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A45360
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The sacred method of saving humane souls by Jesus Christ by Henry Hallywell ...
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Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?
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1677
(1677)
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Wing H466; ESTC R13918
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47,634
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128
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not opposed to Evangelical but to Thetical or Positive But to give some further light to this business we may consider these two things 1. That the sincere Practice of Morality is a part of the Condition required of us under the Gospel in order to our Justification For unless the Practice of Moral Virtue be no part of the Divine Will revealed to Us in the Gospel it must necessarily follow that so far as it is made a Condition of the Covenant of the Gospel so far it is required in order to the Justification and Acceptation of our Persons before God For though we are said in Scripture to be justified by Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ yet we are not to understand by this an empty bare and naked Faith but such a Faith as is perfected and consummated by Love which the Apostle Saint James expresses by Works that is such a Faith as is not meerly Notional and inactive but productive in the Soul of a New and sincere Obedience And what more frequent Instances does the Scripture bring of our Faithful Conformity to the Will of God than in our Constant Exercise and Practice of Moral Virtue Insomuch that Saint Paul sayes that those who neglect the sincere observance of Morality and Virtue will easily be induced to turn Hereticks and deny the Faith Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack So indispensably necessary is a Virtuous Conversation to our Participation of the Blessed Life and Nature of GOD that no Man can be understood to be a Partaker of the Divine Nature who does not live soberly righteously and godly in the World For what sign does he give of a Spirit renewed and changed into the Compassionate Nature of the Lord Jesus who can willingly pain and grieve and afflict his Brother What Specimen does he produce of a sincere Conformity to the Eternal Laws of Justice and Righteousness who can knowingly and wittingly over-reach and defraud his Neighbour Or what Evidence does he offer of a Mind desirous to be renewed into a state of Angelical Purity and Holiness who makes it his business and seeks for all Occasions to gratifie his Carnal Appetite in the full enjoyment of all Sensual Pleasures that may be had without manifest Diseases Or is it possible to conceive the Life and Nature of GOD that Life of Universal Holiness and Purity Justice and Goodness without the Exercise of these and such like Virtues 2. That the Maturity and Ripeness of Religion consists in having a sensible Discernment of Good and Evil in a Moral sense The full knowledge of the Mysteries of Christianity as the Author to the Hebrews tells Us belongs to them that are of full age that is such as are arrived to the Perfection and Maturity of Religion and these Persons he describes in the next words to be such as have a Vital relish and sensible Discernment of good and evil Who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil That there are Natural Differences between good and evil is as evident and apparent as the Difference between health and sickness For as health is nothing but the right and Natural Constitution of all the Parts of the Body and Sickness the Oppression Distortion and Deviation from it So is it in the Soul of Man It s true and proper Nature is that healthful Temper and Constitution wherein God at first Created it But now Sin and Evil is a forcing it into a Preternatural State the driving it into a Disease and Distemper and the putting its Powers and Faculties into Jarring and Discord And that these Differences are nothing but the Vital relishes and sensations of the Soul of Man in that double Capacity and Resolution of Rational and Animal or in the Sacred Dialect of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward and outward Man or the Flesh and Spirit I think is as evident to any Considering and Judicious Person Now this Maturity and Ripeness of Religion discovers it self 1. In a particular knowledge of the Difference between Good and Evil so as to be able to distinguish what is from the Flesh and Animal and what from the Spirit and Rational Life 2. In a ready Application of this to all the Passages of our Lives For that Blindness of mind the Apostle speaks of to which the Gentiles as a just Punishment of their former carelesness were given up does fully express the Necessity of this Discriminative Sense and Discerning between Good and Evil. For when once the Criterion or Perceptive Faculty has lost its Tenderness and Sensibility and the Mind becomes Reprobate then Darkness and Light Good and Evil Bitter and Sweet are all one Then it is as in the above mentioned place Men are dedolent and past feeling and having no other Law but that of the Corporeal Life become insatiable in Impiety and work Wickedness with greediness which surely as it is the most deplorable condition the Soul of Man can fall into so ought most carefully to be avoided by endeavouring after a particular Distinction and clear knowledge of the Notices Emanations and Suggestions of the Flesh and Spirit And as this inward Sense is not to be stifled so neither to remain useless and idle but to extend it self and have an Influence upon all our Actions It must be fanned and kept