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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34877	A supplement to Knowledge and practice wherein the main things necessary to be known and believed in order to salvation are more fully explained, and several new directions given for the promoting of real holiness both of heart and life : to which is added a serious disswasive from some of the reigning and customary sins of the times, viz. swearing, lying, pride, gluttony, drunkenness, uncleanness, discontent, covetousness and earthly-mindedness, anger and malice, idleness / by Samuel Cradock ... useful for the instruction of private families.	Cradock, Samuel, 1621?-1706.	1679 (1679)	Wing C6756; ESTC R15332	329,893	408

Officers of the Church he doth qualifie and fit men with requisite gifts for their stated ordinary ministerial work which is to explain and apply the foresaid Scriptures and administer the Sacraments and guide and govern the Flock and doth assist them in a discharge of their Office 4. This same blessed Spirit is Christs advocate with men and does by the word illuminate their minds and sanctifie and renew their wills and draws them to Christ to rest on his great propitiation 5. This same holy Spirit also assisteth the Sanctified in the exercise of Grace given them as in the exercise of Repentance Faith Obedience and Selfdenial He also directs and governs their conversation inabling them to walk watchfully that they may not dishonour God nor their holy profession For if we live in the Spirit being quickned by his renovation we must also walk in the Spirit following his directions and if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfill the lusts of the Flesh And as many as are thus led by the Spirit they are the Children of God Gal. 5.25 6. He teacheth us to pray and guides us and directs us in our prayers and devotions Zach. 12.10 Rom. 8.26 27. and so is said to make intercession for us by teaching us how to pray and intercede for our selves For which intercession among other things he hath the name of a Paraclete given him by Christ Joh. 14.16 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive Advocati officium est Clienti suggerere utilia ad ea hortari eum animare atque confi●mare coram judice ejus causam agere pro eo intercedere 7. We are said to be sealed by this holy Spirit As a mans Seal does signifie the thing sealed to be his own so the Spirit of Holiness in us is God's Seal upon us signifying that we are His Eph. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of Redemption 8. This holy Spirit is the earnest or first fruits to us of eternal life The Spirit is given to us by God as the earnest of the glory which he will give us To whomsoever he giveth the Spirit of Faith Love Holiness he gives the earnest of eternal life 9. This Spirit doth also witness or evidence to true Converts that they are the Children of God and so is called the spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 16. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And this he doth evidence to us several wayes 1. By shewing or manifesting to us the Grace which he hath given us 2. By shewing the certainty of the Promise made to all those who have such Grace 3. By helping us from those Graces and those Promises to conclude with confidence that we are the Children of God And then he comforts us and helps us to rejoyce in what we do or suffer for Christ in the hope of the glory that we shall be partakers of Thus much concerning the Doctrine of the Spirit we come now to consider the duties which we owe to him Which are these 1. We ought to obey and follow his blessed motions Yet here we must take heed that we do not mistake the Spirit of God and his motions and instead of them follow the motions of Satan or of our own Passions or Pride or fleshly wisdom By these marks the Spirit of God may be known 1. The Spirit of God infuses into us Heavenly wisdom to mind the securing our peace with God and our title to the Kingdom of Heaven in the 1. place 2. He is a Spirit of Love his motions are for love and doing good 3. He is a Spirit of Concord and moves Believers to unity and disswades them from divisions among themselves or to joyn in carnal confederacies with the wicked see 1 Cor. 12.25 Eph. 4.3 4 5. 4. He is a Spirit that teaches Humility and Self-denial making us little in our own eyes 5. He is a Spirit that teaches Meekness Patience and Forbearance not Boisterousness Contention Reviling or Revenge 6. He is a Spirit that teacheth zeal for God not a furious destroying zeal but a zeal against known sin and for known truth and known duty 7. He is a Spirit that teacheth mortification and crucifying of our lusts and subduing of sensuality 8. He is a Spirit that doth not contradict the Doctrine of Christ delivered in the holy Scripture but moveth us to endevour to conform our selves thereunto Isa 8.20 9. The motions of this blessed Spirit do alwayes tend to our good and to drive us to God and to obey his holy Will and Commandments and never to transgress any of his precepts 2. We must take heed of quenching the Spirit 1 Thes 5.19 that is the gifts and graces of the Spirit in our selves but must labour to stir them up by