an Enthusiasme or immediate Revelation but such motives and inducements as were before recited which amounted onely to strong and high probabilities yet sufficient enough in an humble modest heart to produce Faith a certainty of adhaerence though not of evidence and this sufficient to produce acts and operations of Faith to provoke to the obedience of Faith A bruised Reed God will not break nor quench a smoaking Flax Mat. 12.20 if we have but Faith so much as a graine for a little Faith if sound is true Faith of mustard seed let the motives be what they will if this encline and promote obedience the least degree thereof is well pleasing to God he will accept without being furnished with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full Armour of infallibilities and demonstration Nathaniels Faith had neither Enthusiasme nor demonstration but a Topick or Argument a paribus backed by an humane testimony or report John 1.48 and Christ approved this his Faith and rewarded it with an higher concession of grace ver 30.51 and so Christ accepted Thomas his Faith though enduced by senfible experiments John 20 28. whatsoever the instrument or beginning or motive of beleife be if that work by love and work in us a care and desire to find the truth humility in following and constancy in professing it this shall be our reasonable service of God The third Part the Prayer O Eternall Lord God in whom to beleeve is Eternall life give to us thy grace which may suppresse every motion of infidelity that there be not in us an evill heart of unbeleife and however we be not able to manage the shield of Faith yet perfect thou thy strength in our weaknesse making it mighty through thy power working in us to pull down strong holds cast downe imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowlege of God O holy Jesus the Eternall Word of the Father we beleeve thou hast the Words of Eternall Life Lord help thou our unbeleife and increase our Faith bring into captivity every thought to thine obedience that thy servants and followers may submit to thee our Lord and Master resigning our Vnderstandings to the Truth our Wills to the Goodnesse our Affections to the holinesse of thy Precepts and by Hope depending for satisfaction on thy precious promises O Immortall and all-glorious Spirit sanctifie unto us all those means and methods which are the preparatives and Introductions of Faith that they may be Instrumentall to Principle us in wholesome Doctrine to beget in us a love of the truth and obedience to thy Laws unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead and advance us to further degrees of Knowledge and spirituall Wisedom to the spirit of obsignation the confidence of hope and the assurance of thine eternall love and favour O holy blessed and glorious Trinity to whom belongeth the Kingdom the Power and the Glory throughout all Ages World without end Amen MOSES his Choice Heb. 11.24.25.26 By Faith Moses when he was come to Years refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter c. MOses in his Infancy and Minority being saved and preserved by a miraculous mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in his Minority and riper Years preferred educated and advanced in Pharaohs Court when he had arrived at full maturity and strength of dayes he bethinks himself how to exercise his Princely perfections and accomplishments supposing God had been so good and gracious to him for some great and honourable ends and purposes of mercy and beleeving no better way to imploy those powers then in the service of God the interest and concerments of his Church and People and further conceiving God therefore had delivered him that he might be the Cheif and Principall Instrument of his glory in the Preservation of his Fathers House and the redemption of his Brethren according to the Flesh For By Faith c. The first Part. Q. But why should Moses desert and relinquish Pharaohs Court in which he was so Honourably Educated and Entertained Or why should he deny for so the Vulgar renders it the appellation and title of the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter who by her tender care and liberall bounty had obliged him Was it not both grosse ingratitude and great incivility thus to sleight her and her high respect Could he not at once be called the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter and be indeed the Child and Servant of God a Courtier and a Christian Did not Joseph the holy Patriarch before him live both magnificently and religiously in the same Egypt and enjoyed the dignities and wealth thereof And long after this was not Devout Esther Queen to Ahasuerus Daniel and his Associates Nobles to Nebuchadnezzar A. Doubtlesse had not Pharaoh and his Court been implacable and mercilesse Tyrants violent Persecutors of and incorrigible irreconcilable Enemies to the people of God Moses might still have resided in that Court and without any violence to his Religion possessed whatsoever Egypt afforded but in this juncture of time the case was otherwise to be stated then it was when Joseph Esther and Daniel had charge and command under Infidell Princes for these had liberty and opportunities to exercise their Religion to improve and manage their Royall Priviledges and immunities to the behoofe and advantage of their civill and sacred relations whereas Moses must either in a base and unworthy complyance joyn with the Egyptians to vex them whom God had wounded or in a dull sleepy security and Epicurean softnesse neglect the remembrance and afflictions of Joseph and stifle and choke that publike Spirit which God had endowed and enobled him withall for eminent and illustrious atcheivements for besides what is above mentioned Moses had sufficient Authority and Commission to enterprize and undertake the Deliverance of his Hebrew Brethren from the Egyptian Bondage a Command Call and Order from God the Lord of Lords the onely Supreme and so as Pharaohs cruelty did lessen Moses his Obligation of gratitude for he being a Publique Spirit and no pure self-lover every indignity and injury to his Brethren was so to him so Gods command did quite supersede all Obligations to Pharaoh his Daughter or Court both because they were but the Instruments of Gods providence who of Enemies made them Friends and Benefactors and so the highest Obligation was to the principall efficient God and also because a command from God to whom proud Pharaoh was but a mean Subject the Supreme of all doth null and voyd all Orders and Obedience to the Inferiour for though Religion doth not take away or disanull the tyes of Nature and Civility but rather enforce and perfect them yet where their Ruler and Offices are counter-checked by an expresse command or prohibition from God there it is Religion and Duty to wave them and observe the expresse The result then is this That if it come to this passe and point that our temporall preferments and possessions our naturall or civill
the honestum that the tryall of your Faith might be precious c. 1 Pet. 1.7 The Apostles adjudged their sufferings honourable Acts 5.41 and therefore they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his Name Add to this they consorm us to Christ our Head the Prince of sufferings who by his sufferings hath sanctified and enobled all ours but they are most of all of the utile they are infinitely profitable to prevent the greatest evills and to procure and secure the greatest good and if they be in some degree all these both joyous and honourable and profitable then also they must be eligible not simply and absolutely for so they are not because mala poenae evills for sin or the evills of punishment contrary to Nature but comparatively and upon supposition not as the matter of our first but second and sometimes better choyce when they are received as Medicines taken as tryalls of the most eminent graces of humility contentation meeknesse stedfastnesse and Faith and when managed to the use and exercise of these or when applyed as assurances of after felicities and thus even Death it selfe may be desired as a determination of humane imperfections and miseries as an Introduction to a new and more excellent life Thus Elias prayed that God would take away his life 1 Kings 19.4 not positively or peremptorily for he fled for it's safety but conditionally rather then Baal should seem to prevaile against God rather then he see the whole designe of Ahab and Jezabell acted with all sury and cruelty upon the Prophets of the Lord. And Saint Paul knew not what to chuse in that strait Life or Death yet his desire was rather to depart because thereby he should obtain to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and we long to be cloathed c. 2 Cor. 5.4 and we are willing rather to be absent in the body and to be present with the Lord ver 8. And this was the case of Moses his choyce it was not through passion but with deliberation with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather the act was neither purely voluntary nor involuntary but mixt as Patients take bitter Pills and Potions rather then they will languish and consume suffer one part of the body to be Cauterized or amputated and cut off rather then the whole perish as Mariners in a Storme at Sea will rather lose their goods then lives and Moses did this the rather because he esteemed his and their sufferings the sufferings of Christ Q. But how were they the sufferings or reproch of Christ Was Christ then exhibited in the flesh Or could he suffer who had no flesh to suffer in Or could Pharaoh reproch him whom he knew not whose Person was without his reach and no way subject to his power A. Doubtlesse their sufferings here have the appellation of the reproch of Christ upon the same account that Saint Pauls reproches are stiled the afflictions of Christ Col. 1.24 for as Christ could not suffer personally before he assumed our Nature and took our flesh so neither was it possible for him to suffer after the Resurrection of his Flesh and that his Body was Glorified For on the Crosse his sufferings had their determination and period with that Consummatum est It is finished Iohn 19.30 And Saint Paul tells us Christ being raysed from the Dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 and if not Death then no penalties or miseries which are but either the Harbingers and Fore-runners or Attendants and Followers of Death So that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one Christ before his Incarnation and after his Glorification suffers and is reproched not in his Personall capacity as he was during his residence on Earth but in his politick capacity and in this consideration he was from all Eternity Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever and he suffers and did alwayes suffer when any part of his Body suffereth As therefore in Moses and his Hebrews Christ mysticall was reproched so in Saint Paul and the then Church of Christ he was mystically afflicted Christ ever did and now doth suffer in his Members he ever did and still doth count their afflictions his own God did so Isay 63.9 and still doth so witnesse that Voyce from Heaven Acts 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me uttered by Christ and ver 5. