as immediately from Christ or from God the Father and the Son in the same manner as Saint Peter did though not in the same measure But the Difference of the measure in which we receive it or the difference of our growth in Christ doth not argue a different manner either of our receiving it or of growth by it 7. But is this the worst Practise of the Romish Church that she adds one Article more unto our Creed than Saint Peter knew or taught others to believe or that she makes Peters successors to have a Foundation which he had not If thus she did and no more this were enough to convince her of Grosse Heresie But this one Article of faith or this second foundation of faith which she pretends is of such a transcendent nature that it devours all the rest and doth if not overthrow the First foundation of our faith yet which is all one it draws us from it For as many successions as there be of Popes or of Peters pretended successors so many several foundations there be of their faith which successively adhere unto them Nor are these several or successive foundations either immediately cemented or firmly united to the first Foundation which is Christ or one to another They are as so many Rows or Piles of stone laid one upon another without any juncture or binding than loose sand And all that absolutely unite themselves to the present Romish Church that is to Peters pretended successors must of necessity fall off from the First Foundation Christ God and man and flote with these secondarie foundations to wit Peters succcessors when the floods of temptations do arise The point then to be proved is this That the present Romish Church to wit the present Pope or such as rely upon him as a second or intermediate foundation in this structure cannot possibly be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets they cannot grow up together as living stones firmly united in Christ Jesus as in the Corner-stone Now the proof of this Point is clear because none can be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles unlesse they absolutely believe as they believed and firmly acknowledge that which they have commended unto us in their writings to have been delivered unto them by God himself for so they expressely teach us to believe Believing then as they believed we must believe that albeit the Apostles and Prophets be not the Foundation here meant in the Text yet that they were Master Builders appointed by God for squaring and fitting all that lived with them or that succeeded them for this foundation and that the Rule by which as well the Pastors and Teachers as the people taught by them must be fitted and squared for this foundation is the doctrine of faith conteined in their Writings Both these parts of truth to wit that the Books of the Old and New Testament are their Writings or Dictates and that in these Writings the Doctrine or Rule of Faith is contained must be absolutely believed and taken for unquestionable before any modern pastors in the Church can be fram'd or fashioned to be true stones in this building But no man which absolutely believes the present Romish Church can have any absolute belief that the Old and New Testament or the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets are infallibly true or contain the Word of God The best belief that any Romanist can have is but Conditional and the Condition is this If the present Romish Church to wit the Pope and such as rely upon his authoritie be absolutely infallible and cannot err in matter of faith But it will be Replyed In as much as the Roman Catholicks take it as a Principle most unquestionable that their Church cannot erre they for this reason must beleeve the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets concerning Christ to be infallible and the bookes of the Old and New Testament to conteyne the word of God because the Church their Mother which they firmely beleeve cannot erre doth tell them so or as their owne writers speake because the Church their mother doth Canonize these bookes for the bookes of God This indeed is the chiefe advantage which they Presume their Lay-people have of ours in that they believe the Churches testimony concerning the bookes of God to be infallible and if they beleeve the Church to be in this point infallible they cannot doubt but that these bookes are the word of God But if wee look more narrowly into this mysterie of iniquitie and take their full meaning with us it will further appear that this absolute belief of this present Churches absolute infallibilite doth overthrow or undermine the whole frame of faith For they extend this supposed infallibilitie of the Romish Church so farre and make the belief of it so necessarie that without this fundamentall principle as they say wee cannot infallibly believe or know the bookes of the Old and New Testament to containe in them the word of God And in avouching this it is evident that they leave both the Authoritie of the Apostolical and Prophetical writings and the Authoritie of the Present Church altogether uncertaine so uncertaine that nothing avouched by either of them can be by their doctrine so certain as to become any Foundation of their faith If wee cannot infallibly believe the bookes of the Old and New Testament to be the bookes of God himselfe and of divine Authoritie otherwise then by believing the present Romish Church to be infallible let them tell us how they can possibly believe or prove that the Romish Church or any other Congregation of men hath any such infallible authoritie This authoritie must be either believed or known by light of nature or by Divine Testimonie or Revelation That the infallibilitie of their Church can be known by light of Nature they do not they dare not say For that Peter on whom that Church as they pretend is founded was an Apostle of Christ cannot be known by light of Nature or by sense it cannot be infallibly believed but by Divine Authoritie Revelation or Testimonie By what Divine Testimonie then do they know that Peter was an Apostle or that the Church was to be builded on him or on his successors You know they pretend that place of S. Matthew Chap. 16. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and that of S. Luke Chap. 22. 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail And yet they deny that we can possibly know these words to be the words of God or to have any such meaning as they make of them unlesse we will believe the Churches Authoritie in avouching them to be the words of God and her interpretation of them to be infallible But leaving them wandring in this Round or Circle as we found them long agoe let us further consider the manner how we are built upon Christ the Chief Corner-stone and how we must
our Apostle here saith that the whole building doth grow unto an holy temple it is included that every part of this temple should be a living stone For growth such growth as the Apostle speakes of is an effect of life Things inanimate or without life as materiall buildings stones of the quarrie or any heap or congest may become greater by addition of matter unto them they cannot Grow unto greatnesse as wanting the facultie of vegetation or Nutrition That onely is capable of growth which is capable of nutrition and nothing is capable of nutrition but that which is endowed with life Hence saith S. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. vers 2. c. As new born babes desire the Sincere milk of the word that yee may grow thereby if so be yee have tasted that the Lord is gracious The Growth then of every Christian is more than the Growth of vegetables for it includeth the sense of tast wee must tast the graciousnesse of the Lord by faith and wee must come unto him by faith as unto a Living stone disallowed of men but chosen of God and pretaious and coming thus unto him As the Apostle adds vers 5. wee also become lively stones and are built up a spirituall house an holy Priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ S. Peters inference in that place vers 6 7 c. is the very same with our Apostle S. Pauls in this place and so is the Use or Application of it the very same with that which our Apostle makes in the later end of this Epistle But of the Use hereafter It will in the meane time be very Usefull for us to observe That neither S. Paul nor S. Peter when they purposely handled the building of the Gentiles upon this chief Corner-stone do mention or intimate any other Foundation on which wee are to be builded before we be builded on Christ Neither of them taught us to rely on themselves or on their personal faith or their successors Authoritie as upon secondary foundations by Union with whom or relying upon whom we might be grounded upon the Prime Foundation which is Christ If this they had taught us they had taught us not to believe as they believed and not believing as they believed we could not possibly become such live stones of this spirituall edifice as they were 5. But if wee must beleeve as S. Peter believed must wee not beleive as the Church beleeves yes Al that hope to be saved must believe as the true Church believes and they onely are the true Church which believe as S. Peter believed The Question is Who they be that believe as S. Peter believed These wee say are the members of Reformed Churches or the Reformed Churches themselves No member of the Romish Church can possibly believe as S. Peter did unlesse they will abandon the absolute infallibilitie of the visible Romish Church For every one which beleeves as S. Peter did must have the same Object of Faith which S. Peter had He may not believe any Article of faith which S. Peter did not believe he may not seek he cannot hope to be built on the same Foundation on which Peter was built by relying upon any Authoritie upon which Peter himselfe did not rely The manner of his union unto this Foundation must be the same that Peters was as immediate as Peters Union was What then was the proper Object of Peters faith What was the Fundamental Rock on which Peter was by this faith immediately built That was only Christ the Son of man and the Son of the living God And the Branches which naturally issue out of this Root or living Rock are That Christ the Son of the living God the Son of God the Father was Conceived by the Holy Ghost was Born of the Virgin Mary did suffer under Pontius Pilate was Crucified dead and buried c. Did S. Peter believe all or any of these Articles by believing his own Authoritie Was he founded on Christ by the intermediation or interposition of any other secondarie foundation Was he the foundation or Rock on which himself was built If we cannot believe these Articles but by believing S. Peter or his personal faith to be the Rock on which the Church is built then Peter or his personal faith must be to us as a second foundation We cannot be united to Christ we cannot be builded on Christ unlesse we be first united unto and builded on Peter But Peter was not builded upon himself or upon his own faith wherefore if we be builded upon Peter or upon Peters faith we have not the same Object of faith nor the same faith which Peter had for neither Peters person nor his faith were any part of the Object of his Faith His Authoritie was no meanes of his Union with Christ 6. That the Object of Faith must be formally the very Same in all true Believers the present Romish Church if this were the Question between her and us could not deny Her greatest Clerks do expressely teach and maintaine it as a principle of true Divinitie And maintaining this truth they must confesse unlesse they will contradict themselves that we must be as immediately united to Christ by Faith as Peter was we must be as immediately builded on Christ by this faith as Peter was we must not be built on him by being built upon Petes Faith or upon his successors Infallible Authoritie For so we should have another Object or Article of faith than Peter had or his successors have We should have another foundation then Pete had as many more foundations as Peter hath successors Our Union with them should be a part of our Union with Christ Our Belief of their Infallible Authoritie should be the chief Bond of this Union such a bond or stay of our edification upon Christ as the stones or cement in a material building is between the lowest foundation and the intermediate Rows of stone which are layed one upon another until the highest Row be finished And to be thus united unto Christ were to make him no living stone which diffuseth life unto all that are built upon him but a dead stone or a stone only able to support the material or dead weight which is laid upon it there should be no growth in faith but an addition or cementing of one part unto another until the edifice were finished Whereas our Apostles words are expresse that all the building is fitly framed together in Christ and so framed groweth up unto an holy Temple in the Lord. He saith not we are builded one upon another but builded together in Him for an habitation of God through the Spirit This Spirit by which we are builded together in Christ or through which we become the habitation of God is not communicated and propagated unto us from S. Peter and his Successors as from intermediate Foundations or Roots We and all true believers receive the influence of the Spirit
and the self same man as if he had been but once created or had continued from his creation without any interruption of his duration or existence This implies no more contradiction in nature then to say that the King may create one and the same man twice Earl or Duke or make him often the same Magistrate The Office or dignity may be the self same albeit there be some vacancie or interruption in the Administration or duration of it As if a man was deposed of his Office and dignity at the end of the first year and restored again at the end of the second year this would imply a diversity of Creation or advancement no diversitie at all in the Office or dignitie unto which the same person is twice advanced Now Gods Power over all his creatures either utterly to annihilate them or to interrupt them in their actuall existence or duration and to create them in the self same or better estate again is farre greater and more Soveraigne then any Princes civill power to advance or depose his subjects or to restore them intirely to their former dignities Admit then That God had resolved the first man Adam into nothing at the very first instant wherein he did eat the forbidden fruit with purpose not to create him again untill the last trumpet shall sound to Judgement the Terrour of that day should make as deep impression in him then first restored to life and sense again as if he had suffered him to live but one day and had called him at even unto Judgment or a final accompt as terrible as in that last day it shall be to all that die in their sins This whole time of vacancy or cessation from actual Being for almost six thousand years would not have seem'd so long to him at his Resurrection as a night past over in a dead sleep is to a malefactor which had murthered his Father in the Evening and is drawn to the execution as soon as he awakes in the morning Thus much of Gods Power in general to raise up the self same men again which have been long dead or by supposition more then dead utterly resolved into nothing Now if we must acknowledge it as an essential Branch of the Almighty Creators Power to be able to raise up or create the self same men again although they had been annihilated or turned to nothing we must needs acknowledge it as a fruit or effect of the same Power to re-unite every mans soul and body again at the last day seeing the soul as Christian Faith doth teach us doth still remain the same it was the body being not utterly annihilated or consumed to nothing but only resolved into dust or into the Elements of which it was first made Sed quomodo inquis dissoluta materia exhiberi potest Consider a temetipsum O homo fidem rei invenies Recogita quid fueris antequà m esses utique nihil meminisses enim si quid fuisses Qui ergo nihil fuer as priusquam esses idem nihil factus cum esse desieris cur non posses esse rursus de nihilo ejusdem ipsius Auctoris voluntate qui te voluit esse ex nihilo Quid novi tibi eveniet qui non eras factus es cumiterum non eris fies Redde rationem si potes quâ factus es tunc require quà Fies Et tamen facilius utique fies quod fuisti aliquando quia aeque non difficile factus es quod nunquam fuisti aliquando Quaecunque te materia destruxerit hauserit aboleverit in nihilum prodegerit reddet te ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum This is the sum of Tertullian's Collections Apolog. cap. 48. 10. This Power of God to create man of nothing and to create every one the self same man he was albeit he had been annihilated or turned into nothing The School Divines of the Romish Church acknowledge and with great subtilty of wit and strength of Argument prove out of the Article of Gods Omnipotencie unto which all Possibilitie meerly Logical or which implies no evident contradiction in nature is alwayes subject and obedient But of This as of most other Orthodoxal Doctrines or Principles of Faith wherein we hold communion and consort with the Roman Church the modern Advocates of that Church the Jesuites especially make a very malicious and Sinister use The most learned amongst the modern Jesuites being pressed by our Writers with the gross absurdities and scandalous inconveniences which necessarily follow upon their doctrine of Transubstantiation or of Christs local Circumscriptive bodily presence in the blessed Sacrament Fly to this doctrine of Gods Almighty Power whereby he is able to create one and the self same Individual Substance again and again as oft as it pleaseth him as to their last Hold and refuge Their only hope is that this General Doctrine being made plausible by them they shall be able to make their quarrel Just not in it self but upon expected advantage if any of our Writers should be so forward as in divers other Cases some have been too forward to deny their Antecedents when as they should Traverse the Inference or conclusions which they labor with subtiltie to infer from plausible and Orthodoxal Premisses Howbeit this Antecedent That God is able to create the self same man or bodily substance again and again and as oft as it shall please him no Protestant Writer to my observation hath yet denied none as I hope will ever deny But such is our adversaries confidence of Christs promise to St. Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail Luke 22. 32. and of the Popes authority as of Peters pretended Successor in this promise that whatsoever doctrine the Pope shall deliver ex Cathedra as he hath done this doctrine of Transubstantiation for a point of Faith they think God bound in Justice to use his absolute and Omnipotent power to make it true For if the Pope or the visible Romish Church could possibly err in this or any other point of faith God by their doctrine should fail in the performance of his former general promise which undoubtedly he will not do so long as he hath power to make his promise good or to make the visible Churches interpretations true and justifiable to the preservation of whose Infallibility he hath as they teach bound himself by solemn promise 11. But The Question betwixt us and them Concerning Christs local or circumscriptive Bodily presence in the Sacrament is not whether God can make one and the same body to be at one and the same time in divers places or whether He can create one and the same body again in every hour or in every place as shall seem good to him But whether it be his will to use this his power Or whether his will thus to do be so fully revealed in Scripture as that we are bound to believe That he doth or will make Christs
