no way incredible that God should value man according to his natural worth and usefulness as an intellectual agent capable of Knowing and Loving and Praising him and Enjoying him His creating us such and his abundant mercies to us do abundantly prove the truth of this Nor is it incredible that he should be willing that his depraved creature should be restored to the use and ends of its nature nor is it incredible that God should choose the best and fittest means to effect all this Nothing more credible than all this 4. And it is not incredible at all that the Incarnation of the Eternal Word should be the fittest means for this reparation If we consider 1. What question we should have made of the word of an Angel or any meer creature that should have said he came from God to teach us seeing we could not be so certain that he was infallible and indefectible 2. And how short a creature would have fallen in the Priestly part of Mediation 3. And how insufficient he would have been for the Kingly Dignity and universal Government and Protection of the Church and Judgement of the world 4. And withall that God Himself being the Glorifier of Himself and the Donor of all felicity to us it is very congruous that he should most eminently Himself perform the most eminent of these works of mercy 5. And it much assisteth my belief of the Incarnation to consider that certainly the work that was to be done for man's recovery was the winning of his heart to the Love of God from himself and other creatures and there was no way imaginable so fit to inflame us with love to God as for him most wonderfully to manifest his love to us which is more done in the work of man's Redemption than any other way imaginable so that being the most suitable means to restore us to the love of God it is fittest to be the way of our recovery and so the more credible 6. And it much suppresseth temptation to unbelief in me to consider that the three grand works in which God's Essentialities declare themselves must needs be all such as beseemeth God that is most wonderful transcending man's comprehension And as his Omnipotency shewed it self with Wisdom and Love in the great work of Creation so was it meet that his Wisdom should shew it self most wonderfully in the great work of Redemption in order to the as wonderful declaration of his Love and Goodness in the great work of our Salvation our Regeneration and Glorification And therefore if this were not a wonderful work it were not fit to be parallel with the Creation in demonstrating God's Perfections to our minds Object III. But how incredible is it that humane nature should in a glorified Christ be set above the Angelical nature Answ There is no arguing in the dark from things unknown against what is fully brought to light What God hath done for man the Scripture hath revealed and also that Christ himself is far above the Angels But what Christ hath done for Angels or for any other world of creatures God thought not meet to make us acquainted with There have been Christians who have thought by plausible reasonings from many Texts of Scripture that Christ hath three Natures the Divine and a Super-angelical and a Humane and that the Eternal Word did first unite it self to the Super-angelical nature and in that created the world and in that appeared to Abraham and the other Fathers and then assumed the Humane nature last of all for Redemption And thus they would reconcile the Arrians and the Orthodox But the most Christians hold only two Natures in Christ but then they say that he that hath promised that we shall be equal with the Angels doth know that the nature of Man's Soul and of Angels differ so little that in advancing one he doth as it were advance both and certainly maketh no disorder in nature by exalting the inferiour in sensu composito above the Superiour and more excellent Let us not then deceive our selves by arguing from things unknown Object IV. There are things so incredible in the Scripture-Miracles that it is hard to believe them to be true Answ 1. No doubt but Miracles must be Wonders they were not else so sufficient to be a divine attestation if they were not things exceeding our power and reach But why should they be thought incredible Is it because they transcend the Power of God or his Wisdom or his Goodness Or because they are harder to him than the things which our eyes are daily witnesses of Is not the motion of the Sun and Orbs and especially of the Primum Mobile which the Peripateticks teach yea or that of the Earth and Globes which others teach as great a work as any miracle mentioned in the holy Scriptures Shall any man that ever considered the number magnitude glory and motions of the Fixed Stars object any difficulty to God Is it not as easie to raise one man from the dead as to give life to all the living 2. And are not Miracles according to our own necessities and desires Do not men call for signs and wonders and say If I saw one rise from the dead or saw a Miracle I would believe Or at least I cannot believe that Christ is the Son of God unless he work Miracles And shall that be a hinderance to your belief which is your last remedy against unbelief Will you not believe without miracles and yet will you not believe them because they are Miracles This is but meer perversness as much as to say we will neither believe with Miracles nor without 3. Impartially consider of the proof I have before given you of the certain truth of the matter of Fact that such miracles were really done and then you may see not only that they are to be believed but the doctrine to be the rather believed for their sakes Obj. V. It is hard to believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Life to come when we consider how much the soul dependeth in its operations on the body and how it seemeth but gradually to exceed the bruits Especially to believe the Eternity of it or its joyes when omne quod oritur interit And if Eternity à parte ante be proper to God why not Eternity à parte post Answ 1. The Immortality of the Soul and consequently its perpetual duration and a life of Retribution after this did not seem things incredible to most of the Heathens and Infidels in the World And I have proved it before by evidence of Nature to common Reason So that to make that incredible in Christianity which Philosophers and almost all the World hold and which hath cogent natural evidence is to put out the eye of Reason as well as of Faith 2. And that it hath much use of or dependance on the body in its present operations is no proof at all that when it is out of the body
