stand ingaged in a summe of mony by me ever impossible to be rais'd if it please him to perswade his owne heire to joyne in my obligation and out of that great estate by himselfe conferred on him for that very purpose to lay downe so much as shall cancell the bond and acquit mee doth not only freely forgive my debt but doth moreover commend the abundance of his favour by the manner and circumstances of the forgivenesse Man by nature is a debtor unto God there is a hand-writing against him which was so long to stand in vertue till he was able to offer something in value proportionable to that infinite justice unto which he stood obliged which being by him without the sustaining of an infinite misery utterly unsatisfiable it pleased God to appoint his own co-essentiall and co-eternall Sonne to enter under the same bond of Law for us on whom he bestowed such rich graces as were requisite for the oeconomy of so great a work by the meanes of which humane and created graces concurring with and receiving value from the divine nature meeting hypostatically in one infinite person the debt of mankind was discharg'd and the obligation cancel'd and so as many as were ordained to life effectually deliver'd by this great ransome vertually sufficient and by Gods power applicable unto all but actually beneficiall and by his most wise and just will conferd only upon those who should by the grace of a lively faith apply unto themselves this common Gift So then all our salvation is a gift Christ a gift the knowledge of Christ a gift the faith in Christ a gift repentance by Christ a gift the suffring for Christ a gift the reward of all a gift whatsoever wee have whatsoever we are it is all from God that sheweth mercy Lastly in that Christ gives his Sacrament to be eaten we learne first not only our benefit but our duty the same Christ it is who in eating wee both enjoy and obey hee being as well the Institutor as the substance of the Sacrament If it were but his precept wee owe him our observance but besides it is his body and even selfe-love might move us to obey his precept our mouths have been wide open unto poyson let them not bee shut up against so soveraigne an Antidote Secondly we see how we should use this pretious gift of Christ crucified not to look on but to eat not with a gazing speculative knowledge of him as it were at a distance but with an experimentall and working knowledge none truly knowes Christ but he that feels him Come taste and see saith the Prophet how gracious the Lord is in divine things tasting goes before seeing the union before the vision Christ must first dwell in us before wee can know the love of God that passeth knowledge Thirdly we learne not to sinne against Christ because therein we doe sinne against our selves by offring indignity to the body of Christ which should nourish us and like Swine by trampling under foot that pretious food which preserveth unto life those that with reverence eat it but fatteth unto slaughter those who profanely devoure it Even as the same raine in different grounds serves sometimes to bring on the seed other times to choak and stifle it by the forwardnesse of weeds for as it is the goodnesse of God to bring good out of the worst of things even sinne so is it the malignity of sin and cunning of Satan to pervert the most holy things the word of God yea the very blood of Christ unto evill Lastly we learne how pure we ought to preserve those doores of the soule from filthinesse and intemperance at which so often the Prince of glory himselfe will enter in CHAP. XIII Of the two first ends or effects of the Sacrament namely the exhibition of Christ to the Church and the union of the Church to Christ. Of the reall Presence HAving thus farre spoken of the nature and quality of this holy Sacrament it followes in Order to treate of the Ends or Effects thereof on which depends its necessity and our comfort our Sacraments are nothing else but Euangelicall Types or shadowes of some more perfect substance for as the Legall Sacrifices were the shadowes of Christ expected and wrapped up in a Cloude of Predicting and in the loines of his Predecessors so this new mysticall Sacrifice of the Gospell is a shadow of Christ risen indeed but yet hid from us under the Cloud of those Heavens which shall containe him untill the dissolution of all things for the whole heavens are but as one great cloud which intercept the lustre of that Sunne of Righteousnesse who enlighteneth every one that commeth into the world now shadowes are for the refreshing of us against the lustre of any light unto which the weaknesse of the sense is yet disproportioned as there are many things for their owne smalnesse imperceptible so some for their magnitude doe exceed the power of sense and have a transcendency in them which surpasseth the comprehension of that faculty unto which they properly belong No man can in one simple view looke upon the whole vaste frame of Heaven because he cannot at the same moment receive the species of so