be recommended by it in what it reveals beyond it 1. The first thing I shall insist upon is this That even as Natural Religion conduces very much to the worlds Peace that it is Natural Substantial and not Ceremonial so doth it also recommend Christian Religion that it is so far from consisting in Ceremony that it hath no more in number than there were found in innocency There was the tree of the knowledg of good and evil the not eating of which was a symbol of universal obedience There was the tree of Life a Sacrament sealing the Reward of obedience Gen 2. 9. There was the seventh day Sabbath a day of solemn converse with God and meditation of his Works founded upon his rest from Creation and a pledg of everlasting Rest with God Gen. 2. 2 3. In Christianity there is Baptism the seal of the Covenant of Grace entred into on Gods part and ours The Sacrament of the Lords Supper the seal of the full Communication of all the blessings of the Covenant The Christian Sabbath a day dedicated to the service and enjoyment of the Creator-Redeemer giving natural Rest to bodies Religious Festivals to souls in holy imployment and action grounded on his Resurrection and sitting down on the right hand of the Majesty on high called by express title the Lords Day as the Eucharist the Lords Supper and a pawn of the Eternal Sabbatism with our Lord in Glory Now these are so few so easie so familiar so near natural so intelligible that it is plain the Institutor and Founder of them had no pleasure in Ceremonies or that his servants should waste their time or spirits in observing them or imploy their understandings in finding out a Rationale for them although in condescension to men sojourning in flesh and blood he gave such Symbols of his Grace and Presence And so in the fewness the easiness the intelligibleness there is a testimony to them from Natural Religion which else is unconcerned in all the Religious Rites and Ceremonies that are in the world and leaves them to be judged by that proof they can make of themselves either as enjoyned by God or as the results of humane Prudence or National Decency Further it can give no account of them for Natural and Ceremonial Substantial and Ceremonial are opposed one to another This then is the Glory of Natural and Christian Religion which indeed are not two but one that they have least of shade The darker any Religion is the more are the Ceremonies like the shadows of the evening stretched out the clearer the Religion the nearer the perfection of Heaven where there is no shadow at all the less are the Ceremonies like the shades of a high noon in the Summer solstice The depraved heart of man is so easily bewitch'd with Forms and Fopperies calling them significant Ceremonies like saying to the dumb stone awake arise and teach or to their staff declare to us that it is by no means to be trusted lest seeking Hab. 2. 19. Hosea 4. 12. a shady devotion of Ceremonies under the disguise of a solemn one as the Pagans chose Woods and Groves for their sacred performances it lose it self in the thicket not knowing where it is and in the end the true Religion also I cannot see what Religion or Devotion except that which ignorance is the mother of and which cannot be good no more than the heart that uses it can suffer by being easie of access familiar unencumbred the most plain free intelligible institution of the Lords Supper was at length corrupted into the idolatrous Mass by being made horrid as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religion by being solid and substantial is best secur'd from the stroak of the Atheist who accuses it of trick and design for when there are found Ceremonial covers like pious frauds over it and they easily yield to Attack as of no value the Atheist presently challenges all the rest by proportion and renders it suspicious It is best secur'd against the schismatick and unquiet spirit that is truly so for he hath something in unnecessary Ceremony to fasten on and move trouble by It is kindest to the more modest scrupulous person who is upon great Reasons afraid of humane additions to divine worship Ceremony can add nothing to the truly wise and generously Religious person who loves Religion for it self and needs not the childish and Phantastick Gaudery or Gayety of Ceremonies to inamor him of Religion he loves it for its true worth for its native Beauty and substantial excellency It is therefore only fitted to the Hypochondriack Devotionist who loves Religion in such a kind of set solemn dress or to the empty Formalist that must have it so adorned or recommended or to vulgar unlearned and irrational minds who must be catch'd with shows and pompous appearances and kept in amuse that they may be somewhat intent in Religious excercise but with this disadvantage that they seldom pierce further than this surface or take notice of the Religion it self and when at any time these things happen to be exposed they become the scorn and hate of such persons so that they deal rudely with them But now substantial massive Religion yields not to such sort of Attacks but like Rock resists supported with its own substance born upon its own truth And therefore were it not for the excellency of Christian Religion of Divine Revelation in the Scriptures I should rather choose as he said to have my soul among the Wise Rationally Religious Philosophers if such can be found then with any Religion that this day appears in the world not excepting the Romish that hath deturpated and dishonoured the only excellent Religion and as it is Romish is the worse because it is Christian Next to those ponderous self-great and infinitely Rational principles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I should choose to rest only in the undoubted principles and maxims of Natural Religion so excellent that Christianity hath not lost one of them but so gathered up the Fragments that no one thing could be lost as I have already said Besides this Natural this Christian Religion I know nothing but all subjection to principalities and powers according to the Laws of Nations in civil things the gravity and decency of Religious actions according to all Laws of humane Prudence and the custom of Countries If any one should object to the advantage of Ceremonies the state of Religion among the Jews involved and wrapped up in so much Ceremonie It may be answered to him 1. There was so great and presential an evidence of Divine Authority concerning them among the Jews who were only bound to them under that immediate Theocraty exercised over them that as it was absolutely necessary so it was sufficient to bear them up God as the Author continually and frequently appeared to give value to them by his own particular command He was able to bless and impower the meanest Rite to
