condition of our souls 3. The Scripture discovers to us the only way of pleasing God and enjoying his favour That clearly reveals the way which man might have sought for to all eternity without particular revelation whereby sins may be pardond and whatever we do may be acceptable unto God It shews us that the ground of our acceptance with God is through Christ whom he hath made a propitiation for the sins of the world and who alone is the true and living way whereby we may draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience Through Christ we understand the terms on which God will shew favour and grace to the world and by him we have ground of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 access with freedome and boldness unto God On his account we may hope not only for grace so subdue our sins resist temptations conquer the devil and the world but having fought this good fight and finished our course by patient continuance in well doing we may justly look for glory honour and immortality and that crown of righteousness which is laid up for those who wait in faith holiness and humility for the appearance of Christ from heaven Now what things can there be of greater moment and importance for men to know or God to reveal then the nature of God and our selves the state and condition of our souls the only way to avoid eternal misery and enjoy everlasting Bliss The Scriptures discover not only matters of importance but of the greatest depth and mysteriousness There are many wonderful things in the Law of God things we may admire but are never able to comprehend Such are the eternal purposes and decrees of God the doctrine of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God and the manner of the operation of the Spirit of God on the souls of men which are all things of great weight and moment for us to understand and believe that they are and yet may be unsearchable to our reason as to the particular manner of them What certain ground our faith stands on as to these things hath been already shewed and therefore I forbear insisting on them The Scripture comprehends matters of the most universal satisfaction to the minds of men though many things do much exceed our apprehensions yet others are most suâ—table to the dictates of our nature As Origen bid Celsus see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it was not the agreeableness of the principles of faith with the common notions of humane nature that which prevailed most upon all candid and ingenuous auditors of them And therefore as Socrates said of Heraclitus his books What he understood was excellent and therefore he supposed that which he did not understand was so too so ought we to say of the Scriptures if those things which are within our capacity be so suitable to our natures and reasons those cannot contradict our reason which yet are above them There are many things which the minds of men were sufficiently assured that they were yet were to seek for satisfaction concerning them which they could never have had without Divine revelation As the nature of true happiness wherein it lay and how to be obtained which the Philosophers were so puzled with the Scripture gives us full satisfaction concerning it True contentment under the troubles of life which the Scripture only acquaints us with the true grounds of and all the prescriptions of Heathen Moralists fall as much short of as the directions of an Empirick doth of a wise and skilful Physitian Avoiding the fears of death which can alone be through a grounded expectation of a future state of happiness which death leads men to which cannot be had but through the right understanding of the Word of God Thus we see the excellency of the matters themselves contained in this revelation of the mind of God to the world As the matters themselves are of an excellent nature so is the manner wherein they are revealed in the Scriptures and that 1. In a clear and perspicuous manner not but there may be still some passages which are hard to be understood as being either prophetical or consisting of ambiguous phrases or containing matters above our comprehension but all those things which concern the terms of mans salvation are delivered with the greatest evidence and perspicuiry Who cannot understand what these things mean What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God that without faith it is impossible to please God that without holiness none shall see the Lord that unless we be born again we can never enter into the Kingdom of heaven these and such like things are so plain and clear that it is nothing but mens shutting their eyes against the light can keep them from understanding them God intended these things as directions to men and is not he able to speak intelligibly when he please he that made the tongue shall he not speak so as to be understood without an infallible interpreter especially when it is his design to make known to men the terms of their eternal happiness Will God judge men at the great day for not believing those things which they could not understand Strange that ever men should judge the Scriptures obscure in matters necessary when the Scripture accounts it so great a judgement for men not to understand them If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not least the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them Sure Lots door was visible enough if it were a judgement for the men of Sodom not to see it and the Scriptures then are plain and intelligible enough if it be so great a judgement not to understand them 2. In a powerful and authoritative manner as the things contained in Scripture do not so much beg acceptance as command it in that the expressions wherein our duty is concerned are such as awe mens consciences and pierce to their hearts and to their secret thoughts All things are open and naked before this Word of God every secret of the mind and thought of the heart lyes open to its stroke and force it is quick and powerful sharper then a two-edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The word is a Telescope to discover the great Luminaries of the world the truths of highest concernment to the souls of men and it is such a Microscope as discovers to us the smallest Atome of our thoughts and discerns the most secret intent of the heart And as far as this light reacheth it comes with power and authority as it comes armed with the Majesty
