him who will live such a Holy Life 114 CHAP. XIV That there is a Life of Retribution after this proved 119 CHAP. XV. Of the Intrinsecal Evils of SIN and of the PERPETVAL PVNISHMENT due to the Sinner by the undoubted Law of Nature 156 CHAP. XVI Of the present sinfull and miserable state of the World 176 CHAP. XVII What Naturall Light declareth of the Mercy of God to Sinners and of the Hopes and Means of Mans Recovery 182 PART II. Of CHRISTIANITY and Supernatural Revelation CHAP. I. OF the need of a clearer Light or fuller Revelation of the Will of God than all that hath been opened before p. 191 CHAP. II. Of the several RELIGIONS which are in the World 198 CHAP. III. Of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION and 1. What it is 204 CHAP. IV. Of the Nature and PROPERTIES of the Christian Religion 229 CHAP. V. Of the CONGRVITIES in the Christian Religion which make it the more easily credible and are great Preparatives to Faith 241 CHAP. VI. Of the WITNESS of JESVS CHRIST or the great demonstrative Evidence of his Verity and Authority viz. The SPIRIT In 4. parts 1. Antecedently by PROPHECY 2. Constitutively and Inherently the Image of God on his Person Life and Doctrine 3. Concomitantly by the Miraculous Power and Works of Christ and his Disciples 4. Subsequently in the actual Salvation of men by Renovation Opened Notes added 258 CHAP. VII Of the subservient Proofs and Means by which the forementioned Evidences are brought to our certain knowledge 302 How we know the antecedent Prophetical Testimony and the Constitutive Inherent Evidence How we know the Concomitant Testimony of Miracles 1. By Humane Testimony 2. By Evidence of Natural Certainty 3. By Divine attestation in the Testifyers Miracles The Proofs of that Divine attestation with the Witnesses 1. In the holy Constitution of their Souls and Doctrine 2. In their Miracles and Gifts 3. In the success of their Doctrine to mens sanctification How the Churches testimony of the Disciples Miracles and Doctrine is proved 1. By most credible Humane Testimony 2. By such as hath Natural Evidence of Certainty 3. By some further Divine attestation The way or Means of the Churches attestation and Tradition The Scriptures proved the same which the Apostles delivered and the Churches received How we may know the 4th part of the Spirits Testimony viz. The Successes of Christian Doctrine to mens sanctification What Sanctification is and the acts or parts of it Consectaries from p. 302. to 350 CHAP. VIII Of some other subservient and Collateral Arguments for the Christian Verity 350 CHAP. IX Yet Faith hath many Difficulties to overcome What they are and what their Causes 365 CHAP. X. The Intrinsecal Difficulties in the Christian Faith resolved or 24 Objections against Christianity answered 371 to 424 CHAP. XI The Extrinsecal Difficulties or 16 more Objections resolved 424 CHAP. XII The reasonable Conditions required of them who will overcome the Difficulties of Believing and will not undoe themselves by wilfull Infidelity 444 The summ of all in an Addresse to God 453 457 CHAP. XIII Consectaries I. What Party of Christians should we joyn with or be of seeing they are divided into so many Sects 464 CHAP. XIV II. Of the true Interest of Christ and his Church and the Souls of Men of the means to promote it and its Enemies and Impediments in the World Which being only named in brief Propositions should be the more heedfully perused by those that dare pretend the Interest of Religion and the Church for the proudest or the most dividing practices and those which most directly hinder the successefull preaching of the Gospel the pure Worshipping of God and the saving of Mens Souls 466. The Conclusion or an Appendix defending the Souls Immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other Pseudo-philosophers OBJECTION I. MAtter and Motion only may do all that which you ascribe to Souls p. 495 OBJECT II. By Sense Imagination Cogitation Reason you cannot prove the Soul to be incorporeal and immortal because the Bruits partake of all these 523 OBJECT III. Humane Souls are but Forms and Forms are but the qualities or modes of Substances and therefore perish when seperated from Bodies 535 OBJECT IV. The Soul is material and consequently mortal because it dependeth upon matter in its Operations and therefore in its Essence 539 OBJECT V. No immaterial Substance moveth that which is material as a principle of its Operations but the Soul so moveth the Body Ergo 540 OBJECT VI. The Soul in our sleep acteth irrationally according to the fortuitous motion of the spirits Ergo 543 OBJECT VII Reason is no proof of the Souls Immateriality because Sense which the Bruits have is the more perfect apprehension 543 OBJECT VIII Sensation and Intellection are both but Reception The Passivity therefore of the Soul doth shew its Materiality 544 OBJECT IX There is nothing in the Intellect which was not first in the Sense c. Ergo the Soul that can reach but things corporeal is such it self 547 OBJECT X. That which things Corporeal work on is Corporeal but c. 551 OBJECT XI That is not incorporeal which knoweth not it self to be so nor hath any notion but Negative and Metaphorical of Incorporeal Beings 551 OBJECT XII The Soul is generated Ergo corruptible 555 OBJECT XIII Omne quod oritur interit That which is not eternal as to past duration is not eternal as to future duration But c. 567 OBJECT XIV You have none but Moral Arguments for the Souls Immortality 568 OBJECT XV. You seem to confess that it is not the endless duration of the Soul but only a future state of Retribution which you can prove from Nature alone 568 OBJECT XVI Both Soul and Body are like a Candle in fluxu continuo Ergo being not long the same are uncapable of a Life of Retribution 569 OBJECT XVII The Soul returneth to the Anima Mundi or Element of Souls and so loseth its Individuation and is uncapable of Retribution 571 OBJECT XVIII The Fictions of the Platonists about their several Vehicles and such like do make their Doctrine the more to be suspected 574 OBJECT XIX The Souls actings will not be such as they are now by Corporeal Spirits and Idea's Ergo it will be uncapable of Retribution 578 OBJECT XX. The belief of the Souls Immortality doth fill men with fears and draw them to superstition and trouble the Peace of Kingdoms c. 579 In Objection about the Worlds Eternity What Christianity saith about it 582 The Testimony of Socrates and Zenocrates of the Souls Immortality 589 â—icero's Doctrine and his redargution of the Somatists at large 590 The Stoicks neerness to the Doctrine of Christianity with their particular Moral Tenets and their Praises by the Learned and Pious Mr. T. Gataker 595 The Stoicks Platonists and other Philosophers opinion of the sufficiency of Virtue to be Mans Felicity against the Epicurean Doctrine of Pleasure Vindicated It importeth a
it is God's own attestation I have shewed before § 66. I have opened the validity of the Apostles testimony of the Resurrection and miracles of Christ and the first Churches certain testimony of the miracles of the Apostles both of them having a three-fold certainty Moral Natural and Supernatural In all which I have supposed that such a testimony the Churches have indeed given down to their posterity which is the thing that remaineth lastly to be here proved § 67. The doctrine and miracles of Christ and his Apostles have been delivered us down from the first Churches by all these following ways of history 1. By delivering to us the same writings of the Apostles and Evangelists which they received from their hands themselves as certain truth and delivered down as such to us even the holy Scriptures of the New Testament They that believed their words believed their writings and have told us their belief by preserving them for posterity as Sacred Verities In the holy Scriptures the life and death and doctrine of Christ is contained with the doctrine of the Apostles and so much of the history of their Preaching and Miracles as Luke was an eye-witness of or had certain knowledge of who was commonly Pauls companion by which we may partly judge of the Acts of the rest of the Apostles And if the Churches had not believed all these they would not have delivered them as the infallible Writings of the inspired Apostles to their Posterity § 68 2. The very successive Being of Christians and Churches is the fullest history that they believed those things which made them Christians and Churches which was the doctrine and miracles of Christ A Christian is nothing else but one that receiveth the Doctrine Resurrection and Miracles of Christ as certain truth by the preaching and Miracles of his great Witnesses the Apostles so many Christians as there ever were so many believers of these things there have been It was this Doctrine and Miracles that made them Christians and planted these Churches And if any man think it questionable whether there have been Christians ever since Christs time in the World All history will satisfie him Roman Mahometan Jewish and Christian without any one dissenting voice Pliny Suetonius Tacitus Marcellinus Eunapius Lucian and Porphyry and Julian and all such enemies may convince him He shall read the history of their sufferings which will tell him that certainly such a sort of persons there was then in the World § 69. 3. The succession of Pastors and Preachers in all generations is another proof For it was their office to read publickly and preach this same Scripture to the Church and World as the truth of God I speak not of a succession of Pastors in this one City or that or by this or that particular way of ordination having nothing here to do with that But that a certain succession there hath been since the dayes of the Apostles is past question For 1. Else there had been no particular Churches 2. Nor no baptism 3. Nor no publick Worship of God 4. Nor no Synods or Discipline But this is not denyed § 70. 