fretteth against the Lord. This then abates nothing from the grand Importance of these words which I shall endeavour so to discourse as to shew that Christianity lays down those Foundations of Unity Peace and Kindness upon Religious Accounts as are sufficient in the Nature and Reason of them to take off all manner of Barbarity Fierceness and Malignity in actions and words concerning Differences in Religion so that there should be no hurting and destroying but what is just and deserved punishment of evil Evil truly and really so and not different Religions only without that natural real evil much less different apprehensions in the same Religion almost if not altogether unavoidable nor should the names of Contumacy Faction Sedition be a salvo or shelter sufficient for men to cover their Cruelties under directed indeed against different sense in Religion whatever else they pretend And if the true measures given us by the Gospel were observed and pursued they would certainly and effectively reconcile mankind in general and Christians among themselves in particular removing all Animosities and making them most tender compassionate and benign one towards another even towards them that are not yet come to the knowledg of the Christian Truth much more to them that profess that Truth with themselves though they dissent in some things wherein they are taught by their profession to do it with modesty esteeming and preferring one another in honour each above themselves even then when they cannot in their particular distant sentiments part with that they are perswaded is Truth For if obstinacy contumacy pride or singularity shall be charg'd upon one another by each dâ—ffering party and pursued with penalties by the stronger and these faultinesses pretended to be the things only against which the Austerities are levell'd and not the difference in judgment yet if there be no other standard to judg of these truly culpable things and that indeed deserve the humane severity due to them in all other cases as well as differences in Religion if any other but God who knows mens hearts could judg of them but if there be I say no other detection of them but this That the one Dissenter cannot come over in judgment to the other that iâ— the Inferiour to the Superiour in power especially the case is still the same that all must come to one opinion or maligning one another still continue not professedly for the dissent but for those other evils of which yet that dissent shall be the only proof and accounted sufficient proof too I would therefore by divine Assistance endeavour so to manage this Discourse as to secure it from such elusion I confess the undertaking as it is of great moment so is very difficult and whoever considers what hath continually been done in the world and how things of this nature have been intangled and perplexed would not believe there should be any such Rules of prevention in nature or that God hath design'd any such for the good of mankind and by measuring from what is past to future expectation may look upon any Discourse to such a purpose as Vtopian and Imaginary Seeing the Christian Religion so humble peaceable modest and amicable and that hath the only true Rules of this Peace hath yet been so unsuccessful herein that as at the first it was the Butt against which all sorts of Cruelty and Barbarity discharg'd themselves in the Confessors and Martyrs of it so since it hath been made the seat of those unholy holy Wars perpetual Controversies and Disputes carried on with great wrath and clamour and worse than that a kind of Aceldama or Field of blood by the horrid and unnatural furies of Christians one against another But to conclude from hence True Religion and Christianity hath not a fitness or less of fitness than false Religion to beget in mens minds that Amity Union and Peace spoken of by fixing such principles and fundamentals as Christians might concenter upon notwithstanding their various senses in many things and by induing them with such a spirit of wisdom as is pure peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits is to take off the load from the Degeneracy and Corruption of humane nature and to charge it upon the most excellent thing in the world Religion and Christian Religion whose very Excellency is the true and only reason why Corruption and all the malice of Hell planted themselves against it with all the force they could to have bar'd it out of the world and when it prevailed against those Gates of Hell and setled it self then to adulterate debauch and divide it which attempts and the resistance to them hath made it fuller of commotion and noise than false Religion which being held in peace by Sin and Satan as their intire and undivided Territory no sound of true Religion coming in there is not that reason for a disturbance There is therefore no Argument of moment to be drawn from hence against the Christian or Reformed Protestant Religion from the divisions of the Teachers and Professors of it for it being demonstrated as it may very plainly be that it is not from the nature of Religion it self it then remains it is only from the pravity of men and design of Satan who are not so concern'd against any other Religion not feeling that destruction from any but it Thus therefore the waves and storms beat more vehemently against the Rock of Truth that there is more rage and foam and froth about it is not from the unquietness of the Rock which is always firm and still but from the unruliness of the waves Nor is the dead Sea of a false Religion or a total Ignorance in Religion because it hath a dead calm upon it like the blood of a dead man more safe than these Religious Rev. 16. 3 Commotions for every living soul dyeth in that There is certain Death there but motion argues Life and tendeth to it though there are other hazards appertaining to motion yet still there are possibilities of life A Fever is a degree of Cure compared with a Lethargy and dissents if well and Christianly moderated by the running to and fro of mens understandings increase Dan. 12. 4. Knowledg maintain Action and concern in Divine Things resine Doctrines and Professions which else like stagnated waters are apt to corrupt make more evidently appear that which cannot be shaken This indeed is not to be applied to absolutely necessary and fundamental points of Faith Worship or Practise for though by opposition thâ—y also are much fortified and confirmed yet that is by Supreme Power bringing good out of evil but none may do evil that good may come nor doth it introduce Scepticism in any thing we ought to know but every man abâ—unding in the sense of his own mind offers his own and receives the Reason of others proving all things and 1 Thes 5 21. holding fast what he finds best with all toleration
of belief and practise agreeable thereunto Such a one I say Christianity supposes to have a right to common protection of Magistrates and the Laws of Humaniâ—y while he endeavours to approve himself to God at whose Tribunal he must appear to whom as his own Master he must stand or fall no man having power to judg anothers servant in this case Rom. 14. 4 10 12. Now I shall endeavour with submission to better instructions to give great reasons that this is the ground Christian Religion bottoms upon and presumes to it self That perfect conformity in a Mans Principles to Natural Religion so far as Principles or Being as we speak of a Religion are in debate ought to be a sufficient guard according to the present state of Humane Nature and the Divine Ordination upon it against the Enmity Despite and Injury of private persons and against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punitive justice of Magistrates However a man in other particulars distingâ—ishes himself for conscience sake towards God For the proof of this I shall first insist upon those places of the New Testament that I suppose fixt upon this foundation and then argue it by reason with respect to all â—ncountring Objections The first is that of the Apostle to Timothy I exhort first of all that prayers supplications and giving of thanks â—e 1 Tim 2. 