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
the rest would quickly detect it and be upon his head § 88. 9. Yea the many Sects and Contentions among Christians and the many Hereticks that were at enmity with them would certainly have detected any combination to corrupt the Scriptures § 89. 10. Some few Hereticks in the beginning did attempt to bring in the Gospel of Nicodemus and some other forged Writings and to have corrupted some parts of Scripture and the Churches presently cryed them down § 90. 11. Most Hereticks have pleaded these same Scriptures and denyed them not to be genuine Yea Julian Celsus Porphyry and other Heathens did not deny it but took it as a certain truth § 91. 12. The ancient Writers of the Church Clemens Ignatius Justin Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Arnobius Athenagoras Lactantius Eusebius Nazianzene Nyssen Basil Chrysostom Epiphanius Hierom Augustine c. do all cite these Scriptures as we now have them in all things material § 92. 13. The Christian Emperours have inserted the mention of some passages in their Laws in the same words as they are in our Bibles § 93. 14. Several Councils have not only cited several passages out of them but pleaded them still as the Word of God and enumerated the particular Books which constitute the whole Systeme All this set together will tell any man of reason consideration and impartiality that we have much fuller certainty that these Scriptures are the same which the first Churches received from the Apostles than they can have that Virgil's Ovid's Cicero's or Plutarch's works are theirs or that the Statutes of this Land are currant Yea were it not lest I be too tedious I might distinctly shew you the forementioned threefold certainty of all this 1. A moral certainty of the strongest humane Faith 2. A natural certainty grounded upon Physical impossibilities of the contrary 3. And somewhat of a Divine supernatural attestation by the continued blessing of God on the Scriptures for the sanctifying of souls in every age And this bringeth me up to the last part of this Chapter I have all this while been shewing how the three first parts of the Spirits witness to Christ are made known to us viz. Prophecy the Holyness of the Doctrine and Miracles I come now in a word to the fourth § 94. IV. How may we certainly know the fourth part of the SPIRITS witness to Christ viz. The success of his doctrine in the Regeneration of his Disciples and the actual saving them from their sins Answ I shall answer this 1. As to the times past and 2. As to the present age § 95. 1. What men have been in times past we have but these three wayes to know 1. By the History of those ages 2. By their remaining works 3. By their successors in whom their belief and qualities are continued And 1. that there have been holy persons in all ages yea that all true Christians were such we have as good testimony as History can afford whether you will judge of them by their profession life or sufferings 2. Their remaining works are very great testimonies what a spirit of Holiness Charity and Justice doth breath in the writings of those holy men which are come to our hands Clemens Romanus Ignatius Cyprian Ephrem Syrus Macarius Augustine Gregory Nazianzene Gr. Nyssen Basil Ambrose Chrysostom Salvian Cassianus Bernard c. 3. Those that succeed them at this day in the serious profession of Christianity are a living history of the virtues of their ancestors § 96. 2. Of the sanctity of the Christians of this present age there is a double knowledge to be had 1. By them that are Regenerate themselves 2. By them that are not Between these wayes of knowledge the difference must be great § 97. 1. As he that hath learning or love to his Parents or loyalty to his King or faithfulness to his friend may know that he hath it so may he that is renewed by the Spirit of God and hath a predominant love to God a heavenly minde and conversation a hatred of sin a delight in holiness a love to all men even his enemies a contempt of the World a mastery over his fleshly appetite sense and lusts a holy Government of his passions thoughts and tongue with a longing desire to be perfect in all this and a supporting hope to see Gods glory and enjoy him in the delights of Love and Praise for evermore § 98. This evidence of the Spirit of Sanctification in our selves is not the reason or motive of our first faith but of our confirmation and fuller assurance in believing afterwards For a man must in some sort believe in Christ before he can know that he is sanctifyed by him The rest of the motives are sufficient to begin the work of Faith and are the means which God ordinarily useth to that end § 99. It is Christs appointed Method that by learning of Him and using his appointed means Men be brought up to such a degree of Holyness as to be able to discern this witness in themselves and thence to grow up to full assurance of Faith and Hope Therefore if any one that hath heard the Gospel do want this inward assuring testimony it is because they have been false to the truth and means before revealed to them He that will but enquire into the Gospel and receive it and obey it so far as he hath reason to do it and not be false to his own Reason and Interest shall receive that renewing sanctifying Spirit which will be an abiding witness in himself But if he will reject known truth and refuse known duty and neglect the most reasonable means that are proposed to him he must blame himself if he continue in unbelief and want that evidence which others have Suppose that in a common Plague one Physician should be famed to be the only and infallible Curer of all that take his remedies and suppose many defame him and say He is but a Deceiver and others tell you He hath cured us and many thousands and we can easily convince you that his Remedies have nothing in them that is hurtfull and therefore you may safely try them especially having no other help He that will so far believe in him and trust him now as to try his Remedies may live but he that will not must blame none but himself if he die of his disease He that tryeth shall know by his own cure and experience that his Physician is no Deceiver And he that will not and yet complaineth that he wanteth that experimental knowledge doth but talk like a peevish self-destroyer § 100. 2. He that yet hath not the evidence of the Spirit of Regeneration in himself may yet be convinced that it is in others and thereby may know that Christ is indeed the Saviour of the World and no deceiver Even as in the aforesaid instance he that never tryed the Physician himself yet if he see thousands cured by him may know by that that