4. The continuance of Baptism which is the kernel or sum of all Christianity proveth the continuance of the Christian Faith For all Christians in Baptism were baptized into the vowed belief and obedience of the Son and Holy Ghost as well as of the Father § 71. 5. The delivering down of the three breviate Symbols of Faith Desire and Duty the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue is the Churches delivery of the Christian Religion as that which all Christians have believed § 72. 6. The constant communion of the Church in solemn Assemblies and setting apart the Lords Day to that use was a delivery of the Christian Faith which those assemblies all professed to believe § 73. 7. The constant preaching and reading of these same Scriptures in those Assemblies and celebrating there the Sacrament of Christs death and the custom of open professing their Belief and the Prayers and praises of God for the Resurrection and Miracles of Christ are all open undenyable testimonies that these things were believed by those Churches § 74. 8. The frequent disputes which Christians in all ages have held with the adversaries of the Scripture and Christianity do shew that they believed all these Scriptures and the Doctrines and Miracles therein contained § 75. 9. The Writings of the Christians in all ages their Apologies Commentaries Histories Devotional treatises all bear the same testimony that we have these things by their tradition § 76. 10. The Confessions Sufferings and Martyrdom of many in most ages do bear the same testimony that they believed this for which they suffered and that posterity received it from them § 77. 11. The Decrees and Canons of the Synods or Councils of the Bishops of the Churches are another part of the history of the same belief § 78. 12. Lastly the decrees and laws of Princes concerning them are another part of the history shewing that they did believe these things § 79. And if any question whether our Scriptures which contain these histories and doctrines be indeed the same which these Churches received and delivered from the Apostles he may easily be convinced as followeth § 80. 1. Various Copies of it in the Hebrew and Greek text were very quickly scattered about the World and are yet found in all Nations agreeing in all material passages § 81. 2. These Scriptures were translated into many Languages of which there are yet extant the Syriack Arabick Ethiopick Persian c. which agree in all material things § 82. 3. It was the stated Office of the Ministers in all the Churches in the World to read these Scriptures openly to the People and preach on them in all their solemn Assemblies And a thing so publickly maintained and used could not possibly be altered materially § 83. 4. All private Christians were exhorted to read and use the same Scriptures also in their Families and in secret § 84. 5. This being through so many Nations of the World it was not possible that they could all agree upon a corruption of the Scriptures nor is there mention in any history of any attempt of any such agreement § 85. 6. If they would have met together for that end they could not possibly have all consented Because they were of so many mindes and parties and inclinations § 86. 7. Especially when all Christians by their Religion take it to be matter of damnation to adde to or diminish from these sacred Writings as being the inspired Word of God § 87. 8. And every Christian took it for the rule of his Faith and the Charter for his heavenly Inheritance and therefore would certainly have had his action against the Corrupters of it As the Laws of this Land being recorded and having Lawyers and Judges whose calling is continually to use them and men holding their Estates and safety by them if any would alter them all
them to perceive its holyness and worth Where it is indeed sincerely practised And is most dishonoured and misunderstood through the wickedness of Hypocrites who profess it As the Impress on the Wax doth make the Image more discernable than the Sculpture on the Seal but the Sculpture is true and perfect when many accidents may render the Impressed image imperfect and faulty So is it in this case To a diligent Enquirer Christianity is best known in its Principles delivered by Christ the Author of it and indeed is no otherwise perfectly known because it is no where else perfectly to be seen But yet it is much more visible and taking with unskilfull superficial Observers in the Professors Lives For they can discern the good or evil of an action who perceive not the nature of the Rule and Precepts The vital form in the Rose-tree is the most excellent part but the beauty and sweetness of the Rose is more easily discerned Effects are most sensible but causes are most excellent And yet in some respect the Practice of Religion is more excellent than the Precepts in as much as the Precepts are Means to Practice For the end is more excellent than the Means as such A poor man can easilyer perceive the worth of Charity in the person that cloatheth and feedeth and relieveth him than the worth of a treatise or sermon of Charity Subjects easily perceive the worth of a wise and holy and just and mercifull King or Magistrate in his actual Government who are not much taken with the Precepts which require yet more perfection And among all descriptions historical Narratives like Zenophons Cyrus do take most with them Doubtless if ever the Professors of Christianity should live according to their own Profession they would thereby overcome the opposition of the World and propagate their Religion with greatest success through all the Earth Because no man can well judge of the Truth of a doctrine till he first know what it is I think it here necessary to open the true nature of the Christian Religion and tell men truly what it is Partly because I perceive that abundance that profess it hypocritically by the meer power of Education Laws and Custom of their Countrey do not understand it and then are the easilyer tempted to neglect or contemn it or forsake it if strongly tempted to it even to forsake that which indeed they never truely received And because its possible some Aliens to Christianity may peruse these lines Otherwise were I to speak only to those that already understand it I might spare this description § 7. The CHRISTIAN RELIGION containeth two Parts 1. All Theological Verities which are of Natural Revelation 2. Much more which is supernaturally revealed The supernatural Revelation is said in it to be partly written by God partly delivered by Angels partly by inspired Prophets and Apostles and partly by Jesus Christ himself in person § 8. The supernatural Revelation reciteth most of the Natural because the searching of the great Book of Nature is a long and difficult work for the now-corrupted dark and slothfull minde of the common sort of men § 9. These supernatural Revelations are all contained 1. Most copiously in a Book called The Holy Bible or Canonical Scriptures 2. More summarily and contractedly in three Forms called The Belief The Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandements and most briefly and summarily in a Sacramental Covenant This last containeth all the Essential parts most briefly and the second somewhat fuller explaineth them and the first the holy Scriptures containeth also all the Integral parts or the whole frame § 10. Some of the present Professors of the Christian Religion do differ about the authority of some few Writings called Apocrypha whether they are to be numbred with the Canonical Books of God or not But those few containing in them no considerable points of doctrine different from the rest the controversie doth not very much concern the substance or doctrinal matter of their Religion § 11. The sacred Scriptures are written very much Historically the Doctrines being interspersed with the History § 12. This sacred Volume containeth two Parts The first called The Old Testament containing the History of the Creation and of the Deluge and of the Jewish Nation till after their Captivity As also their Law and Prophets The second called The New Testament containing the History of the Birth and Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ The sending of his Apostles the giving of the Holy Ghost the course of their Ministry and Miracles with the summ of the doctrine preached first by Christ and then by them and certain Epistles of theirs to divers Churches and persons more fully opening all that doctrine § 13. The summ of the History of the Old Testament is this That in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth with all things in them Viz. That having first made the Intellectual superiour part of the World and the matter of the Elementary World in an unformed Mass he did the first day distinguish or form the active Element of Fire and caused it to give light The second day he separated the rarified Passive Element called Fire expanding it from the Earth upwards to be a separation and medium of action between the superiour and inferiour parts The third day he separated the rest of the Passive Element Earth and Water into their proper place and set their bounds and made individual Plants with their specifick forms and virtue of generation The fourth day he made the Sun Moon and Starrs for Luminaries to the Earth either then forming them or then appointing them to that Office but not revealing their other uses which are nothing to us The fifth day he made Fishes and Birds with the power of generation The sixth day he made the terrestrial Animals and Man with the like generative Power And the seventh day he appointed to be a Sabbath of Rest on which he would be solemnly worshipped by Mankinde as our CREATOR Having made one Man and one Woman in his own Image that is with Intellects Free-will and executive Power in wisdom holiness and aptitude to Obey him and with Dominion over the sensitive and vegetative and inanimate Creatures he placed them in a Garden of pleasure wherein were two Sacramental Trees one called The Tree of Life and the other the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil And besides the Law of Nature he tryed him only with this positive prohibition that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge Whereupon the Devil who before this was fallen from his first state of innocency and felicity took occasion to perswade the Woman that Gods Threatning was not true that he meant not as he spake that he knew Man was capable of greater Knowledge but envyed him that happiness and that the eating of that Fruit was not the way to death as God had threatned but to Knowledge and