1 c. made for Kings and all that are in authority that we may live peaceable and quiet lives in all godliness and honesty This Exhortation of the Apostle contains two things 1. The Duty the Apostle enjoins viz. the making of prayers supplications intercessions and not them only but giving of thanks and for all men and not only but eminently for Kings and all that are in authority Now in that the Apostle injoins giving of thanks it argues though he did not exclude yet he did not intend the only matter of the prayers should be the conversion of those prayed for For there being then no conversion of Princes nor so general conversion of private persons as should be expressed by all men there could be no matter for Thanksgiving But that which was mainly in the Apostles eye was that Christians should concern themselves in all the happiness and welfare of mankind both by Supplications Prayers and Intercessions that is with all the earnestness and heartiness signified in that accumulation of expressions and also by Thanksgivings for the mercies they enjoyed and in eminent manner for Kings and those in eminency who are the Trustees and Depositaries of the Peace and Prosperity of the world and by this means Christian Religion should be known to be most agreeable with the true natural and excellent Religion of mankind and a fair Rational Inducement offered to embrace it 2. The advantage the Apostle expresses as arising from the due performance of this duty That men in general and Princes in special being convinced of their rights by the evidence of those two main parts of Natural Religion Piety towards God Love of Humane nature and the Vniversal good might afford to Christians the rights and dues of Godliness and Grave Honourable Sober Deportment among men that is Peaceable and Quiet lives not breaking out into injury and violation of common Protection and Humanity because they were Christians From hence then I observe the main foundation of right to Peace and Quietness is Godliness and Honourableness of manners in opposition to all Immorality And Prayers and Thanksgivings for all men and Princes are most naturally to be understood for the Tranquibity and flourishing state of Communities in the ways of Piety Justice and Soberness though I doubt not they added that they might by Conversion be not only almost but altogether Christians and not only not far from the Kingdom of God but that they might come from the East and the West from the North and the South and sit down in the Kingdom of God to which the freedom of prophesie under the Caution of Godliness and Honesty might exceedingly conduce on which account the Apostle goes on This that is All this entercourse of Christians prayers Godliness and Honesty and All Mens Magistrates especially procuring their peaceable and quiet lives is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who would have all men to be saved and by this means to come to the knowledg of the Truth seeing the One God the One Mediator Author of the One natural and the One true reveal'd Religion is equally concern'd in all A second place is that of the Apostle Peter in relation to mankind in general complicated with all those expressions of both the Apostles Peter and Paul concerning Magistraâ—y and the Ordination of it by God In relation to mankind in general the Apostle makes this challenge 1 Pet. 3. 13. And who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good Plainly implying to follow that which is good ought in all Reason and â—quity to secure men from Harm and that Good which the Apostle intends must be Good defin'd by the Laws of Natural Religion to be good for else Christianity as it stood distinct from that for contrary to it it is impossible to be was not then understood to be Good All judgment of that therefore being suspended whether Good or not Good as it stood distinct from Natural Religion The undeniable presence of all Natural Religion and Power of it over the Lives and Actions of Christians was to be their defence on the right hand and the left from injury Concerning Magistracy that Duumvirate of Apostles concur that Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil Wilt then thou not be afraid of the power saith the Apostle Paul do Rom. 13. 3 4 5. that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience-sake Thus far the great Apostle of the Gentiles The Apostle of the Circumcision speaks thus Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as those that are sent by him for 1 Pet. 2. 13 14 the punishment of evil-doers and the praise of them that do well Let the way of arguing used by these two Apostles be well weighed the circumstances of the times wherein they writ the sense of Magistrates concerning Christianity the obligation upon Christians to obey God rather than Magistrates and yet both these Apostles write as if the nature of good and evil were out of dispute between Magistrates and Christians as if all were clear and fair between them and no controversie whether Christianity was True or False a Good
may have heard the fame of it with their ears It is the way found out and declared by him that made weights for the winds and ballance for the clouds It is the way of the fear of the Lord the beginning of Wisdom and departing from evil the true understanding There lyes the peace of Natural Religion It is the way of Christianity seen and publisht by Christ Jesus the Way the Truth and the Life That 's the peace of Christian Religion And it is certainly the proper excellency of Christian Religion and its very intention to bring this way both as Natural and Christian to light to lay the grounds of it to give the Rules and Measures of it to sweeten mens tempers to the good nature of it That every one in a clear and still air not darkned with Clouds full of Thunder and terrible with the Lightning of dreadful Laws and Bloody Executions may see may be wary in the choice of his conduct of himself to his unchangeable state and may therefore have light have room have still and silence in which he may weigh every thing prove every thing Now that which I have now declar'd is a way most agreeable to the Word of God and that Reason which respects either all mankind or all Christians This is the Contrivance of Christianity's providing That the Wolf and the Lamb may dwell together that the Lion may lye down with the Kid that the child may play on the hole of the Asp that there may be no hurting or destroying in all Gods Holy Mountain That Knowledg of God and True Religion may have the same scope and freedom that the waves have in the Sea Christianity hath always the Grounds ready by it and with it And to present them in their Rational Possibility is a Vindication of Divine Justice Righteousness and Goodness an Offerture to man to be happy Nor will the Platform be always Vtopian the days will come when it shall pass into life power and effect Now whenever this shall be in its Glory that Degeneracy of mankind that curse that lyes upon the earth that vail of the covering spread upon the face of all Nations that severe indignation of God against Humane Nature shall be removed The Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh the light of one day shall be as the light of seven All flesh shall see the Glory of the Lord together So come come thus Lord Jesus Even so Amen I have thus far made a Lamentation upon the General State of the World in relation to Religion which till some such mighty Influence come down from Heaven as I have intimated upon it is like to be for a Lamentation For the dark places of the Earth will be full of the Habitations of Cruelty and it is certain the Habitations of Cruelty will be furnished with the