God because he findes them harmless peaceable and beneficiall or because himself is of a good sanguine benigne complexion But this Love in a man that makes not conscience of the Commandements of God is merely animal and natural not proceeding from that community of the Divine Spirit which all the Regenerate participate of but out of complexion and self-love which will adhere to any thing that it feels a naturall comfort from But if this Childe of God prove something spinose and harsh in opposing rebuking or it may be not complying with some dearly-beloved humours of this good-natured sanguine his corrupt bloud will then begin to boyl against the Son of God and return him hatred for his good will 3. And as this blessed Apostle and peculiarly-beloved of our Saviour has made so carefull a caution that the Love he recommends to the world should not slack so low as to draggle in the dirt so has he wisely provided against the Hypocrisie of high-flown Religionists who pretend to be so transported with love to God and his service that they quite forget their neighbour and therefore at the end of the foregoing Chapter he does plainly pronounce that 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 that loveth God love his brother also Which duty of the Second Table being most hard and the most lâ—able to be cast off through the Hypocrisie of mens hearts the inculcation thereof is most frequent with the Apostles Paul to the Ephesians chap. 4. ver 31. Let all bitternesse and anger and wrath and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be ye kinde one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake has forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour And Colos. 3.12 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindenesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse long-suffering Forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as Christ forgave you And above all things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectnesse and let the peace of God rule in your hearts c. Peter also in his first generall Epistle Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently And in his second Epistle ch 1. And besides this giving all diligence adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse and to brotherly kindnesse charity 4. The coherence of this golden chain of Divine Graces is so admirable that I cannot passe it by though it be beside my present purpose to speak any thing of the places I cite But we shall not so well understand the fit connexion of these Vertues with themselves nor of the whole link of them with the precedent Text without rectifying the Translation in a word or two The Apostle in the foregoing verses intimates to them how God has provided for them according to his divine power all things appertaining to life and Godlinesse through the knowledge of his Son Iesus Christ who hath called us in glory and virtue and given us exceeding great and precious promises that having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust we should be partakers of the divine nature and then comes in what has been recited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they have rendred And besides this Which Translation makes no connexion of sense with the former words but is very abrupt nor will the phrase I think bear that meaning It is better sense and more laudable Criticisme to render it thus And therefore forthwith or without any more adoe adde to your faith vertue c. Which latter words are not well rendred neither The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be redundant there so that his suffrage is for the English Translation But for my own part I think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so far from being redundant that it is essentiall to the sentence and interposed that we might understand a greater Mystery then the mere adding of so many Vertues one to another which would be all that could be expresly signified if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were left out But the preposition here signifying causality there is more then a mere enumeration of those Divine Graces For there is also implied how naturally they rise one out of another and that they have a causall dependence one of another Therefore the sense is That God having on his part fitted all things for their Salvation and they having obtained like precious Faith with the Apostle himself that through the efficacy of their Faith they should also acquire Virtue that is Strength and Fortitude For high and noble Promises excite courage and resolution to set upon the difficulties through which they must passe that would obtain the Promises And this encountring with the difficulties that are in a Christian mans way while he is not a talker of Christianity but a reall actour and cordiall endeavourer to follow the Precepts and Example of Christ will beget not verbal but true Knowledge in him that is holy Experience in the wayes of God And in this Experience he is taught how those fleshly and worldly lusts and desires have often deceived him and led him out of the way blinding his judgement by their importunate suggestions and extinguishing or at least dulling those more religious and divine senses of the Soul when their importunities are listened to and their cravings satisfied And therefore this Knowledge and Experience begets Temperance that is a more rigid resolution of curbing and keeping under of all worldly and carnal desires and a peremptory refraining from giving any answer to their impudent beggings and cravings Which things if a man seriously attempt in its due extent and latitude questionless he will put himself upon a very intolerable task and there will be no remedy but Patience which he will find so mightily out of his power that he will be forced upon his knees to the God of heaven to comfort assist and strengthen him in his agony and conflict against his domestick enemies and to support his spirit in so great anguish and pain Whence it is plain that we cannot keep close to the laws of Temperance but that Patience will necessarily emerge therefrom nor be kept in this Spirit of Patience without the invocation and acknowledgment of Divine assistance which is an unquestionable
