and desire the Reader who thinketh that his Reply doth need any confutation but to peruse Ortelius or any true Map of the Roman Empire and Myraeus or any Notitia Episcopatuum and withal the names of the Bishops in each Council and then let him ask his conscience whether those Councils were true or equal Representatives of all the Christian world or only of the Subjects or Churches of one Empire with a few inconsiderable accidental auxiliaries and if he smile not at Mr. Johnson's instances of the Bishops of Thrace and other such Countries as if they had been out of the verge of the Roman Empire at least he shall excuse me from confuting such Replies And since then Christ hath enlarged his Church to many more Nations and remote parts of the world and we are not hopeless that the Gospel may yet be preached to the remotest parts of the earth and an equal just Representative may become more impossible than it now is Yet now such proper universal Councils are so far from being the constitutive visible Head of the Church or the Pope as there presiding or any necessary means of its Vnity and Peace that rebus sic stantibus they are morally impossible For 1. Their distance is so great from Abassia Egypt Armenia Syria Mexico New-England and other parts to those of Muscovy Sweden Norway c. that it will be unlawful and impossible to undertake such journeys and deprive the Church of the labours of the Pastors so long on this account 2. It cannot be expected that many live to perform the journey and return 3. The Princes in whose countreys they live or through whose dominions they must pass are many of them Infidels and will not suffer it and many still in wars and most of them full of State-jealousies 4. When they come together the number of just Representatives which may be proportioned to the several parts of the Church and may be more than a mockery or faction will be so great that they will not be capable of just debates such as the great matters of Religion do require or if they be it will be so long as will frustrate the work and waste their age before they can return when usually the cause which required their congregating will bear no such delays 5. They cannot all speak to the understanding of the Council in one and the same language for all the commoness of Greek and Latine God hath neither promised that all Bishops shall be able to converse in one tongue nor actually performed it 6. Such a council never was in any Christian Emperours time for they neither could nor did summon all the just Representatives of the Churches in other Princes dominions but only those in their own § 31. The predominancy of Selfishness and Self-interest in all hypocrites that are but Christians in name and not by true Regeneration and the great numbers of such Hypocrites in the visible Church are the summary of all the great causes of Divisions and the Prognosticks of their continuance § 32. Unity and harmony will be imperfect whilest true Holiness is so rare and imperfect And to expect the contrary and so to drive on an ill-grounded unholy unity is a great cause of the Division and distraction of the Churches § 33. When differing opinions cause discord betwixt several Churches the means of Christian concord is not an agreement in every opinion but to send to each other a Profession of the true Christian Faith subscribed with a Renunciation of all that is contrary thereto and to require Christian Love and Communion on these terms with a mutual patience and pardon of each others infirmities § 34. No Christian must pretend Holiness against Unity and Peace nor Unity and Peace against Holiness but take them as inseparable in point of Duty And every tender Conscience should be as tender of Church-division and real Schisme as of drunkenness whoredom or such other enormous sins Jam. 3.14 15 16 17. § 35. III. The extensive interest of the Church consisting in the multiplication of Christians is 1. Principally in the multiplication of the Regenerate-members of the Church-mystical 2. And subordinately in the multiplication of Professed Christians in the Church Visible § 36. It is not another but the very same Christianity which in sincerity constituteth a mystical member and in Profession a Visible member of the Church which is not two Churches but one so that all are Hypocrites who are not sincere § 37. The instituted door or entrance into the Church visible is by Baptisme § 38. The Pastors of the Church by the power of the Keyes are Judges who are to be admitted by Baptisme and to Baptise them And the people are to take the baptized for Church-members and in point of publick communion to see as with their Pastors eyes ordinarily though as to Private converse they are Judges themselves § 39. Those that are baptized in Infancy should at age have a solemn transition into the rank of adult members upon a solemn serious owning and renewing of their Baptismal Covenant § 40. God doth not require a false profession of Christianity but a true But yet he appointeth his Ministers to take a Profession not proved false as credibly true Because we are no heart-searchers and every one should be best acquainted with himself and God will have every man the chooser or refuser of his own felicity that the comfort or sorrow may be most his own And a humane belief of them that have not forfeited their credit especially about their own hearts is necessary to humane converse § 41. And God taketh occasion of Hypocrites intrusion 1. To do good to the Church by the excellent gifts of many Hypocrites 2. To do good to themselves by the means or helps of Grace which they meet with in the Church § 42. But the proper appointed place which all that are not at age perswaded to the profession of true Christianity should continue in is the state of Catechumens or Audientes meer Learners in order to be made Christians § 43. The Visible Church is much larger than the Mystical though but one Church that is the Church hath more Professing than Regenerate Members and will have to the end of the World and none must expect that they be commensurate § 44. As a Corn Field hath 1. Corn 2. Straw and Chaffe and 3. Weeds and stricken ears and is denominated from the Corn which is the chief preserved part but the straw must not be cast out because it is necessary for the Corn but the weeds must be pull'd up except when doing it may hurt the Wheat Even so the Church hath 1. Sincere Christians from whom it is denominated 2. Close Hypocrites whose gifts are for the good of the sincere and must not be cast out by the Pastors 3. Hereticks and notorious wicked men who are impenitent after due admonition and these must
dishonour God and destroy the souls of men as well as their bodies 4. And lastly the Temptations and suggestions of Satan yea and oft his external contrived snares are such as frequently give men a palpable discovery of his agency that there is indeed some evil Spirit that doth all this to the hurt of Souls Were there no such Tempter it were scarce credible that such horrid inhumane Villanies should ever be perpetrated by a rational Nature as Histories credibly report and as in this Age our eyes have seen That men should ever even against their own apparent interest be carryed on obstinately to the last in a wilfull course of such sins as seem to have little or nothing to invite men to them but a delight in doing hurt and mischief in the World Whence is it that some men feel such violent importunate suggestions to evil in their mindes that they have no rest from them but which way soever they goe they are haunted with them till they have committed it and then haunted as much to hang themselves in desperation Whence is it that all opportunities are so strangely fitted to a sinners turn to accommodate him in his desires and designs And that such wonderfull successive trains of impediments are set in the way of almost any man that intendeth any great good work in the World I have among men of my own acquaintance observed such admirable frustrations of many designed excellent works by such strange unexpected means and such variety of them and so powerfully carryed on as hath of it self convinced