the Divine Wisdome that does not act according to absolute Power but according to the Congruity of the nature of things is to wind off Mankind from the slavery of the Devil and reclaim them from the irregularities of the Animal life to the embracement of the Divine by such a way as is most accommodate to the humane Faculties and Capacities 12. And what do we think could work more kindly upon the Nature of man to disenslave him from the bondage of Satan and to make him close with the Divine life which he had forsaken then to exhibit a very visible Example thereof in some venerable Person who should earnestly exhort mankind to follow his steps and practices and whose Doctrine should be confirmed with sensible Testimonies from Heaven in approbation and exaltation of his person shewing that he is the only Beloved the Darling and Delight of the Eternal God with some such Expression as this from the very clouds This is my beloved Son hear him In brief That his Birth Life and Death should be adorned with such miraculous and supernatural Circumstances that it may be visible to all men that are not willingly blinde that this man was a true and infallible Messenger sent from God Which would be a very forcible battery laid against their outward senses 13. But being that this had been the sadder message by how much more they had been ascertain'd it had been true That they must forsake the exorbitant pleasures of the Animal Life and keep close up to the Divine it was also requisite that they might be assured of a proportionable Reward for so great an Agony as they were to undergoe in mortifying castigating their natural or habitual desires and betaking themselves to the streighter way And therefore it is fit that that Truth that is so obscure and incredible to the generality of men should be made grosly manifest to the meanest capacities I mean the Reward of a blessed Immortality after this Life and the regaining of Heaven or Paradise which lapsed Mankind had lost The Certainty whereof I cannot tell how it may be better assured to them then by the witness of one whom we are sure is infallible and who saies expressly that he came from thence and after Death is to go thither again and does not only tell the World so but proves it to outward sight he being raise out of his Grave after he was perfectly dead and ascending into the Heavens where flesh and bloud cannot inhabit Which is a visible Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality and as feelingly accommodate to the slowest apprehension as if some man of whose honesty the people were indubitably assured should descend from some high Hill where none of the Country had had the hap to have been as yet and should tell them what pleasant Woods and Groves there were there full of all manner of delicious Fruit a true terrestrial Paradise and that it was not so steep or inaccessible as they imagined and therewith should return thither in the very sight of those that questioned the Matter This consideration would reach their very inward Reason and indispensable Interest For they that are the lowest lapsed are not fallen from the sense of their own good and from a desire of everlasting happiness if they find it possible 14. This were enough to make mankinde weary of the Devil 's Tyrannical yoke But in all revolts there ought to be some Head and no person is so fit for such a purpose as he who is able to reward his followers whose Vertues are eminently opposite to the Vices of the Tyrant and whose Rule when he is installed will as little thwart the usual or natural and innocent propensions of the People as may be Wherefore whereas the Devil's Government is notorious for unspeakable Pride Insolency and Cruelty to Mankind as has been at large discovered in those bloudy sacrificings and despightfully misusings of men in a way of Superstition which no man can doubt to have any better Author then Satan himself the Head of this warrantable Revolt must be singularly kind and tenderly and affectionately loving and compassionate to the Generations of men as also very humble and lowly and be so far from requiring such abominable and bloudy homages as the sacrificing of men to him that he would willingly lay down his life for their sake Which must needs prove an unspeakable endearment of the affections of his followers to him and raise in them a more vehement detestation of the Devil's Tyranny But because Love is ineffectual that has no power of doing good this Head becomes the more perfectly compleat if he be found not only so Kind as to be willing to lay down his life for his Subjects but also to be able to save them from all the inconveniences that opposite Power intangled them in whose wages were no better then Eternal death and therefore it was fitting that he should have a power from God of giving Everlasting Life and crowning them with a blessed Immortality at the last day and of saving them from that general Destruction that will in time seize as well on the rebellious Angels as the unreclaimed Souls of men 15. Lastly Those natural innocent Propensions of Mankind are gratified in this Head we speak of if there be such Properties in him as are sutable to their Opinions Practices and Desires in matters of Religion And we know by History that the Heathen were very prone to suspect those that were their eminent Benefactors to have been born of more then humane Race and that they had so high sense of Gratitude toward them that they Deified them after their Deaths and did them divine Honour Adde to this their conceit of the necessity of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the appeasing the Wrath of the Gods and of the convenience of their Dii Medioxumi Wherefore if Divine Providence add these Gratifications also in the choice of the Head she shall appoint for the opposing and beating down the Kingdome of Satan the matter is still more completely fitted and accommodated to the humane Faculties which having been long abused by idle mistakes cannot but be highly transported with joy upon the discovering their true and warrantable Object and so the Nations will finde such a Prince and Leader as the more they behold him and eye him the more they must become enravished by him Divine Wisdome condescending by this contrivance to the utmost curiosity of Courtship to win off poor lapsed Mankind from the Tyranny of Satan to the Kingdome of God 16. This is a short Review of the more Intelligible part of Christianity the Reasonableness whereof I take to be such that I dare appeal to the judgment of any if it be not so worthy of the Divine Wisdome and Goodness and so fitly suited unto the nature and condition of things and the state of men upon earth that it is indispensable but that Providence
Solomon in defining her to be the true Mother that could not endure that the Child should be divided and killed And whatever Church is cruell and remorsless in either Temporall persecution or the Eternall damnation of such men as believe in Christ according to the plain and easie meaning of the Scripture and live accordingly she may approve her self to be an imperious Harlot but no discerning spirit will ever take her for the true Mother that new Ierusalem which is the Spouse of Christ or Wife of the Lamb. Wherefore those are very weak Christians that are so low-belled by this terror as to be taken up and captivated by the Church of Rome and acknowledge her the mother-Church by force of that Argument that demonstrates the contrary to say nothing of their disingenuous abuse of the Charity of the Reformed Churches But for my own part I confess that for sureness I had rather exercise my Charity in wishing them Converts from Popery then express any great confidence of their being safe in that Religion Not that it is possible for me who cannot infallibly demonstrate to my self that all that lived under Paganisme are certainly damned to imagine that all that have gone under the name of Papists have tumbled down into Hell But the case is much like that in Shipwrack on the sea or Pestilence in a City where we will suppose not a house free no man can pronounce that it is impossible that such or such a person should escape nor that any of them are in any tolerable safety The danger is alike to them that adhere to the Apostate Church for though there be a possibility of some mens being saved by an extraordinary or miraculous Providence they breaking through all those impediments and snares that are laid in their way and attaining to a Dispensation above the Church they live in as haply some under Paganisme did yet it cannot be denied but that the Oeconomie of that Church naturally tends to the betraying of Souls to Eternall destruction that falling out which our Saviour said of old of the Pharisees They compass sea and land to make one profelyte and when he is made he becomes twofold more the child of the devil then themselves For he will not stint his Hypocrisie in Religion by the measure of their gain that invented the forme and submit to it for their End but for his own namely that he may excuse himself from all reall holiness by keeping to the observation and profession of their vain inventions And thus are the Commandements of God made of none effect by their Traditions In brief the whole frame of that Church is fashioned out so near to the ancient guise of Idolatrous Paganisme or else to the liveless and ineffectual forme of Judaisme both which Christ appeared on purpose to destroy as either contrary or ineffectuall to Salvation and does explicitly recommend to the world a pure and spirituall worship that we should worship the Father in Spirit and in truth or lastly is so full of Contradictions and Impossibilities in their feigned Stories and imperiously-obtruded Opinions that the natural result of being born under such a Religion or of turning to it is either to become a besotted Superstitionist to believe or do any thing that others will have him to do which is a sign the Spirit of Regeneration has not yet passed upon him and that there is no life nor light in him or else which is too frequent to turn down-right Atheist it being so grosly discernable that the Tenents of their Church are impossible and their Practices fraudulent fitted chiefly for filthy lucre and their Ceremonies useless thankless and ridiculous And therefore if any be saved in the Church of Rome they are such as are not truely of it but above it and fend for themselves as well as they may by some pardonable sleights of Prudence accompanied with an impregnable innocency of Spirit and readiness of doing all possible good they can they sparing their own lives and liberties upon no other account then that and out of a perswasion that he that commanded them to be wise as Serpents as well as innocent as Doves has given them no commission inconsiderately and to no purpose to betray themselves into the power of his usurping Enemy But for others that are perfect Papists and swallow down all that Church proposes to them without chewing or distasting any thing it is a Demonstration there is no Principle of life in them but that they are like dead earthen pitchers which receive poison and wholesome liquors with a like admittance And if there be no principle of life there is no seed of Salvation in a man For it is most certainly true and the Scripture it self doth witness to it That unless a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdome of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This is the new Creature that is created in wisdome righteousness and true holiness The first of which the Church of Rome expunges in that it gives no leave to a man never so regenerate to judge for himself but he must say as the Church sayes right or wrong and for the other two all their superstitious Ceremonies put together adde nothing to them but rather stifle and sufflaminate them Again S. John tell us That he that hates his brother is in the dark and walketh in the dark and knows no whither he goes But others may know it as appears by another saying of the same Apostle Every one that hates his brother is a murderer and no murderer hath eternall life abiding in him But on the contrary he affirms That Love is of God and that he that loveth is born of God and knowes God Now to apply the Case to these Rules If Love be an essential Character of a Regenerate soul and Hatred of Errour Darkness and Eternal Death or to come yet closer If Hatred it self be Murder what will Murder it self be added thereunto And if any thing be Murder I demand whether this be not namely to take away the life of a member of Iesus Christ who does fully and freely profess the Ancient and Apostolick Faith according to the Letter or History of the New Testament and does seriously compose his life according to the Precepts therein contained and does onely declare against and reject the Contradictious Opinions and Idolatrous Practices that have no ground at all in Scripture nor Reason but are quite contrary to both I say if this be no Murder there is no Murder in the world and how guilty the Church of Rome is of this Crime all the world knowes Wherefore this being one of the Principles of that bloudy Church and he that is a perfect Papist being of one mind and suffrage with his Church in all things for she will be held no less then Infallible 't is apparent that no through-paced Papist can ever go to
Virginia Mexico Peru and Brasilia But it would be as tedious as needless to harp so long on one string by so voluminous an Induction and it is more warrantable to be sparing then over-lavish in so copious and confessed a matter Whoever reads those Writers which are numerous enough that can inform them in this inquiry he will assuredly find That the Religion of the Heathen reached no further then the Objects of the Animal life and that though they may go under several names yet that they are the same things every where viz. Wrath Lust and Sensuality or such things as are in subserviency to these as Corn Wine and other Requisites for the necessities or delights of Man as also those Powers that have an influence upon these as the Sun Moon and Stars Fire Water Air and the like 8. We may adde to these Inanimate things Eminent persons whom they could not but acknowledge as their great Benefactors Such were their Law-givers Kings and Commanders that fought their battels successfully the first Inventours of Arts or any useful contrivance for the convenience of life Wherefore the most subtil defenders of the worship of the Pagans let them elude the charge of Idolatry as well as they can or Polytheism yet they can never avoid the imputation That their serving of God in the Heathens Ceremonies is not any thing more then the acknowledging that Power that is able to gratifie or grieve the Spirit of the mere Natural Man CHAP. VIII 1. That Judaism also respected nothing else but the Gratifications of the Animal life as appears in all their Festivals 2. That though the People were held in that low dispensation yet Moses knew the meaning of his own Types and that Immortality that was to be revealed by Christ. 3. That their Sabbaths reached no further then things of this life 4. Nor their Sabbatical years and Iubilees 5. Nor their Feasts of Trumpets 6. Nor their Feast of Tabernacles 7. Nor their Pentecost 8. Nor lastly their Feast of Expiation 1. AND truly that the absolute Transcendency of the Christian Religion may be the better understood I cannot here omit that Iudaism does very much symbolize with Paganism in this point we are upon For though the Iewes were very right and orthodox in this in that they did direct their worship to that One and only true God that made Heaven and Earth and is the Author and Giver of every good gift and that without the offence and scandal of Idolatrous worship yet under this dispensation of Moses he seems openly to promise nothing more to the people of the Iewes then the present enjoyments of this Natural life nor threatens any thing but the plagues thereof as seems manifest Deuteronomy 28. where the Blessings of obedience to Moses his Law and the Cursings of disobedience are largely set down 2. Not but that I can easily believe that Moses himself understood the Mystery of Immortality and the Promise of those Eternal joyes to be revealed by the Messias in the fulness of time as also the meaning of all the Types that refer unto him and that his Successors also in that nation their Holy Men or Prophets had some measurable Knowledge thereof But my meaning is that the Generality of the Iews were locked up in this lower kind of Dispensation and that Moses his Law in the Externals thereof drives at no higher then thus as is apparent from all the Festivals thereof they none of them concerning any thing more then the enjoyments and conveniences of this present life 3. For as for their Sabbaths they were but a Memorial of the Creation of this visible world the belief whereof the Sadducees embraced as well as others though they denied that there was either Angel or Spirit for there is not any mention of the Creation of any such thing in the external letter of Moses and therefore the Appearances of Angels they look'd upon as only present Emanations from God which ceased as he disappeared 4. And for their Sabbatical year as also the year of Iubilee which was celebrated at the end of seven times seven years besides that they are not without a reflection upon the Creation of the World which was compleated at the seventh day wherein therefore God rested the other reasons according to the Text of Moses reach no further then the things of this present life For as concerning the Sabbatical year the Precept runs thus Six years thou shalt sow thy land and gather the fruits thereof but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lye still that the poor of thy people may eat in like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy olive-yard And for the Iubilee it is evident that it had a secular use for the releasment of Servants and restoring of lands to their first owners who were necessitated to sell them Those Feasts therefore were instituted in order to a Political good 5. Their Feasts of Trumpets and their New-Moons seem indeed to have an higher use to call the people together to hear the Law but I told you before that the Blessings and Cursings of the Law were merely Temporal And for their Sacrifices of Thanksgiving and of Atonement they were in reference to what is Good or Evil to this life of the Flesh. 6. Their Feast of Tabernacles was instituted in remembrance that the Children of Israel dwelt in Tabernacles and Boothes when God brought them out of the land of Aegypt As also their Passeover was a more particular representation of the manner of their delivery out of the hands of the Aegyptians as you may see Exodus the 12. 7. Their Pentecost that is the fiftieth day after the Passeover in this they offered two wave-loaves as upon the second day of the Passeover they offered a sheaf of the first fruits of their Harvest so that those Solemnities respected merely the Fruits of the Earth 8. And lastly as for the Feast of Expiation wherein the Scape-goat carried away the sins of the people and the evils deserved thereby into the wilderness being as I have already intimated that those plagues or evils denounced in Moses his Law be but of a secular consideration it is plain that this particular Ceremony in the Religion of Moses in the letter thereof reaches no further then the Pleasures or Aggrievances of this mortal life It being reserved for Christ alone to bring the most certain and most comfortable News of that Eternal Joy which we shall be made partakers of with him for ever in the Heavens who was to abolish Death and to bring Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel as S. Paul speaks CHAP. IX 1. The Preeminency of Judaism above Paganism 2. The Authors of the Religions of the Heathen who they were 3. How naturally lapsed Mankind fals under the superstitious Tyranny of Devils 4. The palpable effects of this Tyranny in the Nations of America 5. That that false and wilde Resignation in the Quakers does