they were before notwithstanding their long converse with Christ in person it being his pleasure to illuminate them by supernatural infusion that it might appear to be no contrived design to deceive the world And they were enabled to preach the word with power and by this Spirit were infallibly guided in the performance of the work of their Commissions to settle Christ's Church in a holy order and to leave on record the doctrine which he had commanded them to teach Also they themselves did heal the sick and cast out devils and prophesie and by the laying on of their hands the same holy Spirit was ordinarily given to others that believed so that Christians had all one gift or other of that Spirit by which they convinced and converted a great part of the world in a short time and all that were sincere had the gift of sanctification and were regenerate by the Spirit as well as by Baptismal water and had the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the holy Ghost which was given them A holy and heavenly mind and life with mortification contempt of the world self-denial patience and love to one another and to all men was the constant badge of all Christ's followers The first Sermon that Peter preached did convert three thousand of those sinful Jews that had crucified Christ And after that many thousands of them more were converted One of their bloody persecutors Saul a Pharisee that had been one of the murderers of the first Martyr Stephen and had haled many of them to prisons as he was going on this business was struck down by the high-way a light from Heaven shining round about him and a voice saying to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And he said Who art thou Lord And the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks And he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do And the Lord said Arise and go into the City and it shall be told thee what thou must do And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man And so Saul was led blind to Damascus where one Ananias had a vision commanding him to Baptize him and his eyes were opened This Convert called Paul did hence-forward preach the Gospel of Christ from Country to Country in Syria in Asia at Rome and a great part of the world in marvellous unwearied labours and sufferings abuses and imprisonments converting multitudes and planting Churches in many great Cities and Countries and working abundance of miracles where he went His History is laid down in part of the New Testament There are also many of his Epistles to Rome to Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Coloss Thessalonica to Timothy to Titus and to Philemon and the Hebrews as is supposed There are also the Epistles of Peter James John and Jude with the Revelation of John containing many mysterious Prophesies An Eunuch who was of great power under the Queen of Ethiopia was converted by Philip and carried the Gospel into his Country The rest of the Apostles and other Disciples carried it abroad a great part of the world especially in the Roman Empire and though every where they met with opposition and persecution yet by the power of the holy Ghost appearing in their Holiness Languages and Miracles they prevailed and planted abundance of Churches of which the most populous were at Jerusalem Antioch Rome and Alexandria And though they were all dispersed abroad the world and out of the reach of mutual converse yet did they never disagree in their Doctrine in the smallest point but proceeded through sufferings in Unity and Holiness in the work of saving Souls till most of them were put to death for the sake of Christ having left the Churches under the Government of their several Pastors according to the will of Christ This is the abstract of the History of the holy Scriptures § 14. The summ of the Doctrine of Christianity is contained in these Articles following consisting of three general Heads I. Things to be known and believed II. Things to be willed and desired and hoped III. Things to be done I. 1. There is one only GOD in Essence in Three Essential Principles POWER UNDERSTANDING and WILL or OMNIPOTENCY OMNISCIENCE and GOODNESS in Three Subsistences or Persons the FATHER the SON and the HOLY SPIRIT who is a Mind or Spirit and therefore is most Simple Incorruptible Immortal Impassionate Invisible Intactible c. and is Indivisible Eternal Immense Necessary Independent Self-sufficient Immutable Absolute and Infinite in all Perfections The Principal Efficient Dirigent and Final Cause of all the world The CREATOR of all and therefore our Absolute OWNER or Supreme RULER and our Total BENEFACTOR and CHIEF GOOD and END 2. GOD made Man for himself not to supply any want of his own but for the pleasing of his own Will and Love in the Glory of his Perfections shining forth in his works In his own Image that is with Vital Power Understanding and Free-will Able Wise and Good with Dominion over the Inferiour Creatures as being in subordination to God their OWNER their GOVERNOUR and their BENEFACTOR and END And he bound him by the Law of his Nature to adhere to GOD his MAKER by Resignation Devotion and Submission to him as his OWNER by Believing Honouring and Obeying him as his RULER and by Loving him Trusting and Seeking him Delighting in him Thanksgiving to him and Praising him as his Grand BENEFACTOR chief Good and ultimate end to exercise Charity and Justice to each other and to Govern all his inferiour faculties by Reason according to his Makers will that he so might please him and be Happy in his Love And to try him he particularly forbad him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death 3. Man being tempted by Satan to break this Law of God did believe the Tempter who promised him impunity and advancement in Knowledge and who accused God as false in his threatning and as envying Man this great advancement And so by wilfull sinning against him he fell from God and his uprightness and happiness under the displeasure of God the penalty of his Law and the power of Satan And hence we are all conceived in sin averse to good and prone to evil and condemnation is passed upon all and no meer Creature is able to deliver us 4. God so loved the World that he gave his only SON to be their REDEEMER who being the Eternal WISDOM and WORD of God and so truly GOD and one in Essence with the FATHER did assume our Nature and became Man being conceived by the HOLY SPIRIT in the Virgin Mary and born of her and called JESVS CHRIST who being Holy and without all sin did conquer the Tempter and the World fulfilling all righteousness He enacted and preached the Law or
Covenant of Grace confirming his Doctrine by abundant uncontrolled Miracles contemning the World he exposed himself to the malice and fury and contempt of sinners and gave up himself a Sacrifice for our sins and a Ransom for us in suffering death on a Cross to reconcile us to God He was buryed and went in Soul to the Souls departed And the third day he rose again having conquered death And after forty dayes having instructed and authorized his Apostles in their Office he ascended up into Heaven in their sight where he remaineth Glorified and is Lord of all the chief Priest and Prophet and King of his Church interceding for us teaching and governing us by his Spirit Ministers and Word 5. The New Law and Covenant which Christ hath procured made and sealed by his Blood his Sacraments and his Spirit is this That to all them who by true Repentance and Faith do forsake the Flesh the World and the Devil and give up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier he will give Himself in these Relations and take them as his reconciled Children pardoning their sins and giving them his grace and title to Everlasting Happiness and will glorifie all that thus persevere But will condemn the unbelievers impenitent and ungodly to everlasting punishment This Covenant he hath commanded his Ministers to proclaim and offer to all the World and to baptize all that consent thereunto to invest them Sacramentally in all these benefits and enter them into his holy Catholick Church 6. The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son did first inspire and guide the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists that they might truly and fully reveal the Doctrine of Christ and deliver it in Scripture to the Church as the Rule of our Faith and Life and by abundance of evident uncontrolled Miracles and gifts to be the great witness of Christ and of the truth of his holy Word 7. Where the Gospel is made known the HOLY SPIRIT doth by it illuminate the minds of such as shall be saved and opening and softening their hearts doth draw them to believe in Christ and turneth them from the power of Satan unto God Whereupon they are joyned to Christ the Head and into the Holy Catholick Church which is his Body consisting of all true Believers and are freely justified and made the Sons of God and a sanctified peculiar people unto him and do Love him above all and serve him sincerely in holiness and righteousness loving and desiring the Communion of Saints overcoming the Flesh the World and the Devil and living in Hope of the coming of Christ and of Everlasting life 8. At death the Souls of the Justified go to Happiness with Christ and the Souls of the wicked to misery And at the end of this World