me that there is a most vehement invisible malice permitted by God to resist Mankinde and to militate against all Good in the World Let a man have any evil design and he may carry it on usually with less resistance Let him have any work of greatest Natural importance which tendeth to no great benefit to Mankinde and he may go on with it without any extraordinary impedition But let him have any great design for Common good in things that tend to destroying sin to heal divisions to revive Charity to increase Virtue to save mens Souls yea or to the publick common felicity and his impediments shall be so multifarious so far fetcht so subtile incessant and in despight of all his care and resolution usually so successfull that he shall seem to himself to be like a man that is held fast hand and foot while he seeth no one touch him or that seeth an hundred blocks brought and cast before him in his way while he seeth no one do it Yea and usually the greatest attempts to do good shall turn to the clean contrary even to destroy the good which was intended and drive it much further off How many Countreys Cities Churches Families who have set themselves upon some great Reformation have at first seen no difficulties almost in their way And when they have attempted it they have been like a man that is wrestling with a Spirit Though he see not what it is that holdeth him when he hath long swear and chafed and tired himself he is fain to give over yea leave behind him some odious scandal or terrible example to frighten all others from ever medling with the like again I have known that done which men call a Miracle a sudden deliverance in an hour from the most strange and terrible Disease while by Fasting and Prayer men were present begging the deliverance And presently the Devil hath drawn the persons in such a scandalous sin that God had none of the honour of the deliverance nor could any for shame make mention of it but it turned to the greater dishonour of piety and prayer though the wonder was past doubt I have known men wonderfully enlightened and delivered from courses of Error and Schisme and being men of extraordinary worth and parts have been very like to have proved the recovery of abundance more And they have been so unresistibly carryed into some particular Errors on the contrary extream that all the hopes of their doing good hath turned to the hardening of others in their Schism while they saw those Errors and judg'd accordingly of all the reasons of their change But especially to hinder the successes of godly Magistrates and Ministers in their reformings and their Writings for the winning of Souls it were endless to shew the strange unexpected difficulties which occurre and lamentably frustrate the most laudable attempts Nay I have known divers men that have had resolute designs but to build an Alms-house or a School-house or to settle some publick charitable work that when all things seemed ready and no difficulty appeared have been hindered in despight of the best of their endeavours all their dayes or many years Yea men that purposed but to put it in their Wills to do some considerable work of Charity have been so delayed hindered and disappointed that they were never able to effect their ends By all which it is very perceivable to an observing minde that there is a working invisible Enemy still seeking to destroy all Godliness and to hinder Mens salvation Perhaps you will say that if this be so you make the Devil to be stronger than God and to be the Governour of the World or to be more in hatred to goodness than God is in love with it I answer No but it appeareth that his Enmity to it is implacable and that he militateth against God and mans felicity and that sin hath so far brought this lower World under Gods displeasure that he hath in a great measure forsaken it and left it to the will of Satan Yet hath he his holy seed and Kingdom here and the purposes of his Grace shall never be frustrated nor the Gates of Hell prevail against his Church And if he may forsake Hell totally as to his felicitating presence he may also penally forsake Earth as to the greater number whilest for ought we know he may have thousands of Orbs of better Inhabitants which have not so forfeited his love nor are not so forsaken by him I have been the larger in proving a Life to come of Retribution to the good and bad because all Religion doth depend upon it and I have my self been more assaulted with Temptations to doubt of this than of Christianity it self though this have more of Natural Evidence And I have set down nothing that I am able rationally to confute my self though every Truth is liable to some snarling exceptions of half-witted and contentious men No man that confesseth a Life to come can question the necessity of a Holy Life But I have thought meet first to prove that a Holy Life is our unquestionable duty as the prius cognitum and thence to prove the certainty of the future state For indeed though God hath not hid from us the matter of our Reward and Punishment Hopes and Fears yet hath he made our Duty plainer in the main and proposed it first to our knowledge and
them to perceive its holyness and worth Where it is indeed sincerely practised And is most dishonoured and misunderstood through the wickedness of Hypocrites who profess it As the Impress on the Wax doth make the Image more discernable than the Sculpture on the Seal but the Sculpture is true and perfect when many accidents may render the Impressed image imperfect and faulty So is it in this case To a diligent Enquirer Christianity is best known in its Principles delivered by Christ the Author of it and indeed is no otherwise perfectly known because it is no where else perfectly to be seen But yet it is much more visible and taking with unskilfull superficial Observers in the Professors Lives For they can discern the good or evil of an action who perceive not the nature of the Rule and Precepts The vital form in the Rose-tree is the most excellent part but the beauty and sweetness of the Rose is more easily discerned Effects are most sensible but causes are most excellent And yet in some respect the Practice of Religion is more excellent than the Precepts in as much as the Precepts are Means to Practice For the end is more excellent than the Means as such A poor man can easilyer perceive the worth of Charity in the person that cloatheth and feedeth and relieveth him than the worth of a treatise or sermon of Charity Subjects easily perceive the worth of a wise and holy and just and mercifull King or Magistrate in his actual Government who are not much taken with the Precepts which require yet more perfection And among all descriptions historical Narratives like Zenophons Cyrus do take most with them Doubtless if ever the Professors of Christianity should live according to their own Profession they would thereby overcome the opposition of the World and propagate their Religion with greatest success through all the Earth Because no man can well judge of the Truth of a doctrine till he first know what it is I think it here necessary to open the true nature of the Christian Religion and tell men truly what it is Partly because I perceive that abundance that profess it hypocritically by the meer power of Education Laws and Custom of their Countrey do not understand it and then are the easilyer tempted to neglect or contemn it or forsake it if strongly tempted to it even to forsake that which indeed they never truely received And because its possible some Aliens to Christianity may peruse these lines Otherwise were I to speak only to those that already understand it I might spare this description § 7. The CHRISTIAN RELIGION containeth two Parts 1. All Theological Verities which are of Natural Revelation 2. Much more which is supernaturally revealed The supernatural Revelation is said in it to be partly written by God partly delivered by Angels partly by inspired Prophets and Apostles and partly by Jesus Christ himself in person § 8. The supernatural Revelation reciteth most of the Natural because the searching of the great Book of Nature is a long and difficult work