the meaning of the Sacrifices under the Law The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit So that Repentance was no new Condition Nor indeed was any Doctrine of Christ new for He came to fulfil the Law And if we look into this it will convince Us beyond all we cou'd gather from our own Reason As much as a Picture is beyond a Description Behold therefore in the Law the Types of Christ how they were Expiatory and not meerly for Example Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for Vs 1 Cor. 5.7 Sacrifices were for Expiation and not for Example The Sin of the Party was Laid upon the Sacrifice and it was said to Die for His Sin Which was confest over the Scape Goat Lev. XVI 21.22 and put upon his head and he was to bear it away to a Land not Inhabited This was to shew that Death was the wages of Sin and that Christ was to bear it for us and Escape with it and carry it from Us. Chap. xvii 11. The life of the Flesh is in the Blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar says the Old Testament to make an Atonement for your Souls for it is the Blood that maketh an Atonement for the Soul And this is the Reason that almost all things are by the Law purged with Blood Heb. ix 22.23 and without shedding of Blood is no Remission It was therefore Necessary says the Apostle and so goes on to infer the Necessity of Christ's shedding his Blood according to his Types which He did to the least Jota Chap. xiii 12. even to His Suffering without the Gate This sets before Us as in a Picture the whole Oeconomy of Christ's Sufferings and from the first Sentence of Death pronounced against Sin In the Day thou Eatest thou shalt surely Dye we see this fulfilled in the Legal Sacrifices slain for the Sin of Man which Typified the Sheding of that Blood which cou'd indeed take away Sin which it was not possible for the Blood of Bulls and Goats to do Heb. x. 4 5. and therefore says Christ a Body hast thou prepar'd me and Lo I come Col. 1.20 He was the true Sacrifice and Expiation for our Sin having made Peace thro' the Blood of his Cross Eph. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption thro' His Blood To call all this only His being an Example to Us is so wide both from Reason and the Matter of Fact that it shews the very Impotence of our Enemy It was by the Blood of the Lamb they overcome him says the Epistle for this Day This Expiation of Christ takes away our Sin pays all our Debt and leaves nothing to the Spirit of Pride but to Feed on his own Envy and Malice and Mad Despair God has Guarded this last stake and great Rock of our Salvation as to render it Impregnable but by our supine Negligence He who can turn all that the Scripture speaks of the Expiation and Atonement and Ransom of Sin to a mere Example he must go against his own Conviction if ever we can determine it in any Case Nay I dare appeal to any such whether if he were Dying he would take greater Comfort in Considering Christ as his Surety who had paid his Debt as his Sacrifice and Expiation who cou'd plead to the Justice of God full Satisfaction for all his Sins whether his heart wou'd not Lean more to Christ thus as a Saviour then to look upon Him meerly as an Example which he has not follow'd Some wou'd go farther and let Christ be an Intercessor only and as such a Redeemer i. e. Who Redeems Us by His Interceeding with God for Us. That God appointed Him for this work but that it is against Reason to talk of his Answering to Gods Justice for that God needed no body to Pay a Debt to him He might forgive without all that if He pleas'd This has been Answer'd already But I wou'd fain ask one Question Whether God needs an Intercessor more then a Redeemer to Save Mankind How can People pretend Reason for the one and yet cry down the other as against all Reason And again to give Divine worship to this Intercessor and at the the same time to deny his Divinity as the Arians did and the Polonian Socinians do at this Day which is Reckon'd no less than Rank Idolatry by the new fashion'd Socinians which are got up amongst us who deny Divine Honor to be due to Christ and yet when these Socinians are pleading for Antiquity they Derive themselves from the Arians Tho' the Arians allow Christ to have a Being with God the Father before the Creation of the World And the Socinians say that he never was at all before he was Born of the Virgin Which is so wide a Difference besides that of Divine worship above told that nothing cou'd make them of the same Party but fighting under the same General And then their Cause will gain great Antiquity it came from the Prae-Adamites the Mighty Host's of Heaven who fell in this Quarrel