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest in his Members For he that toucheth them toucheth the Apple of his Eye Zach. 2.8 for he is the Head of his Body the Church and the Head is sensible of the sufferings of the Body nay the Church is expresly called Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so also is Christ He saith not Ita Christi but Ita Christ us unum Christum appellans caput corpus Aug. de pecc mer. lib. 1. cap. 31. so is Christ so is the whole consisting of Head and Members the denomination is taken not from the subordinate Members of the Body but from the supreme the Head so is Christ that is Christ mististicall And that this is the genuine meaning of this place may be concluded from that we find expressed Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made He saith not And to Seeds as of many but as of one And to thy Seed which is Christ And therefore this most significantly and comfortably doth denote and ascertain unto us that close union and conjunction betwixt Christ the Head and the Church his Bady and from thence results that sympathy and compassion of Christ in the sufferings and injuries of his people and servants Now that the beleeving Hebrews for otherwise this would not have been argumentative to them had also this perswasion there are besides the fore-mentioned two places in the Old Testament convincingly to demonstrate it That place where David in spirit called Christ Lord Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord c. My Lord indeed fiducially and obedientially but not exclusively for it is plain he was Lord over the Collective Body the whole Israel of God a Ruling Lord over his People whereof David was but one though a Chiefe one And as David thus gives us an account of his Faith That he expected a Messias and beleeved that that Messias was the Head of the People the Lord of the aggregated of Israel so he assures us that that persuasion was a part of the Jewish Creed for that whole Israel esteemed and adjudged that all projects and defignes to prosecute and oppresse the Peoof God were conspiracies and associations against the Lord and against his Anoynted Psal 2.2 Moses therefore did chuse both Religiously and Prudently because he esteemed his and his Brethrens sufferings the reproch of Christ a choice not of Faction but Faith because of a state
and condition wherein Christ his Lord was interested and concerned yet Moses had not onely this motive of Faith to perswade him to this choice but he had another also and that a powerfull one For he had respect also to the recompence of the Reward that is beleeved the Deliverance of his People was approching and they should receive the promised Inheritance the Land of Canaan a Type and Figure of Heaven Q. But what doth Faith Eye temporall Objects or are temporalties as well as spiritualties taken into the cognizance of Faith or is that true Faith which moves for either of these respects could Moses fight the Lords Battells and look for Pay or Recompence Is not this to be a mercinary Souldier no Voluntiere or rather thus to act Is it not to love our selves and the reward not the Lord and his Service Is it not to serve him for Hire not for Duty A. Indeed it is most true That the Glory of God should be both the prime mover and ultimate end of all actions which are truely Religious because all Religion is to be terminated in God yet our immortall soules whose chiefe felicity and complement is the Union and fruition of God may deservedly challenge our secondary and subordinate thoughts and respects both because that in these respects we ayme at God who is our perfection and reward and also because our respects are regular when we take in the intermediate end with order and respect to the last and chiefest For in this case we overlook our selves by Eying an higher and more glorious Object And for this we have warranty both from those Precepts which enstruct us to seek the Kingdom of God to lay up a sure Foundation of good works For the hope of the Eternall Reward to strive with all care to secure our Election Luke 16.9 1 Cor. 9.24 Tit. 2.12.13 Colos 3.23 and also from those great presidents who have practised before us Moses here in this place Saint Paul Phil. 3.11.12 If by any means I might attain unto the Resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either was already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Iesus Our Saviour Christ that grand Exemplar Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Iesus the author and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God And also from good Reason for Qui uult finem nult media and è contra now God commands the means faith and the end of that is salvation 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your Faith even the salvation of your soules He commands holinesse of life and the end of that is Eternall life Rom. 6.22 an happy end is a great provocation and encouragement to action and for this end God proposeth to us that most blessed and comfortable end The result is this That to act meerly propter mercedem for an hire is slavish and self-ish but to doe ex intuitu mercedis to look upon the Reward as an incitement and comfort is a most usefull help and so morally necessary to piety and devotion 1 Cor. 15.58 Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Col. 3.24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is layd up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto them also that love his appearing The Second Part. 1. By Faith For Flesh and Blood would have perswaded Moses to a contrary choice to continuance and residence in Pharaohs Court and if he had consulted with worldly men concerning his Designe if they disliked his Person he would be censured and derided as weak and unpolitick if they had a kindnesse for him they would rebuke him as Peter did our Saviour upon a somwhat like account Be it far from thee Lord This shall not be unto thee Mat. 16.22 But Faith adviseth not with Flesh and Blood neither resolves with the men of this world No it adviseth with the Word of God and resolves with the Church of God and therefore that which the World so much admires and fancies the gallantry and splendor of a Princes Court the Title and Dignity of his Sonne and Favourite the Treasures of his Exchequer he did with great resignation and freedom relinquish and forsake And which is yet more that the World most dislikes and abhorrs poverty persecution ignominy slavery he did with much cheerfulnesse embrace for then he left the powerfull prevailing party and sided with an afflicted and despised people vexed and oppressed with arbitrary impositions and inhumane servitudes See what Faith can doe it can overcome the World it can count all things but losse to be found in Christ It is Faith and nothing but Faith that sets a just estimate and value of things not because currant but because worthy that distinguished betwixt truth and appearances substantiall and fantastick happinesses and so makes a Christiam esteem and adjudge the persecutions of an holy Church an higher preferment then the promotions of a tyrannicall Court that more then Heathenish Law of self-preservation is superseded by Christ Mat. 10.33 Whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven And ver 37.38.39 He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more then me is not worthy of me And he that taketh not his crosse and followeth after me is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it and so abolished by that Law of Faith which he prescribed 2. By Faith because done in obedience to that Law and Rule of Faith which the Captain and High Priest of our profession had enacted and ordered The main difference betwixt that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 1.3 the Work of Faith which is the fincere observation of Christ precepts and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.15 the work of the Law written in our hearts which is the dictates of a naturall conscience and the common notions of humanity betwixt an act of Grace and that of Nature that the oue is done onely rationally the other obedientially the one is a faculty the other a duty that we performe as man a rationall creature made by God and so his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other as a Christian a devout sworn servant of Jesus Christ who hath brought into captivity every thought even the most rationall most excellent thought or suggestion of Nature to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor.
suiter for Heaven the same affection will be see Acts 2.41 c. Q. But by what did she evidence her conversion and demonstrate her Faith A. If we look upon the Record Josh 2.9.10.11 we will find her Faith plainly and fully asserted for that declareth She beleeved the true God the Lord of Heaven and Earth that this God was in Covenant with the Beseigers that we would dispossesse their Enemies and seat them in Canaan and of this her Faith she gave an undeniable demonstration of her charitable affection and kind welcome of the Spies entertaining them with all fidelity respect and safety So David made his delight in the Saints on Earth an expression and remonstrace of his Faith in God Psal 16.1.2.3 Q. But how did it consist with true Faith to take in the assistance of a lye for the management of her designe A. It may be resolved That though the sin were damnable as every transgression of the Law in rigor yet she found releif and favour both because as Paul obtained mercy because what he did he did ignorantly through unbeleif so she did it through weaknesse being but a minor in the Faith and new entred and matriculated Professor of the true God an incipient or beginner in the saving Knowledge of Religion whereas if she had been graduated and fully enstructed therein and of long standing in the Society of Beleevers her pardon would not have been sued out and procured upon such easie termes nor grace and favour obtained but by many acts of humiliation and also because God considers our infirmities and delights to doe us good therefore he oft rewards the action in what is good and imputes not the bad which is inherent to and intermixt with the good he will not be so extream as to mark all that is amisse especially if the offender be weak and the intentions sincere whereas no pretence of a good intention will serve to a carelesse secure or presumptuous transgressor And so though God may somtimes justifie an harmlesse Delinquent who sins not malo animo in the simplicity of his heart yet God never allows designedly to doe evill that good may come thereof Q. But how can this her hospitality be excused from treason Was not this to comply with the professed enemies of her country and people And is not such a complyance by all Laws judged falsnesse and perfidiousnesse And can falsnesse be an act of Faith A. It is true that all these interrogatories are to be resolved in the affirmative unlesse God otherwise declare and if he interpose his command to the contrary then all obligations to a subordinate power is superseded For as I said before in that ordered slaughter of Isaac God who is above all Law having passed his sentence nulled the authority of any Law decreeing the contrary so here God who is above all Government and Governours having expresly declared a change of the then Government and the substitution of other Governors did thereby license and authorize all practises tending thereunto and by his over-ruling supremacy absolved those people from their Allegiance to their then Governours Now that God had done so appears Iosh 1.2.3 c. and yet this can be no president or Gospel case now because Christ hath given rules for peaceable demeanor none for disturbance of States God then would have the Common-wealth in the Church now the Church is in the Common-wealth that is Christ will have no man for his cause disseazed of his right deprived of his Estate deposed from his Dignities he settles his Gospel in Kingdoms and States without disputing their forme or mode of Government he came to give an Heavenly