for the now-corrupted dark and slothfull minde of the common sort of men § 9. These supernatural Revelations are all contained 1. Most copiously in a Book called The Holy Bible or Canonical Scriptures 2. More summarily and contractedly in three Forms called The Belief The Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandements and most briefly and summarily in a Sacramental Covenant This last containeth all the Essential parts most briefly and the second somewhat fuller explaineth them and the first the holy Scriptures containeth also all the Integral parts or the whole frame § 10. Some of the present Professors of the Christian Religion do differ about the authority of some few Writings called Apocrypha whether they are to be numbred with the Canonical Books of God or not But those few containing in them no considerable points of doctrine different from the rest the controversie doth not very much concern the substance or doctrinal matter of their Religion § 11. The sacred Scriptures are written very much Historically the Doctrines being interspersed with the History § 12. This sacred Volume containeth two Parts The first called The Old Testament containing the History of the Creation and of the Deluge and of the Jewish Nation till after their Captivity As also their Law and Prophets The second called The New Testament containing the History of the Birth and Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ The sending of his Apostles the giving of the Holy Ghost the course of their Ministry and Miracles with the summ of the doctrine preached first by Christ and then by them and certain Epistles of theirs to divers Churches and persons more fully opening all that doctrine § 13. The summ of the History of the Old Testament is this That in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth with all things in them Viz. That having first made the Intellectual superiour part of the World and the matter of the Elementary World in an unformed Mass he did the first day distinguish or form the active Element of Fire and caused it to give light The second day he separated the rarified Passive Element called Fire expanding it from the Earth upwards to be a separation and medium of action between the superiour and inferiour parts The third day he separated the rest of the Passive Element Earth and Water into their proper place and set their bounds and made individual Plants with their specifick forms and virtue of generation The fourth day he made the Sun Moon and Starrs for Luminaries to the Earth either then forming them or then appointing them to that Office but not revealing their other uses which are nothing to us The fifth day he made Fishes and Birds with the power of generation The sixth day he made the terrestrial Animals and Man with the like generative Power And the seventh day he appointed to be a Sabbath of Rest on which he would be solemnly worshipped by Mankinde as our CREATOR Having made one Man and one Woman in his own Image that is with Intellects Free-will and executive Power in wisdom holiness and aptitude to Obey him and with Dominion over the sensitive and vegetative and inanimate Creatures he placed them in a Garden of pleasure wherein were two Sacramental Trees one called The Tree of Life and the other the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil And besides the Law of Nature he tryed him only with this positive prohibition that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge Whereupon the Devil who before this was fallen from his first state of innocency and felicity took occasion to perswade the Woman that Gods Threatning was not true that he meant not as he spake that he knew Man was capable of greater Knowledge but envyed him that happiness and that the eating of that Fruit was not the way to death as God had threatned but to Knowledge and
Covenant of Grace confirming his Doctrine by abundant uncontrolled Miracles contemning the World he exposed himself to the malice and fury and contempt of sinners and gave up himself a Sacrifice for our sins and a Ransom for us in suffering death on a Cross to reconcile us to God He was buryed and went in Soul to the Souls departed And the third day he rose again having conquered death And after forty dayes having instructed and authorized his Apostles in their Office he ascended up into Heaven in their sight where he remaineth Glorified and is Lord of all the chief Priest and Prophet and King of his Church interceding for us teaching and governing us by his Spirit Ministers and Word 5. The New Law and Covenant which Christ hath procured made and sealed by his Blood his Sacraments and his Spirit is this That to all them who by true Repentance and Faith do forsake the Flesh the World and the Devil and give up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier he will give Himself in these Relations and take them as his reconciled Children pardoning their sins and giving them his grace and title to Everlasting Happiness and will glorifie all that thus persevere But will condemn the unbelievers impenitent and ungodly to everlasting punishment This Covenant he hath commanded his Ministers to proclaim and offer to all the World and to baptize all that consent thereunto to invest them Sacramentally in all these benefits and enter them into his holy Catholick Church 6. The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son did first inspire and guide the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists that they might truly and fully reveal the Doctrine of Christ and deliver it in Scripture to the Church as the Rule of our Faith and Life and by abundance of evident uncontrolled Miracles and gifts to be the great witness of Christ and of the truth of his holy Word 7. Where the Gospel is made known the HOLY SPIRIT doth by it illuminate the minds of such as shall be saved and opening and softening their hearts doth draw them to believe in Christ and turneth them from the power of Satan unto God Whereupon they are joyned to Christ the Head and into the Holy Catholick Church which is his Body consisting of all true Believers and are freely justified and made the Sons of God and a sanctified peculiar people unto him and do Love him above all and serve him sincerely in holiness and righteousness loving and desiring the Communion of Saints overcoming the Flesh the World and the Devil and living in Hope of the coming of Christ and of Everlasting life 8. At death the Souls of the Justified go to Happiness with Christ and the Souls of the wicked to misery And at the end of this World the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and will raise the Bodies of all men from the dead and will judge all the World according to the good or evil which they have done And the righteous shall go into Everlasting Life where they shall see Gods Glory and being perfected in Holiness shall love and praise and please him perfectly and be loved by him for evermore and the Wicked shall go into Everlasting punishment with the Devil II. According to this Belief we do deliberately and seriously by unfeigned consent of Will take this One God the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the Father Son and Holy Spirit for our only God our reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifyer and resolvedly give up our selves to him accordingly entering into his Church under the hands of his Ministers by the solemnization of this Covenant in the Sacrament of Baptism And in prosecution of this Covenant we proceed to stirre up our DESIRES by daily PRAYER to God in the Name of Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit in the order following 1. We desire the glorifying and hallowing of the Name of God that he may be known and loved and honoured by the World and may be well-pleased in us and we may delight in Him which is our ultimate end 2. That his Kingdom of Grace may be enlarged and his Kingdom of Glory as to the Perfected Church of the sanctified may come That Mankinde may more universally subject themselves to God their Creator and Redeemer and be saved by him 3. That this Earth which is grown too like to Hell