that they that obey it not shall be damned That Christ knew the very thoughts of mens hearts that he raised the dead that he healed men of incurable diseases that he gave sight to the blind and made the dumb to speak That the Apostles of Christ Matthew Peter and Paul healed one Habib Anaiar of the Leprosie at Antioch and raised the King's daughter from the dead as also gave sight to a childe that was born blinde And lastly three Preeminences the Alcoran gives to Christ which it gives not to any other Prophet to Abraham Moses no nor Mahomet himself The first is That he was carried up to Heaven bodie and soul where it is expresly added in Zuna that he shall return from thence to judge the world with righteous judgment The second That he shall be called The Word of God The third That he should be called The Holy Spirit of God These things you may read more at large in Iohannes Andreas his Confusio Sectae Mahometanae as also in others out of whom you may also add that the Turks have so venerable an esteem of S. Iohn's Gospel that they wear it next their bodies as an amulet when they goe to war to keep them from gun-shot 8. This I thought worth the noting partly that that Honour which is due to Christ may not be given to Mahomet of whom the best that can be said is only this That he did not so utterly pervert and deprave the mystery of the Gospel by either his ignorance political tricks or fanatical humours and whimsies but that there was so much of the substance and virtue thereof left as being seconded with the dint of the Sword was able enough to hew down the more gross Heathenish Idolatry chastise the disobedient Hypocritical Christians and ruine the external dominion of the Devil in the World and partly that we may discern what great hopes there are that in due time when the chief scandals of Christendome are taken away they being so far prepared already in their reverend opinion concerning our blessed Saviour the whole Turkish Empire may of a sudden become true Christians that which is vain and false among them having no better prop then the foolish and idle Visions false pretended Miracles and groundless fables of a mere wily phansifull and unclean Impostour whenas the pure Christian Religion comprehended in the Gospel is so solid sincere rational that no man that is master of his wits but may be throughly satisfied concerning the truth thereof CHAP. XIII 1. The Triumph of the Divine Life not so large hitherto as the overthrow of the external Empire of the Devil 2. Her conspicuous Eminency in the Primitive times 3. The real and cruel Martyrdoms of Christians under the Ten Persecutions a demonstration that their Resurrection is not an Allegorie 4. That to allegorize away that blessed Immortality promised in the Gospel is the greatest blasphemy against Christ that can be imagined 1. YOU see then how large the Success or Event of our Saviour's coming into the World is in reference to the external overthrow of the Kingdome of the Prince of this World that old Usurper over the sons of men If you demand of me how great the Triumph of the Divine Life has been in all this victory I must answer I could wish that it was greater then it is that it had been larger and continued longer but something has been done all this time that way too 2. For Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a firm Belief of a Life to come and the Effect of this Faith which is the very nature and Spirit of Christ dwelling in us consisting of Purity Humility and Charity this sound constitution was very much in the Church in the Primitive times even then when they had no succour nor support from the hands of men nay when they were cruelly handled by them they chusing rather to be banish'd imprisoned tortured and put to any manner of death then to deny him who had redeemed them with his most precious Bloud and had prepared a place of Eternal happiness for them with himself in Heaven 3. Here Faith and the Divine Life was very conspicuously victorious and triumphant in that in the eyes of all the world it set at nought all the cruel malice of the Devil and the terrour of death it self in the most ghastly vizard he could put on as you may see innumerable Examples in the Ten bloudy Persecutions under the Heathen Emperours Which History must needs make a man abominate such light-headed and false-hearted Allegorists that would intercept the Hopes of a future life by spirituallizing those passages in Scripture that bear that sense into a present Moral and Mystical interpretation as if the Gospel and the precious Promises therein conteined reached no further then this life we now live upon Earth 4. Which is the highest reproach and blasphemie that can be invented against Christ Iesus as if he were rather a Betraier then a Saviour of Mankind and that he was more thirsty after humane bloud then those Indian Gods we have spoken of who were so lavish thereof in their sacrifices and as if it were not Love and dear Compassion towards us that made him lay down his life but hatred and a spightfull plot of making myriads of men to be massacred and sacrificed out of affection to him that thus should betray them Wherefore whosoever interprets the New Testament so as to shuffle off the assurance of Reward and Punishment after the death of the Body is either an arrant Infidel or horrid Blasphemer CHAP. XIV 1. The Corruption of the Church upon the Christian Religion becoming the Religion of the Empire 2. That there did not cease then to be a true and living Church though hid in the Wilderness 3. That though the Divine life was much under yet the Person of our Saviour Christ of the Virgin Mary c. were very richly honoured 4. And the Apostles and Martyrs highly complemented according to the ancient guize of the Pagan Ceremonies 5. The condition of Christianity since the general apostasie compared to that of Una in the Desart amongst the Satyrs 6. That though this has been the state of the Church very long it will not be so alwaies and while it is so yet the real enemies of Christ do lick the dust of his feet 7. The mad work those Apes and Satyrs make with the Christian Truth 8. The great degeneracy of Christendome from the Precepts and Example of Christ in their warrs and bloudshed 9. That though Providence has connived at this Pagan Christianism for a while he will not fail to restore his Church to its pristine purity at the last 10. The full proof of which Conclusion is too voluminous for this place 1. WE have given a light glance upon the condition of the Primitive Church before Christianity became the Religion of the Empire what change would be wrought then a man might
an Aereal Body in which if Stories be true they have sometimes appeared after their decease And that they may act think and understand in these Aiery vehicles as well as other Spirits doe is not at all incredible nor improbable the Faculties of an humane Soul being not inferiour to the Faculties of some Orders of Spirits whose Understandings are not so clear but that they are divided in their judgments some being of one Sect of Philosophers some of another as those that appeared to Cardan's father professed themselves Avenroists 2. But secondly if it were granted that the Souls of the deceased were stript of all Corporeity and yet could act we may nothwithstanding very well conceive that that which once had so intimate union with the grossest of Bodies has certainly a very strong propension natural complacency or essential aptitude alwaies to join with some Body or other Which power if we may not infallibly affirm to be so catching that the Soul is never disappointed of some kinde of Vehicle yet we may safely pronounce that when that natural capacity is satisfied there accrues a greater accomplishment and more vigorous enjoiment to the Soul her Operations thereby being made more sensible and vivid And therefore that great Reward of an Heavenly Aethereal or Immortal body which shall be given at the last day is of very high concernment for the compleating of the happiness of the Souls of the faithfull whether we suppose them in the mean time to live without Bodies or to be alive only in Aiery vehicles the latter whereof if examined to the bottome will appear the most unexceptionable opinion and least liable to the Cavils of Gainsaiers But whether of them be most true I leave to the grave and wise to determine 3. This Rub being thus removed out of the way we now proceed to the special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former of which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection to Condemnation the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection to life the Resurrection of the just and simply the Resurrection as it is 1 Cor. 15. and elsewhere Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they belong to the wicked have no further sense of Revivification then in that general way we have explained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying that they were raised and made to appear at this day of general Summons merely to receive the sentence of Eternal Death Goe ye accursed into everlasting fire c. But now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is appropriated to the Resurrection of the just and is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies in it a further and more peculiar Revivification or Re-enlivening viz. into that life which was lost by the first Fall that Paradisiacal life that Aethereal and Heavenly life which is unrecoverable unless we recover those Heavenly glorified bodies which are promised to us by Christ at his coming 4. For this muddy Earth and vaporous polluted Air which is the very Region of Death wherein all the Pleasures Joyes and Triumphs of this Present Life are but like the grinning laughter of Ghosts or the dance of dead men these foul Elements I say can afford no such commodious habitation for the Soul as to arrive any thing near to the height of that Happiness which she shall be possessed of when Christ shall be pleased to change these our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious bodie and so to recover us into the enjoiment of that Heavenly Life which we unhappily forfeited by our first Fall For which purpose he came into the world as himself professes John 6. v. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever sees me and believes in me should have everlasting life and that I should raise him up at the last day 5. And so certainly it will be at his coming to Judgment that they that then see him and firmly believe on him ardently loved him and vehemently desired his Appearing shall find such a warming change in themselves partly by the glorious approach of his Person and Lustre of his numerous Retinue partly by the wonderfull secret workings of the Divine Presence in their very Bodies and Souls that at last there will be kindled such an irresistible Faith so rapturous a Joy and transportant Love that breaking out upon the Body be it what it will it will turn all into a pure Aethereal flame and so Elias-like in those Celestial chariots shall they ascend up to Christ and meet him in the Air and join with his Armie whereever it moves as becoming then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Vehicles being transformed by the power and presence of Christ and the working of his Divinity into a pure Paradisiacal and Angelical nature 6. And thus shall he make his word good of raising us up at the last day in that he does re-enliven us and restore us to that Life and Joy which we had fallen from re-enthrone us into that Glory we had defaced in our selves and was lost in these dark Bodies of ours and raise us up to that pristine state of Happiness and that superiour Paradise which we could not re-enter into or be re-estated in but by becoming wholly Aethereal or Celestial CHAP. VI. 1. That he has freed the Mysterie of the Resurrection from all Exceptions of either Atheists or Enthusiasts 2. That the Soul is not uncapable of the Happiness of an Heavenly Body 3. And that it is the highest and most sutable Reward that can be conferr'd upon her 4. That this Reward is not above the power of Christ to confer proved by what he did upon Earth 5. That all Iudgment is given to him by the Father 6. Further arguings to the same purpose 1. AND now I think we have so disentangled the Mystery of the Resurrection from all the Prejudices and conceived Difficulties that it was involved in that I may challenge all the World the Atheist Infidel and new-fangled Enthusiast if they can frame any solid Exception against it which they can manage by Reason and is not a mere sullen dictate of their own dark and dull minds 2. For this precious Crown of Immortality which Christ shall then crown us withall is neither beyond his power to give nor our capacity to receive For the offers and fluskerings as I may so say of the Faculties of the Soul of man even in this state of Death and Imprisonment are so High so Noble and Divine as well in Speculation as Devotion especially when our Spirits are more then ordinarily pure and come nearer to an Aethereal kind of defecacy that they that have the experience thereof cannot distrust but that if she had the advantage of an Angelical Bodie her operations would prove little inferiour to theirs Which is a demonstration that she is as well capable of such Bodies as they As
the Scripture-learned teach them which is plainly to deny the History of Christ and to profess our selves mere Infidels Out of which Spirit of Infidelity he has so distortedly allegorized all the clauses of the Creed that to such as are not bewitched and besotted by his fanatick blasts to a better opinion of him then he deserves he must needs appear an Infidel Lastly in his Introduction Chap. 9. sect 35. there again he does boldly affirm That it is certainly mere lies what the Letter-learned institute or set forth how clear soever in understanding if they be yet unreformed by the Love and her Service And in the following Section he plainly declares That the Scriptures are not to be taught nor held forth Historically but as Prefigurations of the Promises that are fulfilled in his Service of the Love Whence it is evident he had no belief in the Letter of the Scripture nor of the miraculous History of Christ and of the Predictions concerning him whereby our Faith should be affixed to his Humane Person Against which he useth all diligence imaginable as if not simple Care but an inspired Envy or Satanical Spite against the honour of his Person did actuate him in all his Writings 2. To which purpose I conceive is that Caution in his Introduction That no man bind his heart to any outward thing which he is served with to the Righteousness of life For of all outward things nothing can be more serviceable then the Humane Person of Christ who suffered for us and redeemed us from the wrath to come if we stand faithfull in the Covenant Those places also where he saith That the Godly life is the very Saviour himself and that no man knows Christ nor can confess him unless his shape be in him that is his Life and Image be in him seem intended as justling against the External Person of Christ as also what he saith Chap. 22. namely That no other Foundation may be laid then that Iesus Christ who from everlasting was and is and abideth for ever whereby I doubt not but he intends the exclusion of his Humane Person whose compute began but about 16 hundred years agoe But the most wonderfull sleight he puts him off by is his Mystical meaning of Christ's celebration of the Passeover with his Disciples Which we shall easily understand if we take notice what he means by Flesh in his Writings namely by Flesh is meant the Letter or History In his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Chap. 13. ver 4. Verily therefore they do all erre very much that judge according to their understanding out of the earthly Being or out of the Flesh or Letter God's truth which is Heavenly and Spiritual See also Introduct ch 14. sect 20. Now if you will but read his Evangely chap. 21. sect 3 7 8 10. also chap. 22. sect 5 6. and chap. 25. sect 1 2. you shall find in brief for it were too tedious to write these allegorical Ambages that the right Celebration of the Pascha or Passeover with Christ is That he namely Christ after the Flesh they are his own words should be slain that is that Christ according to the Letter or History should be abolished that he may be entertained only according to the Spirit Which is the great Arcanum of this Sect of the Family Behold saith he this is the right Passeover with Christ and the right Supper which the upright Believers and Disciples of Christ keep with Christ to wit that they depart even so with Christ out of the Flesh that is that Christ according to the History or Letter be crucified or slain in them that is nullified and rejected as a mere Legend or Fable and pass into the Spirit that is the spiritual Mystery of Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral of the Fable and out of the Death or Mortality that is out of the dead Letter into the Eternal Life of everlasting Immortality In which sonorous language that you may not promise to your self any such lasting purchase there is nothing meant but the state of Perfection which these Familists phansie to themselves here upon Earth and is everlasting in no other sense then in succession they promising themselves that their Sect will continue for ever and therefore he adds wherethrough sin and all destruction becomes vanquished namely by this state of Perfection wherein sin and every imperfect and destroyable state is swallowed up For they having come to the highest there is no change of things though their persons be mortal according to their own doctrine This Allegorie of the Passeover is so odd a conceit that did I not suppose the Author deeply Fanatical I should suspect it accompanied with a sly jearing and scorn against the History of Christ and to be the product of a scoffing Atheistical Spirit For no Atheist could exercise his wit here with more villainous sliness against the truth of the Scriptures then thus Which makes me sometimes think that he was not simply Fanatical but either Atheistical or possessed by the Devil himself in the mean time not knowing whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was 3. And thus we have had a taste in general how sedulously this Author endeavours to out the Person of Christ. We shall now pursue the matter in two main heads the Office of his Priesthood and his coming visibly to judgment in his Humane person To which is annexed the promise of a glorious Resurrection and Eternal Life in a plain and true sense without any shuffling or equivocating That he makes nothing of the atonement of Christ's personal sufferings he does in my judgment too plainly discover chap. 13. sect 8. of his Documental Sentences where rather then he will acknowledg the usefulness of that Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous who is a propitiation for our sins he does pronounce him that sins by violence or Temptation to be guiltless as the ravished virgin Deuteronomie 22 that so there may be no need of Christ's Sacrifice whose personal death and Priestly office he never takes notice of to this purpose As you may observe further Exhortat chap. 20. from sect 19 to the end of the chapter Where although he supposes a mans stumblings and fallings daily very great and terrible before him and that for that cause he is very wofull of heart feels the pricking of sin the darts of death and condemnation of Hell and so is in much anguish and affliction of mind yet is there no application at all of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross nor any help nor comfort at all held out by his sufferings though it was the most proper place that could be to mention them And chap. 24. in the praiers he puts up there in stead of making use of the mediation of that Christ that felt the pains of death on the Cross for us he makes use only of Gods supposed Promise or Covenant he has made with the House of