Kingdom he leaves earthly Monarchies and Republiques in a quiet enjoyment of their powers and priviledges The Second Part. 1. This Rahab this child of wrath for so she was by her Education and after conversation till she received this Intelligence and Revelation concerning the true God is now a child of God by her after faith and conversion There is infinite mercy with God and plenteous Redemption for all humble converts and penitents It 's Gods glory to forgive sins and his greatest glory to forgive the greatest sinners repenting Isay 1.16.17.18 Ezek. 18.14 c. he is alwayes ready to welcome and entertain an humbled sinner as the Father his prodigall Son returning with all tendernesses and endearments he looks upon a convert not as a sinner his iniquities and his sins he will remember no more but receives him as a Son reconciled to him by the Son of his love Iesus Christ he delights in and chearfully accepts such opportunities of mercy This is the remonstrance of the new Covenant Christ came to save what was lost the relenting and confessing Prodigall that poor Samaritan sinner who had five Husbands and she who had none that notorious branded Harlot who washed his feet with her tears and then wiped them with her baire Matthew and Zacheus two Publicans both followers and then favourites of Christ and for an assurance that thus he would dispose of his mercy for the future when he went to Paradise he took with him that theife the late convert on the Crosse Where sin abounds if suteable repentance follow there Grace superabounds the greater the distemper the more excellent the cure the more skilfull the Physitian the more potent the Enemy nullum memorabile nomen Faeminea in paena nec habet Victoria laudem the more glorious the Conquest the stronger the hold of the Devill the more powerfull is the Spirit of Christ storming him out and dispossessing him the higher our debts and trespasses are the more noble is the bounty and charity of the releasor and acquittor the higher the obligation of the releaser to serve and love him Luke 7.47 where the causall Conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we reade for is equivalent to therefore noting not Causam rei but Argumenti from whence or what Topick soever the Argument and Answers be drawn 2. By Faith she beleeved as is said the true God c. The minimum quod sic of Faith is to beleeve that God is and that he is a plentifull rewarder of those who diligently seek him and even this beleif God will reward by his acceptance This Primum fundamentale served her turn to denominate her a faithfull one and put her upon the Record Faith in the least measure and first degree obtains grace and favour and encreaseth by little and little into knowledge and sanctity of life God will not quench the smoaking Flax nor break the bruised Reed he will not stifle and crush the beginnings of Piety but will carefully nourish and cherish Faith in Semine will insensibly as good Seed if sound spring and grow up first in the Blade then the Ear then into full Corn goe from one degree to another towards perfection As in the extraordinary Faith of Miracles that little as a grain of Mustard-seed Mark 4.27.28 29.30.31 can remove Mountains
on the Crosse to his justice should be as available to them as to us and the merits of Christs death as imputable to them as to us And upon that account God accepted these all as his Redeemed ones Even as an honest Creditor will release his Debtor when a faithfull Solvent Surety or undertaker makes satisfaction or gives security to content and according to desire and demand And as Jesus Christ was yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. so the vertue of his death is Eternall both à parte ante and à parte post is from and to all Eternity But besides all this premised we have expresse Evidence for our Plea and Cause for the precedent Verses of this Chapter where it is set down in plain Language that some of these all had passed from Earth to Heaven and particularly instanced in Enoch and Elijah and it s said of Abraham that he looked for a City and that sure was a free Priviledged Place conspicuous eminent and glorious not a close dark hole or Prison and of the Patriarkes that they aymed at Patriam Caelestem an Heavenly Country and that jam tum illis paratum even then prepared for them Heb. 11.10.16 And hereupon Haymo thus concludes Nunc verò quiescunt in animae in heatudine Regui Caelestis ineffabili laetitia perfruontes It seems this conceit of the present Romaniscs was not at that time a Catholike truth or else he was mistaken The second is that of some of the Ancient Fathers who referr this common perfection to be received solely to the day of the Resurrection supposing That no Soules enter into Heaven or enjoyes the beatificall Vision till the day of the generall Resurrection But although the souls be extinguished at the time of their separation from the Body yet they did lye in seeret receptacles in a profound or deep sleep untill the Resurrection doing nothing suffering nothing in the mean time but onely the delay of their Glory For so some of them conceive That Heaven shall not be opened till the day of Judgement unlesse to a few priviledged persons And of this opinion was Irenous Iust Martyr Tertull. August Ambrose Iohn 22. and the Greeke Church still maintains it The Text upon which they ground this perswasion is Apoc. 6.9.10.11 I saw under the Altar the soules of them that wore slain for the Word of God c. Indeed there are severall Expositions of this place Some making it Allegoricall Others Figurative c. Whatsoever the true meaning is Certainly the Text strongly proves the Immortality of the humane Soules by their subsistence after separated But whether their Conclusion let others judge Indeed some later Divines have moderated the supposition Neither with the Romanists dooming their soules to inferior Vaults if not infernall Nor placing in severall resting receptacles yet withall allowing them no residence in Heaven the Throne of Gods Glory But they pretend they are carried into Abrahams bosome or which is all one with them to Paradise thus distinguishing Paradise from Heaven which distinction they attempt to prove from these following places of holy Scripture First from Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise From which words they thus argue how concludingly let others examine That Paradise must needs import a Place or Seate of blessednesse because it is promised as a mercifull reward and favour and this reward the enjoyment of the society of Iesus yet Heaven it cannot be because that Kingdom of blisse was not opened till Christ made the first entry and took Possession thereof at his Ascension when he was solemnly inaugurated intoch is Kingly Office And so they Expound Christs descent into Hell to signifie a state of separation or common receptable of Spirits so that with them both are Seats of Glory but the one far excelling the other And this they in the second place strengthen from 2 Cor. 12. supposing Saint Paul had two Revelations One When he was caught up into the third Heaven The other When into Paradise which say they was the place from whence Laezarus his soule was called back But that the chief and highest degree of blisse is reserved for the last day they infer from Mat. 13.43 and 25.34 2 Tim. 4.8 But the now common received opinion which is all I adde by way of censure is That all the soules of the saints departed goe straightwayes to Heaven upon their separation To this purpose compare Heb. 10.19 with Heb. 12.22.23.24 which words seem to have this sense The spirits of the just could not be perfect unlesse they were in Heaven enjoying the society of God Christ and the Angels and by enjoyment of these their being in Heaven is concluded So 2 Cor. 5.1 If our Earthly Tabernacle c. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have immediately thereupon a building of God c. as soon as the Tabernacle is dissolved Otherwise the Apostle would not have said we have but we hope or expect and to expect is but in reference to a reversion to have supposes Possession For here we hope for Heaven we have it not and here we desire we may have For so it follows ver 2. In this we groane c. Yet we would not have desired to be uncloathed ver 4. but upon this account and assurance That as soon as we were uncloathed we would be cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life And further yet We are willing to be absent from the Body that we might be present with the Lord ver 8. of the same Chapter Hence St. Paul saith Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Christ And St. Stephen when he dyed thus Prayed Lord Iesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 and he Prayed so because he beleeved for this was a Prayer of Faith Iesus would receive his Spirit But super totam materiam we shall anon find as hath been proved and shall be further that waving the supposition upon which this second judgement is given it yet comes neer the mark and the truth if it be not the truth it selfe And therefore we passe to the third The third is that which is commonly asserted by most of the Writers of the Reformed Churches who apprehend this promise to relate to Christs Incarnation and with these the words are thus Paraphrased they obtained not the promises that is The promised Messas had not in their times assumed the humane nature and become flesh So Beza Non obtinuerunt they obtained not that is Eminus viderunt Christum they looked for Christ to come they saw him as Abraham afar off So Major Non sunt consecuti promissionem viz. promissum semen mulieris the promised Seed of the Woman And so Calvin Iunius Piscator and certainly their judgement herein is true the dispensation under Christ more glorious then that under the Law and greater perfections received and better provision made by Christs comming then was before insomuch that our Saviour affirmeth