themselves yet to be so streight to one another as not to acknowledge that mutual Right seems enormously harsh and unchristian For we all agreeing in the Truth of the Scriptures which certainly are sufficient to Salvation since the Belief and Practice of what is plain in them will not fail to carry a man to Heaven what an unreasonable thing is it that there should be that hatred and persecution against those that God so well approves that he will save them and Christ so dearly loved that he gave his life a ransome for them Again there being also a necessity as I have said in the Persecuted of thinking as he does and an uncertainty in the Opinions that the Persecutour would promote as being demonstrable by neither Reason nor Scripture how unwarrantable an action is it to do a certain injury for an uncertain conceit To all which you may adde That the Love of Knowledge is but the work of the Devil how much more then is bitter Zeal and brawling about it but the depretiating of humane devices tends much to the exaltation of true Sanctity that mask of Hyprocrisie patcht up of empty Opinions and Formalities being by this means torn off and leaving the face bare that their Complexion may be more discernable how pure and sincere it is or how unsound cadaverous and deformed And lastly a mutuall agreement of bearing with one anothers dissents in the Non-fundamentals of Religion is really a greater Ornament of Christianity then the most exact Uniformity imaginable it being an eminent act or exercise of Charity the Flower of all Christian graces and the best way I think at the long run to make the Church as Uniforme as can justly be desired For if true Christian Love could once get the rule in the Hearts of men the Apostle will undertake for her that she shall do nothing unseemly For Charity is indeed the Mother of Unity and bond of Perfection and he that is really spirited thereby I dare promise for him that he will never oftentate his Sanctimony by a pretended queziness of Conscience as if he had a more delicate sense and a more peculiar discernment in things appertaining to Godliness then others have But whatever a good round force would urge him to out of love to himself and his own safety he would not fail of his own accord to comply therewith out of the love of Order and the Reverence he bears to the authority of the Church he lives under Nor on the other side would the Church ever offer to obtrude upon her children what is either false or useless For they both of them being once imbued with that Divine sense we speak of cannot but be well assured That neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith working by Love And whosoever walketh by this Rule peace be upon him and upon the true Israel of God H. M. From my Study at Christs Coll. in Cambridge Iune 12. 1660. AN EXPLANATION OF The grand Mystery OF GODLINESS CHAP. I. 1. The Four main Properties of a Mystery 2. The first Propertie Obscurity 3. The second Intelligibleness 4. The third Truth 5. The fourth Usefulness 6. A more full Description of the Nature of a Mystery 7. The Distribution of the whole Treatise 1. EVery legitimate Mystery comprehends in it at least these Four Properties It is a piece of Knowledge First competently Obscure Recondite and Abstruse That is It is not so utterly hid and intricate but that in the Second place It is in a due measure Intelligible Thirdly It is not only Intelligible what is meant by it but it is evidently and certainly True Fourthly and lastly It is no impertinent or idle Speculation but a Truth very Usefull and Profitable We may well add also for some Religious End 2. This Obscuritie and Abstruseness makes not only the Mystery more solemn and venerable to those to whom it is communicated but hides it also from their eyes that are not worthy to partake thereof From whence some Criticks have derived Mysterium from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hide Which is well aimed at as to the sense But others with more judgment in Grammar acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a proper Greek word and fetch the Derivation of it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they to whom it is communicated are to keep silence and not to impart it to unmeet persons And in this sense Chrysostome expounds Mysterium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A matter wonderfull unknown and not to be easily or rashly communicated to others 3. Nor indeed could it be at all if it were utterly Unintelligible Wherefore Intelligibleness adds this further requisite also to a Mystery that it thereby becomes Communicable to such as are fitly prepared to be instructed therein For which reason the Etymologists give also this Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to teach and instruct a man in Divine matters so far forth as the party is fit to receive Hence is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mysta a Scholar or Commencer in Divine Mysteries one that is more slightly imbued in the knowledge of such Holy things 4. But there is afterward a clearer manifestation and a fuller satisfaction and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being now more firmly ascertained of the Truth which he did but obscurely apprehend before From which Clearness and Certainty of the thing represented there necessarily arises a full and free assent of his Understanding without any further doubt or hesitancy the Proverb being made good in this case That Seeing is Believing 5. But that there may not be a mere dry Belief without any love or liking of the Object thereof we added also that this Mystery is not only certainly True but very concerningly Usefull and Profitable which though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self does not implie yet another in the same language and of the like sense does which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Initiations into sacred Mysteries The Usefulness whereof a Platonist admirably well describes not without a verbal allusion in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which if we would render it in our more familiar language sounds thus The scope or aim of all Religious Mysteries is the bringing back faln man into his pristine condition of Happiness and to lead him again to that high station which he then first forsook when he preferr'd his own Will and the pleasure of the Animal life before the Will of God and that Life and Sense which is truly Divine 6. Wherefore not to dwell too long on the threshold we conclude briefly and in general that a Mystery is a piece of Divine knowledge measurably Abstruse whereby it becomes more Venerable but yet Intelligible that it may be Communicable and
