and mute in the Commission of Sin or neglect of Duty upon these appearances and who can say herein I have made my Heart clean I am pure from this Transgression so far hath he been Scandalised and indanger'd to his Ruine This is the first great Pillar of Truth and the primary Scandal is placed here That Men think there is no reason God should have so much Love Fear Honour Obedience so much Worship and Service And the Second is like to it 2. Even the Faith of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World is like to that first great Principle and equal to it both because the whole Riches and Treasure of all Religion is deposited and concentered in it so that he hath not the John 17. 3. Father nor the Knowledge of the only true God nor the Eternal Life proceeding from it who hath not the Son who hath not the Knowledge of Jesus Christ whom God hath sent Even as Christ is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person so is the knowledge of Christ the express Image of the Knowledge of God and the brightness of it wherever it is revealed if it be not believed in the God of the World hath blinded the 2 Cor. 4. 6. minds of them that believe not least they should see the light of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ who is the Image 2 Cor. 4. 4 6. of God shining to them Especially and more particularly that great Attribute of Divine Mercy and Pardoning Grace is illustrated and breaks out with brighter and warmer Beams in this Son of his Love the Lamb of God who takes away the Sins Acts 4. 12. of the World by the Sacrifice of himself His is the only Name given under the whole Heaven to the Children of Men whereby they can be saved This indeed was the Scandal of the Jews who assumed to themselves as the only Masters of the true Religion in the World and foolishness to the Greeks who took Isa 28. 16. upon them as the like Masters of Reason but this corner Stone of Truth was laid so sure and of so tryed an excellency 1 Pet. 2. 6. that all that reject and spurn at it stumble and fall are snared and broken They are false Notions of God and Truth that will not be reconciled to it and while even the Builders refuse it it will yet rise to be the Head of the Corner Ver 7. It hath now surmounted before any Impartial Judges all other Names of Religion in the whole World so that to strike at it where it is known and received argues a disaffection and being Scandalised at Religion it self and is become the same with denying God Providence and Eternal Judgment Corrupted Reason and Lucian-Wit aims at Religion in its very Essence when it pretends to dash upon that and if when it seem'd to encounter with Gods own Administration by Moses there was yet such a presence of God with it that it would be more tolerable Mat. 10. 15. c. for Sodam and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for those that refused it as the Lord in several places testifies how much greater will the Condemnation be now when it hath so perfectly antiquated all that pretension against it and worn out the Prejudices of Elder Paganisme And yet so far as the Foolishness of God as the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 25. styles it does not appear to us wiser than Men and the weakness of God stronger than Men we are ready to be Scandalised at the Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour And it seems the easiest place for the Attacks of Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness who yet at last will find themselves in a Gin or Trap when they thought they had gained Ground and made entrance and shattered to pieces when they believed a Conquest For God taketh the wise in their own 1 Cor. 3. 19 20. Craftiness and he knoweth the wisest thoughts of Men that they are vain Every Degree of Apostacy from Christ is Heb. 3. 12. departing from the Living God Transactions in Prayer or Publick Discourses of Religion are so much the more Divine as they send forth the sweet savour of his Name which is as an Oyntment poured out The Apostle desired to 1 Cor. â— 2. Phil. 3. 8. know nothing but Christ and him crucified It is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Top and Transcendency of Knowledge Apostolick Epistles full of Christ and the Truth as it is in Jesus are the best Patterns for Sermons much exceeding the Rationalism or Moralism of tâ—â— wisest Philosophy It is a Degree of Scandal first taken â—nd then given to speak little of him All Preaching is not giving the savour of his Knowledge 2 Cor. 2. ult and if it have not Life to the Soul it is deadly a Symptom to Death The very diverting though to other Parts of Sacred Scripture speaks Men offended in him when they do not find him and express him the Alpha and Omega in all the Bright Morning Star the Amen And though a Battology a vain Repetition in naming him is blamable yet it is more blame to conceal him even in the best Discourses of his Religion The Rays of Religion are paler more weak and chill as they fall farthest off from him He is