Apostles may cause variety of style and other accidental excellencies in the parts of the holy Scriptures and yet all these parts be animated with one soul of Power Truth and Goodness But those men who think that these humane imperfections of the Writers do extend further and may appear in some by-passages of Chronologies or History which are no proper part of the Rule of Faith and Life do not hereby destroy the Christian cause For God might enable his Apostles to an infallible recording and preaching of the Gospel even all things necessary to salvation though he had not made them infallible in every by-passage and circumstance no more than they were indefectible in life As for them that say I can believe no man in any thing who is mistaken in one thing at least as infallible they speak against common sense and reason for a man may be infallibly acquainted with some things who is not so in all An Historian may infallibly acquaint me that there was a Fight at Lepanto at Edge-hill at York at Naseby or an Insurrection and Massacre in Ireland and Paris c. who cannot tell me all the circumstances of it or he may infallibly tell men of the late Fire which consumed London though he cannot tell just whose houses were burnt and may mistake about the Causers of it and the circumstances A Lawyer may infallibly tell you whether your cause be good or bad in the main who yet may misreport some circumstances in the opening of it A Physician in his Historical observations may partly erre as an Historian in some circumstances yet be infallible as a Physician in some plain cases which belong directly to his Art I do not believe that any man can prove the least error in the holy Scripture in any point according to its true intent and meaning but if he could the Gospel as a Rule of Faith and Life in things necessary to salvation might be nevertheless proved infallible by all the evidence before given Object XVIII The Physicks in Gen 1. are contrary to all true Philosophy and suited to the vulgars erroneous conceits Answ No such matter there is sounder doctrine of Physicks in Gen. 1. than any Philosopher hath who contradicteth it And as long as they are altogether by the ears among themselves and so little agreed in most of their Philosophy but leave it to this day either to the Scepticks to deride as utterly uncertain or to any Novelist to form anew into what principles and hypothesis he please the judgment of Philosophers is of no great value to prejudice any against the Scriptures The sum of Gen. 1. is but this That God having first made the Intellectual Superiour part of the world and the matter of the Elementary world in an unformed Mass or Chaos did the first day distinguish or form the active Element of Fire and caused it to give Light The second day he separated the attenuated or rarifi'd part of the passive Element which we call the Air expanding it from the earth upwards to separate the clouds from the lower waters and to be the medium of Light And whether in different degrees of purity it fill not all the space between all the Globes both fixed and planetary is a question which we may more probably affirm than deny unless there be any waters also upwards by condensation which we cannot disprove The third day he separated the rest of the passive Element Earth and Sea into their proper place and bounds and also made individual Plants in their specifick forms and virtue of generation or multiplication of individuals The fourth day he made the Sun Moon and Stars either then forming them or then making them Luminaries to the earth and appointing them their relative office but hath not told us of their other uses which are nothing to us The fifth day he made inferiour Sensitives Fishes and Birds the inhabitants of Water and Air with the power of generation or multiplication of individuals The sixth day he made first the terrestrial Animals and then Man with the power also of generation or multiplication And the seventh day having taken complacency in all the works of this glorious perfected frame of Nature he appointed to be observ'd by mankind as a day of rest from worldly labours for the worshipping of Him their Omnipotent Creator in commemoration of this work This is the sum and sense of the Physicks of Gen. 1. And here is no errour in all this what ever prejudice Philosophers may imagine Object XIX It is a suspicious sign that Believing is commanded us instead of knowing and that we must take all upon trust without any proof Answ This is a meer slander Know as much as you are able to know Christ came not to hinder but to help your knowledge Faith is but a mode or act of knowing How will you know matters of History which are past and matters of the unseen world but by believing If you could have an Angel come from heaven to tell you what is there would you quarrel because you are put upon believing him if you can know it without believing and testimony do God biddeth you believe nothing but what he giveth you sufficient reason to believe Evidence of credibility in Divine faith is evidence of certainty Believers in Scripture usually say We know that thou art the Christ c. You are not forbidden but encouraged to try the spirits and not to believe every spirit nor pretended prophet Let this Treatise testifie whether you have not Reason and evidence for Belief it is Mahomet's doctrine and not Christ's which forbiddeth examination Object XX. It imposeth upon us an incredible thing when it perswadeth us that our undoing and calamity and death are the way to our felicity and our gain and that sufferings work together for our good At least these are hard terms which we cannot undergoe nor think it wisdom to lose a certainty for uncertain hopes Answ Suppose but the truth of the Gospel proved yea or but the Immortality and Retribution for Souls hereafter which the light of Nature proveth and then we may well say that this Objection savoureth more of the Beast than of the Man A Heathen can answer it though not so well as a Christian Seneca and Plutarch Antonine and Epictetus have done it in part And what a dotage is it to call things present Certainties when they are certainly ready to pass away and you are uncertain to possess them another hour who can be ignorant what haste Time maketh and how like the Life of man is to a dream What sweetness is now left of all the pleasant cups and morsels and all the merry hours you have had and all the proud or lustfull fancies which have tickled your deluded fleshly mindes Are they not more terrible than comfortable to your most retired sober thoughts and what an inconsiderable moment is it till it will be so with all the rest
