contempt poverty imprisonment death and the most exquisite Torments that Men and Devils could invent Yea how hath God supported His People under their inward temptations conflicts desertions and troubles of Conscience and wonderfully refreshed them beyond their expectation with sweet Peace and Consolation and by the power strength and comforts of the Holy Ghost hath enabled them to sing and rejoice in Prison and even to exult and triumph in the midst of the flames Now this divine assistance this holy courage strength and consolation is a convincing demonstrative Argument of an Omnipotent Deity especially if we compare the Heavenly courage and comforts of the People of God in their sufferings with that fear faintness amazement unquietness vexation and deadness which seiseth on the wicked when they are under Affliction Well then if we reflect upon what hath been said with reference to Man himself and other Creatures in a way of Reason we may be fully convinced that there is an Eternal God If we look up to the Firmament the Spheres the Planets the Stars their greatness brightness swiftness their order courses motions and forcible effects if we behold the Sea so bounded with the Sand by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass its bounds though the Waves thereof rage yet can they not prevail though they roar never so much yet can they not pass their bounds if we behold the Earth so firm so round so fruitful so great yet hanging like a Ball in the Air and resting on a very small point If Man will behold himself a little World in his Body the several members with the harmony sympathy functions and uses thereof and in his Mind the inbred principles and seminaries of all Arts and Sciences and the difference of good and evil of honesty and dishonesty from which all Laws and Government do spring if we consider the just Punishment which commonly followeth evil doers and the sting of Conscience which tormenteth the greatest Princes that are out of danger in respect of the Laws as Alexander for killing his Friend Clitus and Nero for the murther of his Mother Agrippina If we behold the order progress and end of all Causes the harmony of the whole Universe where there are so many contraries and yet such a harmony amongst them Omnia ab uno omnia ad unum If we consider the Prediction of things future the strange Signs and Wonders that have fallen out with their events do not all these things proclaim aloud unto us That there is a Supreme Power that wisely Governs and Over-rules All Suppose a gallant well furnish'd Ship come safe to her Port through all the waves of the Sea we may well conclude that there was a skilful Pilot or Governour within that guided and directed her to the appointed Haven so we beholding this fair Universe this World wherein we live with all its Furniture and Ornaments and the regular Motions of the several
Montelion Knight of the Oracle Hodders Arithmetick in twelves Ovid de tristibus in English Bishop Hall's Soliloquies in twelves The Poems of Ben. Johnson Junior A plain and familiar Exposition of the ten Commandments by John Dod. A TABLE of the chief Heads of this TREATISE CHAP. I. Of distinguishing betwixt Faith and Reason Page 1 1. HEre is shewed that it requires much spiritual Skill rightly to distinguish them 2. That Morality is one thing and Christianity another CHAP. II. Shewing that Reason is useful both in Civil and Divine things Yet withal 't is presupposed Page 4 1. That the Light of Reason in us is much darkened 2. That it wrangles against the greatest Mysteries of the Gospel 3. That men of great Reason and parts have promoted the greatest errors CHAP. III. How far the Light of Reason extendeth Here is shewed Page 6 1. That this light is but a derivative light like the light of a Candle and not like the light of the Sun 2. 'T is but a diminutive light 3. 'T is notwithstanding a quiet and peaceable light so far as it goes 4. 'T is an ascendant light and cannot find the chiefest good in things below CHAP. IV. How the Heathen Philosophers themselves have complain'd of great defects in Nature and Reason Page 13 1. Here are several Instances given 2. Solomon himself was sensible of much darkness though his intellectual Lamp burnt far brighter then others 3. Christians should not magnifie the light and power of Nature the defects whereof are acknowledged by moral Heathens CHAP. V. Of them that give too little to the Light of Reason As Page 15 1. Such as will not admit of a rational discourse in matters of Religion 2. Such as rely on Enthusiasms 3. Such as hold an annihilation of the faculties of the Soul in Regeneration 4. Such as will not be regulated by Reason in civil Circumstances relating to worship but cause disorder and confusion in Church-Assemblies CHAP. VI. Of those that ascribe