prayer and the due exercise of them 3. We must take heed of grieving this blessed Spirit Eph. 4.30 Not that he can properly be grieved but he is said to be grieved when we do that which in it self is apt to grieve him if he were capable thereof and which provokes him to do that which grieved persons use to do namely to withdraw his gracious and comforting presence 4. We must not neglect the means the Spirit hath appointed us to use for our improvement in Sanctification We must attend upon him and expect him in his own ways and not in wayes wherein he useth not to go 5. We must do most when this blessed Spirit helps us most If he extraordinarily help us at any time in prayer we should not break off so soon as at other times 6. We must be very thankful for the assistances he is pleased at any time to afford us And above all if he hath convinced us of the evil and danger of our sins hath wrought in our hearts true Godly sorrow and contrition for them and a real hatred and loathing of them and hath drawn our hearts to Christ Jesus to seek pardon and reconciliation with God in and through his merits and Intercession and hath begun a work of Sanctification in us then we ought to admire and to be for ever thankful for the free and efficacious grace of this Holy Spirit SECT II. Of the Holy Catholick Church The Holy Catholick Church THat which we are bound to believe concerning the Holy Catholick Church is this viz. that Christ hath a Church upon the earth which for the latitude and extent thereof may be called Catholick and for the Piety of the Professors thereof may be called Holy In the treating of which I shall speak 1. Of the name 2. Of the nature of the Church 3. Of the distinctions of it 4. Of the notes of it 1. Of the name Church is a name not found in all the writings of the Old Testament in which the body

unto Holiness 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The end of Christs gathering them out of the World to be his people is that they may be holy and a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works Thus Moses speaking of the Congregation of Israel Deut. 7.6 Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God That is they were so by destination and engagement though many of them were not really so● 2. The Church may be called holy because it trains up people in the wayes of holiness and godliness 3. It may be called holy in respect though not of the greater yet of the better part of it whom God hath sanctified by the graces of his holy Spirit The other Attribute of the Church is Catholick Catholick as it is not in the Scriptures so was it not anciently in the Creed but inserted by the Fathers of the Constantinopolitan Council It signifies General or Vniversal Now the Church is called Catholick 1. In respect of place It being not now shut up in the narrow bounds of Judea but diffused through the World 2. In respect of persons All sorts of persons being promiscuously called to Faith in Christ Neither Jew nor Gentile neither bond nor free being excluded Gal. 3.28 3. In respect of times It comprehending all the Faithful that have been in all times and ages ever since the giving of the first promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head And to our Saviours dayes and since then to the age in which we live and is to contitinue from hence by a continual accession to the end of the world Nay it doth not only include that part of the Church is now militant on earth but that also which is triumphant in Heaven Both they with us and we with them make one body mystical whereof Christ is the Head And all together together with the antient Patriarches and other holy men of God which lived under the Law do make up that one glorious Church which is called in the Scriptures the general Assembly the Church of the first born whose names are written in the Heavens Heb. 12.23 Catholick then the Church may be called in regard of extent whether we consider time place or persons 4. In respect of Doctrine because it maintains the Catholick Doctrine quae semper quae ubique quae abomnibus credita est Adversus Haereses c. 3 as Lirinensis d sayes which hath allwayes and in all places by all sorts of real Christians been received as Orthodox Catholick in this sence is the same with Orthodox and a Catholick Christian the same with a true professor A private Christian may be called Catholick in this sense And thus the Fathers of the purest times made use of this word Catholick to distinguish themselves from Hereticks according to that famous saying of Pacianus Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus cognomen Christian saith he is my name and Catholick my sir-name By the one I am known from Infidels by the other from Hereticks And so long as the main body of Christians retained the form of wholsom words and kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace it served fitly for a distinctive mark to know an Orthodox Professor from an Heretical But when the main body of the Church was once torn in pieces and every leading faction would be thought the true Church of Christ they took to themselves the name of Catholicks also And thus our great Masters in the Church of Rome have appropriated to themselves the