dividing it self from the rest causing schisme or contention in the Body or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular Church which is a part § 4. But when Parties and Sects do trouble the Church we must still hold to our meer Christianity and desire to be called by no other name than Christians with the Epithets of sincerity And if men will put the name of a Party or Sect upon us for holding to Christianity only against all corrupting Sects we must hold on our way and bear their obloquy § 5. What CHRISTIANITY is may be known 1. Most summarily in the Baptismal Covenant in which we are by solemnization made Christians in which renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil we give up our selves devotedly to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer 2. By the ancient summary Rules of Faith Hope and Charity the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue 3. Integrally in the sacred Scriptures which are the Records of the Doctrine of Christ and the Holy Spirit § 6. But there are many circumstances of Religious Worship which Scripture doth not particularly determine of but only give general Rules for the determination of them as what Chapter shall be read what Text preached on what Translation used what Meeter or Tune of Psalms what time what place what Seat or Pulpit or Cup or other Vtensils what Vesture gesture c. whether we shall use Notes for memory in preaching what method we shall preach in whether we shall pray in the same words often or in various with a book or without with many other In all which the People must have an obediential respect to the conduct of the lawfull Pastors of the Churches § 7. Differing opinions or practices about things indifferent no nor about the meer integrals of Religion which are not Essentials do not make men of different Religions or Churches universally considered § 8. Nothing will warrant us to separate from a Church as no Church but the want of something Essential to a Church § 9. The Essential or Constitutive parts of the Church Catholick or Vniversal are Christ the Head and all Christians as the Members § 10. All sincere and sanctified Christians are the members of the Church mystical invisible or regenerate And all Professors of sincere Christianity that is all Baptized persons not apostatised nor excommunicate are the members of the Church visible which is integrated of the particular Churches § 11. It is essential to particular political Churches that they be constituted of true Bishops or Pastors and of flocks of baptised or professed Christians Vnited in these Relations for holy communion in the worshipping of God and the promoting of the salvation of the several members § 12. It is essential to a true Bishop or Pastor of the Church to be in Office that is in Authority and Obligation appointed by Christ in subordination to him in the three parts of his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Kingly That is to teach the people to stand between them and God in Worship and to guide or or govern them by the Paternal exercise of the Keyes of his Church § 13. He that doth not nullifie or unchurch a Church may lawfully remove from one Church to another and make choice of the best and purest or that which is most suited to his own Edification if he be a Free-man § 14. But in case of such choice or personal removal the Interest of the whole Church or of Religion in common must be first taken into consideration by him that would rightly judge of the lawfulness of the fact § 15. If a Church which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have local communion with it though we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their communion § 16. True Heresie that is an Error contradictory to an essential Article of the Christian Faith if it be seriously and really held so that the contrary truth is not held seriously and really doth nullifie the Christianity of him that holdeth it and the Church-state of that Congregation which so professeth it But so doth not that fundamental Error which is held but in words through ignorance thinking it may consist with the contrary truth while that truth is not denyed but held majore fide so that we have reason to believe that if they did discern the contradiction they would rather forsake the error than the truth But of this more elsewhere CHAP. XIV Consectary 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 SO great and common is the Enmity against Christianity in the World yea against the life and reality of it in all the Hypocrites of the Visible Church that the guilty will not bear the detection of their guilt And therefore the Reader must excuse me for passing over the one half of that which should be said upon this subject because they that need it cannot suffer it § 1. Every true Christian preferreth the Interest of Christ and of Religion before all worldly Interest of his own or any others For he that setteth himself or any thing above his God hath indeed no God For if he be not Maximus Sapientissimus Optimus Greatest Wisest and Best he is not God And if he be not really taken as such he is not taken for their God And he that hath no God hath no Religion And he that hath no Religion is no Christian And if he call himself a Christian he is an Hypocrite § 2. Though we must preferre the Interest of Christ and the Church above the Interest of our Souls yet must we never set them in competition or opposition but in a due conjunction though not in an equality I adde this to warn men of some common dangerous errors in this point some think that if they do but feel themselves more moved with another Ministers preaching or more edified with another way of Discipline they may presently withdraw themselves to that Minister or Discipline without regard to the Unity and good of the Church where they are or whatever publick evil follow it Whereas he that seemeth to deny even to his Soul some present edification for the publick good shall finde that even this will turn to his greater edification And some on the contrary extream have got a conceit that till they can finde that they can be content to be damned for Christ if God would so have it they are not sincere Which is a case that no Christian should put to his own heart being such as God never put to any man All the tryall that God putteth us to is but whether we can deny this transitory life and the vanities
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