the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and will raise the Bodies of all men from the dead and will judge all the World according to the good or evil which they have done And the righteous shall go into Everlasting Life where they shall see Gods Glory and being perfected in Holiness shall love and praise and please him perfectly and be loved by him for evermore and the Wicked shall go into Everlasting punishment with the Devil II. According to this Belief we do deliberately and seriously by unfeigned consent of Will take this One God the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the Father Son and Holy Spirit for our only God our reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifyer and resolvedly give up our selves to him accordingly entering into his Church under the hands of his Ministers by the solemnization of this Covenant in the Sacrament of Baptism And in prosecution of this Covenant we proceed to stirre up our DESIRES by daily PRAYER to God in the Name of Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit in the order following 1. We desire the glorifying and hallowing of the Name of God that he may be known and loved and honoured by the World and may be well-pleased in us and we may delight in Him which is our ultimate end 2. That his Kingdom of Grace may be enlarged and his Kingdom of Glory as to the Perfected Church of the sanctified may come That Mankinde may more universally subject themselves to God their Creator and Redeemer and be saved by him 3. That this Earth which is grown too like to Hell may be made liker to the Holy ones in Heaven by a holy conformity to Gods Will and Obedience to all his Laws denying and mortifying their own fleshly desires wills and minds 4. That our Natures may have necessary support protection and provision in our daily service of God and passage through this World with which we ought to be content 5. That all our sins may be forgiven us through our Redeemer as we our selves are ready to pardon wrongs 6. That we may be kept from Temptations and delivered from sin and misery from Satan from wicked men and from our selves Concluding our Prayers with the joyfull Praises of God our Heavenly Father acknowledging his Kingdom Power and Glory for ever III. The Laws of Christian PRACTICE are these 1. That our Souls do firmly adhere to God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer by Faith Love Confidence and Delight that we seek him by desire obedience and hope meditating on himself his word and works of Creation Redemption and Sanctification of Death Judgement Heaven and Hell exercising Repentance and mortifying sin especially atheism unbelief and unholiness hardness of heart disobedience and unthankfulness pride worldliness and flesh-pleasing Examining our hearts about our Graces our Duties and our sins Watchfully governing our thoughts affections passions senses appetites words and outward actions Resisting temptations and serving God with all our faculties and glorifying him in our Hearts our Speeches and our Lives 2. That we worship God according to his Holiness and his Word in Spirit and Truth and not with Fopperies and Imagery according to our own devices which may dishonour him and lead us to Idolatry 3. That we ever use his Name with special Reverence especially in appealing to him by an Oath abhorring prophaneness perjury and breach of Vows and Covenants to God 4. That we meet in Holy Assemblies for his more solemn Worship where the Pastors teach his Word to their Flocks and lead them in Prayer and Praise to God administer the Sacrament of Communion and are the Guides of the Church in Holy things whom the people must hear obey and honour especially the Lords Day must be thus spent in Holiness 5. That Parents educate their Children in the Knowledge and Fear of God and in obedience of his Laws and that Princes Masters and all Superiours govern in Holiness and Justice for the glory of God and the common good according to his Laws And that Children love honour and obey their Parents and all Subjects their Rulers in due subordination unto God 6. That
disconsolate Disciples who had but lately sinfully forsaken him He giveth them no upbraiding words but meltingly saith to her Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God He after this familiarly converseth with them and instructeth them in the things concerning the Kingdom of God He maketh an Vniversal Pardon or Act of Oblivion in a Covenant of Grace for all the world that will not reject it and appointeth Messengers to preach it unto all and what ever pains or suffering it cost them to go through all with patience and alacrity and to stick at nothing for the saving of mens souls He gave the holy Spirit miraculously to them to enable them to carry on this work and to leave upon record to the world the infallible narrative of his Life and Doctrine His Gospel is filled up with matter of consolation with the promises of mercy pardon and salvation the description of the priviledges of holy Souls justification adoption peace and joy and finally He governeth and defendeth his Church and pleadeth our cause and secureth our interest in Heaven according to the promises of this his word Thus is the Gospel the very Image of the Wisdom and Goodness of God And such a Doctrin from such a Person must needs be Divine 2. And the Method and Style of it is most excellent because most suitable to its holy ends not with the excellency of frothy wit which is but to express a wanton fancy and please the ears of aery persons who play with words when they should close with wisdom and heavenly light such excellency of speech must receive its estimate by its use and end But as the end is most Divine so the light that shineth in the Gospel is Heavenly and Divine the Method of the Books themselves is various according to the time and occasions of their writing the objections against them are to be answered by themselves anon But the Method of the whole Doctrin of Christianity set together is the most admirable and perfect in the world beginning with God in Unity of Essence proceeding to his Trinity of Essential Active Principles and of Persons and so to his Trinity of Works Creation Redemption and Regeneration and of Relations of God and Man accordingly and to the second Trinity of Relations as he is our Owner Ruler and Chief Good And hence it brancheth it self into a multitude of benefits flowing from all these Relations of God to Man and a multitude of answerable duties flowing from our Correlations to God and all in perfect method twisted and inoculated into each other making a kind of cirulation between Mercies and Duties as in mans body there is of the arterial and venal bloud and spirits till in the issue as all Mercy came from God and Duty subordinately from man so Mercy and Duty do terminate in the Everlasting Pleasure of God ultimately and man subordinately in that mutual love which is here begun and there is perfected This method you may somewhat perceive in the description of the Christian Religion before laid down 3. And the style also is suited to the end and matter not to the pleasing of curious ears but to the declaring of heavenly mysteries not to the conceits of Logicians who have put their understandings into the fetters of their own ill-devised notions and expect that all men that will be accounted wise should use the same notions which they have thus devised and about which they are utterly disagreed among themselves But in a Language suitable both to the subject and to the world of persons to whom this word is sent who are commonly ignorant and unlearned and dull That being the best Physick which is most suitable to the Patients temper and disease And though the particular Writers of the Sacred Scriptures have their several Styles yet is there in them all in common a Style which is spiritual powerfull and divine which beareth its testimony proportionably of that Spirit which is the common Author in them all But of this more among the Difficulties and Objections anon But for the discerning of all this Image of God in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Reason will allow me to expect these necessary qualifications in him that must discern it 1. That before he come to supernatural Revelations he be not unacquainted with those natural Revelations which are antecedent and should be foreknown as I have in this book explained them with their evidence For there is no coming to the highest step of the Ladder without beginning at the lowest Men ignorant of things knowable by Natural Reason are unprepared for higher things 2. It is reasonably expected that he be one that is not treacherous and false to those Natural Truths which he hath received For how can he be expected to be impartial and faithfull in seeking after more Truth who is unfaithfull to that which he is convinced of or that he should receive that Truth which he doth not yet know who is false to that which he already knoweth Or that he should discern the evidence of extraordinary Revelation who opposeth with enmity the ordinary light or Law of Nature Or that God should vouchsafe his further light and conduct to that Man who willfully sinneth against him in despight of all his former teachings 3. It is requisite that he be one that is not a stranger to himself but acquainted with the case of his heart and life and know his sins and his corrupt inclinations and that guilt and disorder and misery in which his need of mercy doth consist For he is no fit Judge of the Prescripts of his Physician who knoweth not his own disease and temperature But of this more anon § 8. III. The third way of the Spirits witness to Jesus Christ is Concomitantly by the miraculous gifts and works of Himself and his Disciples which are a cogent Evidence of Gods attestation to the truth of his Doctrine § 9. By the Miracles of Christ I mean 1. His miraculous actions upon others 2. His miracles in his Death and Resurrection 3. His predictions The appearance of the Angel to Zachary and his dumbness his Prophesie and Elizabeth's with the Angels appearance to Mary the Angels appearance and Evangelizing to the Shepherds the Prophesie of Simeon and of Anna the Star and the testimony of the wise Men of the East the testimony of John Baptist that Christ should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire and that he was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World These and more such I pass by as presupposed At twelve years of age he disputed with the Doctors in the Temple to their admiration At his Baptism the Holy Ghost came down upon him in the likeness of a Dove and a voice from Heaven said Thou art my beloved Son in Thee I am well-pleased When he was baptized he fasted forty dayes and nights and