in the first place 3. All of them did solemnly promise and vow to mortifie the deeds of the body as we now do But so may others do which never meant to be baptized It is true and therefore the full and onely Reason why these Romans one and other were reckoned as dead to sin was not because they had promised or vowed to mortifie the deeds of the flesh or to put sin unto a civil death that is to break the Raign or Dominion of it For thus to promise or thus to vow without sufficient means or probable hopes such hopes and means as by nature they could not have to perform what they thus vow were presumption a tempting of God and provocation of Satan to take that opportunitie which they themselves offer to assault them To compell all that come unto the Sacred Laver to undertake that treble vow which is and hath been alwayes solemnly made and undertaken either by the parties themselves which are to be baptized in case they be of years or by their sureties were the part rather of a cruel Stepdame than the office of a loving Mother unlesse the Church our Mother which exacts this vow of all and every one could give full assurance to all and every one of her sons that God in baptisme for his part never failes to give means sufficient for quelling the reign of sin for mortifying the deeds of the body Means I mean sufficient not in themselves only but sufficient to every one of us unlesse we will be defective unto our selves Now adde this Reason unto the former and you have the true and full meaning of our Apostle when he saith that all that are Baptized are dead to sin that is First they are dead unto it by solemn vow or profession Secondly they are said to be dead unto sin or sin to be dead in them in as much as they in Baptism receive an Antidote from God by which the rage and poison of it might easily be asswaged or expelled so they would not either receive that grace or means which God in Baptisme exhibits unto them in vain or use it amisse So we may say that any popular disease is quelled or taken away after a soveraign remedie be found against it which never fails so men will seek for it seasonably apply it and observe that Dyet which the Physitian upon the taking of it prescribes unto them 4. Some in our times there be and more I think than have been in all the former which deny all Baptismal Grace Others there be which grant some Grace to be conferred by Baptisme even unto infants but yet these restrain it onely to infants Elect. And This they take to be the meaning of our Churches Catechisme wherein Children are taught to believe That as Christ the second Person in the Trinitie did Redeem them and all mankind So the Holy Ghost the third Person doth sanctifie them and all the Elect People of God But can any man be perswaded that it was any part of Our Churches meaning to teach Children when they first make profession of their Faith to believe that they are of the number of the Elect that is of such as cannot finally perish This were to teach them their Faith backwards and to seek the Kingdom of Heaven not Ascendendo by ascending but Descendendo by descending from it For higher then thus Saint Paul himself in his greatest perfection could not possibly reach no nor the blessed Angels which have kept their First station almost these 6000 years Yet certain it is that Our Church would have every one at the very first profession of his Faith to believe that he is One of the Elect People of God But those Reverend Fathers which did compose that Catechisme and the Church our Mother which did approve and authorize it did in charity presume that every one which would take upon him to expound this Catechisme or other principles of Faith should first know the Distinction between the Elect that is such persons as cannot perish and the Elect People of God or between Election unto Gods ordinarie Grace or means of salvation and Election unto eternal glory Every People or Nation every company of men when they are first converted from Gentilism to Christianitie become an Elect People a chosen generation or company of men that is they and their seed after them are made capable of Baptism receive an Interest in Gods promises made unto us in Christ which the heathens whilst they continue heathens cannot have And all of Us are in Baptism thus far sanctified that we are made true members of the visible Church qualified for hearing the word for receiving the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood and whatsoever Benefits of Christs Priestly Function are committed to the dispensation of his Ministers And thus far sanctified by Baptisme no man can be but by the Holy Ghost Our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. 14. That the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the believing wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing Husband else were your children unclean but now they are holy So that he attributes an holiness unto the children of believing Parents by which they are more capable of Baptisme then the children of unbelieving Parents are And of this holiness by which they are capable of Baptisme all children are partakers although but one of their Parents whether Father or Mother do believe much more are the children of believing Parents to be reputed holy or sanctified after baptisme by which alwayes some Gift of the Holy Ghost is conferred upon them For even that holiness which was communicated or derived unto them from their Parents before they were baptized or by which they became capable of Baptisme was conferred upon their Parents by Baptisme 5. Whether This gift or Qualification wherewith The Holy Ghost is said to sanctifie all the Elect people of God be or include in it the Grace of Regeneration I will not dispute That infants are by Baptisme regenerated we may not deny unlesse we will take upon us to put another sense upon the Articles of our Church than they will naturally bear But whether such as were baptized when they came to years of discretion as most of these Romanes were did in Baptisme receive the Grace of Regeneration or were forthwith regenerated That I leave unto the Schools It sufficeth us to know the true meaning of our Apostle in this place And this it is All of us in baptisme receive A gift or Talent which by nature we had not we could not have For the use of this talent we shall be called unto a strict accompt And when this accompt shall be taken it shall go harder with those which either have abused it misimployed it or not used it than with the Gentiles Heathens or Infidels which never received the like For to whom more is given of them more shall be required And unlesse their means to vanquish Satan
bounds do the same things she doth by Equivalencie and run to the same End by a quite contrary way The Romish Church it cannot be denyed makes her Popes and Prelates with other Pillars of their Church plain Idols They which out of an undiscreet and furious zeal seem most to abhor this kind of Idolatry commit Sacrilege and rob God of his honour as the Romish Church doth And he that robs God of his honour doth the very same thing and no other which an Idolater doth Now they are said in Scripture to rob God of his honour and to commit an abomination more then heathenish for the heathen do not spoil their Gods which defraud him of his tithes offrings which were due unto the Priest for his ministration and service in Gods House But they rob God of his honour more immediately and more directly which despise or contemn his Embassadors not in word only but in taking that Authority from them which he hath expresly given unto them and which is worst of all in seeking to alienate it unto them over whom he hath in matter of salvation appointed them Guides and Overseers That Precept of our Apostle I am sure will stand good when all Laws or Intendments of Laws to confront it will fail Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 17. What Rule doth he mean meerly Civil or Temporal No! What then Ecclesiastick Not that only But the Rule of Government spiritual such as is proper to the Bishops of the Church For so it follows for they to whom you are to submit your selves watch for your souls as they that must give an accompt and you are therefore to obey that they may do their office with joy and not with grief for that saith the Apostle is unprofitable for you Now that in this plenty of preaching and frequencie in hearing The most hearers profit so little in the School of Christ the true Reason is for that men do not submit themselves unto their Pastors in such sort as they ought but think it his Duty or Office only to preach and their duty only to hear not to be Ruled or Governed by him whereas the ones preaching is vain and the others hearing is vain unless this duty of obedience be first planted in their hearts The Pastors Grief which ariseth from neglect or contempt of this Duty will prove in the issue the Peoples Curse 8. But the main stream of Popery from which the name of Babylon is derived unto Rome was the Absolute Infallibilitie of the Romish Church Representative The branches of this supposed absolute Infallibilitie were Two The First That the sense of Scriptures which that Church doth maintain or avouch concerning Faith or Manners is alwayes Authentick undoubted and true But whereas many Points as well of Doctrine as Practise concerning Faith and Manners were in that Church established by Prescription and Use without so much as any Pretence of warrant from Scripture They were inforced in the Second Place to maintain That the Unwritten Traditions of the Church were of equal Authoritie with the Scriptures and that the present Church was as Infallible in her Testimony of the One as in her Judgment of the other The Infallible Consequence of which supposed Infallibilitie is This That the people were absolutely to believe whatsoever that Church should propound unto them as a Point of faith or practise commendable and to abjure whatsoever that Church should condemn for heresie or ungodliness By Absolute Belief or obedience they intend a belief or obedience not only without Condition or scruple in the first undertaking but without Reservation of appeal upon any new discovery of dangers unseen unsuspected in the first undertaking The Churches Authority once declared was in their Divinity sufficient to quell or put to silence all succeeding Replies or mutterings of Conscience Both these dangerous Errors were well Reformed The later stream or puddle of Traditions in a manner drained by this Church and State For every Bishop at his Consecration doth solemnly promise or vow not to propound any thing to the people as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly conteined in the Scripture or may be thence deduced by necessary Inference To bind or tie all Bishops thus solemnly unto the observance of this Rule the wisdom of those Times had these Reasons Not only to curb or restrain the licentious Abuse of Bishops former Authoritie but because they knew that the people were in many Cases concerning the service of God and other Christian duties bound to yeeld more credence and obedience to their Bishops and Pastors then unto men not called to Sacred or Pastoral Function It is One Thing to believe any Doctrinal Proposition as A Point of Faith necessary to salvation Another to believe it so far as we may safely adventure upon any practise or duty injoyned by superiors That is to believe it not Absolutely but Conditionally and out of such belief to obey them not absolutely but conditionally that is with reservation of freedom or libertie when either the truth shall be better discovered then now it is or greater dangers appear then for the present we do suspect The Obedience which we give unto Superiors may be Ex Fide of Faith albeit the points of doctrine or the perswasions out of which we yeeld this obedience be not De Fide No points of Faith or necessary to salvation 9. But a great many well-meaning men there were who shortly after this happy Reformation could not content themselves to stand upon such sure Termes of Contradiction unto the Romish Church as the first Reformers had done but sought in this Point which was indeed above all others to be abhorred to be most extremly Contrary unto her Wherein then doth that Contradiction to the Romish Church wherein the first Reformers of Religion did entrench themselves and wherein doth the Extream Contrarietie whereunto others more Rigid Reformers if they could have effected their Projects would have drawn this Church and Land consist The Romish Church as you heard before did make Unwritten Traditions a Part of the Rule of Faith as soveraign as the written Word of God and did obtrude those observances which had no other warrant then such Tradition as altogether necessary to salvation The First Reformers of this Error were contented to contradict them only in this And their Contradiction is expresly mainteined partly in the Articles of Religion partly in the Book of Consecration of Bishops The Contradiction is This That all things necessary to salvation are contained in Scripture which is all one as to say That the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith Yet did they not for all this utterly reject All use of Tradition or Ceremonies as you may find expressed in the thirty fourth Article in which though Rites and Ceremonies or other customs of the Church be not injoyned in particular as they take for granted by God himself