then his Preservation God gratifies her Religious good Nature with larger bounties she had also the delight and comfort to Suckle and Swadle him and not onely by connivence or permission but by speciall Favour and Commission from Pharaohs Daughter not upon her own proper costs and charges but with a certain Honourable Salary and Stipend and with full expectation of high preferment in Pharaohs Court for a surplusage So true is that of the Apostle Eph. 3.20 God is able to doe exceeding abunndantly above all that we can aske or think And the Psalmists supposition is here in some sence affirmatively true When his Father and Mother forsook him then the Lord took him up Psal 27.10 for Moses his Parents durst not take notice of him neither was there any to look for or after him but a timerous Damosell who yet but looked at a distance God took the care then upon himself who is a present help when all other second auxiliaries faile to all distressed persons but above all others to exposed Infants Their Angels in Heaven when no Guardians on Earth doe alwayes saith our Saviour Mat. 18.10 behold the Face of my Father stand before and about him as his Guard continually to attend and wait for Orders towards their protection and preservation And as he appointeth his noble Hosts to be their Overseers and Assistants so he maketh the most honourable among men to be the instruments of his good providence Kings shall be their Nursing Fathers and Queens their Nursing Mothers as was here in effect demonstrated and was in some part proved and experienced by David and so by him witnessed and attested Psal 22.9.10.11 4. The experience of Gods mercifull dispensations and gracious dealings is a great ayd and assistance to our Faith and a strong and powerfull encouragement for our chearfull dependance on Gods good providence It was an experiment which satisfied Peters scruple removed his error and prejudice and produced that determination and conclusion of Faith Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Acts 10.34 And it was an Argument of sense which fetched that answer and confession of Faith from Thomas My Lord and my God But as it is an help to Faith so it is the settlement and strength of hope and obedience former favours provoke us to thankfulnesse in prosperity and good dayes and encline us to confidence and resolution in adversity in dangerous and difficult times take a proofe and instance of both Josephs rejection of his Mistrisse her solicitations was grounded on his Masters favour and Gods goodnesse in his former deliverance and present preferment Gen. 39.8.9 Behold my master c. as if he had said Such an unworthy complyance and condiscention as she moved was both a sin against God and an iniustice against Pharaoh the former an act of irreligion the latter of ingratitute both a great wickednesse When Benhadad was in straits and knew not which way to turn himself his Servants counselled him to joyn with them in a submission to Ahab King of Israel and the motive to this their counsell and his acceptance and all their submission was this Behold now we have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are mercifull Kings c. 1 Kings 20.31.32 Doubtlesse it is a good Argument God hath been found in this and such emergencies when we sought unto him therefore let us seek again to him he hath heard when we called therefore let us call again David frames such an Argument when from an induction of mercies he concludes a continuation The Lord that delivered c. 1 Sam. 17.34.35.36.37 And Saint Paul from the former experience of mercies builds his future hopes of a succession 2 Cor. 1.8 9.10 So true is that of the same holy Apostle Rom. 5.4.5 Patience worketh experience and experience hope not an hypocriticall presumption which hath the luck alwayes to be bafled but a grounded dependance which maketh not ashamed as all hypocrites shall be when their vain confidences fayl them which alwayes obtains either what it expects or better or more and is therefore a rejoycing hope because an obtaining ver 2. or which is more pertinent Because the love of God is shed abroad c. ver 5. former receipts of mercies hath produced in our hearts an assurance that God loveth us and if so then we know that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 3.28 and none but such God loves so as to reward And this made the Psalmist use that Exhortation Tast and see that the Lord is good c. Psal 34.8 and that solemn and sacred Protestation I will remember the years c. Psal 77 10.11.12.13 5. Acts of nature and reason if performed in Faith are taken in and converted into Religion Moses Parents did an act of naturall affection in Faith as was before cleared and so they were not onely naturall but religious and faithfull for so doing and the ground hereof is That as not the opus operatum not the doing of a work of Religion is a duty abstractedly and simply considered removed from all adjuncts and circumstances for even the most wicked transgressors may doe that which for the substance of the work is Religious and yet they are not Religious in doing it because of a defailance in the right manner of performing as in Jehu his Zeale the Pharisees Prayers the Hypocrits Almes for they doe them not in ayme respect and order to God and his Laws but to other ends and purposes as is expressed Hos 7.14.16 Zach. 7.5 so the most common acts of life of nature and civility may become acts of Faith and holy Religion if they be duely circumstantiated done spiritually and divinely with relation and reference unto God obedience and submission to his will for it is the manner of doing and the end which differenceth and distinguisheth holy and prophane actions acts of Faith and acts of Reason of Grace and Nature and therefore those acts which materially are naturall and ciuill rationall and morall if performed with a desire a care and conscience to please God they are formally and truely Religious and Christian as the Philippians Contribution sent by Epaphroditus is called a Sacrifice acceptable a Sacrifice acceptable because done to him with an Eye and respect to God the liberality was to Paul the Sacrifice the Service to God and this sauctified it and adopted it into an holy office or an act of Faith Aug. lib. 19. de Civ Dei cap. 25. throughout 6. To denominate an act a duty of Faith it is sufficient to walk and move according to that degree and measure of light we have received and to beleeve proportionably to the evidence of the Revelation That which stayed Moses his Parents their Faith and for which they were reputed faithfull was not a clear Philicall or Mathematicall demonstration for this carries its evidence so strongly along with that it commands and forceth assent neither was it
the letter and Circumcision doe transgresse the Law that is those who have not those profitables helps and means as thou hast to enable to the performance of the Law condemn thee of negligence ingratitude and contempt by their endeavours to out goe thee in obedience yea who out-strip and out-goe the being destitute of these forces and therefore thou having but not using them art reproveable and inexeusable In summe no pious man will unne cessarily neglect the means of Piety as no good Husband the helps of thriving Every pious man will make use of assistances to grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2. It is the Duty of the Supreme Magistrate to provide that the outward Offices of Divine Worship and the holy Ordinances be duely and decently Celebrated and in ease of neglect by their Authority to enjoyn and command their Celebration For the Chief Magistrate is Utriusque Tabula Custos Vindex as appears from the Example of Hezekiab 2 Chron. 29.5.21 30.1 compared with 2 Kings 18.4.6 and of Moses Deut. 33.3.4.5 of Iosâ—uah Iosh 24.1 28. David 1 Chron. 15.4.16.43.23.2.3.6 So Solomon Iehoshaphat Nehemiah and so it was believed and received all along by the Christian Church as is obvious to all who have any knowledge in Ecclesiasticall Stories and Customes 3. Nature by it's suppositions doth conclude against us That we ought to Worship God The Egyptian Sciences brought Moses to the contemplation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Eternall Being if we may beleeve Saint Basill Hom. 54. ad adolescentes for Nature as blind as she is doth at long running find an Eternall Power and Being on which all things depend for their conservation because from it all derive their Being Creation and production conservation being nothing else but the same act of Creation in fluxu passing and going on from an instant to a duration and therefore of necessity there must be intercourse between God and Man the excellency of the Creation and Master-piece of all his works But Faith advances higher having received a nobler light from Heaven and discovers how to Worship God acceptably unto all well-pleasing and by such rites as may expresse our experience and thankfulnesse for former speciall favours and bespeak our hope and dependance for the future continuance of them and addition of better according to his exceeding precious Promises and this is indeed to Worship and keep a Passeover an holy Feast through Faith to God Nature discovers in grosse and darkly where Faith proposeth clearly and distinctly Nature might tell Moses a dark and dimne generall that God was the preserver of man-kind but Faith particularly assures him what Reason could not Eye that in one Night by a most terrible Execution an Angel would make a totall destruction of all the First-born in the spacious Country and among the numerous people of Egypt And further yet That in this so speedy and universall ruine of them he would distinguish the Habitations of the Israelites then mixed and sojourning among them by the effusion of the blood of a Lambe upon the Lintell c. This Moses beleeved and therefore kept the Passeover True Faith makes men devout holy to keep all Gods Ordinances and Institutions 4. Moses kept c. The Iews had their Passeover so have we ours 1 Cor. 5. For even Christ our Passeover is is Sacrificed for us Ecce Agnus Dei Behold the Lambo of God Iohn 1.29 They had an Altar so have we Heb. 13.10 We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle They a Circumcision so we Col. 2.11 In whom also ye are Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ We a Baptisme so they 1 Cor. 10.2 And were all Baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and the Sea Christ the end of the Law to all Beleevers both Iews and Gentiles But of this formerly 5. Moses kept c. He Killed the Sacrifice and Feasted on it Here was both Sacrificium and Sacrum epulum alwayes in their Sacrificing they did Eat with Mirth and Festivity on some parts of the Sacrifice Exod. 18.12 Deut. 12.6 to the 16. 1 Sam. 9.12.13 When we keep our Passeover let us Feast and be joyfull before the Lord our King It is very meet right and our bounden Duty so to doe To appoint and observe a Fast and prohibit all Christian rejoycing and Feasting on our Passeover our great Festivall the Lords Day is to confound a Day of Humiliation and Thanksgiving and to oppose the practice of the Universall Church and hath by it been alwayes adjudged a Schisme Saint Faul hath otherwise ordered the matter 1 Cor. 5.8 Therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickednesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth by his illution therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solemnly Feast saith Calvin Festum Celebremns so Erasmus keep the Feast make an holy day not for Heathenish sports but Heavenly Duties that as the Saints glorified have their Hallelujahs so we our Rejoycings Triumphs and Thanksgivings for the Resurrection of our Lord. 6. Lest the Destroyer c. They who are in great tribulation are for all that so respected by the all Wise God That the Destroyer of their Soules shall not touch them Psal 91.5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by Night nor for the Arrow that flyeth by Day for God limits his Power as he layes commands upon the Sea Hitherto shalt thou goe and no further Which is clear in Jobs case Job 1.12 And the Lord said unto Satan Behold all that he bath is in thy power onely upon himself put not forth thine hand So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. The Third Part. O Almighty God and Heavenly Father who gave thine onely Son to be our Passeover and to be Sacrificed for us as the Lambe of God Grant that we may keep the Peast continue the memory of that Sacrifice with a Sacramentaell Communion and solemne joy and Thanksgiving that so thou may be pleased by the effusion of the precious Blood of the Immaculate Lambe to wash and clense us from all unrighteousnesse that though our sins be as red as Scarlet yet being bathed in that Blood they may be white as Snow and by the power of the Death of thy Son redeem us from the strength and sting of Death and the Destroying Angell who bad the power of Death that he touch us not And lastly when the great Supper and Marryage of the Lambe shall come we may sit down with Abraham Isaae and Jacob to Feast and Banquet with them and the Assembly of Saints in Heaven before the Throne of God to all Eternity for our Passeovers sake by whom we are saved and for whom we blesse and prayse thee to whom with the holy Spirit be all Honour