Instruments of Cruelty And therefore Oh my Soul come not into their secret unto their Assembly my Honour be not thou united for in their anger they slay and destroy and in their self-will they dig down walls Cursed be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel Their drink-offerings of Blood will I not offer nor take their name of Religion into my mouth I shall therefore leave them and address the close of this Discourse to the Saints that are in the earth and to the Excellent in whom is all my Delight And in the first place it calls us to the Review of the Excellent Christian Religion even as Natural Religion all essence all substance trace it throughout all its Doctrine Worship Rules of Life they are all by their very Goodness plain to him that understandeth and right to them that find knowledg there is nothing froward nor perverse in them its bands of peace are not politick or worldly Intrigues no Ceremonial Symbolism or Ritual Shibboleth but ponderous Verities and Divine Love All the shew or appearance any Religion can make is but a ray borrowed from its Divine perfection a derivation from its light or from Natural Religion which is it self for pure Natural Religion is Christian Religion if you suppose a soul without sin mounting from its Creature-probaâ—ionership to its highest perfection as Adam if not having 〈◊〉 from Paradise to Heaven And Christian Religion is Natural Religion suppose the soul fallen and rising back from its Apostacy to that perfection by the Redeemer 2. Let me apply this Discourse to the Comprimise of all Differences betwixt Protestants and particularly in our English Christian Nation not defining any Controversal Point but urging to that end such undoubted Principles as I have insisted upon in this Discourse 1. That supposing a National Church cannot be made out to satisfaction yet Christian Kingdoms are so considerable a point of Scripture-Prophecy that it cannot be denied So far therefore as National Worship can be agreeable to a mans Conscience making inquiry and most curious search into the Word of God both as to his Duty and to his Liberty also and possible Freedom from Scruple every Christian is oblig'd to Glorifie God in the publick services of him and Confession of the Faith of Jesus Christ with his native Country Suppose a man should retire to particular private Congregations to supply what he may find wanting in the National Constitution to compleat all the Duties of Christian Communion and the advantages of it yet still he is bound to promote and encourage National Religion so far as it extends to avoid as much as is possible all Divisions and profest separation from it by putting the fairest Construction and the kindest hopes upon those things that seem doubtful and as little infringing the Authority of Laws as may be consistent with sentiments of Conscience and a due enjoyment of that liberty God hath given men of judging for their own souls as in his sight viz. in those things that are not Laws of Natural Religion and so indisputable or those Grand Points of Christianity in which a Christian can have no allowance in all things else a Christian hath a liberty but so that he must not use that his liberty as a cloake of maliciousness but as the Servant of God give due Honour to 1 Pet. 2. 16. all I would therefore propose these three Considerations to draw men to the greatest Conjunction with National Religian that can by any means be reconcil'd with good Conscience towards God Considerat 1. That if we examine things by Scripture there are many abatements from the supposeable evil of external Observances of which we may lawfully make our utmost Advantages to so great a Good as our Professed Conjunction with National Religion while substantially good though the High Places I 1 Kings 15. 14. mean things equivalent in our opinion be not taken away as in the times of the Excellent Kings of Judah First then as fundamental to this case I suppose these two things Equiponderating one another 1. The high Character of National Christian
and mute in the Commission of Sin or neglect of Duty upon these appearances and who can say herein I have made my Heart clean I am pure from this Transgression so far hath he been Scandalised and indanger'd to his Ruine This is the first great Pillar of Truth and the primary Scandal is placed here That Men think there is no reason God should have so much Love Fear Honour Obedience so much Worship and Service And the Second is like to it 2. Even the Faith of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World is like to that first great Principle and equal to it both because the whole Riches and Treasure of all Religion is deposited and concentered in it so that he hath not the John 17. 3. Father nor the Knowledge of the only true God nor the Eternal Life proceeding from it who hath not the Son who hath not the Knowledge of Jesus Christ whom God hath sent Even as Christ is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person so is the knowledge of Christ the express Image of the Knowledge of God and the brightness of it wherever it is revealed if it be not believed in the God of the World hath blinded the 2 Cor. 4. 6. minds of them that believe not least they should see the light of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ who is the Image 2 Cor. 4. 4 6. of God shining to them Especially and more particularly that great Attribute of Divine Mercy and Pardoning Grace is illustrated and breaks out with brighter and warmer Beams in this Son of his Love the Lamb of God who takes away the Sins Acts 4. 12. of the World by the Sacrifice of himself His is the only Name given under the whole Heaven to the Children of Men whereby they can be saved This indeed was the Scandal of the Jews who assumed to themselves as the only Masters of the true Religion in the World and foolishness to the Greeks who took Isa 28. 16. upon them as the like Masters of Reason but this corner Stone of Truth was laid so sure and of so tryed an excellency 1 Pet. 2. 6. that all that reject and spurn at it stumble and fall are snared and broken They are false Notions of God and Truth that will not be reconciled to it and while even the Builders refuse it it will yet rise to be the Head of the Corner Ver 7. It hath now surmounted before any Impartial Judges all other Names of Religion in the whole World so that to strike at it where it is known and received argues a disaffection and being Scandalised at Religion it self and is become the same with denying God Providence and Eternal Judgment Corrupted Reason and Lucian-Wit aims at Religion in its very Essence when it pretends to dash upon that and if when it seem'd to encounter with Gods own Administration by Moses there was yet such a presence of God with it that it would be more tolerable Mat. 10. 15. c. for Sodam and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for those that refused it as the Lord in several places testifies how much greater will the Condemnation be now when it hath so perfectly antiquated all that pretension against it and worn out the Prejudices of Elder Paganisme And yet so far as the Foolishness of God as the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 25. styles it does not appear to us wiser than Men and the weakness of God stronger than Men we are ready to be Scandalised at the Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour And it seems the easiest place for the Attacks of Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness who yet at last will find themselves in a Gin or Trap when they thought they had gained Ground and made entrance and shattered to pieces when they believed a Conquest For God taketh the wise in their own 1 Cor. 3. 