too much to Reason As Page 18 1. The Socinians who reject the greatest mysteries of the Gospel because they cannot comprehend them by their corrupt Reason 2. Pellagius and his followers whereof there are many in our times who derogate from the Grace of God and extol the power of Nature CHAP. VII Of the use of humane Reason in civil matters Here is shewed Page 21 1. That it is the most rational and prudent way to be governed by known Laws 2. That such Laws are best as are most agreeable to Reason and tend most to the publick good 3. That the most rational Men are fittest to be Law-makers 4. That such are also of best ability and capacity to administer the Laws and Government CHAP VIII Of the exercise of Reason in Church affairs Page 27 1. Reason suggests that men should joyn together in Societies for the visible worship of God 2. That there should be order and Government in these Societies and that all should not be Rulers but some should obey 3. That such as administer the worship of God in Religious Societies should have due reverence and maintenance 4. That every Christian ought to joyn himself to a Chureh-society that he may visibly worship God with others 5. That men ought not to assign any other Conditions of Church-communion then what Christ hath prescribed in his Word 6. That such as are admitted into a Church-society should freely consent to be governed by the Laws and Rules thereof 7. That they should remain in such a Society and not break off communion on slight grounds 8. That all things in Church assemblies should be administred with much seriousness and gravity that so the Ordinances of God may be rendred majestical 9. That there must be some way or other for determining differences arising in such Societies Here is shewed 1. That Appeals are founded upon the Law of Nature and Reason 2. That it is a more rational and prudent way to have Controversies determin'd by a grave Assembly of godly learned Pastors then by a few ingaged persons in a particular Society CHAP. IX The Light of Reason proves that there is a God Page 40 1. By the frame of this World 2. By the Original of all things here it is demonstrated that the Creatures cannot have their being or beginning from themselves 3. That there must be a first Cause or Mover of all else there would be before every Mover another Mover and so in infinitum 4. It appears to the eye of Reason that there is a God by the distinction of good and evil 5. By the great and glorious Miracles that have been wrought in the World 6. By the wise governing and ordering of the several Creatures and the plentiful provision that is made for them 7. By the testimony of mans Conscience which sheweth that there is a supreme Judge that commandeth the inward thoughts and bindeth the Conscience 8. By the vast desires and capacity of mans Soul which will not be satisfied without the enjoyment of the chiefest good 9. By the continual assaults of Satan who would utterly extinguish the knowledge of God in men 10. By the wonderful preservation of the Church of God which though it hath been as a burning Bush yet it is not consumed This Principle That there is a God hath shewed it self even in Atheists especially in three Cases 1. When they have been surrounded with difficulties 2. In the time of bodily sickness 3. When old age comes and multitude of years teach them experience CHAP. X. The immortality of the Soul of man proved by Reason Page 54 1. Because it abstracts from that which it understands all quantity quality time place c. 2. Because the Soul receives impressions of Immortality and is spiritual in its operations 3. No mortal corruptible thing can satisfie the desires of the Soul 4. If Mans Soul were not immortal then the sensitive Creatures would excel Man 5. The Soul is not subject to motion being most perfect when most free from motion therefore she is not corruptible 6. Another Reason is taken from the Justice of God 7. From the universal consent of all Nations in one kind of Religion or other CHAP. XI The truth of the Christian Religion proved by Reason Page 62 1. From the Antiquity of it 2. From the excellent way and means of atonement and propitiation held forth therein 3. From the glorious divine Miracles and Works of Christ and his Apostles Objections against the same answered 4. From the precious excellent Doctrine and Life of Jesus 5. From the nature and success of Christs Kingdom 6. From the strange Conversions that have been wrought by the Christian Religion 7. From the desperate opposition of Satan and his Instruments against it notwithstanding which it hath still prevailed Here is discovered the unreasonableness and absurdity 1. Of the heathenish Idolatry 2. Of the Jews Enmity against Christ and the Christian Religion 3. Of the Mahumetan Superstition CHAP. XII The Divine