all this is at all incredible But it is indeed incredible till conscience have humbled him that the Thief or Murderer should like this penalty or think well of the Judge or that a sinner who judgeth of good and evil in others as Dogs do by the interest of his throat or flesh and thinks them good only that love him and bad that hurt him and are against him should ever believe that it is the amiable goodness of God which causeth him in justice to condemn the wicked 2. But yet let not misunderstanding make this seem harder to you than indeed it is Do not think that souls in hell are hanged up in flames as beasts are hanged in a butchers shambles or that souls have any pain but what is suitable to souls and that 's more than bodies bear It is an affliction in rational ways which falls on rational spirits Devils are now in torment and yet have a malignant kingdom and order and rule in the children of disobedience and go up and down seeking whom they may devour We know not the particular manner of their sufferings but that they are forsaken of God and deprived of his complacential love and mercy and have the rational misery before described and such also as shall be suitable to such kind of bodies as they shall have And while they are immortal no wonder if their misery be so Object VII Who can believe that the damned shall be far more than the saved and the devil have more than God How will this stand with the infinite goodness of God Answ I have fully answered this before in Part 1. chap. 11. and should now adde but this 1. In our enquiries we must begin with the primum cognita or notissima as aforesaid that God is most good and also just and punisheth sinners is before proved to be among the notissima or primum cognita and therefore it is most certain that these are no way contradictory to each other 2. And if it be no contradiction to God's goodness to punish and cast off for ever the lesser part of the world then it is none to punish or cast off the greater part The inequality of number will not alter the case 3. It is no way against the goodness of humane Governours in some cases to punish even the greater number according to their deserts 4. Can any man that openeth his eyes deny it in matter of fact that the far greater part of the world is actually ungodly worldly sensual and disobedient Or that such are meet for punishment and unmeet for the love and holy fruition of God When I see that most men are ungodly and uncapable of Heaven is it not harder to reason to believe that these shall have that joy and employment of which they are uncapable than that they shall have the punishment which agreeth with their capacity desert and choice Must I believe that God's enemies shall love him for ever meerly because they are the greater number If one man that dieth unrenewed be capable of heaven another is so and all are so Therefore I must either believe that no impenitent ungodly person is saved or that all be saved The number therefore is nothing to the deciding of the case 5. Can any man in his wits deny that it is as sure that God permitteth sin in the world as that the Sun shineth on us yea that he permitteth that universal enormous deluge of wickedness which the world groaneth under at this day And that this sin is the souls calamity and to a right judgment is much worse than punishment what ever beastly sensuality may gainsay If then the visible wickedness of the world be permitted by God without any impeachment of his goodness then certainly his goodness may consist with punishment which as such is good when sin is evil And much of this punishment also is but materially permitted by God and executed by sinners upon themselves 6. The wisdom and goodness of God saw it meet for the right government of this world to put the threatnings of an everlasting punishment in his Law and how can that man have the face to say it was needless or too much in the Law with whom it proved not enough to weigh down the trifling interests of the flesh And if it was meet to put that penalty in the Law it is just and meet to put that Law into execution how many soever fall under the penalty of it as hath been proved 7. The goodness of God consisteth not in a Will to make all his creatures as great or good and happy as he can but it is essentially in his infinite perfections and expressively in the communication of so much to his creatures as he seeth meet and in the accomplishment of his own pleasure by such ways of Benignity and Justice as are most suitable to his Wisdom and Holiness Man's personal interest is an unfit rule and measure of God's goodness 8. To recite what I said and speak it plainlier I confess it greatly quieteth my mind against this great objection of the numbers that are damned and cast off for ever to consider how small a part this earth is of God's creation as well as how sinful and impenitent Ask any Astronomer that hath considered the innumerable number of the fixed Stars and Planets with their distances and magnitude and glory and the uncertainty that we have whether there be not as many more or an hundred or thousand times as many unseen to man as all those which we see considering the defectiveness of man's sight and the Planets about Jupiter with the innumerable Stars in the Milky way which the Tube hath lately discovered which man's eyes without it could not see I say ask any man who knoweth these things whether all this earth be any more in comparison of the whole creation than one Prison is to a Kingdom or Empire or the paring of one nail or a little mole or wart or a hair in comparison of the whole body And if God should cast off all this earth and use all the sinners in it as they deserve it is no more sign of a want of benignity or mercy in him than it is for a King to cast one subject of a million into a Jail and to hang him for his murder or treason or rebellion or for a man to kill one louse which is but a molestation to the body which beareth it or than it is to pare a mans nails or cut off a wart or a hair or to pull out a rotten aking tooth I know it is a thing uncertain and unrevealed to us whether all these Globes be inhabited or not but he that considereth that there is scarce any uninhabitable place on earth or in the water or air but men or beasts or birds or fishes or flies or worms and moles do take up almost all will think it a probability so near a certainty as not to be