the paths of holinesse and righteousnesse for then we have assurance that we shall passe from Death to Life through Death to Eternity 2 Tim. 4.7.8 I have fought a good sight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith Henceforth there is layd up for me a Crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto them also that love his appearing The Third Part. ALmighty God which did safely leade thy people Israel through the Red Sea Behold see we beseech thee we are people be thou our God and guide for our help standeth in thy name leade us by the still Waters in the paths of righteousnesse for thy names sake And though the Devill and the World pursue our Soules with deadly hatred yet send out thy truth and light let them leade us and bring us to thy holy Hill and to thy Tabernacle and when we walk through the Valley of the shadow of death let thy right hand uphold us for our Souls followeth hard after thee let our passage to the Heavenly Canaan though through many tribulations be easie peaceable religious and comfortable that we be not condemned with the World but we may passe from death to life from Egypt to Canaan from the World to thee the lover and Saviour of Soules And to this end make us to passe the time of our sojourning here in fear that whatsoever may happen to us in the way yet at the end we may so passe the Waves of this troublesome World that we may come into the land of everlasting life through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen IERICHO Taken Heb. 11.30 By Faith the Walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven dayes VVE have done with the Acts and Sufferings of Moses Now follows the feats of Ioshuah his Successor and of Israel under his conduct For then By Faith the Wall of Iericho fell down c. The first Part. The full Historicall Relation is Penned Joshuah 6. and is plain beyond exception that which is to be examined may be What use the Hebrews to whom the Apostle presseth this for an instance could make hereof seeing these events were miraculous and extraordinary and they had no assurance God would work extraordinarily and miraculously for them Could they fancy without high pride and presumption that the Seas should divide themselves into a Passage for them or that fenced Cities should fall down as their approaches or upon their Beseigings And the right determining of the case thus stated may be this It is true we cannot expect may not demand what in particular their Faith obtained because they had a promise from God for these whereas we have no such Promises and therefore cannot aske them in Faith Rom. 14.23 which alwayes pre-supposeth either expresse Praecept or Promise in such cases But in generall we know That what we aske beleeving we shall receive that is what we ask by warrant and allowance of Gods Word which is the potent assurance evidence and record for our Faith If any extraordinary Revelation be indulged then we may pretend to the like extraordinary successes because Gods power is still the same alwayes infinite and when he will actuate as I may speak that Power then Credenti omnia possibilia nothing is impossible to a Beleever without an hyperhole or excesse of expression nothing which is an Object of Faith and so far as it is so nothing for which we have a promise provided we keep within that compasse and the tenure thereof for God hath restrained and stinted our desire in Earthly things and prescribed bounds and limits to our Petitions concerning them It is true for our spiritualities we have an absolute word of Promise as large as can be desired That our Faith can conquer Hell and purchase Heaven which is indeed every thing which can be hoped for so that if we will not lose and cast away our selves God will save us in despight of all opposition and all the powers of darknesse But for our Temporalities the Promise is conditionall made up with exceptions and proviso's which confines our petitions to suite for them under a clause of submission and expediency in ordine ad spiritualia for we have his concessions and grant for them onely for so much and so long as may tend to his glory and serve for our spirituall concernments and interests The Second Part. 1. Iericho fell as the sounds and Alarums of c. The Enemies of Gods Church shall fall and not be able to arise not by the force of Armes or prevalency of the Sword or any other humane assistances but by the Voyce of his Messengers and the Preaching of his Word sounding like a Trumpet by them and the Prayers of his People God sheweth himself the Almighty by giving efficacy and strength to his word to cast down every thing that exalteth it selfe against the knowlodge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ a Cor. 10.4.5 and to the spirituall weapons of his Church prayers and tears he doth great and wonderfull things for her not by force or an Army but by his Spirit Zach. 4.6 And when Anti-Christ shall be confounded and destroyed God to shew the irresistable power of his word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will reduce bring him to nothing when he is in his Pontificalibus his greatest height of pride consume him with his word for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of great efficacy Heb. 4.12 sharper then any two-edged Sword like Samuels Sword to cut Agag in pieces that he appear no more to hew a way through all opposion and cut down all opposers God needs not will not have his Cause Managed by a standing Army Religion alwayes loseth by the Sword of Violence and Force is both unnecessary and improper for the meek temper of Christian Profession That Cause is very bad which hath nothing but an Arm of Flesh to justifie it and a few impertinent excuses as insufficient to sanctifie the designe As Adams Figg Leaves were to hide his nakednesse And the reason is given by the Captain of our Profession My Kingdom is not of this World Iohn 18.36 is neither erected nor established by Worldly Power those Arts of fraud and force which are practised for a worldly Kingdom 2. Though God might have done this immediately by himself yet he takes in the Ministery and Hands of the Priests In the great Affaires of his Church God brings about his own work by them God the Efficient they the Labourers and Work-men under him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 co-workers under workers to him who labor under him 1 Cor. 3.9 15.10 his Ministers under him for his people 2 Cor. 3.6 Christs Embassadors in his absence and by his Commission to negotiate the Affaires of his Kingdom 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you By us we pray you in Christs
so in an ordinary saving Faith a little if sound will receive a blessing to encrease and multiply a power to remove evill habits out of the soule contracted by evill Education or Example by naturall corruption or complyance with sinfull customes and plant and seed holinesse there which if it be diligently manured and managed all tares weeded out as they bud will fructifie to maturity We have a promise for it Mat. 25.29 Habenti dabitur to him that Husbands well even the least Talent he shall receive an addition and a plentifull one too for he shall have abundance upon every improvement shall receive more that he shall have over-plus a sufficient stock of grace to employ and turn his hand with and serve all his uses 3. Rahab a Cananite a stranger from the Covenant of Promise an Alien from the Common-wealth of Israel is now admitted and received into that Society and Communion and made partaker of the same Grace and Hope with Abraham and Sarah by her Faith She was one of the Primitiae Gentium an earnest of the after calling of the Gentiles that they should be no more strangers and forreiners but fellow Citizens Ephes 2.3 an exact discovery of that great Mistery of Christ that the Gentiles should he fellow heires and of the same Body c. And so it is expresly mentioned of this Rahab That she became an Israelite indeed Iosh 6.25 where she is said to dwell in Israel untill this day for she was Allied to the noblest descent and extraction being Married to Salmon who begat Boaz of Rachab Mat. 1.5 the Progenitors of David and of whom Christ came according to the Flesh So that here we may affirmatively conclude with Saint Peter Acts 10.34.35 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respector of persons But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him And with Saint Peter 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandements of God And Gal. 5.6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avayleth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by love 4. Rahab beleeved and therefore separated her self from the company and communion of her hardened fellow Citizens and joyned her self to the society of Gods people and yet she was none of those sensuall separatists spoken of by Saint Jude 19. who walked not with the Church of God but after their own ungodly lusts heaping to themselves Teachers choosing and carving for themselves without the Order of Gods Church and taking them on heaps either confusedly or unsatisfactorily when they have their own choice being never contented put off one to day and another to morrow and so if possible in infinitum and all this from a malignant humor an itching in the eare 2 Tim. 4.3 nor those Pharisaicall separatists who divide themselves from the Body of Christ either upon a vain supposition of Pride that they are holier and the rest prophaner and therefore Procul ô proeul ite come not neer them stand far from them or upon as bad of uncharitablenesse as if the Congregation were not holy and they good soules are afraid to receive infection from it as if the true service of the true God could be unholy and poysonous because some of the servants in that duty are false and wicked For how can their supposed ir-reall it matters not in this case but I will suppose it reall nakednesse touch and defile me when I abhor it for it self piety it and pray against it in them and I onely joyn and communicate with them in that which is confessedly good But she was an holy separatist who forsook the service of false Gods and betook her self to the Worship of the true God her Idolatrous Worship she exchanged for the true and divided not from the Cananites quasi homines as men but from their sins For doubtlesse she desired and wished their conversion and it is a most just and lawfull separation to depart from all iniquity and to keep themselves unspotted from the World James 1.27 Rev. 18.4 And I heard another Voyce from Heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues 2 Cor. 6.14.15.16.17 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbeleevers for what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what communion hath light with darknesse And what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that beleeveth with an Infidell And what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols for ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will rective you and such was her separation whereas dayly experience doth evidence That the other humerous separatists are the greatest manuonists designers plotters and contrivers for the World in the whole World and the greediest unsatiable pursuers of the things of the World devourers not onely of Widows Houses but of Kingdoms Inheritances holy things mixing and confounding all with most Heathenish Worldly Policies not considering that the love of this World is enmity with God 5. It was Rahab the Heathen the Gentile house-wife who was the Harlot Rahab the Beleever the Convert is joyned to an Israelite in chast and holy Wedlock Fornication is a Work of the Flesh a pollution of our Bodies Marriage is honourable in all Those may justly suspect their Faith and distrust their conversion who indulge and allow themselves in those unclean satisfactions of the Flesh and Heathenish pollutions Reade that one Law of God Deut. 23.17.18 There shall be no Whore of the Daughters of Israel nor a Sodomite of the Seâ—t of Israel Thou shalt not bring the hire of a Whore or the price of a Dog into the House of the Lord thy God for any Vow for even both these are an abomination unto the Lord thy God Consider what Saint Paul presseth 1 Cor. 6.15.16.17.18 Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Member of an Harlot God forbid What know ye not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one Body for two saith he shall be one Flesh But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit c. And remember that direfull judgement Revel 21.8 But the fear full and unbeleeving and the abominable and murderers and whoremâ—ngers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all lyar shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 6 Rahab beleeved and was saved True Faith is the saving grace Infidelity the damnable sin because Faith is alwayes attended with Obedience Infidelity is still followed with Impenitency Indeed Faith and Obedience like Hippocrates Twins