alive by sincere Devotion and a constant and Habitual Practice of Virtue by which at length it will become a Powerful and Vital Principle begetting in us a true relish of Righteousness and Holiness that we may not only talk and maintain an Artificial and Mechanical Religion consisting of Words or the running the same Circle of outward Performances and Duties but may be really regenerated and formed into a new Nature and act out of choice and from the innate Loveliness and Beautifulness of Virtue For by bringing our Actions to this Test and Rule and applying them to the Natural Difference and Distinction of Good and Evil it will keep us from all deliberate Violations of the Laws and Prescriptions of Holiness By this Wickedness and Sin will appear in its Natural Dress and Genuine Colours and its Ugliness and Deformity be rendred so manifest that our Wills and Affections will not easily be drawn into a Compliance with it and the various Passages of our Lives freed and discharged from the least Appearance of Evil. FINIS BOOKS Printed for and sold by Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in S. Paul's Churchyard DR More 's Reply to a late Answer to his Antidote against Idolatry with the Appendix 8 o. H. Mori Opera Theologica Fol. Spenceri dissertatio de Vrim Thummim 8 o. Frederici Lossii Observationes Medicae Octavo Speed's Epigrammata Juvenilia in 4 Partes divisa Encomia Seria Satyras Jocosa Octavo Doctor William Smith's Unjust Man's Doom Octavo Two Sermons at the Assizes in Suffolk Oct. Two Sermons at Norwich May 3. and May 29. 1676. Quarto Mr. Hallywell's Discourse of the Excellency of Christianity Oct. Account of Familism as it is revived and propagated by the Quakers Oct. Some Opinions of Mr. Hobbes considered in a second Dialogue between Philautus and Timothy Oct. Breerwood's Enquiries into the Diversities of Languages Oct. Mr. Allen's Mystery of Iniquity unfolded or the false Apostles and Authors of Popery compared c. Oct. Animadversions on Mr. Ferguson about Justification Oct. Friendly Address to the Nonconformists beginning with the Anabaptists 8 o. Mr. Lamb's stop to the course of Separation Oct. Sherlock's Discourse of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Octavo Defence and Continuation of the Discourse c. Octavo Answer to a scandalous Pamphlet entituled a Dialogue between Satan and Sherlock Quarto Dr. Worthington's Great Duty of Self-resignation to the Divine Will Oct. Mr. Hotchkis Discourse of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to Us and our Sins to Him Oct. Gage's Survey of the West Indies 8 o. Dr. Goodall's Vindication of the Colledge of Physicians Oct. Smith's Pourtract of old Age. Oct. Webster's History of Metals Quar. Dr. More 's Remarques upon two late Ingenious Discourses the one an Essay of the Gravitation and Non-gravitation of fluid Bodies the other Observations touching the Torricellian experiment 8 o. Sydenham's Observationes Medicae 8 o. An Account of Mr. Ferguson's Common-Place-Book in two Letters between Mr. Sherlock and Mr. Glanvil Quar. Dr. Grew's Comparative Anatomy of Trunks together with an Account of their Vegetation grounded thereupon Octavo THE END Rev. 3.14 Jam. 3.14 15. 1 Tim. 3.16 Col. 1.26 1 Cor. 2.7 1 Joh. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 3.2 4. Joh. 11.52 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.10 Gen. 22.12 1 Cor. 1.24 1 Cor. 2.7 1 Cor. 2.6 1 Cor. 2.14 1 Pet. 1.12 Isai 63.15 * Sine hoc holocausto poterat Deus tantum condonasse peccatum sed facilitas veniae laxaret habenas peccatis effrenibus quae etiam Christi vix cohibent passiones quae vix sceleratos animos à voluptatum faece avellunt Cyprian sive Author libri de Cardinal Christi Oper. Serm. 14. Sic Zanch. lib. 2 de Incarnat c. 3. q. 1. Etsi verò Deus servare nos poterat solo suo Imperio peccata simpliciter ex suâ misericordiâ condonando noluit tamen Phil. 2.6 7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.23 Mar. 14.33 Mat. 26.38 Luk. 9.51 Joh. 18.5 Mat. 11.28 1 Joh. 5.3 Princ. of Nat. Rel. lib. 1. c. 3. Ezek. 33.11 Mr. Mede 2 Cor. 5.19 Luk. 1.74 1 Tim. 4.10 1 Tim. 2.4 Heb. 2.9 Joh. 3.17 lib. 6. contr Cels p. 315 lib. 4. c. 76. Luk. 24.47 Act. 3.19 1 Joh. 2.1 1 Cor. 1.21 Exod. 20.19 1 Joh. 3.16 Gen. 3.15 Heb. 4.15 Heb 2.16 17 18. Gen. 21.17 Vid. Deut. 4.33.36 Dr. Lightfoot 2 Pet. 1.16 17. Joh. 3.2 Mat. 11.21 Acts 17. Joh. 4.18 v. 42. Joh 15.22 24. Joh. 20.29 Rom. 1.4 Ch. 2.3 4. Joh. 16.8 9 10. Luk. 24.25 Act. 10.43 See Dr. More 's Enchiridion Ethicum Eph. 1.11 Hos 11.4 Luk. 7.30 Joh. 12.37 Joh. 6.66 Mat. 23 37 Ezek. 24.13 vid. Isai 65.12 Mar. 6.5 6. Act. 7.51 Phil. 2.12 13. 2 Cor. 6.1 1 Cor. 3.9 Rom. 1.4 Eph. 1.20 Lib. 4. Epist 43. Joh. 5.29 Dr. Hammond 1 Tim. 1.19 Heb. 5.14 Eph. 4.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.19
desperateness of the Disease magnifies the skill of the Physician so the fatal and universal Degeneracy of the Sons of Men commends the transcendent love of God in their Recovery and Redemption Greater love than this can no Man show than to lay down his Life for his Friend but herein has God commended his love to us in that while we were Enemies to God and righteousness and strangers to his life Christ dyed for us Such is that Testimony and Witness which our Saviour bears to Divine Love and Goodness every word of which is strangely emphatical So in such a wonderful and transcendent manner God the great Lord of all Beings who stands not in need of any of his Creatures but is Infinite Fulness and Happiness to Himself loved first and without any Motive or Occasion of this love given from us herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us the World not only the particular Nation of the Jews with whom formerly he entred into Covenant but the whole