and Manage it with greater success now on Earth 1. Others by their Instigation Argue in this Form against this Doctrin of the Satisfaction That if Christ Pay the Debt and undergo the Curse which was Due to Man for Sin He ought to Suffer the same Curse that was laid upon Man which was Eternal Death else He do's not Pay the Whole Debt or Suffer that which Man was to have Suffer'd Ans Man Suffers Eternally can Never come out of Prison because he can Never Pay the Vttermost Farthing which Justice do's Require Therefore Christ's Sufferings were not Eternal because they were Sufficient for the Dignity of the Person to make Full Satisfaction And not only because of the Dignity of the Person who was God but from the Nature of the thing For Sin being an Offence against Love or Goodness the Nature of Love do's Require that the Person Offending shou'd have a Sense of his Fault For while the Offender Remains Obstinate Insensible and Persists in his Ingratitude even Love cannot Forgive I say Cannot because tho' Love were willing Love is always willing yet the Insensible Offender is not Capable because the Forgiveness of Love is Restauration to Restore those to the Happiness and Enjoyment of Love who have fallen from it And all Happiness being Center'd in Love as before has been said for God is Love consequently till we Return to Love we cannot Return to our Happiness And an Vngrateful Man and Insensible of his Ingratitude to His Greatest Benefactor who still Courts and Invites him to Return is utterly Vn-capable while he Persists in his Vngratitude to Know or Enjoy the Blessings of Love and Consequently of the Forgiveness of Love which by its own Nature must Necessarily Hate all Baseness Envy Malice and whatever is Contrary to its own Nature Now as the Nature of Love do's Require that an Offender shou'd be Sensible of his Fault so likewise that he
People of God in Scorn call'd Quakers p. 126. for say they we can never call the Bodily Garment Christ They deny that Christ had Properly any thing Human either Soul or Body That the outward Person which suffer'd upon the Cross was Properly the Son of God we utterly Deny says their Serious Apology wrote by Will. Penn p. 146. They Dream that Christ had a Spiritual Body before the Creation and that He has the same now in Heaven but not that Body of Jesus of Nazareth which He took of the B. Virgin and which suffer'd upon the Cross The Eutychians held that the Humanity of Christ was Absorpt or swallow'd up in His Divinity so that there Remain'd not now any Human Nature in Christ Agreeable to this the Quakers allow not Christ to have now any thing that is Human about Him But to have Divested Himself of all that when he Ascended into Heaven where they say He now is only as he was before the Creation In short they make what they call their Light within to be not only a Ray Influence or Inspiration sent from Christ but to be the very Essential and Personal Christ as well Body as Spirit and that He has no other Body or Spirit but what is within them For a further account of these men I Refer the Reader to a Book call'd The Snake in the Grass and to another wrote by the same Author Intitul'd Satan Dis-Rob'd And so Proceed to another less Famous Sect amongst us call'd the Muggletonians These with the Quakers deny any Distinction of Persons in the God-Head and Consequently they run into the the old Heresie of the Patri-passians thence so call'd because they held that it was God the Father who was Incarnate and did Suffer upon the Cross To this the Quakers agree and George Fox the Father and Founder of them in his Great Mystery p. 246. Disputes against those who said that it was not God the Father who was Incarnate Lodowick Muggleton who Arose the same Year with G. Fox An. 1650. And his Followers say that the God-head Dy'd upon the Cross and that there was then no God But that God before He was Incarnate Deputed Elijah to Govern in His Absence that Elijah Rais'd Him again from the Dead and Restor'd Him to His Throne That Christ who was God the Father did not know Himself to be God or any more than Elijah pleas'd to let Him know That Elijah was the Father to whom He pray'd upon the Cross They strick in likewise with the Anthropomorphits as John Bidle the late Celebrated Socinian and say that God from all Eternity had a Body and of the same Shape as Man's Body and that being made after the Image of God referr'd to the Shape of His Body They pretend to Discribe His Shape a Middle-siz'd Handsom Man and such like most Vile and Ridiculous stuff These Batteries the Devil has Rais'd of several Shapes and Sizes against the Truth of the Incarnation of Christ This he is