have believed the doctrine of Christ to be the only way to salvation have been deceived either we must deny altogether a Divine Providence or say the Devil hath more power to deceive men then God to direct them which is worse then the former or else assert that there are no such things at all as either God or Devils but that all things come to pass by chance and fortune and if so it is still more inexplicable why such multitudes of rational and serious men and the most inquisitive part of the world as to such things should all be so possessed with the truth and certainty of these things and the more profane wicked and ignorant any persons are the more prone they are to mock and deride them If such men then see more into truth and reason then the sober and judicious part of mankind let us bid adieu to humanity and adore the brutes since we admire their judgement most who come the nearest to them 3. The multitude of these persons thus consenting in this Testimony could have no other engagement to this consent but only their firm perswasion of the truth of the doctrine conveyed by it because those who unanimously agree in this thing are such persons whose other designs and interests in this world differ as much as any mens do If it had been only a consent of Iews there might have been some probable pretence to have suspected a matter of interest in it but as to this thing we find the Iews divided among themselves about it and the stiffest denyers of the truth of it do yet inviolably preserve those sacred records among them from which the truth of the doctrine of Christ may be undoubtedly proved Had the Christian Religion been enforced upon the world by the Roman Emperours at the time of its first promulgation there would have been some suspicion of particular design in it but it came with no other strength but the evidence of its own truth yet it found sudden and strange entertainment among persons of all Nations and degrees of men In a short time it had eaten into the heart of the Roman Empire and made so large a spread therein that it made Tertullian say Hesterni sumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia conciliabula castraipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum sola vobis relinquimus Templa We have but newly appeared saith he yet we have filled all places with our company but only your Temples and before speaking of the Heathens Obsessam vociferantur civitatem in agris in castellis in insulis Christianos omnem sexum aetatem conditionem etiam dignitatem transgredi ad hoc nomen quasi detrimento moerent All sorts and conditions of men in all places were suddenly become Christians What common tye could there be now to unite all these persons together if we set aside the undoubted truth and certainty of the doctrine of Christ which was first preached to them by such who were eye-witnesses of Christs actions and had left sacred records behind them containing the substance of the doctrine of Christ and those admirable instructions which were their only certain guides in the way to heaven 4. Because many persons do joyn in this consent with true Christians who yet could heartily with that the doctrine of Christianity were not true Such are all those persons who are sensual in their lives and walk not according to the rules of the Gospel yet dare not question or deny the truth of it Such who could heartily wish there were no future state nor judgement to come that they might indulge themselves in this world without fear of another yet their consciences are so far convinced of and awed by the truth of these things that they raise many perplexities and anxieties in their minds which they would most willingly be rid of which they can never throughly be till instead of having the name of Christians they come to live the life of Christians and become experimentally acquainted with the truth and power of Religion And withall we find that the more men have been acquainted with the practice of Christianity the greater evidence they have had of the truth of it and been more fully and rationally perswaded of it To such I grant there are such powerful evidences of the truth of the doctrine of Christ by the effectual workings of the Spirit of God upon their souls that all other arguments as to their own satisfaction may fall short of these As to which those verses of the Poet Dante 's rendred into Latine by F. S. are very pertinent and significant for when he had introduced the Apostle Peter asking him what it was which his faith was founded on he answers Deinde exivit ex luce profundâ Quae illic splendebat pretiosa gemma Super quam omnis virtus fundatur i. e. That God was pleased by immediate revelation of himself to discover that divine truth to the world whereon our faith doth stand as on its sure foundation but when the Apostle goes on to enquire how he knew this came at first from God his answer to that is larga pluvia Spiritûs Sancti quae est diffusa Super veteres super novas membranas Est syllogismus ille qui eam mihi conclusit Adâ—ò acutè ut prae illâ demonstratione Omnis demonstratio alia mihi videatur obtusa i. e. That the Spirit of God doth so fully discover its self both in the Old and New Testament that all other arguments are but dull and heavy if compared with this It is true they are so to a truly inlightened conscience which discovers so much beauty and glory in the Scriptures that they ravish the soul although it be unable to give so full an account of this unto others who want the eyes to see that beauty with which a heart truly gracious hath We see ordinarily in the world that the attraction of beauty is an unaccountable thing and one may discern that which ravisheth him which another looks on as mean and ordinary and why may it not be much more thus in divine objects which want spiritual eyes to discover them Therefore I grant that good men enjoy that satisfaction to their own Consciences as to the truth of the Doctrine of Christ which others cannot attain to but yet I say that such do likewise see the most strong rational and convincing evidence which doth induce them to believe which evidence is then most convincing when it is seconded by the peculiar energy of the Spirit of God upon the souls of true Believers But yet we see that the power and force of the truth of these things may be so great even upon such minds which are not yet moulded into the fashion of true goodness that it may awe with its light and clearness where it doth not soften and alter by its heat and influence Now whence can it be that such