to assist the Widow and the Orphan obliged to help out the more profitable works of Learned men deceased As God by convincing me of disabilitie hath taken away all hopes and desires of publishing any Work of mine own So he hath given me an extraordinary delight of serving out the works of this Man and this delight hath made me able to take more pains in this then ever I took in any other Book-businesse throughout my whole life Yea God seems to have given me life beyond all expectation partly for effecting this Work I said in the year 1649 I shall certainly go down to the grave God strangely brought me back from the Gates of Death He only knows what more to suffer I cannot see at present what else to do but to publish these Tracts the Quintessence of which is That of The Resurrection of the Dead I have yet Two Things to trouble your patience with The Former is To secure you that I have made no Merchandize no base Gain no gain at all for any would be base in me of those Jewels you committed to my Trust The Later To assure you That I have dealt as carefully and faithfully in the Publication of These Tracts as I would if the Case had so been the Author should have done in mine And yet if this satisfaction be too general to stay that wonderment which haply will arise in your mind when at the end of Chap. 43. you shal find A Fragment of the Authors interserted Be pleased over and above the Reasons there given to accept of this Following The Opinion That the sins of those Jewes who crucified our Saviour persecuted his Apostles and stoned S. Stephen were not visited upon them but that the Plagues respectively due for doing so were fended off or superseded by the signal vertue of Christs Blood speaking better things then that of Abel and special Efficacie of His Prayers for them was new and seemed though quaint yet very useful for us of suffering Condition I confess I am scrupulous of losing any Fragment of this Authors but was highly tender of leaving out in that place the least Grain of weight that might adde any shew of proof to His intended Conclusion which I would fain have rendred as probable as might be That we who are to fill up the leavings of Christs afflictions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might more willingly and perfectly conform to Our Captain not only in Patience but in Charitie also and be excited earnestly to sollicit and employ the Interest we have in God through Christ chiefly for the Conversion and Salvation of our Adversaries and then for sparing them as to temporal punishments That it may one day appear they fared the better for those that fared worse for them even for those whom they counted the worst of men the Troublers of Israel the Anathemaes or Cursed things If this will not satisfie you I have no Refuge left but to fly to the Sanctuary where the Authors ashes lye and to beg pardon of you in whom by consignment of Will his Person lives which I presume you will the sooner grant upon condition I cease to trouble you further May you please then to sit by a while only to view how I demean my self and to awe me into Reverence in my Addresses to the Common Christian Reader who by what he hath here already heard and shall after read will joyn in thanks to You and Prayers for You With Your Affectionate Humble Servant in Christ B. O. To the CHRISTIAN READER Grace from GOD and Benefit from THIS BOOK COncerning the Author of these Learned and Godly Tracts I have spoke my mind so fully in the Prefaces to the First and Second Volumes Printed in Folio some years ago that I have nothing to do here but to own and avow what I there wrote which by these presents I heartily do And when the Reader hath perused this Book I hope he will confess That I have good reason not only to continue but to increase and advance my good Opinion of Him and say He believed and therefore spake what is here to be read in these Comments upon the Creed and that Being dead by Faith and these Writings faithful and true he yet speaks as the Oracles of God concerning Judgment to come The Resurrection of the Dead and Life Everlasting Touching the Order of the whole Bodie of His Works I have likewise so fully expressed my self in the Preface to the Tenth Book as that to say any thing more of That would be superfluous I can only call to mind One useful Particular which I then forgot though I had inserted it amongst my Memorandums of things necessary to be accounted for to the Reader the Omission whereof is here to be repaired and that is About the Numeration of the Folioes or the Figures set on the tops of the first and following leaves respectively The First Volume in Folio Containing the Three First Books of this Authors Commentaries on the Creed did end with the number 508. The tenth Book which is the second Volume as yet printed in Folio did begin with Number 3001. To the Intelligent Reader asking a Reason of so great a Chasma or Skip I Answer All the Numbers betwixt these Two were left void and allowed according to conjectural Computation for the reprinting in Folio of the 4 5 6 7 8 and 9 th Books only yet printed in Quarto for that the Owner of the Copies may not afford to put them into Folio that so the whole proceeding in a Continued Series might be more capable of a General Index at the last About the Order observed in This Book there is so much said upon sundry occasions in several Transitions as hath prevented for though it follow in reading it was printed before this Preface the pains here So that it is the Matter of this Eleventh Book which must afford me stuff or matter whereon to make a Preface Here is then published for the Readers behoof and to his view A TREATISE of that Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which arises from the right understanding and true Belief of His Sitting at the Right Hand of God the Father Of His Exaltation thereby to be Lord and Christ or to His Lordship and Dominion which being both of Proprietie and Jurisdiction hath annexed unto it the Power of Judging the Quick and the Dead And in order thereunto of Raising the Dead also that both they and those which shall be found alive at His Coming may by His Award or Sentence receive their Final Dooms according to their several Demeanours in the Bodie when they that have done Good shal go into Life Everlasting which is the Gift of God And those that have done Evil and have not their evil deeds done away receiving the wages of sin shal go into Everlasting Fire This is the Short or sum of what is conteined in the Five first Sections The Sixth
place either expresly or implicitly to direct our prayers to God the Father that he would be pleased to forgive us our sins to be reconciled unto us and bestow such blessings upon us as he hath promised to such as shall be reconciled unto him In the Second place either expressly or implicitly we are to beseech him to forgive us our sins to be reconciled and blesse us for the merits of his only Son who hath made satisfaction for us This is a Point which every Christian is bound expressely to believe that God the Father doth neither forgive sins nor vouchsafe any Term or Plea of Reconciliation but only for the merits and satisfaction made by the sacrifice of the Son of God who by the eternal spirit offered himself in our humane nature upon the Crosse In the next place we are to believe and acknowledge that as God the Father doth neither forgive nor vouchsafe Reconciliation but for the merits and satisfaction of his only Son so neither will he vouchsafe to conveigh this or any other blessing unto us which his Son hath purchased for us but only through his Son not only through him as our Advocate or Intercessor but through him as our Mediator that is through His humanitie as the Organ or Conduit or as the only Bond by which we are united and reconciled unto the Divine Nature For although the Holy Spirit or Third Person in Trinitie doth immediately and by Personal Proprietie work faith and other spiritual Graces in our Souls yet doth he not by these Spiritual Graces unite our souls or Spirits immediately unto himself but unto Christs Humane Nature He doth as it were till the ground of our hearts and make it fit to receive the seed of life But this seed of righteousnesse immediately flows from the Sun of Righteousnesse whose sweet influence likewise it is which doth immediately season cherish and ripen it The Spirit of life whereby our Adoption and Election is sealed unto us is the real participation of Christs Bodie which was broken and of Christs Blood which was shed for us This is the true and punctual meaning of our Apostles speech 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul or as the Syriack hath it Animale Corpus an enlivened bodie but the second Adam was made a quickning spirit and immediately becometh such to all those which as truely bear his image by the Spirit of Regeneration which issues from him as they have born the Image of the first Adam by natural propagation And this again is the true and punctual meaning of our Saviours words John 6. 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life For so he had said in the verses before to such as were offended at his words what if you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before The Implication conteined in the Connexion between these two verses and the precedent is this That Christs Virtual presence or the influence of life which his Humane Nature was to distil from his heavenly Throne should be more profitable to such as were capable of it then his Bodily presence then the bodily Eating of his flesh and blood could be although it had been convertible into their bodily substance This distillation of life and immortalitie from his glorified Humane Nature is that which the Ancient and Orthodoxal Church did mean in their Figurative and lofty speeches of Christs Real presence or of eating His very Flesh and drinking His very Blood in the Sacrament And the Sacramental Bread is called His Bodie and the Sacramental Wine His Blood as for other reasons so especially for This that the vertue or influence of his Bloody Sacrifice is most plentifully and most effectually distilled from heaven unto the worthy Receivers of the Eucharist And unto this Point and no further will most of the Testimonies reach which Bellarmin in his books of the Sacraments or Maldonat in his Comments upon the sixth of Saint John do quote out of the Fathers for Christs Real Presence by Transubstantiation or which Chemnitius that Learned Lutheran in his Books De duabus in Christo naturis and de Fundamentis sanae doctrinae doth avouch for Consubstantiation And if thus much had been as distinctly granted to the Ancient Lutherans as Calvin in some places doth the controversie between the Lutheran and other Reformed Churches had been at an end when it first begun Both Parties acknowledging Saint Cyrill to be the fittest Umpire in this Controversie The end of the Third Chapter A Transition of the Publisher's IT must not be dissembled that I had no Intimation much lesse Commission of the Author's to Insert the Two following Chapters herein this place Yet besides that I knew not of any fitter place where to dispose of them I had these Reasons so to do 1. I held it fit that His Powerful Disputes against the Church of Rome about The Lords Supper in the fourth Chapter and about another Point in the fifth should immediately follow his Learned Argument with the Lutheran 2. The sequence seems very Methodical The Subject of the first Chapter being partly About Christs Exaltation by becoming The Chief Corner-Stone cut out of the Rock or quarrey by his Resurrection from The New Scpulchre lifted up by his Ascension and placed at the Chief Corner by his Sitting at Gods Right-hand and partly about The Union of Christ with true Christians which Union is both a Considerable part of the fourth Chapter and was happily touched upon in the Close of the Third 3. In case any Restive soul should perhaps some faint Dejected Spirit having read Christs Great Exaltation may say Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Such an one besides the quickenings he may hear from other Remembrancers Saint Peter telling us that we are pilgrims here and Saint Paul that we seek a Countrie and look for a Citie Jerusalem that is Free and that being Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of Gods hous-hold our Conversation or Traffick is to be in heaven for those things which are above where Christ sitteth at Gods Right-hand c. may receive mightie encouragement by Experimenting the Contents of these two next Chapters The avowed neer approach and Intimacie of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Believing and Receiving Christian The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart When the holy Sacramental pledges be in the mouth and Faith in the heart The Word the Eternal Word that was made flesh is nigh indeed For Verily Verily He that eateth my Fesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him CHAP. 1111. A Paraphrase upon the sixth of St. John In what sense Christ's flesh is said to be truly Meat c. What it is To eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Of eating and drinking Spiritual and Sacramental And whether of them is meant
give is his flesh that his flesh is meat indeed that his blood is drink indeed Now if the sacramental bread in S t Matthew cannot literally be said to be his body unlesse it be converted into the substance of his body then cannot Christ himselfe literally be said to be bread unlesse his substance be converted into the substance of bread His flesh cannot literaly be said meat indeed unlesse it be really and substantially converted into meat his blood cannot be said drink indeed unlesse it be really transubstantiated into drink If they grant these words to be meant of Sacramental eating or to be equivalent to the words of the Institution Now to deny these words to be meant of sacramentall eating is every way lesse expedient for reformed Churches than for the Romish And yet to restrayn them either to Sacramental eating onely or to Spirituall eating excluding sacramental is worst of all We are therefore to consider that sacramental eating and spiritual eating are not opposite or incompatible but subordinate Our eating of Christs body and drinking of Christs blood are then compleat when they are Sacramentally spiritual or spiritually sacramentall For as Calvin excellently observes albeit such as professe themselves zealous followers of him either do not understand him or do not second him to eat Christs body and drink Christs blood Sacramentally is more then to beleive in Christ more than to have our faith awaked or quickned by the sacramentall pledges For no man can spiritually eat Christ but by beleeving his death and passion yet sacramental eating addes some what to spiritual eating how quick and lively soever our faith be whilest wee eat him onely spiritually For though our faith were in both the same as well for degree as qualitie yet the object of our faith is not altogether the same at least the Union of our faith unto the same object is not altogether the same in sacramental and in spiritual eating Christs body and blood are so present in the Sacrament that wee receive a more speciall influence from them in use of the sacrament than without it wee do so we receive it worthily or with hearts prepared by spiritual eating precedent that is by serious meditation of Christs death and passion It is not all one either not to think on Christs death and passion out of the sacrament or to think on them negligently or not reverently and to receive the sacrament of his body and blood unworthily negligently or irreverently Now as the effects or consequence of the unworthy Receiving the Holy Sacrament is more Dangerous then the Effects or Consequence of not eating Christ Spiritually or of Careless Meditation upon Christs death and passion so the Effect of Sacramental Receiving worthily and faithfully performed is a Greater refreshing to the Soul then the effect of Receiving Him Spiritually onely though reverently and as becomes us Now unto the reverent and worthy Receiving of Christs Bodie and Blood both ways that is both Spiritually and Sacramentally as being the most complete performance of the Condition required is the Promise of our Saviour most immediatly annexed He that So eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood Dwelleth in Mee and I in Him The meaning of which Promise was the Second Point proposed paragraph the 5 th and should be next handled but that the Application here desireth to be inserted 11. What hath been spelled apart let us now put together He that intends aright to eat Christs flesh and drink his Blood Sacramentally to his Souls Health must come prepared by a right and worthy receiving of Both Spiritually Now we Spiritually eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood as often as we reverently and faithfully meditate upon Christs Death and remember it aright And this we do when we take a true Estimate of ourselves and of his death and sufferings for us For this is both duely to examine our selves or our own soules and rightly to Esteem or Discern the Lord's Bodie To Discern his Bodie from the bodies of other men we cannot unlesse we believe and acknowledge it to be The Bodie of the Son of God The bodie of God Blessed for ever as was shewed at large before in other Tracts and in the fore-part of this Book And this we may do and yet not rightly esteem that Love which Christ shewed unto us in offering his Bodie and Blood in respect of the love of others which would perhaps adventure their Bodies and shed their blood for us 12. To remember a A Good turn done by a friend and not to value and prize it as we ought is rather to forget then to remember his Friendlinesse Now no man can rightly prize the Death of Christ and the benefits thereof unlesse he truely believe that Christ Dyed for him But is Every one bound to believe This Yes He that doth not believe This doth not believe that Christ is The Messias or the Redeemer of the World To doubt of This is a degree of Infidelitie to denie it is more then Heresie a point of Jewish Infidelitie Yet to believe thus much and no more doth not immediately make a good Christian or worthy receiver of the Holy Sacrament What more then must every one believe That Christ dyed for him in particular certainly he must Nor doth the belief of This make him sure of his Salvation Every one must believe that Christ dyed for him in particular that he may be a worthy Receiver And Every One must worthily receive this Holy Sacrament that is worthily remember Christs death that he may make his Election sure But in what sense must Every one believe that Christ dyed for him in particular not Exclusively as if he dyed not for others as well as for him for this were to have the faith of Christ with respect of persons without charitie and contrarie to reason For if Every one must believe that Christ died for him in particular then every man must believe that Christ dyed for all men as well as for him Otherwise some men should be bound to believe an untruth But if he died for all men how is he said to die for thee and me in particular Verie well Thus. Though He dyed for all as well as for Thee or me yet did he not Die partly for thee and partly for me and partly for others but intirely for every one 13. Plato as Seneca in his 6. Book De Beneficijs Cap. 18. tells us thought himself obliged in kindnesse to one that had Transported him over a River without paying his Fare he reckoned it Positum apud Platonem officium But when he saw others partakers of the same Benefit he Disclaimed the Debt Hence Seneca draws This Aphorism It is not enough for him that will oblige me unto him to do me a good Turn unlesse he do it as to my self directly non tantùm mihi sed tanquà m mihi If upon the like considerations or to the end that they may think themselves obliged to