The world is crucified to them and they to the world Gal. 5.24 6.14 They are chosen to be holy and unblameable in love Eph. 1.4 They walk as renewed in the spirit of their mindes with all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering forbearing one another endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.23.2.3 As being created unto good works in Christ Eph. 2.10 Without corrupt communication bitterness wrath clamor evil-speaking fornication uncleanness covetousness filthiness foolish talking and jeasting Eph. 4.29 5.3.4 Denying ungodlyness and worldly lusts living soberly righteously and godly in this present world as redeemed from all iniquity and purified as a peculiar people to Christ zealous of good works Tit. 2.12 14. Having their conversation in Heaven from whence they expect their Redeemer to translate them into Glory Phil. 3.20 21. These were the fruits of the Ministry of the Apostles And God was pleased to bless their labours more than any others since and make better holyer heavenlyer Christians by the means of their endeavours that so he might give a fuller proof of the truth of their testimony of Christ § 39. It is the great advantage of our Faith that these second attestations to the Disciples testimony of the Miracles of Christ are much more open evident and convincing to us at this distance than the Miracles of Christ himself that so there might be no place for rational doubting The sorts of their miracles were as numerous as his They were wrought by hundreds and thousands and not by Christ alone They were wrought for an age and not for three years and a half alone They were wrought in a great part of the World and not in Judaea and Galilee alone They were done in the face of abundance of Congregations and not before the Jews only And they succeeded to the conversion and sanctification of many thousands more than did the preaching of Christ himself So that if any thing that is said before of the confirmation of Christs own miracles had wanted evidence it is abundantly made up in the evidence of their miracles who were the reporters and witnesses of his § 40. I have hitherto been shewing you how the miracles of Christ were proved attested and made certainly known to the first Churches planted by the Apostles themselves viz. by the testimony of the Spirit 1. In their doctrine and lives 2. In their miracles and 3. In their success in the sanctification of mens souls I am next to shew you how these matters of fact or actions of the Apostles are certainly proved or brought down to us § 41. And this is by the same three wayes of proof as the Apostles proved to the first Churches their testimony though with much difference in the point of miracles viz. I. We have it by the most credible humane testimony II. By such testimony as hath a natural certainty III. And by some of that testimony of God which is also a supernatural evidence Of all which I must speak in order supposing what is said before § 42. I. The only natural way of transmitting those things down to us is by Historical Conveyance And the authors of this History are both the Churches of Christ and their enemies The credibility of which Testimonies will be fullyer opened under the second degree of proofs which comprehendeth this § 43. II. That there is a natural Impossibility that our History of the Apostles gifts and miracles should be false will appear by reviewing all the particulars by which the same was proved of the Apostles testimony of the miracles of Christ And in many respects with much more advantage § 44. 1. It is naturally impossible that all Reporters could be themselves deceived For 1. They were many thousands in several Countreys through the World And therefore could not be all either mad or sensless 2. They were men that took their salvation to be most neerly concerned in the thing and were to forsake the pleasures of the World and suffer from men for their Religion and therefore could not be utterly careless in examining the thing 3. They were present upon the place and eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of all 4. The Languages were said to be spoken in their assemblies and the miracles done among them for many years even an age together And it is impossible all Countreys could be cheated by juggling in matters which their eyes and ears were such competent witnesses of for so many years together 5. They were said to be the objects of many of these miracles themselves viz. That the cures were wrought on many of them that the same Spirit was given to them all 6. And they were said to be the Agents themselves in the several works of that Spirit according to their several gifts So that their common deceit must be impossible If any man should now among us take on him to speak with divers Languages or tell the Churches that divers Languages are spoke among them in their hearing by unlearned men and that Prophesyings Interpretations miraculous cures c. are wrought among them and name the persons time and place and should tell them that they had all some sort or other of the same gifts themselves were it possible for the people to believe all this if it were a Lie Would they not say when did we ever hear your Languages or when did we ever see your Cures and other Miracles when did we see an Ananias and Saphira die When did we do any such works our selves Do we not know what we doe Men could not believe such palpable untruths in matter of publick fact so neer them among them upon them and much less could so many thousands believe this in so many Nations if it were false Because the understanding is not free in it self but per modum naturae is necessitated by cogent evidence Absurd doctrines may easily deceive many thousands and so may false History do by men at a sufficient distance But he that thinks the ears and eyes and other senses of so many thousand sound persons were all deceived thus in presence will sure never trust his own ears or eyes or sense in any thing nor expect that any man eise should ever believe him who so little believeth his own sense and understanding § 45. 2. That the reporters were not purposely the Deceivers of the World by wilfull falshood is also certain by these following evidences § 46. It was not possible that so many thousands in all Countreys should have wit and cunning enough for such a contrivance and could keep it secret among themselves that it should never be detected They that think they were all so stupid as to be themselves deceived cannot also think that they were all so cunning as to conspire the deceiving of all the World so successfully and undiscovered But it is past doubt that for their Naturals they were ordinary persons neither such mad people as all to think they saw and
hate such deceivers and make them a common scorn instead of being converted by them § 61. The foresaid impossibilities are herein founded 1. There is no effect without a sufficient cause 2. A necessary cause not sufficiently hindred will bring forth its answerable effect But the opposed supposition maketh effects without any sufficient cause and necessary causes without their adequate effects § 62. The providence of God permitted dissentions and heresies to arise among Christians and rivals and false Teachers to raise hard reports of the Apostles and the people to be somewhat alienated from them that the Apostles might by challenges appeal to miracles and future ages might be convinced that the matter of fact could not be contradicted The Romans had contentions among themselves the strong and the weak contemning or condemning one another about meats and days Rom. 14. and 15. The Corinthians were divided into factions and exasperated against Paul by false Apostles so that he is fain at large to vindicate his Ministry and he doth it partly by appealing both to miracles and works of power wrought among them and by the Spirit given to themselves 2 Cor. 12.12 and 13.3 4 5. and 1 Cor. 12.7 12 13. The Galatians were more alienated from Paul by Jewish Teachers and seemed to take him as an enemy for telling them the truth and he feared that he had bestowed on them labour in vain and in this case he vehemently rebuketh them and appealeth first to miracles wrought among them and before their eyes and next to the Spirit given to themselves Gal. 3.1 2 3 4 5. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you This only would I learn of you Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith He therefore that ministreth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you doth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Now if no such miracles were wrought among them and if no such Spirit was received by themselves would this argument have silenced adversaries and reconciled the minds of the Galatians or rather have made them deride the cause that must have such a defence and say Who be they that work miracles among us and when did we receive such a Spirit So to the Romans this is Paul's testimonial Rom. 15.18 19. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God c. And to the Corinthians he saith 1 Cor. 14.18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all So Gal. 2.8 1 Cor. 14.22 Tongues are for a sign to them that believe not So Acts 2.43 and 4.30 and 5.12 and 7.36 and 8.13 and 14.3 and 6.8 and 8.6 13. and 15.12 and 19.11 1 Cor. 12.10 Miracles are still made the confirmation of the Apostles testimony and doctrine And in Heb. 2.3 4. you have the just method of the proof and progress of Christianity Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord but how is that known and was confirmed to us by them that heard him But how shall we know that they said truth God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to his own will And Act. 4.33 And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus 1 Joh. 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us c. § 63. III. The miracles of the Apostles are not only attested by the Churches which were eye-witnesses of them 1. By the way of most credible humane testimony 2. And by natural evidence of infallible certainty but also 3. By supernatural testimony of God himself as appeareth in these following evidences § 64. 1. Many miracles were wrought by those first Churches who were the witnesses of the Apostles miracles which is a divine attestation to their testimony 1. The Scriptures fore-cited tell us that the same holy Ghost was given to them all though all had not the same gifts and that tongues and healing and miracles were the gifts of many though not of all which as I have shewed they could not themselves have believed of themselves if it had not been true Yea sufficient historical testimony telleth us that for three or four hundred years at least till Constantine owned and protected Christianity by Secular Power miracles were wrought in confirmation of the Christian faith It hath been the devils craft to seek to destroy the credit of them partly by hypocrites who have counterfeited miracles and partly by lying Legends of the carnal proud domineering part of the Church who have told the world so many palpable lies that they seemed to do it in design to perswade them to believe nothing that is true But yet all wise men will know the difference between History credible and incredible The many testimonies of the miracles of Gregory Thaumaturgus and many others mentioned by Eusebius and almost all other Christian Writers of those times and those mentioned by Augustine de Civitate Dei lib. 22 cap. 8. and Retract lib. 1. cap. 13. passim and by Cyprian Tertullian and many more will not be thought incredible by impartial considering men § 65. 2. The eminent sanctity of the Pastors of the Churches with the success of their testimony and doctrine for the true sanctification of many thousand souls is God's own attestation to their testimony and doctrine How far the sanctifying renewing success of the doctrine is a Divine attestation to its verity I have before opened and how far God owneth even the truths of Philosophy by blessing them with an adequate proportionable success The defective partial truths of Philosophy produce a defective partial reformation how far God accepteth it belongeth not to my present business to determine The more full and integral discovery of God's will by Jesus Christ doth produce a more full and integral renovation And 1. The cause is known by the effect 2. And God will not as is before said bless a lie to do the most excellent work in all the world Now it is a thing most evident that God hath still bless'd the Ministry of the Christian Pastors in all ages to the renewing of many thousand souls That this is truly so I shall somewhat fullier shew anon but that
was once as improbable as the Calling of the Jews is and yet it was done 3. And many of those Prophecies are hereby fulfilled it being not a worldly Kingdom as the carnal Jews imagined which the Prophets foretold of the Messiah but the spiritual Kingdom of a Saviour When the power and glory of the Roman Empire in its greatest height did submit and resign it self to Christ with many other Kingdoms of the world there was more of those Prophecies then fulfilled than selfishness will suffer the Jews to understand And the rest shall all be fulfilled in their season But as in all Sciences it is but a few of the extraordinarily wise who reach the most subtile and difficult points so it will be but a very few Christians who will understand the most difficult prophecies till the accomplishment interpret them Obj. XXIII But the difficulties are as great in the Doctrines as in the Prophecies Who is able to reconcile Gods Decrees foreknowledge and efficacious special Grace with mans Free-will and the righteousness of Gods Judgement and the reasonableness of his Precepts Promises and Threats How Gods Decrees are all fulfilled and in him we live and move and be and are not sufficient for a good thought of our selves but to believe to will and to do is given us and he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth and it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy And yet that he would not the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and live and that he would have all men saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and layeth all the blame of their misery on themselves Ans First consider these things apart and in themselves and then comparatively as they respect each other 1. Is it an incredible thing that all Being should be from the First Being and all Goodness from the Infinite Eternal Good and that nothing should be unknown to the infinite omniscient Wisdom and that nothing can overcome the Power of the Omnipotent or that he is certainly able to procure the accomplishment of all his own Will and that none shall disappoint his Purposes nor make him fall short of any of his Councils or Decrees Go no further now and do not by false or uncertain Doctrine make difficulties to your selves which God never made and then tell me whether any of this be doubtfull 2. On the other side is it incredible that Man is a rational free Agent and that he is a Creature governable by Laws and that God is his Ruler Law-giver and Judge and that his Laws must command and prohibit and the sanction contain rewards and punishments and that men should be judged righteously according to their works or that the Messengers of Christ should intreat and perswade men to obey and that they should be moved as men by motives of good or evil to themselves Is there any thing in this that is incredible or uncertain I think there is not And these difficulties will concern you nevertheless whether you are Christians or not They are harder points to Philosophers than to us and they have been their controversies before Christ came into the World They are points that belong to the natural part of Theology and not that which resteth only on supernatural Revelation and therefore this is nothing against Christ 2. But yet I will answer your question Who can reconcile these things 1. They can do much to the reconciling of them who can distinguish a meer Volition or Purpose or Decree from an efficacious pre-determining influx 2. And can distinguish between those effects which need a positive cause and purpose or decree and those nullities which having no cause but defective do need no positive purpose or decree 3. And can distinguish between the need we have of Medicinal Grace for holy actions and the need we have of common help for every action natural and free 4. And can distinguish between an absolute Volition and a limited Volition in tantum ad hoc and no further 5. They that can distinguish between mans Natural liberty of self-determination and his Civil liberty from restraint of Law and his moral liberty from vicious habits 6. They that can well difference mans Natural power or faculties from his moral power of good and holy disposition 7. They that know what a free Power is and how far the causer of that Power is or is not the cause of the act or its omission 8. They that can distinguish between those acts which God doth as our Owner or as our free Benefactor and those which he doth as Rector 9. And between those which he doth as Rector by his Legislative will antecedent to mens keeping or breaking of his Laws and by his Judicial and executive will as consequent to these acts of man 10. He that can distinguish between Gods method in giving both the first Call of the Gospel and the first internal Grace to receive it and of his giving the Grace of further sanctification justification and glory 11. And between the manner of his procuring our first faith and the procuring our following sanctification 12. And he that knoweth how easie it is with God to attain what he willeth without destroying the Liberty of our wills As a Miller can make the stream of water turn his Mill and grinde his Corn without altering any thing in the inclination of the water 13. And withall how incomprehensible the nature and manner of Gods operation is to Man and how transcendently it is above all Physical agency by corporeal contact or motion I say he that understandeth and can apply these distinctions can reconcile the Decrees and concourse of God with his Government and mans Free-will as farre as is necessary to the quieting of our understandings Obj. XXIV But the Christian Faith doth seem to be but Humane and not Divine in that it is to be resolved into the Credit of Men Even of those men who tell us that they saw Christs miracles and saw him risen and ascend and of those who saw the miracles of the Apostles and of those who tell us that the first Churches witness that they saw such things The certainty cannot exceed the weakest of the Premises And this is the argument The Doctrine which was attested by Miracles is of God But the Christian Doctrine was attested by Miracles Proved The spectators averred it to others who have transmitted the Testimony down to us So that you are no surer of the Doctrine than of the Miracles and no surer of the Miracles than of the Humane Testimony which hath delivered it to you Ans If you will be at the labour to read over what I have written before you shall finde a threefold testimony to Christ besides this of Miracles And you shall finde the Apostles testimony of Christs Miracles and Resurrection attested by more than a