not able to Digest or Understand aright and Seduces his Weak but Envy'd Rival Man by such Multiplicity of Subterfuges as he has Invented This is the Great and Fundamental Head of that War which the Devil now carrys on upon Earth And there is another which is Like unto it and Depends upon it Namely The Doctrin of Satisfaction which the Devil opposes upon the same foot with the Incarnation for they are Both so closely Link'd together as that the Doctrin of Satisfaction supposes the Incarnation and Death of Christ without which no Adequat Satisfaction that is No Satisfaction cou'd have been made to Justice for the Sin of Man And on the other hand no Rational Account can be given for the Incarnation and Sufferings of our Saviour but to Satisfie the Justice of God for our Sin For all other Considerations of Christ as a Prophet a Teacher a Mediator or Intercessor might have been Executed either by an Angel or Holy Man thereunto Commissionated by God And that without any Necessity of the Death of such a Messenger But to make Adequat Satisfaction to the utmost Demand of Infinit Justice for all the Sins of the World to Pay this Infinit Debt Exceeded all Created Sufficiency and cou'd be Perform'd by none but God alone And the Doom of Sin being Death without shedding of Blood there cou'd be no Remission Which Infers the Necessity not only of Christ's Incarnation but His Death And it was not Possible the Cup should pass from Him if He wou'd Redeem lost Mankind If it had been Possible sure His Father wou'd not have Refus'd what He so Passionatly and in so Bitter an Agony Three times Requested His Father wou'd not Causlesly Luk. xxiv 46 26. Mat. xxvi 54. have so Exposed His Beloved Son in whom He was well Pleased No. But as Christ Himself has told us It thus Behooved Him to suffer That He Ought to have suffer'd these things And That Thus it Must be When God in His All-wise Providence had so far Permitted the Spirit of Pride and Malice as to seduce Mankind into Disobedience the Devil then thought he had in some sort even Conquer'd at least over-reach'd the Almighty For thus He Argu'd with himself If God's Justice be Exact by which I Suffer then must Man be Eternally Miserable with me for He is less able than I am to make any Satisfaction for his Sin And thus have I Ruin'd my Hatred and Dispis'd Rival and even by the Necessity of God's Nature which is Justice I have forc'd Him to Damn that Base Human Nature which He wou'd joyn into His own Person Post-poning the more Noble Angelick Nature which is thus Reveng'd And the Devil thought himself Secure and Impregnable in this his Pride and Malice For if the Nature of Justice which is God cannot Acquit without Full Satisfaction and that the Satisfaction for Sin must be Proportionable to the Person against whom the Sin is Committed which is Infinit And that the Penalty must be Death And that God only is Infinit and that God cannot Dye And again That the same Nature which Offended must make the Satisfaction And that Human Nature was far from Infinit and so cou'd make no Satisfaction I say upon all these Accounts the Devil thought Man's Cause to be Irremediable and Desperate and that in this he had Prevail'd against God for Ever But God thus far Permitted His Enemy thereby to shew forth more Gloriously the Riches of His Grace and the In-Exhaustibility of His Wisdom For by the Ever-Adorable Mistery of God Manifest in the Flesh and suffering Death for us upon the Cross all the above seemingly Insuperable Difficulties are Dissolved like Ice before the Fire For Here is Satisfaction made by the same Nature which Offended and the Satisfaction is Full and Adequat because the same Person is God And tho' the God-Head cannot Dye yet the Person which is God may Dye As the Soul of Man does not Die but the Man who has
thereby make himself Guilty of any ill Arts which the Principal might have us'd either in Procuring or Spending of the Money But very slender Hooks will serve to Catch the Smalâ— Frie. And the Devil has not us'd Greater Pains and Skill in Oppugning any Article of our Faith than in this of the Main End of the Incarnation Sufferings and Death of Christ as a Sacrifice to make Satisfaction for the Sins of the World Against this Satan has spent his utmost Force as being the Greatest overthrow of his Kingdom among Men. And this Doctrin is so closely link'd with that of the Trinity and Incarnation they do so Mutually suppose and Depend upon each other that those who Deny any One of them are seldom Sound in the other Two And the surest means to Corrupt Men in the Doctrins of the Trinity and Incarnation is to Prejudice them against the Doctrin of Satisfaction which