the Son of God more then other men are some in our dayes have taught That Christ did not only suffer all for them but as for them in particular all others being not such as they deemed themselves to be that is not truly Elect being excluded from the Benefit of his sufferings This is the best Use and most Charitable construction that can be made of so unuseful and uncharitable a Doctrine Though to gather any good Use from it is as impossible as to reap Figgs of Thistles Howbeit as well as they who hold That Christ died for the Elect only as they which teach That he dyed for all must beware lest they mis-apply That Rule of Seneca's touching ordinarie benefits or Common courtesies unto that Extraordinarie loving kindnesse of Christs sufferings Quod debeo cum multis solvam cum multis That which I owe amongst others I will not pay alone His meaning is That for Common benefits he is only bound to pay his share or portion Far be it from any one that nameth the Name of the Lord Jesus to reason thus in his heart or secret thoughts Christ died for the many hundreds of thousands now living and for the more hundreds of ten thousands late or long since dead as well as for me therefore I owe him love and thankfulnesse but pro ratà suppose the exact number was certainly known I am but to acknowledge such a part of his sufferings to have been undertaken for me as I am of that great multitude Every humane soul is indebted to Christ for the whole not every single man for his part of mans Redemption That which St. Bernard speaks in a Case not altogether the same is most true of the Benefits of Christs sufferings Nec in multitudinem divisa sunt nec ad paucitatem restricta If Gods love to mankind be infinite and if the value of Christs blood or sufferings be truly infinite as they truly be they cannot be divided amongst many much lesse can they be restrained to some few both these being against the nature of Infinitie And if the value of Christs sufferings cannot be divided into parts Everie one must acknowledge that He paid an infinite price for his Redemption in particular A price lesse then infinite could not have Redeemed any one of us and a price more then infinite could not be given for all If Christ became a second Adam to die and suffer for redeeming man he dyed and suffered for all men for every man albeit the number of men which proceed from the first Adam could be infinite Had it been the Will or Purpose of the Son of God to have taken upon him the Form of a Servant immediately upon the First Woman's sin of Disobedience his sufferings for her could not have sufficed unlesse they had been of value infinite And being of value infinite for her they had been of the same value for everie living Soul that issued from her to the Worlds end If then the price he laid down for thee were infinite that is without measure or Bounds thy Love and thankfulnesse to Him must be without Stint or limit Though He died for others as well as thee yet art thou bound to love Him no lesse then if he had died for thee alone Thus must Thou think of Christ's Death and Passion if thou remember it aright And as often as thou Readest Hearest or makest Confession with thy Lips That Christ's Blood was shed for thee make this Comment or Paraphrase in thine heart He shed his whole Blood for me every drop that fell from Him either in the Garden or on the Crosse or elsewhere was poured out for my sake for me in particular Yea every one which hears of Christ is bound to believe that he dyed for him and as for him that the benefit of his Passion redounds et mihi et tanquam mihi and charitie if it spring from Faith will teach us to exclude none from Title to the benefits of Christs Death and sufferings 14. This Doctrine of Christ's Dying for All of His purpose to dissolve the works of Satan in all I am bold to professe in every place where Christ's Name is called upon in every place where I have or may have oportunitie to make Christ known The bolder because it sets forth not only the Love and Mercie but the Justice of God a great deal more then the contrarie Doctrine can do It makes mans sinfulnesse and unthankfulnesse appear much greater then by the contrarie Doctrine can be apprehended or acknowledged Besides it makes our Ministrie of preaching more useful then otherwise it could be For if we grant That Christ dyed only for the Elect we might acquit our selves with safetie of Conscience from the burden of preaching or Catechizing save only in those Congregations which we know to be of the number of the Elect or men alreadie regenerate Howbeit even in respect of Them our preaching could not be so useful as it would be harmful to others We could but testifie that to the Elect which they already know that is that they shall be saved But if once we teach that the Elect only or some few perhaps one of a Thousand not one of five hundred have any interest in Christs sufferings every man which is not as yet regenerate nor in the state of Election would forthwith conclude that it is a thousand to One more then five hundred to One that he can receive no benefit from Christs sufferings having no interest in the everlasting inheritance purchased by them And were it not much better to be silenced then by our preaching to put such stumbling-blocks in their wayes whom we are sent to call unto Christ For we are not sent to call the righteous or men alreadie regenerate but sinners to repentance to the state of regeneration How true soever in the Event it may prove That but a Few shall be saved in respect of them that perish though the most part of men do die in their sins yet their blood shall be required at their hands who have taught that they could not be saved that Christ did not die did not suffer for them But if we teach as God in his Word hath taught us That Christ Dyed and suffered for all men no man can doubt whether Christ dyed for him or no and not doubting that Christ dyed for him he need not Dispair of Salvation by him we leave him without excuse for not repenting and seeking Christ Again This same Doctrine sets forth the Glorie of God much more then the other can For albeit Gods mercies unto One man be truly infinite or rather infinite in themselves yet if according to this infinitie they be extended unto all they are extensively much greater If God had created only these inferior Elements and man their creation would necessarily infer the infinitie of his power for without infinite power nothing could have been made of Nothing but yet his praise or glorie would
and Dignity of Lord and to put on The Affection of a Priest perpetually to make intercession on our behalf for Remission of sins past Rom. 3. 26. and for Grace whereby for the future we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Seeing then we have so great an High Priest Let us hold fast our Profession And let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Worthy is THE LAMB that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing Revel 5. 12. And THE LAMB shall overcome them for He is LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS Rev. 17. 14. SECTION III. Of Christs coming to Judgement 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ That every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Acts 17. 30. But now God commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given all men assurance in that he raised him from the dead Daniel 7. 9. Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living We shal All stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Revel 20. 12. CHAP. IX THe First Words contain an undoubted Maxim or principal Article of our Faith yea such a Plurality of Articles of Christian Belief that I could not choose fitter for continuation of my former Argument concerning Christs Lordship or Dominion And His Dominion as was said before was A Dominion both of Property and of Jurisdiction We are his servants not our own Men as we say we may not dispose of our own souls or bodies much less of our bodily imployments or endeavours as We please but as He pleases Or in case we wrong him by alienating the imployments of our bodies or of our souls from his service who hath the full Dominion of Propertie we cannot exempt our selves from his Dominion of Jurisdiction to which all flesh is lyable without Appeal Now of his Dominion of Jurisdiction or of his Royal Power over us the Exercise of Final Judgment is the Principal Part And of this Judgment the general Sum or Abstract is contained in 2 Cor. 5. 10. Before I enter upon the Particulars therein contained I am in General to advertise That albeit the Scripture be such A Compleat Rule of Christian Faith That neither those which are appointed to interpret the Scriptures ought to propose or commend any point or doctrine as an Article of Faith unto others nor are others bound to believe any thing as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly contained in the Scriptures or may out of the express testimonies of them be deduced by infallible Rules of Reason and Art Yet in the things believed because contained in Scripture there is a Difference to be observed Some things we believe without any Ground at all besides the meer Authority of Scriptures Other things we beleive from the Authority of Scriptures too yet so as we have the truth which the Scriptures teach concerning them ensealed unto us by Experiments answering to the Rules of Scriptures And these Experiments be of two sorts Either Observable in the general Book of Nature and course of times or Observable in our selves Of this later rank are the Articles of the Godhead of the Creation of Divine Providence of Original Sin of Final judgment and of Life and Death everlasting The Being of a Godhead or Divine Power the very Heathens which knew not Scriptures did in some sort believe of Gods Providence and of Judgment after this life the Heathens likewise had divers Notions which were as rude materials or stuffe unwrought The frame or fashioning of which Notions into true and Christian Belief cannot otherwise be effected then by the Rules of Scripture which are The Lines by which the structure or edifice of Faith must be squared or wrought Now whatsoever the Heathens without the help of Scriptures or Divine Revelations did believe or conceive concerning the Points mentioned Every Christian man which doth believe the Scriptures though but by an historical Faith may much better believe and conceive by the help of Scriptures albeit his affections be not as yet sanctified by the Spirit of Grace although he be but in the Estate of a meer Moral or Natural man so he be not delivered up unto a Reprobate sense The Branches then of my Meditations concerning this Grand Article of Christs coming to Judgment shall be in general These First Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and which every natural man so his Conscience be not seared may have Experienced in himself of a Final Judgment after this life or of a Recompence according to his wayes or works The Second By what Authoritie of Scriptures the Exercise of this Final Iudgment is appropriated to Christ The Third The manner of Christs coming to Iudgment The Fourth The parties that are to be Iudged to wit the Quick and the Dead The Fifth The Sentence or Award of this great Iudge and that is Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death Thus you see Three Principal Articles of Our Creed to wit This of Christs coming to Iudge the quick and the dead and the Two last viz. The Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting are so link't together that they cannot be so commodiously explained in several as they may be in this proposed Link or Chain CHAP. X. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to these Notions of a Final Judgment 1. THe Notions which the Heathens had of a Iudgment to passe upon them after this life were of Two Sorts Either Implicite and Indirect such â—s give better Testimony to us then they made of it to themselves or Direct and Express though indefinite and imperfect and mingled for the most part with some errour And these Later are most frequent in the ancient heathen Poets Many of whose Testimonies to this purpose are so Express and direct that they may well seem to have been taken from some scattered Traditions of that truth which God had revealed unto the Patriarchs before the Law was written or from the written Law it self which it is probable Plato with some other Philosophers and Poets had read at the least received at the second hand However unless the truth concerning this point delivered in Scriptures had been imperfectly implanted in mens hearts by nature these meer natural men could not have submitted their Assent or Opinions unto it That not the ancient Poets onely but the ancient Philosophers had an
felicity or in his application of those good Lessons which Nature did suggest unto him he found himself tyed by bond of Conscience to observe the Law of Nature The Original of his positive error was an ignorance or blindness common to him and most Heathen in some degree or other in not being able to discern the corruption of nature from Nature her self or to distinguish between the suggestions or intimations of Nature as it sometimes was and universally might have continued and the particular suggestions or longings of Nature as it was corrupted or tainted in himself or others more or less in all It was a Principle of his Doctrine as Seneca tells us That Nature which he profest to follow as his guide did abhor all vice or wickedness It seems he held those courses or habits of life onely vicious which we Christians account unnatural or prodigious vices as Tyranny Cruelty or excessive Luxury And such vices as these the most Heathens whom corruption of Nature did lead blindfold into many grievous sins and cast such a mist before their eyes as made unlawful pleasures appear unto them as parts of true happiness did by the light of Nature detest as contrary to the unapprehended Remnants or Reliques of Gods Image yet inherent in them though mingled with Corruption or much defaced with the Image of Satan But from what Grounds of Nature or Experiments did this Author or first Founder of the Sect of Epicures collect that Nature did detest all wickedness Thus he did reason and collect Quia sceleratis etiam inter tuta timor est Because he saw such as had polluted their Consciences with wicked and prodigious practises to live in fear even whilest they seemed to have safety her self for their guard against all external Occurrences whose probable assaults or annoyances humane Policy could possibly forecast And none more subject to this slavish fear which their Consciences did inwardly suggest then such as for their greatness and confidence in Tyranny and Cruelty were most terrible to others What was it then which these men did so much fear No other men nor any revenge that man could attempt upon them What then The company of themselves or solitary conference with their own Consciences Yet no mans conscience can make his heart afraid unless the conscience it self be first affrighted What is it then which the consciences of supream earthly Judges or Monarchs absolute by right of Conquest can so much fear in the height of their temporal security The Censure doubtless or check of some superior Judge If this fear had been vain or but a speculative Phansie it could not have been uinversal or general in all or most wicked men specially in such as were by nature terrible and stout and wary withal to prevent all probabilities of danger from men Yet was this check of Conscience or this unknown Doom or Censure which Conscience whilest it checkt the hearts of wicked men did so much fear so universal and constant that Epicurus a man of no scrupulous Conscience did observe it to be implanted by nature in all and upon this observation did ground his former general Principle That nature her self did abhor or detest wickedness The suggestion then or intimation of a future Judgement was natural but the apprehension or construction which Epicurus made of these suggestions was but such as ordinary men make of representations in natural Dreams before they be throughly awaked or before they consult the Philosopher or Physician The Christian Truth which nature in these Heathens being in respect of any supernatural use or end of her own suggestions altogether dumb did seek by these signs or intimations to express was that Lesson which the Author of nature great Physician of our souls hath expresly taught us Fear not them which after they have killed the body can do no more but fear him who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Matth. 