of the World and the pleasures of the flesh for the Love of God and the Hopes of Glory And he that doth thus much shall undoubtedly be saved But to think that you must ask your hearts such a question as whether you can be content to be damned for Christ is but to abuse God and your selves Indeed both Reason and Religion command us to esteem God infinitely above our selves and the Churches welfare above our own because that which is best must be best esteemed and loved But yet though we must ever acknowledge this inequality Yet that we must never disjoyn them nor set them in a positive opposition or competition nor really do any thing which tendeth to our damnation upon any pretense of the Churches good is past all question He that hath made the love of our selves and felicity inseparable from man hath made us no duty inconsistent with this inclination that is with our humanity it self For God hath conjoyned these necessary ends and we must not separate them § 3. The Interest of the Church is but the Interest of the Souls that constitute the Church and to preferre it above our own is but to preferre many above one § 4. He that doth most for the publick good and the Souls of many doth thereby most effectually promote his own consolation and salvation § 5. The Interest of God is the Vltimate End of Religion Church and particular Souls § 6. Gods Interest is not any addition to his Perfection or Blessedness but the pleasing of his Will in the Glory of his Power Wisdom and Goodness shining forth in Jesus Christ and in his Church § 7. Therefore to promote Gods Interest is by promoting the Churches Interest § 8. The Interest of the Church consisteth I. Intensivè in its HOLYNESS II. Conjunctivè harmonicè in its Unity Concord and Order III. Extensivè in its increase and the multiplication of Believers § 9. I. The HOLYNESS of the Church consisteth 1. In its Resignation and submission to God its Owner 2. In its subjection and obedience to God its Ruler 3. In its Gratitude and Love to God its Benefactor and Ultimate End § 10. These acts consist 1. In a right estimation and Belief of the minde 2. In a right Volition Choice and Resolution of the Will 3. In the right ordering of the Life § 11. The Means of the Churches HOLYNESS are these 1. Holy Doctrine Because as all Holiness entereth by the understanding so Truth is the instrumental cause of all § 12. 2. The holy serious reverent skilfull and diligent preaching of this doctrine by due explication proof and application suitably to the various auditors § 13. 3. The holy lives and private converse of the Pastors of the Church § 14. 4. Holy Discipline faithfully administred encouraging all that are godly and comforting the penitent and humbling the proud and disgracing open sin and casting out the proved impenitent gross sinners that they infect not the rest embolden not the wicked and dishonour not the Church in the eyes of the unbelievers § 15. 5. The election and ordination of able and holy Pastors fit for this work § 16. 6. The conjunct endeavours of the wisest and most experienced members of the flock not usurping any Ecclesiastical office but by their wisdom and authority and example in their private capacities seconding the labours of the Pastors and not leaving all to be done by them alone § 17. 7. Especially the holy instructing and governing of families by catechizing inferiours and exhorting them to the due care of their souls and helping them to understand and remember the publick teaching of the Pastors and praying and praising God with them and reading the Scripture and holy books especially on the Lord's day and labouring to reform their lives § 18. 8. The blameless lives and holy conference converse and example of the members of the Church among themselves Holiness begetteth holiness and encreaseth it as fire kindleth fire § 19. 9. The unity concord and love of Christians to one another § 20. 10. And lastly holy Princes and Magistrates to encourage piety and to protect the Church and to be a terrour to evil doers These are the means of holiness § 21. The contraries of all these may easily be discerned to be the destroyers of holiness and pernicious to the Church 1. Vnholy doctrine 2. Ignorant unskilful negligent cold or envious preaching 3. The unholy lives of them that preach it 4. Discipline neglected or perverted to the encouraging of the ungodly and afflicting of the most holy and upright of the flocks 5. The election or ordination of insufficient negligent or ungodly Pastors 6. The negligence of the wisest of the flock or the restraint of them by the spirit of jealousie and envy from doing their private parts in assistance of the Pastors 7. The neglect of holy instructing and governing of families and the lewd example of the governours of them 8. The scandalous or barren lives of Christians 9. The divisions and discord of Christians among themselves 10. And bad Magistrates who give an ill example or afflict the godly or encourage vice or at least suppress it not § 22. To these may be added 1. The degenerating of Religious strictness from what God requireth into another thing by humane corruptions gradually introduced as is seen among too many Friars as well as in the Pharisees of old 2. A degenerating of holy Institutions of Christ into another thing by the like gradual corruptions as is seen in the Roman Sacrifice of the Mass 3. The degenerating of Church-Offices by the like corruptions as is seen in the Papacy and its manifold supporters 4. The diversion of the Pastors of the Church to secular employments 5. The diminishing the number of the Pastors of the Church as proportioned to the number of souls as if one school-master alone should have ten thousand scholars or ten thousand souldiers but one or two officers 6. The pretending of the soul and power of Religion to destroy the body or external part or making use of the body or external part to destroy the soul and power and setting things in opposition which are conjunct 7. The preferring either the imposition or opposition of things indifferent before things necessary 8. An apish imitation of Christ by Satan and his instruments by counterfeiting inspirations revelations visions prophesies miracles apparitions sanctity zeal and new institutions in the Church 9. An over-doing or being righteous over much by doing more than God would have us over-doing being one of the devils ways of undoing When Satan pretendeth to be a Saint he will be stricter than Christ as the Pharisees were in their company Sabbath-rest and ceremonies and he will be zealous with a fiery consuming zeal 10. Accidentally prosperity it self consumeth piety in the Church if it occasion the perdition of the world the Church is not out of danger of it § 23. II. The
unity and concord and harmony of the Church consisteth 1. In their Universal Adoption or One Relation to God as their reconciled Father in Christ 2. In the one Relation they have all to Christ their Head 3. In the unity of the Spirit which dwelleth and worketh in them all 4. In their One Relation to the Body or Church of Christ as its members 5. In the unity of that Faith which stateth them in these relations 6. In the unity of the Baptismal Covenant which initiateth them 7. In the unity of the Gospel in the Essentials which is the common rule of their faith and life and the ground of their hope and comfort 8. In the bond of mutual brotherly love 9. In the concord of a holy life 10. In the unity of the End which they all intend and shall at last attain the pleasing of God and the heavenly glory § 24. The Means of this Unity and Concord are 1. All as aforesaid which promote their holiness From holiness is the centring of all hearts in God and it destroyeth that dividing Selfishness which maketh men have as many ends as they are persons 2. The learning and ability of the Pastors to hold the flocks together by the force of truth and to stop the mouthes of cavilling dividers and seducers When no gain-sayers are able to stand before the evidence of that truth which they demonstrate 3. The holy lives of Pastors which keep up the love of truth and them in the peoples hearts 4. By the paternal government of the Pastors ruling them not by force but willingly and in fatherly love and a loving familiar converse with them 5. By the just execution of Discipline on the impenitent that the godly may see that wickedness is disowned 6 By the concord of the Pastors among themselves and the prudent use of Synods or Councils to that end 7. By the humble and submissive respect of the people to their Pastors 8 By keeping up the interest and authority of the most ancient and experienced of the flock over the young and unexperienced who are the common causes of division 9. By the Pastors avoiding all temptations to worldliness and pride that they tear not the Church by striving who shall be the greatest or have the preeminence 10. By godly Magistrates keeping their power in their own hand and using it to rebuke intollerable false Teachers and to encourage the peaceable and restrain the railing and violence of Pastors and parties against each other and by impartial keeping the Church's peace § 25. Hence the causes of Church-divisions are discernable 1. The encrease of ungodliness and sin which is as fire in the thatch and possesseth all men with dividing principles practices and ends 2. The disability of Pastors over-topt in parts by every Sectary 3. The ungodliness of the Pastors which looseneth the hearts of the people from them 4. The strangeness violence or hurtfulness of the Pastors 5. The encouragement and tolleration of all the most flagitious and impenitent in undisciplin'd Churches which frighteneth men out of the Church as from a ruinous house and tempteth them to an unwarrantable separation because the Pastors