True and Certain that it may win firm Assent and lastly very Usefull and Effectual for the perfecting of the Souls of men and restoring them to that Happiness which they anciently had faln from that so near a Concernment may as well gain upon their Affections as the Evidence of Truth engage their Understandings and so the whole man may be carried on to a devout embracement of what is exhibited unto him by the knowledge of his Religion 7. What we have thus Generally proposed we shall now applie more Particularly and more fully prosecute those Four primary Properties in that Grand Mystery of Godliness which we call Christianity distributing our Discourse into these Four main Parts The First whereof shall insist somewhat upon the Abstruseness and Obscurity of our Religion the Second upon the Intelligibleness of it the Third upon the Certainty of it and the Fourth on the great concerning Usefulness thereof To which we shall add what Considerations we think fittest concerning the Secondary Properties which emerge out of these Primary ones CHAP. II. 1. That it is fit that the Mystery of Christianity should be in some measure Obscure to exclude the Sensuall and Worldly 2. As also to defeat disobedient Learning and Industry 3. And for the pleasure and improvement of the godly and obedient 4. The high Gratifications of the Speculative Soul from the Obscurity of the Scriptures 1. THat there is a considerable Obscurity and Abstrusenesse in Christian Religion is easily made evident as well from the Cause as the Effects of this Obscurity For besides that from the common nature of a Mystery Christianity ought to be competently Obscure and Abstruse that it may thereby become more Venerable and more safely removed out of all danger of contempt we cannot but see what a speciall Congruity there is in the matter it self to have so holy and so highly-concerning a Mystery as our Religion is Abstruse and Obscure For that Divine wisdome that orders all things justly ought not to communicate those precious Truths in so plain a manner that the Unworthy may as easily apprehend them as the Worthy but does most righteously neglect the Sensuall and Careless permitting every man to carry home wares proportionable to the price he would pay in the open market for them And when they can bestow so great industry upon things of little moment will not spare to punish their undervaluing this inestimable Pearle by the perpetual losse of it For what a palpable piece of Hypocrisie is it for a man to excuse himself from the study of Piety by complaining against the Intricacies and Difficulties of the Mystery thereof whenas he never yet laid out upon it the tenth part of that pains and affection that he does upon the ordinary trivial things of this world 2. Thus are the careless voluptuous Epicure and over-careful Worldling justly met with But not they alone For the Obscurity of this Mystery we speak of is such that all the knowledge of Nature and Geometry can never reach the Depth of it or rellish the Excellency of it nor all the skill of Tongues rightly interpret it unless that true Interpreter and great Mystagogus the Spirit of God himself vouchsafe the opening of it unto us and set it on so home in our Understandings that it begets Faith in our Hearts so that our Hearts misgive us not in the profession of what we would acknowledge as True For as for the outward Letter it self of the Holy Scriptures God has not so plainly delivered himself therein that he has given the staff out of his own hands but does still direct the humble and single-hearted while he suffers the proud searcher to lose himself in this Obscure field of Truth Wherefore disobedient both Learning and Industry are turned off from obtaining any certain and satisfactory Knowledge of this Divine Mystery as well as Worldliness and Voluptuousness According as our Blessed Saviour has pronounced in that devout Doxology I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 3. Nor are the Wicked onely disappointed but the Godly very much gratified by the Intricacy of this sacred Mystery For the Spirit of man being so naturally given to search after Knowledge and his Understanding being one of the chiefest and choicest Faculties in him it cannot be but a very high delight to him to employ his noblest endowments upon the divinest Objects and very congruous and decorous they should be so employ'd Besides the present Doubtfulness of Truth makes the holy Soul more devout and dependant on God the onely true and safe guide thereunto From whence we should be so far from murmuring against Divine Providence for the Obscurity and Ambiguity of the Holy Scriptures that we should rather magnifie his Wisdome therein We having discovered so many and so weighty Reasons why those Divine Oracles should be Obscure The wicked thereby being excluded the due Reverence of the Mystery maintained and the worthy partakers thereof much advantaged and highly gratified 4. For what can indeed more highly gratifie a man whose very Nature is Reason and special Prerogative Speech then by his skill in Arts and Languages by the Sagacity of his Understanding and industrious comparing of one place of those Sacred pages with another to work out or at least to clear up some Divine Truth out of the Scripture to the unexpected satisfaction of himself and general service of the Church the dearest Faculty of his Soul and greatest glory of his Nature acting then with the fullest commission and to so good an end that it need know no bounds but Joy and Triumph may be unlimited the Heart exulting in that in which we cannot exceed viz. the Honor of God and the Good of his people All which gratulations of the Soul in her successful pursuits of Divine Truth would be utterly lost or prevented if the Holy Scriptures set down all things so fully plainly and methodically that our reading and understanding would every where keep equal pace together Wherefore that the Mind of man may be worthily employ'd and taken up with a kind of Spiritual husbandry God has not made the Scriptures like an artificial Garden wherein the Walks are plain and regular the Plants sorted and set in order the Fruits ripe and the Flowers blown and all things fully exposed to our view but rather like an uncultivated field where indeed we have the ground and hidden seeds of all precious things but nothing can be brought to any great beauty order fulness or maturity without our own industry nor indeed with it unless the dew of His grace descend upon it without whose blessing this Spiritual Culture will thrive as little as the labour of the husbandman without showres of rain CHAP. III. 1. The Obscurity of the Christian Mystery argued from the Effect as from the Iews