19 20. Craftiness and he knoweth the wisest thoughts of Men that they are vain Every Degree of Apostacy from Christ is Heb. 3. 12. departing from the Living God Transactions in Prayer or Publick Discourses of Religion are so much the more Divine as they send forth the sweet savour of his Name which is as an Oyntment poured out The Apostle desired to 1 Cor. â— 2. Phil. 3. 8. know nothing but Christ and him crucified It is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Top and Transcendency of Knowledge Apostolick Epistles full of Christ and the Truth as it is in Jesus are the best Patterns for Sermons much exceeding the Rationalism or Moralism of tâ—â— wisest Philosophy It is a Degree of Scandal first taken â—nd then given to speak little of him All Preaching is not giving the savour of his Knowledge 2 Cor. 2. ult and if it have not Life to the Soul it is deadly a Symptom to Death The very diverting though to other Parts of Sacred Scripture speaks Men offended in him when they do not find him and express him the Alpha and Omega in all the Bright Morning Star the Amen And though a Battology a vain Repetition in naming him is blamable yet it is more blame to conceal him even in the best Discourses of his Religion The Rays of Religion are paler more weak and chill as they fall farthest off from him He is the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings and Blessed is he in these days even in these days whoever is not offended in him 3. The Spirituality Purity Cleanness and Chasteness of the Worship of God dictated by the clearest and sincerest Light of Natural Conscience approved by Divine Revelation or founded instituted and directed by that undoubted Heavenly Oracle is the next great Pillar of Truth upon which the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mens Souls is setled But against this sensual and defiled Imagination hath in all Ages raised Scandal and so befool'd Reason that it hath cast down many wounded yea many strong Men in their Intellectual Endowments and Reputation for Wisdom have been ensnar'd and ruin'd by it It hath been the Renown therefore of those Princes in Sacred Story that have had the Religious Magnanimity to resist the Charmes of this Sorceress and kept Divine Worship uncorrupted in whose Glory so much as the High Places was a dark Shade and ecclips'd them though it had fair Pretence Idolatry and Superstition have been most evidently branded in Scripture for the most wretched State of being scandaliz'd and Idols for the most abhorr'd Scandals This was the Snare of Gideon and his House and yet as Interpreters give us in a Matter as innocent at first as laying up the Ephod he had inquir'd at in his Danger as a Monument of Gratitude for his Victory that was after turn'd thus into a Scandal Judges 8. 27. This was the Scandal Balaam taught Balak to cast before the Children of Israel These were the Wiles the Gins and Traps in which the
Man's Heart Answ Whatever is indeed written in Man's Heart must certainly be from God seeing no Created Hand could write there The Hand that Made can alone Ingrave it Quest How then shall we make a Judgment what is written upon the Heart Answ That which is universally acknowledged and amidst all the Differences in Religion falls under no Variation assures us it was placed there by that Supreme Hand that alike fashioned all Mens Hearts and especially seeing to this universal Acknowledgment there is no Temptation from the sensual and worst Part of Man it being against its Interest but it springs from the wisest and best Parts most unconcerned in this World or any of the brutish Pleasures of it Quest What Principles do you account thus to be of Natural Religion Answ I account these following That there is a God the Greatest and Best of Beings that governs the World That God vouchsafes to be acknowledged ador'd and worshipped by Man and that he takes notice when he is so worshipped or neglected and that with Favour or Displeasure That there is a Distinction betwixt Good and Evil setled by the Unchangeable Laws of God That God being himself so Good is pleas'd in Men doing well and rewards it and displeas'd when Men do ill and punishes it That Men have a Conscience viz. a Knowledg of and Government of their own Actions with Approbation of them if Good and Dislike if Bad. That there are Rewards and Punishments beyond this Life That therefore the Notions of Virtue Righteousness Temperance Soberness Beneficence and the contrary Vices are of unchangeable Truth and the Actions flowing from them of the same Notion That God is both the Judge and Observer of them now and will be so in the Future State That in the time of God's Patience and Bounty to sinful Man there is Forgiveness with him that he may be feared and that he thereby leads Men to Repentance That upon all accounts Solemn Worship of him by Prayer Praises Honourable Discourses of him of all Obedience to him and Returns to him after our Falls are most due from Humane Nature and according to the sociable Nature of Man in Publick Associations Quest Do you believe these so close to and inseparable from the Reason of Man Answ I am fully assured so and that these and all the immediate genuine and natural Deductions from them are so nearly allied with Humane Nature and Reason that they are in no Parts of it wanting however overcome but where extreme Barbarity and Brutishness in all things else make it plain such People cannot weigh against the wiser Societies of Mankind in whom the more vigorous Efforts of Reason shew themselves Quest But would you have Men rest in Natural Principles without Revelation Answ No by no means For if Adam in Paradise had Revelation to make his State towards God Consummate how much more Man Fallen in whom all Natural Light is but glimmering and obscure Heavenly Objects at so great a remove by his being sunk down so low from them and the Mists and Fogs of this Earth so prevalent upon him in the great Deordination of Spirit into Body that whatever true Principles of Reason might effect if duely pursued he is without Revelation upon all Experiment no better than in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Quest But does there appear any Expectation of Revelation in the Motions of Natural Reason Answ Very great so that no Religion in the World hath been without the Pretence of it And it is both most hopeful according to the Laws of Natural Light that God will reveal himself and most just that his Revelations should be accepted with all Reverence when vouchsafed our very Reason being a Revelation from him and if any Revelation from him could be false even That might be so also But in all things Natural Light must needs bow to Divine Veracity Quest How happy might the World be if all the Religions of the World were but reformed to this Natural True Religion Answ Undoubtedly so for the State of it could not then be far from the Kingdom of God all True Religion whether Natural or Revealed being so closely allied to it self For though Revealed rises much higher yet in an inseparable connexion with and in a continuation undivided from Natural Quest But as the State of the World is and hath always been there seems to have been no Effect of True Natural Religion Answ Very great in many respects 1. To justifie God in his Dealings with Mankind that there have been such Possibilities of Return