is the Result of the other two and cannot be without Supposing of them both 4. These are the Doctrins which the Quakers call The sandy Foundation and Dispute against them with the Socinian Artillery There is another Squadron lately Inlisted in this Cause led by the Famous Madamosel Antonia Bourignon who has been Seduc'd her Self and has Seduc'd Many others with the Semblance of her own Flights and Devotion which shew from whose Inspiration they came by that Insuperable Pride which runs throw all that she and her Disciples have wrote of her Advancing her above all the Prophets and Apostles above all Born of Women not excepting our Lord Jesus Himself I refer the Reader for a full Account of her and her Doctrin to Bourignionism Detected by Dr. Cockburn Printed this Year 1698. But as to the Particular Subject we are now upon she flatly Denys and Disputes against the Doctrin of Satisfaction As shewn in the Preface to The Snake in the Grace 2d Edition She says p. 139 140 142. of her Book there Quoted call'd The Light of the World that there was no need of God's becoming Man in order to our Redemption That He took Flesh not to Suffer or Dye but only to Converse with Us That His Sufferings and Death happen'd by Accident that is beyond His Intention And her Arguments are the same which we have heard before from Lucifer That it was Beneath the Greatness and Majesty of God And that His Glory cou'd not be Advanced by being Crucify'd betwixt two Thieves as she words it Here I must tell the Reader that the Arguments which I put in the Mouth of Lucifer were not borrow'd from this of Bourignon with which they so exactly agree but were wrote many years before I saw any of her Books or had so much as heard of her Name But when I Read them in her it was a Great Confirmation to me of the Truth of my Reasoning when I found the same Arguments made use of by one whom the Devil had Deluded and Possess'd to as High and perhaps a Greater Degree of Enthusiastical Madness Blasphemous Pride and Wilde Heretical Notions than any Age can Produce since Simon Magus who Boasted Himself to be The mighty Power of God and in many things she Exceeded him I have Mention'd her because her Infection has spread strangly in Holland that Soil Fertile of Religions and the Adjacent Countrys Has lately taken Root in Scotland and at last has come to London where her Book before-mention'd was Printed 1696. and too much Recommended and has Travell'd into several Parts of the Country Insomuch that the Bourignonists Deserve now their Class in the first Forme of the Hereticks They have Gain'd some Learned Men who have Drawn their Pens in their Cause both Here and Abroad some Translating the Books of Mrs. Bourignon and others writing in Defence of Her and Them But if seasonably and Diligently Attack'd it is to be hop'd that they may not make Great In-roads upon Christianity at least in our Parts otherwise they will in all appearence become Formidable and like the Quakers or the Saxons Grow upon us till we must be forc'd to let them Live with us and Compound at last for an Act of Toleration 5. This is the War which the Devil Manages here Below the same which He Fought in Heaven I have shewn you some of His Armys they are Discoverable by their Colours the Field is always Pride whatever other Device is wrought upon it And this misleads them into all Error first a wrong Notion of God which leads them into a wrong Notion of Christ His Nature and Office and that is Productive of all the Hydra Heresies we have Mention'd and of Many more which it wou'd be tedious to Examine in so short an Essay But those I have Nam'd are the Chief and Mother of all the Rest And Pride the Grand-Mother of all The first Tentation of the Devil to Man was That they shou'd be as Gods And he has Perswaded some since that they really are Gods even Equal to God in Equality it self as Pure and Holy as He is as Harmeless and Innocent as Christ but Preferable to all Mortals Snake in the Grass 2d Edict Sect. 11. 