spreading and diffused an Object so is it in things Divine some of them are so above the reach of our imperfect faculties as that they swallow up the understanding and make not any immediate impression on the Soule betweene which and their excellency there is no great disproportion Now disproportion useth in all things to arise from a double Cause the one naturall being the limited Constitution of the faculty whereby even in its best sufficiency it is disabled for the perception of too excellent an Object as are the eyes of an Owle in respect of the Sunne The other Accidentall namely by some violation and distemper of the faculty even within the compasse of its owne strength as in sorenesse of eyes in regard of light or lamenesse in regard of motion Great certainly was the mystery of mans Redemption which poted and dazled the eyes of the Angels themselves so that betweene Christ and man there are both these former Disproportions observable For first of all man while he is on the earth a Traveller towards that Glory which yet he never saw and which the tongue of Saint Paul himselfe could not utter is altogether even in his highest pitch of Perfection unqualified to comprehend the excellent mystery of Christ either crucified or much more glorified and therefore our manner of assenting in this life though in regard of the authority on which it is grounded which is Gods owne Word it be most evident and infallible yet in its owne quality it is not so immediate and expresse as is that which is elsewhere reserved for us for hereafter we shall know even as we are knowne by a knowledge of
in the glasse of the Sacraments And surely these are in themselves cleer and bright glasses yet we see even in them but darkly in regard of that vapour and steeme which exhaleth from our corrupt nature when we use them and even on these doth our soule look through other darke glasses the windowes of sense But yet at the best they are but glasses whose properties are to present nothing but the pattern the shaddow the type of those things which are in their substance quite behind us and therefore out of sight so then in generall the nature of a Sacrament is to be the representative of a substance the signe of a covenant the seale of a purchase the figure of a body the witnesse of our faith the earnest of our hope the presence of things distant the sight of things absent the taste of things unconceivable and the knowledge of things that are past knowledge CHAP. III. Inferences of Practice from the former observavations HERE then we see first the different state and disposition of the Church here in a state of corruption and therefore in want of water in Baptisme to wash it in a state of infancy and therefore in want of milke in the word to nourish it in a state of weaknesse and therefore in want of bread the body of Christ to strengthen it in a state of sorrow and therefore in want of wine the blood of Christ to comfort it Thus the Church while it is a child it speaks as a child it understands as a child it feeds as a child here a little and there a little one day in the week one houre in the day it is kept fasting and hungry But when it is growne from strength to strength unto a perfect age and unto the fulnesse of the stature of Christ then it shall be satisfied with fatnesse and drink its full of those rivers of pleasures which make glad the City of God It shall keep an eternall Sabbath a continued festivall the Supper of the Lamb shall bee without end or satiety so long as the Bridegroom is with them which shall be for ever they cannot fast Secondly we see here nor see only but even taste and touch how gratious the Lord is in that he is pleased even to unroabe his graces of their naturall lustre to overshaddow his Promises and as it were to obscure his glory that they might be made proportion'd to our dull and earthy senses to lock up so rich mysteries as lie hidden in the Sacraments in a bason of water or a morsell of bread When hee was invisible by reason of that infinite distance between the divine nature and ours hee made himselfe to be seen in the flesh and now that his very flesh is to us againe invisible by reason of that vast distance between his place and ours he hath made even it in a mysticall sense to be seen and tasted in the Sacrament Oh then since God doth thus farre humble himselfe and his graces even unto our senses let not us by an odious ingratitude humble them yet lower even under our feet Let us not trample on the blood of the Covenant by taking it into a noisome sinke into a dirty and earthie heart He that eats Christs in the Sacrament with a foule mouth and receives him into an unclensed and sinfull soule doth all one as if he should sop the bread he eates in dirt or lay up his richest treasures in a sink Thirdly we learn how we should employ all our senses Not only as brute beasts do to fasten them on the earth but to lift them up unto a more heavenly use since God hath made even them the organs instruments of our spirituall nourishment