Apostles may cause variety of style and other accidental excellencies in the parts of the holy Scriptures and yet all these parts be animated with one soul of Power Truth and Goodness But those men who think that these humane imperfections of the Writers do extend further and may appear in some by-passages of Chronologies or History which are no proper part of the Rule of Faith and Life do not hereby destroy the Christian cause For God might enable his Apostles to an infallible recording and preaching of the Gospel even all things necessary to salvation though he had not made them infallible in every by-passage and circumstance no more than they were indefectible in life As for them that say I can believe no man in any thing who is mistaken in one thing at least as infallible they speak against common sense and reason for a man may be infallibly acquainted with some things who is not so in all An Historian may infallibly acquaint me that there was a Fight at Lepanto at Edge-hill at York at Naseby or an Insurrection and Massacre in Ireland and Paris c. who cannot tell me all the circumstances of it or he may infallibly tell men of the late Fire which consumed London though he cannot tell just whose houses were burnt and may mistake about the Causers of it and the circumstances A Lawyer may infallibly tell you whether your cause be good or bad in the main who yet may misreport some circumstances in the opening of it A Physician in his Historical observations may partly erre as an Historian in some circumstances yet be infallible as a Physician in some plain cases which belong directly to his Art I do not believe that any man can prove the least error in the holy Scripture in any point according to its true intent and meaning but if he could the Gospel as a Rule of Faith and Life in things necessary to salvation might be nevertheless proved infallible by all the evidence before given Object XVIII The Physicks in Gen 1. are contrary to all true Philosophy and suited to the vulgars erroneous conceits Answ No such matter there is sounder doctrine of Physicks in Gen. 1. than any Philosopher hath who contradicteth it And as long as they are altogether by the ears among themselves and so little agreed in most of their Philosophy but leave it to this day either to the Scepticks to deride as utterly uncertain or to any Novelist to form anew into what principles and hypothesis he please the judgment of Philosophers is of no great value to prejudice any against the Scriptures The sum of Gen. 1. is but this That God having first made the Intellectual Superiour part of the world and the matter of the Elementary world in an unformed Mass or Chaos did the first day distinguish or form the active Element of Fire and caused it to give Light The second day he separated the attenuated or rarifi'd part of the passive Element which we call the Air expanding it from the earth upwards to separate the clouds from the lower waters and to be the medium of Light And whether in different degrees of purity it fill not all the space between all the Globes both fixed and planetary is a question which we may more probably affirm than deny unless there be any waters also upwards by condensation which we cannot disprove The third day he separated the rest of the passive Element Earth and Sea into their proper place and bounds and also made individual Plants in their specifick forms and virtue of generation or multiplication of individuals The fourth day he made the Sun Moon and Stars either then forming them or then making them Luminaries to the earth and appointing them their relative office but hath not told us of their other uses which are nothing to us The fifth day he made inferiour Sensitives Fishes and Birds the inhabitants of Water and Air with the power of generation or multiplication of individuals The sixth day he made first the terrestrial Animals and then Man with the power also of generation or multiplication And the seventh day having taken complacency in all the works of this glorious perfected frame of Nature he appointed to be observ'd by mankind as a day of rest from worldly labours for the worshipping of Him their Omnipotent Creator in commemoration of this work This is the sum and sense of the Physicks of Gen. 1. And here is no errour in all this what ever prejudice Philosophers may imagine Object XIX It is a suspicious sign that Believing is commanded us instead of knowing and that we must take all upon trust without any proof Answ This is a meer slander Know as much as you are able to know Christ came not to hinder but to help your knowledge Faith is but a mode or act of knowing How will you know matters of History which are past and matters of the unseen world but by believing If you could have an Angel come from heaven to tell you what is there would you quarrel because you are put upon believing him if you can know it without believing and testimony do God biddeth you believe nothing but what he giveth you sufficient reason to believe Evidence of credibility in Divine faith is evidence of certainty Believers in Scripture usually say We know that thou art the Christ c. You are not forbidden but encouraged to try the spirits and not to believe every spirit nor pretended prophet Let this Treatise testifie whether you have not Reason and evidence for Belief it is Mahomet's doctrine and not Christ's which forbiddeth examination Object XX. It imposeth upon us an incredible thing when it perswadeth us that our undoing and calamity and death are the way to our felicity and our gain and that sufferings work together for our good At least these are hard terms which we cannot undergoe nor think it wisdom to lose a certainty for uncertain hopes Answ Suppose but the truth of the Gospel proved yea or but the Immortality and Retribution for Souls hereafter which the light of Nature proveth and then we may well say that this Objection savoureth more of the Beast than of the Man A Heathen can answer it though not so well as a Christian Seneca and Plutarch Antonine and Epictetus have done it in part And what a dotage is it to call things present Certainties when they are certainly ready to pass away and you are uncertain to possess them another hour who can be ignorant what haste Time maketh and how like the Life of man is to a dream What sweetness is now left of all the pleasant cups and morsels and all the merry hours you have had and all the proud or lustfull fancies which have tickled your deluded fleshly mindes Are they not more terrible than comfortable to your most retired sober thoughts and what an inconsiderable moment is it till it will be so with all the rest