111. and iv Meeker than Moses Stronger than Samson wiser than Solomon c. Nay they go farther and make their Soul a Part of God of the same Substance Person and Essence with God and therefore to be Infinit in it self and without Beginning as well as Ending This is Copying after Lucifer and even out-doing of Him in His Blasphemous Pride The Pharisees Advanced themselves beyond all other Men as to Piety and Holiness but not to be Quite Free from Sin as the Quakers and Bourignon do Pretend The Gnosticks gave themselves that Gaudy Name from their suppos'd Knowledg Exceeding that of other Christians And all the way down from them to Bourignon and the Quakers All the Heresi-Archs set up upon Pride and High value for themselves with as great Contempt of other Men. Our Pharisees got the Name of Puritans from the High Purity to which they Pretended And all our Sects have arisen from those who call'd themselves Gifted-Men and Boasted in their wonderful Attainments sufficient as they gave out to Supersede all Establish'd Constitutions tho' at first Instituted by God Himself Hence that Spirit of Pride which did Inspire them Gave some of them to be Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Teachers and Preachers without any outward Commission Disdaining the Humility of Succession continu'd by Vicarious Ordination from Christ and the Apostles upon which the Church has been Built and Preserv'd to this Day And what vile Contempt and Despite they All have powr'd out against the Church and their Superiors has fill'd the World To Curb and subdue this Spirit of Pride was the end of Christ's comming in the Flesh who fought against him with the Arms of Humility and Love which is the Inseperable Badge of Christ and His Diciples by which they are known and out shine all the False Glories and Pomp of
And whatever side Prevails He is sure of Both sides Because Faith and Works are not to be Seperated And whoever Seperates them has Err'd from the Faith Our B. Saviour makes them both one For being ask'd What shall we do that we might Work the Works of God Jesus Answer'd and said unto them This is the Work of God that ye Believe on Him whom He hath sent Joh. vi 29. For their are Works of our Minds and they are the Cheif Works and Faith is one of these Works We must not confine the Notion of Works to the operations only of our Hands or our Feet And if Faith be a Work as our Saviour says it is where then is the War that has been set up betwixt Faith and Works I will End all I have said of Grace in the last Section and of Faith and Works in this with the Words of St. Paul Eph. 2.8 By Grace are ye saved through Faith And that not of your selves it is the Gift of God not of Works lest any Man shou'd Boast That is not of our own Works which Faith is not for it is the Gift of God And therefore we have no Pretence to Boast in it And if His Gift and His only How Careful ought we to be in Attending those Means of Grace the Prayers and Sacraments in the Church which He has Commanded and to the Due Performance of which He has Annex'd His Infallible Promise of Giving Us that Faith which we cannot otherwise obtain of our selves And we have no Promise or Grounds of Expectance to Receive it any otherwise And without it we shall never see God Heb. xi 6. 2. But all this is lost to some Men who think all Means useless because as they suppose there is an Irreversible Decree already gone forth upon Every Man of Happiness or Misery which no Means that can be us'd will ever Alter That this Decree has been from Eternity tho' Secret to Us. And therefore that all our Labour all our Means are Perfectly in vain that there is nothing to be done but to Fold our Arms and Expect the Issue of God's Secret Decree which is already Past and therefore that it is no matter whether we obey the Commands of God or not That they were Given us to no End as to our Salvation which do's not Depend upon them but only upon the suppos'd Decree Thus has the Arch-Enemy Blinded their Eyes and ty'd up their Hands from working towards their own Salvation And thrown them upon a Fresh Provocation of Scearching into God's Secret Councils which He has Forbidden The Secret things belong unto the Lord our God But those things which are Reveal'd belong unto us and to our Children for ever that we may do all the Words of this Law Deut. xxix 29. What is Reveal'd only is the Rule of our Duty Why then do we Scearch into those Decrees which we call Secret If God will have them Secret why will not we let them be Secret He smote 50070 of the Bethshemites vi 19. 1 Sam. with a great Slaughter because they looked into His Ark. Who then is able to stand before this Holy Lord God And who Dare Pry into what He has Reserv'd as a Secret from us But this we may be sure of that his Commands or His Promises cannot Contradict His Decrees how Secret soever And therefore we ought Diligently to obey His Comtmands and Chearfully to Trust in his Promises withouâ— Confounding our selves about Suppos'd Decrees of which we know nothing at all nor ought to Enquire I have Read a story of a Pious Man who was much troubl'd about his Election or Reprobation pray'd Earnestly that God wou'd let him know whether he were Prae-Destinated to Salvation And that a Voice answer'd him what if you did Know To which he Reply'd that if he were sure to be Sav'd