cannot better be done then by shewing the Reasonableness and important Usefulness of Christian Religion in the Historical sense thereof and in reference to the very Person of Christ our Saviour which I have I hope abundantly performed in this present Treatise and by discovering the Natural Causes and imposturous Consequences of Enthusiasme which I had done before in Enthusiasmus Triumphatus Which two Treatises I hope will prove two invincible Fortresses against all the force and fury of the Fanatical spirit 7. After this the bold impiety of this present Age engaged my Thoughts in a Subject of no less moment then the former For I saw that other abhorred monster Atheisme proudly strutting with a lofty gate and impudent forehead boasting himself the onely genuine offspring of true Wisdome and Philosophy namely of that which makes Matter alone the Substance of all things in the world This misshapen Creature was first nourished up in the stie of Epicurus and fancied it self afterward grown more tall and stout by further strength it seemed to have received from some new Principles of the French Philosophy misinterpreted and perverted by certain impure and unskilful pens Which unexpected confidence of those blind boasters made me with all anxiety and care imaginable search into the power of Matter and mere Mechanical motion and consider how far they might go of themselves in the production of the Phaenomena of the World But as for the Philosophy of Epicurus it seemed to me at the very first sight such a foolery that I was much amazed that a person of so commendable parts as P. Gassendus could ever have the patience to rake out such old course rags out of that rotten dunghill to stuffe his large Volumes withall But I must confess I did as much admire Des-Cartes Philosophy as I did despise the Epicurean who has carried on the power of Matter for the production of the Phaenomena of Nature with that neatness and coherence that if he had been as ignorant in other things as skilful in Mechanicks he could not but have fancied himself to have wone that crown that many wits have striven for that is the honour of being accounted the most subtil and able Atheist of both the present and past Ages This made me peruse his Writings with still more and more diligence and the more I read the more I admired his Wit but at last grew the more confirmed That it was utterly impossible that Matter should be the onely essential Principle of things as I have in several places of my Writings demonstrated And therefore having clearly vanquished this difficulty I betook my self with greater alacrity to the writing of my Antidote against Atheisme To which presently after I added my Threefold Cabbala as an Appendix to the same design being well advised what a homely conceit our high Wits have of the Three first Chapters of Genesis though they do betray their own ignorance by their mean opinion of them 8. And possibly then I had left off had not a dangerous Sickness that made me suspect that the time did near approach of quitting this my earthly Tabernacle urged me more carefully to bethink my self what reception I might have in the other world And praised be God such was the condition of my Soul though then much overrun with Melancholy that my presages concerning my future state were very favourable and comfortable and my desire was to be gathered to that body of which Iesus Christ is Head even he who was crucified at Ierusalem and felt the pangs of death for a Propitiation of the sins of the world who was then represented to me as visible a Prince and as distinct a person and head Politick as any King or Potentate upon earth And therefore being thus fully convinced with my self that He whose Life was ever to me the most sweet and lovely of any thing I could see or taste was indeed even in his Humane nature made a King and Priest for ever and constituted Soveraign over men and Angels my Heart was full of Ioy but withall accompanied with a just measure of shame that I had spoken hitherto so sparingly of his Royal Office and of the homage due to so Divine a Potentate whose Subject to my great satisfaction I found my self to be and whose presence I did not at all despair of approaching in due time to my eternal comfort and honour Which sense of things made me conceive a solemn Vow with my self if God gave me life to write this present Treatise Which occasion I thought fit not to conceal though I be much averse from speaking any thing over-particularly of my self that the high-flown Fanaticks of this Age may consider more carefully what I have writ and take heed how they either slight or revolt from their Celestial Soveraign But I thought it very convenient before I put in execution this great design to take again into consideration that other weighty Subject The Immortality of the Soul being better appointed and provided for the clearing of that Truth then I was when I first adventured upon the Theory And thus having fully convinced my self and I hope as many else as are capable of judging of the more choice and subtile Conclusions of Reason and Philosophy That there is a God and That the Soul of man is immortal which are the two main pillars upon which all Religion stands I advanced forward with courage having left no Enemy behind and betook my self with great confidence to the finishing and publishing of this present Treatise Of the Mystery of Christianity Which I look upon as the most precious and the most concerning piece of Wisdome that is communicable to the Soul of Man the very chief and top bough of that Tree of Knowledge whose fruit has neither poison nor bitterness And therefore being come to my journeys end I will here sit down with thanks and enjoy my self under this comfortable shade and do assure thee Reader that I am not likely to weary thy eyes with the descriptions of any further discoveries by my pen. 9. Onely that thou mayest view this with the better ease and satisfaction I shall according to my usual manner endeavour to remove all rubs of offence out of thy way by giving thee an account aforehand of whatever may seem to thee a considerable either Superfluity Defect or Aberration in my Performance not omitting to impart to thee the right and proper meaning of the very Title of my Discourse Thou must therefore expect from my terming of it An Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness not a mere verbal Exposition or Declaration what is signified therein but such an orderly Exhibition of the Truths thereof that the Scope of the Whole being understood the Reasonableness of the Particulars thereunto tending may clearly appear And the End to which all Parts of the Christian Mystery point at is the Advancement and Triumph of the Divine Life In the exaltation whereof God is the most
Reason who pretend not to dictate but demonstrate out of Scripture the Sleep of the Soul confidently suggesting to the better gaining Proselytes to their own that the contrary opinion is not Christian but Heathenish derived from the Philosophy of Plato which the Greek Fathers had imbibed and thence introduced into the Church of Christ. To the First of which I answer That our Adversaries Demonstrations for the Sleep of the Soul are but their own Imaginations and Dreams upon the mistaken Text. It is beside my scope to insist long on this matter I shall onely give you a tast of the weakness of the rest of their Arguments by proposing and refuting of those that seem the strongest Their main proof is from the whole tenor of the 15 of the 1 Cor. and more particularly from the 32 verse If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not Hence they think may certainly be concluded That the Soul before the Resurrection of the Body has not the Perception or Enjoyment of any thing otherwise the very Remembrance of those sufferings for Christ might be a solace for Paul when he was out of the Body 3. But to answer this Difficulty with the fuller satisfaction let us premise some few things to prepare the way to it As first That the Schemes of speech in Prophets and men inspired are usually such as most powerfully strike the Phansie and most strongly beat upon the Imagination they describing things in the most sensible palpable and particular representations that can be According to which Figure the General Resurrection is set off by mens awaking out of the dust of the Earth and coming out of the Graves when as yet many thousands have wanted Burial their bones rotting on the surface of the Earth and as many thousands have had their intombement in the Waters 4. Secondly That the Holy Writers do not pen down their Conceptions in so strict a Scholastick Method that they keep precisely and punctually to one Title but by a free vibration of Phansie give a touch here and a touch there according as they were moved and actuated by that Spirit that exhibits more to their Minds at once then their Tongue has leasure orderly and distinctly to utter and are more earnestly taken up in making good the main and most usefull scope of their discourse then to satisfie mens Curiosities in particular Niceties 5. Thirdly That many Words in Scripture have a lax and ambiguous sense and that therefore they are to be understood according as Circumstances and Likelyhood of Truth determine and that these Termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of that nature they sometimes signifying the raising up again of a Body out of the grave sometimes merely vivificating of the Body or recovering a Person to life other sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very same with the Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius observes which signifies nothing else but Eternal life or a Blessed Immortality Others enlarge the Signification further and make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conservation in Being And Death seeming to us so dangerous a passage as if we were in hazard of either falling asleep or sliding into a Non-subsistence Divine Conservation because we begin then a new state of life is not unfitly termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as giving us as it were a new Subsistence setting us upon our feet again and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as keeping us awake when we seemed in danger of letting go all functions of life Which meaning of the words a late Interpreter handsomely makes good comparing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.17 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 9.16 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Conservation is excellently set out by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may imply a kinde of jogging or stirring up which is used to recover or prevent ones falling into a swoon and God is the grand Author of Life and Motion as the Apostle speaks 6. Fourthly and lastly That the Corinthians being a people given notoriously to the pleasures of the Flesh there is no question to be made but the Temptations of the place had also drawn away some Members of the Church there at Corinth and made them also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there being nothing that does so much extinguish all Hopes and Apprehensions of a Life to come as Carnal and Sensual pleasures it is very likely that those corrupted members fell away in their own judgments from the belief of any Reward after this life and so with Himeneus and Philetus or with the David-Georgians and our modern Nicolaitans allegorized away the real meaning of the Resurrection or the Blessed Immortality into a mere moral sense under pretence whereof they might ostentate themselves more Spiritual and knowing Christians then the rest and yet with less fear and remorse of conscience indulge to themselves all loosness and liberty of enjoying every tempting pleasure of this mortall life 7. Wherefore to the present Argument I answer in general out of this last and the foregoing Premiss That the purpose of the Apostle in this 15 to the Corinthians is to shew That there is a Life after the death of this Body and a Blessed Immortality to be expected A palpable pledge whereof was God's raising of Christs body out of the grave and exhibiting him alive to his Disciples Which was a Sign very significant and expressive of the thing this Blessed Immortality mainly consisting in being clothed with those Heavenly Ethereal and Paradisiacal bodies which Christ will bestow upon those that belong to him at the last day 8. Out of the First I answer That though S. Paul speak in such a Phrase as fixes our Imagination on the Earth only as is plain from that comparison of seed sown and rotting in the ground for men sow not seed upon the Water yet in whatsoever Element the Souls or Bodies of the Saints be found Earth Water or Air nay though we should grant with some that sundry Souls of holy men act in Aery vehicles in this interval betwixt their Death and the Day of Judgment yet it is no more prejudice to them then to those that are found alive in the flesh For none are excluded from the enjoyment of their glorified bodies 9. Out of the Second and Third I answer That S. Paul might very well have Three conceptions vibrating in his minde while he wrote concerning this Mystery the one more Simple and General of the Life and Subsistency of the Soul out of this Earthly Body the other more Special of a Blessed Immortality and the Third most Determinate of all which represented the manner of this Blessedness in being invested with glorified bodies And out of this General I shall direct a
Adversaries term it of the Soul 's being able to act after the death of the Body from the Philosophy of Plato it had been even impossible for them to forgoe the latter part concerning the Pre-existent life of the Soul before she comes into these Bodies which is the thing I have all this while driven at CHAP. IX 1. Proofs out of Scripture That the Soul does not sleep after death as 1 Peter 3. with the explication thereof 2. The Authors Paraphrase compared with Calvin's Interpretation 3. That Calvin needed not to suppose the Apostle to have writ false Greek 4. Two waies of interpreting the Apostle so as both Grammatical Soloecisme and Purgatory may be declined 5. The second way of Interpretation 6. A second proof out of Scripture 7. A third of like nature with the former 8. A further enforcement and explication thereof 9. A fourth place 10. A fifth from Hebr. 12. where God is called the Father of Spirits c. 11. A sixth testimony from our Saviours words Matth. 20.28 1. BUT that this so Usefull and Comfortable a Doctrine of the Soul 's living and subsisting after the shipwrack of this Body may be firmly established I shall further adde what plain Evidences there are in Scripture for the proof thereof For as for those of Reason I shall refer you again to my above-named Treatise Book 2. ch 16 17 and 18. And I conceive that of 1 Pet. 3. v. 18 19 20. is none of the meanest if Prejudice and Violence wrest it not out of its genuine sense which any man may easily apprehend to be this For Christ also has once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death as to his Body or Flesh but yet safe and alive as to his Soul and Spirit By which also he went and preached unto the separated Souls and Spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient viz. in the days of Noe. 2. That solid interpreter of Scripture Iohn Calvin expounds it in the main according to this Paraphrase only for being alive as to his Soul or Spirit he reads it vivificatus Spiritu meaning by Spirit the Spirit of God But it is plain that the Antithesis is more patt and punctual as we have rendred it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as warrantably interpreted to be alive as to be made alive as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be grave not to be made grave Beside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Septuagint signifies not only to revive one dead but to save alive according to which sense we have translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is also another slight difference betwixt us in that he had rather have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated a watch-tower then a prison Which we should easily admit who alledge this place against the Sleep of the Soul but he acknowledging also that the other sense is good we have not varied from the common Translation The greatest discrepancy is that he conceives that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Dative for a Genitive absolute but I leave him there to compound that controversie with the Grammarians The truth is the learned and pious Interpreter thought it more tolerable to admit that the Apostle writ false Syntax then unsound Doctrine the fond opinion of the Papistical Purgatory being a worse Soloecisme in Religion then to Latinize in Greek or put a false Case is in Grammar 3. But this being too loose a Principle wholy unsatisfactory to our Adversaries to phansie the Holy Writers to soloecize in their language when we do not like the sense he had better have taken some other course more allowable to save us from the peril of Purgatory and in my judgment there are two either of which will suffice to fence us from the Assaults of the Romanists 4. The first is By observing a latitude of sense in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as Aristotle notes in his Metaphys lib. 4. cap. 12. the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition does not only signifie perfect privation but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence we may well translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in times past were not so obedient or so believing as they should be and who were so bad that they might be punished in their bodies and perish in the Deluge but yet so good that at length they must attain to an higher degree of eternal life by Christ's preaching to the dead as is also intimated in the following chapter of this Epistle ver 6. Wherefore acknowledging but Two states viz. of either Hell or Paradise we say that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were in the very lowest degree of Paradise in which they were kept as in an inferior Mansion which was as a kind of prison or close custody unto them their desires aspiring higher till there was made a great accession unto their happiness upon Christ's appearing and preaching unto them And this is the very sense that Calvin aims at in his Commentarie upon this place 5. But there is yet another Interpretation which we will propound in the second place as free from the fear of any Purgatory as the former and requires no immutation at all in our foregoing Paraphrase We 'll admit therefore that these Disobedient Souls were in Hell not in the lowest Region but in the more tolerable parts thereof It does not at all from hence follow because Christ in his Spirit exhibited himself to these preached to them and prepared them by the glad tidings of the Gospel after carryed them to Heaven with him in Triumph as a glorious spoil taken out of the jaws of the Devil that there is any Redemption out of Hell now much less any Purgatorie For there were two notable occasions for this such as will never happen again For it respects the Souls of them that were suddenly swept away in the Deluge and the Solemnity of our Saviours Crucifixion and Ascension He even in the midst of Death undermining the Prince of Death and at his Ascension victoriously carrying away these First-fruits of his Suffering and presenting them to his Father in the highest Heaven But to expect from this that there should be still continued a daily or yearly releasment out of Hell or Purgatory is as groundlesly concluded as if because at the solemn Coronation of some great Prince all the prison-doors in some City were flung open Malefactors should infer that they will ever stand open all his whole Reign Thus we see how safe also the easy and obvious sense of this place is which I thought fit to rescue from the torture of other more learned and curious Expositors that it might be able to give its free suffrage for the Confirmation of a Point so usefull as this we have in hand For it is plain that if Christ preached to the dead they