name of catholicks accounting all men Hereticks that differ from them and do not hold communion with them in their errors And then they defend themselves by the name of Catholicks from having dealt unjustly with their fellow Christians men every way more Orthodox than themselves But let them talk what they will the Church which is truly Catholick containeth within it all those Congregations which are truly the Churches of Christ And all persons whatsoever who are true Christians belong to it So that whosoever is not of the Catholick Church cannot be of the true Church out of which ordinarily there is no Salvation 3. I come now to the distinctions of the Church 1. The Church of Christ may be considered either as Militant or Triumphant The Church Militant is that company of Christians here on earth who are in warfare warring against Satan the World and the Flesh 2. The Church Triumphant are those Saints who having vanquished and overcome those adversaries do now reign and triumph in Heaven This distinction is founded upon Ephes 3.14 15. Where the Apostle sayes I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in heaven and earth is named The Family in Heaven is the Church Triumphant The Family on Earth the Church Militant of which the Apostle himself was one when he said 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith The Triumphant we may read of Rev. 7.9 After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white Robes and Palms in their hands Having thus premised this distinction of the Church Militant and Triumphant I come now to speak particularly of the Church Militant 1. Then we must know that the Churcrh Militant here on earth consists partly of such as are truly of it partly of such as only in respect of their outward profession belong to it As the Holy Ghost speaks Rev. 2.9 of some who professed themselves Jews I know the Blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan so we may say of some who profess themselves Christians that they are very far from being such in truth and reality For prophane persons and hypocrites are rather in the Church than of it The Militant Church is either visible or invisible The visible Church is a visible company of people professing the Gospel whether they do it in truth and sincerity or no. It doth consist of good and bad It is compared to a net cast into the Sea which gathered of every kind c. Matth. 13.47 And to a field wherein were both wheat and tares Matth. 13.24 And to a great house wherein are vessels of several sorts some to honour some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2.20 The invisible Church consists of such as truly are what they profess themselves to be It is called invisible because it is not visible to the eyes of men They can see the profession but whether it proceed from the heart or no they cannot see The Invisible Church therefore is hid in the visible and there is no more difference between them than between the whole and a part 3. The Church Militant is distinguished into Particular and Vniversal A particular

Church is a company professing the Faith in some particular place Thus we read of the seven Churches of Asia Rev. 1.7 that is Churches that were in seven Cities in Asia as appears verse 11. Yea we read of Churches in particular houses as in the house of Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16.5 and in the h●use of Nymphas Col. 4.15 The universal Church is the whole company of Believers that profess Faith in Christ throughout the world All Christians as Christians who profess and hold the essentials of Christianity are the Catholick or universal Church And all Congregations consisting of lawful Pastors and Christian people associated for personal communion in the worship of God and holy living are particular true Churches though they may also much differ in degrees of purity This is the universal Church as upon earth Otherwise as I said before the universal Church comprehends both the Saints on Earth and the Saints in Heaven The Church of Rome most absurdly affects to be called the Catholick Church yea Roman Catholick Cathotholick imports the universal Church and Roman but a particular The Church of Rome was once indeed an eminent part yet but a part of the Catholick or Vniversal Church But now she is so degenerate and corrupt that she is termed Babylon Rev. 1.7 And the people of God are commanded to come out of her Rev. 18.4 And I heard another voice from Heaven saying come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Did the Church of Rome in the Apostles dayes worship Images Did it pray to Saints Did it pray for the Dead Did it perform its Divine Worship in an unknown tongue Did it withhold the Cup from the Laity Was this the Primitive practice of the Church of Rome I suppose the Romanists themselves will not assert it We can make it appear that we hold the same Faith that was of old delivered to the Saints and that we have not departed farther from the Church of Rome than they have departed from this Faith and the truth of Christianity Yet the Papists notwithstanding use to ask us where was your Religion before Luther To which we answer wherever there were any true and real Christians before Luther