may be made liker to the Holy ones in Heaven by a holy conformity to Gods Will and Obedience to all his Laws denying and mortifying their own fleshly desires wills and minds 4. That our Natures may have necessary support protection and provision in our daily service of God and passage through this World with which we ought to be content 5. That all our sins may be forgiven us through our Redeemer as we our selves are ready to pardon wrongs 6. That we may be kept from Temptations and delivered from sin and misery from Satan from wicked men and from our selves Concluding our Prayers with the joyfull Praises of God our Heavenly Father acknowledging his Kingdom Power and Glory for ever III. The Laws of Christian PRACTICE are these 1. That our Souls do firmly adhere to God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer by Faith Love Confidence and Delight that we seek him by desire obedience and hope meditating on himself his word and works of Creation Redemption and Sanctification of Death Judgement Heaven and Hell exercising Repentance and mortifying sin especially atheism unbelief and unholiness hardness of heart disobedience and unthankfulness pride worldliness and flesh-pleasing Examining our hearts about our Graces our Duties and our sins Watchfully governing our thoughts affections passions senses appetites words and outward actions Resisting temptations and serving God with all our faculties and glorifying him in our Hearts our Speeches and our Lives 2. That we worship God according to his Holiness and his Word in Spirit and Truth and not with Fopperies and Imagery according to our own devices which may dishonour him and lead us to Idolatry 3. That we ever use his Name with special Reverence especially in appealing to him by an Oath abhorring prophaneness perjury and breach of Vows and Covenants to God 4. That we meet in Holy Assemblies for his more solemn Worship where the Pastors teach his Word to their Flocks and lead them in Prayer and Praise to God administer the Sacrament of Communion and are the Guides of the Church in Holy things whom the people must hear obey and honour especially the Lords Day must be thus spent in Holiness 5. That Parents educate their Children in the Knowledge and Fear of God and in obedience of his Laws and that Princes Masters and all Superiours govern in Holiness and Justice for the glory of God and the common good according to his Laws And that Children love honour and obey their Parents and all Subjects their Rulers in due subordination unto God 6. That
we do nothing against our Neighbours Life or Bodily welfare but carefully preserve it as our own 7. That no man defile his Neighbours wife nor commit Fornication but preserve our own and others Chastity in thought word and deed 8. That we wrong not another in his Estate by stealing fraud or any other means but preserve our Neighbours Estate as our own 9. That we pervert not Justice by false witness or otherwise nor wrong our neighbour in his Name by slanders backbiting or reproach That we lie not but speak the truth in love and preserve our neighbours right and honour as our own 10. That we be not selfish setting up our selves and our own against our Neighbour and his good desiring to draw from him unto our selves But that we love our Neighbour as our selves desiring his welfare as our own doing to others as regularly we would have them do to us forbearing and forgiving one another loving even our enemies and doing good to all according to our power both for their Bodies and their Souls This is the Substance of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION § 15. II. The summ or Abstract of the Christian Religion is contained in three short Forms The first called The Creed containing the matter of the Christian Belief The second called The Lords Prayer containing the matter of Christian Desires and hope The third called The Law or Decalogue containing the summ of Morall Duties which are as followeth The BELIEF 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth 2. And in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended to Hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come again to judge the quick and the dead 3. I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the body and the Life Everlasting The LORDS PRAYER Our FATHER which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The Ten COMMANDEMENTS God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage 1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth Thou shalt not vow down thy self to them nor serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandements 3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain 4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy Man-servant nor thy Maid-servant nor thy Cattel nor the Stranger that is within thy gates For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the Seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it 5. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee 6. Thou shalt not kill 7. Thou shalt not commit Adultery 8. Thou shalt not Steal 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour 10. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Man-servant nor his Maid-servant nor his Oxe nor his Ass nor any thing that is thy Neighbours § 16. The ten Commandements are summed up by Christ into these two Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might and Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self § 17. These Commandements being first delivered to the Jews are continued by Christ as the summ of the Law of Nature only instead of Deliverance of the Jews from Egypt he hath made our Redemption from sin and Satan which was thereby typified to be the fundamental motive And he hath removed the memorial of the Creation-Rest from the seventh day-Sabbath to be kept on the Lords day which is the first with the Commemoration of his Resurrection and our Redemption in the solemn Worship of his holy Assemblies § 18. III. The briefest Summary of the Christian Religion containing the Essentials only is in the Sacramental Covenant of Grace Wherein the Penitent Believer renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil doth solemnly give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit as his only God his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier engaging himself hereby to a Holy life of Resignation Obedience and Love and receiving the pardon of all his sins and title to the further helps of grace to the favour of God and everlasting life This Covenant is first entered by the Sacrament of Baptisme and after renewed in our communion with the Church in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ So that the Christian Religion is but Faith in God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer producing the hope of Life Everlasting and possessing us with the love of God and Man And all this expressed in the genuine fruits of Patience Obedience and Praise to God and works of Charity and Justice unto Man § 19. That all this Religion might be the better understood received and practised by us the Word of God came down into Flesh and gave us a perfect Example of it in his most perfect Life in perfect holiness and innocency conquering all temptations contemning the honours riches and pleasures of the World in perfect patience and meekness and condescension and in the perfect Love of God and Man When perfect Doctrine is seconded by Perfect Exemplariness of Life there can be no greater Light set before us to lead us out of our state of darkness into the everlasting Light And had it not been a pattern of holy Power Wisdom and Goodness of Self-denyall Obedience and Love of Patience and of Truth and Prudence and of contempt of all inferiour things even of Life it self for the Love of God and for Life eternal it