were not asleep at so concerning a Sermon 6. Again 2 Cor. 5. v. 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly intimates a going out of this Mortal Body not a change of it into an Immortal one therefore we may safely conclude that this courage and willingness of the Apostle to die implies an enjoyment of the presence of Christ after death before the general Resurrection Else why should he rather desire to die then to live but that he expects that Faith should be presently perfected by Sight as he insinuates in the foregoing verse But assuredly better is that enjoyment which is onely by Faith then to have no enjoyment at all as it must be if the Soul cannot operate out of this Body 7. A like Proof to this and further Confirmation of the Truth is that of Philipp 1.21 22 23 24. where the Apostle again professing his courage and forwardness to magnifie Christ in his body whether by life or by death uses the like Argument as before For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain But if I live in the flesh it will be worth my labour yet what I should chuse I wote not For I am in a strife betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you 8. The genuine sense of which Place is questionless this That while he lived his life was like Christ's upon Earth innocent but encumbred with much hardship and affliction bearing about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus but if he died he should then once for all seal to the Truth of his Martyrdome and not onely scape all future troubles which yet the love of Christ his Assistance and Hope of Reward did ever sustain him in but which was his great gain and advantage arrive to an higher fruition of him after whom he had so longing a desire But if to be with Christ were to sleep in his bosome and not so much as to be sensible he is there it were impossible the Apostles affections should be carried so strongly to that state or his judgement should determine it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so exceedingly much better especially his stay in the flesh being so necessary to the Philippians and the rest of the Church and what he suffered and might further suffer in his life no less a Testimony to the Truth then Death it self 9. Fourthly Those phrases of S. Peter 2 Pet. 1.13 Yea I think it meet so long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up and put you in remembrance Knowing that I must shortly put off this Tabernacle c. And so vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all likelyhood alludes to the same as if his Soul went out of the Body as out of a Tabernacle All these Phrases I say seem to me manifestly to indicate that there is no such necessary Union betwixt the Soul and the Body but she may act as freely out of it as in it as men are nothing the more dull sleepy or senseless by putting off their cloaths and going out of the house but rather more awakened active and sensible 10. Fifthly Hebr. 12. There God is called the Father of Spirits the Corrector and Chastiser of our Souls in contradistinction to our Flesh or Bodies and then vers 22. lifting us up quite above the consideration of our Corporeal condition he brings us to the Mystical mount Sion the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the Universal assembly and Church of the first-born which are inrolled in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect Now I demand what Perfection can be in the Spirits of these just men to be overwhelmed in a senseless Sleep or what a disproportionable and unsutable representation is it of this throng Theatre in Heaven made up of Saints and Angels that so great a part of them as the Souls of the Holy men deceased should be found drooping or quite drown'd in an unactive Lethargie Certainly as it is incongruous in it self so it is altogether inconsistent with the magnificency of the representation which this Author intends in this place 11. Sixthly Matth. 10.28 The life of the Soul separate from the Body is there plainly asserted by our Saviour Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell i. e. able if he will to destroy the life both of Body and Soul in Hell-fire according to the conceit of those whose opinions I have recited in my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 3. chap. 18. or else miserably to punish or afflict both Body and Soul in Hell the torments whereof are worse then Death it self For as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perire signifie to be excessively miserable so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perdere may very well signifie to make excessively miserable But now for the former part of the verse but are not able to kill the Soul it is evident that they were able if the Soul could not live separate from the Body For killing of the Body what is it but depriving it of life wherefore if the Soul by the death of the Body be also deprived of life it is manifest that she can be killed which is contrary to our Saviour's Assertion CHAP. X. 1. A pregnant Argument from the State of the Soul of Christ and of the Thief after death 2. Grotius his explication of Christ's promise to the Thief 3. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. How Christ with the Thief could be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise at once 5. That the Parables of Dives and Lazarus and of the unjust Steward implie That the Soul hath life and sense immediately after death 1. WE have yet one more notable Testimony against our Adversaries Our Saviour Christ's Soul and the Thief 's upon the Cross did subsist and live immediately upon the death of the Body as appears from Luke 23.42 43. And he said unto Iesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome And Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise As if he should thus answer Thou indeed beggest of me that I would be mindfull of thee when I come into my Kingdome but I will not deferre thee so long onely distrust not the unexpected riches of my goodness to thee For verily I say unto thee That this very day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And there is no evasion from this Interpretation the Syriack as Grotius noteth interpointing betwixt I say unto thee and Today and all the Greek copies as Beza affirmes joyning
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of them also having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that all subterfuge is quite taken away 2. Grotius his Commentary upon this place is very ingenious wherein he supposes Christ to speak to the Thief being a Jew according to the Doctrine of the Hebrews who called the state of the piously-deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garden of Pleasure or Paradise where though they enjoyed not that consummate Happiness which they were in expectation of at the Resurrection yet they were at the present in a great deal of Joy and Pleasure so much indeed that they held none to arrive to it after their death but such as had their Souls well purified before they departed their Bodies whom he parallells to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above mentioned out of the Author to the Hebrews chap. 12. and therefore there was great cause saith he that our Saviour said This day thereby signifying that he should not be any longer deferred according to the Doctrine of their Rabbins notwithstanding the vainness of his life but upon this his Repentance should immediately be with Christ in Paradise even that very day he spoke unto him 3. Nor need we with S. Austin sweat much in labouring to make that Article of the Apostles Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agree with his being in Paradise in the Intervall betwixt his Death and Resurrection For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general as this Expositour makes good signifies nothing else but the invisible state of Souls separate from the Body nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restrain it to a descent into Hell For as for this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is spoken of the whole Person of Christ as it is also of others that enter into the state of the dead by the defixion of our Phansy upon what is most gross and sensible viz. the going down of the body into the grave we are easily drawn to make use of it to express the whole business both of the Bodie 's and the Soul 's receding from amongst the number of the living as Iacob does Genes 37.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when notwithstanding his Son was not buried but torn in pieces with wild beasts as he thought Wherefore the sense is my Body descending into the Grave with my Soul shall I go unto my Son into the Region of the dead 4. Again Though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usually signifies to descend or go downwards yet it signifies sometimes merely to vanish or go out of sight and very often as in other words so in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has no signification at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go of which it were easie to give plenty of Examples out of the Septuagint but that I account it needless Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be rendred not that he descended into hell but that he went into the Region of Souls separate or of the Spirits of men departed this life And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears this General sense Grotius makes good not only from the forecited place of Genesis but from the use of the word in sundry Greek Authors as Diphilus Sophocles Diodorus Siculus Iosephus Plato and others That of Plutarch is very remarkable where he expounds that verse of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same Author elsewhere To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating that the Air is that Invisible Region of the dead into which the Spirits of dying men depart And it is confessed of all sides that whereas those other Elements Fire Water Earth are visible that the Air and Aether are utterly invisible and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well contain in it both Hell and Paradise Whence it is plain that Christ might be at the same time both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise as a man may be both in England and in London at once And his Promise to the Thief of the immediate enjoyment of that Bliss was as it were a Proclamation from the Cross to all the World That the Souls of men live and subsist out of their Bodies Which he further demonstrated by reassuming his own and ascending with it up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples 5. Which Truth he seems to me also plainly to suppose in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus as also of the Unjust Steward For Dives his desiring Abraham to send Lazarus to his brethren to inform them of his sad condition in what trouble and torment he was does manifestly imply That the Souls of the Wicked are in Torment and in Trouble before the Day of Judgment yea immediately upon their Death and That the Souls of the Godly are forthwith in Joy after their departure out of this life as is intimated by the Transportation of Lazarus his Soul into Abraham's bosome and our Saviour's application of the Parable of the Steward exhorting us to be liberal of these worldly goods that when this life and the pleasures thereof fail we may be received into joy everlasting But we need not insist upon what is more obnoxious to the Cavils and Evasions of our slippery Adversaries we having produced already so many and unexceptionable Testimonies of Scripture for the Confirmation of the present Truth viz. That it is no Paganism but sound and warrantable Christianity to assert That the Souls of the deceased do not sleep but do live understand and perceive what condition they are in after death be it good or evil BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. He passes to the more Intelligible parts of Christianity for the understanding whereof certain preparative Propositions are to be laid down 2. As That there is a God 3. A brief account of the Assertion from his Idea 4. A further Confirmation from its ordinary concatenation with the Rational account of all other Beings as first of the Existence of the disjoynt and independent particles of Matter 1. WE have at length passed through the most dark and doubtful part of our journey and have given what Account we were able of the most Obscure and Abstruse points in Christianity We begin now to enter into a more lightsome Region and easier prospect of Truth the day breaking upon us and the morning-light tinging the tops of the mountains from whence we are ascertain'd of a further and a more full discovery of that Grand Mystery we seek after which the Spirit of God in the plain Records of Scripture will afterward so ratifie and confirm that to those that have a judgment to discern it will be secured from all future controversie But in the mean time we are to contemplate the Reasonableness and Intelligibleness thereof from some chief Heads or
their polluted Vehicles less of Heaven then the meanest Regenerate Soul that dwels in these Tabernacles of Earth and that of the Prophet is most true of them that their Sun is gone down at mid-day 3. Sixthly That the Destruction of these Aethereal Vehicles was not an utter Extinction of life to them but onely an Exclusion from the life and pleasures of that Supernal Paradise which they enjoyed in those Heavenly Vehicles For that they now live and move and act is manifest in that the whole World rings of their exploits and villanies 4. Seventhly That the Souls of men which are as much Immortall they being Spirits as those of the faln Angels are are not devoid of life after the death of this Body For as the Souls of the fallen Angels descended from thinner to thicker without the loss of Sense and Life so do our Souls ascend from thicker to thinner habitations with the like if not greater security of acting and living after the Death of the Body 5. Which we shall the easilier believe if we consider how contemptible and homely a thing that Organ is which is the ultimate and immediate conveigher of whatever we perceive in the outward world and which is most remarkable in which alone the Soul has any Sense at all of any thing that arrives to her cognoscence Which if it be not the Animal Spirits within the Brain which makes most of all for us I confess with Cartesius I think it most probable to be the Conarion then which nor Water nor Air nor Aether nor any other Element else seems more Simple and Homogeneal So that the advantage seems not to be in the nature of that Organ but it is because the Soul by those lawes that brought her into the Body has placed her Centre of Perception there 6. Which little Pavilion of the Soul's Centre of Perception being of so gross consistence as it is and becoming thereby less Passive and Alterable it was very requisite that there should be that curious frame of the external Organs of the Eye the Ear the Nose and other parts to strengthen those motions and impressions that they transmit so that they may be able forcibly enough to strike upon the Conarion or at least strike through the Organs and penetrate to the Animal Spirits in the Brain supposing them the most inward and immediate Organ of Perception And that the Conformation of the external Organs of Sense is such that they are to admiration fitted to this end is a thing so well known amongst the Anatomists that I need not insist on the proof of it as it is also among Physitians That none of the external Organs have any Sense at all in them no more then an Acousticon or a Dioptrick glass From whence is discovered the Unreasonableness of their Despair that conceit that when the Soul is devested of her Organical Body she can have no Sense nor Perception of any thing For this curious Organization tends to nothing else but the proportionating the vigour of Motion to the difficulty of its passage through the Nerves or to the grossness of the consistency of the Conarion Which Organical contrivance therefore may not be at all needfull in the Soul separate from the Body the Centre of Perception being placed bare in a more tender and passive Element such as Air Aether and the like So that it will be the greatest wonder in the world that the Soul should sleep after death so small a thing being able to waken her 7. Besides it is not Unreasonable but that She and other Spirits though they have no set Organs yet for more distinct and full perception of Objects may frame the Element they are in into temporary Organization and that with as much ease and swiftness as we can dilate and contract the pupil of our Eye and bring back or put forward the Crystalline humor 8. And not only to respect the Natures of Humane Souls but also the Will and Purpose of God there was never any yet that pretended to knowledge in Philosophy that denied the Immortality of the Soul in this sense which we contend for but they deni'd first a Particular Divine Providence which for my own part I think it is impossible for any one to deny that will diligently and indifferently search into the matter And therefore this Seventh Assertion may very well stand That the Souls of men are Immortal and act and live after Death Of this Subject I have wrote more lately and more fully in my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul to which the Reader may have recourse CHAP. V. 1. The Eighth Assertion That there is a Polity amongst the Angels and Souls separate both Good and Bad and therefore Two distinct Kingdomes one of Light and the other of Darkness 2. And a perpetual fewd and conflict betwixt them 3. The Ninth That there are infinite swarms of Atheistical Spirits as well Aereal as Terrestrial in an utter ignorance or hatred of all true Religion THE Eighth Assertion is That every Angel Good or Bad is as truly a Person as a man being endued also with Life Sense and Understanding whence they are likewise capable of Ioy and Pain and therefore coercible by Laws And mutual Helps being able to procure what Solitude cannot they must of necessity be Sociable and hold together in Bodies Politick and obey for either hope of advantage or fear of mischief Out of the whole masse therefore of the Angelical Nature taking in also according to Philo the Souls of men be they in what Vehicles they will there arise since their Fall two distinct Kingdoms the one of Darkness whose Laws reach no further then to the Interest of the Animal life the other of Light which is the true Kingdom of God and here the Animal life is in subjection and the Divine life bears rule as the Divine life is trodden down in the other Kingdom and the Animal life has the sole Jurisdiction 2. Now the inward life and spring of Motion in each Kingdom being so different it follows that these two Kingdoms must alwaies be at odds and that there must be a perpetual conflict till victory Which we shall still more easily conceive if we admit what is very reasonable That the Kingdom of Light reaches from Heaven to Earth that is That as there are found on the same surface of the Earth Animals both wilde and gentle harmless and poisonous and men good and bad pious and impious so likewise even in the same Regions of the Air that there are scatter'd Spirits of both Kindes good and evil Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light In the order of those Aereal Angels the ancient Philosophers ranked the Souls of men deceased whether Vertuous or Wicked unless they had reached to an extraordinary and Heroical degree of Purity and Perfection for then they conceited that they were carried up to those more high and Aethereal Regions 3. Ninthly That there