the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings and Blessed is he in these days even in these days whoever is not offended in him 3. The Spirituality Purity Cleanness and Chasteness of the Worship of God dictated by the clearest and sincerest Light of Natural Conscience approved by Divine Revelation or founded instituted and directed by that undoubted Heavenly Oracle is the next great Pillar of Truth upon which the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mens Souls is setled But against this sensual and defiled Imagination hath in all Ages raised Scandal and so befool'd Reason that it hath cast down many wounded yea many strong Men in their Intellectual Endowments and Reputation for Wisdom have been ensnar'd and ruin'd by it It hath been the Renown therefore of those Princes in Sacred Story that have had the Religious Magnanimity to resist the Charmes of this Sorceress and kept Divine Worship uncorrupted in whose Glory so much as the High Places was a dark Shade and ecclips'd them though it had fair Pretence Idolatry and Superstition have been most evidently branded in Scripture for the most wretched State of being scandaliz'd and Idols for the most abhorr'd Scandals This was the Snare of Gideon and his House and yet as Interpreters give us in a Matter as innocent at first as laying up the Ephod he had inquir'd at in his Danger as a Monument of Gratitude for his Victory that was after turn'd thus into a Scandal Judges 8. 27. This was the Scandal Balaam taught Balak to cast before the Children of Israel These were the Wiles the Gins and Traps in which the
its own Depths the Spirit to whom are known all its own Designs from the first Foundations or Beginning of Scripture to the highest Stone in the Structure or End of it The Top is known to it in the very Bottom the End in the Beginning That therefore which was seen to Men only in the Rudiment or Foundation and seem'd to mean no more appeared at that very time to him in the Complement and he applies it to that Complement as certainly and justly as they did to the first Rudiment or Foundation As Out of Egypt have I called my Son was as truly applied to Christ's coming out of Egypt being then come to its Perfection of Sense as it was applied to Israel coming out of Egypt in the first Rudiment and the Divine Spirit as truly meant the last as the first though none could know its Sense but it self till it self revealed it Quest How could it be proved the Ministers of the New Testament had the true Key of Interpretation committed to them by the Spirit Answ By the concurrence of all things that justified the first Writers of Scriptures to be Commissioned by God Great and weighty Truth Holy Heavenly becoming God as the Author such Speech as none beside the Writers of Scripture ever spoke all of a piece with former Scripture Miracles mighty Efficacy upon Consciences the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls the abolishing of Sin the Ends designed in all the removing all lower Forms and Ceremonies for the time being into a most High Spiritual Substantial Religion True Peace of Conscience introduced These with innumerable others concurring in any Interpretation of former Scripture that could not else be found out in its full Meaning do both enlighten former Scripture and enlarge it into further and more Scriptures Quest If then our Lord and his Apostles in Interpreting the Old Testament by the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit resting without measure on our Saviour and in full measures on the Apostles discover'd that Sense in the Ancient Scriptures which was indeed deposited there but could not be unlock'd by any Created Wisdom it will follow thence That it is an unnecessary Labour of many Worthy Expositors of Scriptures to press too hard in every Quotation of the Old Testament we find in the New for a free and full Confession of all that Sense it there expresses as if it could naturally arise from so many Words and Syllables so put together having power and vertue by themselves to signifie so high since the Holy Spirit had a reach in them which none could grasp or fathom but it self and contriv'd that Sense so into Words as none could summon it but it self and that it rested upon the Lord and his Apostles to bring it to light and reveal it into New and Higher Scriptures and that it appears as undeniably they did so as that the Old Testament it self is Scripture Answ The Industry of such Worthy Persons is not to be blamed to trace the Sense of the New Testament in the Words of the Old as far as it is possible for them to go But if they cannot give Satisfaction to cavelling Atheists or Infidels or to the Scruples of Good Men it still remains a just Ground of Satisfaction The Spirit that carried by an Almighty Hand the Writers of the Old Testament carried those Penmen of the New by the same also and from one single Glance of its Meaning that it self with Divine Artifice had left drawn there it derives that full Face of Truth in