permitted Satan to tempt him extraordinarily by carrying him from place to place that he might extraordinarily overcome When Nathanael came to him he told him his heart and told him what talk he had with Philip afar off till he convinced him that he was Omniscient At Cana of Galilee at a Feast he turned their Water into Wine At Capernaum he dispossessed a Demoniack Luk. 4.33 34 c. He healed Simons Mother of a Feaver at a word Luk. 4.38 39. He healed multitudes of torments diseases and madness Mat. 4.24 Luk. 4.40 41. He cleanseth a Leaper by a word Math. 8.2 3. Luk. 5.12 so also he doth by a Paralitick Math. 9. Luk. 5. He telleth the Samaritane woman all that she had done Joh. 4. At Capernaum he healed a Noble-mans Son by a word Joh. 4. At Jerusalem he cured an impotent Man that had waited five and thirty years A touch of his Garment cureth a Woman diseased with an Issue of blood twelve years Math. 9.20 He cured two blinde men with a touch and a word Math. 9.28 29. He dispossessed another Demoniack Mat. 9.32 He raiseth Jairus daughter at a word who was dead or seemed so Mat. 9.23 24. He dispossessed another Demoniack blinde and dumb Mat. 12. He healeth the Servant of a Centurion ready to dye by a word Luk. 7. He raiseth the Son of a Widow from death that was carried out in a Biere to be buried Luk. 7. With five Barley Loaves and two small Fishes he feedeth five thousand and twelve baskets full of the fragments did remain Mat. 14. Joh. 6. He walketh upon the waters of the Sea Mat. 14. He causeth Peter to do the like Mat. 14. All the diseased of the Countrey were perfectly healed by touching the hem of his garment Mat. 14.36 He again healed multitudes lame dumb blinde maimed c. Math. 15. He again fed four thousand with seven Loaves and a few little Fishes and seven baskets full were left Math. 15. He restoreth a man born blinde to his sight Joh. 9. In the sight of three of his Disciples he is transfigured into a Glory which they could not behold and Moses and Elias talked with him and a voice out of the Cloud said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye him Mat. 17. Luk. 9. He healed the Lunatick Mat. 17. Multitudes are healed by him Mat. 19.2 Two blinde men are healed Mat. 20. He healed a Crooked woman Luk 13.11 He withereth up a fruitless Tree at a word Mark 11. He restoreth a blinde man nigh to Jericho Luk. 18.35 He restoreth Lazarus from death to life that was four dayes dead and buryed Joh. 11. He foretelleth Judas that he would betray him And he frequently and plainly foretold his own sufferings death and resurrection And he expresly foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple and the great calamity of that place even before that generation past away Mat. 24 c. He prophesied his death the night before in the institution of his Supper When he dyed the Sun was darkened and the Earth trembled and the Vail of the Temple rent and the dead bodies of many arose and appeared so that the Captain that kept guard said Truly this was the Son of God Mat. 27. When he was crucified and buried though his Grave-stone was sealed and a guard of Souldiers set to watch it Angels appeared and rolled away the Stone and spake to those that enquired after him And he rose and revived and staid forty dayes on Earth with his Disciples He appeared to them by the way He came oft among them on the First day of the week at their Meetings when the doors were shut He called Thomas to see the prints of the Nails and put his finger into his side and not be faithless but believing till he forced him to cry out My Lord and my God! Joh. 20. He appeareth to them as they are fishing and worketh a miracle in their draught and provideth them broiled Fish and eateth with them He expostulated with Simon and engaged him as he loved him to feed his Sheep and discourseth of the age of John Joh. 21. He giveth his Apostles their full Commission for their gathering his Church by Preaching and Baptism and edifying it by teaching them all that he had commanded them and giveth them the Keyes of it Mat. 28. Joh. 19. 20. He appeareth to above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15. He shewed himself to them by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty dayes and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God and being assembled with them commanded them to tarry at Jerusalem till the Spirit came down miraculously upon them And he ascended up to Heaven before their eyes Act. 1. And two Angels appeared to them as they were gazing after him and told them that thus he should come again When Pentecost was come when they were all together about a hundred and twenty the Holy Spirit came upon them visibly in the appearance of fiery Cloven Tongues and sate on each of them and caused them to speak the languages of many Nations which they had never learned in the hearing of all Upon the notice of which and by Peters Exhortation about three thousand were then at once converted Act. 2. After this Peter and John do heal a man at the entrance of the Temple who had been lame from his birth and this by the name of Jesus before the People Act. 3. One that was above forty years old Act. 4.22 When they were forbidden to preach upon their praises to God the place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost Act. 4.31 Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead by Peters word for hypocrisie and lying Act. 5. And many Signs and Wonders were done by them among the People Act. 5.12 Insomuch that they brought the sick into the streets and laid them on Beds and Couches that at least Peters shadow might over-shaddow them Act. 5.14 15. And a multitude came out of the Cities round about to Jerusalem bringing sick folks and Demoniacks and they were healed every one v. 16. Upon this the Apostles were shut into the common Prison But an Angel by night opened the Prison and brought them out and bid them go preach to the People in the Temple Act. 5. When Stephen was martyred he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand Act. 7. Philip at Samaria cured Demoniacks Palsies Lameness and so converted the people of that City insomuch that Simon the Sorcerer himself believed The Holy Ghost is then given by the Imposition of the hands of Peter and John so that Simon offered money for that gift Act. 8. Philip is led by the Spirit to convert the Aethiopian Nobleman and then carryed away Act. 8. Saul who was one of the murderers of Stephen and a great Persecutor of the Church is stricken down to the Earth and called by Jesus Christ appearing
senses these present things will be a strong temptation to us Prosperity and plenty wealth and honour ease and pleasure are accommodated to the desires of the flesh partly to its natural appetite and much more to it as inordinate by corruption And the flesh careth not for Reason how much soever it gainsay And then all these entising things are neer us and still present with us and before our eyes when Heavenly things are all unseen And the sweetness of honour wealth and pleasure is known by feeling and therefore known easily and by all when the goodness of things spiritual is known only by Reason and believing All which laid together with sad experience do fully shew that it must be a very great work to overcome this World and raise the heart above it to a better and so to sanctifie a soul 2. And worldly men do rise up against this Holy work as as well as worldly things Undenyable experience assureth us that through all the World ungodly sensual men have a marvellous implacable hatred to Godlyness and true mortification and will by flattery or slanders or scorns or plots or cruel violence do all that they are able to resist it So that he that will live a holy temperate life must make himself a scorn if not a prey The foolish wit of the ungodly is bent to reason men out of Faith Hope and Holiness and to cavill against our obedience to God and to disgrace all that course of life which is necessary to salvation And it is a great work to overcome all these temptations of the foolish and furious World Great I say because of the great folly and corruption of unregenerate men on whom it must be wrought though it would be smaller to a wise and considerate person To be made as an Owl and hunted as a Partridge or a beast of Prey by those that we converse with when we might have their favour and friendship and Preferments if we would say and do as they this is not easie to flesh