esse which was dependent in fieri which are Contradictions 2. The effects in the admirable frame and nature and motions of the Creation declare that the Creator is infinitely wise The smallest insect is so curiously made and so admirably fitted and instructed to its proper end and uses The smallest Plants in wonderfull variety of shapes and colours and smells and qualities uses and operations and beautifull flowers so marvellously constituted and animated by an unseen form and propagated by unsearchable seminal vertue The smallest Birds and Beasts and creeping things so adorned in their kinds and so admirably furnished for their proper ends especially the propagation of their species in love and sagacity and diligence to their young by instinct equaling in those particulars the reasonable creature The admirable composure of all the parts of the body of Man and of the vilest Beast and Vermine The quality and operation of all the Organs humours and spirits The operations of the Minde of man and the constitution of Societies and over-ruling all the matters of the World with innumerable instances in the creature do all concurr to proclaim that man as mad as madness can possibly make him in that particular who thinketh that any lower cause than incomprehensible wisdom did principally produce all this And that by any bruitish or natural motion or confluence of Atomes or any other matter it could be thus ordered continued and maintained without the infinite wisdome and power of a first Cause superiour to meer natural matter and motion What then should we say if we had a sight into the inwards of all the Earth of the nature and cause of Minerals and of the forms of all things If we saw the reason of the motions of the Seas and all other appearances of Nature which are now beyond our reach Yea if we had a sight of all the Orbs both fixed Starrs and Planets and of their matter and form and order and relation to each other and their communications and influences on each other and the cause of all their wonderous motions If we saw not only the nature of the Elements especially the active Element Fire but also the constitution magnitude and use of all those thousand Suns and lesser Worlds which constitute the universal World And if they be inhabited if we knew the Inhabitants of each Did we know all the Intelligences blessed Angels and holy Spirits which possess the nobler parts of Nature and the unhappy degenerate Spirits that have departed from light and joy into darkness and horrour by departing from God yea if we could see all these comprehensively at one view what thoughts should we have of the wisdom of the Creator And what should we think of the Atheist that denyeth it We should think Bedlam too honourable a place for that man that could believe or durst say that any accidental motion of subtile matter or fortuitous concourse of Atomes or any thing below a Wisdom and Power infinitely transcending all that with Man is called by that name was the first Cause and is the chief continuer of such an incomprehensible frame § 18. The first Cause must needs be infinitely Good By Goodness I mean all essential Excellency which is known to us by its fruits and appearances in the Creature which as it hath a Goodness natural and moral so is it the Index of that transcendent Goodness which is the first cause of both This goodness is incomparably beyond that which consisteth in a usefulness to the creatures good or Goodness of Benignity as relative to Man And it is known better by the meer name as expressing that which Nature hath an intrinsick sense and notion of than by definitions As sensible qualities light colour sound odour sweet bitter c. are known by the name best which lead to the sensitive memory which informeth the Intellect what they are As the mention of things sensible entereth the definition of sense and the mention of sense doth enter the definition of things sensible and yet the object is in order of nature before the act And as Truth must enter the definition of Intellection and Intellection the definition of Truth and yet Truth is in order before Intellection and contemporary with the Intellect so is it between Goodness and the Will But if we speak of uncreated Good and of a created Will then Good is infinitely antecedent to that Will But the Will which is created hath a nature suited to it and so the notion of Excellency and Goodness is naturally in our estimative faculty and the relish of it or complacency in it is naturally in the Will so far as it is not corrupted and depraved As if I knew a man that had the wisdom and virtue of an Angel my estimation calleth him Excellent and Good and my Will doth complacentially cleave to him though I should never look to be the better for him my self or if I onely heard of him and never saw him or were personally beholden to him That God is thus infinitely Excellent and Good the Goodness of his Creatures proveth for all the goodness that is in Men and Angels Earth and Heaven proceedeth from him If there be any Natural Goodness in the whole Creation there must be more in the Creator If there be any Moral Goodness in Men and Angels there must be more in eminency in him For he can make nothing better than himself nor give to creatures what he hath not § 19. The Goodness of the first Being consisting in this infinite Perfection or Excellency containeth his Happiness his Holiness and his Love or Benignity § 20. The HAPPINESS of the first Being consisteth 1. In his BEING HIMSELF 2. In his KNOWING HIMSELF 3. In his LOVING and ENJOYING HIMSELF The most perfect Being must needs be the most Happy and that in Being what he is his own Perfection being his Happiness And as Knowledge in the Creature is both his Perfection and Delight so the transcendent Omniscience of the Creator must needs be both part of his Perfection as distinguished by our narrow minds and such felicity as may be called Eminently his Delight though what God's Delight is we know not formally And as Love or Complacency is the perfective operation of the Will and so of the Humane Nature in Man and is his highest final and enjoying acts of which all Goodness is the object so there must be something in the Perfection of the first Cause though not formally the same with Love in Man yet eminently so called as knowable to us by no other name And this complacency must needs be principally in Himself because He himself is the Infinite and onely Primitive Good and as there was primitively no Good but Himself to Love so now there is no Good but derived from Him and dependent on Him And as his Creature of which anon is obliged to love Him most so he must needs be most amiable to Himself Self-love and self-esteem in