Mix ever with the naturall a heavenly use of thy senses Whatsoever thou seest behold in it his wonder whatsoever thou hearest hear in it his wisedome whatsoever thou tastest taste in it the sweetnesse as well of his love as of the creature If Christ will not dwell in a foul house he will certainly not enter at a foul door Let not those teeth that eat the bread of Angelsgrinde the face of the poor Let not the mouth which doth drink the blood of Christ thirst after the blood of his neighbour Let not that hand which is reached out to receive Christ in the Sacrament be stretched out to injure him in his members Let not those eyes which look on Christ be gazing after vanity Certainly if he will not be one in the same body with a harlot neither will he be seen with the same eyes he is really in the heaven of the greater world and he will be no where else Sacramentally but in the heavenly parts of man the lesser Lastly we see here what manner of conversation we have The church on earth hath but the earnests of glory the earnest of the Spirit and the earnest of the Sacrament that witnessing this signifying both confirming and sealing our adoption But we know not what we shall be our life is yet hid and our inheritance is laid up for us A Prince that is haply bred up in a great distance from his future kingdome in another Realm and that amongst enemies where he suffers one while a danger another a disgrace loaded with dangers and discontents though by the assurance of blood by the warrant of his fathers own hand seal he may be confirmed in the evident right of his succession can hardly yet so much as imagine the honour he shall enjoy nor any more see the gold and lustre of his crown in the print of the wax that confirms it than a man that never saw the Sunne can conceive that brightnesse which dwelleth in it by its picture drawn in some dark colours We are a royall people heirs yea coheirs with Christ but we are in a farre countrey and absent from the Lord in houses ruinous and made of clay in a region of darknesse in a shadow of death in a valley of tears though compassed in with a wall of fire yet do the waves of ungodly men break in upon us though ship'd in a safe Ark the temple of God yet often tos'd almost unto shipwrack and ready with Ionah to be swallowed of a great Leviathan though protected with a guard of holy Angels which pitch their tents about us so that the enemy without cannot enter yet enticed often out and led privily but voluntarily a-away by the enchanting lusts the Dalilahs of our own bosome The kingdome and inheritance we expect is hid from us and we know no more of it but onely this that it passeth knowledge Truly the assurance of it is confirmd by an infallible pattent Gods own promise and that made firm by a seal coloured with that blood and stamped with the image of that body which was the price that bought it What remains then but that where the body is thither the Eagles flie where the treasure is
Vision fruition and possession heere darkly by stooping and captivating our understandings unto those divine Reports which are made in Scripture which is a knowledge of Faith distance and expectation wee doe I say heere bend our understandings to assent unto such truths as doe not transmit any immediate species or irradiation of their owne upon them but there our understandings shall be raised unto a greater capacity and bee made able without a secondary report and conveyance to apprehend clearely those glorious Truths the evidence whereof it did heere submit unto for the infallible credit of God who in his Word had revealed and by his Spirit obsignated the same unto them as the Samaritans knew Christ at first onely by the report of the Woman which was an assent of Faith but after when they saw his Wonders and heard his Words they knew him by himselfe which was an assent of vision Secondly as the Church is heere but a travelling Church therfore cannot possibly have any farther knowledge of that Countrey whither it goes but onely by the Mappes which describe it the Word of God and these few fruites which are sent unto them from it the fruits of the Spirit whereby they have some taste and relish of the World to come so moreover is it even in this estate by being enclosed in a body of sinne which hath a darkning property in it and addes unto the naturall limitednesse of the understanding an accidentall defect and sorenesse much disabled from this very imperfect assent unto Christ the Object of its Faith for as sinne when it wastes the Conscience and beares Rule in the Soule hath a power like Dalila and the Philistines to put out our eyes as Vlysses the eye of his Cyclops with his sweet wine a power to e corrupt Principles to pervert and make crooked the very Rule by which we worke conveying all morall truths to the Soule as some concave glasses use to represent the species of things to the eye not according to their naturall rectitude or beauty but with those wrestings inversions and deformities which by the indisposition