Wisdom of the Soul produced by his Light and Wisdom by which we know the difference between Good and Evil and our Reason is restored to its dominion over fleshly sense It is the Goodness of the Soul by which it is made suitable to the Eternal Good and fit to know him love him praise him serve him and enjoy him And therefore nothing lower than his Goodness can be its principal Cause 2. It subserveth the Interest of God in the World And recovereth the apostate Soul to himself It disposeth it to honour him love him and obey him It delivereth up the whole man to him as his own It casteth down all that rebelleth against him It casteth out all which was preferred before him It rejecteth all which standeth up against him and would seduce and tempt us from him And therefore it is certainly his work 3. Whose else should it be Would Satan or any evil cause produce so excellent an effect would the worst of beings do the best of works It is the best that is done in this lower world Would any enemy of God so much honour him and promote his interest and restore him his own would any enemy of mankind thus advance us and bring us up to a life of the highest honour and delights that we are capable of on earth and give us the hopes of life eternal And if any good Angel or other Cause should do it all reason will confess that they do it but as the Messengers or Instruments of God and as second causes and not as the first Cause for otherwise we should make them gods For my own part my Soul perceiveth that it is God himself that hath imprinted this his Image on me and hath hereby as it were written upon me his Name and Mark even HOLINESS TO THE LORD and I bear about me continually a Witness of Himself his Son and holy Spirit a Witness within me which is the Seal of God and the pledge of his love and the earnest of my heavenly inheritance And if our Sanctification be thus of GOD it is certainly his attestation to the truth of Christ and to his Gospel for 1. No man that knoweth the perfections of God will ever believe that he would bless a deceiver and a lie to be the means of the most holy and excellent work that ever was done in the world If Christ were a Deceiver his crime would be so execrable as would engage the Justice of God against him as he is the righteous Governour of the world And therefore he would not so highly honour him to be his chiefest instrument for the worlds Renovation He is not impotent to need such instruments he is not ignorant that he should so mistake in the choice of instruments he is not bad that he should love and use such Instruments and comply with their deceits These things are all so clear and sure that I cannot doubt of them 2. No man that knoweth the mercifulness of God and the Justice of his Government can believe that he would give up Mankind so remedilesly to seduction yea and be the principal causer of it himself For if besides Prophecie and a holy Doctrine and a multitude of famous Miracles a Deceiver might also be the great Renewer and Sanctifier of the world to bring man back to the obedience of God and to repair his Image on Mankind what possibility were there of our discovery of that deceit Or rather should we not say he were a blessed Deceiver that had deceived us from our sin and misery and brought back our straying souls to God 3. Nay when Christ fore-told men that he would send his Spirit to do all this work and would renew men for eternal life and thus be with us to the end of the world and when I see all this done I must needs believe that he that can send down a Sanctifying Spirit a Spirit of Life a Spirit of Power Light and Love to make his Doctrine in the mouths of his Ministers effectual to mens Regeneration and Sanctification is no less himself than God or certainly no less than his certain Administrator 4. What need I more to prove the Cause than the adequate effect When I find that Christ doth actually save me shall I question whether he be my Saviour When I find that he saveth thousands about me and offereth the same to others shall I doubt whether he be the Saviour of the world Sure he that healeth us all and that so wonderfully and so cheaply may well be called our Physician If he had promised only to save us I might have doubted whether he would perform it and consequently whether he be indeed the Saviour But when he performeth it on my self and performeth it on thousands round about me to doubt yet whether he be the Saviour when he actually saveth us is to be ignorant in despite of Reason and Experience I conclude therefore that the Spirit of Sanctification is the infallible Witness of the Verity of the Gospel and the Veracity of Jesus Christ 5. And I entreat all that read this further to observe the great use and advantage of this testimony above others in that it is continued from Generation to Generation and not as the gift and testimony of Miracles which continued plentifully but one Age and with diminution somewhat after this is Christ's witness to the end of the world in every Country and to every Soul yea and continually dwelling in them For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 He that is not able to examine the History which reporteth the Miracles to him may be able to find upon his Soul the Image of God imprinted by the Gospel and to know that the Gospel hath that Image in it self which it imprinteth upon others and that it cometh from God which leadeth men so directly unto God and that it is certainly his own means which he blesseth to so great and excellent ends 6. Note also that part of the work of the Spirit of God in succeeding the Doctrine of Jesus Christ doth consist in the effectual production of Faith it self for though the work be wrought by the Reasons of the Gospel and the Evidences of Truth yet is it also wrought by the Spirit of God concurring with that evidence and as the internal Efficient exciting the sluggish faculties to do their office and illustrating the understanding and fitting the will to entertain the truth for the difficulties are so great and the temptations to unbelief so subtil and violent and our own indisposedness through corruption the greatest impediment of all that the bare Word alone would not produce a belief of that lively vigorous nature as is necessary to its noble effects and ends without the internal co-operation of the Spirit So that Christ doth not only teach us the Christian Faith and Religion but doth give it us and work it in us by his Spirit And he that can do