and blood But its easie to the Spirit of God 3. The Devil is so notoriously an enemy to this sanctifying work that it is a strong discovery that Christ was sent from God to do it What a stir doth he first make to keep out the Gospel that it may not be Preached to the Nations of the World And where that will not serve what a stir doth he make to debauch Christs Ministers and corrupt them by ignorance heresie error schism domineering pride sensuality covetousness slothfulness and negligence that they may do the work of Christ deceitfully as if they did it not Yea and if it may be to win them to his service to destroy the Church by Oppression or Division under pretense of serving Christ And what cunning and industry doth this Serpent use to insinuate into great ones and Rulers of the Earth a prejudice against Christ and Godliness and to make them believe that all that are seriously Godly are their enemies and are against some interest of theirs that so he might take the sword which God hath put into their hands and turn it to his own service against him that gave it How cunning and diligent is he to seduce men that begin to set themselves to a Religious life into some false Opinions or dividing Sects or scandalous unjustifiable practice that thereby he may triumph against Christ and have something to say against Religion from the faults of men when he hath nothing to say against it justly from it self and that he may have something to say to those Rulers and People with whom he would fain make Religion odious How cunningly doth he engage ungodly men to be his Servants in seducing others and making them such as they are themselves and in standing up for sin and darkness against the light and life of Faith So that ungodly men are but the Souldiers and Preachers of the Devil in all parts employed to fight against God and draw men from holiness and justice and temperance to sin and to damnation So that it is a very discernable thing that Satan is the Head of one party in the World as the Destroying Prince of Darkness and deceit and that Christ is the Head of the other party as the Prince of light and truth and holiness And that there is a continued war or opposition between these two Kingdoms or Armies in all parts and ages of the World of which I have fullyer treated in another Book If any shall say How know you that all this is the work of Satan I shall have fitter occasion to answer that anon I shall now say but this that the nature of the work the tendency of it the irrationall erroneous or brutish tyrannical manner of doing it the internal importunity and manner of his suggestions and the effects of all and the contrariety of it to God and Man will soon shew a considerate man the author Though more shall be anon added V. All this aforegoing will shew a reasonable man that the Spirits Regenerating work is such as is a full attestation of God to that Doctrine by which it is effected And if any now say How prove you that all this is to be ascribed to Jesus Christ any more than to Socrates or to Seneca or Cicero I answer 1. So much truth of a sacred tendency as Plato or Pythagoras or Socrates or any Philosopher taught might do some good and work some reformation according to its quality and degree But as it was a lame imperfect doctrine which they taught so was it a very lame imperfect reformation which they wrought unlike the effects of the Doctrine and Spirit of Jesus Christ I need to say no more of this than to desire any man to make an impartial and judicious comparison between them And besides much more he shall quickly finde these differences following 1. That the Philosophers Disciples had a very poor dark disordered knowledge of God in comparison of the Christians and that mixt with odious fopperies either blasphemous or idolatrous 2. The Philosophers spake of God and the Life to come almost altogether notionally as they did of Logick or Physicks and very few of them Practically as a thing that mans happiness or misery was so much concerned in 3. They spake very jejunely and dryly about a holy state and course of life and the duty of Man to God in resignation devotedness obedience and love 4. They said little comparatively to the true humbling of a Soul nor in the just discovery of the evil of sin nor for self-denyall 5. They gave too great countenance to Pride and Worldliness and pleasing the senses by excess 6. The Doctrine of true Love to one another is taught by them exceeding lamely and defectively 7. Revenge is too much indulged by them and loving our Enemies and forgiving great wrongs was little known or taught or practised 8. They were so pitifully unacquainted with the certainty
be cast out except when it may hazard the Church § 45. The means of increasing the Church must ultimately be intended alwayes to the increase of the Church mystical for Holiness and Salvation § 46. These means are 1. All the fore-mentioned means of holiness for holiness is the Church's glory the Image of God which will make it illustrious and beautiful in the eyes of men when they are sober and impartial and will do most to win them home to Christ 2. Especially the great abilities holiness patience and unwearied diligence of the Ministers of Christ is a needful means 3. The advancements of Arts and Sciences doth much to prepare the way 4. The agreement and love of Christians among themselves 5. Love to the infidels and ungodly and doing all the good we can even to their bodies 6. A spiritual pure rational and decent worshipping of God 7. And the concord of Christian Princes among themselves for the countenancing and promoting the labours of such Preachers as are fitted for this work § 47 The hinderances then of the Church's increase and of the conversion of the heathen and infidel world are 1. Above all the wickedness of professed Christians whose falshood and debauchery and unholiness perswadeth the poor Infidels that Christianity is worse than their own Religion because they see that the men are worse that live among them And 2. the badness of the Pastors especially in the Greek and Latine Churches and the destruction of Church-discipline and impurity of the Churches hereupon together with the ignorance and unskilfulness of most for so great a work is a great impediment 3. The defectiveness in Arts and Sciences 4. The many divisions and unbrotherly contentions of Christians among themselves either for Religion or for worldly things 5. Not devoting our selves and all that we have to the winning of Infidels by love and doing them good 6. A carnal irrational or undecent manner of worshipping God for they will contemn that God whose worship seemeth to them ridiculous and contemptible 7. The discords wars or selfishness of Christian Princes who unite not their strength to encourage and promote this noble work but rather hinder it by weakening the hands of the labourers at home 8. Especially when the very Preachers themselves are guilty of covetous or ambitious designs and under pretence of preaching Christ are seeking riches or setting up themselves or those that they depend on These have kept under the Church of Christ and hindred the conversion of the world till now § 48. The attempts of the Jesuits in Congo Japon and China were a very noble work and so was the Portugal Kings encouragements but two things spoiled their suceess which Protestants are not liable to 1. That when they took down the Heathens Images they set them up others in the stead and made them think that the main difference was but whose Image they should worship And withall by their Agnus Dei's and such like trinkets made Religion seem childish and contemptible 2. But especially that they made them see that while they seemed to promote Religion and to save their souls they came to promote their own wealth or the Popes dominion and to bring their Kings under a forein power § 49. The honest attempts of Mr. Elliots in New-England is much more agreeable to the Apostles way and maketh more serious spiritual Christians But the quality of place and people and the greatness of wants doth hinder the multiplication of Converts And higher attempts were very desireable § 