this man will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Isa 66. 2. This is the Honourable entertainment of the Saints 7. And they are members of the most Honourable Society in the world The Church is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Luke 1. 33. Col. 1. 13. The Kingdom of God Luke 17. 21. 18. 17. The Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3. 2. 13. 31 33 44. It is the School of Christ or his University in which Believers are his Schollars learning to know him and serve him and praise him for ever and trained up for everlasting life Acts 11. 26. Luke 6. 13. Mat. 5. 1 2 c. It is the family or houshold of God Eph. 2. 19. 1 Tim. 3. 15. Heb. 10. 21. 1 Pet. 4. 17. It is the Spouse yea the Body of Christ Eph. 5. 25. So loved by him that he gave himself for it becoming the price of our Redemption and thought not his life too dear a Ransom nor his blood too precious to cleanse and save us Eph. 5. 25 26. Tit. 2. 14. The Church which every godly man is a living member of is a Society chosen out of the world to be nearest unto God and dearest to him as the beloved of his soul to receive the choicest of his mercies and be adorned with the righteousness of Christ and to be employed in his special service 1 Pet. 2. 4 5 9. John 15. 19. Eph. 1. 4. Psalm 132. 13. 135. 4. Eph. 5. 1. The Lord that Redeemed them is their King and Head and dwelleth in the midst of them and walketh among them as the people of his special presence and delight Psalm 2. 6. 89. 18. 149. 2. 46. 5. Isa 12. 6. Jer. 14. 9. Zeph. 3. 5 15 17. Rev. 1. 13. 2. 1. Psalm 95. 2. The Church is a Heavenly Society though the militant part yet live on earth For the God of Heaven is the Soveraign and the Father of it The glorified Redeemer is their Head The Spirit of Christ doth guide and animate them His Laws revealed and confirmed from Heaven direct and govern them Heaven is their end and heavenly are their dispositions employments and conversations There is their portion and treasure Matth. 6. 20 21. and there is their very heart and hope They are risen with Christ and therefore seek the things that are above For their life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 2 3 4. Their Root is there and the noblest part of the Society is there For the glorified Saints and in some sort the Angels are of the same Society with us though they are in heaven and we on earth The whole family in Heaven and earth is named from one and the same Head Eph. 3. 15. Heb. 12. 22 23. 24. We are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling c. This is the Honourable Society of Saints the eye the pearl of the whole Creation 8. Moreover the Godly have the most Horourable Attendance The creatures are all theirs though not in point of Civil propriety yet as means appointed and managed by God their Father for their best advantage The Angels of God are ministring spirits for them not as our servants but as Gods servants for our good As Ministers in the Church are not the servants of men but the servants of God for men And so whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or to come all are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. The Shepherds servant is not the servant of the sheep but for the sheep And so the Angels disdain not to serve God in the guarding of the weakest Saints As I formerly shewed from Heb. 1. 14. Psalm 91. 11 12. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them For he giveth his Angels charge over us to keep us in all our wayes they shall bear us up in their hands left we dash our foot against a stone Sun and Moon and all the creatures are daily employed in our attendance O how wonderful is the Love of God to his unworthy servants in their advancement Remember it when thou art scorning at the servants of the Lord or speaking against them that those poor those weak despised Christians that thou art vilifying have their Angels beholding the face of God their Father in the Heavens Take heed therefore that you despise not the least of these It is the warning of Christ Matth. 18. 10. The same blessed spirits that attend the Lord and see his face in blissful Glory do attend and guard the meanest of the godly here on earth As the same servants use to wait upon the Father and the children in the same family or the bigger children to help the less 9. And it is the Honour of the Godly that they that are themselves most Honourable do Honour them To be magnified by a fool or wicked flatterer is small Honour but to be magnified by the best and wisest men this is true Honour We say that Honour is in him that giveth it and not in him that receiveth But it is God himself that Honoureth his Saints It is he that speaketh all these great and wonderous things of them which I have hitherto recited Search the Texts which I have alledged and try whether it be not he And surely to have the God of Heaven to applaud a man and put Honour upon him and so great Honour is more then if all the world had done it Yet we may add if any thing could be