simul oriuntur simul moriuntur here in via at least yet Faith is the first-born and according to the Law of Primogeniture and Birth-right it layes the claim and title to Heaven and gives the jus ad rem Legall Right thereto though the actuall possession thereof the jus in re be from Faith perfected by Works And hence in Scripture account howsoever Faith and Obedience are Philosophically two distinct habits they are the same in as much as true Christian Faith is Obedientiall not meerly Notionall and all Christian Obedience is an emanation of Faith For there we find one and the same Word denoting both Infidelity and Disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes unbeleif Acts 14.2 But the unbeleeving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evill affected against the Brethren John 3.36 He that beleeveth on the Son hath Everlasting life and he that beleeveth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Sometimes disobedience undutifulnesse obstinacy Ephes 3.2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this World according to the prince of the power of the ayre the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Col. 3.6 For which things sake the wrath of God commeth on the children of disobedience 1 Pet. 3.20 Which somtimes wore disobedient when once the long suffering of God wayted c. So not providing for our Family which in strictnesse of Language is an act of disobedience because an omission of a prescribed duty is yet made by the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.8 a bad peice of Infidelity and men are said to be absurd and wicked because they have not Faith 2 Thes 3.2 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not onely barely to assent but also to obey Galat. 3.1 and true sineere conversion is stiled Faith to God ward 1 Thes 1.8.9.10 and the keeping of the Commandements and Faith are inseparably conjoyned Apoc. 14.12 And then the Exhortation will be seasonable What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder what God hath joyned in praecept let no man separate either in Dispute Discourse or Practice For 7. We find Rahabs Faith working by love and her love demonstrated by her Hospitality She received the Spies in peace which the Apostle St James 2.25 urgeth as an instance to demonstrate her Faith to be true and truely Christian Zacheus upon his profession of Faith promised restitution and vowed liberality The Convert therefore on the Crosse even in those dying minutes beleeved and through Faith confessed Christs innocency and his own guilt and in great charity both reproves and exhorts his fellow sufferer If we pretend to Faith and have not Repentance towards God and love towards the Brethren as the Apostle in another case so here our Faith is in vain we are yet in our sins The love of the Brethren is a good expression of our love to God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ If we receive our Lord by Faith we will well-come and receive with kindnesse the people whom he hath chosen for his portion and Inheritance and if we love God as the Soveraigne we must joyntly love them whom he loveth and to whom he communicateth some share and measure of his fulnesse 1 John 4.20.21 If a man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a lyar For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandement have we from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also And no better or clearer expression of love then Hospitality and honourable and liberall entertainment of strangers and exiles and therefore Brotherly love and Hospitality are conjoyned as the antecedent and the consequent Heb. 13.1.2 But 8. Her Faith made her faithfull to God and his Church having undertaken this Profession she will hold it fast neither to desert it nor to comply with its opposite and enemy If we fall away from our holy Profession though but by some secret complyance to the contrary we are not so faithfull nor so clear as we ought to be our Faith is not fincere at least suspitious and Rahabs Zeale will either convince us of coldnesse or luke-warmnesse in a good cause 9. Rahab perished not because she upon Treaty with the Spies had made her Conditions and Articles Wicked faithlesse men are noted to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who will prevaricate with their Word and Promise though solemnly Covenanted Rom. 1.31 Faith is to be kept and Covenants to be observed even with Hereticks and Heathens such was Rahab at the Treaty Thus the Israelites kept touch with the Gibeonites Joshua 9.18.19 And the Children of Israel smote them not because the Princes of the Congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel And all the Congregation murmured against the Princes But all the Princes said unto all the Congregation We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel now therefore we may not touch them And because after they and the House of Saul did prevaricate God severely punished them 2 Sam. 21.5.6 And they answered the King The man that consumed us and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the Coasts of Israel Let seven men of his Sons be delivered unto us and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul whom the Lord did chuse And the King said I will give them So he punished the perfidious Moabites 2 Kings 3.5 34. and the falshood of Zedechiab Ezech. 17 19. 10. She perished not but not onely she even her Relatives shared in this happinesse God blesseth the faithfull and mercifull man in his Relations and Posterity The Generation of the Righteous shall be blessed Never any destruction so totall so universall but a residue escaped Isay 10.20.21 And it shall come to passe in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the House of Jacob shall no more again stay upon him that smote them but shall stay upon the Lord the holy One of Israel in truth The remnant shall return even the remnant of Iacob unto the mighty God Rev. 7.3 Hurt not the Earth neither the Sea nor the Treet till we have Sealed the Servants of our God in their Foreheads The Third Part. OAlmighty God and most mercifull Father the giver of all grace and Author of all goodnesse who delightest not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live Turn thee unto us and turn us unto thee and so shall we be turned Convert thou us and so shall we be converted O let us not any longer goe a whoring after our own imaginations nor be led by the deceitfulnesse of sin but having Faith to God-ward we may turn from Idols to serve thee the living God and to wait for thy Son from Heaven and in the mean time receive and welcome him in our
and hard Quaestion And therefore I shall not be Magisterially affirmative determining positively either in the negative or affirmative But I shall declare my thoughts and grounds thereof and unusquisque abundet sensu suo and let every one chuse what he judges most probable The Answer if most Voyces carry it will I suppose passe in the affirmative Yet Iunius upon this place argues That Iephthah did not Sacrifice his Daughter but onely emanicipated her and consecrated her a Nazarite vnto the Lord and so he reads the words dis-junctively Erit Iebovae aut offeram illud holocaustum it shall be Lords not and but or I will offer it c. that is as he himselfe expounds I will consecrate it to God and if it be proper or legall for a Sacrifice I will offer c. And agreeable and with consonancy hereunto he reades what we commonly render lament ad confabulandum to talke with But I conceive with submission to better judgements and with leave of that great Person in the Church of God that this exposition doth not at all acquit Jephthah from the suspition of temerity and rashnesse in his Vow but rather deeply charge and accuse him For his Vow was in generall Quodcunque as he himselfe reades it whatsoever and if so how could he have performed either part of the dis-junction if an uncleane Beast had first been represented to him after his returne not the former part of it in any sense Erit Iehovae for in his sense he could not have devoted it to God to be a perpetuall Nazarite Neither according to some others sense or rather fancies could he have immured and Cloystered it up that it should not Marry and be a perpetuall Votary of Virginity and much lesse could he performe the latter part of the dis-junction offer it for an Holocaust And the exception Si aptum fuerit is gratis dictum there is nothing in the Text to ground that conditionall clause and so by this Word whatsoever In injuriam Dei aliquid non solum illicitum verum etiam conremptibile socundum legem immundum vovisse videtur as Aug. if it be to be taken in the large extent as nothing appears to the contrary For that reason which is alledged Nobis persuadet vera illius fides c. Heb. 11. he is Recorded a Beleever and therefore we are not to beleeve any sush grosse fault of him The same Saint Augustine fully answers loco cit assuring the holy Scriptures not onely Records the Faith but the Faults of Beleevers as he instanceth and proveth also in Gideon whose fault was certainly inexcusable and yet he as well as Iephihah is in the List and Roll And thus then he resolves it Quia sancta Scriptura quorum sidem atque justitiam veraciter laudat non hinc impeditur eorum etiam peecata si qua notit oportere judicat notare veraciter For that other Reading of the Word in the fortieth Verse grant that it signifies as is pretended to parlee or to talke yet it may signifie to speake or talke of as well as talke with And so Iunius applyes it Iudges 5.11 confabulentur de justis operibus or justitias our Translation with Hieromes Narrentur justitia rehearse the righteous acts or as others Celebrate and then as the sense is good and clearer they shall speake or talke of the righteous acts not with so the construction here will be currant also they went to talke of not with that is they went Annually to celebrate and performe solemnly those Rites and Ordinances which were appointed for her Memoriall That such there were appeares from the 39. Verse and that Clause seems to declare it a perpetuall established Right or Ordinance which was not to determine with her life but was to continue after However this will mar some mens conjectures from this Reading that we never Reade in the Old Testament of any Cloystered for Virgins or that Virginity was a more Honourable or more Religious state then chast Wedlock And so I marvaile whence some of the Jewish Doctors affirme That Iephthah made his Daughter an House out of the City where he kept her recluse and shut up from all Society when as the Targum Reades it as we doe to lament and so they Interpret the Lethannoth and somtimes they Interpret the Word to speake of or report concerning and somtimes transitively to celebrate and confesse Others Reade the words joyntly as by a Conjunction copulative and. thus it shall surely be the Lords and I will offer c. or more plainly it shall be Lords I will offer c. or rather for an Offering And if this hold which is the most received Reading then we may consequently with the Targum render the Lethannoth in the 40. Ver. to lament And according to this construction it is most evident that the condition of the Promise or Vow was to offer it for a burnt Offering to the Lord Now a burnt Offering did necessarily require the Death of the thing or subject matter so offered Levit. 