thereof they are framed unto so even the least corruptions unto which the best are subject having a naturall antipathy to the evidence and power of divine Truth doe necessarily in some manner distemper our understandings and make such a degree of sorenesse in the faculty as that it cannot but so farre forth bee impatient and unable to beare that glorious lustre which shines immediately in the Lord Christ. So then we see what a great disproportion there is betweene us and Christ immediately presented and from thence wee may observe our necessity and Gods mercy in affoording us the refreshment of a Type and Shadow These Shadowes were to the Church of the Iewes many because their weaknesse in the knowledge of Christ was of necessity more than ours in as much as they were but an infant wee an adult and growne Church and they looked on Christ at a distance wee neare at hand hee being already incarnate unto us they are the Sacraments of his Body and Bloud in the which wee see and receive Christ as weake eies doe the light of the Sunne through some darke Cloud or thicke Grove so then one maine and principall end of this Sacrament is to bee an instrument fitted unto the measure of our present estate for the exhibition or conveyance of Christ with the benefits of his Passion unto the faithfull Soule an end not proper to this mystery alone but common to it with all those Legall Sacraments which were the more thicke shadowes of the Jewish Church for even they in the red Sea did passe through Christ who was their Way in the Manna and Rocke did eate and drinke Christ who was their Life in the Brasen Serpent did behold Christ who was their Saviour in their daily Sacrifices did prefigure Christ who was their Truth in their Passeover did eate Christ by whose Bloud they were sprinkled for howsoever betweene the Legall and Euangelicall Covenant there may be sundry Circumstantiall differences as first in the manner of their Evidence that being obscure this perspicuous to them a Promise onely to us a Gospell Secondly in their extent and compasse that being confined to Iudea this universall to all Creatures Thirdly in the meanes of Ministration that by Priests and Prophets this by the Sonne himselfe and those delegates who were by him enabled and authorised by a solemne Commission and by many excellent endowments for the same service Lastly in the quality of its durance that being mutable and abrogated this to continue untill the consummation of all things yet notwithstanding in substance they agree and though by sundry wayes doe all at last meet in one and the same Christ who like the heart in the middest of the body comming himselfe in person betweene the Legall and Evangelicall Church doth equally convey life and motion to them both even as that light which I see in a starre and that which I receive by the immediate beame of the Sunne doth originally issue from the same Fountaine though conveyed with a different lustre and by a severall meanes So then wee see the end of all Sacraments made after the second Covenant for Sacraments there were even in Paradise before the Fall namely to exhibite Christ with those benefits which hee bestoweth on his Church unto each beleeving Soule but after a more especiall manner is Christ exhibited in the Lords Supper because his pretence is there more notable for as by Faith wee have the evidence so by the Sacrament wee have the presence of things farthest distant and absent from us A man that looketh on the light through a shadow doth truely and really receive the selfe same light which would in the openest and clearest Sun-shine appeare unto him though after a different manner there shall wee see him as Iob speakes with these selfe same eyes here with a spirituall eye after a mysticall manner so then in this Sacrament wee doe most willingly acknowledge a Reall True and Perfect Presence of Christ not in with or under the Elements considered absolutely in themselves but with that relative habitude and respect which they have unto the immediate use whereunto they are consecrated nor yet so doe wee acknowledge any such carnall transelementation of the materials in this Sacrament as if the Body or Bloud of Christ were by the vertue of Consecration and by way of a locall substitution in the place of the Bread and Wine in but are truly and really by them though in nature different conveyed into the Soules of those who by Faith receive Him And therefore Christ first said Take Eate and then This is my Body to intimate unto us as learned Hooker observeth that the Sacrament however by Consecration it be changed from common unto holy Bread and separated from common unto a divine use is