10. 28. Luke 12. 4. 14. As the wicked amongst the Heathens could not by any earthly Guard or greatness exempt themselves from that Dread or Fear which their corrupt Consciences did internally suggest So that confident Boldness which the integrity of conscience doth naturally suggest unto every man in his laudable actions was sometimes represented by the more civil and sober sort of Heathens after a manner more magnificent and in a measure more ample then it usually is by most Christians Their expressions or conceipts of such confidence as integrity of conscience doth arm men withal did as far exceed our ordinary apprehensions of it as the representations of natural Causes working within us which are made unto us in sleep or dreams do our waking apprehensions of the like workings or suggestions of nature Si Fractus illabatur orbis saith Horace a profest Disciple of Epicurus Carm. Lib. 3. Ode 3. impavidum ferient ruinae Albeit the Heavens should rend assunder above his head and this inferior world break in pieces about his ears yet a man of an intire and sound conscience would stand unmoved unaffrighted like a pillar of brass or marble when the roof which it supporteth were blown away or fallen from it This Hyperbolical expression of that Confidence which integrity of Conscience in some measure always affords was in this Heathen if he had been put upon the tryal but as the representation of a mans bodily estate made in a Dream whose true cause is unknown unto the Dreamer As in men that dream so in this Heathen Poet the apprehension of that which Nature did truly and really suggest is most full and lively but full and lively in both without Judgement without true use or right application That Confidence then is the companion of a good Conscience is a truth implanted by Nature and freely acknowledged by the oppugners of Divine Providence But from what original or fountain this truth should issue or to what comfortable Use it might serve were points which Nature could not distinctly teach or points at least which the meer natural man without help of Scriptures or instructions from those Heavenly Physicians of the soul whom God hath appointed Interpreters of this Book of life could not learn But we Christians know and believe that when the Heavens shall be gathered as a Scroul when the Elements shall melt with heat and when the earth shall be removed out of his place that even in the midst of these terrible spectacles such as have their Consciences purified by Faith shall lift up their heads for joy as knowing these and the like to be undoubted Prognosticks or fore-running signs of their Redemption drawing nigh unto them A Crisis rather a kinde of First-fruits of this Holy Confidence was most remarkably attested to have been in the Primitive Christians So Antoninus the Emperor as in our 1. Book chap. 24. out of Eusebius his 4. Book of Hist Eccles chap. 13. we did
all the Benefits which God for his Deaths sake bestows upon us by believing only in his death But even This benefit of our Iustification we receive more immediately by our Belief of his Resurrection from the dead This is the doctrine of our Apostle even in that place wherein he handles the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone or by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness Ex Professe as Rom. 4. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake to wit Abrahams alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we beleive on him that raised up Iesus from the dead And he gives the Reason why our Belief of this Article should be imputed unto us in the next words Seeing he was delivered to death for our offences and raised again for our Justification Howbeit even This Belief of His Resurrection is a Grace or Blessing of God which Christ did merit by His Death yet a Grace conveihed unto us by the vertue of His Resurrection or by Christ himself by his Resurrection exalted unto glory in his human nature We were Justified by his Death in as much as The Pardon for our sins was by it purchased and the hand writing or obligation against us cancelled If Christ then had only dyed for us and not risen again we might by Belief in his Death have escaped the Second Death or everlasting pains of hell We should notwithstanding as our Apostle here supposeth have been detained perpetual prisoners in the grave Our bodily or corporal being should have been utterly consumed by the first Death without hope of recovery or restitution And so far as the first Death had dominion over men so far had these Corinthians remained in their sins So long as the first Death remains unconquered sin remains Now if Christ had not been raised from the dead the first Death or death of the body had remained unconquered Belief in Christs death could not utterly have freed them from all the wages of sin For death of the body is in us part of the wages of sin and it was to Christ part of the burden of our sin But in as much as Christ is risen from the dead and raised to an immortal life over which bodily death hath no Rule or dominion but must be put in absolute subjection to Him all that truly believe such a Resurrection are justified not only from the eternal guilt of sin nor only freed from everlasting death but are made heirs by adoption unto a life over which death shall have no power So then by Christs Death we are freed from the everlasting Curse by his Resurrection we are made free Denisons of the heavenly Jerusalem heirs by promise of an everlasting and most blessed life And thus far all that are partakers of the Word and Sacraments are said to be justified by his Resurrection that is they are bound to believe that as He died for their Sins to redeem them from the second death so he rose again for their further Justification to free them from the death of the bodie He therefore rose from the dead that we by believing this Article might receive the Adoption of the Sons of God But yet there is a further degree of Justification that is an Actual Absolution from the Reign or Dominion of sin in our Bodies which is never obtained without some measure of Faith or Sanctifying Grace inherent albeit the true use and end of such Grace and Faith inherent be to sue out the Pardon for our sins in particular not by our works or merits which are none but meerly and solely by the Free-Grace and Favour of God in Christ True it is that even This Gift of Faith by which we must sue out our Pardon in particular and supplicate for the Adoption of the Sons of God was purchased by Christs death nor may we sue for it under any other Stile or Form then propter merita Christi for the merits of Christ Yet after this plea made we may not expect to receive this blessing otherwise then per Jesum Christum through or by Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead This Grace this Faith and whatsoever other blessing of God which Christ by his death hath merited for us whatsoever is any way conducent to our full and final Redemption descends immediately from the Son of God exalted in his human nature as from its proper Fountain He was consecrated by his death and his Consecration was accomplished by his Resurrection to be an inexhaustible fountain of life and salvation to all that truly believe in his death and Resurrection from the dead Thus we are fallen into the Affirmative Inference If Christ be risen from the dead then such as die in Christ shall be raised from death to immortal Glory The same Almighty Power by which Christ was raised unto glorie shall be manifested even in these our mortal bodies But now is Christ risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that slept 9. The Inference or implication is That seeing Christ whose mortalitie was clearly testified by his death was raised up to an endless and immortal life Therefore such as die in Christ whatsoever in the mean time become of their bodies shall be raised up to the like life against which death shall never be able to make any attempt or approach For as the Apostle saith Rom. 11. 16. If the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches But we are to remember that there were Two sorts of First fruits appointed by the Law the One of the first corn that was reaped being ground and made up into loaves which were offered at the feast of Pentecost And unto this sort of First fruits the Apostle Rom. 11. 16. hath Reference The other was the offering of green corn when it first begun to bud or ear And unto this sort of First fruits our Apostle here in the twentieth verse hath Reference Christ then is the root and we are the branches he is the First fruits and we are the after-crop and harvest Now as the offering of the First fruits that is of the green corn was the hallowing of the whole crop So the Resurrection of Christ from the grave was the hallowing or consecration of these our mortal bodies unto that glory and immortalitie which shall be at the finall Resurrection If God did accept the offering of the First fruits it was a pledge unto his people that he would extraordinarily bless the after-crop with large increase his people might with confidence expect a joyfull harvest To manifest the meaning or fulfilling of this Type or legal Ceremonie in our Saviour He was raised up from the dead upon that very day in the morning wherein the first fruits of green corn were by the priests of the Law offered unto God His resurrection as was said before was the accomplishment of his
consecration to the priesthood after the order of Melchisedec His presentation of himself to his Father as our High-Priest and as the First fruits from the dead was the most acceptable offering or sacrifice that ever was offered unto God a matter of greater joy and triumph to all the inhabitants of Heaven then Isaac's safe return from the intended sacrifice was to Abrahams familie or then Josephs advancement in Egypt was to old Jacob. Now if the First fruits from the dead were thus acceptable unto God we cannot distrust but that the after-crop shall prosper and shall be gathered by the Angels of God when the the time of ripeness shall come into everlasting habitations However in the mean time it be sown it shall be reaped in Glory and possesse its glory in immortalitie This Article then of Christs Resurrection from the dead and of his becoming the First fruits of them that sleep is the ground or root of all our Apostles Inferences from vers 35 to the end of this chapter concerning the Resurrection or the estate of their bodies that shall be raised to life but of these we have spoken at large before The sum of all is intimated by our Saviour himself John 12. 23 24. The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified Verily I say unto you except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth muh fruit Thus much likewise was foretold by the Prophet Esay in that Evangelical Prophecie Esay 53. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his Seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Now this pleasure of the Lord was our full Redemption 10. To conclude this point Albeit our Sins were taken away by Christs death in both the Senses before mentioned and albeit in this life we be Actually Justified that is actually acquitted from the guilt of sins past by Belief in Christs Death and Resurrection and freed likewise from the rage and tyrannie of sin by Participation of his Grace and Inhabitation of his Spirit in us yet shall we not be Absolutely and Finally Justified that is freed from all Reliques of sin inherent until we be made partakers of his Glorie This must be the Accomplishment of our Justification by Faith in this life And it is no Paradox or strange opinion to say that We sinful men shall be finally Justified by utter extirpation of sin out of our nature at our last Resurrection When as Christ himself in whom sin never took any root much less bore any branch into whom no seed of sin did ever fall is said to be Justified by His Resurrection from the Dead that is acquitted from all burthen of our sins But where is Christ said in this sense to be Justified In the 1 Tim. 3. 16 Without controversie Great is the mysterie of godlinesse God was manifested in the flesh and Justified in the Spirit To omit all other interpretation of this phrase St. Paul means the very self same thing by saying Christ is Justified in the Spirit that St. Peter means when he saith He was quickened in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3. 18. Both mean That he was Justified or freed by the Spirit or Power of the Godhead from death or any other further burthen of our sins Christ saith St. Paul Heb. 9. 28. was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation that is to free us from the power of death and all burthen of sin from which he himself was freed at His Resurrection So then it is in its time and place most true which the Romish Church doth most untruly teach that there is a Justification by inherent righteousnesse But this Justification cannot be had may not be expected in this life it cannot be accomplished in us until that Change be wrought whereof our Apostle speaks verse 51. of this Chapter This Final Justification by this blessed Change is the full Effect or final issue of Christs Resurrection from the dead he that doth not believe this future change or final issue of Christs Resurrection doth bear false Testimonie of God or against him even whilst he saith that he believeth that Christ was raised from the dead For to grant Christs Resurrection from the dead and to deny or doubt of this Final Justification or Absolution of all true believers in his Resurrection from the reliques of sin is to cast an Aspersion upon God himself as if he had wrought this great work of Christs Resurrection frustra that is to no Use or End correspondent to such a mighty Ground-work or Foundation 11. Every man then is bound to believe That all true Beleivers of Christs Resurrection from the dead shall be undoubted partakers of that endlesse and immortal glory unto which Christ hath been raised But no man is bound to beleive his own Resurrection in particular unto such glory any further or upon more certain terms then he can upon just and deliberate Examination find that he himself doth truly and stedfastly believe this Fundamental Article of Christs Resurrection from the dead Now if it were certainly determined and agreed upon by all what it were truly and stedfastly to believe this Article all the controversies concerning the Certaintie of Salvation or Irrevocable Justification in this life by Faith would determine themselves and be at an end But of the Examination of our Faith or of its truth sincerity or strength we shall have fitter occasion and more full time to speak in unfolding of the last part of the Article of Christs coming to Judgment that is the manner of the Process in the Award of final Sentence In the mean time it shall suffice to admonish the Reader That he rate not the truth or measure the strength of his Belief in this main Article of Christs Resurrection only by the strength of his perswasions of its Speculative and General Truth specially in the absence of temptations to the contrarie or whiles it is opposed to the exceptions of Atheists or Insidels which deny or oppugn it How then must the truth or strength of our Belief or Faith in this Article be measured Only by our stedfast and constant practise of the Special Duties whereunto the belief of it doth bind all professors of it Now the Special Duties whereunto the Belief of it doth bind us are succinctly and pithily set down by our Apostle Col. 3. 1 2. If then ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God set your affections on things above not on things on earth c. And verse the 5. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is Idolatry And verse 8. Put off all these anger