Sin is their sickness and corrupteth their appetites and though it have its proper pleasure it depriveth them of the pleasures and benefits of health § 16. These vices also so deprave sometimes making every wicked man to be principally for HIMSELF and for his LVSTS that they are commonly distracted with envy malice contention persecutions the fruits of Pride and Covetousness and sensuality and these diseases are still troubling them till they work their ruine where they do prevail § 17. The same vices set Kingdoms and other Common-wealths together in bloody Warrs and cause men to study to destroy one another and glory in the success and fill the World with rapine and violence by Sea and Land and make it seem as necessary to their own preservation to kill one another as their enemies as to kill Toads and Serpents Wolves and Tygers and much more and with much more care and cost and industry is it done § 18. If any wise and charitable persons would heal these vices and reconcile these contentions and perswade persons and Nations to a holy sober peaceable course they are commonly hated and persecuted they seldom succeed nor can their counsel be heard through the multitude and fury of the vicious whose folly and violence beareth down all § 19. And God himself doth give the sinfull World a taste of his displeasure by painfull sicknesses consuming Plagues Famines Poverty and many the like Calamities which fall upon mankinde § 20. But his sorest Judgements are the forsaking of Mens souls and leaving them in all this folly and disorder this sin and misery to destroy themselves The principal Mercies and Punishments of this Life are found on the Souls of men themselves The greatest present Reward of Obedience is when God doth more illuminate the mind and send in more of his celestial beams and shed abroad his Love upon the heart and fill it with the Love of Goodness and delight it in himself and confirm the will against temptations And the greatest punishment is when God in displeasure for mens disobedience doth withdraw this grace and leave men to themselves that they that love not his grace should be without it and follow their foolish self-destroying lusts § 21. God cannot pardon an uncapable subject nor any but on terms consistent with the honour of his Justice Laws and Government Nor is there any that can deliver a sinner from his punishment upon any other terms whatsoever § 22. The conclusion is that the sin and misery of Mankinde in Generall is great and lamentable and their recovery a work of exceeding difficulty Obj. All this sheweth that mans Nature was not made for a Holy life nor for a World to come Else their aversness to it would not be so great and common Answ This is fully answered before It is proved that Nature and Reason do fully bear witness against his wickedness and declare his obligations to a better life and his capacity of higher things and that all this is his rebellion against Nature and Reason And it no more proveth your Conclusion than your Children or Servants aversness to obedience peace and labour proveth that these are not their duty or Subjects rebellion proveth that they are not obliged to be loyal Obj. But it is incredible that God should thus far forsake his own Creation Answ 1. There is no disputing against the light of the Sun and the experience of all the World It is a thing visible and undenyable that this case they are de facto in and therefore that thus farr they are forsaken It is no Wisdom to say that is not which all the World seeth to be so because we think it unmeet that it should be so 2. Is it incredible that God doth further than this forsake the wicked in the World of punishment If he may further forsake Hell he may thus far forsake Earth upon their great provocations We have no certainty of it but it is not at all unlikely that the innumerable fixed Starrs and Planets are inhabited Orbs who have dwellers answerable to their nature and preeminence And if God do totally forsake Hell as to his Mercy and next to Hell do much forsake a sinfull Earth that is likest and neerest unto Hell and do glorifie his more abundant Mercy upon the more holy and happy inhabitants of all or almost all the other Orbs what matter of discontent should this be to us 3. But God hath not left even this dark and wicked Earth it self without all remedy as shall be further shewed Read Cicero's third Book de Nat. Deor. and you will see in Cotta's speech that the notoriously depraved Reason of man and the prevalency and prosperity of wickedness was the great argument of the Atheists against God and Providence which they thought unanswerable because they looked no further than this life and did not foresee the time of full universal Justice And whereas Cotta saith that if there be a God he should have made most men good and prevented all the evil in the World and not only punish men when it is done I shall answer that among the objections in the Second Tome and I before shewed how little reason men have to expect that God should make every man as good as he could make him or make man indefectible or to argue from mans sin against Gods goodness The free Creator Lord and Benefactor may vary his creatures and benefits as he seeth meet and may be proved good though he make not man Angelical and though he permit his sin and punish him for sinning CHAP. XVII What Natural Light declareth of the Mercy of God to Sinners and of the Means and Hopes of Mans Recovery § 1. NOtwithstanding all this forementioned sin and guilt and misery of man and Justice of God Experience assureth all the Earth that Great Mercy is still continued to them and that they have to do with a Most Merciful God Mens Lives are continued even while they sin Patience endureth them Time is vouchsafed them Food and rayment and Friends and Habitations and health and ease and liberty is given them The Sun sendeth them its moving influence its Light and Heat The Earth supporteth them and affordeth them fruit and maintenance and pleasure The Clouds yield them rain the Air breath and the Sea it self is not unkind and incommodious to them Beasts Birds and Fishes and all inferiour Creatures serve them And yet much more mercy they receive from God § 2. It is therefore manifest that God dealeth not with the sinfull World according to the utmost rigor of Justice nor punisheth them as much as they deserve For all these Mercies they have forfeited and deserved to be deprived of them Obj. But it is no mercy which hardeneth them in sin and endeth in misery It is rather a punishment as to give cold water to a man in a Feaver Answ 1. If it hardened them of