The three Branches from this Root Humility Charity and Purity and why they are called Divine 3. A Description of Humility 4. A Description of Charity and how Civil Justice or Moral Honesty is eminently contained therein 5. A Description of Purity and how it eminently contains in it what ever Moral Temperance or Fortitude pretend to 6. A Description of the truest Fortitude 7. And how transcendent an Example thereof our Saviour was 8. A further representation of the stupendious Fortitude of our Saviour 9. That Moral Prudence also is necessarily comprized in the Divine life 10. That the Divine life is the truest Key to the Mystery of Christianity but the excellency thereof unconceivable to those that do not partake of it 1. AND now I have advanced the Animal life so high by adding this Middle Nature to it that you may perhaps marvail upon what I shall pitch that may seem more precious and desirable unless it be some wonder-working Faith whereby a man might cast out Devils and command mountains to remove and be carried into the midst of the Sea But it is so far from proving any such like priviledge that the Tumour of the natural Spirit of man would please it self in that I am afraid when I shall describe it he will have no relish at all of it scarce understand what I mean and if he do yet he will look upon it as a dry insipid Notion without any fruit or pleasure therein But however I will declare it to him as well as I can and that nothing may be wanting I shall First give a short glance at the Root of this Divine life also which is an Obediential Faith and Affiance in the true God the Maker and Original of all things From this Faith Apostate Angels and lapsed Mankind are fallen but the Soul of the Messias ever stood upright wading through the deepest Temptations that humane Nature could be encumbred with 2. But this Holy and Divine life to such as have an eye to see will be most perceptible in the Branches thereof though to the Natural man they will look very witheredly and contemptibly These Branches are Three whose names though trivial and vulgar yet if rightly understood they bear such a sense with them that nothing more weighty can be pronounced by the tongue of men or Seraphims and in brief they are these Charity Humility and Purity which where-ever they are found are the sure and infallible marks or signes of either an unfallen Angel or a Regenerate Soul These we call Divine Vertues not so much because they imitate in some things the Holy Attributes of the Eternal Deity but because they are such as are proper to a Creature to whom God communicates his own nature so far forth as it is capable of receiving it whether that Creature be Man or Angel and so becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For such a Creature as this and Christ was such a Creature in the highest manner conceivable has conspicuously in it these three Divine Vertues namely Humility Charity and Purity 3. By Humility I understand such a Spirit or gracious property in the Soul of man or any Intellectual Creature as that hereby he does sensibly and affectionately attribute all that he has or is or can do to God the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift This is the highest piece of Holiness and the truest and most acceptable sacrifice we can offer to God thus lively and freely to acknowledge that all we have is from him From whence we do not arrogate any thing to our selves nor contemptuously lord it over others In this Grace is comprehended an ingenuous Gratitude which is the freest and most Noble kind of Iustice that is A full renouncing of all Self-dependency a firm and profound Submission to the Will of God in all things and a Disgust or at least a Deadness to the glory of the World and the applause of men 4. By Charity I understand an Intellectual Love by which we are enamoured of the Divine Perfections such as his Goodness Equity Benignity his Wisdome also his Iustice and his Power as they are graciously actuated and modified by the forenamed Attributes And I say that to be truly transformed into these Divine Perfections so far forth as they are communicable to Humane nature and out of the real sense of them in our selves to love and admire God in whom they infinitely and unmeasurably reside is the truest and highest kind of Adoration and the most grateful Praising and Glorifying God that the Soul of man can exhibit to her Maker But in being thus transformed into this Divine image of Intellectual Love our Mindes are not onely raised in holy Devotions towards God but descend also in very full and free streams of dearest Affection to our fellow-Creatures rejoycing in their good as if it were our own and compassionating their misery as if it were our selves did suffer and according to our best judgement and power ever endeavoring to promote the one and to remove the other And this most eminently conteins in it whatever good is driven at by Civil Iustice or Moral Honesty For how should we injure those for whose real welfare we could be content to die 5. By Purity I understand a due moderation and rule over all the Joyes and Pleasures of the Flesh bearing so strict an hand and having so watchful an eye over their subtil enticements allurements and so firme and loyal affection to that Idea of Celestial Beauty set up in our Mindes that neither the Pains of the Body nor the Pleasures of the Animal life shall ever work us below our Spiritual Happiness and all the competible enjoyments of that life that is truly Divine And in this conspicuously is contain'd whatever either Moral Temperance or Fortitude can pretend to For ordinarily he is held Temperate enough that can but save his brains from gross sottishness and his Body from diseases but this Purity respects the Divine life it self and requires such a Moderation in all the affairs of the Flesh that our Bodies may still remain unpolluted Temples and meet Habitations for the Spirit of God to dwell in and act in whether by way of Illumination or Sanctification and Animation to interiour duties of Holiness And as for Fortitude it is plain that this Purity of the Soul having mortified and tamed the exorbitant lusts and pleasures of the Body Death will seem less formidable by far and this mortal Life of lesser value 6. But the greatest Fortitude of all is when Love proves stronger then Death it self even in the deepest and most bitter sense of it and not so much the weakness and insensibleness of the Body nor yet the full carreer or furious heat and hurry of the naturall Spirits makes Pain and Death more tolerable but the pure courage of the Soul her self animated onely by an unrelinquishable
Love of the Divine life and whatever design is imposed upon her by that Principle 7. The Example of this Fortitude is admirable in our blessed Saviour and transcends as much the general Valour recorded by the Pens of Poets and Historians as the valour of those Heroes does exceed the salvage fierceness and boldness of Bears Wolves and Lions For a man to encounter Death in an exalted heat and fire of his agitated Spirits is not much unlike a mere drunken fray where their blood being heated with the excesse of Wine the Combatants become unsensible of those mortal Gashes they make in one anothers bodies But to fight in cold blood is true valour indeed and the greater by how much more the occasion of the enterprise approves it self noble and the parties are not at first engaged by any rage or passion For then they sacrifice their lives but to a rash fit of Choler or at least to that Tyrant in them Pride which they for the better credit of the business ordinarily call The sense of Honour else they could willingly upon better thoughts save themselves the pains and danger of the Combate 8. But to speak of Valour more lawfull and laudable which is to meet the enemy in the field where their minds are enraged and heightned by the sound of the Drum and the Trumpet which are able to put but an ordinarily-metall'd man out of his wits it is yet counted a very valiant and honourable Act if a man in this hurry and tumult of his Spirits makes his sword fat with the blood of the slain and mows down his Enemies on every side as a Sacrifice to his Country and Friends I mean to his wife and children and all that are near unto him Which yet may be parallel'd with the Courage and Rage of Wolves and Tigres who will fiercely enough defend their young by that innate valour and animosity in them without help of any external artifice to heighten their boldness But the Valour and Fortitude of the ever-blessed Captain of our Salvation has no parallel but is transcendently above whatever can be named For what comparison is there betwixt that Courage which is inspired from the pomp of Warre or single Combat from the heat and height of the Natural Spirits from the rage and hatred against an Enemy or from the love to a Friend and such a Fortitude as being destitute of all the advantages of the Animal life nay clogg'd with the disadvantages thereof as with a deep sense of Death Fear Agony and Horror yet notwithstanding all this in an humble Submission to the Will of God and a dear Respect to that lovely Image of the Divine life wades through with an unyielding constancy and this which is not to be thought on without astonishment and amazement not to rescue or right a Friend but to save and deliver a malevolent Enemy 9. We have seen how Iustice Temperance and Fortitude are in a supereminent manner comprehended in the Divine life which taking possession of the Middle life or Rational powers must needs beget also in the Soul the truest ground of Prudence that may be For this Divine life is both the Light and the Purification of the Eye of the Mind whereby Reason becomes truly illuminated in all Divine and Moral concernments Which Mystery though it cannot be declared according to the worthiness of the matter yet some more external intimations may serve for a pledge of the Truth thereof As for Example in that it does remove Pride Self-interest and Intemperance that clog the Body and cloud the Soul it is plain from hence of what great advantage the Divine life is for the rectifying and ruling our Judgements and Understandings in all things 10. I have endevoured according to the best of my Abilities briefly to set before you the Excellency of that Life which we call Divine But it is impossible by words to conveigh it to that Soul that has not in her in some measure the Sense of it aforehand Which if she have it is to her the truest Key to the Mystery of Christianity that can be found and in this light a man shall clearly discern how decorous and just a thing it is that This Life which is transcendently better then all should at last after long Trials and Conflicts triumph over all and that for this purpose Jesus Christ should come into the world who is the Author and Finisher of this more then Noble and Heroical Enterprise BOOK III. CHAP. I. 1. That the Lapse of the Soul from the Divine life immersing her into Matter brings on the Birth of Cain in the Mystical Eve driven out of Paradise 2. That the most Fundamental mistake of the Soul lapsed is that Birth of Cain and that from hence also sprung Abel in the mystery the vanity of Pagan Idolatry 3. Solomon's universal charge against the Pagans of Polytheisme and Atheisme and how fit it is their Apology should be heard for the better understanding the State of the World out of Christ. 4. Their plea of worshipping but one God namely the Sun handsomely managed by Macrobius 5. The Indian Brachmans worshippers of the Sun Apollonius his entertainment with them and of his false and vain affectation of Pythagorisme 6. The Ignorance of the Indian Magicians and of the Daemons that instructed them 7. A Concession that they and the rest of the Pagans terminated their worship upon one Supreme Numen which they conceived to be the Sun 1. HAving with a competent clearness as I hope set forth the Nature of the Divine life to such as have a Principle to judge thereof as also of the Animal we shall the more fully understand wherein consists the lapse or revolt as well of the rebellious Angels as of fallen Man Which was in that they forsook the Law of the Divine life and wholy gave themselves up to the Animal life ranting it and revelling it there without any measure or bounds Of which this seems to be the sad effect that the Soul of man had quite forgot his Creatour being fully plunged and immersed into the very feculency of the Material world For that Faculty in him whereby he is capable of Corporeal joy which is the Mystical Eve had grown so rampant and lawless that it had quite devoured and laid waste those more noble and delicate Senses of the Mind and had so intimately joyned him in love and dependance on the Matter that his Soul having forsaken God her true Lord and Husband by a lively adhesion stuck so close to this gross Corporeal Fabrick this outward sensible Universe that in this near and affectionate conjunction with it she made good in the Mystery that which is said in the Letter concerning Eve after she was driven out of Paradise She brought forth her first-born Cain whose birth in the Mystical sense is nothing else but that false conceit that the reason of his name imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have got a man or
false argues the exquisite Perfection of the Life of Christ and the Transcendency of that Divine Spirit in him that no Pagan could reach by either Imagination or Action 3. The Spirit of Christ how contemptible to the mere Natural man and how deare and precious in the eyes of God 4. How the several Humiliations of Christ were compensated by God with both sutable and miraculous Priviledges and Exaltations 5. His deepest Humiliation namely his Suffering the death of the Cross compensated with the highest Exaltation 1. WHerefore we shall find the Life of our Saviour quite contrary to his there being nothing recorded in him that is plausible to flesh and bloud no splendour of Parentage no streams of Eloquence no favour of Potentates no affectation of any Peculiarity to himself in any thing but being every where reproached and despised he ceased not to do good without any mans applause And whereas the very Spirit and life of all Apollonius his Actions is a gallant sense of Glory which the Devil befool'd him by so that which perpetually breath'd in the Actions of our Saviour was a passive loving profound Spirit of Humility which is the most certain character of the Divine life of any thing that is 2. So that let the History of Apollonius be wholy true or partly false or wholy false it is all one to me For if it be True this grand example of Divine vertue as he is pretended falls infinitely short of the truth of the Divine life manifested in Christ there being indeed nothing found in Apollonius that is truely Divine But if it be a Figment in whole or in part how transcendent then is that Divine worth in Christ and how lovely and illustrious is the Beauty of his Image that the pens and pencils of the most learned and accomplish'd Pagans cannot draw one line thereof nor give one touch or stroke near his resemblance 3. And indeed how should it ever come into the minde of a mere natural man to think of an humble passive Soul-melting self-afflicting and self-resigning Divinity lodging in any Person or if it did that there was any such great price upon that Spirit more then on that which seems to the world more gallant and generous But certainly this is more precious in the eyes of God then all things in the world beside and whatsoever injury is done to this it is like the touching of the Apple of his own eye And so tender was he over our Saviour in whom this was so transcendently found that he ever compensated his Sufferings with a proportionable Triumph and his willing Submissions and Debasements of himself with an answerable Exaltation 4. And therefore his humble Birth he honoured with the Musick of a Quire of Angels from Heaven and the Homage of the Wise men from the East who brought presents to him as to a new-born King So his long Fasting in the Desart was compensated by the power not onely of curing diseases but of turning water into wine and of miraculously feeding of multitudes in the wilderness As also his refusing of all the pomp and glory of the World which was shewn him from the top of a mountain by the Transfiguration of his person on the top of mount Tabor into so great a glory as all the speciosities of the world could not equalize his face shining as the Sun and his garments being bright as the Light And lastly his being carried from place to place by the hand of Satan as an innocent Lamb in the Talons of an Eagle this Temptation also was amply recompensed by having a palpable power over the Kingdome of Satan and dispossessing Daemoniacks and putting to flight many thousands of Devils at once as you heard concerning him whose name was Legion 5. But the emergency of the greatest Honour that accrew'd to him was from the deepest Sufferings even from his bitter Passion on the Cross Which was fully remunerated by so glorious a Resurrection and Ascension by his Session at the right hand of God and his Exaltation above all principalities and powers whether in Heaven or Earth he being made Head and Soveraign over Men and Angels and indued with a power of crowning all believers with a glorious Immortality at the last day Of all which we shall speak in order shewing the Fitness and Reasonableness of every thing in its place CHAP. XIII 1. The ineffable power of the Passion of Christ and other endearing applications of him for winning the World off from the Prince of Darkness 2. Of his preceding Sufferings and of his Crucifixion 3. How necessary it was that Christ should be so passive and sensible of pain in his suffering on the Cross against the blasphemy of certain bold Enthusiasts 4. Their ignorance in the Divine life and how it alone was to triumph in the Person of Christ unassisted by the advantages of the Animal or Natural 5. That if Christ had died boldly and with little sense of pain both the Solemnity and Usefulness of his Passion had been lost 6. That the strange Accidents that attended his Crucifixion were Prefigurations of the future Effects of his Passion upon the Spirits of men in the World 7. Which yet hinders not but that they may have other significations 8. The third and last Reason of the Tragical unsupportableness of the Passion of Christ in that he bore the sins of the whole World 9. The Leguleious cavils of some conceited Sophists that pretend That it is unjust with God to punish the Innocent in stead of the Guilty 10. The false Ground of all their frivolous subtilties 1. FIrst therefore as concerning his Passion I say it is an enravishing consideration to take notice how this humble Candidate for so great an Empire as I have described applies himself to his design giving an infallible proof not onely of his Power that he is able to protect but of his dear affection and entire Love to his people in that he can undergo so horrid agonies in their behalf and being to win the Kingdomes of the Earth out of the possession of the Devil how he uses no other Engine then the displaying of his own Nature and the endearing Loveliness and Benignity of his own Spirit to shame and confound the ugliness and detestableness of his usurping Competitor Wherefore he did not onely tread counter to the wayes of Satan in Humility and Purity and continual Beneficency in his life-time but further to shew the vast Disparity or Discrepancy betwixt that old Tyrant and this gracious Prince that is so succeed whenas the Devil as you have already heard inflicted unsupportable penances upon his abused Vassals ingaging them to cut and slash their own flesh and frantickly to dismember themselves to whip themselves with knotted cords or stinging nettles to wound themselves with sharp flints to fast macerate themselves so as to pine away in desarts or break their necks down some steep rock or precipice as Acosta reports of them Christ
Magician and Impostour who though he did very strange things whilst he lived yet if he were once judicially tried condemned and put to death they did not make any question but that it would be with him as with other Malefactours the trouble of him would end with his life as is usually observed in matters of this kind otherwise it would be a great flaw in Providence and the generations of men would not be able to subsist for the insolencies of Witches and Sorcerers But God thus extraordinarily and miraculously interposing his power in raising Iesus from the dead gave the most certain and most confounding Testimony against the malicious cruelty of the Jewes if we may call that Malice which the love and Candour of Christ in the midst of his bitter sufferings named only Ignorance that possibly could be given For their judicial proceedings are hereby not only in an extraordinary way made suspicable and taxed of injustice but by such a miraculous means that it is manifest that none other but God himself is their Accuser as well as the Acquitter of the innocent whom they put to death and did so throughly martyr that none but the hand of God could recover him to life The same therefore of so notable an Accident the chief of the Jews very well knowing and that it would if believed demonstrate that all he did or said before in his life-time was right and from an undeniable principle that the people might not receive him for their Messias now whom three daies agoe they had crucified hired the Souldiers that watched his Monument to tell abroad that his Disciples stole him away by night while they were asleep 2. But here haply some may demand how it came to pass that these chief Priests and Rulers being so punctually informed by the Souldiers which watched the sepulchre of Christ that he was risen from the dead were not converted to the Faith themselves and convinced that Iesus was indeed the expected Messias But we may very well conceive that what might prove very effectual to move others to believe in Christ might yet take no hold upon them Partly because they were further engaged in this bloudy and direfull Tragedy then others were and having a deeper sense of honour and repute with the people then of the favour of God and love to the Truth they might in a desperate and obdurate condition venture as the saying is over shoes over boots being more willing to expose themselves to any thing then to that shame and reproach that would attend the acknowledgment of so hainous an errour And then partly because though this Accident may seem very strange yet they might conceit that it was not above the power of Evil Spirits to perform who might change themselves into the lustre of Angels of light and therefore that it was but a greater temptation upon them to try their faithfulness and obedience to the Law of Moses For what would not they think rather then find themselves guilty of so grand ignorance as not to know the promised Messias when he came into the World and of so gross a crime as to be murderers of him that from Heaven was declared the Son of God 3. But out of this Solution you 'l say arises as great a Difficultie as the former viz. How we can be ascertained that Christ is really raised from the dead Because some delusive Spirits might open his Sepulchre and carry him away and afterward appear in his shape making use of his Body to shew to Thomas or changing their own vehicles into the likeness of flesh and bones so that no man's sense may discover any difference But to this many things may be answered and 4. First That that which may be an Exception or Evasion in any case is of consequence in no case For what does there at any time really happen but Evil Spirits have a power to imitate so near that our Senses may well be deceived Secondly Though they have this power in themselves yet I deny that they can exert it when and so far as they please and therefore God would not permit them to add so irresistible credit to the whole Ministry of Christ by this last Miracle if Christ had not really been the Messias but he being the Messias it was no delusion of theirs but a real transaction by that hand that is Omnipotent 5. Thirdly Every thing was exactly as if he had risen from the dead the Watch saw the Earth-quake and the stone rolled from the door of the Sepulchre by an Angel from Heaven Peter look'd in and beheld the linen cloaths lying by themselves the Body of Christ was missing there He appeared to his Disciples elsewhere he discoursed with them eat drunk with them they felt his flesh and put their very fingers into his wounds What greater demonstration then this could there be that he was really risen from the dead And therefore by men indifferent it must needs be acknowledged to be so though there be a possibility of being otherwise 6. Fourthly Those Miraculous things either happening to him or done by him while he was alive they being so real as they were must needs beget Faith in the unprejudic'd that this Accident was real also For is it so strange a thing that that Divine power should raise Christ from the dead that enabled him to raise Lazarus out of the Grave when he had been four daies buried to say nothing of his other Miracles and those evident Testimonies from Heaven that he was the Son of God For though there was some room left for the shuffles and subterfuges of the blinded Jews yet to those that are free and piously disposed the Resurrection of Christ compared with what either supernaturally was done by him or happened to him in his Life and at his Passion they do so binde and strengthen one another that there is no place left for misbelief 7. Fifthly Besides the Testimony of the Angels that told Mary Magdalen Ioanna and others that Christ was risen and that they did fondly to seek the living amongst the dead our Saviour's owne Prophesie concerning his rising the third day could not but make the thing undoubtedly sure to his Disciples and all such as were concerned in it and had believed on him before whereby they became zealous assertors and witnessers of it to the World 8. Sixthly and lastly All these things happening thus extraordinarily and supernaturally to a person that professed himself the Messias at that very time that the Jewish Prophesies foretold the Messias would come it is an unanswerable Demonstration that this was he and that therefore all things that he did spoke or happened unto him were no vain Illusion but Reality and Truth 9. Neither does his appearing and disappearing at pleasure and coming in to his Disciples when the doors were shut at all weaken the truth of his Resurrection and vital actuating that very Body that lay in the grave For he gave