50. The translating of fit Books into the language of the Infidels and dispersing them may in time prove the sowing of a holy fruitful seed § 51. Prosperity useth greatly to encrease the Church extensively in the number of visible members and adversity and persecution to encrease it intensively by increasing holiness in the tried and refined Therefore God useth to send vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity like Summer and Winter to the Churches that each may do its proper work § 52. Every true Christian should daily lament the common infidelity and impiety of the world that the interest of true Christianity is confined into so narrow a room on earth and to pray with his first and earnestest desires that more labourers may be sent forth and that God's Name may be hallowed his Kingdom come and his will be done on earth that it may be liker Heaven which now is grown so like to Hell But yet to comfort himself in considering as is before said that as this earth is to all the nobler world but as one mole-hill to all England so if God had forsaken all it had been but as the cutting off a cancer from a man or as the casting away of the paring of his nails in comparison of all the rest Therefore should we long for the coming of our Lord and the better world which we have in hope HOW long Lord holy and true how long Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen For we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3.11 12 14. Exod. 6.12 Behold the children of Israel have not hearkned to me how then shall Pharaoh hear me Ezek. 3. Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language whose words thou canst not understand surely had I sent thee to them they would have hearkned unto thee But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee for they will not hearken unto me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted Octob. 16. 1666. THE CONCLUSION Defending the Soul's Immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other Pseudophilosophers THough in this Treatise I have not wilfully balked any regardable objections which I thought might stick with an intelligent Reader about the truth of the things here delivered yet those which are proper to the Somatical irreligious sect of Philosophers I thought fitter to put here as an Appendix by themselves that they might not stop the more sober in their way As to the Subject and Method of this Discourse it consisteth of these four parts 1. The proof of the Deity and what God is 2. Of the certain obligations which lie upon man to be holy and obedient to this God 3. The proofs of a life of Retribution hereafter where the holy and obedient shall be blessed and the unholy and disobedient punished 4. The proofs of the verity of the Christian faith For the first of these that there is a God though I have proved it beyond all rational contradiction yet I have dispatched it with haste and brevity because it is to the mind as the Sun is to the eye and so evident in all that is evident in the world that there needeth nothing to the proving of it but to help the Reader to a rational capacity and aptitude to see that which all the world declareth The common argument from the effects
and motion give us an account of light and heat that I find no need nor willingness to be at the labour of confuting them Call but for their proofs and you have confuted them all at once And if no better a solution be given us of the nature of Light and Heat what shall we expect from them about Intellection and Volition do atoms understand or will or doth motion understand or will If not as sure they do not as such then tell us how that which hath no participation of understanding or will should constitute an agent that doth understand and will Set to this work as Philosophers and make it intelligible to us if you are in good earnest 7. But to proceed a little further with you I take it for granted that you confess that an intellectual incorporeal being there is while you confess a God and that this sort of being is more excellent than that which is corporeal sensible and gross I would next ask you Do you take it for possible or impossible that God should make any secondary Beings which are incorporeal and intellectual also If you say It is impossible give us your proof If possible I next ask you whether it be not most probable also You acknowledge what a spot or punctum in the world this earthly Globe is you see here that man whose flesh must rot and turn to dust hath the power of Intellection and Volition you look up to the more vast and glorious Regions and Globes and I am confident you think not that only this spot of earth is inhabited And surely you think that the glory of the inhabitants is like to be answerable to the glory of their habitations You make your Atoms to be invisible and so you do the Air and Winds when yet our earth and dirt is visible Therefore you take not crassitude nor visibility or sensibility to have the preeminence in excellency Judge then your selves whether it be not likely that God hath innumerable more noble and excellent creatures than we silly men are And will you reduce all their unknown perfections or their known intelligence to matter and motion only Moreover when you observe the wonderful variety of things in which God is pleased to take his delight what ground have we to imagine that he hath no greater variety of substances but corporeal only nor no other way of causation but by motion when no man can deny but he could otherwise cause the variety which we see and fix in the creatures ab origine their differing natures properties and vertues what reason then have you to say that he did not do so And can you believe that the goodness of that God who hath made this wonderful frame which we see would not appear in making some creatures liker and nearer to himself than matter and motion is But to talk no more of probabilities to you we have certain proof that man is an intellectual free agent whose soul you can never prove to be corporeal and whose power of intellection and volition is distinct from corporal motion And we have proof that there are superior Intelligences more noble than we by the operations which they have exercised upon things below And what should move you who seem not to be overmuch Divine and who seem to observe the order and harmony of the creatures to imagine that God doth himself alone without any instrument or second cause move all the corporeal matter of the world If you are serious in believing that God himself doth move and govern all why do you question whether he make use of any nobler natures next him to move things corporeal And why do you against your own inclinations make every action to be done by God alone I doubt not but he doth all but you see that he chooseth to communicate honour and agency to his creatures He useth the Sun to move things on earth Therefore if you believe that corporeal beings stand at so infinite a distance from his perfections you may easily judge that he hath some more noble and that the noblest are the most potent and active and rule the more ignoble as you see the nobler bodies as the Sun to have power upon the more ignoble Therefore to violate the harmony of God's works and to deny all the steps of the ladder save the lowest is but an unhappy solving of Phaenomena Nay mark what you grant us you confess God to have Power Wisdom and Will and that he is incorporeal and moveth all and you confess that man hath in his kind Power Vnderstanding and Will and is there any thing below that 's liker God If not do you not allow us to take these faculties for incorporeal and that those are so that are higher than we 8. And you seem to us by your Philosophy to write of Nature as the Atheist writeth of God instead of explaining it you deny it What is Nature but the principium motus quietis c. And you deny all such principia and substitute only former motion so that you leave no other nature but what a stone receiveth from the hand that casteth it or the childrens tops from the scourge which driveth them or rather every turn is a nature to the next turn and so the nature of