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
much doubted of that the vaster and more glorious parts of the Creation are not uninhabited but that they have Inhabitants answerable to their magnitude and glory as Palaces have other inhabitants than Cottages and that there is a connaturality and agreeableness there as well as here between the Region or Globe and the inhabitants But whether it be the Globes themselves or only the inter-spaces or other parts that are thus inhabited no reason can doubt but that those more vast and glorious spaces are proportionably possess'd And whether they are all to be called Angels or Spirits or by what other name is unrevealed to us but what ever they are called I make no question but our number to theirs is not one to a million at the most Now this being so for ought we know those glorious parts may have inhabitants without any sin or misery who are filled with their Makers love and goodness and so are fitter to be the demonstration of that love and goodness than this sinful mole-hill or dungeon of ignorance is If I were sure that God would save all mankind and only leave the devils in their damnation and forsake no part of his Creation but their Hell it would not be any great stumbling to my faith Or if Earth were all God's creation and I were sure that he would condemn but one man of a hundred thousand or a million and that only for final impenitency in the contempt of the mercy which would have saved him this would be no great difficulty to my faith Why then should it be an offence to us if God for their final refusal of his grace do for ever forsake and punish the far greater part of this little dark and sinful world while he glorifieth his Benignity and Love abundantly upon innumerable Angels and blessed Spirits and inhabitants of those more large and glorious seats If you would judge of the Beneficence of a King will you go to the Jail and the Gallows to discern it or to his Palace and all the rest of his Kingdom And will you make a few condemned malefactors the measure of it or all the rest of his obedient prosperous subjects If Hell be totally forsaken of God as having totally forsaken him and if Earth have made it self next to Hell and be forsaken as to the far greater part because that greater part hath forsaken him as long as there may be millions of blessed ones above to one of these forsaken ones on earth it should be no offence to any but the selfish guilty sinner I confess I rather look on it as a great demonstration of God's holiness and goodness in his Justice that he will punish the rebellious according to his Laws and a great demonstration of his Goodness in his Mercy that he will save any of such a rebellious world and hath not forsaken it utterly as Hell And when of all the thousands of Worlds or Globes which he hath made we know of none forsaken by him but Hell and part of the Earth all the Devils and most of Men we should admire the glory of his bounty and be thankful with joy that we are not of the forsaken number and that even among sinners he will cast off none but those that finally reject his mercy But selfishness and sense do make men blinde and judge of Good and Evil only by self-interest and feeling and the malefactor will hardly magnifie Justice nor take it to be a sign of Goodness But God will be God whether selfish rebels will or not Obj. That any thing existeth besides God cannot be known but by sense or history Have you either of these for those Inhabitants And if we may go by Conjectures for ought you know there may as many of those Worlds be damned as of earthly men Ans 1. Some men are so little conscious of their humanity that they think that nothing is known at all But he that knoweth by sense that He is himself and that there is a World about him and then by Reason that there is a God may know also by Reason that there are other Creatures which he never saw Neither sense nor history told us of the inhabitants of the then unknown parts of the World and yet it had been easie to gather at least a strong probability that there are such He that knoweth that an intelligent Nature is better than a non-intelligent and then knoweth that God hath made man intelligent and then thinketh what difference there is in matter magnitude and glory between the dirty body of Man with the Earth he liveth in and those vast and glorious Ethereal spaces will quickly judge that it is a thing incredible that God should have no Creatures nobler than man nor imprint more of his Image upon any in those more glorious Regions than on us that dwell as Snails in such a shell or that there should be such a strange disproportion in the works of God as that a punctum of dirty earth only should be possessed of the Divine or Intellectual nature and the vast and glorious Orbs or Spaces be made only to look on or to serve these mortal Worms But proofs go according to the preparation of the Receivers minde Nothing is a proof to the unprepared and prejudiced 2. We have sense by the Telescope to tell us that the Moon hath parts unequal and looketh much like the habitable Earth And we have sense to tell us that there are Witches and Apparitions and consequently other kinde of intellectual Wights than we And we have History to tell us of the appearances and offices of Angels And if there be certainly such wights our eyes may help us to conjecture at their Numbers compared to us by the spaces which they inhabit 3. There is a proportion and harmony in all the works of God And therefore we that see how much the superiour Orbs do in glory excell this dirty Earth have reason to think that the nature of the Inhabitants is suited to their Habitations and consequently that they are more excellent Creatures than we and therefore less sinfull and therefore more happy 4. Yet after all this I am neither asserting that all this is so nor bound to prove it I only argue that you who are offended at the numbers that sin and perish do wrangle in the dark and speak against you know not what Conjecture is enough for me to prove that you do foolishly to argue against experience of the sin and misery of the most upon meer uncertainties You will not censure the actions of a Prince or Generall when your ignorance of their Counsels maketh you uncertain of the cause yea and of the matter of fact it self The proof lyeth on your part and not on mine You say our doctrine is incredible because so few are saved and yet confess that for ought you know taking all together it may be many millions for one that perisheth I think by proving you uncertain of this