among them was our Church This is the Church we profess our selves of And surely there were many more more Christians at that time in the world then those that were in the Cummunion of the Church of Rome 'T is true Christianity that makes any to be Christians and members of the Catholick Church it is not every inferiour truth that doth so neither doth every error cast a man out of it That Church then which comprehended all the true Christians in the World is the Church we were of before Luther We do not confine the Catholick Church to any Sect or Party Protestants we hold are the soundest part of this Church but not the whole Church All within the Communion of the Church of Rome that are true Christians we allow to be of this Church And the same we say of the Greeks Armenians Ethiopians Abyssines or any other professing Christianity And though the Papists talk much of Antiquity if they will try whether their Doctrine or ours be the sounder we are willing to appeal to Antiquity Let the eldest way of Religion carry it We are of a Religion that is not less then sixteen hundred years old For we hold the Doctrine delivered by Christ and his Apostles which they have shamefully departed from But the Papists farther ask us If their Church be not the true Church what is become of our Fore-fathers who died in the Communion of their Church We answer They might live and die in the Communion of that Church and yet be free from many of the gross errors in it And God might graciously pass by their ignorance and weakness who had not so great a light as we have to shew them the error of the Romish Church We do therefore in Charity think that some of our Ancestors formerly and some of the Papists at this day who hold and believe the main Articles of the Christian Faith and do live good lives according to their knowledge may be saved but not by their Popery but by their Christianity And thus much of the distinctions of the Church 4. I come now in the last place to speak of the notes of the Church which are these three 1. True and sound Doctrine preached 2. Right administration of the Sacraments For as those are more or less purely administred so the Church is more or less pure 3. Obedience to Christ and his Doctrine Discipline indeed is necessary for the preservation of the Church in purity of Doctrine and Manners yet it belongs not to the very being but to the well being of it But here a question may arise How is the Church said not to erre Answ 1. The whole doth not erre though some particular Church may 2. The Church doth not erre universally though in some points of Doctrine it may which are not essential or fundamental to Salvation Let us now consider what improvement we are to make of this Article 1. This shews us the admirable priviledge of every truly regenerate sanctified person who is most certainly a member of the true Catholick Church All true Christians are Catholicks in a better sense than the Romanists use that word But whosoever is wicked and prophane let them talk they are for the Church c. 't is manifest they are not members of Christs Holy Catholick Church 2. All that are true members of the Catholick Church should keep close to the Catholick Rule of Faith and Life which is the will of God revealed in the holy Scriptures 3. They should labour for a Catholick Spirit and Catholick affections which may incline them 1. To love all Christians as Christians for Christs sake though they may differ from them in some particulars A true Catholick Spirit is for union among all the People of God 2. To compassionate all real Christians in their sufferings and afflictions Rom. 12.15 16. 3. To pray earnestly for the prosperity of the Catholick Church and to be solicitous and much concerned touching the welfare thereof And all true members of the Catholick Chhurch may comfort themselves with this consideration that they have a share in the paayers of this Catholick or Vniversal Church now Militant upon the Earth SECT III. Of the Communion of Saints the Communion of Saints COncerning this Article we shall inquire 1. Who may truly be called Saints and wherein the true nature of Saintship doth consist and how the Saints are distinguished from others 2. Who are those persons with whom these Saints have Communion For the first 1. By the tenure of the Gospel we shall find that those are truly and properly Saints who being called with an holy calling have not been disobedient to it but are indued with a holy faith uniting them to