in the End how Chearfully cou'd he Despise all the Alurements of Flesh and Blood and with Joy follow all the Commands of Christ even to the Death Wou'd you do all this said the Voice if you were sure to be Sav'd Which he having faithfully Promis'd the Voice answer'd once more Then do so and you shall be sure to be Sav'd Whether the story be true or not it is no matter the Moral of it do's Determine this Question This is the only way to make our Calling and Election sure Let us Work and not Dispute not Perplex our selves about Hidden Decrees but see to follow that which is Plainly Commanded and then we may safely Trust to what is Promis'd and Commit our Souls to God in well-doing as unto a Faithful Creator Let us look upon every thing which weakens our Hands in this to be as it truly is the Suggestion of the Devil And let us shake off that Lethargy of Glaring upon Decrees which we understand not till it Transformes us into Stone that we have neither Courage nor Power to move Hand or Foot towards Heaven but stand Dozing upon that Earth which we find Sinking and Helpless let it Sink and our selves with it even into Hell crying out what can we Help it for we are Decreed Yet never offer to move one Foot from off it This is Enchantment indeed and a Wonderful Degree of it It is like a Man's head turning Round upon a Precipice which makes him Run to meet his Death It is said that a Squirrel having once fasten'd its Eye upon that of a Rattle-Snake has no Power to look off him but Dancing from bough to bough with a fearful Crying leaps down at last upon the Ground and Darts its self into his Mouth This is too like the Condition of these Men whom nothing will Detain whom no Argument can Perswade from their own Ruin The old Serpent has caught them with the Enchantment of his Eye and they are Dancing themselves into his Mouth The Eternal and Secret Decrees of God are a Precipice enough to turn the Head of an Angel they Vail their Faces and Dare not Pry into that Infinit Abiss Yet Poor Man will not be Content unless he can Fathom it and will leap into that Gulph tho' he is sure it must Swallow him Is there any thing in God which we Must not Cannot know Yes sure for nothing but Infinit can Comprehend Infinit And what is that which is Hidden and Inaccessible in God if not His Eternal and Secret Decrees And what can follow our Pressing in upon these but Confusion and Destruction to our selves Especially when God has Commanded that we shou'd not Press upon these Threatn'd us severly if we do and has for an Example to us powr'd out His Vengeance in a Dreadful Manner upon the Heads of those who wou'd not be Restrain'd from this Un-warrantable and Presumptuous Curiosity of Prying into His Secrets 3. But after all what is the Ground of these suppos'd Hidden Decrees of God with which these Men have so Unmeasurably Perplex'd themselves They are all Founded upon the very weak Reasonings
have no Choice no Free-will to go to the Right hand or to the Left Have I any Pleasure at all that the Wicked shou'd Dye Ezek. xviii 23. ver 31. Saith the Lord God and not that he shou'd Return from his ways and Live And why will ye Dye O House of Israel Why Because they might say upon this Scheme you have Decreed us to Dye and we have no Choice no Power to do any otherwise then we do It is as if I shou'd Bind a Man Hand and Foot Lock him into a House then set Fire to it and ask him Why will you stay there and be Burn'd As I Live I have no Pleasure in your Death c. This wou'd be a Mocking and Insulting upon his Misery This wou'd be making God the Author of all the Sin in the World For where there is no Choice there can be no Sin Therefore those Creatures who have no Choice are Incapable of Sin as Trees Stones Beasts c. And as there cou'd be no Sin against God so cou'd there be no Offence against Man No man ought to be Punished for Murther Theft Robbery c. If he be carry'd to it by a Fatal Necessity which he cannot Resist Therefore Men Distracted or in Feavours are not Lyable to Law because they are not suppos'd Capable of the use of their Reason whereby they may Govern their Choice in their Actions I may Add that there is nothing more Self-Evident no not the Perception of our out-ward Senses than Free-will in Man who do's not Perceive that it is in his Power to do this or that And all the Repentance and Regret in Man for his Follies arises from this Consideration that he might have done otherwise Without this there cou'd be no such thing as Repentance no nor of Council and Advice or indeed of any Thinking at all Without this Man cou'd not be a Reasonable Creature for where there is no Choice there can be no Reason at least