solemnization is but a blinde observance And for this cause when God commands reverence to places and sanctification of daies hee annexeth the ground of both and leades us to a sight of those workes from which they receive both their dignity and institution so likewise in Sacraments to eate Bread and drinke Wine are naked common simple actions and in themselves alwaies alike but when Christ shall by that great worke of his Death set them apart unto a holy use and make them representations of his owne sacred Body as they are by this divine relation hallowed so to partake of them without commemotating that great worke which hath so sanctified them is not onely impious in that it perverteth the divine institution but absurd likewise it being all one as if a man should with much ceremony and solemnity receive parchment and waxe never so much as thinking on the land it conveyes or looke on a picture without any reflexion on the patterne and originall which it resembleth which is indeed to looke on the wood and not on the picture it being naturally impossible to separate things in notion whose being doe consist in relation to each other So then the Sacrament being a Typicall service is not nor can bee celebrated without a remembrance of the substance which it resembleth which thing according as is the pretiousnesse value and importance of it doth proportionably impose on us a greater necessity of this Duty which is then rightly perform'd when there is a deep impression of Christ crucifi'd made on the Soule by these Seales of his Death than which there is not any thing in the world more fit to fasten a stampe of it selfe in the minds of men Permanent and firme impressions doe use to bee made in the mindes of men by such causes as those First if the Object be wonderfull and beyond the common course of things it doth then strangely affect the thoughts whereas obvious and ordinary things passe through the soule as common people doe through the streets without any notice at all And this is the reason why naturally men remember those things best w ch either they did in their childehood because then every thing brings with it the shape of novelty and novelty is the mother of admiration or those things which doe very rarely fall out which howsoever they may be in their causes naturally yet with the greater part of men who use to make their observations rather on the events than on the originals of things they passe for wonders Now what greater wonder hath ever entred into the thoughts of men even of those who have spent their time and conceits in amplifying Nature with Creatures of their owne fancying than this that the God of all the World without derivation from whose life all the Creatures must moulder into their first nothing should himselfe dye and expire the frame of Nature still subsisting that he who filleth all things with his Presence should bee stretched out upon a piece of wood and confined within a narrow stone hee who upholdeth all things by his power should bee himselfe kept under by that which is nothing by death Certainely that at which the World stood amazed that which against the course of Nature brought darkenesse on the Fountaine of Light which could no longer shine when his Glory who derived lustre on it was it selfe ecclipsed that which made the earth to tremble under the burden of so bloudy a sinne that which the Angels stoope and looke into with humble astonishment and adoration that which consisteth of so great a combination and confluence of wonders must needs make a deepe impression on the Soule though hard as Marble at which the stones themselves of the Temple did rend asunder Secondly those things use to make impressions on the understanding which doe moove and excite any strong Passion of the minde there being ever a most neare activity and intimate reference betweene Passion and Reason by meanes of that naturall affinity and subordination which is betweene them Observe it in one passion of Love how it removes the mind from all other objects firmely fixing it on one thing which it most respecteth for as knowledge makes the object to bee loved so love makes us desire to know more of the object the reason whereof is that inseparable union which Nature hath fixed in all things betweene the trueth and the good of them either of which working on the proper faculty to which it belongeth provokes it to set the other faculty on worke either by distinction as from the understanding to the passion or by insinuation as from the passion to the understanding even as fire doth not heate without light nor enlighten without heate Where the treasure is the heart cannot bee absent where the body is the Eagles must resort If I know a thing bee good I must love it and where I love the goodnesse of it I cannot but desire to know it all divine objects being as essentially good as they are true and the knowledge and love of them being as naturally linked as the nerve is to the part which it moveth or as the beame is to the heate and influence by which it worketh now what object is there can more deserve our love than the Death of Christ Certainely if it bee naturall for men to love where they have beene loved before and if in that case it bee fit that the quantity of the former love should bee the rule and measure of the latter how can it bee that our love to him should not