to True Religion laid up in them 2. To be as Sense in a Mans Soul upon which all Divine Applications might take either to Conviction or Conversion 3. To be at all times ready to be re-enlivened by Revealed Truth and to unite with it 4. To be an Universal Code of True Religion in which it is always reasonable for Mankind to agree or in any Parts of it on any Occasion as Jonah and the Mariners did in their Calamity or as St. Paul and the Seamen with him in giving Thanks to God 5. That it might be a Standard to punish Prophaneness and Irreligion by without entrenchment on Conscience which Revelation cannot be but in some peculiar Circumstances 6. That Men may on all Occasions treat with one another by it on Terms of Reason and Justice as the Apostle Paul with the Men of Athens with Felix and generally Men one with another in all their Commerce All Society good Laws and Government Restraint of excessive Evil depending upon it CAP. IV. Of Revelation and the Reasons of so great Miscarriages against both the Light of Nature and Revelation with the Means of Cure Quest SEeing there is by all that hath been spoken so great a weight resting upon Revelation let the Accounts of Gods Revealing himself to Mankind be more fully stated Answ Besides Gods Revealing himself to Adam even in Innocency in a Doctrine suitable to those two Sacramental Trees the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life and besides that Original Revelation of Christ after the Fall The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head he hath been pleased to guide that Holy Seed which is his Church by Revelation as by a Pillar of Fire throughout succeeding Ages till he compleated the whole he intended in a Kingdom of Truth that cannot be shaken which is to continue to the end of the World Quest How then did God deal with the rest of the World Answ Even they were for some considerable Spaces in the first Ages of the World within the Advantages of Revelation by mixture with or Neighbourhood to the Church by Tradition from the Holy Patriarchs which if they had faithfully observed together with the Improvement of Natures Light it would have secured them in True Religion Besides that they who were faithful in these were on all proper occasions provided for by the Faithful Creator though they were
its own Depths the Spirit to whom are known all its own Designs from the first Foundations or Beginning of Scripture to the highest Stone in the Structure or End of it The Top is known to it in the very Bottom the End in the Beginning That therefore which was seen to Men only in the Rudiment or Foundation and seem'd to mean no more appeared at that very time to him in the Complement and he applies it to that Complement as certainly and justly as they did to the first Rudiment or Foundation As Out of Egypt have I called my Son was as truly applied to Christ's coming out of Egypt being then come to its Perfection of Sense as it was applied to Israel coming out of Egypt in the first Rudiment and the Divine Spirit as truly meant the last as the first though none could know its Sense but it self till it self revealed it Quest How could it be proved the Ministers of the New Testament had the true Key of Interpretation committed to them by the Spirit Answ By the concurrence of all things that justified the first Writers of Scriptures to be Commissioned by God Great and weighty Truth Holy Heavenly becoming God as the Author such Speech as none beside the Writers of Scripture ever spoke all of a piece with former Scripture Miracles mighty Efficacy upon Consciences the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls the abolishing of Sin the Ends designed in all the removing all lower Forms and Ceremonies for the time being into a most High Spiritual Substantial Religion True Peace of Conscience introduced These with innumerable others concurring in any Interpretation of former Scripture that could not else be found out in its full Meaning do both enlighten former Scripture and enlarge it into further and more Scriptures Quest If then our Lord and his Apostles in Interpreting the Old Testament by the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit resting without measure on our Saviour and in full measures on the Apostles discover'd that Sense in the Ancient Scriptures which was indeed deposited there but could not be unlock'd by any Created Wisdom it will follow thence That it is an unnecessary Labour of many Worthy Expositors of Scriptures to press too hard in every Quotation of the Old Testament we find in the New for a free and full Confession of all that Sense it there expresses as if it could naturally arise from so many Words and Syllables so put together having power and vertue by themselves to signifie so high since the Holy Spirit had a reach in them which none could grasp or fathom but it self and contriv'd that Sense so into Words as none could summon it but it self and that it rested upon the Lord and his Apostles to bring it to light and reveal it into New and Higher Scriptures and that it appears as undeniably they did so as that the Old Testament it self is Scripture Answ The Industry of such Worthy Persons is not to be blamed to trace the Sense of the New Testament in the Words of the Old as far as it is possible for them to go But if they cannot give Satisfaction to cavelling Atheists or Infidels or to the Scruples of Good Men it still remains a just Ground of Satisfaction The Spirit that carried by an Almighty Hand the Writers of the Old Testament carried those Penmen of the New by the same also and from one single Glance of its Meaning that it self with Divine Artifice had left drawn there it derives that full Face of Truth in the New to be its Sense in the Old than that Samson's Riddle in the Exposition should be his Sense in the dark Cover of it in Words that could not else import it He that created the Words in the Old Testament and even then inspired them with that Divinest Sense as with Life might yet suffer it to lie intoomb'd in them till it self that entrusted it there gave it a Resurrection in the New Quest But would you have none undertake in the Interpreting or Expounding Scripture except by Inspiration or the Evidences of immediate Divine Presence where either Scripture is not so express as to be its own undoubted Interpreter or the Interpretation deduced as evidently as any Consequence by Reason Answ Far be it from me to discourage or lessen such Undertakings I rather wish all the Lord's People thus far Prophets to search the Meaning of Scripture with all the Helps and Advantages they can attain and that in the mean time all those who have any part of the Prophetick Office upon them would read and meditate day and night to Interpret Scripture to themselves and others Quest But how is such Interpretation consistent with the Apostles so great Assertion That Scripture is not of any Private Interpretation Answ First Interpretation guiding it self by the plain evident and Self-Interpreting Oracles of Scripture in things absolutely necessary to Salvation displays a Body of Divine Publick Truth which in regard of the Darkness Inattendence and Inconsideration of the generality of the very Professors of the Faith of the Scriptures and much more in regard of the great Indisposedness of their Hearts to the Obedience of Scriptures need such constant Displays by Applicatory Interpretation and a distinct Office to attend continually on this very Thing And yet the main Concernment of such Interpretation lies in what is so plain