things is mostly out of themselves in the extrinsick mover And so you level all things in the world you deny all specifick forms or natural faculties and virtues The Sun and a clod have no natural difference but only magnitude and figure and motion as if so noble a creature had no differencing peculiar nature of its own nor any natural power or principle of its own motion and so it moved but as a stone is moved Yea you make all motion to be violent and deny all proper natural motion at all for that which hath no active principle of motion in its nature hath no proper natural motion as distinct from violent Hereby also you deny all vital powers you make a living creature and a dead to differ but in the manner of motion which whether you can at all explain we know not why may not the arrow which I shoot or the watch which I wind up be said to live as well as you It hath matter and motion and some inanimates the Air and Fire perhaps have as subtil matter and as speedy motion as is in you Why doth not the wind make the air alive and the bellows the fire In a word you deny all Intelligences all Souls all Lives all Natures all active Qualities and Forms all Powers Faculties Inclinations Habits and Dispositions that are any principles of motion and so all the natural excellency and difference of any creature above the rest A short way of solving the Phaenomena Lastly with Nature you deny the being of Morality For if there be no difference of Beings but in quantity figure motion and site and all motion is Locomotion which moveth by natural
them that the Cure had been to have made them more Religious and not less And that the true Belief of a Life to come is the end the motive the poise of all wise and regular actions and of Love and Peace of right Government and obedience and of justice mercy and all that is lovely in the world An OBJECTION about the Worlds Eternity HAving said thus much about the point which I thought most considerable I shall answer an Objection about the Worlds Eternity because I perceive that it sticks with some Obj. We finde it the harder to believe the Scripture and the Christian Doctrine because it asserteth a thing which Aristotle hath evinced to be so improbable as is the Creation of the World within less than 6000 years When no natural reason can be brought to prove that the World is not eternall Answ 1. It is you that are the affirmers and therefore on whom the natural proof is incumbent Prove if you can that the World is eternal Were it not tedious I should by examining your reasons shew that they have no convincing force at all 2. There is so much written of it that I am loth to trouble the Reader with more I now only again referre the Reader to Raymundus Lullius desiring him not to reject his arguments if some of them seem not cogent seeing if any one of all his multitude prove such it is enough 3. I now only desire that the Controversie between the Christian and the Infidel may be but rightly stated And to that end do not charge Christianity with any School-mans or other confident persons private opinions nor suppose Christ or Scripture to determine any thing which they do not determine 1. Christianity and Scripture do not at all determine whether the whole Universe was created at the same time when this our Heaven and Earth was But only that the Systeme or World which we belong to the Sun and Moon and Starrs and Earth were then created Nay a great part of the ancient Doctors and of the most learned late Expositors on Gen. 1. do expound the Heavens which God is said to create as being only the visible Heavens and not including the Angels at all And others say that by In the beginning is meant ab initio rerum and that the Heavens there meant being the Angelical Habitations and the Earth as without form were both ab initio rerum before the six dayes Creation which began with the making of Light out of the pre-existent Heavens or Chaos I think not this opinion true but this liberty Christian Doctors have taken of differing from one another in this difficult point But they utterly differ about the time of the creation of Angels on Gen. 1. and on Job 1. and consequently whether there were not a World existent when this World was created 2. Or if any that seeth more than I can prove the contrary yet it is certainly a thing undetermined by Scripture and in the Christian Faith whether there were any Worlds that had begun and ended before this was made That God is the maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible is most certain But whether this Heaven and Earth which now is was the first which he hath made is a thing that our Religion doth not at all meddle with They that with Origen affirm that there were antecedent worlds are justly blamed on one side not for speaking things false but things uncertain and unrevealed and for corrupting Christianity by a mixture of things alien and doubtfull And those who affirm that there were no antecedent worlds are as much culpable on the other side if not more on the same account and upon further reasons On the one side we know that God needeth nothing to his own felicity but is perfectly sufficient for himself and that he createth not the World ex necessitate naturae as an agent which acteth ad ultimum posse And on the other side we know that though he hath a Goodness of self-perfection unspeakably more excellent than his Benignity as Related to man not that one Property in God is to be said more excellent than another in it self but that quoad Relationem there is an infinite difference between his Goodness in Himself and his Goodness only as Related to his Creatures and measured by their interest yet we confess that his Fecundity and Benignity is included in his own Goodness and that he delighteth to do Good and is communicative and that he doth Good ex necessitate voluntaria ex naturae perfectione without coaction it being most necessary that he do that which his Infinite wisdom saith is best which made Th. White de Mundo say that God did necessarily make the World and necessarily make it in time and not ab aeterno and yet all this most voluntarily because he doth necessarily do that which is best in the judgement of his Wisdom And we deny not that if a man will presume to give liberty to his Reason to search into unrevealed things that it will seem to him very improbable that he who is Actus purus of Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness and who now taketh pleasure in all his works and his delights are with the Sons of men should from all Eternity produce no Creature till less than 6000 years ago when a thousand years with him are but as a day and that he should resolve to have Creatures to all Eternity who as to future duration shall be so like to Himself when from all Eternity he had no Creature till as it were five or six dayes agoe Christians are apt to have such thoughts as these as well as you when they look but to rational probabilities But they hold that all these matters whether there were antecedent worlds and how many and of what sort and of what duration whether this was the first are matters unrevealed which they ought not to trouble the world or themselves with prying into or contending about And they finde that they are unfruitfull speculations which do but overwhelme the minde of him that searcheth after them when God hath provided for us in the Christian Faith more plain and sure and solid and wholsom food to live upon 3. And if it be unrevealed in Scripture whether before this there was any other World we must confess it unrevealed whether there were any emanant or created Entity which God did produce from all Eternity considered quoad durationem only For the Scripture saith no more of one than of the other And if there were one moment dividing Eternity only imaginarily in which there had been nothing but God we must equally confess an Eternity in which there was nothing but God because Eternity hath no beginning 4. But Christianity assureth us of these two things 1. That certainly there is no Being besides God but what was created produced or totally caused by Him And that if any Creature were eternal as to