exceed all other love even as hee justly requireth since greater love than his hath not beene seene that a man should neglect the love of himselfe and lay downe his life for his enemies And if we love Christ that will naturally lead us to remember him too who as he is the Life and so the object of our love so is he the Truth likewise and so the object of our knowledge and therefore the same Apostle who did rejoyce in nothing but Christ crucified and joy is nothing else but love perfected for they differ onely as the same water in the pipe and in the fountaine did likewise notwithstanding his eminency in all Pharisaicall learning Desire to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified Such a dominion hath love on the minde to make permanent and firme impressions Lastly those things worke strongly upon the memory which doe mainly concerne and are beneficiall to man there is no man not dispossessed of reason who in sicknesse doth forget the Physician neither did ever man heare of any one straved because he did not remember to eate his meate Beasts indeed I have heard of but those very strange ones too which upon turning aside from their meate have forgotten the presence of it but never were any so forsaken by Nature as to forget the desire and inquiry after what they wanted and the
the thing remembred And first we must remember Christ with a memory of faith with an applying and assuming memory not onely in the generall that he died but in particular that the reason of his death was my salvation and deliverance from death Pilate and the unbeleeving Iewes shall one day see him whom they have peirced and remember his death Iudas shall see and remember him whom he kissed the Devill shall see and remember him whom he persecuted and in every one of these shall their remembrance produce an effect of horror and trembling because they remember him as their Iudge If our remembrance of the love and mercy of his death not onely testified but exhibited and obsignated unto us were no other than that which the wicked spirits have of his justice and severity it could not be but that wee should as readily beleeve as they do tremble at his death And indeed if wee obserue it the remembrance of Christs death and the faith in it are one and the same thing for what else is faith but a review and reflection of our thoughts upon Christ a multiplied and reiterated assent unto the benefits of him crucified and what is remembrance but the returning of the minde backe unto the same object about the which it had been formerly employed The remembrance of Christ is nothing else but the knowledge of Christ repeated and the knowledge of Christ is all one with the beliefe in him they which are not by faith united unto him are quite ignorant of him And therefore we finde that Saint Peâ—ers second deniall of Christ is by the Evangelists diversly related In some I am none of his in others I know not the man and certainely if the one had been true the other had been true too for all compleate knowledge must have a commensuration to the objects that are knowne and the ends for which they are proposed Now all divine objects besides their truth have together annexed a goodnesse which is applicable to those that know it so that to professe the knowledge of it and yet not know how to apply it to our owne use is indeed therefore to be ignorant of it because there is no other end why it should be knowne then that thereby it might be applyed And therefore in the Scripture phrase a wicked man and a foole are termes equivalent because the right knowledge of divine truths doth ever inferre the love and prosecution of them for every act in the will whether of imbracing or abominating any object is grounded on some precedent Iudgment of the understanding Nothing that by the ultimate dictate of each particular and practicall judgment is proposed as totally and supremely good can possibly bee by the Will refused because therein it must needs resist the impresse of Nature which leads every as well voluntary as necessary Agent unto an infallible pursuite of whatsoever is propos'd unto it as a thing able by the accession of its goodnesse to advance and perfect the nature of the other and therefore whosoever beleeve not in Christ Iesus and his death nor doe imbrace and cling unto it with all the desires of a most ardent affection cannot possibly bee said to know him because however they may have some few broken faint and floating notions of him yet hee is not by this knowledge propos'd unto the Will as its sole and greatest good for then he could not but be embraced but is in good earnest by the practick judgment undervalued and disesteemed in comparison of other things whose goodnesse and convenience unto sensuall and corrupt nature is represented more cleerely Many men may bee able to discourse of the death of Christ after a speculative and scholasticall manner so profoundly as that another who truely beleeves in him shall not be able to understand it and yet this poore soule