the New to be its Sense in the Old than that Samson's Riddle in the Exposition should be his Sense in the dark Cover of it in Words that could not else import it He that created the Words in the Old Testament and even then inspired them with that Divinest Sense as with Life might yet suffer it to lie intoomb'd in them till it self that entrusted it there gave it a Resurrection in the New Quest But would you have none undertake in the Interpreting or Expounding Scripture except by Inspiration or the Evidences of immediate Divine Presence where either Scripture is not so express as to be its own undoubted Interpreter or the Interpretation deduced as evidently as any Consequence by Reason Answ Far be it from me to discourage or lessen such Undertakings I rather wish all the Lord's People thus far Prophets to search the Meaning of Scripture with all the Helps and Advantages they can attain and that in the mean time all those who have any part of the Prophetick Office upon them would read and meditate day and night to Interpret Scripture to themselves and others Quest But how is such Interpretation consistent with the Apostles so great Assertion That Scripture is not of any Private Interpretation Answ First Interpretation guiding it self by the plain evident and Self-Interpreting Oracles of Scripture in things absolutely necessary to Salvation displays a Body of Divine Publick Truth which in regard of the Darkness Inattendence and Inconsideration of the generality of the very Professors of the Faith of the Scriptures and much more in regard of the great Indisposedness of their Hearts to the Obedience of Scriptures need such constant Displays by Applicatory Interpretation and a distinct Office to attend continually on this very Thing And yet the main Concernment of such Interpretation lies in what is so plain that when opened and applied it is impossible to be doubted of as Scriptures Sense 2. Such Interpretation as may be Private in regard of its Derivation of any Doctrine from such or such a particular Place of Scripture yet keeping it self to the Analogy of Scripture in the plain and undoubted Sense in other Places does still maintain the free and Publick Course of the Waters of Life 3. Interpretation of Scripture thus guiding it self according to the evident Sense of Scripture in its clearest Parts and taking that as a Clew into the more abstruse Parts of Scripture necessarily encounters much Sound and excellent Truth nearly allied to Publick and Divine in all Knowledge Natural Historical Chronological Moral Political pertaining to Language and Eloquence which makes the World more lightsom and less subject to the Tyranny of the Prince of Darkness How great a Light of all Learning hath broken out from the very Endeavours of Interpreting Scripture to the Glory of the Father of Lights the high Honour and venerable Estimation of Scripture the much Ascertaining True Publick Religion and the Universal Good 4. Many great Truths and undoubtedly Divine in themselves that being more at a distance from those that are necessary to Salvation it hath not pleased the Publick Wisdom of the World to give such Assurance of them as that they should be imposed upon the Belief of all that acknowledge the Sacred Authority of Scriptures and yet may present very large Satisfactions to the Minds of those who are assisted by the Holy Spirit into the great Scripture-Reason in such Points though but particularly for
Faith in Divine mercy and lastly of future rewards and punishments Now in all these as I premis'd Natural Religion is not to be measured by what is found in the dark and sullied state of the generality of Mankind at such vast distances from the days of Innocency or so much as in the colder liveless Climate of Philosophick Morality but by what discovers it self when these frozen benum'd Principles relent and are thaughn by the warmer beams of revealed truth by what men do and must acknowledg when they come to themselves then the Ministers of Natural Righteousness out of and according to Divine Revelation are 2 Cor. 5. 11. made manifest in mens consciences and they speak and write no other things than they do acknowledg and shall acknowledg to the utmost to the very end Even as the illiterate 2 Cor. 1. 13. mind does not at first perceive the wisdom of such a writer as Socrates Plato Plutarch of such Historians as Livy Taritus but when it comes to be cultivated it knows by a Test within it self the gravity and dignity of their sense and stile Thus at the first unexercised souls tast not the gratefulness of the Word of God to natural conscience which is afterwards most agreeable the senses being exercised to discern gâ—od and evil Heb. 5. 14. 