by all such as in this life do not mortifie the whole body of sin or have it not mortified in them Now as of bodily medicines some be General or as Physicians call them Catholica such as equally respect the whole body Others Topical that is such as are framed to some special part or member So likewise of the Medicines or Receipts which the meditation upon this Article of Everlasting death affords some are General and indifferently respect every spiritual disease and such are the Consideration of the worm which never dieth and of the fire which never goeth out Others there be which in special respect particular diseases of the soul and are to be applyed as time and occasions require unto the several members or affections of the Old man Some of these particular medicines are more effectual to cure lust or Amorousness others more effectual to quell gluttony or drunkenness Others to take down pride or vanitie That which in respect of one man or his special disease is lesse effectual may be more effectual and more soveraign in respect of another That which is in it self of less efficacy comparatively may make deeper impression and work more strongly upon some mans peculiar disposition then the greatest and most terrible object that can be presented to his sense or to his belief 12. Parisiensis a learned and judicious Divine in his times tels us of a Gentleman of his special acquaintance which had long warred with the old man or body of sin and taken the advice of his confessors or spiritual Physicians for obtaining the victory over the flesh yet found himself too weak to encounter with lust or amorousnes an affection which still received strength or courage from the sight of beauty until at length he procured a dead scull of one of the most beautiful creatures which his eyes had beheld and by using this Relique of the first death as a Memorandum for representation of the second he was throughly cured of this disease which without cure would have brought that death upon him The same cure or medicine every man that is subject to the like disease cannot hope for may not attempt but every one that truly believes this Article of everlasting death may have a peculiar medicine more effectual to this purpose Though every one cannot have a Skeleton or deaths head to look upon with his bodily eyes yet Faith as the Apostle speakes being the evidence of things not seen every one that hath the eyes of his mind enlightned with the least beam of true faith may see and consider that albeit there be no dead sculls or Skeletons in Hell yet the very sight or presence of living creatures there of such as were their most amiable and pleasant consorts in this life shall be more loathsome then any spectacle then any reliques of the first death which the grave or Charnell house can afford them And unto this peculiar disease or to the mortification of this particular member of the old man no meditation or consideration of any branch of the second death can be more powerful Then the Cogitation of the ghastlinesse of that place and of its Inbabitants 13. I have read of a young Gallant which came upon secular respects as upon affinitie or old acquaintance to visit his friend being of a quite contrarie disposition one of a strict and austere life whether upon choice or necessitie I now remember not but after a long and prophane discourse of the Gallant which the other would not much interrupt as well knowing that prophanness aegrescit medendo growes alwayes more desperate by unseasonable contradiction or importunate perswasions However at the close or leave taking in stead of a Complement this religious man requested the prophane Gallant to carry this short Saying in his memory for his sake Putredo et vermis operimentum eorum That there was a hell prepared for prophane men and that worms and rottenness should be to them for a covering in stead of cloathing And this brief Receipt wrought more effectually with him then if the general terrours of hell had been rung into his ears thrice a week in a large discourse or presented to his eyes in a picture of them And the reason why this brief Memorandum wrought so with him was because one speciall branch of his sensuality was his excessive or immoderate delight in sweet perfumes and soft raiment 14. To instance in more particulars of this kind would be long and tedious the General Rule for all is brief There is no bodily sense or facultie which is capable of or accustomed to excessive pleasures or extraordinary carnal contentments which doth not thereby become as capable of the contrary pain or discontentment Quem res plus nimio delectavere secundae Mutatae quatient Hor. epist lib. 1. epist 10. The greater a mans delight hath been in any worldly prosperity the greater will his grief or disconsolation be when the opposite branch of adversity fals upon him Man by natural constitution as the Philosopher observes is more sensible of pain then of pleasure matter of pleasure or contentment little moves us unless it be in some excess or quantitie more then ordinary But of the least degree of pain or smallest portion of matter of discontentment we are most sensible Hence was that Saying of the Poet Nocet empta dolore voluptas If every dram of pleasure were to be purchased with the like quantity of pain especially incident to the same sense or faculty there is no man so sensual or voluptuous but would be quickly weary of his course of life If such as are misled by the curiosity or vanitie of the eye might have free choice of all the most pleasant spectacles which this sense or other faculties which receive contentment by it could wish to look upon for a whole day together all this variety could not recompence one hour of such Torture as Regulus suffered by this sense alone If such as are misled by the sense of Tast might have Dives's fare or the most exquisite meats and drinks which this present world affords all this variety could not countervail the extremitie of hunger and thirst for one week And yet that Maxim of the Wise man in quo quisque peccat in eo punietur In that wherein a man most sins by the same he shall be punished holds most true in the life to come and is most exactly verified in the senses or instruments of unlawful pleasures The Rule of Retaliation that is of suiting punishments to the nature and quality of sins committed which is often manifested in this life in respect of grosser or out-crying sins shall be most strictly observed when God shall finally render to every man according to all his wayes He that hath offended most by the vanity of the Eye shall be especially punished in the eye He that hath specially offended in the sense of touch or taste shall be most tormented
Emperours or in love to their Religion is a matter of no greater difficulty then to induce a Merchant to lay out an hundred pounds sterling in his own Country upon such assurance as this world affords to receive ten thousand pounds either in the same coyne or in valuable commodities in another Country by way of return or bill of exchange 9. But as for us Christians albeit our hopes of heaven be far more glorious then theirs can be albeit our Faith which is the ground of our hopes be most firm and sound whereas their belief of such a heaven as they hope for is but grounded upon the sand yet in as much as the most part of Christians have no distinct conceit or notion of the heavenly joys which they hope for but believe them only in general or in gross to be exceeding great their Faith is in a manner but dead their Hopes have no operations upon their affections they do not sway them to constancie in any honorable adventures or undertakings for the heavenly Canaan We that be Gods Embassadors may spend our spirits and our breaths and be answered only with Religion consisting in words or with a zeal of hearing Gods Word not of doing it The Case of most Hearers is much what like to the Case of a man extreamly sick and opprest with distempered humors There is no man so sick unless he be possest with deep melancholy or a frenzie but will acknowledge in the general that such a Diet as his Physician prescribes him is good that such meats as he seeth men in health to feed upon with delight are pleasant and useful for preserving health But press him to make his words good by his practise in particular and you shall find a Real Contradiction those meats which out of his former experience he acknowledgeth to be sweet and pleasant are to him in this distemper and indisposition of body bitter and abominable The best Diet which the Physician can prescribe him is nothing so welcom to him as those meats and drinks which the distempered humor longeth after And albeit you urge him with the authoritie of Hypocrates Galen or other famous Professors of Physick yet you shall not perswade him to follow their Counsel until he have in some measure recovered his Tast and the only means to recover it must be by the removing the noxious humor wherewith it is oppressed Yet such as are bodily sick have had some Tast and experience of wholsom food in the time of their health for bodily health ordinarily goes before bodily sickness But The spiritual diseases of our Consciences have precedencie of spiritual health we all are soul-sick from our birth even in the womb And for this reason it is That to work a Longing in us after a spiritual health or to bring us in love with true spiritual food is a matter of far greater difficulty then to bring a man bodily sick unto a liking of wholsom bodily food We may perswade Men in the General That the joys of heaven infinitely exceed all the pleasures of this life And thus far they will easily believe us But without some Tast or rellish of them no man will set his heart to seek after them 10. For us to give men or men to take A True Rellish of them it is not ordinarily possible until our hearts and consciences be in some good measure disburthened of fleshly lusts of worldly desires or freed from minding earthly matters The ordinary Physick which God doth use in working this First Cure is some Cross affliction or chastisement Every Cross or branch of affliction which in this life can befall us is in the intention of Gods providence as a peculiar Medicine to purge our souls of some one vain delight or other Now If we would seriously ruminate upon the particular afflictions which befall us or suffer the sting of conscience to have its work whensoever our hearts do smite us This would be a good preparation for the recovery of our spiritual Tast without whose recovery we cannot be purified according to the purification of the Sanctuary But say the Lord hath laid no cross no affliction upon us yet this is a Diet so necessary for the soul That every one in case the Lord do not must afflict his own soul that is he must sometimes humble himself in fasting and prayer for this in the language of Canaan is to afflict the soul without such exercises voluntarily undertaken not as meritorious or profitable in themselves but as useful for enjoying of our selves and the gaining of free and retired thoughts our spiritual Tast is not usually recoverable or being in some measure recovered cannot be preserved But you will ask Wherein doth this spiritual Tast consist what is the object of it or that which answers unto it as bodily food doth unto bodily tast or What is the best dyet for recovering of it This you are to learn from our Apostle Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink it neither consists in our use or abstinence from these what is it then Righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost These words if you mark them are well placed First Righteousness Then peace lastly Joy in the holy Ghost For as the Prophet had said long before Opus justitiae pax Peace the peace of conscience towards God towards men and with our own souls and affections is the resultance or work of righteousness as it is opposed unto iniquity For There is no peace to the wicked saith my God Esai 57. 21. Joy there may be without this peace or serenity of conscience but no Joy in the Holy-Ghost without it Peace of conscience is as the first Tast or smell of eternal rest The first sign or Symptome of spiritual health restored Joy in the Holy-Ghost is to the soul as that chearfulness or livelinesse which accompanieth perfect health is unto the body Righteousness or its works are as the food or dyet by which this spiritual health and livelinesse of the soul is procured 11. So then he that desires to have a true Tast of the heavenly gift or of the powers of the life to come must enure himself to the works of righteousness of that Universal Righteousness whose practise is commended unto us in the Affirmative and positive precepts of the first and second Table It is not enough to abstain from the evil works prohibited in the Negative precepts of both Tables This abstinence is as the matter or privation of that true righteousness whereof peace is the work or fruit Howbeit even this Inchoative Righteousness or imperfect Embryon of it is seldom or never framed and conceived without some chastisement or correction which are as gentle Remembrancers of the horrours of the second death Nor is this Inchoative or privative righteousnesse alwayes framed by chastisements or such remembrances but by patient suffering of them or by embracing them as so many tokens
2. About this Position Controversie between us and the Romish Church there needed to have been none unless some in that Church had been more desirous to open a gap to new contentions then ready to bring the controversies already set on foot to a Tryable Issue by reducing them to some Point of Contradiction But some of good Note in that Church for learning and moderation have left this Animadversion upon These words of Saint Matthew That this place alone doth sufficiently evince that the Final Award or retribution shall be made Secundum Opera non Secundum Fidem according to works not according to Faith That God should render to every man either in this life or at the last day according unto his works yea according to all his works we never denied For Solomon had long since said as much in his prayer to God 2 Chron. 6. 30. Yea all works even the most secret works those of the heart not excepted shall have their Proper Award and every man shall reap according to that he hath sowen Whether he hath sowen unto the flesh or unto the spirit But that this Final Retribution should be made Secundum Opera non Secundum Fidem according to works only not according to Faith we cannot grant without contradiction to the truth delivered by our Saviour and Saint Paul For Faith and Works by both their Doctrines are so strictly linkt together that if the Final Retribution be made according to mens works it must likewise be awarded according to mens Faith And unlesse the Advocates of the modern Romish Church had been diposed to follow those Hypocrites against whom Saint James disputes in his second Chapter in their notions or apprehensions of Faith more then Saint James yea more then Saint Paul Nay more then our Saviour himself they could not be ignorant of that contradiction which is implied in their Assertion That the Final Retribution is made according to Works not according to Faith Know ye saith our Apostle Gal. 3. 7. that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham so Abraham is called The father of the faithful And none can be his sons or children but by propagation or participation of his faith Our Saviour saith unto the Jewes John 8. 39. If ye were Abrahams children ye would do the works of Abraham And if they had done the works they should have had the Reward of Abraham Yet as the Apostle saith They that be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham So then it is true that God rewarded Abraham according to his Works and yet withall according to his Faith yea he was therefore rewarded with blessing according to his works because his works were done in Faith or because he was faithful in his works But do these Romanists which say that we shall be rewarded according to Works not according to Faith as evidently contradict their pretended Patron Saint Iames as they do Saint Paul They do without Question if we look into his intent and scope in that very place from which they seek to magnifie Works above Faith as well in point of Justification as in respect of salvation or Final Retribution 3. Was not Abraham our Father saith Saint James Chap. 2. 21. justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the Altar Yet the same Apostle doth not deny but rather suppose that Abraham offered up Isaac by Faith for so he addes ver 23. that by this work that Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness If this Scripture were fulfilled by this work then Abrahams Faith did work in this work or rather did work this work it was his working Faith or belief which was imputed unto him for righteousness and it was impossible that Abraham should be rewarded according to this work and not be rewarded as well according to his Faith as according to his Work Indeed if Abraham had profest only in General That he did believe God and his word but had started back from this or the like Service which God had enjoyned him he had not been justified But why not justified only because he had no works nay rather because not having such works as God required at his hands his Faith had not been sound and perfect and his Faith being not sound and perfect had not been imputed unto him for righteousness Now the Scripture plainly affirms and St. James takes it as granted that Abraham's belief not his works was imputed to him for righteousness Albeit Saint James doth say that the Belief was perfected by the work yet all the perfection was the perfection of his Faith the use and End of his work or of his Tryal was to perfect or strengthen his Faith as we say exercise of body doth perfect or confirm health but it will not therefore follow that Exercise of body is better then health seeing all the perfection that it hath is at the service of health So far was this work of Abraham by which Saint James saith his faith was perfected from being a distinct perfection from the perfection of his faith that Saint Paul includes the very Work in his Faith Heb. 11. 17. By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac The reason why he ascribes this work unto his faith is given ver 19. He accounted that God was able to raise him up from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure It was a Great and difficult matter for Abraham to believe that he should become the Father of many nations Rom. 4. 18. Not to consider his own being now about an 100. years old neither yet the deadnes of Sarahs womb But it was a greater work after he had received Isaac upon the threed of whose life the blessing promised Gen. 15. 5. of being the Father of many nations did wholly depend to offer him up in sacrifice this was more then to believe in hope against hope The ready way for ought that humane wisdom or any experience till that time manifested unto the world could inform him to cut the very throat of all his hopes or future blessings But how great soever this work were the strength by which it was wrought was meerly the strength of his Faith so the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that what God had promised he was also able to perform and therefore was it imputed to him for righteousness So that if any man do not the works of Abraham it is because he hath not the faith of Abraham Impossible it were for any man that hath the same measure of Faith which Abraham had not to do the like works which Abraham did What measure of works truly good any man doth so much or so great a measure he hath of true Faith And so far as any man is Rewarded according to his works