considerable that is added unto the approbation of God that all his servants the wisest and the best even his holy Angels are of the same mind and honour the godly in conformity to their Lord. And here Christian I require thee from the Lord to consider the greatness of thy sin and folly when thou art too desirous of the applause of men especially of the blind ungodly world and when thou makest a great matter of their contempt or scorn or of their slanderous censures What! is the approbation of the eternal God so small a matter in thy eyes that the scorn of a fool can weigh it down or move the ballance with thee If a feather were put into the scales against a mountain or the whole earth it should weigh as much as the esteem or dis-esteem of men their honouring thee or dishonouring thee should weigh against the esteem of God and the honour or dishonour that he puts upon thee as to any regard of the thing it self though as it reflecteth on God thou
Book against Infidelity to which I must again dismiss you that there is a full and infallible Evidence that this Scripture was written by the Apostles and Evangelists and these Miracles done as there is that any of the Statutes of this Land are the currant Statutes of those Parliaments that are said to make them And your Lands and Lives are held by the credit of these Statutes A word or two to the objections of a Masked Infidel of this Countrey Clem. Writer Saith he Men be not commanded to believe these Statutes on pain of damnation Therefore the case is not like Answ But men are commanded to obey them upon pain of death and believing is prerequisite to obeying therefore the case is like Death is the utmost penalty that man can inflict or if there be greater it all runs on the same foundation And sure that evidence that proves men culpable for breaking mans Laws must prove him culpable for breaking Gods You have no other eyes to read the Laws of God then those by which you read mans Laws And doth it follow that God must not condemn you for breaking his Laws when men do but hang you for breaking theirs Sure Gods Laws and mans may be printed in the same Character and read with the same eyes and both have the same Natural means of delivery and yet the sin and punishment differ as the Authority doth Objection But saith he Can the Miracles confirm the Scripture when it is the Scripture that reports the Miracles Answ 1. Cannot a Statute tell you what Parliament made it and what matters of fact were the occasion and also what shal be your duty upon pain of death so that the Makers and facts shall give force unto the Law and yet the Law reveal the makers and facts Do not Church Constitutions do the same The Scripture hath two parts the History and the Doctrine May not the History confirm the doctrine and that doctrine oblige us to our duty 2. But you suppose that the Miracles and facts can only be known by a Divine belief of the History But that is false The common Evidence that all Statutes Histories and Actions in the world have to make them certain to posterity as Cicero's or Virgils Writings or Caesars Reign c. the same have the Books and Miracles of Scripture to us And by these we can know them de facto to be such before we believe them by a Divine faith And as the Scripture is a History that hath the same Evidence as the best of Histories have so it may concur with abundance of other Evidence which I have recited in my my Determination against Infidelity and in my Key for Catholicks to prove the Facts and then those Facts will fully prove the Truth of all the Doctrines which they attest and consequently we shall add to our humane Faith and Knowledge a Divine faith concerning the History it self Object 3. But saith Writer If God had means that the Scripture should be a Law to all he would not have writ it in a language which they understand not Answ Any thing will serve to make an Infidel when the mind is corrupted and deplorate Were they no Laws which the Romans wrote in Latin for the Government of all the Nations of the Roman World It was enough that the Rulers of the Previnces caused them to be so far understood by the People as was necessary to a righteous Government I mean those Laws that were added to the proper Laws of that people 2. Was there any one Language then that all the world understood And was it not enough that God appointed the Ministerial Office purposely to preserve and publish this Gospel to the world from generation to generation And is not Translating whether by Voice or Writing a part of that preaching or explication Did not the Ministers of Christ preach the same doctrine to the world then in the several languages of the Nations where they came And were not the Scriptures presently translated according to the use of the Churches Upon how silly a pretence then would your silly Imperial Majesty impose it on the God of Heaven to write his word in as many Languages as are in the world if he would be believed I 'le trouble you with no more such wretched Cavils These three are the main