Race of Mankind Christ becoming a Propitiation for our sins says the Apostle the best Interpreter of himself 1 Joh. 2.2 and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World that he gave delivered unto Death freely and that upon no other Motive or Invitation but that of his own Eternal Goodness and Love his only begotten Son not a Servant or an Angel not an adopted but his own Natural Son that Son who is one with himself and in whom he is well pleased as the obedience of Abraham was more grateful to God when he with-held not his Son his only Son from him The whole Gospel is a Design and Contrivance of Infinite Love and Goodness a palpable Pledge and Assurance of which was the sending of Jesus Christ from Heaven He that spared not his own Son says the Apostle as if he had said The delivering up of our Lord Jesus Christ to be an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of Men is so high a Demonstration of Infinite Love that it begets in us a confident Assurance and full Perswasion that the same goodness will not fail of bestowing upon us whatever may possibly contribute to our everlasting Happiness as far as our Natures are capable of The summe of all is this that to Infinite Goodness we owe not only the Production but the continual Preservation of our Beings not only the freeing us from a certain Misery and a just and deserved Punishment but the receiving us into grace and favour and investing us with a Happiness much bigger than our hopes and expectations even the Eternal enjoyment of Himself in Heaven And that this should be wrought and effected by Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God who left the Sacred Mansions of Heaven and veiled his Glory under a clould of Flesh and Blood and while he lived upon Earth endured the contradictions of sinners the bitter reproaches of vile and ungodly Men and at last suffered an Ignominious and accursed Death upon the Cross What is it but an everlasting Monument of Divine Goodness such a high Demonstration of Infinite Love as may well make us cry out with wonder and amazement Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us 2. Secondly in the Frame and Mystery of the Gospel there is a clear Demonstration of Infinite Wisdome To them who are called says the Apostle Christ the Power and the Wisdom of God i. e. Though the preaching of the Gospel were a stumbling block to the Jews and accounted but foolishness by the Greeks the one expecting their Messiah to be an earthly Prince and dreaming of nothing but worldly Felicity and the other counting it not worth the hearing because not agreeing with the Principles of that vain Philosophy they had addicted themselves to yet to those who were docible tractable and obedient there appeared an Infinite Wisdome and an Eternal Understanding they could not look into it but they beheld as the same Apostle speaks the mysterious and recondite wisdome of God which he ordained before the World that is whose sacred plot and contrivance was not then framed or laid when it was first promulgated and manifested to the World but lay hid in the bosome of an Infinite Understanding from all Eternity 'T is true the loveliness and glory of this great Wisdome appears not so evidently to all partly from their own carelesness and negligence in not arriving to that measure and degree of Holiness which may fit and qualifie them for a clear discerning of it Hence the Apostle says that he speaks wisdome among them that are perfect such as were well grown in the practice of the Offices and Duties of Christianity such as had senses exercised to discern good and evil Heb. 5.14 and partly through the great Corruption Depravity and Degeneracy of the minds of others which put them into an utter Incapacity and Impossibility while they remain such of understanding Divine and Heavenly Truths for the natural animal or sensual man receives not the things of the spirit of God But where these Impediments are removed and the spirits of Men aptly disposed for the Reception of so great a Blessing such Persons behold with enravishment and joy the exact strokes and perfect lineaments of an Eternal Wisdome Which Wisdome appears 1. In the Admirableness of the Contrivance of the Gospel Christianity carries with it such evident Proofs of an Incomprehensible Wisdome that those sagacious Creatures the Angels imploy themselves in searching into it And surely it must needs be an admirable piece of Wisdome and a wonderful Contrivance that must draw those Blessed Creatures to look into it Now the Wonderfulness and Admirableness of the Evangelical Plot and Contrivance for the Salvation of Humane Souls shews it self 1. In finding out a way whereby God might demonstrate both his just and implacable hatred of sin and his exuberant Love and Goodness in saving Men. Sin is no part of God's Creation nor any thing of the true Nature of the Soul but an extraneous and adventitious Being brought first into the World by the Devil the great Enemy of Mankind It is the Destruction and Ruine of the Workmanship of God's own hands and being so infinitely contrary to his Sacred Life and Nature it is no wonder if he bear an irreconcileable hatred against it and seek by all means the driving it quite out of the World But although God by reason of the Infinite Purity and Holiness of his Nature could not look with any favourable eye upon sin yet his Almighty Love pitied his Creatures and his bowels yerned over them being as it were grieved and troubled at the heart that they should be miserable for ever Wherefore God through his Eternal Wisdome resolved upon a course which should both effectually extirpate and eradicate sin and evil out of the World and yet reduce those strayed souls which through it had revolted from his blessed