will not make a necessary and regular separation 6. The discord of the Bishops among themselves 7. The peoples ignorance of the Pastoral power and their own duty 8. An unruly fierce censorious spirit in many of the young and unexperienced of the flock 9. The Pastors striving who shall be the greatest and seeking great things in the world or popular applause and admiration 10. The Magistrates either permitting the endeavours of dividing Teachers in palpable cases or suffering self-seeking Pastors or people to disturb the Church § 26. But next to common ungodliness the great causes of the most ruinating Church-divisions are 1. Wars and dissentions among Princes and States and civil factions in Kingdoms whereby the Clergy are drawn or forced to engage themselves on one side or other and then the prevailing side stigmatizeth those as scandalous who were not for them and think themselves engaged by their interest to extirpate them 2. Mistaking the just terms of union and communion and setting up a false centre as that which all men must unite in Thus have the Roman party divided themselves from the Greeks and Protestants and made the greatest schism in the Church that ever was made in it 1. By setting up a false usurping constitutive Head the Roman Bishop and pretending that none are members of the Church who are not his subjects and so condemning the far greatest part of the Catholick Church 2 By imposing an Oath and divers gross corruptions in Doctrine Discipline and Worship upon all that will be in their communion and condemning those that receive them not and so departing from the Scripture-sufficiency These two usurpations are the grand dividers § 27. All Hereticks also who speak perverse things against Christianity to draw away Disciples after them or Schismaticks who unwarrantably separate from those Churches in which they ought to abide that they may gather new congregations after their own mind are the immediate adversaries of Church-union and concord § 28. So are the importune and virulent Disputations of contentious Wits about unnecessary things or matters of faction and self-interest § 29. Especially when the Magistrate lendeth his sword to one party of the contenders to suppress or be revenged on the rest and to dispute with arguments of steel § 30. The well-ordered Councils of Bishops or Pastors of several Churches assembled together have been justly esteemed a convenient means of maintaining the concord and peace of Christians and a fit remedy for the cure of heresies corruptions and divisions And when the cause requireth it those councils should consist of as many as can conveniently meet even from the most distant Churches which can send their Bishops without incurring greater hurt or discommodity than their presence will countervail in doing good And therefore the councils called General in the Dominions of the Christian Roman Emperours were commendable and very profitable to the Church when rightly used But whereas the Pope doth argue that he is the constitutive Head of the whole catholick Church throughout the world because his Predecessors did oft preside in those councils it is most evident to any one who will make a faithful search into the History of them that those councils were so far from representing all the Churches in the world that they were constituted only of the Churches or Subjects of the Roman Empire and those that having formerly been parts of the Empire continued that way of communion when they fell into the hands of conquerors their conquerors being commonly Pagans Infidels or Arrian Hereticks I except only now and then two or three or an inconsiderable number of neighbour Bishops There were none of the Representatives of the Churches in all the other parts of the world as I have proved in my Disputation with Mr. Johnson
require it or as if all our Pastors and Teachers were not to be so useful to us as a sign-post nor we were not to learn of them or of our Parents any thing that God either by nature or Scripture ever taught us or as if a child or subject who is required to learn the meaning of his Ruler's Laws to judge of them judicio privatae discretionis were thereby allowed to mis-understand them and to say that they command us that which they forbid us and because the King forbiddeth us to murder he alloweth us to say You proposed it to my understanding and I understand it that you bid me murder and therefore you may not punish me As if he that is bound to judge by a bare discerning what is commanded him and what forbidden were allowed to judge in partem utramlibet that it is or it is not as please himself As if when the King hath printed his Statutes he had forfeited all his authority by so doing and his subjects might say Why do you punish us for disobeying your Laws when you promulgated them to us as rational creatures to discern their sense Will it profit the world to write confutations of such stuff as this or must a man that is not condemned to Stage-playing or Ballad-making thus waste his time Do the people need to be saved from such stuff as this If so what remedy but to pity them and say Quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat si populus vult decipi decipiatur And yet to do no more wrong to the Scriptures than to Councils and Bulls and Statutes and Testaments and Deeds and Bonds he concludeth Of all writings whatsoever that by the meer words of the writer you cannot be certain of his sense though they be common words and you take them in the common sense So that if any doubt arise about my words if I resolve it by writing I cannot be understood but if I spake the same syllables by word of mouth it would serve the turn As if no man could be sure of the sense of any Law or Testament or Bond or Covenant which is committed to writing nor of any exposition of them if once it fall under Pen or Press As if God's writing the Ten Commandments had left them unintelligible in comparison of his speaking them Then farewell all Historical certainty Hath every single Priest himself any assurance of the sense of the Council the Canons the Popes Decreetals and Bulls but by the way of writing And so the poor people must instead of the Church believe only that Priest that orally speaketh to them though he have no certainty of the matter himself If this doctrine be made good once it will spoil the Printers trade and the Clarks and Courts of Record and the Post-Office too But page 51. he maketh the consent of the universal Church to be the only sure communication of Christian Doctrine in the Articles of Faith yea the consent of the present age concerning the former But how the consent of the whole Church shall be certainly known to every man and woman when no writing can certainly make known any mans mind is hard to tell a man that expecteth reason And that you may see how much the subject of this Treatise is concerned in such discourses he addeth that If the Church had at any time been small its testimony had been doubtful but saith he it testifieth of it self that Christians were never few and therefore it is to be believed But we will have no such prevaricating defences of Christianity The major is the Infidels erroneous cavil the minor is a false defence of the faith The Church never said that Christians were never few it hath ever confessed the contrary that once they were few and yet it hath proved against the Infidel that its testimony was not doubtful having better evidence of their veracity than numbers You may perceive by these strictures upon this one discourse what an endless task it would be to write confutations of every man that hath leisure to publish to the world his opinions which are injurious to the Christian verity And therefore no sober Reader will expect that I or he must be so tired before he can be satisfied and setled in the Truth FINIS Non tam authoritatis in disputando quà m Rationis momenta quaerenda sunt Cicer. de Nat. Deor. 1. p. 6. Animo ipso animus videtur nimirum hanc habet vim praeceptum Apollinis quo monet UT SE quisque NOSCAT Non enim credo id praecipit ut membra nostra aut staturam figurámve noscamus Neque nos corpora sumus 〈◊〉 neque ego tibi dicens hoc CORPORI tuo dico Cum igitur NOSCE TE dicit hoc dicit NOSCE ANIMUM TUUM Nam corpus quidem quasi vas est aut aliquod animi receptaculum ab ANIMO tuo quicquid agitur id agitur à te Hunc igitur nosce nisi Divinum esset non esset hoc acrioris cujusdam animi praeceptum sic ut tributum Deo sit hoc est SEIPSUM posse cognoscere sed fi qualis sit animus ipse animus nesciat dic quaeso ne esse quidem se sciet Cicero Tuscul Quast l. 1. pag. mihi 226 227. Patet aeternum id esse quod seipsum movet quis est qui hanc naturam animis tributam neget Inanimum est enim omne quod pulsu agitatur externo Sentit igitur animus se moveri Quod cum sentit illud una sentit se vi suâ non aliena moveri nec accidere posse ut ipse unquam à se deseratur ex quo efficitur aeternitas Id. ibid. Obj. Age ostende mihi Deum tuum Resp Age ostende mihi hominem tuum fac te hominem esse cognoscam quis meus sit Deus demonstrare non morabor Theophil Antioch ad Autolycum lib. 1. initio Cum despicere coeperimus sentire quid simus quid ab animantibus caeteris differamus tum ea insequi incipiemus ad quae nati sumus Cicer. 5. de fin Qui seipsum cognoverit cognoscet in se omnia Deum ad cujus imaginem factus est Mundum cujus simulachrum gerit Creaturas omnes cum quibus symbolum habet Paulus Dom. de Scala Thess pag. 722. Ut Deum noris si ignores locum faciem sic animum tibi tuum notum esse oportet etiamsi ignores locum formam Cicer. 1. Tuscul Non ii sumus quibus nihil verum esse videatur sed ii qui omnibus veris falsa quaedam adjuncta esse dicamus tanta similitudine ut c. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. 1. p. 7. Lege Pisonis dicta de mente corpore in Cicer. de finib l. 5. p. 189. Omnes ad id quod Bonum videtur omnes suas actiones referunt Aristot de Republ. 1. c. 1. In homine optimum quidem Ratio Haec antecedit