strength of three Pamphlets written against the Holy Scriptures and me by this Apostate Their sum is Man is man therefore we are not sure that Scripture is true or that God is God I mean Men cannot understand the minds of others but by signs All signs whether words or deeds have some ambiguity or lyableness to misunderstanding therefore nothing can be known concerning God or man by signs These are not his words but the true scope and life of all the Writings of him and all the Infidel Seekers If you chide me for troubling the Christian Reader here with so much against the Infidels and Brutists I answer 1. I did it because that sort increase and threaten the Land 2. Because the strengthening of the Belief of the best Christians is the removing the Cause of all their weakness and complaints 3. And Principally because when once the certain Truth of another Life is manifested he must be a Bedlam or worse that will not be Godly or that will open his mouth any more against a Holy Life What! is it possible for a sober man to Believe that he is so near an Everlasting Joy or Misery and yet to neglect it and oppose them that make it their chiefest care and labour to prepare for it The Brutist hath drowned his Reason and the careless Professor laid it to sleep the Malicious ungodly Professor of Christianity sights against it and only the serious Holy Christian doth use it for his Everlasting good CHAP. IV. Holiness is Best for all Societies REader if thou be but a man that hast the free use of thy reason I have already removed the greatest impediment out of thy way and said enough by confuting thy Infidelity to prove that godliness is the Better part Thou hast nothing left now to say against it but what fighteth against Reason in the open light and therefore I shall find an easier task with thy understanding in all that follows though with thy corrupted Will and Concupiscence the conflict yet may be as strong Well! if yet thou art not resolved that Diligent Serious Godliness is that Good part that all should choose and better then all thy worldly pleasures I shall now discover it to thee in these particulars 1. I shall shew you that Godliness is Best for all Societies 2. That it is Best for every Person And that 1. It is the safest way 2. It is the Honestest way 3. That it is the most gainful way 4. That it is the most Honourable way and 5. That it is the Pleasant and Delightful way Yea that there is no other true Safety Honesty Profit Honour or Delight
but what is to be found in this way I lay not only all the reputation of my understanding but all the hopes and happiness of my soul upon the proof of this point If I prove it not I will confess my self a fool and undone for ever But if I prove it let the ungodly make this sad Confession and choose the Better part while they may have it 1. And first That Godliness is the Best for all societies that are just I prove thus 1. Godliness doth Unite or Center all Societies in the Only Head and Center of Unity that is the Blessed God himself A Common-wealth will never have Peace in a state of Rebellion against their Soveraign unless he be one that they can overcome Nor Souldiers in a state of Mutiny against their General nor Schollars in shutting out their Master God is the only Soveraign of the whole world The godly all unite in him Ungodliness is Rebellion against him The Rebels are alwayes in his Power There is no Peace nor safety therefore nor any Unity but an Agreement in Rebellion for a while to any that are not by Holiness united in him and Loyal subjects to him Isa 48. 22. There is no Peace saith the Lord unto the wicked Object But do we not see that the main Divisions of the world are about Religion Answ 1. It s true but not by the truly Religious The great quarrel of the world is against Religion in the life and practice of it 2. It is unholy men that cannot abide to be accounted unholy that are the chief dividers 3. Among the truly Godly there is no division in the main but only diffetences about the smaller Branches of Religion which are Numerous and less discernable and less necessary then the common Truths They are all Agreed of Truth enough to bring them to Heaven and therefore enough to unite them in dear Affection upon earth Nay there is not one of them that hath not a special love to all that he discerneth to be the servants of the Lord. If any be without this he is ungodly And we are not to answer for the miscarriages of every Infidel or ungodly man that will put on the Name of Christianity and Godliness If there should be fallings out among the godly they cannot rest till they are healed and set in joynt again But you must not then be so unjust as to conclude that we can have no Unity till we are in all things of a mind May not men of various complexions be of one Society Are not the multitudes of Veins and Arteries in your Bodies united in the trunks and roots It not the Tree one that hath many branches Object But God whom you will needs unite in is far from us and his mind unknown and so is not