a Specimen of a wonderfull power residing in him in his Transfiguration on the Mount and that he carried that about him then that was able to swallow up mortality into life though it was usually restreined as a light in a dark lanthorn His Divinity therefore with his inward exalted Humanity I mean his Soul took hold again of His Body and did vitally irradiate it so that he was as naturally united with it as any Angel is with his own Vehicle or any Soul of man or any other Animal with their Bodies Nor was it any greater wonder that Christ should rarifie his Body into a disappearing Tenuity then that Angels and Spirits condensate their Vehicles into the visibility and palpability of a Terrestrial Body the same Numerical Matter still remaining in both CHAP. III. 1. The Ascension of Christ and what a sure pledge it is of the Soul's activity in a thinner Vehicle 2. That the Soul's activity in this Earthly Body is no just measure of what she can doe out of it 3. That the Life of the Soul here is as a Dream in comparison of that life she is awakened unto in her Celestial Vehicle 4. The activity of the separate Soul upon the Vehicle argued from her moving of the Spirits in the Body and that no advantage accrews therefrom to the wicked after death 1. THere is no reasonable allegation therefore against the Resurrection of Christ And as Usefull and Intelligible a Mystery is his Ascension For we are not less assured by his ascending into Heaven of the life and activity of the Soul out of an organical terrestrial Body then by his Resurrection of her Immortality For the body of Christ in his Ascension though it left the earth in all likelihood organiz'd and terrestrially modified yet passing through the subtil Air and purer Aether it cannot be conceived but that it assimilated it self to the Regions through which it passed and became at last perfectly Celestial and Aethereal whatsoever was Earthly or Feculent being absorp't or swallowed up into pure Light and Glory 2. Nor can it seem harsh to any that has well considered these things that the Soul freed from this Terrestrial dungeon should have so great power and activity over a thinner Vehicle the subtiltie thereof in all likelihood contributing much to this activity and vigour Of which though she have but a small spark at first yet the power of the Minde being kindled therewith may as she pleases convert her whole Vehicle into an Aethereal flame For we are no more to measure what she can doe being rid of the fatall Entanglements of this Earthly prison by what she does in it then we can of the prowess and activity of some Captive Champion when he is set free by what he does in fetters and hard bondage or of her own agility reason and perspicacitie when she is awake by her stupidity and inconsistency of thoughts while she is asleep 3. For the whole life of man upon Earth day and night is but a Slumber and a Dream in comparison of that awaking of the Soul that happens in the recovery of her Aethereal or Celestial body Which though it be unless it please her occasionally to mould it into any organiz'd shape one Simple and Uniform Light which we may call an Aethereal star as Ficinus calls those of less purity stellas aereas yet all the more noble functions of life are better performed in this Heavenly Body then in the Earthly such as Intellection Volition Imagination Seeing Hearing and the like The same may be said of the Passions of the Mind they being more pure more pleasing and more delicate then can possibly happen or at least for any time continue with us in this life 4. What I have affirmed of this Aethereal Body this Uniform and Homogeneal Orbe of Light cannot seem rashly spoken to them that understand the immediate Organ of Sense in those Bodies we are now united with Which I have already intimated to be either the Animal Spirits or the Conarion as unlikely a seat of Sense as the Air or Aether and either of these as unlikely to be disobedient to the power of the Soul as the Animal Spirits now are in the state of conjunction And therefore it being undeniable but that the Soul does move them some way in the Body I see no difficulty but in her releasement from the Body she may be able to act upon her Vehicle of like Tenuity with them so as to mould and transfigure it even as she pleases that natural charm that lull'd her Active powers asleep while she was in the Body loosing its force now she is out of it Which notwithstanding will prove no advantage to the wicked they being thereby awakened into a more eagre and sharp torment and more restless Hell CHAP. IV. 1. Christ's Session at the Right hand of God interpreted either figuratively or properly 2. That the proper sense implies no humane shape in the Deity 3. That though God be Infinite and every where yet there may be a Special presence of him in Heaven 4. And that Christ may be conceived to sit at the Right hand of that Presence or Divine Shechina 1. TO the Ascension of Christ we are to add his Session at the Right hand of God his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Intercession with God for his Church And for the First there is no difficultie therein whether we understand the phrase Figuratively as Calvin seems to doe For then by his Sitting at the Right hand of God nothing else is signified but that he is next to God in the administration of his Kingdome that he is as his Right hand to sway his Scepter over men and Angels to bruise the wicked as with a rod of Iron and to receive the righteous into favour or whether we understand it Properly as some others would have it to be understood For there is no inconvenience to acknowledge the Glorified body of Christ to be in humane shape and that this organized light will sit as steadily on an Aethereal throne as a Body of flesh and bones on a throne of Wood or Ivory 2. Nor does that expression of the Right hand of God implie any absurdity in it as if God himself were an Essence also in Humane shape and that he had a Left hand as well as a Right and the rest of the parts of the Body of a man For from the words of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man may as well prove that he has many Right hands as any at all which shews plainly that the Anthropomorphites have no ground for their fond conceit from such passages of Scripture as these 3. But yet though God be Infinite and consequently every where at once nothing hinders but that there may be some special presence of him in one place more then another whither if a man had access he may be truly said to converse with God face to face We will
Example of Good and a Reprover of Evil to all the Orders of Intellectual Beings that are peâ—cable and mutable and of so generall a kindness and compassion to all rational Souls that he could dy a most shameful and bitter death to reduce them from their rebellion and confederacy with the Kingdome of darkness to return to the Kingdome of God this person I say whose influence is so great upon all is fit to be made Head over all according as himself has declared To me is given all power in Heaven and in Earth Whence it is plain that there is none save God himself above him at whose right hand he fits and intercedes for his Church 7. Which is the last thing I propounded His Intercession upon which I need make no stay there being no difficulty at all in it but a very great congruity and such as is incompetible to any Angel as I have already intimated The Author to the Hebrews takes notice of it Chap. 4. For we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Who therefore must needs prove a very compassionate and potent Intercessour for us with his Father not onely for forgiveness of sins but for all needfull supplies of grace and assistance to his Church Militant here on Earth 8. Thus we have seen how in the Birth Passion Ascension and Intercession of Christ is comprehended a full and warrantable completion of those four notable parts of the Pagan Religion which relates to their Heroes to their Catharmata their Apotheoses and Intercessions of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dii Medioxumi For what they were naturally groping after and mistaken in in these points all that is rectified here and made lawfull and allowable nay meritorious and effectual for both present and future happiness I mean in Christ Iesus all businesses betwixt God and us being to pass through his hands if we look for grace and success Which accommodation contriv'd by the wisdome of God was of very great virtue for the bringing of the Nations of the World to close with the Truth of the Gospel they being invited to that upon good grounds which their blind propensions carried them out to in a way of errour and mistake CHAP. VII 1. That there is nothing in the History of Apollonius that can properly answer to Christ's Resurrection from the dead 2. And that his passage out of this life must go for his Ascension concerning which reports are various but in general that it was likely he died not in his bed 3. His reception at the Temple of Diana Dictynna in Crete and of his being called up into Heaven by a Quire of Virgins singing in the Aire 4. The uncertainty of the manner of Apollonius his leaving the World argued out of Philostratus his own Confession 5. That if that at the Temple of Diana Dictynna was true yet it is no demonstration of any great worth in his Person 6. That the Secrecy of his departure out of this world might beget a suspicion in his admirers that he went Body and Soul into Heaven 7. Of a Statue of Apollonius that spake and of his dictating verses to a young Philosopher at Tyana concerning the Immortality of the Soul 8. Of his Ghost appearing to Aurelian the Emperour 9. Of Christ's appearing to Stephen at his martyrdome and to Saul when he was going to Damascus 1. WE have spoken of the Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ we will come to the Three last things we propounded when we have briefly considered what in Apollonius is parallel to Christ's Resurrection and Ascension For there is alwaies some glance or other in his Life at the most notable passages in our Saviour's But I can finde nothing that must go for Apollonius his Resurrection from the dead but his escaping out of the hands of Domitian which danger was so great that all men took him for a dead man But what a whifling business it was and a mere piece of Magical ostentation I have already noted 2. His real passage therefore out of this World must go for his Ascension as his escape out of that desperate danger for his Resurrection But the reports concerning his departure are various some affirming that at a full Age being fourscore or an hundred year old he died at Ephesus But it seems not likely Philostratus professing that he had travailed the greatest part of the habitable world to enquire of his Sepulchre and that he could hear no news of it any where But so grave and divine a person as Apollonius was reputed could not fail to be honoured with a very pompous Funeral and sumptuous Monument whereever he happened to dy he being so famously known over all the World wherefore it is likely that he did not dy as they say in his bed but in some solitude either by a sudden surprizal of death or on set purpose as Empedocles who cast himself into the flames of Aetna that he might be thought what Apollonius professed himself before Domitian an Immortal God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Others report that having entred into the Temple of Minerva at Lindus in Rhodes he suddenly disappeared before the people and went no man knows whither Others affirm that he left this mortal life in Crete where approaching the Temple of Diana Dictynna the doors flew open of themselves to the admiration of the Keepers of the Temple who suspected him for a sacrilegious Enchanter in that the fierce Mastives that kept the Treasury fawned on him with more kindness and familiarity then on them that fed them Wherefore the Sextons bound Apollonius with fetters to secure the Treasury but about midnight he set himself free and calling the guards by their names that they might not think he would steal away privately he went to the door of the Temple which as I said opened of it self and when he had entred in shut of it self again Whereupon were heard voices from Heaven as it were of young girles singing melodiously and chanting forth a Stanza to this sense Come from the Earth come leap hither up to Heaven mount from the earth on high 4. But concerning this History of his leaving of the World two things are observable First that Philostratus does invalidate his Narration by varying the story so much as he does For he professing that he made it his business to enquire of this matter travailing most part of the habitable world for his better satisfaction and not determining which of these three reports is the truest it is a sign that he was not ascertained of the truth of any of them but that his end may be such as I at first intimated 5. But suppose the last and most glorious of these Three stories was the truest yet Apollonius his credit is much obscured by parting thus in the night though we allow him a moon-shine
God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the First Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years There was never any Book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down which is manifest out of other places as well as this In which I conceive a double design is aimed at a prediction of a proper Resurrection of the Witnesses to the Truth by their deaths and of a Political Resurrection to the true and Apostolical Church that does survive upon Earth The former are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter those that worshipped not the Beast c. which if they were not distinct from the other it had been better to have omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore this is the first intimation that there are two Orders of men there set down The one that suffered death for the cause of the Gospel The other that are still alive but resolute Opposers of the Beast But there is also a second hint in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned The Spirit of God seems on set purpose to make choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not bear too hard toward the sense of a literal Resurrection and so urge the Reader too forcibly to understand both these Orders above distinguished to be Candidates of a real and literal Resurrection at this time And therefore he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will naturally implie a literal Resurrection and in reference to the other no literal Resurrection they being not supposed naturally dead but merely a living upon Earth and reigning there with Christ which is their Moral and Political Life and Resurrection The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall reign with Christ in Heaven and those other with Christ on Earth he being universal Prince over both Churches and therefore neither Heaven nor Earth is here mentioned that the sense may be accommodated to either the reigning with Christ in Heaven or in Earth according to the distinct capacities of the persons And the like caution is used in the prefiguration of the time of which there is no necessity to conceit that it signifies just a thousand years literally but that it signifies at least a thousand years and certainly not more then there are daies in that thousand nor in likelihood near so many But the signification is rather Symbolical as the ten daies are chap. 2. v. 10. And ye shall have the tribulation of ten daies that is the utmost extent of tribulation beyond which there is nothing further as there is no number beyond Ten by which therefore must be meant death And that is the reason why presently is added Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life So this thousand years upon earth is a symbol of the Churches stable duration to the end of the world that there shall no Politie flourish beyond it it being a Cube whose root is Ten. And the application of it to the reigning of the children of the Resurrection with Christ in heaven discovers the unshaken stability and endless duration of that celestial Kingdome also beyond which absolutely there is nothing at all But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again The using of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has plainly respect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intimates that their Resurrection was real and literal to which others should not attain till after the Thousand years upon earth After which it is plainly said that there is a general Resurrection and that all the dead do rise ver 12 13 14. Wherefore this general Resurrection being literal and real it is too too harsh and violent to understand this First Resurrection mentioned in this fifth verse to be only Figurative and Mystical But understanding it literally that which follows has a wonderfull natural and easie sense Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection which he speaks thus in the singular number one would think on purpose to keep men off from conceiting he means it of the successive body of the Church during the thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these the second death has no power namely The lake of fire ver 14. into which Hades or the whole region of mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But blessed are those that have part in the First Resurrection for they are sped already safe having obtained those celestial bodies that do certainly exempt them from this Fate For these and all such as God shall afterward make partakers of this blessed kind of Resurrection are naturally free from the reach of the second death But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for sureness and for distinction sake simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They shall be holy sacred and divine persons and live with Christ in his immutable and everlasting Kingdome in Heaven for ever and ever This I conceive to be the most easie and natural sense of this place and that the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and of his holy Martyrs is a very rash and groundless and unsafe conceit fit for nothing but heat and tumult both of phansie and action Nor do I think it necessary that the Sons of this first Resurrection should at all appear to us their celestial bodies into which they are vivificated being naturally invisible and therefore a kind of miracle for us to see them and no more necessary then the exhibiting those Souls to view which Christ carried to Heaven in triumph after his Resurrection which yet he did not exhibit to the sight of the world And if he doe here I can imagine no better end then that of Mr. Mede's that it may be for a sign or beckening to the Jews to help on their Conversion but I can affirm nothing of these things Only I am well assured that if Christendome were once well purged of all her Idolatries foolish and contradictious opinions and wicked practices it would be a very great Miracle if the Jews could be kept off from being converted 7. Wherefore in brief to conclude seeing the truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms as far as respects this present subject is