or let fall some confutations of them in their Epistles to the Churches but there are no such things at all § 28. 10. Seeing it is so heinous a crime to divulge lies in multitudes of matters of fact to deceive the world into a blasphemy it is scarce possible that the consciences of so many persons of so much piety as their writings prove should never be touched with remorse for so great a villany either in life or at the hour of death and force some one of them to detect all the fraud if they had been guilty of it There is a natural conscience in the worst of men much more in the best which will at some time do its office and will constrain men to confess especially their heinous crimes and especially at the time of death when they see that their lies will serve their worldly interest no more and especially if they be men that indeed believe another life Now consider if the Apostles and Disciples had been deceivers how heinous a crime they had committed 1. To affirm a man to be God incarnate and to be the Saviour of the world on whom all men must trust their souls c. if he had been but a deceiver 2. To make such abundance of lies in open matters of fact 3. To frame hereupon a new Law to the world 4. To overthrow the Law of Moses which was there in force 5. To abuse the intellects of so many thousand persons with such untruths and to call the world to such a needless work as the Christian Religion would be if all this were false to put the world upon such tasks as forsaking all for Christ 6. To draw so many to lose their lives in martyrdom to attest a lie 7. To lose their own time and spend all their lives and labour upon so bad a work All these set together would prove them far worst than any thieves or murderers or traitors if they knew it to be a lie which they preached and attested There are now no men known on earth even in this age of villanies guilty of such a heinous crime as this And let any man that readeth the Apostles writings or considereth of their lives and deaths consider whether it be not next to an impossibility that so many and such persons should go on in such a way upon no greater motives of benefit than they expected nay through such labours reproach and sufferings and not one of them to the death be constrained by conscience to detect the fraud and undeceive the world § 29. 11. Lastly it is not possible that so many thousands of such persons as they presently converted should ever have been perswaded to believe their reports of these matters of fact in a time and place where it was so easie to disprove them if they had been false For 1. The understanding is not free as the will is but only participative in quantum à voluntate imperatur and a man cannot believe what he will nor deny belief to cogent evidence though against his will The Intellects acts as in themselves are necessitated and per modum naturae 2. And all these new converts had understandings which were naturally inclined to truth as truth and averse to falshood and they had all self-love and they all embraced now a doctrine which would expose them to suffering and calamity in the world And therefore both nature and interest obliged them to be at the labour of enquiring whether these things were so or not before they ran themselves into so great misery And the three thousand which Peter converted at his first Sermon must also take the shame of being murderers of their Saviour and for this they were pricked at the heart And Paul must be branded for a confessed persecutor and guilty of the bloud of Stephen And would so many men run themselves into all this for nothing to save the labour of an easie enquiry after some matters of publick fact How easily might they go and be satisfied whether Christ fed so many thousand twice miraculously and whether he healed such as he was said to heal who were then living and whether he raised Lazarus and others from death who were then living and whether the earth trembled and the vail of the Temple rent and the Sun was darkned at his death And whether the witnesses of his Resurrection were sufficient And if none of this had been true it would have turned them all from the belief of the Apostles to deride them Object Is not the unbelief of the most a greater reason against the Gospel than the belief of the smaller number is for it Answ No 1. Because it is a negative which they were for and many witnesses to a negative is not so good as a few to an affirmative 2. Most of them were kept from the very hearing of the Apostles which should inform them and excite them 3. Most men every where follow their Rulers and look to their worldly interest and never much mind or discuss such matters as tend to their salvation especially by the way of suffering and disgrace 4. We believe not that the unbelieving party did deny Christ's miracles but fathered them upon the devil therefore even their testimony is for Christ only they hired the Souldiers to say that Christ was stoln out of the Sepulchre while they slept of which they never brought any proof nor could possibly do it if asleep § 29. III. I have proved Christ's Miracles to be 1. Credible by the highest humane faith 2. Certain by natural evidence there being a natural impossibility that the testimonies should be false 3. I am next to prove that they are certain by supernatural evidence which is the same with natural evidence as in the effect but is called supernatural from the way of causing it § 30. The same works of the SPIRIT inherent concomitant and subsequent were the infallible proof of the truth of the Disciples testimony of Christ his Person Miracles and Doctrine § 31. I. They were persons of holy lives and holiness is the lively impress or constitution of their doctrine now visible in their writings What was before said of the Doctrine of Christ himself is true of theirs And as the Kings Coyn is known by his Image and Superscription or rather as an unimitable author is known by his Writings for matter method and style even so is Gods Spirit known in them and in their doctrine § 32. II. Their miraculous gifts and works were so evident and so many and uncontrolled as amount to an infallible proof that Gods are his Witness in the World and sheweth the most infallible proof of his assertions § 33. 1. Their gifts and miracles were many in kinde as their sudden illumination when the Spirit fell upon them and knowing that which they were ignorant of before Their prophesying and speaking in languages never before learn'd by them and interpreting such prophesies and languages their dispossessing
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
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