the mind of Princes and therefore we cannot unite in God Answ In things Necessary to our future Happiness and present unity in special Love the mind of God is more plainly and fully opened to us then the mind of any Prince unto his subjects What precepts can be plainer then to Love God above all and our Neighbour as our selves and first to seek the Kingdom of God and to Repent and Believe in Christ How plain are the Articles of our Faith and the ten Commandments Divisions have been about niceties I hope God will call back his Churches to the Antient simplicity and Practical Godliness and then the Christian world will be agreed except the wicked 2. Godliness propoundeth and prosecuteth the most Uniting Excellent Powerful End for all that duty that should advance Societies and therefore must needs be Best for all Societies God and Heaven is the common End of all the Godly They are Agreed every man of them in One End and so are not others Their End hath that Power in its attractive Excellency by which it can do the greatest things that are to be done with the will of man The Ends of the ungodly are small and childish toye◠Our End also is as the Sun sufficient for all and therefore 〈…〉 matter of contention All may have God as well as One without diminishing the happiness of any 3. Godliness takes away the Ball of the worlds contention that sets men everywhere together by the ears It teacheth men to slight the Honour and Vain-glory that the Gallants will fight and die for And to contemn that wealth that Towns and Countries and Kingdoms are divided and destroyed by It teacheth men to slight that Money the Love of which is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. It sheweth men a better Treasure and not only Verbally but Effectually teacheth them to trample upon that which the tumultuous world doth so much scramble for and seek by such rapine oppression deceit and blood If all the Ambitious climers and State-troublers were truly godly they would quietly seek for higher Honours If all the covetous Noblemen Souldiers Landlords and Rich men were truly Godly they would never set both City and Countrey into combustions and poor oppressed families into complaints for the Love of Money If thieves turned godly you might travail safely and spare your locks and keep your purses If Tradesmen were all truly Godly deceit would not so break their peace What is there for Societies to strive about when the bone of contention is taken away and Godliness hath cast down the Idol of the world that did disturb them 4. Godliness takes down the great disturbing and dividing Principle in mans soul and that is Selfishness And it both commandeth and worketh self-denyal Every ungodly man hath a private End and a private Spirit and Interest that is dearer to him then any other So many ungodly men as there are so many Ends and Interests And how then can there be a Possibility of Unity The wisest Law-givers could never yet contrive an effectual course for the uniting of all these If Selfishness were down I scarce know what should trouble the peace of Kingdoms Cities Families or any other Societies Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Or Thou shalt not covet is the summe and conclusion of all the Law of God concerning our carriage one to another And it is Godliness and nothing else that perfectly teacheth and truly though imperfectly here effecteth this Self-denyal But of this elsewhere 5. Godliness hath the most perfect Righteous Laws and therefore is 〈…〉 all Societies If God can make better Laws then man then this is past all question His Laws require nothing but what is for mens good They prescribe nothing that is dishonest or unjust They promise the greatest Rewards to the obedient They drive on the backward by the threatning of the greatest punishments Their Authority is highest and most unquestionable They all proceed from one absolute Soveraign and are the same to all the people of the world They change not but are to endure to the worlds end Whereas all the Laws of men are limited to their own Dominions and endure
then if they had never heard the Gospel It is you and such as you that despise the mercies of the Lord that make it a bad world and then you impudently complain of it and charge it on them that will not be as bad as your selves and take away the candle and shut the windows that the light may not trouble you 2. Well! but say you the world was better when there was less preaching and less ado about the serving of God and our salvation I do not believe you and I will tell you why yea Why I am certain that your words are false 1. Because you contradict the Lord. God saith those times are best when there is most of the Light of the Gospel and most helps for our salvation and when the people are most Holy The increase of Light and Holiness is a principal part of the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ and of the Promises to the Gospel Church as you may see Isa 9. 2. 36. 26. 42. 6. 60. 3. Mat. 4. 16. Luk. 2. 32. Joh. 3. 