the widdow These indeed are works of iniquity and deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven But is it a Work of iniquity not to work at all As not to give meat unto the hungry Not to give drink unto the thirstie Not to cloath the naked or lodge the harbourless Yes even these Omissions deserve Exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven Either by their connexion with sins of oppression because it is scarce possible that any which hear Christs promises should be barren of good Works unless they were too fruitful in the works of impietie and oppression or rather because as our Saviour elsewhere infers that Not to save mens lives when means and opportunitie is offered is to kill Not to feed the hungrie is a bloody sin Not to cloath the naked is as the sin of Oppression The Doing of some Good Works cannot excuse men for the Omission of others which be as necessary To prophesie in Christs name is a Gracious Work to cast out Divels is a Work of Greater Charity and comfort to the possessed then to visit the prisoners and yet such as have done these and many other wonderful Works shall not be admitted at the Last Day Besides the Goodness of the Works which we are bound to do there must be an Uniformitie in them Otherwise they are not done in Faith Now the same Faith and belief which inclines our hearts to works of one kind will incline them to the practise of every kind which we know or believe to be required at our hands by our Lord and Master That even the best Works of mercy or most beneficial unto others are not acceptable unto God unless they be done out of Faith obedience to our Masters Will is clear from our Apostles Verdict of Enoch Heb. 11. 5. Before his translation saith our Apostle he had this testimonie that he pleased God For so it is said Gen. 5. 24. that he walked with God the way by which he walked was his Good Works and Conversation but The Guide of this way and his works was his Faith So the Apostle infers without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ver 6. As God is the Author of goodness yea goodness it self so we cannot come unto him by any other way then by doing good to others yet that which must make even our best Works pleasing to him must be our Belief in him and in his goodness and that he is A bountiful Rewarder of all that do good The good Works even of the Heathen and of such as knew neither him nor his Providence of such as in stead of him worshipped false gods were rewarded by him but with rewards and blessings only Temporal He was their Rewarder but not himself their Reward This was the Peculiar of Abraham his friend and of Abrahams children that is of all such as do the works of Abraham out of the Faith of Abraham that is out of a lively apprehension and true esteem of his goodness Unto all such he himself shall be merces magna nimis or valdè magna Their exceeding great Reward Unto men thus qualified and only unto them it shall be said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world This Kingdom shall be a Kingdom of everlasting bliss and yet the greatest blessedness of this Kingdom shall consist in the fruition or enjoying of the presence of this Everlasting King who is goodness it self the participation of whose goodness is the very Life and Essence of that happiness which all desire but none shall attain besides such as do His Will by well doing To be separated for ever from his presence is the source of all the miserie which shall befall the damned or accursed But from this place of our Apostle Heb. 11. 6. The Romanist alwayes ready like the spider to suck poison from such flowers in this garden of God as naturally afford honey to such as seek God labours to infer as he doth out of the words of the text That the Everlasting Kingdom here promised is the just Reward of our good works and is as properly merited as everlasting death is by the Omission of the works here mentioned or by the Positive Works of inquitie So that I should here according to my proposed method proceed unto the third point That these good works how necessary soever they be are necessary only Tanquam via ad regnum non tanquam causa regnandi only as the Way and Means which lead unto this Kingdom not as the causes of its preparation for us or of our admission unto it But for the present I chuse rather to make some use or Application of what hath been said concerning the necessity of Good Works then to dispute of their Efficacie or Causality for attaining this Kingdom intending to touch that a little more in the next Chapter though with reference to what I have spoken in the 27. and 28. Chapters 6. You see that Good Works done in faith or which is all one a Working Faith are absolutely necessarie unto salvation But are they as necessary to Justification If they be how is it said by St. Austine and approved by the Articles of the Church of England Bona opera sequuntur hominem justificatum non praecedunt in homine justificando Good works follow Justification they do not go before it This Orthodoxal Truth only imports thus much That no man can do those works which are capable of the promises before he be inabled by God to do them and that this ability to do them is from the Gift of Justifying Faith Now every one that hath this Faith in his heart is said to be Justified that is absolved from the Guilt of sins past and freed from the Tyranny and Dominion of sin by receiving this pledge or earnest of Gods mercie and in this sense is Justification taken by St. James when he saith a man is justified by works that is He is not to be accounted the Son of faithful Abraham nor may he presume upon his own Actual Justification or estate in Grace until he be qualified and enabled to do the Works of Abraham In the same sense is Justification taken by St. John Rev. 22. 11 Qui justus est justificetur ad huc Let him that is righteous be righteous still or more justified And in this sort Children or Infants are said to be Justified by the Infusion of Faith The practise of Good Works is not required to their Justification before they come to the knowledge of good and evil But neither is the apprehension or actual Belief of Gods mercies in Christ required of them Though they be justified and saved for the Merits of Christ and through his blood as we are Yet is not the Rule for Application of these Merits the same in them and
members of the same Church without dissension And of all the Points in Divinity this day controverted in any Church or betwixt the members of any Church there is no one that doth naturally better brook diversitie of Opinions or acurate sifting without hazard of breaking the bond of Christian peace and charitie then the Controversie about the Certaintie of Salvation or of Perseverance in the state of Grace For Christian charity would presume that every man which hath his senses exercised in these or the like Points is desirous to be as certain of his own Salvation or estate in Grace as with safety of conscience his own understanding or rule of reason will permit him or can make him Such as know their own Estate in Grace by experience or otherwise stand bound in equity in Christian charity and in humanity rather to pity then to exasperate their brethrens weakness which have not the skill or like Experience to conclude for themselves so well as they do or which doubt whether the doctrine in Thesi in the General be true or false And yet we see by woful experience that the Contentions about these Points have been so bitter and so uncivil that no Papist or other Adversary shall ever be able to say more against the Certaintie of Salvation or mens Irreversible Estate in Grace then many such as have written for it have said against themselves For if by the Grace which they hold impossible for men to fall from they mean the Spirit of wisdom or understanding in matters spiritual or the Spirit of meekness of sobrietie and Christian charitie every man that hath any branch of the Spirit of Grace implanted in him may conclude without sin that many which contend most earnestly for Absolute perseverance in it either never had this Grace or else are totally fallen from it 11. The Third Point proposed was the Golden Mean which the Church of England mainteins as opposite to these Contrary Extremes but most consonant to the Evangelical Truth First Our Church doth acknowledge That Fides is Fiducia That the very nature of that Faith which differenceth a Believer from an Infidel or a Christian from a meer natural man doth necessarily include a Certaintie or full Assurance in it It must be without wavering without distrust or Doubt The only Question is About the right or orderly placing of this Certaintie of Faith or full Assurance Or What be the Points whereon it first must be pitched These questionless must be Points Fundamental and such is that That the Son of God did die for us that he did fully pay the price of our Redemption This every man is firmly to beleive otherwise he builds without a Foundation This Certainty of Faith or full assurance you shall find continually prest upon all hearers in the Book of Homilies and other Acts of the Church But how shall every private man be fully assured that Christ did die for him and that he fully paid the price of his redemption Sure no man can have a right or full assurance of this Particular unless he first assuredly believe that the Son of God did die for all men that he hath redeemed all mankind He that firmly and constantly believes this Proposition in some respect universal The Son of God did die for all men can never doubt or waver in Faith whether he died for him or whether he hath paid the full Price of his Redemption He which believes the General by an Historical or Moral Faith cannot chuse but believe the particular by the same Faith He that believes the General by a spiritual and true Christian Faith must believe the particular by the same Faith If the first Proposition Christ died for All men be De Fide The Second likewise Christ died for me must be De Fide too But how any man should have Assurance of Faith That Christ did die for him or hath redeemed him unless he be first assured by Certaintie of Faith That Christ did die for all men This I confess is a Point which I could never be assured of nor be satisfied in by any that plead for Special Faith 12. Sure I am that the Church our Mother doth teach us to begin our Faith or Assurance from the General Christ died for All men he hath redeemed all mankind And this General She grounds upon that Saying of our Saviour John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Application or Use of this place you may find pithily prest in the third Part of the Homily Upon the Death and Passion of our Saviour To whom saith the Author of the Homily did he give his Son To the whole world that is to say to Adam and to all that come after him He was not given to Adam nor to such as come after him until Adam and all that came after him were lost until mankind were become his enemies And this is that which sets forth The wonderful love of God unto the world that he would give his only Son whom he loved for all of us which were his enemies Scarcely for a righteous man will one die saith the Apostle Rom. 5. 7. yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners he died for us 13. But when we are taught to beleive that Christ died as well for every one of us as he died for any we are bound to beleive not only that he shed as much blood for every one of us as he did for St. Peter or St. Paul but that he shed as much blood for every one of us as he did for all men That he paid as great a price for my redemption as he paid for the Redemption of all mankind It was not the Quantitie of his blood shed but the infinite Value of each drop which he shed that did pay the price of our Redemption Had the whole stream of his blood been much greater then it was if it had been of value less then infinite it could not have payed the price of one mans redemption and of price more then infinite his blood what-ever quantitie had been shed could not be for all So that he did as much for thee as he did for both thee and me as much for either of us as he did for the whole world His deservings of every one of us are infinite Were this apprehension or belief of the infinite and undivided love of God in Christ toward all and every man rightly planted in mans heart it would bring forth the fruits of Love he which is thus perswaded of Christs love towards him in particular would love Christ and would keep his Commandements would trust in Christ and in all temptations rely upon him 14. To conclude all concerning The right ordering or placing of that Certaintie or full