overcharged with Pride and Melancholy and deeply baptized into the doctrine of this Sect shall by his fanatick heat parts and language emerge to that height of honour as to be approved the Eldest of that Family the same is presently become in his own conceit and in theirs also God himself returned to Judgement and all his host Saints and Seraphims if ever opportunity arme them to execute their design And then will they think that that is to be fulfilled which is figured out in that Vision of a man clothed with an Habergion and Harness and girded with an iron chain whose hands and leggs to the very girdle were wet with bloud with a sword in his left hand also red and bloudy and another in his right which was altogether a glowing fire glisning crackling very terribly with many fire-flames Which direful Spectre gives out his voice in the following Sections Vengeance Vengeance Vengeance Now swiftly now swiftly yea now very swiftly Wo Wo Wo unto all the enemies of the Lord and his holy ones and to all the enemies of the Family of Love So great Darlings do they give out themselves to be of God and his Providence and so miserable an end do they prefigure to themselves shall befall those that are not of their blessed Family God of his mercy open the eyes of all men that they may see the fearful purposes of this Diabolical Impostor and quit themselves of these subtil delusions of Satan 3. For if I have any sense or foresight at all in me it is a plot to overrun and subjugate if it be possible all Christendome and perfectly to extirpate the worship of Christ and to extinguish the belief of all his Promises under pretence of a greater Holiness and Perfection then there is in Christian Religion though this Familisme be such as I have abundantly set out to you See his Prophesie of the Spirit of Love Chap. 11. also Chap. 14. Sect. 8 9. and Chap. 16. Sect. 3 4 7 8. and Chap. 19. Sect. 4.5.7 c. In which places he promises to his followers that they shall have the day at last that is That Familisme shall thrust Christianity out of the World 4. Which because they have so great minde should be fulfilled let us suppose a while that they have got the mastery over Christendome and compute with our selves the consequences thereof Without all question although every page of this Divine Authour as they would have him be so thick painted with the sweet repetitions of Love and Lovely the issue of such a victory would be the most beastly Tyranny that ever appeared yet upon the stage of the earth worse by farre then Mahometisme it self For first all hope of a Future life being taken away every man according to his power will be more free and eager to satisfie his lust in the superfluous pleasures of this From whence those that are weak will be oppressed without pitty to satiate the desires of the proud and injurious Oppressour And then again for peace in matters of Religion upon which score especially this flattering Deceiver would recommend himself to the World the interpretations of Scripture whereby he would establish his authority with men are so wilde and fanatick and so dissonant to all sense and reason that he has sown therein the seeds of perpetual Contention unless it be prevented by a Remedy worse then the Disease that is a perfect slavery of the Conscience and an implicit faith That their Prophet is infallible without any examination and doubt Which is the most base and villainous Degeneracy that the Spirit of man can be forced into and is ever there attempted most where the Religion of a Nation is the most rotten and false But that this latter would be the way seems too-too probable both from the necessity of the case and from such intimations out of his Writings as I have already produced To which you may adde that in his Revelatio Dei Where he plainly forbids to try the Spirits by Reason or Knowledge or Scripture-learning but by the true Being of the living Godhead Which are high words but signifie nothing but that we never attain to the living Godhead till we think as he thinks and therefore intercepting all information of Reason expects an immediate assent that is such an assent as we know not why we do assent then which nothing can be more mad and furious or at least relish more of Knavery and Deceit and of a ready Reproach to all Dissenters as if they were utter strangers to the living Godhead But that Religion certainly is false at the bottome that will not suffer it self to be enquired into by Reason as he saith very excellently of Mahometisme Meritò suspecta merx est quae hâc lege obtruditur ne inspici possit 5. You see what a wild and exorbitant thing this blind Enthusiasm is the very Vehicle of Hell that carries to Antheisme and Prophaneness and the Triumphal Chariot of the Devil in which questionless this begodded Mock-Prophet was hurried away though haply he might not know it but gloried in his shame and prided himself in his own Captivity The condition of whose Spirit what it is and whitherto it tends if I know mine own heart I have thus carefully discovered out of no other Principle at all but that Love and Loialty I owe to my crucified Saviour and Sovereign and out of that dear Compassion I bear to my fellow-members of his Body the Church For verily I cannot but melt into sorrow and pitty to consider how deceivable many well-meaning Souls are and how captivable by the witchery of a Fanatick Eloquence into a strange belief that there is a more then ordinary share of Divinity residing upon this Person whom I am so well assured is but Epicurus turned Enthusiast and one sunk as low beneath the light of the Gospel as any wretched Pagan that never heard thereof And therefore I hope all his Admirers that are not so far baptised into his way as to have celebrated his Pascha and slain Christ according to the flesh that is according to the Letter and History and so become perfect Infidels will take it well at my hands that I have so faithfully discovered the deceit that they may no longer give countenance to so horrid an Imposture And for as many as have thus slain the Lord of Life which yet I hope are not very many how they should take ill this my freeness of speech I can in no wise imagine For I dare say for them in that they have thus slain him as S. Peter said in another case they have done it out of ignorance through the prestigious enchantments of this grand Deceiver and therefore they can no sooner acknowledge their errour but find their pardon through him who was truely slain and sacrificed for the sins of the World and rose again for an assurance to us of a blessed Immortality after the death of the Body