19 20. The word of God is the greatest blessing under heaven together with a heart to obey and practise it Luk. 11. 28. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Psal 106. 3. 119. 1 2. 1. 1 2. God himself pronounceth them blessed that meditate day and night in his Law and that make it their whole delight and because of the increase of Light and Holiness extolleth the times of the Gospel far above those of the Law affirming the least in this Kingdom of God to be greater as to the honour and priviledge of his station then the Prophets or John Baptist Matth. 11. 11 12. And would you wish me to believe such ignorant men as you before the God of Heaven that contradicteth you 2. I will not believe you because your objection is nothing but a Blasphemous accusation of the Living God If it were true that Preaching is bad it is Christ then that is bad that doth command it But I am sure that Christ is not bad and that such as Blaspheme him do it to their cost It is he that hath laid a Necessity on us and woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 16. and that chargeth us to feed the flock of God 1 Pet. 5. 2. Yea the spirit chargeth us before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom that we preach the word and be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine If any one be to be blamed for all this preaching and stir for heaven it is Christ that chargeth it so strictly upon us And if thou dare lay the blame upon the Lord speak out and stand to it at judgement 3. I know it is false that you say that the world is the worse for all this preachig and Godliness because it is against the very office of Christ and of the Holy Ghost Christ was a diligent preacher himself and dare you accuse him for it He came into the world to bring us the Light of heavenly Truth and dare you say that it were better be without it It is the work of the Holy Ghost to illuminate and sanctifie men and do you think that he doth us hurt Christ dyed to wash and purifie by the word and Spirit the Church which is his Body that he might present it spotless to the Father Eph. 5. 26. 27. And darest thou say that Christ came to do us harm By this thy despising of his benefits thou shewest that thou hast yet no part in him or in his saving benefits but art in the gall of bitterness and bond of thy iniquities and thy heart is not right in the sight of God 4. Moreover you are not to be belived because you speak against the experience of all the Prophets and Apostles of Christ David had rather be a door keeper in the house of God then dwell in the tents of wickedness and judged a day in his Courts to be better then a thousand Psal 84. 10. and accounted them the blessed men that might even dwell in the house of God and be daily taken up in holy praise and worship Psal 65. 4. 92. 13. 23. 6. When he was forced from the house and publick worship of God it was his daily lamentation and he fainteth and panteth and longeth after the house and worship of God again Psal 42. 84. 2 3 4 5. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord My bea rt aad my flesh cryeth out for the living God Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are the ways of them The Prophet Isaiah saith In the way of thy judgements O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee with my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early This was the mind of all the Prophets and Apostles and God hath told us that it is the practice of all blessed men to Meditate in Gods word day night Psal 1. 2. And yet will you say that it was a better world when there was less of this O self-condemning Hypocrites Why do you so much profess to honour the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs of Christ if you think that they were the troublers of the world and that their doctrine and practice makes us worse Why do you honour them with the name of Saints and yet despise both their doctrine and practice in those that do but endeavour seriously to imitate them Why keep you Holy days in remembrance of the dead Saints and say that the world in the worse for the living Saints O horrible hypocrisie to honour their names and hate their doctrine and course of life and say that the world was never good since it was troubled with such as they Do we trouble you with our Preaching and praying and our stir for heaven How would Christ and his Apostles have troubled you that went so far beyond us in all these and made a greater stir then we and turned the world as their enemies charged them up side down Act. 17. 6. so busie wâ—s Christ in preaching and doing the work of God that he neglected to eat his meat for it Joh. 4. 34. and his fleshly kindred would have laid hands on him as if he had been beside himself Mark 3. 21. It seems if you had then lived you would have been among the wicked enemies of Christ and of his Disciples and have said It was never a good world since these busie fellows made so much a doe with their Religion 5. Moreover you speak against the inward feeling and