1. in severall Verses of that Chapter and that Iephthah did accordingly performe this Vow and observe the condition expresse termes carry it beyond all exception in the 39. Verse where it is said He did with her according to his Vow But that which to me most strongly confirmes this Opinion is Iephtha's own Declaration in the 35. ver and Profession I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot goe backe which was as much as to say My Vow is irrevocable I cannot commute it I cannot avoyd it For to take away all doubts let us remember there were two sorts of Vowes There was a singular Vow without an Anathema or Interdict and what was thus Vowed might be redeemed by an apprizement or valuation either according to the worth of the thing vowed or according to the ability of the Person vowing as you may Reade Levit. 27.1.2 c. till 13. c. And there was a more solemne strict Vow with an Anathema or Interdict seconding and attending it and for such as this there was no Redemption every such devoted must die ver 28.29 Like our Law of Mortmaine in some respects it cannot revert or returne to the first Donor or Vower upon any account And that this Vow of Jephtha's was of this latter sort is plaine for the words of the Vow Erit Jehovae the forme of Devotion by Anathema They who desire the question more fully canvassed let him consult Ludovici Capelli diatrib de vot Iephthe The Observations now follow 1. Hence we Learne how farr we are to imitate these Patternes The holy Scriptures holds forth the Faith of Gods People for our imitation yet withall shewes their faults for our caution The holy Spirit is that faithfull witnesse who approves their good deeds but will not in any wise justifie their evill Be ye followers therefore of them yet onely as they are followers of Christ Iesus In the same Mapp
and practises should combine and conspire unanimously to destroy themselves and deceive others both because we suppose them holy men and also men of admirable parts of great strength and clearnesse of understanding And as their holinesse preserved them from worldly designes and contrivances in their profession witnesse that high esteem they had thereof as even to suffer death for it so their wisedome and learning kept them from grosse oversights of misunderstanding and prejudice in these things they both professed and suffered which was the diseipline of the holy Jesus who could and would highly and honourably crowne their sufferings And hence it will undeniably follow these all Primitive Fathers and Christians which is a very wonderfull thing notwithstanding their severall tempers and inclinations their severall Ages and Successions their severall distances and Countries yet did agree for the space of fifteen hundred years constantly and unanimously in all those things which were revealed and recommended by our Saviour Christ as important and necessary to salvation for if they were ignorant of any Article necessary to salvation how could they be saved it follows I say by their such agreement and consent That this is an Article of the Christian Discipline in what they held and observed is a strong and solid proofe to all godly sober men That Tenet so held is a Catholique Tenet and that Observation so used is a Catholique Observation and to oppose or contradict either is Heresie and Schisme or which is all one an Hereticall or Schismaticall separation and departure from the true Christian Catholique Faith Adde to all this That the differences in Opinions and disagreements among themselves in many Points of Religion which are not de symbolo of necessary beleise but truths onely of an inferiour natute will to any indifferent unbiassed Persons take off and clearly acquit their consent and agreement in the maine Fundamentalls the Prims Fundamentalia from all suspition that it proceeded from some combination correspondence or mutuall intelligence and common cousultation and withall fully satisfie and convince that it proceeded out of a serious examination and consideration of the things themselves And then secondly as the concurrence of these all is a valid Testimony in necessary points so in these points and means of salvation the generall silence of the Ancients these all would be a very proper and unanswerable Argument to prove the nullity or falsenesse of it as this Doctrine was not known or beleeved in the parest and Primitive times therefore it is not an Article of Faith a Catholique verity but a Novelty or upstare Opinion As for Example If we find nothing either in whole or in part either in grosse or in retaile concerning the Monarchicall Authority of the Pope or the supream Authority of the present Roman Church or concerning Purgatory and Transubstantiation among the Writings of the Fathers and Records of the Antient Church we may safely conclude they are not such as they pretend them to be necessary such whereon our salvation dependeth for if they be such as they would have us beleeve it would be too great injustice to the Ancients to say They knew nothing of them or that knowing them they would not speak any word of them and discharge their trust And lastly it hence also follows That in those unhappy controversies which are continued in this Nationall Church it is not faire and ingenuous dealing in some of those Disputants to aver and avow the practise and perswasion of some reformed Churches in the last Contury or hundred when others put in their Plea from the consent and practise of the former fifteen Centuries For what is this but to oppose a part against the whole a part in one Centurie against it selfe and all other Churches for fifteen a few against all these But above all they are grossely absurd who to these all have none to oppose but themselves have no Authority but their power no reason but their fancy no Testimony but their own approbation and they themselves so inconsiderable in respect of these all that they are not so much as the Gleanings of a full Corne Feild in a large Campania to the whole Cropp And yet they deale subtilly too for they take a safe course that they shall never satisfie you nor you confute them For their Argument and Evidence is their Conscience and what that is you cannot they will not know And hence they are such Vagrants in their Faith you shall never know where to have them and so they may justly be excluded out of the Catalogue of these all and be in the pack of Saint Judes Bruites They speak evill of those things they know not and corrupt themselves in those things they know naturally Jude 10. And yet there is a third sort who though not so bad as these yet bad enough disparaging and decrying the testimonies of these all in the Christian Church fleighting and undervaluing their Authority and Writings and rejecting them as uselesse except the Apostles themselves and their Writings The vanity of this misprision will presently appear if we remember That the whole dispute is what is Apostolicall or not what they practised or not And then the result is obvious Those Persons who lived in or immediately after the Apostles times should know better their usage then we at this distance of time can guesse at they who searched into all Records to discover what was Apostolicall and were after carefull to keep them should know better then they who care for no Evidences Testimonies or Records and all this upon no other pretence but this That the mistery of iniquity then wrought and since notorious forgery hath been used to corrupt all Testimonies and Books the former of which is most unjust because even then though corruptions and Haeresies crept in yet were they zealously opposed and punctually confuted by the Writers of those Times The latter is partly false altogether impertinent For the same Objection might be used against the Canonicall Books of holy Scripture if in the instance it be admitted good and against all Records of Kingdoms and Common-wealths that from them it were impossible to find out what the former Laws and Customes have been for in all these there may equally be suspition of Fraud and Forgery as in the other kind And yet no wise man because the Discovery is somewhat intricate and perplext and the businesse a work of difficulty will therefore conclude it altogether uselesse and to no purpose Certainly they who labour for the finding out the truth by the search of Antiquity next after holy Scripture are more likely to discover it by that way then any other As they who would know our Laws and Customs are more probable to find them out by searching the Antient Records and Law Writers then by consulting present Authors unlesse we take all upon trust and at the second hand But now to prevent mistakes it may be worthy our enquiry to examine what
proofes are Catholique or not Or how we may know whether this Doctrine or Observation be truely Catholique such as these all have acknowledged and wherein this Universality consists And the rather because it is confessed both by the Romanists and Reformed That that Church which can evidence it to hold that Faith once delivered to the Saints without Haereticall Innovation or Schismaticall Violation is undoubtedly the true Church of God And it is further acknowledged by the Reformed De meliori notae of the best Ranke That the Title Catholique doth most properly and fitly expresse whether Christian or Christian Societies which hold the common Faith without particular divisions from the maine body of Christianity in opposition to all Heretikes and Schismaticks But since the Church is divided and rent by Heresie and Schisme To whom should this Title be rightly appropriated or who can be truely called Catholique but they who agree and joyne with these all Apostles Fathers Martyrs for what the Patriarkes and the rest were to the Hebrews the Apostles and their Successors are the same to us Beleevers the maine Body of Christians the Universall Church And for this we must have recourse to that approved Rule of Vincentius Lyrinensis lib. cont Haret cap. 3. Magnopere curandum est ut id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditam est hoe est etenim vere propriè Catholicum We are to take care that we hold that which hath been beleeved by all in all places and at all times for that is truely Catholique which Rule in effect is no more but this that which should direct a Christian or Christian company in their examination of the Catholique Truth or Points of Faith is the consenting Testimony of the Universall Church truely such and that by this Rule is that which is Universall in all respects in respect of Persons Place and Time and even the strength of this Apostolicall Induction depends on these considerations all your beleeving