abuse thus treacherously the great gift of God therefore the divine Wisdome may not lodge in his false heart but in stead of that any fortuitous Opinions which his own natural inclinations practices education or confusion of his own mind and conscience shall heap together in him hand over head which he taking for Truth shall notwithstanding abuse and shew the divine Wisdome how he would also use her if he could come at her 't is likely worse or rather he would abuse himself worse with her then with those that meat being worst for the sick which is best for them that are well But beside that the counsell of God is such that he will not give the gift of Wisdome to the wicked heart there is also an incongruity if not an incompossibility in the thing it self The wicked man is uncapable of it The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sun cannot be seen by the Eye unless the Eye receive the likeness of the Sun as Plotinus speaks Wherefore we doe very foolishly in that we bestow so much time in the exercise of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so little in the preparing and fitting of it that afterward the use of it may be with good effect If the Eyes be weak muddy and dim even almost to blindness we are not so foolish as to think to perfect our sight by looking long or often or on many Objects it makes our sight rather worse but the disease of the Eye is first to be taken away and then with ease and in a moment we may see more then before we could in many years by wearisome poaring with our short sight or rather which is more to the purpose we should be able to discern such things as in our former condition we should never have been able at all to discern So the Soul of man in its unrighteous and polluted condition does very unadvisedly with so much curiosity and anxious labour to endeavour the discoveries of divine Truths for there is as yet Laesum organum and she ought to commit her self first to the skill of a faithfull Physitian to Christ who is the healer of the Souls of men as well as he was of their Bodies and so to be re-estated again into that state of health and soundness and Righteousness is this soundness of the Soul and then to use her Faculty when it is able to receive that whereby the Object is discovered In lumine tuo videbimus lucem In thy light we shall see light But if the Eye receive no light it discovers no Object So if the Soul receive no impresse from God it discovers nothing of God For it is most certainly true That like is known by like and therefore unless the Image of God be in us which is Righteousness and true Holiness we know nothing of the Nature of God and so consequently can conclude nothing concerning him to any purpose For we have no measure to applie to him because we are not possessed of any thing homogeneal or of a like nature with him and this only can be a measure for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks But when we are arrived to that Righteousness or rectitude of Spirit or uprightness of Mind by this as by the Geometrical Quadrate we also comprehend with all Saints what is that spiritual breadth and length and depth and height as the Apostle speaks What the Rectitude of an Angle does in Mathematical measurings the same will this Uprightness of Spirit doe in Theological Conclusions 3. And not to make this loss of Wisdome a jot less then it is I further add That Unrighteousness is encumbred with many distempers and impediments whereby even Natural knowledge as well as Divine Wisdome is much hindred in a man Such are Anger Impatience Self-admiration or Self-conceitedness Admiration of persons or a pusillanimous Over-estimation of them Desire of Victory more then of Truth Too close attention to the things of the world as Riches Power and Dignities Immersion of the Mind into the Body and the slaking of that noble and divine fire of the Soul by Intemperance and Luxury with such like All which certainly are very great enemies to all manner of Knowledge as well Natural as Divine And as for Anger which appears in disputes that it blinds the Judgement is an acknowledged truth as those Proverbial sayings witness Impedit ira animum c. and Ira furor brevis and Madness and Wisdome do not consist together This Passion placed upon Religious objects is called Zeal and the Apostle that there may be no mistake calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter Zeal But this inordinate Anger be it in things Humane or Religious it is really a Whirlwinde in our Soul and carries up with it dirt and straws and dust and all in to the Understanding and does alwaies more or less blind the Judgment And how great an enemy Impatience is to that choice piece of Natural knowledge which lies in Mathematicks is evident from hence That those Sciences either find or make the studiers of them of calm and quiet Spirits as Petiscus truly observes But whether the Admiration of our selves or of other Persons be more mischievous to the Truth is not easie to define For though we be more prone to admire our selves yet we may with less checking admire another it looking something like Friendship or Modesty though commonly if not alwaies we have some lurking interest involved in the same and so admire our selves in another with less Envy and Suspectedness Wherefore the next way not basely to admire another is not conceitedly to admire ones self or more favourably to look on a mans own conceits then on a strangers For it will be very hard for one whom Self-love does not impose upon to be imposed upon by any other person whom he cannot love better then himself And as for Desire of Victory the sense of that folly is That a man had rather seem wise then be so or have the glory and fame then the possession of Wisdome And he that is thus affected must of necessity follow such things as are most obvious plausible and popular and so become a fool amongst wise men as well as seem a wise man amongst fools And as for close Attention to the world that man ought to hold there be more Souls then One in a mans body that will hold that ambitious and covetous men have any leisure to be much seen either in Divine or Natural things For their plottings after Wealth and Honour and the putting of their plots in execution will take up the Animadversion of the Soul so much that one Animadversive will not suffice for both these Provinces So that it is possible that men that have not addicted themselves to any such projects but have been ever imploied in