2. In what of Christianity pure and perfect revelation alone must be acknowledg'd There is yet such a close affinity betwixt the holiness purity wisdom of the one thus reveal'd and the other implanted that they must be own'd all from the same fountain and accepted alike by every serious considerer that as it is observ'd of the Old and New Testament and the several Writers of each through all the variety of Times Manners and Customs of the world in the sâ—veral ages of it throughout the several periods of the Churches state and progression and throughout the different extractions educations employments temperatures of the Sacred Writers there is yet one Wisdom one Reverence of God one Holiness one Majesty of Discourse running through the whole arguing the supreme Author one and the same Even so in Natural and Revealed Christian Religion the Divine Commandment is perfectly one and the same nothing trivial nothing Romantick nothing Speculative only all is for greatest use of the glory of God and the salvation of mens souls so as not to be refused 3. The Revelations of Christianity are the highest Amplifications of natural light even to the utmost possibilities of conception but in nothing contradictious The Doctrine of the only true God is kept most pure even as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times But this Divine Nature is explained to us in the Father Son and the Holy Spirit and in the infinite Graces and Bounties proceeding from the Deity so explain'd to us and this is so to the utmost that as we certainly know in Heaven it self it is impossible to know any more Gods than the one true God we have known here in the world so it is as impossible we should know any more in that Essence than the Father the Son and the Spirit in Eternity it self It is of everlasting inviolable Truth There is one God and it is reveal'd to us in Christianity There is one Mediator 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 8 6. between God and man the man Christ Jesus There is one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him And this is life eternal to know thee the only true God Joh. 17. 3. and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Thus the Divine Unity is preserv'd And lest the obligation to a Mediator to a Redeemer should abate or interfere with the obligation to the one God and Father the Mediator is always made known to us as the Son of the Father the brightness of his Heb. 1. 3. Glory tho express image of his person the heir of all things So that the Glory of the one Mediator infinitely and incomprehensibly unites and circulates in one with the Glory of God the Father So far is the Revelation of Jesus Christ Phil. 2. 2â— from any the least contradictoriness to that fundamental natural principle of one God And as evident it is that it is to the utmost and above all we can think for in the highest Glory of Knowledg it is we know certainly impossible to know any higher Mediator any other Mediator than our one Mediator for as a man can rise no higher than God there can be no higher Beeing than God so there cannot be a greater Redeemer and Mediator than the Son of God There cannot be a greater acceptance of a sinner than upon the account of the most perfect obedience and the deepest sufferings of the only begotten of the Father the beloved Joh. 1. 14. â—at 3. ult Son in whom he is well pleased There cannot be a nearer union to the whole nature of of man than by this divine Person assuming not any humane Person which had been limited narrow and confined but humanity it self into one person with himself There cannot be a greater inspiration and internal operation than of which the Spirit of God is the Author and Fountain nor a closer uniting of Believers to Christ than by this Spirit to be so joined to the Lord as to be one 1 Cor. 6. 17. Spirit Thus to the great Justification of Christianity before Natural Religion all is from God and absorpt into him yet in such a distinction from him that every glorified Spirit enjoys its Happiness Glory Purity Perfection Acceptance with the Divine Majesty distinctly and in it self and yet so in God that the whole Glory is refunded into him which is the perfect Glory of the Divinity From the whole then though it is most true that these great points surmount Reason in the discovery and explication yet when it beholds these things in that full portraicture divine Revelation presents them it cannot but adore and admire and confess the manifold wisdom and knowledg of God the riches of his grace the praise of his Ephes 3. 10. 1. 6 11. glory working all things after the counsel of his own will As to the Christian Doctrine of the Resurrection and eternal Judgment they are but what is very agreeable to the very Principles of Natural Religion all men having an ingrafted sense both of it and a future state and as to the Resurriction it self I think it most manageable upon grounds of Reason That the Creator can as easily command the Principles of a dissolved body into one as at first create those very Principles out of nothing nor can I think those niceties of dispute brought into this Article of Faith of any moment it being enough there shall be a future state of Spirits in bodies as in sensible appearances of Glory or Misery and those bodies as much mens own as the nature