Ancestors have acted and suffered at all times from Abel downwards to the present times and of all Places in Chaldea and Egypt as well as in Palestine And these respects we shall declare as followeth 1. The Testimony which is truely Universall must be so in respect of Persons not as if there were not in the Church such who diffented from the generally beleeved Truths But this consideration respects either the Universall of the livers of the first Ages bearing Testimony that such or such a Doctrine was from the Apostles Preachings delivered to all Churches by them Planted or their generall uniforme Testimony herein without any considerable dissenters producible for even such Testimony is worthy of beleife and hath been deemed and is sufficient for the rejection of any new Doctrine Bibl. Patr. Tom. 1. pag. 30. c. pag. 275. for as the generall consent and practise of all Nations to adore and set up a Deity as Divine Power some one or other hath been and is an Argument of force and efficacy against the Atheists which have appeared in any Age inasmuch as nothing besides the ingraffed Notion of a Deity or Divine Power could have inclined so many severall Nations of such severall tempers and dispositions of such contrary Principles in other cases of such severall Educations and civill Government to affect and practise that duty of Adoration or Worshipping some Deity even so the Unanimous consent of distinct Churches agreeing in any Point of Faith or that this was an Apostolicall depositum tradition derived from the Apostles and their followers is a pregnant Argument to any impartiall understanding man of great force against Heretikes and Hereticall dissenters who as Atheists desciverunt à natura have Apostated and fallen away from Nature and the Law of Nature and Nations So these desciverunt à veritate have forsaken the way of Truth the Doctrine of Christ and his Churches for their conviction and confutation and for the confirmation of all consenters and adhaerents to that universall agreement inasmuch as nothing besides the evidence of Truth delivered unto the Christian World by Christ and his Apostles could have kept so many severall Churches in the unity of the same Faith and in this case every particular Church is a competent and authenticke witnesse of every other Church and so of the Catholique Church her integrity and fidelity in servando depositum in carefull preserving the Truth committed to their speciall trust And to presse this more fully as it cannot be a prejudice to any Rule or Custome grounded on the Law of Nations because their have some dissenters though otherwise generally received allowed and practised so neither can it be any prejudice to any Rule or Observation grounded on the Law of Christ because some have opposed and contradicted though generally averred beleeved and conformed unto by all Christians And as it doth not follow this is not a Law of Nature viz. That there is a God and that God to be Worshipped or Nations because some have spoken against it and acted too so doth it not follow this is not the Discipline of Christ because some nominall Christians have adjudged otherwise this is not the common Faith because some stragler or wanderer hath either wilfully deserted it or unwarily fallen out of it this is not that delivered to the Saints because some who deliver themselves Saints and would be called so have not liked it or that it is not the Catholique Faith because some who have usurped and would engrosse the Title have so determined contrary to the generality of all Beleevers But then as the Civilians speak In re consensia emnium Genttum Lex Naturae putanda est The consent of all Nations is to be esteemed the Law of Nature And Quod naturalis ratis inter omnes homines constituit id apud omnes peraequè â—â—stoditur vocaturque jus Gentium That which naturall reason doth constitute among all men is observed by all alike and termed the Law of Nations not as though every individuall thus did constitute and consent for many have depraved Nature and transgresse naturall right so here the common consent of all Churches that this is Apostolicall Tradition or depositum though every single member doe not concurr But the Common Law or Custome of the World in which three circumstances are to be considered Antiquity Continuance and Generality and thus as Nature is immutable in abstracto but not in concreto it is not changed it is often transgressed so Faith is immutable in it selfe semper eadem but men often chop and change it that is violate it To give you an instance to cleare this the fuller yet Arrius sprung an Heresie had many adhaerents and those of great power and parts yet is that Doctrine which he broached justly adjudged contrary to the Catholique Faith professed in the Church of God inasmuch as the severall distinct Visible Churches of the Christian World by unanimous consent communicating and exhititing their severall
Confessions and Registers Catechismes and Testimonies of their fore-fathers Faith and their own to the Councell of Nice upon diligent search and inquiry found it contrary to the generall belelfe of the whole Chuch since the first Plantation He who would take the pains for further satisfaction herein let him consult St. Austin lib. 7. de Baptis cont Den. c. 53. Nobis tutum est in c. l. 2. c. 4. Quomodo potait c. 2. In respect of Place for if the Doctrine have not received a good report from all Places it is not qualified for a Catholique inasmuch as the same Faith which was delivered and received in one Place in any Apostolike Plantation was likewise found in all other Plantations it being one and the same Faith which all the Apostles taught all the World over the same in Germany Britaine France which was in Spaine Affricke and Egypt the middle World and in Asia and the whole Orient or East of the World even as the same Sun shines through them all And to this Tertullian gives his Testimony at large lib. de Praefeript advers Haeret. cap. 20. Statim igitur Apostoli c. Presently therefore the Apostles having testified the Faith first in Judea according to their Commission they took their Journey over the World and promulgated the same Doctrine of the Faith to the Nations c. whereunto accords fully his follower Saint Cyprian lib. de Vnitate Eccl. Ecclesia Domini luce perfusa c. The Church having received light from her Lord diffused and spread abroad his beames farr and wide Vnum tamen lumen est and yet it is the same light which is in every Church thus diffused And the same Tertullian seconds this also in his following Chapter Si haec ita sint c. making this deduction if these things be thus then it is plain Every Doctrine which agrees with the Apostolicall Churches as the Roman Ephesian Antiochian Alexandrian Hierosolymitan the Mothers in respect of the Daughter Churches Metropoles originals whence the Faith sprung forth and issued is to be adjudged true as holding that which the Churches received from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ and Christ from God Reliquam vere omnem Doctrinam de mendacio prajudicandum c. and that all other Doctrine is under the prejudice of being false which is contrary to the truth of the Churches of the Apostles of Christ of God And so again in the 36. and 37. Chapters of the same Book where he proves they are onely the true Charches of Christ who follow the Faith of those Mother Apostolicall Churches 3. In respect of Time not as if the true Faith had in all Ages been Universally received for then Haeresie had never prevailed and got the upper hand for Arrianisme did so in Constantine his time and the Goths and Vandals Arrian Princes Ruled in the West and Anastasius the Emperour of the East was an Eutychian Heretike but that this or that was received in the first or purest and though in after ages by one or more it was opposed and oppressed yet even then there were such who by having recourse to the first Ages have discovered these guilty of novelty and have constantly asserted proved and vindicated the ancient Doctrines and Christianly suffered for them and so by little and little the Church at last recovered and gained the possession of her former Doctrines That then which by diligent search is to be found in the Monuments and Testimonies of the first Age for that is truely so called Antiquity hath this qualification but that which is of latter date falls short of it that is a new Faith which commenced since the Faith was once delivered to the Saints and so that Church which hath not the consent of Primitive Antiquity is in respect of those Doctrines wherein she varieth from it and doth stand convicted of Heresie and Schisme because it is not part of the Depositum Quod tibi creditum non quod à te inventum Vin. Lyr. cap. 27. For no man or Society of men ought to commend any thing as a point of Faith to Posterity which cannot be evidenced from Antiquity derived from the Apostles times a proficiency or growth in Faith there ought to be so it be in eodem genere in the same kinds issuing from the same root but all addition of after inventions are the notes of Heresie and Schisme And having thus far proceeded let us see what Doctrines or Observations or some of them may deserve or can challenge this Testimony of these all or all the Christian Churches so that we may conclude this to be the Faith and usage of the Universall Church of Christ and for the credenda alwayes supposing the sacred Scriptures which is the most certain and safe Rule both for Credenda and Agenda points of Faith and practise as having obtained the highest report from these all nothing so universally attested and approved as they it will be hard to prove or produce an universall Testimony for any Doctrine or Point of Faith besides those which are contained in the Creed nay indeed impossible inasmuch as this hath the repute of an abridgement or full Epitome of all Fundamentall Truths necessary to be known or beleeved by all Christians to salvation composed by the Apostles themselves for the preservation of the unity of the Faith nothing but this hath Primitive Antiquity and full consent of all called generally Regula fidei una sola immobilis irreformabilis the one onely immoveable and unreformable Rule of Faith that all might have a short summe of those things which are of meer beleife and are dispersedly contained in the Scripture So Valentia himselfe 1. 2. Dist 1. qu. 2. p. 4. in fin and so probably conceived to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1.13 That forme breviate or summary of wholesome words or sound Doctrine that depositum or trust Timothy received 1 Tim. 6.20 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common Faith Tit. 1.4 Pufillis magnisque communis Aug. Ep. 57. ad Dard. See Davenant in lib. De pace inter Evangelices procuranda pag. 9.10 c. Et in adhortatione cap. 7. throughout And for the agenda these either immediately relate to the worship of God or the Discipline and Government of his Church And supposing the Scriptures as the standing Law both for matters of Faith and Practise Use which is the best Interpreter of the Law is the best Directory for our Practise and when the Texts of holy Scripture are in these eases interpreted by the perpetuall practise of the Church according to the premised considerations then the Interpretation is the more authentique and worthy beleise and the proofes grounded thereupon more cogent and convincing according to that determination of the Nicone Councill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let ancient customes stand in strength of this kind is the observation of the Lords day Whereupon it is Observed by that Noble and Learned