be not to act according to it and to act contrary thereto intolerable For it were the wounding and tormenting a principle of life in us or the Spirit of Christ in us whereby we are not only aided and assisted to every good work but take a natural delight therein whereas under the Mosaical law we have no conformity of Spirit to either the purer Moral precepts or any complacency in the luggage of a company of insipid and burdensome Ceremonies and yet the Mosaical Dispensation though it give no strength to perform what it requires yet like Pharaoh's hard task-masters requires the same tale of brick though they withhold the straw 6. And this gives us some light into the nature of the Two Covenants in reference to the Prophecie of Ieremie But it being an argument of very great consideration I will not content my self with so scant an account thereof but make a more copious deduction of the whole matter out of Paul Gal. 4. that we may the more fully understand so important a Mystery and when I have from thence discovered the excellency of the state of the Second Covenant I shall adde such things as tend to the more useful knowledge of the entrance into it and advance in it CHAP. VII 1. The different states of the Two Covenants set out Galat. 4. by a double similitude 2. The nature of the Old Covenant adumbrated in Agar 3. As also further in her Son Ismael 4. The nature of the New Covenant adumbrated in Sarah 5. As also in Isaac her Son and in Israel his offspring 6. The necessity of imitating Abraham's faith that the Spiritual Isaac or Christ may be born in us 7. The grand difference betwixt the First and Second Covenant wherein it doth consist With a direction by the by to the most eminent Object of our Faith 8. The Second main point wherein this difference consists namely Liberty and that First from Ceremonies and Opinions 9. Secondly from all kind of Sins and disallowable Passions 10. Lastly to all manner of Righteousness and Holiness 1. TEll me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law For it is written that Abraham had two Sons the one by a bond-maid and the other by a free-woman But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free-woman was by promise Which things are an Allegorie for these are the Two Covenants the one from the Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is Agar For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all Here the story of Agar and Sarah Ismael and Isaac is made to set out and that very appositely and lively the two different conditions of those that are under the Law and those that are under the Gospel that thereby the advantage and excellency of one above the other being laid open before the eyes of the Galatians they might not hereafter be any more in a tottering and fluctuating condition or sophisticate and adulterate the precious purity of the Gospel with Iudaical superfluities and useless if not now hurtfull Ceremonies but stick fast to Christ alone not going back from him to Moses nor yet mingling Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies with the plainness and sincerity of Christ. In the words we have recited there is a double Similitude We will in each first lay out the particulars of the Protases and then pass on to the Apodoses The particulars of the First are Agar Abraham's bond-woman Ismael the Son of the bond-woman and the manner of the birth of this Son of the bond-woman he was born after the flesh that is according to the ordinary course of Nature Now in the Apodosis Ierusalem that now is that is the Church of the Jews answers to Agar Abraham's bond-woman and those of that Church to Ismael the Son of the bond-woman and to the being born after the flesh the being born out of the outward letter of the Law The particulars in the Second Protasis are Sarah the free-woman and Isaac the Son of Abraham which he had of this free-woman and lastly the manner of his birth it was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not after the ordinary course of Nature but the extraordinary power of God signified in his promise And now in the Apodosis Ierusalem that is from above that is the Church of true Christians answers to Sarah the Free-woman and those of that Church to Isaac the Son of the Free-woman and their being born of the Spirit not of the letter to the being born by promise not according to the flesh And now if we compare the particulars of these two Protases one with another in their due order we shall find a main difference or rather contrariety For Agar and Sarah differ as Bondage and Freedome and Ismael and Isaac as bond and free and the condition of their births as Nature and God And consequently there must arise a real difference or contrariety in the particulars of the Apodoses viz. betwixt the Old terrestrial Ierusalem and the New one from above betwixt the Jew Pharisee or outward Legalist and the true and real Christian and lastly betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit And so to speak compendiously this Text of the Apostle is nothing else but a description of the different conditions of the Two Covenants set out in an historical Allegorie taken from Agar and Sarah and their two Sons c. I shall therefore now fall upon them in that order as I have laid them out 2. And First therefore of Agar the bond-woman which signifies the Covenant of the Law given upon Mount Sinai For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia Which is spoken Synecdochically from a Town there called Agra by Plinie and by Dion Agara and the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek Geographers as Grotius has pertinently observed This allusion therefore to Agar on Mount Sinai where the Law was given does commend to us more handsomely and facilitate the Allegory taken from the story of Agar and Sarah But if there were not this Geographical advantage the Application will be found very sutable and apposite even without it And much of the nature of the Old and New Covenant is hinted at even in the names themselves as in this of Agar which they ordinarily interpret Peregrina What the relation of habitude is betwixt the Soul of man and the things of the Old Covenant is very fitly set down in the meaning of this Name Agar For verily as for those things that were Positive and Ceremonial in the Law of Moses they are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things strange and of no affinity with the Soul and as for those things that are most precious and most indispensably good in the Law of Moses the Soul in