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
to assure us that he will never create any thing hereafter Cannot a workman look on his house and see that it is well done and say I have finished it without obliging him never to build another nor to make any reparations of that as there is cause May not God create a new Heaven and Earth may he not create a new Star or a new Plant or Animal if he please without the breaking of any word that he hath spoken For my part I never saw a word which I could discern to have any such signification or importance The argument from Genes 1. is no better than theirs who from Christ's consummatum est do gather that his death and burial which followed that word were no part of his satisfactory meritorious humiliation On the contrary there have been both Philosophers and Divines who have thought that God doth in omni instanti properly create all things which he is said to conserve of whom the one part do mean only that the being of the creatures is as dependant on his continual causation as the life of the branches is on the tree but that the same substance is continued and not another daily made But there are others who think that all creatures who are in fluxu continuo not per locomotum but ab entitate ad nihilum and that they are all but a continual emanation from God which as it passeth from him tendeth to nothing and new emanations do still make such a supply as that the things may be called the same as a River whose waters pass in the same Channel As they think the beams or light of the Sun doth in omni instanti oriri festinare ad nihilum the stream being still supplied with new emanations Were it not for the overthrow throw of individuation personality rewards and punishments that hence seemeth to follow this opinion would seem more plausible than theirs who groundlesly prohibit God from causing any more new beings But though no doubt there is unto all beings a continual emanation or influx from God which is a continued causation it may be either conservative of the being first caused or else restorative of a being continually in decay as he please for both ways are possible to him as implying no contradiction though both cannot be about one and the same being in the same respect and at the same time And our sense and reason tell us that the conservative influx is his usual way 2. But it is commonly and not without reason supposed that generation produceth things de novo in another sense not absolutely as creation doth but secundum quid by exalting the seminal virtue into act and into perfection New individuals are not made of new matter now created but the corporeal part is only pre-existent matter ordered compounded and contempered and the incorporeal part is both quoad materiam suam metaphysicam formam vel naturam specificam the exaltation and expurgency of that into full and perfect existence which did before exist in semine virtuoso When God had newly created the first man and woman he created in them a propagating virtue and fecundity this was as it were semen seminis by this they do first generare semen separabile which suppositis supponendis hath a fecundity fit to produce a new suppositum vel personam and may be called a person seminally or virtually but not actually formally and properly and so this person hath power to produce another and that another in the same way And note that the same creating word which said Let there be light and Let us make man did say also to man as well as to other creatures Increase and multiply not create new souls or bodies but by generation Increase and multiply which is the bringing of many persons out of two and so on as out of a seminal pre-existence or virtual into actual formal existence He knoweth not the mysteriousness of this wonderful work of God nor the ignorance of mankind who knoweth not that all generation of man bruits or plants hath much that is to us unsearchable And they that think it a dishonour to a Philosopher not to undertake or pretend to render the just causes of this and all other the Phaenomena in nature do but say I will hide the dishonour of my ignorance by denying it that is by telling men that I am ignorant of my ignorance and by aggravating it by this increase and the addition of pride presumption and falsity This much is certain 1. That whatsoever distinct parts do constitute individuals which are themselves of several natures so many several natures in the world we may confidently assert though we understand not whether they all exist separatedly or are found only in conjunction with others 2. We certainly find in the world 1. An intelligent nature 2. A sensitive nature 3. A fiery active vegetative nature 4. A passive matter which receiveth the influx of active natures which is distributed into air and water and earth 3. The most active nature is most communicative of it self in the way of its proper operations 4. We certainly perceive that the Sun and fiery nature are active upon the air water and earth which are the passive Elements And by this activity in a threefold influx Motion Light and Heat do cause the sensible alterations which are made below and so that it is as a kind of life or general form or soul to the passive matter 5. We also find that Motion Light and Heat as such are all different totâ specie from sensation and therefore as such are not the adequate causes of it And also that there is a sensitive nature in every animal besides the vegetative 6. Whether the vegetative nature be any other than the fiery or solar is to man uncertain But it is most probable that it is the same nature though it always work not to actual vegetation for want of prepared matter But that the Sun and fiery nature is eminenter vegetativè and therefore that vegetation is not above the nature of fire or the Sun and so may be an effect of it 7. In the production of vegetatives by generation it is evident that as the fiery active nature is the nearest cause efficient and the passive is the matter and recipient So that this igneous nature generateth as in three distinguished subjects three several ways 1. As in Parentibus semine into which God ab origine in the creation hath put not only a spark of the active virtucus fiery nature in general but also a certain special nature differencing one creature from another 2. The Sun and superiour globes of the fiery nature which cast a paternal though but universal influx upon the foresaid semen 3. The calor naturalis telluris which may be called as Dr. Gilbert and others do its soul or form which is to the seed as the anima matris is to the infant And all these three the