that when opened and applied it is impossible to be doubted of as Scriptures Sense 2. Such Interpretation as may be Private in regard of its Derivation of any Doctrine from such or such a particular Place of Scripture yet keeping it self to the Analogy of Scripture in the plain and undoubted Sense in other Places does still maintain the free and Publick Course of the Waters of Life 3. Interpretation of Scripture thus guiding it self according to the evident Sense of Scripture in its clearest Parts and taking that as a Clew into the more abstruse Parts of Scripture necessarily encounters much Sound and excellent Truth nearly allied to Publick and Divine in all Knowledge Natural Historical Chronological Moral Political pertaining to Language and Eloquence which makes the World more lightsom and less subject to the Tyranny of the Prince of Darkness How great a Light of all Learning hath broken out from the very Endeavours of Interpreting Scripture to the Glory of the Father of Lights the high Honour and venerable Estimation of Scripture the much Ascertaining True Publick Religion and the Universal Good 4. Many great Truths and undoubtedly Divine in themselves that being more at a distance from those that are necessary to Salvation it hath not pleased the Publick Wisdom of the World to give such Assurance of them as that they should be imposed upon the Belief of all that acknowledge the Sacred Authority of Scriptures and yet may present very large Satisfactions to the Minds of those who are assisted by the Holy Spirit into the great Scripture-Reason in such Points though but particularly for
only to teach the Observation of things Commanded them by the Lord himself 2. There is a constant Disclaimer in the Gospel of any Despotick or Lord-like Power in Church-Rulers Christ expresly Compares the Power he gave with Civil Powers and Resolves it shall not be so among his Disciples as was among them He saies the Chief among them shall be Ministers and Servants delivering the Will of their Lord and not Lords themselves they must have no Will of their own to promulge They profess they Preach Jesus the Lord and themselves Servants for Jesus sake Servants of those they Preach to as they Minister to them the Divine Will not Lords over Gods Heritage but ensamples of the Flock Embassadours delivering only the Messages of their Master and beseeching Men But if the whole scope of Indifferent Things were given them for a Dominion how great would it be 3. These Circumstances in Religion may grow so bulky and cumbersome and make such a Medly in it that no one would know what Religion it self is 4. The Free Votes and Suffrages of Christians in all things they receive as most con-decent and convenient is that more abundant Honour God hath given to the meanest Members of his Church Thus the whole Affair in that Council Acts 11. was managed by not only the Apostles the Elders but the Brethren also each according to their Station and Situation in the Body the Church For that there may be no Despotique Power what is Commandâ—d by Christ must be so represented that the Evidences it is so Commanded must be duly Represented and the Divine Authority sufficiently remonstrated what is of Advice and Conveniency must be carried by free Suffrage and Consent Quest But still the Church being a Society and the best of Societies it must be Subject to the Laws of Nature concerning Society and what is carried by the Votes of People being always subject to Turbulency and Confusion have we not great Assurance seeing Christ reversed nothing Natural but confirmed it that there are many things not written in Scripture but left to their necessity and expediency according to Natures Laws and so what is nearest to Monarchick being farthest from Confusion the Rulâ—rs of the Church and among them the Bishops ought to determine all things neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God Answ There is in the Church the perfect and absolute Monarchy of Christ in his Word and besides this there is no other nor can the Laws of Nature dictate any other there is one Lawgiver who is able to save or destroy and there need not any more Masters for more would certainly breed Confusion whatever therefore is clearly according to the Word of God or to be made out to be so whatever is the evident Dictate of Nature as distinction of Sexes 1 Cor. 11. 3. in their publick appearance in Religious Assemblies administration of Divine Services in a known Language 1 Cor. 14. v. 5. the speaking of one Prophet only at once and not in a Confusion of Voices v. 31. All such Natural Order and Decency or whatever is of Indisputable Decency according to the Manners and Custom of our Native Country these are the utmost Bounds of Prescription All things else are to be Comprimiz'd by Agreement and Suffrage and even these necessary things are to be Managed by Doctrine Rational Convicton Exhortation Admonition Rebuke and even Charge and Command with all Authority in the Evidences of the Divine Word and Will and no otherwise For this I say again is the more abundant Honour the Rulers or more Honourable Members of the Church are to invest the lowest with to Circulate with them the Life and Spirits of Truth by transfusing the Advantages of all the Light and Knowledge they have that they as Living Wise and Intellectual Members also may judge what is Commanded them by God and not be as Fools or Lifeless Members For what Blood Spirits and Life are in the Body that is Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding in the Will of God in the Church And in all Indifferent things the very same Freedom the Foot hath to represent to the higher Powers of Nature what offends it and is immedately heard the very same Power the lowest Member of the Church hath to remonstrate to the Higher what Scandalizes it in the accepting this or that Indifferent Ceremony and it ought as feelingly as immediately to be heard For as the same Soul is present to all parts of the Natural Body so the same Spirit of the Head of the Church animates his whole Body the Church which is the Fulness or Complement the Receptacle of his Fulness the Fulness in which he will appear Full and Compleat who fills all in all As therefore the Head it self feels by this Spiritual Union so are the Eyes and Ears the Higher Members of this Body to do And if they do not so feel it argues an Interruption between them and the Head it self for that most concernfully reciprocates with the whole Body and the extreamest part of it and so does every part inliven'd by him also if there be no Intercision nor Obstruction betwixt it and the Head Quest Is there yet any further Reason against a Power in the Rulers of the Church for imposing in things of indifferency under the Names of Decency and Order Answ There is the great Reason of the Mischief of Scandal to be added to all that hath been spoken Quest What is to be understood by Scandal Answ Scandal is a Subject of Discourse of too large a Compass for the present purpose but as it is strictly to be adjusted to it it may be thus understood Scandal is that Hurt and Grief a Man receives in Submitting either to Humane Example or Imposition in things of themselves neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God when the Conscience is in doubt whether that which is required to be done be not displeasing to God and forbidden by him or that which is required to be omitted or not done is not pleasing to God and Commanded by him and yet submits it self to be led by that Example or Commanded by such Impositions and so falls into Sin and under a wound of Conscience Quest When the thing is indeed neither Commanded nor Forbidden by God how can it be changed by the Conscience being in Doubt concerning it Answ Because the Conscience is that complex or congregated Power of the Soul wherein are preserved all the Doctrines to be believed and Rules of Action to the end that it may observe and direct how the Soul is to Govern it self and square all its Actions to the Will of God and that it may comfort or check the Soul in doing Well or Ill according to those Doctrines or Rules Wherein then Conscience is mistaken and misjudges either way against that which is Commanded by God or for that which is forbidden by him there is nothing to be done but to reduce Conscience to its Right Rules which is the Will of God in