of Conscience the advantage of an honourable and comfortable subsistence for those that labour in the word and doctrine that is to say he is obliged in all reason and conscience to continue it where it is and to raise it whereever it is wanting And I am very confident it is either gross Fanatical ignorance or the hidden malice of Satan against the kingdome of Christ acting either in profane and Atheistical persons or such as are not cordially Christians that suggests any thing to the contrary For the less any Religion is underpropped by External force the more able ought their Heads and Tongues to be that are only by their learning eloquence and innocency of life to support it And the present Ages having so much wit and so little sense of Piety he that will undertake to give a good account of his Religion and to answer all Opposers though the Scruples and Controversies be but concerning that which is plainly in the Scripture he ought to have leisure and vacancy from the affairs of the World to prepare himself and continue his dexterity in this kinde For that tedious buzz and noise of the Spirit has now I think made it self so ridiculous that no prudent man will listen to such lazy Impostures Every one is to give a reason of his faith but Priests or Ministers more punctually then any their Province being to make good every sentence of the Bible to a rational Enquirer into the Truth of those Oracles Who therefore can sufficiently attend these things and be to seek for bread for himself and his Family How unjust and sordid a temper therefore are those persons of that could be content to leave the Clergy to work for their living Any inferiour fellow may talk and prate phrases and make faces but when a sober man would be satisfied of the grounds from whence they speak we shall hear no news of any thing but the Spirit and railing against carnal Reason though it be no soft flesh but hard and penetrant steel and such as pierces them to the very heart for all their contempt and slighting of it 5. And verily while I consider the unreasonableness and ill consequence of this kinde of Enthusiasme I cannot but think the Vigilancy of the Christian Magistrate should extend to this also amongst other things to suppress and keep under all Sects and Religions that hold of so Fanatick a tenour that is to say that profess they believe against the Christian Faith from the illumination of such a Spirit as they can give no account of viz. such as does not illuminate their Reason whereby their doctrine may be accountable and intelligible to others but only heat them and make them furious against the Christian Church For besides the hazarding of making a whole Nation mad for seriously it is an infectious disease if not the very possession of the Devil there may some damnable plot lie under it against Christianity and the State For it is a more easie thing to heat the Phansies of the vulgar then to inform their Iudgements though this tends to sober edification that to confusion and destruction In brief there are these two very bad things in this resolving of matters into the immediate suggestion of the Spirit not acting upon our Understandings First it defaces and makes useless that part of the Image of God in us which we call Reason and secondly it takes away that special advantage that Christianity has above all other Religions that she dare appeal to so solid a Faculty And therefore he that takes away the use of Reason in Religion undermines Christianity and laies it as low as the basest Superstition that ever appeared in the World 6. Now therefore to return I say To talk at the rate of these blinde Illuminati that do not so much as pretend to any solid satisfaction in what they say requires no study nothing but heat and impudency and a careless insensibility of what they said last or whether one thing will hold with another But he that so speaks as ready to give a reason of what he delivers and indeed of all things that are already delivered in the Scriptures so plainly as that it appears what the meaning is for it is no prejudice that there be some depths beyond the present reach of men this man certainly ought not to be tied up to the cares of the world by being put to labour for his bread but ought to have a liberal certain and honourable allowance But to contemn the Christian Clergy or to endeavour to make them contemptible by impoverishing them and forcing them to base terms of living smels exceeding rank of Prophanenesse Atheisme and Infidelity and the railing at them and calling them Mercenary because they have a just maintenance allowed them is assuredly the voice of that envious Accuser of the brethren who by those villainous reproaches and calumnies would undermine and pull down the Kingdom of Christ in the world by striking at the necessary props and supporters of it the Ministry of the Gospel whose subsistence ought to be independent of the People that may reprove the more freely and that there may be no temptation to either unworthy connivances or to the sophisticating the doctrine of Christ by sweet poison to inveigle the rich and to untie their purse-strings what they thus pay being the price of their own Souls betraied into the hands of such canting Mountebanks 7. Fifthly The Christian Magistrate ought also to continue and erect where there wants publick Schools of Learning For the more knowing his Subjects are the more certainly will they keep to Christianity and the more easily will others come off to the same Faith Nothing comparable to this for the preventing all delusions and impostures in Religion Mahometisme could never have been set on foot but in a rude and illiterate Nation But Christianity got its first foot-hold in the most civilized parts of the world though persecuted and opposed Besides that it is a piece of unspeakable madness to think that any man can be a fit Interpreter of Scripture without that which some in contempt call Humane Learning as Logick or the known Principles of Reasoning I will adde Mathematicks and Philosophy and skill in Tongues and History no man without the knowledge of these can make good the Truth of those holy Oracles to knowing and understanding men And therefore they that decry these helps are either very ignorant or out of their wits or have a treacherous plot against the flourishing of Christianity and would bring in some Fanatick Religion or else are enemies to all Religion whatsoever 8. For tell me O ye high-flown Perfectionists and ye great boasters of the Light within you could the highest Perfection of your inward Light ever shew to you the Histories of past Ages the universal state of the World at present the knowledge of Arts and Tongues without some external helps of either Books or Teachers How then can you