apprehend or is apprehended by another § 47. 12. Most men think it the wisest way because it is the easiest to be at a venture of the Religion of the King and the Countrey where they live and to do as the most about them do which is seldom best § 48. 13. Men are grown strangers to themselves and know not what man is nor what is a reasonable Soul but have so abused their higher faculties that they are grown ignorant of their dignity and use and know not that in themselves which should help their Faith § 49. 14. Men are grown so bad and false and prone to lying themselves that it maketh them the more incredulous of God and man as judging of others by themselves § 50. 15. The cares of the Body and World do so take up the mindes of men that they cannot afford the matters of God and their salvation such retired serious thoughts as they do necessarily require § 51. 16. Too few have the happiness of judicious Guides who rightly discern the Methods and Evidences of the Gospel and tempt not men to unbelief by their mistaken grounds and unsound reasonings These are the Impediments and difficulties of Faith in the Persons themselves who should believe CHAP. X. The Intrinsecal Difficulties in the Christian Faith resolved Object I. THe Doctrine of the Trinity is not intelligible or credible Answ 1. Nothing at all in God can be comprehended or fully known by any creatures God were not God that is Perfect and Infinite if he were comprehensible by such Worms as we Nothing is so certainly known as God and yet nothing so imperfectly 2. The doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is so intelligible and credible and is so admirably apparent in its products in the methods of Nature and Morality that to a wise Observer it maketh Christianity much the more credible because it openeth more fully these excellent mysteries and methods It is intelligible and certain that MAN is made in the Image of God And that the noblest Creatures bear most of the impress of their Makers excellency And that the invisible Deity is here to be known by us as in the Glass of his visible works Of which the Rational or Intellectual Nature is the highest with which we are acquainted And it is most certain that in the Unity of mans Minde or Soul there is a Trinity of Essentialities or Primalities as Campanella calleth them that is such faculties as are so little distinct from the Essence of the Soul as such that Philosophers are not yet agreed whether they shall say it is realiter formaliter relativè vel denominatione extrinseca To pass by the three faculties of Vegetation sensation and intellection In the Soul as Intellectual there are the Essential faculties of Power executive or communicative ad extra Intellect and Will Posse Scire Velle And accordingly in morality or virtue there is in one New-creature or holy Nature wisdom goodness and ability or fortitude and promptitude to act according to them And in our Relation to things below us in the unity of our Dominion or superiority there is a Trinity of Relations viz. we are their Owners their Rulers according to their capacity and their End and Benefactors so that in the Unity of Gods Image upon man there is this natural moral and dominative Image and in the Natural the Trinity of Essential faculties and in the Moral the Trinity of holy Virtues and in the Dominative a Trinity of superiour Relations And though the further we go from the root the more darkness and dissimilitude appeareth to us yet it is strange to see even in the Body what Analogies there are to the Faculties of the Soul In the superior middle and inferior Regions And in them the natural vital and animal parts with the three sorts of Humours three sorts of Concoctions and three sorts of Spirits answerable thereto and admirably united with much more which a just Scheme would open to you And therefore seeing God is known to us by this his Image and in this Glass though we must not think that any thing in God is formally the same as it is in Man yet certainly we must judge that all this is eminently in God and that we have no fitter notions and names concerning his incomprehensible Perfections than what are borrowed from the Minde of man Therefore it is thus undenyable that GOD is in the Unity of his Eternal Infinite Essence a Trinity of Essentialities or Active Principles viz. POWER INTELLECT and WILL And in their HOLY Perfections they are Omnipotency Omniscience or Wisdom and Goodness And in his Relative Supremacy is contained this Trinity of Relations He is our OWNER our RECTOR and our CHIEF GOOD that is Our Benefactor and our end And as in Mans Soul the Posse Scire Velle are not three parts of the Soul it being the whole Soul quae potest quae intelligit quae vult and yet these three are not formaliter or how you will otherwise call the distinction the same Even so in GOD it is not one Part of God that hath POWER and another that hath UNDERSTANDING and another that hath WILL but the whole Deity is POWER the whole is UNDERSTANDING and the whole is WILL The whole is Omnipotency the whole is Wisdom and the whole is Goodness the Fountain of that which in man is called Holiness or Moral Goodness And yet formally to understand is not to will and to will is not to be able to execute If you say what is all this to the Trinity of Hypostases or persons I answer Either the three Subsistences in the Trinity are the same with the Potentia Intellectus and Voluntas in the Divine Essence or not If they are the same there is nothing at all intelligible incredible or uncertain in it For natural Reason knoweth that there is all these eminently in God And whoever will think that any humane language can speak of him must confess that his Omnipotence Wisdom and Goodness his Power Intellect and Will must be thus to mans apprehension distinguished Otherwise we must say nothing at all of God or say that his power is his willing and his willing is his knowing and that he willeth all the sin which he knoweth and all that he can do which language will at best signifie nothing to any man And it is to be noted that our Saviour in his Eternal subsistence is called in Scripture The WISDOM of God or his internal Word and in his Operations in the Creation he is called The Word of God as operative or efficient and in his Incarnation he is called The Son of God Though these terms be not alwayes and only thus used yet usually they are The Words of an ancient godly Writer before cited are considerable Potho Prumensis de statu domus Dei lib. 1. p. 567. in Biblioth Patr. T. 9. Tria sunt invisibilia Dei h. e. Potentia Sapientia