Light be not still the same till all the passive matter be consumed is more than you know So also if you argue from the Vegetative life of a Tree Whether the same Principle of Vegetation enlarging it self continue not to the end to individuate the Tree though all the passive Elements Earth Water and Air may be in fluxu and a transient state It is certain that some fixed Principle of Individuation there is from whence it must be denominated the same The water of the hasty River would not be called the same River if the Channel which it runs in were not the same Nor your Candle be called the same Candle if some of the first Wick or Oyl at least did not remain or the same fire continue it or the same Candlestick hold it And what is it in the Tree which is still the same or what in the Bird that flyeth about which is still the same when you have searched all you will finde nothing so likely as the vital Principle and yet that something there must be 2. But doth not the light of Nature and the concurrent sense and practice of all the World confute you and tell you that if you cannot understand what the Individuating Principle is yet that certainly some such there is and doth continue Why else will you love and provide for your own Children if they be not at all the same that you begat nor the same this year as you had the last Why will you be revenged on the Man that did beat you or hang the Thief that robbed you or do Justice on any Murderer or Male-factor seeing that it is not the same man that did the deed If he transpire as much as Sanctorius saith and his substance diminish as much in a day as Opicius saith certainly a few dayes leave him not the same as to those transitory parts Surely therefore there is something which is still the same Else you would deny the King his title and disoblige your selves from your subjection by saying that he is not at all the same man that you swore Allegiance to or that was born Heir of the Crown And you would by the same reason forfeit your own Inheritance Why should uncertain Philosophical whimsies befool men into those speculations which the light and practice of all the world doth condemn as madness But arguing ab ignotis will have no better success Of the individuation of Bodies in the Resurrection I spake before OBJECTION XVII IF the Soul be a substance we must confess it not annihilated But it is most like to proceed from some Element of Souls or Vniversal Soul either the Anima Mundi or rather the Anima Solis vel hujus systematis And so to be reduced to it again and lose its individuation and consequently to be uncapable of Retribution Answ 1. That the Soul which we speak of is a substance is past all controversie For though as I have shewed there is truely an order or temperament of the parts which he that listeth may call the form the life the soul or what he please yet no man denyeth but that there is also some one part which is more subtile pure active potent and regnant than the rest and this is it whatever it is which I call the Soul We are agreed of the Thing let them wrangle de nomine who have nothing else to doe 2. That this substance no substance else is not annihilated as I have said is past dispute 3. Therefore there is nothing indeed in all this business which is liable to Controversie but this point of Individuation which this Objection mentioneth and that of action and operation following And I must confess that this is the only particular in which hereabouts I have found the temptation to error to be much considerable They that see how all waters come from the Sea and how Earth Water Air and Fire have a potent inclination of union and when the parts are separated have a motus aggregativus may be tempted to think it a probable thing that all Souls come from and return unto a Universal Soul or Element of which they are but particles But concerning this I recommend to the sober Reader these following Considerations 1. There is in Nature more than a probability that the Vniverse hath no Vniversal Soul whatever particular Systems or Globes may have For we finde that Perfection lyeth so much in Vnity and as all things are from One so as they go out from One they go into Multiplicity that we have great cause to think that it is the Divine Prerogative to be Vnicus Vniversalis He is the Vnicus Vniversalis in Entity Life Intelligence c. As he hath made no one Monarch of all the Universe no nor of all the Earth nor no one Head of all the Church that is not God whatever the Roman Vice-god say nor hath given any one a sufficiency hereto whatever a self-Idolizer may imagine of himself so he hath not given away or communicated that Prerogative which seemeth proper to the Deity to be an Vniversal Minde and consequently an Vniversal Parent and King yea more to be Omnia in Vno Having no sort of proof that there is any such thing finding it so high and Divine a Prerogative we have little reason to believe that there is any such thing at all in being 2. If you mean therefore no more than an Vniversal Soul to a particular Systeme or Vortex in the World that Vniversal will be it self a particular Soul Individuated and distinct from other Individuals And indeed those very Elements that tempt you might do much to undeceive you There is of Fire a specifical Unity by which it differeth from other Elements but there is no universal aggregation of all the parts of Fire The Sun which seemeth most likely to contend for it will yet acknowledge individual Starrs and other parts of Fire which shew that it is not the whole The Water is not all in the Sea we know that there is much in the Clouds whatever there is elsewhere above the Clouds We have no great cause to think that this Earth is Terra Vniversalis I confess since I have looked upon the Moon through a Tube and since I have read what Galilaeus saith of it and of Venus and other Planets I finde little reason to think that other Globes are not some of them like our Earth And if you can believe an Individuation of Greater Souls why not of Lesser The same reasons that tempt you to think that the Individuation of our Souls will cease by returning into the Anima Systematis vel Solis may tempt you to think that the animae systematum may all cease their Individuation by returning into God and their existence too 3. If this were left as an unrevealed thing you might take some liberty for your Conjectures But when all the Twenty Arguments which I have given do prove a continued Individuation
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