soul out of the Grave after he had lien there four daies together But that universal expression of mens rising out of the Grave is but a Prophetical Scheme of Speech the more strongly to strike our senses as I have already intimated in my exposition of the 15 of 1 Cor. against the Psychopannychites And therefore the greater accumulation of absurdities that can be made against that circumstance it will the more confirm that usefull Interpretation of mine 3. This succour we have against the Atheists out of Philosophy but I answer further as concerning the Scripture it self which is the only certain measure of the truth of our Religion and to which alone I dare finally stand not thinking my self bound to make good every conceit that either the Pride Precipitancie Inadvertencie or Ignorance of fallible Teachers have obtruded upon the World That I dare challenge him to produce any place of Scripture out of which he can make it appear That the Mysterie of the Resurrection implies the resuscitation of the same numerical body The most pregnant of all is Job 19 which later Interpreters are now so wise as not to understand at all of the Resurrection The 1 Cor. 15. that Chapter is so far from asserting this curiosity that it plainly saies it is not the same body but that as God gives to the blades of corn grains quite distinct from that which was sown so at the Resurrection he will give the Soul a Body quite different from that which was buried Now if it be not the same Body that was buried what need it run into the Earth to come out again Wherefore it is plain that the Apostle there writes as I said before in a Prophetical and Symbolical style 4. But the Atheist will still hang on and object further That the very term Resurrectio implies that the same body shall rise again for that only that falls can be said properly to rise again But the Answer will be easie the Objection being grounded merely upon a mistake of the sense of the word which is to be interpreted out of those higher Originals the Greek and Hebrew and not out of the Latine though the word in Latin does not alwaies implie an individual Restitution of what is gone or fallen as in that verse in Ovid Victa tamen vinces subversaque Troja resurges But this is not so near to our purpose let us rather consider the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Resurrectio supplies in Latin and therefore must be made to be of as large a sense as it Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so far from signifying in some places the Reproduction or Recuperation of the same thing that was before that it bears no sense at all of Reiteration in it As Matth. 22.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Genes 7. there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie merely a living subsistence and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an active signification according to this sense will be nothing else but a giving or continuing life and subsistence to a thing The word in the Hebrew that answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Translators interpret a Living substance whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to this analogie may very well bear the same latitude of sense that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they being both words that are rendred Resurrectio but simply of themselves signifie only Vivification or erection unto life or the being made a living Creature But seeing that men are Creatures that have been once alive and are to be made alive again and to become sensible and visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the day of Judgment therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordinarily translated Revivificatio and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be understood in the same sense that implies a Recuperation of life 5. Now the Iewish Rabbins as Buxtorf has noted are very critical in these words appropriating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Resurrection of the just but the other to the Revivification of the wicked though they sometimes again confound them But that which is nearest to our purpose is to consider in what signification of the words the thing signified is competible to the unjust as well as to the just And I conceive it is that which the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Tribunal of Christ that every man may receive according to what he has done in his body whether good or evil But as well the wicked as the just before they thus appear are really in life and Being though to us they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead vanisht and invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. But all are alive and visible to God even the bad as well as the good Therefore the Resurrection or Revivification for the word signifies no more then so that is common to both is this That they become palpable and visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and appear at that general Assizes at the last Day For then all the World good and bad shall not only be alive to God but also alive and visible to one another And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revivificatio that is common to all And that this notion is solid appears from hence in that Luke by saying For they all live to God implies that they are dead in reference to men Wherefore so far forth as they are said to be dead so far forth may they be said to be revived or to be raised from the dead as the Ghosts of men are said to be by art Magick because they are made to appear But the Devil is not said to be raised from the dead because he was never properly said to be alive amongst us or to live amongst us CHAP. V. 1. An Objection against the Resurrection from the Activity of the Soul out of her Body with the first Answer thereto 2. The second Answer 3. The special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first belonging to the unjust the latter to the just 4. That the life that is led on the Earth or in this lower Region of the Air is more truly a Death then a Life 5. The manner of our recovering our Celestial Body at the last Day 6. And of the accomplishment of the Promise of Christ therein 1. I Should proceed but that I must be contented to be interrupted by one Objection more which is this If the Souls of men live and act out of their Bodies before the Resurrection what need is there of any Resurrection of the Body For what want have they of any Bodies at all if their Soul can live and act without them But I answer First That we are not infallibly assured but that the Souls as well of the Good as the Bad after Death have
of Second causes partly Natural partly free Agents amongst whom the highly-exalted and supereminently-divine Soul of Iesus is the chief we discover a power able to effect more then we have declared concerning the Conflagration of the Earth And when this will suffice how over-evidently are we assured of the feisableness of this Atchievement from what S. Peter has suggested concerning the absolute power of the Word of God by whom all things are and who is a perpetual Spectatour of his Works For the spirit of the Lord filleth the world as the Wise man speaks and that which containeth all things has knowledge of the voice And it is as true that all things lye open to his sight and that the Earth is alwayes under the present eye of God Wherefore he that perpetually looks on is it hard to conceive that at last at some solemn period of time he may in a special manner step out into action if need so require and he be invoked thereunto 7. Wherefore the Faithful being gathered from all the corners of the Earth and carried up to Christ their Saviour and joyning with his Legions of Light there being then left in the Earth and in the inferiour Parts of the Aire none but obdurate Adherents to the dark Kingdome which shall now be made more externally dark then ever black pitchy clouds covering the whole face of the Sky and making Night fall upon the Inhabitants of the World even at mid-day in the midst of this sad silent and louring aspect of the Heavens He that in the flesh was heard and answered by Thunder when he prayed saying Father glorifie thy name shall by the same interest in the Eternall God cause such an universal Thunder and Lightning that it shall rattle over all the quarters of the Earth rain down burning Comets and falling Starres and discharge such claps of unextinguishable fire that it will do sure execution whereever it falls so that the ground being excessively heated those subterraneous Mines of combustible Matter will also take fire which inflaming the inward exhalations of the Earth will cause a terrible murmur under ground so that the Earth will seem to thunder against the tearing and ratling of the Heavens and all will be filled with sad remugient Echoes Earthquakes and Eruptions of fire there will be every where and whole Cities and Countries swallowed down by the vast gapings and wide divulsions of the ground Nor shall the Sea be able to save the Earth from this universal Conflagration no more then the Fire could preserve her from that overspreading Deluge for this fiery Vengeance shall be so thirsty that it shall drink deep of the very Sea nor shall the water quench her devouring appetite but excite it For such is the nature of some Fires as history every where testifieth 8. Wherefore the great channel of the Sea shall be left dry and all Rivers shall be turned into smoak and vapour so that the whole Earth shall be inveloped in one entire cloud of an unspeakable thickness which shall cause more then an Aegyptian darkness clammy and palpable to be felt which added to this choaking heat and stench will compleat this External Hell a place of Torment appointed not onely for the prophane Atheist and Hypocrite but also for the Devil and his Angels where their pain will be proportionated according to the untamedness of their Spirits and unevenness of their perverse Consciences CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithful 1. I Hope by this time we have prevailed so far as to perswade the Possibility of the Conflagration of the World in that sense we have explained it And truly I know nothing that should keep a man from assenting to it as possible but that dull Fallacie whereby we conclude That nothing can be done but what we have seen done or phansie we could doe our selves And this is the reason that makes the Atheist misbelieve Creation because he himself can make nothing but out of prejacent Matter and a settled course of things causes so deep an impression in our Senses that we can hardly phansie they will ever alter Which makes some men never think of Death especially if they have never been sick a flattering impossibility by reason of so long continuance of life stealing into their hopes as if they should never die And therefore that great Monarch was fain to have one to rub up his memory every day with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember that thou art mortal Well may we phansie then such unalterable Laws of Nature as shall secure the Earth from such a destruction as we speak of when we are led unawares into so favourable a conceit of our own life or fortune after we have for a competent time been well settled in either as not at all to think of the mutability of our condition Wherefore I hope any one that is aware of this ordinary Fallacie will easily recover himself into so much use of his Reason as not to conclude the Conflagration of the Earth impossible because he knows not how to burn it himself or that it will alwaies continue unburnt because it has been unburnt thus long 2. But that which I drive at is to shew that the belief of a Christian is not only of things possible but reasonable which I have in some sort made good already by discovering the manifold treasures of the fiery and combustible principles in Heaven and Earth to which I add further First That Providence ordering all particular corporeal things by number weight and measure it is reasonable that the continuance of this present stage of things be numbred that is have its number of years set so that there be a full pause or Period a last Exiit and Plaudite to this Tragick Comedie 3. Secondly Whatever particular corporeal structure has a Beginning unless it be a Body inacted with a glorified Spirit will also have an End naturally of it self and that which will have an End is subject to decaying And for my own part I question not but that the Earth is of such a nature and that it waxes old by degrees will grow more more dry steril in succession of Ages whereby it
will become more kexy and loose of its Solidity For a Body that is porous and can imbibe moisture the more moist the more solid it is the more solid the Earth is the better it will keep its distance from the Sun as it is swung about him in this common Vortex of the Planets Wherefore the distance of the Earth lessening so as Astronomers observe might it not come from other causes would be a parlous Symptome and sign that the Earth grows old apace and much exhausted And the more it is exhausted the nearer still it will be wrought toward the Sun according to the Cartesian Philosophy So that at last what by its over-drieness and what by its approaching so near to the Fountain of heat not only Forrests and Woods which has happned already but the subterraneous Mines of Sulphur and other combustible Matter will catch fire and set the whole Earth in a manner on burning 4. I say therefore that the Earth will thus at the long run be burnt either according to the course of Nature of which manner of destruction these be the main concomitants That by reason of a long distemper and languishment she will be utterly unable or very wretchedly able to sustain either Man or Beast for abundance of Ages together before she be ruined and burnt up by this mortiferous Fever and after this death and destruction of hers far less able she becoming then but as a Caput Mortuum by reason of the long exhaustion of the life and heart of the soil before this lingring Conflagration or else by a more special or solemn appointment of Providence the Period of her Conflagration shall be shortned From which if any universal good doth accrue to the Creation it is not unworthy of the Son of God and his mighty and most glorious Host to be emploied in so weighty a performance For is not the whole Earth the Vineyard of the Lord a particular platt of his skillfull Culture and Husbandry 5. Thirdly and lastly There being so many obdurate rebellious Spirits as well among the Apostate Angels as Men that are so far revolted from God that they scarce retain any sense of him in their minds that peremptorily deny a particular Providence and stoutly phansie that if there be a Deity he takes no notice of the affairs of any particular Creatures that jear and flout at Religion and look upon the life of the Son of God when he lived in the world as a poor and contemptible Example of Pusillanimity and Dejectedness of Spirit that contemn all his true followers for moaped Fools but make their own Lusts their law in all things and therefore are insensible of whatever Injustice or Cruelty they commit or whatever Beastliness or Vileness they give themselves up to these being past all sense within but all of them sensible enough in their bodies or vehicles the Devils themselves not excepted how fitting nay how necessary is it that a fiery Whirlwind and Tempest of Vengeance should rattle upon their external persons and that corporeal pain should pierce them to the very quick and that all whatever they took delight in should be demolisht and that they should be smothered in tormenting Heat and Darkness of which they know no end 6. These Considerations which I have alledged make the Conflagration of the World not only possible but also very reasonable especially with that circumstance of not coming naturally for they would then look on it only as a common calamity but of being inflicted visibly by one whose Person and Laws are so much vilified and scorned by all the Powers of the Dark Kingdome And then again for further conviction and aggravation after such a time as they have seen the supernatural deliverance of the righteous before their eyes For this makes good that Promise and Threatning of our Saviour what difference he would make betwixt the Sheep and the Goats saying to one Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom and to the other Goe ye accursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels CHAP. XI 1. A Recapitulation or Synopsis of the more Intelligible part of the Christian Mysterie with an Indication of the Usefulness thereof 2. The undeniable Grounds of this Mystery The existence of God A particular Providence The Lapsableness of Angels and men The natural subjection of men to Devils in this fallen Condition 3. God's Wisdome and Iustice in the Permission thereof for a time 4 5. Further Reasons of that Permission 6. The Lapse of Men and Angels proved 7. The Good emerging out of this Lapse 8. The exceeding great Preciousness of the Divine Life 9. The Conflagration of the Earth 10. The Good arising from the Opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdome 11. That God in due time is in a special manner to assist the Kingdome of Light and in a way most accommodate to the humane Faculties 12. That therefore he was to send into the World some Venerable Example of the Divine Life with miraculous attestations of his Mission of so sacred a Person 13. That this Person by reason of the great Agonies that befall them that return to the Divine Life ought to bring with him a palpable pledge of a proportionable Reward suppose of a Blessed Immortality manifested to the meanest Capacity by his rising from the dead and visibly ascending into Heaven 14. That in the Revolt of Mankind from the Tyranny of the Devil there ought to be some Head and that the Qualifications of that Head ought to be opposite to those of the old Tyrant as also to have a power of restoring us to all that we have lost by being under the Usurper 15. That also in this Head all the notable Objects of the Religious propensions of the Nations should be comprized in a more lawfull and warrantable manner 16. That this Idea of Christianity is so worthy the Goodness of God and so sutable to the state of the World that no wise and vertuous Person can doubt but that it is or will be set on foot at some time by Divine Providence and that if the Messias be come and the Writings of the New Testament be true in the literal sense it is on foot-already 1. WE have I think fully enough set forth the Reasonableness of Christian Religion in the Idea thereof it may be more fully then was needfull before we come to prove That it is more then an Idea We shall by way of Recapitulation contract the more Intelligible frame thereof into a lesser model that its due symmetrie and proportion may be better seen at once Which will be both a relief to our Memory and also a help to our Judgment when we shall have a more easie opportunity of considering the solid strength and handsome congruity of the whole Fabrick 2. And I dare challenge the most maliciously-wise and skilfull if he can find any rational exception against the structure of this so intelligible a