Friends and while he was there thrusts up his spear into a swallows nest and pulls it down and kills the young ones his Friends asking him the reason of so strange an action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not you bear saith he how they falsly accuse me and cry out that I have kild my Father Which being by the persons present carried to the King and the truth of it found out he was executed for it Such strange wayes doth providence sometimes use to shew how vigilant it is even when we think it sleeps the most 5. Though God spares the persons of wicked men he doth not defer their punishment when the thoughts of their evil actions is the greatest torment to them Maxima peccatâ— pena est peccasse as Seneca speaks Sin bears its own punishment along with it Wickedness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most exquisite contriver of misery which fills the minds of those who commit it with continual consternations anxieties and perplexities of mind But as that often and deservedly cited author on this subject Plutarch tells us most men are in this like Children who when they behold malefactors in the Theatres in their cloth of gold and purple robes with their crowns on their heads dancing about they admire them and imagine them to be most happy men till they see them lashed and beaten and fire come out from their brave apparel so saith he as long as men see others in their pomp and grandeur they think them far from punishment till they behold their execution which saith he is not so much the entrance of their punishment as the perfection of it So that the longer the time of their lives is the longer is the time of their punishment here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are not punished when they grow old but they are grown old in punishments Cannot we say a person is punished while he is in prison and hath his fetters upon him till his execution comes nor that one that hath drunk poison is a dying while he walks about till the cold comes to his heart and kills him if we deny saith he that all the inquietudes horrors and anxieties of mind which wicked men have are no part of their punishment we may as well say that a fish which bath swallowed the hook is not taken because he is not fryed or cut in pieces So it is with every wicked man he hath swallowed the hook when he hath committed an evil action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his conscience within him as he expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which in the Prophets expression is the wicked are like a troubled sea which casts forth nothing but mire and dirt As Apollodorus dreamt that he was flead and boyled by the Scythians and that his heart spake to him out of the Cauldron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the cause of all this God deals by wicked men as Caligula was wont to say of those he commanded to be executed ferit ut sentiant se mori he so punishes them as to make them sensible of their punishments And as Tacitus speaks of cruel and wicked persons quorum mentes si recludantur possâ—nt aspici laniatus ictus quando ut corpora verberibus ita saevitia libidine malis consult is animus dilaceretur Wiekedness is the only fury which continually haunts and lashes those who delight in it and leaves still behind it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loathsome and terrible perturbations secret gripings of conscience and self condemning thoughts for their folly and wickedness like Lysimachus who for extream thirst offered his Kingdom to the Getae to quench it which when he had done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a wretch was I saith he to lose such a Kingdom for so short a pleasure And though wicked men be not sensible of the loss of a far more glorious Kingdom then this of Lysimachus viz. that of heaven yet they cannot but be sensible how much they have lost that Kingdom which every good man hath in the tranquillity of his spirit and the command of his passions 6. The time that God spares wicked men is not so long as we think for It is all one as Plutarch saith as if we should complain that the malefactor was punished in the evening and not in the morning Gods forbearance is but for a very little time compared with his own duration We measure God by the short hour-glass of our own time when we are so ready to confine him to our measures The time seems long to us but it is as nothing in its self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole life of man compared with eternity is nothing Besides all this time God suffers wicked men to live here he hath them under safe custody he doth but let them take the air within the prison-walls or it may be they may play and sport themselves there but there is no possibility of escaping out of the hands of Divine justice 7. God forbears wicked men here because the time is to come wherein God intends to punish them This is the highest vindication of Divine Providence as to the present impunity of wicked men in the world because this is not the proper season for the open execution of Iustice. There are but few in comparison whom Iustice causeth to be executed in the â—rison of what are reserved for the general Assizes God reserves them for a fair and open tryal for the greater vindication of his honour and manifestation of his Iustice to the world And although Gods judgements even in this world be sometimes so remarkable that we cannot but see a hand of Providence in them yet they are but few whom God doth so remarkably punish here to make us more firmly believe a day of judgement to come Which though it be most clearly and fully revealed in Scripture yet the Heathens themselves from meer reason have had such a perswasion of it that they have given this as another great reason why God did forbear to punish wicked men here because he did reserve them for future punishment For as the same Moralist speaks in the same discourse concerning the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this present life is the place of the souls combat which when it hath finished it then receives according to its performance of it And as he before speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same reason which confirms providence doth likewise confirm the immortality of the soul and if one be taken away the other follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if the soul doth subsist after death it stands to the greatest reason that it should there receive either reward or punishment Thus we see how far natural light and moral reason will carry men in the vindicating Divine Providence as to the present impunity of wicked men The other part which concerns the sufferings of good men is not of so great difficulty because there are none so good as