perfidious as cruel and contentious insomuch as among the Turkish Mahometans and the Indian Banians the wickedness of Christians is the grand cause that they abhor Christianity and it keepeth out your Religion from most Nations of the earth so that it is a proverb among them when any is suspected of treachery What do you think I am a Christian And Acosta witnesseth the like of the West-Indies Answ 1. Every man knoweth that the vulgar rabble who indeed are of no Religion will seem to be of the Religion which is most for their worldly advantage or else which their Ancestors and Custom have delivered to them And who can expect that such should live as Christians who are no Christians You may as well blame men because Images do not labour and are not learned wise and virtuous We never took all for Christians indeed who for carnal interest or custom or tradition take up the bare name and desire to be called Christians rebels may affect the name of loyal subjects and thieves and robbers the name of true and honest men Shall loyalty truth and honesty therefore be judged of by such as them Nothing can be more unrighteous than to judge of Christianity by those hypocrites whom Christ hath told us shall be condemned to the sorest punishment and whom he hateth above all sorts of sinners What if Julian Celsus Porphyry or any of these objectors should call themselves Christians and live in drunkenness cruelty perjury or deceit is it any reason that Christ should be reproached for their crimes Christianity is not a dead opinion or name but an active heavenly principle renewing and governing heart and life I have before shewed what Christianity is 2. In the Dominions of the Turks and other Infidel Princes the Christians by oppression are kept without the means of knowledge and so their ignorance hath caused them to degenerate for the greater part into a sensual sottish sort of people unlike to Christians And in the Dominions of the Moscovite tyranny hath set up a jealousie of the Gospel and suppressed Preaching for fear lest Preachers should injure the Emperour And in the West the usurpation and tyranny of the Papacy hath lock'd up the Scriptures from that people in an unknown tongue that they know no more what Christ saith than the Priest thinks meet to tell them lest they should be loosened from their dependance on the Roman Oracle And thus Ignorance with the most destroyeth Christianity and leaveth men but the shadow image and name For belief is an intellectual act and a sort of knowing and no man can believe really he knoweth not what If any Disciples in the School of Christ have met with such Teachers as think it their vertue and proficiency to be ignorant call not such Christians as know not what Christianity is and judge not of Christ's doctrine by them that never read or heard it or are not able to give you any good account of it But blessed be the Lord there are many thousand better Christians Object XIII But it is not the ignorant rabble only but many of your most zealous Professors of Christianity who have been as false as proud and turbulent and seditious as any others Answ 1. That the true genuine Christian is not so you may see past doubt by the doctrine and life of Christ and his Apostles And that there are thousands and millions of humble holy faithful Christians in the world is a truth which nothing but ignorance or malice can deny 2. Hypocrites are no true Christians what zeal soever they pretend There is a zeal for self and interest which is oft masked with the name of zeal for Christ It is not the seeming but the real Christian which we have to justifie 3. It is commonly a few young unexperienc'd novices which are tempted into disorders But Christ will bring them to repentance for all before he will forgive and save them Look into the Scripture and see whether it do not disown and contradict every fault both great and small which ever you knew any Christian commit If it do as visibly it doth why must Christ be blamed for our faults when he is condemning them and reproving us and curing us of them Object XIV The greater part of the world is against Christianity Heathens and Infidels are the far greater part of the earth and the greatest Princes and learnedst Philosophers have been and are on the other side Answ 1. The greater number of the world are not Kings nor Philosophers nor wise nor good men and yet that is no disparagement to Kings or learned or good men 2. The most of the world do not know what Christianity is nor ever heard the reasons of it and therefore no wonder if they are not Christians And if the most of the world be ignorant and carnal and such as have subjected their reason to their lusts no wonder if they are not wise 3. There is no where in the world so much learning as among the Christians experience puts that past dispute with those that have any true knowledge of the world Mahomitanism cannot endure the light of learning and therefore doth suppress or sleight it The old Greeks and Romans had much learning which did but prepare for the reception of Christianity at whose service it hath continued ever since But barbarous ignorance hath over spread almost all the rest of the world even the learning of the Chinenses and the Pythagoreans of the East is but childishness and dotage in comparison of the learning of the present Christians Object XV. For all that you say when we hear subtil arguings against Christianity it staggereth us and we are not able to confute them Answ That is indeed the common case of tempted men their own weakness and ignorance is their enemies strength But your ignorance should be lamented and not the Christian cause accused it is a dishonour to your selves but it is none to Christ Do your duty and you may be more capable of discerning the evidence of truth Object XVI But the sufferings which attend Christianity are so great that we cannot bear them in most places it is persecuted by Princes and Magistrates and it restraineth us from our pleasures and putteth us upon an ungrateful troublesome life and we are not souls that have no bodies and therefore cannot sleight these things Answ But you have souls that were made to rule your bodies and are more worthy and durable than they and were your souls such as reason telleth you they should be no life on earth would be so delectable to you as that which you account so troublesome And if you will chuse things perishing for your portion be content with the momentary pleasures of a dream you must patiently undergo the fruits of such a foolish choice And if eternal glory will not compensate what ever you can lose by the wrath of man or by the crossing of your fleshly minds you