them for they know not what they do Eph. 3.14 For th●s cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 8.6 To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in Him Joh. 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 20.17 Jesus saith unto her Touch me not For I am not yet ascended to my Father Thirdly That Jesus Christ is God the Eternal Son of God and did prae-exist in the form or Essence of God having all the properties of the Deity before his Incarnation which was effected by voluntary actings of his own which could not be without a prae-existence in another Nature Let us consider the Divine Testimonies whereby this truth is confirmed and established Psal 45.6 Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever The Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter This is applied unto Christ Heb. 1.8 But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. Psal 102.25 26 27. Of old thou hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end This is declared by the Apostle to be meant of the Son of God Heb. 1.10 And Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth And the Heavens are the works of thine hands c. Prov. 8. from the ●2 to the 31. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was When there were no depths I was brought forth When there were no Fountains abounding with Water Before the Mountains were setled before the Hills was I brought forth * He is called the only begotten Son of God Joh. 1.14 Angels and Adam were the Sons of God by Creation The Worshippers of the true God are called the Sons of God by profession Gen. 6 1. All true Believers are his Children by Adoption Joh. 1.12 But Christ is the Son of God by Nature by Eternal Generation Whilst as yet he had not made the Earth nor the Fields nor the highest part of the dust of the World When he prepared the Heavens I was there When he set a compass upon the face of the Depth When he established the Clouds above When he strengthened the Fountains of the Deep When he gave to the Sea his Decree that the Waters should not pass his Commandment When he appointed the Foundations of the Earth Then I was by him as one brought up with him And I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him Isai 9.6 For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulder And his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellour The mighty God The everlasting Father The Prince of peace Jer. 23.5 6. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute Judgment and Justice in the Earth In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely And this is his Name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness Joh. 1. v. 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God v. 2. The same was in the beginning with God v. 3. All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made v. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth v. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 3.13 And no man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven Act. 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Rom. 9.5 Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Col. 1.15 Who is the Image of the invisible God the first born * As being from all Eternity begotten of the Father before any Creature was made or created and so Lord and Heir of all the Creatures as the First-born was among his Brethren Gen. 49.3 of every Creature v. 16. For by him were all things Created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him and for him v. 17. And he is before all things and by him all things consist 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the Mystery of godliness God was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory 1 Joh. 5.20 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and Eternal life And thus much of the Divine Testimonies that prove that Christ is God The Socinians indeed acknowledge that Christ is God but they say he is not so by Nature but by Office They say He is not the most high Eternal God This therefore we shall labour to prove by several arguments First He had a Personal prae-existence unto the whole Creation And nothing can prae-exist * Quod ante omnem creaturam suisse dicitur simpliciter aeterrum est Gloss to all Creatures but in the Nature of God which is Eternal In the beginning the Word was God and so continues unto Eternity Joh. 1. ●● In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Yet he was so God that he was distinct in something from God the Father by whom afterwards he was sent into the World The Word was with God and so distinct from him and was God and so one with him And he was so from the beginning before the Creation that he made all things even the World viz. All things in Heaven and Earth To which we may add our Saviours own Words Joh. 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with the glory I had

To look into the de●th of so great a Mysterie and cannot bu● cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle did in another case O the unsearchableness O the depth of this Heavenly Oeconomy in matters of so high a Nature I believe more then I am able to understand the gift of Faith supplying the defects of my understanding as considered in this or that man which are not all absolutely against it We grant that nothing contrary to the reason of things must be admitted But reason as it is in this or that man may be very weak and imperfect and very short of a ju●t and a full comprehension of the whole reason of things Therefore that is no fit measure to try this Divine Doctrine by Certainly it is the highest reason that in things of p●rely Divine Revelation we should captivate our understandings to the Authority of the Revelator Let us therefore earnestly pray unto God that it may be given unto us to know the Mysteries of his Kingdom The Apostle Peter knew Christ to be the Eternal Son of God which is a part of this Mystery of the Trinity and our Saviour tells him Matth. 