no use of our Reason It is Liberty and Free-will which Confounds all those Atheists who wou'd Reduce Every thing even God Himself to mere Matter For let Matter be Refin'd as far as Imagination can stretch it it can never come from under the Laws of Necessity All its Motions are Perscrib'd and must proceed Exactly according to its Mechanism and cannot vary in the least Tittle But the Freedom of Will to Act this way or the Contrary exceeds all Rules of Mechanism and is an Image of God which cannot be Impress'd upon Matter And when the Devil or Man by his Instigation wou'd shrow'd their Sin under this seeming Necessity it is to throw it upon God But their own Consciences fly in their Faces and tells them that they might have Helpt it and therefore that their Sin lys at their own Door How far any or All of the Errors and Heresies before Mentioned or what others of the like Nature did Prevail in the Ancient Ages of the World of which we have little Account and before the Flood we cannot now Determine But this we may be Assur'd of that there were Gross Errors and Heresies amongst them And that these as well as those of which we have the Account were Instigated and Promoted by the Arch-Enemy who first Tempted Man to Sin after his own Example And has and will to the End of the World Seduce Mankind as far as in his Power And God has Permitted him Great Power and Great Success which will all turn no Doubt to the Greater Glory of God in the End and to the Encrease of Endless Happinness to those who are subjected to Great Tryals and Tentations and shall Continue Faithful unto the End God has had His City from the Beginning and the Devil his Camp laying Siege to it and often Wasting and almost Destroying it whereby God shew'd His Almighty Power and Love to His Church in His Miraculous Defence of it amidst so many and Great Dangers Of which this Attempt is Design'd by way of a History Deduc'd from the Beginning of that first Revolt in Heaven and the various Successes of the same War carry'd on upon the Earth ever since the Fatal Seduction of our first Parents in Paradice And the Low Ebb to which the Church was often Reduc'd and yet still Deliver'd will strengthen our Hearts in those Afflictions and Depressions of this City of God which we see in our times And not only keep us from Despair but give us a Lively Hope Encrease our Faith and stir up our Courage always to Work and never to Despond when we know that God is on our side and that we must Overcome in the End if we Faint not and give up the Cause for want of Trust in God and Loose both our Labour and Reward Therefore that we may see that Nothing New has befallen Us Let us look into the Several Ages of the World Whom find we that walked with God or fought on his side but Abel Seth Enoch and Noah before the Flood Then was the whole World Destroy'd for its Wickedness except Eight Persons After the Flood how soon did Nimrod and the Builders of Babel declare their Pride And the whole World receiv'd this Principle of the Devil and Govern'd themselves by it And the Army of God was confin'd within the small Family of Abraham And when God had Rescu'd a Nation to Himself Deut. vii 7. Psal Lxxviii 9. Matt. xxiii 37. and given them His Law they were the Fewest of all People a Stubborn and Stifnecked Generation that set not their heart Aright nor sought after God they ston'd their Prophets and kill'd those whom God sent to Reclaim them Till at last God Remov'd Them too and Scatter'd them among the Heathen Then the Devil boasted in his Conquests and set up his Banners for tokens he Possest all the Temples and Thrones in the World None Appear'd against him but a few Heathen Philosophers who were themselves in half Pay with him had suck'd many of his Principles with their Milk but yet were assisted by God and Spoke Noble things in defence of Love till by it as by a clue they discover'd God Himself or found that Love was Almighty and they made it the first Former of all Things They batter'd Pride with mighty Arguments and brought upon themselves the Rage of the Devil who kept them Low and Poor and Despis'd and Arm'd Kings and States against them and Rais'd many of them to a sort of Martyrdom Thus Deplorable was the Condition of the World then a few stifled Embers only left and all the Torrents of the World all their Violence let loose upon them to Quench them It was now time for God Himself to Appear in Defence of His own Cause which in the hands of Men had been Betray'd Overpower'd Conquer'd and only not Intirely Lost And Lo He Comes a Body is prepar'd for Him and God was made Flesh Now let Us seriously attend this Conflict for never before nor ever again