assurance which is conteined in our belief of Christs Death and Passion The first branch of it is That God by giving his only Son for us did give us an inestimable pledge of his love to us in particular This we must believe Certitudine Fidei by Certaintie of Faith Upon this Foundation or Assurance of Faith our Apostle builds another Rom. 5. 9 10. Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were Enemies we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled to God we shall be saved by his life And again Chap. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things These are the Prime Seeds of true Christian Faith and must be undoubtedly planted in every mans heart before he can be a fit Hearer much less a Disputer in other Points of Divinitie as of Election Reprobation c. Whilest we labour to plough up your hearts for the fit receiving of this Seed of Faith we must not baulk that saying of St. John 1 Ep. 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure If your perswasions of your assured Estate in Grace grow up together with this Purification of your hearts then are they Perswasions of Faith not Presumptions CHAP. XXXX The Fourth Sermon upon this Text. ROMANS 2. 1. Therefore Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that Judgest c. The Author Chapt. 38. propounded Three Points He handled The First in the 38 and 39. Chapt. The Second viz. How Papists and Protestants judging the Jew condemn themselves he omitteth having other-where spoken to that Point and Particularly Fol. 3342 3688. of this Book He proceeds here to The Third Point viz. How Jews Papists Protestants evidently condemn themselves vvhilst they Judge the Idolatrie of the Heathen 1. THe very worst that the Jew or Christian can object unto the Heathen as Heathen is the acknowledgement of many gods or the adoring of stocks of stones or as Daniel enstiles them gods of gold of silver brasse iron wood and stone How beit even this Imagination of many gods or the worshipping of many imaginary gods was but a Transfiguration or Transformation of the True and Only God into the similitude of those creatures or visible substances which they represented by the images which they worshipped This was the very height of heathenish Idolatry as our Apostle instructs us Rom. 1. 23. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God that is of the only God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things Of what things soever the images were which they did worship they changed the glory of God into the similitude of that thing whose Image they worshipped And by this means as the Apostle inferres ver 25. they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever So then the Transformation of the Divine Nature into unfit similitudes is it which must give us the True Scale or Scantling for measuring the haynousness of that sin which we call Idolatry He that most grosly transforms mis-pictures or changes the nature of the true and only God is the most gross Idolater be he by profession a Jew a Turk an Heathen or a Christian And it was observed and excellently prosecuted by a Great Prelate a most Reverend and Learned Bishop in this Land That the worshipping of Images and the worshipping of Imaginations so the Imaginations and the Images be alike monstrous or unfitting come both to one Passe 2. In the worshipping of Images the Romish Church and the Heathens do at least for the outward Act too well agree And in this respect the Jew and Mahumetan are more averse from the ancient Heathens then the best in the Romish Church are And if the sinceritie of Gods worship did consist in Negatives as in not worshipping the Images of any living thing the Mahumetan or Jew might have the precedency of Reformed Churches So farre are they from worshipping Images that they do not allow the making of Pictures though for historical use A Painter or Picture-maker is as execrable a creature amongst them as a professed Jew a Turk or Sarazen or worshipper of Idols is amongst us Yet are the Jews and Mahumetans notorious Idolaters in that other main Branch or rather Essential Root of Idolatry that is in worshipping their own Imaginations or in observing the Fables or Traditions of their Ancestors To omit then that Branch of Idolatry which consists in the worshipping of Images we must examine ourselves I mean we Christians whether Papists or Protestants By our adherence to the Root of Idolatry that is the worshipping of Imaginations or the Transformation of the Divine Nature into the similitude of our corrupt desires or affections This is that which gave life and Being to the multiplicitie of imaginary gods amongst the Heathens And the Poyson of this Idolatry may be more malignant in others then it was or is in them for want of vent or issue 3. We of Reformed Churches rightly censure it as a Branch of heathenish Idolatry in the Romish Church in that they teach the people to make solemn supplication unto Saints deceased for their Intercession or mediation with God or Christ And under this Censure fall all their prayers which they make in this or the like form Sancta Maria Sancte Petre c. Ora pro nobis Into this branch of Formal Idolatry they could not possibly slide but through the other which properly consists in the Transformation or changing of the Divine Nature into the similitude of corruptible mans corrupt affections Now how deeply that very Church is tainted with this Idolatry Her own Plea for practising the former Branch in praying unto Saints will give evidence against them For the best warrant which her Sons can pretend unto to mis-perswade the multitude or vulgar is this That God is a Great King the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and therefore good manners requires that we do not preferre our Petitions immediately unto him but use the mediation or intercession of deceased Saints which are in greater favour with him then we wretched sinners are Now by this very Imagination or Conceit they transform the glorious Majestie of the invisible God and of his Christ into the similitude of mortal men of men though greater in power and Majestie then other men are yet for the most part not so good as they themselves are great not so inclinable to poor mens Peritions nor so compassionate of their miseries as meaner men are Or if by nature breeding or civil education these great Potentates of the world be more affable or compassionate then other men are yet are they not able to give dispatch to
you see how the terrour of the last day or fear of everlasting death must work in us an Abstinence from evil or repentance for evil past as the Hope of Everlasting Life doth work patience and constancie in persecution Yet both parts of that brief Receipt Sustine et Abstine may be effected by our serious meditation upon either branch of our belief concerning life and death everlasting For if all the sufferings of this life be not worthy of or equivalent unto the glory which shall be revealed in us we must needs be worthy of and obnoxious to everlasting death if we do not with patience suffer persecution in this life rather then hazard our hopes of Life Eternal Again if the sufferance of everlasting death be much worse then the suffering of all persecutions possible in this life our not repentance at the Terrour of it doth make us uncapable of everlasting life Our hopes of avoiding it by repentance if they be sound and firm will animate and in a manner impell us to follow the wayes of life to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance 4. Seeing then we are thus invironed on the right hand and on the left having the hopes of Eternal Life set before us to encourage us to constancy and resolution and are so strongly beset with inevitable fear of everlasting death if like faint hearted souldiers we should retreat or revoke our vow in Baptisme may not the Lord in Justice take up that complaint against us which sometimes he did against Jerusalem and Judah What could I have done more for my vineyard that I have not done unto it Other means to make men either good men or good Citizens the old world knew none nor could the wit of the wisest Law-givers devise any besides poena et praemium Reward and punishment Now what Kingdom or Common-wealth had either so bountiful Rewards or so dreadful punishments proposed unto them as we Christians have What then is the reason why we of all others are more defective in good duties most fruitful in evil lesse observant or more desperate transgressors of our Princes Lawes then the subjects or Citizens of any other well governed Kingdoms ever were how often do we pawn our hopes of everlasting life upon less occasions then Esau did his birth-right and set Christ our acknowledged Lord and Redeemer to sale at a lower price then Judas did The original of this our desperate neglect or contempt must either be misbelief or unbelief of the Reward promised to well doing or of the Punishment threatned to evil doers And it would be a point very hard to determine Whether of such as make any conscience of their wayes especially since the reformation of Religion more have miscarried through misbelief or through unbelief of this Great Article of our Creed Everlasting life and everlasting death Our Misbelief for the most part concerns the Article of everlasting life Of everlasting death we are rather unbelievers then misbelievers Misbelief alwayes includes a strong belief but the stronger our belief the more dangerous it is if it be wrested or misplaced and the worst way we can misplace our belief of heavenly joyes is when we make our selves certain of our salvation before our time or ranke our selves amongst the elect or heirs not disinheritable of the heavenly kingdom before we have made our Election sure 5. As the absolute infallibilitie of the present Romish Church doth make up the measure of heathenish Idolatry or iniquity So the immature belief of our own salvation or Election doth make up the measure of Jewish or Pharisaical Hypocrisie The manner how it doth so is this If no covetous if no sacrilegious person if no slanderer of his brethren or reviler of his betters can enter into the Kingdom of heaven as it is certain they cannot untill they repent then no man which is certain of his salvation can perswade himself or be perswaded that he is a covetous or sacrilegious person that he is a slanderer of his brethren or a reviler of his betters and hence the Conclusion arising from the Premisses is inevitable that albeit such men as presume of their Election or salvation before their time before they be throughly sanctified do all that covetous or sacrilegious men do be continual slanderers or malicious revilers of their brethren yet it is impossible that they should suspect much less condemn themselves of these crimes until they correct their former errours and rectifie their misbelief or presumption of their immutable estate in grace Yea their errour not being corrected makes them confident in these wicked practises and causes them to mistake hatred to mens persons or envy to others good parts for zeal to Religion and stubbornness in Schisme and faction for Christian charitie or good affection unto truth And if any man of better insight in the Stratagems of Satan shall go about to detect their error or convince them by strength of Reason grounded upon Scripture that their mis-perswasions do branch into Blasphemie and can bring forth no better fruit then Pharisaical hypocrisie yet they usually requite his pains as that young Spanish spark did the Physician which had well nigh cured him of a desperate Phrensie no sooner had he brought him to know what he was indeed no more then a Page though to a great Duke or Grandee of Spain but the Youth instead of a Fee or thankful acknowledgement began to revile and curse the Physician for bringing him out of a pleasant dream of golden mountains much richer then the King of Spain had any it seemed as a kind of hell unto him to see himself to be but a Page who in his raving fits had taken upon him to create Dukes and Earls and to exercise the Acts of Royal Authoritie Very much like him in Horace Epistol Libr. 2. Ep. 2. Fuit haud ignobilis Argis Qui se credebat miros audire Tragoedos In vacuo laetus sessor plausorque Theatro Hic ubi cognatorum opibus curisque refectus Expulit helleboro morbum bilemque meraco Et redit ad sese pol me occidistis amici Non servastis ait cui sic extorta voluptas Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus Error But with the Originals of Mis-belief besides what is said in our Fifth Book of Comments upon the Creed in this particular we shall have fitter occasion to meet hereafter And the greater part of men amongst us I am perswaded offend more in Unbelief then in Mis-belief 6. And by Unbelief lest we should be mistaken we understand somewhat less then the lowest degree of Infidelity Now of Infidels there be two degrees or ranks Infideles Contradictionis and Infideles purae Negationis He is an Infidel in the former sense that contradicts or opposeth the truth of Scriptures especially concerning Everlasting Life and Everlasting Death and such Infidels I presume there are none amongst us He is an Infidel in the Later Sense that doth not believe the
truth of Scriptures or cannot give a Reason of his Faith or one that neither thinks of Heaven or Hell and such Infidels there be almost in every Congregation But an Unbeliever a man may be although in the General he believe whatsoever the Scripture saith concerning the Resurrection of the Body or Life and Death everlasting unless withall he lay this his Belief to heart unless he have a true estimate as well of the reward proposed to good deeds as of the punishment proposed to evil doers It was a wise Saying of one that was not the wisest Doctor in his time Tractare res humanas norunt plurimi aestimare pauci Many there be that have skill enough in humane affairs that want no wit to atchieve the ends which they propose to themselves and yet but a few which know how to esteem or prize the ends at which they aym aright And of all our Errors and Defects there be but Two General Roots The first An overprizing of secular ends or contentments The second An undervaluing of matters Heavenly specially of Life and Death everlasting The true Reason why many who can discourse well of Heavenly matters and can give a reason of their belief sufficient to convince the Gainsayers of the truth which they believe are not so able to take or give the true Estimate of the things believed is much what the same with that which Philosophers assign Why yong men are no fit Auditors of moral Philosophy or why they prove not so good Proficients in this study as in other Arts and Sciences To learn the Mathematicks as Arithmetick or Geometry yong men or children are as apt as men of mature age And in natural Philosophy they finde no difficulty save onely want of Experience which is never attained unto in just and full measure without length of time or competent number of years Howbeit in the former Studies though all their life time were youth men might attain to the same measure of experience in the same course of time or number of years that they could if all their life were mature age But so it is not in moral Philosophy What is the reason The Philosopher tells us It is because yong men or men whose affections are unsetled can have no taste of moral Goodness or of the sweetness of true vertue And as his Master before him had observed Omnis vita gustu quodam ducitur We must have a Taste or Relish of good or evil or else we shall neither follow the one nor eschew the other with that constancy with that life and courage which is required to Vertue or Morality We may do many good things which a good Christian ought to do and yet not live a Christian life As Herod did Mark 6. 20. who feared and observed Saint John Baptist as a holy Just Man and heard him gladly and when he heard him did many things yet cut off his head 7. To lead a Christian life is more then to be a meer Moral Man although it always includes Morality in it And whatsoever is required to a moral life That and more is necessarily required to a Christian and Godly life And seeing the framing of a true Christian Life depends very much upon the true belief of this Article of Everlasting Life and Everlasting Death the most effectual Method which Gods Ambassadors can use to this end must be to exhibit a true taste or relish of the Goodness contained in the one and of the Evil comprized in the other And this is the Method which by Gods assistance I mean to follow First To set down directions whence or by what means we may take a Tast or Rellish without danger to our souls of Everlasting Death And Secondly How the like Tast or Rellish may be had of Everlasting Life or at the least how we may frame unto our selves a true though a short measure by which we may by diligent meditation take a better Estimate of Both then most men do I will begin with The means how to estimate everlasting Death because it is much easier to have some Tast or Rellish of it then of everlasting Life There is no evil which a man in this life doth suffer no pain or grief but may in some sort serve a diligent meditator to take a view or estimate of the horrors of the second death But alwayes the greater the evil is which we have suffered or have experience of the more fit measure it is for calculating the endless miseries of the Second Death And The very cogitation or remembrance of such particular evils as we have actually suffered or have experience of will be more effectual to withdraw us from those means or practises which procure them then the representation or contemplation of evils in their nature far greater but of which we have had no Tast or experience 8. A Memorable Experiment in this kind we have recorded by Justine and other good Writers of those Scythians which had waged war so long in Asia that their Wives growing weary of their absence did marry with their slaves or bond-men And their slaves being willing to defend the possessions which they had usurpt took arms against their Masters at their return But were quickly routed without stroke of Sword or dint of Lance or other usual weapon of war In stead of these their Masters charged them on horseback with whips in their hands with success according to their own fore-cast or expectation Of hurts or wounds made by Sword or Lance as they wisely did forecast their slaves had formerly had no experience they never had felt the smart or grief of either But their backs had been accustomed to the scourge or lash and the very sight of these weapons reviving the memory of their former smart more affrighted them on a suddain then any terror of war besides could have done To have tried their courage or fortunes either by push of Pike or dint of Sword they would have been more forward then wiser men Dulce bellum inexpertis Want of experience in this kind would have made them for the first brunt at least more insolent and fool-hardy whereas the very sight and noise of the whip whereof they had so often tasted did presently dant them and make them seek their security from it by confused flight The Historical Truth of this Relation and good success of their Stratagem is sealed unto us in the Publick Coin of that Country whose stamp to this day is a man on Horse-back with a whip in his hand 9. It would be a great comfort to us that are Gods Embassadors if we could but perswade men to be as afraid to wrong or deface the monuments of men deceased as the modern Turks are to offer the least indignity unto ordinary papers scattered in the streets or to be as careful in preserving the Goods of the Church as these Infidels are to preserve the least scrap of paper that would otherwise