16.16 17. That Flesh and Blood had not revealed it unto him but his Father A man ought not presently to desert his perswasion grounded upon Scripture because he cannot answer every Objection that the subtil Wit of man can make against it For though this or that private Person may not be able to Answer such Objections yet others more learned and knowing may easily do it and to them he ought to betake himself for satisfaction Thus I have shewed what is the Original Declaration or Revelation of this Doctrine of the Holy Trinity contained in the Scripture and how the same is explained by Pious and Learned men very sutably to that Revelation And it will not be amiss to give my Reader these two further directions First If at any he be attaqued by any adversary of this Divine doctrin I advise him in the first place to hold him strictly and peremtorily to the Original revelation and to put him to disprove if he can that God is one that the Father is God the Son God the Holy Gh●st God understanding by God the most High God Soveraign of all the World If he cannot do this as you may see by the Testimonies forecited he cannot with any shew of reason do then suffer him not to quarrel at the explanation and fall foully as their manner is upon the terms Trinity and Personality and such like expressions which though they be not literally a●d syllabically found in the Scriptures yet are agreeable to the Original Revelation of this Doctrine therein contained and fairly Expolitory thereof And having given this hint or admonition which I think very needfull at this time let me in the closing up of this Discourse advise all those that have any true desire to walk in the narrow path of Truth and Holiness which leads to everlasting bliss to labour in the first place judiciously to understand this Sacred Doctrine according to the Original Revelation thereof made in the Scriptures When this is done the explanation thereof as we have here delivered it will not seem harsh to them nor to contain any thing unsuitable to that Revelation And let me add this one word more that I fear the failing of so many mens profession as we have seen of late years has begun with their relinquishing this Foundation This has been the fatal miscarriage of those poor deluded Souls called Quakers and I am afraid of some others more learned than they If they could be brought to a right understanding of this Doctrine of the blessed Trinity as 't is in the Scripture revealed I suppose their other fond imaginations would quickly vanish and come to nothing SECT III. Of the Works of God I Have spoken of the Nature of God Maker of Heaven and Earth and his glorious Attributes and of the Trinity of Persons in the Vnity of the Divine Nature I come now to speak of his works Viz. Creation Providence And First of Creation The Apostle Heb. 11.3 Of Creation tells us that by Faith we understand that the Worlds namely the inferior middle and superior as the Jews were wont to distinguish them and all the Creatures in them were made and framed by the Word of God And certainly this goodly Fabrick of Heaven and Earth was not from Eternity as Aristotle that great Philosopher destitute of Scripture-light was inclin'd to believe but was created and made at that time when it seemed best to the infinite Wisdom of God And the special Motives as we may humbly conceive which inclined him to make it were a desire and purpose to express his infinite Power to declare his transcendent Wisdom and Goodness and to exercise his all-wise Providence all conducing to the manifestation of his own glory and praise Some Creatures he made immediately out of nothing as the terminus a quo by a proper Creation giving them a reall being which before they had not Other things he made out of some prae-existent matter which matter he had before made out of nothing by a mediate and improper kind of Creation As he made Adams body out of the dust of the earth * The remembrance of this should be an Antidote against Pride in all his Posterity Abraham Gen. 18.27 acknowledges himself but dust and ashes cum sis humillimus cur non es humillimus says Bernard and Eves of Adams Ribb When Solomon was to build a Magnificent Temple for God he needed many Materials * Ex nihilo nihil fit id est Physice a Creaturis Sod non va●●t regula si intelligatur i● Deo and many Workmen and they many Tools But God did not so He made all without any Coadjutor or any Instrument by the sole word of his command And when he looked upon every thing he had made behold all was very good Neh. 9.6 Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their Host the Earth and all things that are therein the Sea and all that is therein and thou preserved them all and the Host of Heaven worshippeth thee Colos 1.16 For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him and for him Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created The chief of the Creatures God created were Angels and Men. All the Angels were at first made holy and happy Spirits Some of them continued in their obedience to God and are still Angels of light others of them fell from God by pride and disobedience and are become Devils of darkness First I shall speak of the good Angels