that desires to know nothing but him that accounts all things else dung in comparison of him that endevours to be made conformable unto him in the communion and fellowship of his sufferings that can in Christs wounds see his safety in Christs stripes his Medicine in Christs anguish his peace in Christs Crosse his triumph doth so much more truely know him as a man that is able safely to guide a ship through all the coasts of the world doth better know the regions and situations of Countries than he who by a dexteritie that way is able to draw most exact and Geographicall descriptions Boyes may bee able to turne to or to repeate severall passages of a Poet or Oratour more readily than a grounded Artist who yet notwithstanding knowes the elegancy and worth of them farre better and a Stage-player can haply expresse with greater life of passion the griefes of a distressed man than hee can himselfe although altogether ignorant of the weight and oppression of them It is not therefore Logicall Historicall Speculative rememhrance of Christ but an experimentall and beleeving remembrance of him which wee are to use in the receiving of these sacred misteries which are not a bare Type and resemblance but a seale also confirming and exhibiting his death unto each beleeving soule Secondly we must remember the death of Christ with a remembrance of thankefulnes for that great love which by it wee enjoy from him certainely he hath no dram of good nature in him who for the greatest benefit that can befall him doth not returne a recompence of remembrance which costs him nothing Our salvation cost Christ a pretious price his owne bloud and shall not we so much as lay up the memory of it in our mindes that wee may have it forth-comming to answer all the objections that can be made against our title to salvation consider with thy selfe the fearefulnes and horror of thy naturall estate wherin thou wert expos'd to the infinite wrath of Almighty God whom thou therfore being both finite and impotent wert no way able to appease subiect to the strokes and terrors not onely of thine owne Conscience a bosome Hell but of that most exact justice which it is as impossible for thee to sustaine with patience as with obedience to satisfy The creatures thine enemies thine owne heart thy witnes thy Creator thy Judge eternity of expreslelesse anguish gnawing of conscience despaire of deliverance whatsoever misery the most searching understanding can but imagine thy sentence for according to his feare so is his wrath from this and much more hath the death of Christ not onely delivered thee but of a cast away an enemy a deplored wretch weltring in thine owne bloud rotting stinking in thine owne grave hath restored thee not only to thine originall interest and patrimony but unto an estate so much more glorious then that could have been by how much the obedience of Christ is more pretious then any thy innocency could possibly have performed Consider the odious filthines of sinne the pertinacious adherence thereof unto thy nature so that nothing
excellency and holines of it that the naturall man whose faculties are vitiated by originall and contracted corruption cannot by the strength of his owne naked principles be able to understand it For notwithstanding the gramaticall sense of the words and the logicall coherence and connexion of consequenses may be discerned by the common light of ordinary reason yet our Saviours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conviction and the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demonstration and manifestation of the spirit is a thing surpassing the discovery and comprehension of naturall men And therefore it is called a knowledge which passeth knowledge And this doth plainly appeare upon this ground One principall end we know of the Gospell is To cast downe every high thing that exalteth it selfe against the knowledge of GOD and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. So that untill such time as the light of Evangelicall truth have thus farre prevailed over the conscience certaine it is that the practicall Judgment is not yet fully convinced of it or acquainted with it It is an excellent speech of the Phylosopher that according as every man is himselfe in the Habit of his owne nature such likewise doth the end appeare unto him And therefore naturall men whose inclinations and habit of soule are altogether sensuall and worldly never have a supernaturall good appeare unto them under the formall conceite of an ultimate and most eligible end and therefore their knowledge thereof must needs be imperfect and defective Againe the Scripture every where besides the externall proposing of the object and the materiall and remote disposition of the subject which must be ever a reasonable creature doth require a speciall helpe of the grace of CHRIST to open and molifie and illighten the heart and to proportion the Palate of the practicall Judgment unto the sweetnes and goodnes of supernaturall truthes He it is who