must give light to Christianity and prepare men to receive it And they think to know what is in Heaven before they will learn what they are themselves and what it is to be a man Cond 4. Get a true Anatomy Analysis or Description of Christianity in your minds for if you know not the true nature of it first you will be lamentably disadvantaged in enquiring into the truth of it For Christianity well understood in the quiddity will illustrate the mind with such a winning beauty as will make us meet its evidence half-way and will do much to convince us by its proper light Cond 5. When you have got the true method of the Christian doctrine or Analysis of faith begin at the Essentials or primitive truths and proceed in order according to the dependencies of truths and do not begin at the latter end nor study the conclusion before the premises Cond 6. Yet look on the whole scheme or frame of causes and evidences and take them entirely and conjunct and not as peevish factious men who in splenish zeal against another sect reject and vilifie the evidence which they plead This is the Devils gain by the raising of sects and contentions in the Church he will engage a Papist for the meer interest of his sect to speak lightly of the Scripture and the Spirit and many Protestants in meer opposition to the Papists to sleight Tradition and the testimony of the Church denying it its proper authority and use As if in the setting of a Watch or Clock one would be for one wheel and another for another and each in peevishness cast away that which another would make use of when it will never go true without them all Faction and contentions are deadly enemies to truth Cond 7. Mark well the suitableness of the remedy to the disease that is of Christianity to the depraved state of man and mark well the lamentable effects of that universal depravation that your experience may tell you how unquestionable it is Cond 8. Mark well how connaturally Christianity doth relish with holy souls and how well it suiteth with honest principles and hearts so that the better any man is the better it pleaseth him And how potently all debauchery villany and vice befriendeth the cause of Atheists and unbelievers Cond 9. Take a considerate just survey of the common enmity against Christianity and Holiness in all the wicked of the world and the notorious war which is every where managed between Christ and the Devil and their several followers that you may know Christ partly by his enemies Cond 10. Impartially mark the effects of Christian doctrine where ever it is sincerely entertain'd and see what Religion maketh the best men and judge not of serious Christians at a distance by false reports of ignorant or malicious adversaries And then you will see that Christ is actually the Saviour of souls Cond 11. Be not liars your selves lest it dispose you to think all others to be liars and to judge of the words of others by your own Cond 12. Be-think you truly what persons you should be your selves and what lives you should live if you did not believe the Christian doctrine or if you doe not believe it mark what effect your unbelief hath on your lives For my own part I am assured if it were not for the Christian doctrine my heart and life would be much worse than it is though I had read Epictetus Arrian Plato Plotinus Jamblichus Proclus Seneca Cicero Plutarch every word and those few of my neighbourhood who have fallen off to infidelity have at once fallen to debauchery and abuse of their nearest relations and differed as much in their lives from what they were before in their profession of Christianity though unsound as a leprous body differeth from one in comeliness and health Cond 13. Be well acquainted if possible with Church-History that you may understand by what Tradition Christianity hath descended to us For he that knoweth nothing but what he hath seen or receiveth a Bible or the Creed without knowing any further whence and which way it cometh to us is greatly disadvantaged as to the reception of the faith Cond 14. In all your reading of the holy Scriptures allow still for your ignorance in the languages proverbs customs and circumstances which are needful to the understanding of particular Texts and when difficulties stop you be sure that no such ignorance remain the cause He that will but read Brugensis Grotius Hammond and many other that open such phrases and circumstances with Topographers and Bochartus and such others as write of the Animals Utensils and other circumstances of those times will see what gross errors the opening of some one word or phrase may deliver the Reader from Cond 15. Vnderstand what excellencies and perfections they be which the Spirit of God intended to adorn the holy Scriptures with and also what sort of humane imperfections are consistent with these its proper perfections that so false expectations may not tempt you into unbelief It seduceth many to infidelity to imagine that if Scripture be the word of God it must needs be most perfect in every accident and mode which were never intended to be part of its perfection Whereas God did purposely make use of those men and of that style and manner of expression which was defective in some points of natural excellency that so the supernatural excellency might be the more apparent As Christ cured the blind with clay and spittle and David slew Goliah with a sling The excellency of the means must be estimated by its aptitude to its end Cond 16. If you see the evidences of the truth of Christianity in the whole let that suffice you for the belief of the several parts when you see not the true answer to particular exceptions If you see it soundly proved that Christ is the Messenger of the Father and that his word is true and that the holy Scripture is his word this is enough to quiet any sober mind when it cannot confute every particular objection or else no man should ever hold fast any thing in the world if he must let all go after the fullest proof upon every exception which he cannot answer The inference is sure If the whole be true the parts are true Cond 17. Observe well the many effects of Angels ministration and the evidences of a communion between us and the spirits of the unseen world for this will much facilitate your belief Cond 18. Over-look not the plain evidences of the Apparitions Witches and wonderful events which fall out in the times and places where you live and what reflections they have upon the Christian cause Cond 19. Observe well the notable answers of Prayers in matters internal and external in others and in your selves Cond 20. Be well studied at home about the capacity use and tendency of all your faculties and you will find that your very nature pointeth you up to