it lying Foursquare and being solid square measure for so it must be if the Length Bredth and Height are all equal Answ I did not at all forget it but suffered your Questions to lead through all I less design'd that they might come to the Principal Character of the True Religion and the True Church so exactly adequate to one another Quest Will you then more fully explain this Similitude Answ That I may the better do it I must repeat it from the very Ground and Bottom of it which is that God makes use as he pleases of all the Knowledge and Science that is in the World to Minister to Divine Knowledge in which he principally intends to Instruct as being most absolutely necessary for all of what condition soever As then Mathematicks is the most Demonstrative Science and some things in it are of most retired and fine Speculation so are others most known and necessary to all imployed in Mechanicks Thus God hath been pleased to deposite some Prophetick Truths in the most mystick parts of that Learning and some of the more general use in the most known and acquainted parts of it now those that are more secret and not so necessary I shall leave to those that are most fitted thereunto But what is most plain and imports what is most necessary for all I will insist upon As then Number and Measure are means Ordained for Humane Nature and principal Instruments of Reason to come to the most certain knowledge of things and to be secured they are and continue what they justly ought to be so True Religion is thereupon presented to us under exact Number and Measure falling in one with another the Number Twelve multiplied into a Square Cube of Twelve thousand Furlongs And as the Foursquare Figure does so bind and is so compact with it self that it cannot receive the least Addition but with the loss of its Square nor the least Diminution but under the same Forfeiture thus True Religion is so perfectly it self that it can neither be added to nor diminished from but with a proportionable loss of it self God was pleased upon this account to chuse this Figure for the Altar under the Law for the Breast-Plate of Judgment this was the Measure of Solomons Oracle how far the Measures in Ezekiel agree I leave The Heathen by Natural Wisdom had such a Sense of the so Just to it self Foursquare that they called a Good Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Foursquare Man And lastly as Solid Square Measure is in all parts of it and throughout every part exactly Square and gives the most certain account of the whole content of a Body so is True Religion in all its Parts exactly so it self and every Part of every Part is reduced to the same exactness for so the Length Bredth and Height of it are equal and so is the True Church exactly adequated to True Religion The Faith is therefore said to be at once delivered to the Saints because it can receive no New Measures and it is called the Common Salvation or Doctrine of it because the Universal Standard is one This then is the Measure of a Man and the Measure of the Angel For by that Wisdom that is natural to a Man in which Beasts have no share that is to Number and Measure is made plain to us Angelical Number and Measure that is the Number and Measure of True Religion as the Angel delineated it beginning in the Apostolical Twelve and Multiplied by it self to an exact Square Figure or Measure Square in the whole product Square in every particular part and of that just content And with this exact Number Twelve so Foursquare agreed the Altar Temple and they that worshipped therein when the outward Court was left out of Measure to be trodden under Foot by Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition disguis'd under Popish Christianity of which whenever it shall be perfectly freed it shall appear in that Glory here describ'd All richest Pearl pure Gold most transparent Jasper that is Brightest Clearest Truth and of the exact Apostolical Number and Measure Quest Is there no farther Improvement to be made of this Divine Symbole the Foursquare City Answ There is when I have first observed to you False-Religion is out of all Square just Measure and even Number it is a constant and perpetual Odd wandring from True Religion and the justness of it to it self and that both in Doctrine Worship Rules of Life and Discipline so that it is impossible in it to Measure one thing from and by another or any one point of any of these by it self uneven in the whole Product uneven in every part uneven in the Root The most significant Emblem of the Popish-Church which having the Fundamentals of Christianity hath yet lost the Apostolical Twelve by innumerable most irregular and wild Additions and deformed every Single Article of Truth by most disagreeable Corruptions of it and therefore as a Man most Learned in Numbers hath demonstrated the Number 666 a Number no way to be reduced to a Foursquare Figure is the most Fit and Significant Hieroglyphick of it and indeed of all False-Religion that must have something of Truth to make it a Religion but as it is false is an Odd from that Truth Quest Let me now desire the most plain and useful Application of this Parabolick Scheme Answ You shall have it and it consists in observing Four Prime Characters of the True Christian Religion that may be as Four Equal sides of this Foursquare and of the Church adjusted to it from each of which may be measured to each of the rest and the Equality or Inequality will discover the Truth or Falshood of all that is brought to the Tryal 1. The Transcendant Holiness Goodness and Purity of the Doctrine Precepts of Worship Rules of Life Discipline is one side of this Christian-square with which whatever does not Square is convicted not to be of that Doctrine and Religion whether it look towards God in all the Highest most Honourable Apprehensions of him suitable Discourse Worship Love and Obedience or whether it look towards Men in all Justice Righteousness Mercy Compassion Charity Benevolence Beneficence and these as they respect all the particular Offices of Life Publick of Magistrates Subjects or Private as of Parents Children Husband Wife Master or Servants The Peace and Welfare of Mankind are treasur'd up in the Law of Christ or lastly whether it look to a Man 's own Person in Soberness Purity Continency in the Thoughts the Words the Actions The Honour and best State of the Mind and Body are provided for by this Doctrine that is after Godliness not only in the World to come but in this Life Whatever now does not agree with these wholesom words is detected not to be Christian which is all Truth Virtue and Praise 2. There being nothing more intimate to Man in this fallen state than the Sense of Guilt and knowledg that he is a