openeth the eye to see wonders in the Law giveth an heart to understand and to know GOD teacheth all those which come unto Christ without which teaching they doe not come giveth us an understanding to know him illightneth the understanding to know what is the hope of our calling enableth us to call Iesus Lord and draweth away the Vaile from before our eyes that we may see with open face the Glory of God Againe there is a vast distance and disproportion betweene a supernaturall light and a naturall faculty the one being spirituall the other sensuall and spirituall things must bee spiritually discerned Two great impediments there are whereby the minds of meere naturall men are bound up and disabled from receiving full impressions and passing a right sentence upon spirituall things First the native and originall blindnes of them which is not able to apprehend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heighth and majesty of the things which are taught Secondly That which the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wisdome of the flesh which is enmitie against God For as the appetite of the flesh lusteth against the Spirit so the wisdome of the flesh reasoneth and rebelleth against the Spirit For such ever as are the wayes and Wills of men whereby they worke such likewise would they have the light and the Law to bee which ruleth them in their working And therefore where there is a meeke Spirit and a heart devoted unto the obedience of Christ and a purpose to doe the things which the Gospell requireth there is never any swelling nor resistance against supernaturall truths for as the cleanenesse of the window doth much conduce to the admission of light so doth the cleanenesse of the Conscience to the admission of Truth If any man will doe his will hee shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God and hee will reveale his secrets to them that feare him And yet by all this which hath been spoken wee doe not goe about so to disable Naturall Reason as to leave it no roome at all in matters of supernaturall Assent For though Nature alone bee not able to comprehend Grace yet Grace is able to use Nature and being it selfe a spirituall Eye-salve when it hath healed and rectified Reason it then applyeth it as an Instrument more exactly to discover the connexion and mutuall consequences and joynings of spirituall Doctrines together Besides thus much vigour wee may safely attribute to Naturall Reason alone that by the force of such premises as it selfe can frame the falsenesse vanity and insufficiency unto humane happinesse of all other Religions or Doctrines which are not Christian may by a wise man bee evidently discovered neither have there beene wanting amongst Infidels and Idolaters men of more generous piercing and impartiall judgments who have made bold to confesse the vanity of that polutheisme and corrupt worship which was amongst them Naturall Reason then being notwithstanding any remainders of strength or vigour in it too impotent to discover the certainty of Gods Word and unable alone to present the Gospell as objectum credibile and as the infallible Oracle of God It remaineth that wee consider by what further meanes this may bee effected And in one word there is a three-fold different but subordinate causality requisite to the founding of this Assent The first is ministeriall dispositive and introductory by Ecclesiasticall dispensation which is likewise two-fold First to those that are bred in her bosome and matriculated by Baptisme and so from their infancie trained up to have a reverend and due esteeme of her authority there is her act of Tradition delivering to her children in this age as shee her selfe by a continued succession hath also received this as an indubitate principle to bee rested on that holy Scriptures are the Word of God Secondly If the Church meete with such as are without her bosome and so will not ascribe any thing to her maternall Authority in Testification and Tradition except shee can by strength of argument evince what shee affirmeth shee is not in that case destitute of her Arma praelusoria valid and sufficient arguments to make preparation in mindes not extreamely possessed with prejudice and perversenesse for the entertaining of this principle As first that all Sciences have their Hypotheses and Postulata Certaine principles which are to bee granted and not disputed and that even in lower Sciences and more commensurate to humane reason yet Oportet discentem credere hee must first Beleeve principles for granted and then after some progresse and better proficiency in the study he shall not faile more clearly to perceive the infallibility of them by their owne light That therefore which is granted unto all other Sciences more descending to the reach of humane judgment than Divinity doth cannot without unreasonable pertinacy be denied unto it Especially considering that of all so many millions of men who in all ages have thus been contented to beleeve first upon Ecclesiasticall