Enthusiastick temper such as are most of the honester and better-meaning Quakers For if in their bewildred wandrings they take up their Inne here let them look to it that they be not robbed of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and be stripped into naked Infidelity and Paganisme and which is worst of all be so intoxicated with the cup of this Inchantress as to think this injury their gain and to prefer false Liberty before their Christian Simplicity and those gaudy and phantastick Titles of being Deified and begodded before the real possession of Christian Truth and Godliness 8. These things both here and elsewhere I have been forced to utter to the world for it was as fire within me and the discharging of my burden as it is mine own ease and satisfaction so I do not despair but if there be that sincere Zeal to Truth and Holiness that is pretended that it will redound to the safety of these melancholy Wanderers that look up and down for Truth with that candle of the Lord the Spirit that he has lighted in them But however where it shall not take effect I shall neverthelesse be excused and their bloud will be upon themselves and their accursed Seducers 9. I know the haughty and covetous that rellish nothing but the tearing to themselves undeserved respect from men and clawing of money to them any way with their crooked talons will hardly abstain even from open derision of my zeal and solicitude for so contemned a people and look upon me as a man of very mean designs that would any way intermeddle with these poor despised Pilgrims But these worldly Sophists consider not that the gaining of the meanest Soul to Eternal Salvation is really a greater prize then purchasing whole Kingdoms upon Earth and infinitely above all the pains of any mans applications thereto And besides for mine own part I have ever had so right a sense and touch upon my spirit of their condition that I think none more worthy of a mans best direction then they the most imperious Sects having put such unhandsome vizards upon Christianity that they have frighted away these babes that seem to me very desirous of the sincere milk of the Word Which having been every where so sophisticated by the humours and inventions of men it has driven these anxious Melancholists to seek for a Teacher within and to cast themselves upon him who they know will not deceive them the voice of the Eternall Word within them to which if they be faithfull they assure themselves he will be faithfull to them again Which is no groundless presumption of theirs it supposing nothing but what is very closely consistent with the Nature of God and his Providence And truly as many of them as do persist in that serious and impartial desire of such knowledge as tends to Life and Godliness I do not question but that God will in his due time lead them into the Truth and that they will be more confirmed Christians then ever 10. Which success of theirs will be more speedy and sure if as they set themselves against other vices so they mainly bend their force against Spiritual Pride and affectation of peculiarity in Religion and of finding themselves wiser in the mysteries thereof then the best of Christians have pretended to And above all things if they beware of Enthusiasme either in themselves or others or of thinking that the gift of the Spirit can be any Revelation that is contrary to Reason or the acknowledged History of Christ the truth thereof being so rationally evincible to all such as apply themselves without prejudice to examine it to the bottom If in pursuance of their sincere intentions they keep off from these rocks I doubt not but they will return safe again to Iesus Christ the great Pastor and Bishop of their Souls CHAP. XIV 1. That Publick Worship is essential to Religion and inseparable when free from Persecution The right measure of the Circumstances thereof 2. Of the Fabrick and Beauty of Churches according to that measure 3. The main things he intends to touch upon concerning Publick Worship 4. That the Churches of Christians are not Temples the excellency of our Religion being incompliable with that Notion 5. The vanity of the Sectarians exception against the word Church applied to the appointed places of Publick Worship 6. That though the Church be no Temple yet it is in some sense holy and what respect there is to be had of it and what reverence to be used there 7. Of Catechizing Expounding and Preaching 8. Of Prayer and what is the true praying by the Spirit 9. The Excellency of publick Liturgies 10. What is the right End of the Ministry 11. Certain special uses of Sermons and of the excellency of our Saviour Christs Sermon on the Mount 12. The best way for one to magnifie his Ministry 13. Of the Holy Communion who are to be excluded and of the posture of receiving it 14. Of the time of Baptism and the Signe of the Crosse. 15. Of Songs and Hymns to be composed by the Church and of Holy-daies 16. Of the celebrating the Passion-day and the Holy Communion 17. Of Images and Pictures in places of Publick Worship 18. A summary advertisement concerning Ceremonies and Opinions 1. AFter this charitable Digression to meet with the Quakers let us resume our business in hand and make an end The sixth and last thing that concerns the Care of the Christian Magistrate is Publick Worship Which seems to me so natural and essential to Religion that it cannot fail to appear unless some force hinder it in which case they will venture to meet in private Conventicles that is they will exercise their Acts of Religion as publickly as they dare and will not be content to be confined to their Closets at home Ioint-exercise therefore of Religion is confessed of all sides which therefore must necessarily be external and visible Now no visible actions can be done without visible Circumstances and amongst these Circumstances some are more fit and decorous some less as is manifest at the first sight Nor will it be hard to judge of the fitness or decorum of these Circumstances if we can finde out a measure of them which certainly is the End and meaning of them Which is the expression of our Honour and Reverence to God and to his Son Iesus Christ and the Edification of our Neighbour 2. By which Rule we shall discover concerning the Meeting-House as some had rather call it then the Church that it ought to be of a comely structure proportionably magnificent to the number of the People that are to have recourse to it in the common exercise of their Devotions For though men of equal condition may make bold with themselves and meet in what place they please yet it would be thought a piece of grosse unmannerliness to expect a Prince to give an inferiour Peasant the meeting in a Barn or Cow-stable Would it