the holy place every year with bloud of others For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation To which you may adde that of Peter For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God And 1 John 2.1 If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is a propitiation for our sins And if he was so in S. Iohn's time why not alwaies Furthermore Romans 5.6 For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly He saies not by the ungodly but for the ungodly which therefore cannot be allegorized but into Nonsense Like that verse 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Is any one reconciled by killing the Holy Life the Mystical Christ in him Wherefore it is plain that in S. Paul's time the Humane Person of Christ was the high Priest who was an Atonement with God by the sacrifice of himself And God has not declared any where that he has or ever will put him out of his Office till his coming again to Iudgement when he shall appear the second time without sin unto Salvation as you heard out of the Author to the Hebrews that is When he shall not bring his sin-offering with him viz. an earthly mortal body capable of Crucifixion but shall appear as a glorious Judge to complete Salvation to all them that truely believe in him and expect his joyful coming at what time he shall finish the Redemption of our Bodies and translate us to his everlasting Kingdome in Heaven 2. And that this Office of a Iudge is assured to his Humane person is plain from what we recited out of the Acts namely That God has given assurance to all men that he will judge the world by the man Jesus in that he has raised him so miraculously from the dead Which is that very Son of man that shall appear on his throne accompanied with his Angels Matth. 25. And assuredly none will deny but that he who sitteth at the right hand of God will come thence to judge the quick and the dead But it is this crucified Iesus that for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Hebr. 12.2 To which truth S. Peter also witnesseth in the Acts. Where that very Iesus whom the Jews delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate is said to be received into Heaven until the time of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the World began This implies that at the utmost fulfilling of the Periods of time he will again appear and finish the Mysterie of Righteousness and perfect Salvation to his people at the last according as he has promised John 6. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day Which certainly is to be understood of his Humane person forasmuch as for that very cause he has made him Judge of Life and Death as appears Chap. 5. ver 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so likewise he hath given to the Son to have life in himself and hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man Now when he saith No man can come to me except the Father draw him it is manifest that by the Father is meant the Eternal hidden Deity whose workings and preparations within every mans Soul fit him to join with Christ's humane person the visible Head of the Church of God otherwise if by Christ were here understood the Eternal Word it would not be good sense For that is that which draws not the thing drawn to in this place Again whereas he saies He will raise him up at the last day it is evident that it is not morally or mystically to be understood but literally otherwise it could not be defer'd till the last day but should be done in this Life Nor can it be understood of the day of the service of the Love For then the sense would be That they that believed on Christ some sixteen hundred years agoe should become Familists now or rather some others for them which Promises are insipid and ridiculous Wherefore it is this Son of man to whom God hath also given power to execute judgment And the very same certainly is he that is represented on the great white Throne from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled away Rev. 20. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Bookes were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those Books according to their works And the Sea gave up the dead which were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Hell i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here the Region of the dead and the whole frame and phrase of the matter here contain'd doth so plainly import that the Judgment is concerning those that are dead whether drowned in the Sea or buried in their Graves or in whatever other circumstances quitted this mortal life that this truth of Christ's visible coming to Judgment cannot be concealed or eluded by any Allegorical fetches whatsoever 3. Nor have our inconsiderate Adversaries any thing to alledge for their rebellious despising of the Humane person of Christ unless two or three grosly-mistaken places of Scripture Such as Hebr. 11. v. 26. where Moses is said to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures in Aegypt and Chap. 13. v. 8. Iesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Out of which passages they phansie to themselves such a Christ only as was as well in Moses's time as now and was ever the same from the beginning of the World and ever will be But they plainly in these Texts raise Mountains of Molehills For the simple and genuine sense of the former is nothing but this That Moses bare such reproaches as Christ and the firm professors of Christ bear which he uses as an argument of Patience to the Hebrews from the example of Moses unless you will interpret the place upon the supposition of Christ being the Prefect of Israel before his
the Love sect 3. and 7. See him also upon the Beatitudes sect 6. And it is no wonder we hear nothing of that Reconciliation made by the Cross of Christ for he does plainly aver sect 34. That the true being in the Love is that peace with God and man mentioned Ephes. 2.14 and the true Testament that standeth fast for ever And Exhortation chap. 12.44 Remission of sins is gained only by submitting to the House of the Love The same that David George boasted of his doctrine Therefore my beloved children change ye not nor turn away your selves from the House of Love For there is in the same the stool of grace to an everlasting remission of sins over all such as cleave thereon and to a peace and rest of the life to all such as humble them there-under By such slips and omissions as these those that are not very dull of perception may easily spel out his meaning Which yet is more clear by other places of his Evangely chap. 13. Where he setleth the Everlasting Priesthood not upon Christ's person but makes this Kingly Priest no person at all but a thing a state or condition of him and his followers here upon earth And therefore he calls there this mystical Christ The Lords Sabbath The seventh day in the Paradise of God The perfection c. And chap. 22. he makes the entrance of Christ into heaven and his visible ascending up thither and sitting at the right hand of God and sending down the holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost which was a real effect of his eternal Priesthood and Intercession with God for his Church nothing but the appearing of him according to the Spirit out of the Heavenly Being in their Minds or Souls upon which he sent down his Spiritual or Heavenly Powers Wherefore this Mystical Christ is the only high Priest that he acknowledgeth and will allow him no otherwise then in this mystical and spiritual sense to be an everlasting and true Christ of God See the place of which you will assure your self I have given the right sense if you compare it with chap. 26. sect 10 11 12. where he more plainly affirms That it is the upright being of the Love Christ after the Spirit which he calls the true light which is that high Priest that abideth for ever at the right hand of God in the Heavenly Being Which phrase Heavenly Being alwaies signifies morally or mystically with him and means something within us And yet he has the impudence to alledge Acts 1. v. 11. where Christ is said to ascend into Heaven literally and naturally so called his disciples gazing upon him as he went up Thus you see how industriously nay how madly and rashly he shuffles out the Humane person of Christ from his Priestly Office every where And as he will have the Heaven or most Holy within us so will he have his Sacrifice and Passion within us too Introduct chap. 8.38 Where doe any now saith he keep the Supper of Christ where they break distribute and eat the bread which is the true Body of Christ to a remembrance of Christ that he hath suffered in us for the sins cause the death of the Cross and so his death is published till he come in his glory Where it is plain that the Crucifixion of Christ is a mystery in us and it is insinuated a duty too For the Body and the Flesh of Christ is Christ according to the History Which Christ according to the Flesh is to be slain in us if we celebrate the Passeover aright and thus we must publish his death till he come in glory that is in the Spirit 4. And truely no other is his glorious coming to judgment with this Sect then this Mystical and Spiritual coming which was the second part I intended to pursue which I question not but I shall make as clear as noon-day Of this there are so many Testimonies and so pregnant that the only fear is of being too copious in the proof of this matter Revel Dei cap. 7. There his illuminate Elders together with his Family of Love are the Heavens in which Christ the Son of God comes gloriously and triumphantly to judgment to reign with God and his righteousness everlasting upon earth Which plainly excludes the ending of the World and that coming of Christ that all Christians expect And chap. 15. sect 6. he affirms that in this Eighth day which is the day of the Spirit of Love all the dead that are deceased in the Lord Iesus Christ do rise from the death and all Generations of Heaven and Earth do become judged in the judgement of God with equity Again in his Introduct Chap. 1. he saith That now the true glorious God who is the Resurrection and the Life revealeth his Saints out of his bosome where since the time they fel asleep they have rested untill this day of the Love because they should now in these last times in the resurrection of the righteous be manifested with Christ in glory to a righteous judgement of God on the earth And chap. 12. he there also affirms That in this day of the Love there appear and come to us livingly and gloriously all God's Saints which in times past died and fell asleep in God And chap. 22. there he also tells us how that in sure and firm hope of everlasting life the upright believers have rested in the Lord Iesus Christ till the appearing of his coming which is now in this day of the Love revealed out of the heavenly Being with which Iesus Christ the former Believers of Christ who were fallen asleep rested or died in him are now also manifested in glory being raised from the dead to the intent that they should reign alive with him over all his enemies To which you may add what he has wrote chap. 16. in his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Make you to flight make you to flight yea get you now all out of the way ye enemies of the Lord and of his service of the Love and give the Lord with his holy ones the roome yet shall ye not escape the vengeance of God For he saith the Lord cometh to judge betwixt the Family of the Love and the rest of the world where-through the Earth is now moved the Heavens troubled the Elements melt with heat and the token of the coming of the Son of man appears in Heaven with which rumour or rushing noise of the power of God and his holy ones the last trumpet doth also presently give forth her sound through whose blast of her vehement sound and through the appearing of the coming of Christ the dead shall stand up and arise unto the judgement of God who having revenged the bloud of his holy ones that the sinners have spilt and shed upon the earth he puts this pure Family in peaceable Possession thereof that they may reign there-over or judge the same with righteousness from henceforth world without
them with the skins of beasts to be worried by dogs others were crucified and others were burnt after day-light to serve in stead of lynks or torches This Persecution was not thirty years after the Passion of Christ. I appeal now to any one if he can think it possible that these that lived so near to that time when Christ was said to be crucified that they might make exact inquiry into the matter I appeal to him if he can think it possible they could expose their lives and fortunes to the hatred and cruelty of the Heathen if they were not most certain that there was such a man that was crucified at Ierusalem and demand further he dying so ignominious a death whether it be again possible that there should not be some extraordinary thing in the Person of Christ to make them adhere to him so after his death with the common hatred of all men and hazard of their lives 7. And therefore Lucian in his Peregrinus does rightly term Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great man crucified in Palaestine For at least he spoke the opinion of Christ's followers if not his own And the doctrine of the Christians he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the marvellous wisdome of the Christians whom he affirms to renounce the Heathen Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to worship their crucified Sophist or their crucified Master and Teacher And in his Philopatris if it be his and if it be not it is not much material being it must be of some Writer coetaneous to him there are some inklings of very high matters in Christianity as of the Trinity of Life Eternal of the Galilean's Ascension into the third Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking up the Air into the third Heaven where having learned most excellent matters he renewed us by water Which is likely to be some intimation of the Ascension of Christ into Heaven or else of Paul's being rapt up into the third Heaven though the Narration thereof be depraved And Critias in that Dialogue swears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the son that is from the Father And he and Triephon jearing Divine Providence betwixt them as being set out by the Religious as if things were written in Heaven Critias asketh Triephon if all things even the affairs of the Scythians were written there also To which Triephon answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things if so be CHRESTUS be also amongst the Nations All which passages intimate what a venerable Opinion there was spred in the World concerning Christ and that therefore there was some extraordinary worth and excellency in his Person Which Conclusion I shall make use of in its due place 8. In the mean time I shall onely add that mention made of him in Suetonius in Vita Claudii cap. 25. where he is called Chrestus as before in Lucian's Philopatris he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assiduè tumultuantes Româ expulit He expelled the Iews out of Rome they making perpetual tumults by the instigation of Chrestus Which is the highest Record of our Religion that is to be found in prophane Writers and no marvel it reaching so near the Passion of Christ from whence our Religion commenced For the reign of Claudius began about seven years after Christ's Passion and ended within thirteen years And that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate Tacitus himself gives witness in what we have above recited But a more accurate Chronologie of these things cannot be expected but from them who are more nearly concerned viz. the Christians themselves 9. Iosephus his Testimonie had reached higher in time if we could be assured that what he seemed to write of Christ was not foisted in by some thankless fraud of unconscionable Superstitionists or short-sighted Politicians that could not see that the solidity of Christian Religion wanted not their lies and forgeries to sustain it But for my own part I think it very unlikely that Iosephus being no Christian should write at that rate concerning Christ as he does besides other reasons which might be alledged And therefore for the greater compendium I shall be content to acknowledge that what is found in his Antiquities concerning the crucified Iesus is supposititious and none of his own Which Omission I impute partly to his Prudence and partly to his Integrity For certainly he knowing the affairs of Iesus so well as he did could not in his own judgment and conscience say any thing ill of him more then that he was crucified which was no fault in him but in his unjust and cruel Murderers and simply to have nominated him in his History without saying any thing of him had been a frigid lame business and to have spoke well of him had been ungratefull both to his own Country-men the Iews and also to the Pagans Wherefore it being against his Conscience to vilifie him and revile him and his followers so as the Heathen Historians have done and against his Prudence being not convinced that he was the very Messiah to declare how excellent a person he was it remains that in all likelihood he would play the Politician so far as not to speak of him at all 10. We shall produce but one Testimony more out of Pagan Historians and that is out of Ammianus Marcellinus concerning Iulian's purpose to re-edifie the Temple of Ierusalem that the Iews might sacrifice there according to their ancient manner Which was looked upon to be done more out of envy to the Christians then in love to the Jews and in an affront to that universal and inestimable Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered upon the Cross which was to cease the Jewish Sacrifices and to put an end to the exercise of the Mosaical ceremonies Ruffinus and Sozomen declare the matter more at large but we shall contain our selves within the recitall of what Ammianus has written lib. 23. near the beginning who being an Heathen puts as fair a gloss upon the Emperour's Action as he could but the Event is plainly enough set down and such as does much confirm the Truth of Christian Religion Julianus imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare ambitiosum quondam apud Jerosolymam templum quod post multae internecina certamina obsidente Vespasiano postea Tito agrè est expugnatum instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis negotiumque maturandum Alipio dederat Antiochiensi qui olim Britannias curaverat pro Praefectis Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alipius juvaretque Provinciae Rector metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hocque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente cessavit inceptum Julian having a mind to propagate the memorie of his Reign by the greatness of his Acts purposed to rebuild with immense charges that once-stately Temple at Jerusalem which with much adoe after many a bloudy battel was taken after siege
laid to it by Vespasian first and then by Titus This business was committed to the care of one Alipius of Antioch who had once been Deputy of Britain for the Governours Wherefore when this same Alipius did stoutly urge on the work and the Governor of the Province gave him his assistance dreadfull balls of fire breaking out near the foundation with frequent sallies burning up sundry times the workmen made the place inaccessible And thus the Enterprise ceased the Element directed by a peremptory destiny beating them off from their work CHAP. X. 1. Further Proofs that both Iews and Pagans acknowledge the Reality of the Person of Christ and his doing of Miracles 2. The force of these allegations added to the Prophecie of the Time of Christ's coming and the Characters of his Person 3. That the Characters of his Person are still more exact but not to be insisted upon till the proof of the Truth of the History of the Gospel 4 5. That the transcendent Eminency of Christ's Person is demonstrable from what has already been alledged and from his Resurrection without recourse to the Gospels From whence it necessarily follows That his Life was writ 6. That the Life of Christ was writ timely while Eye-witnesses were alive proved by a very forcible Demonstration 7. That Eternal Happiness through Christ was the hope of the First Christians proved out of Lucian and S. Paul and of a peculiar Self-Evidence of Truth in his Epistles 8. That the first and most early meaning of Christianity is comprised in those Writings 9. That Eternal Salvation depending upon the Knowledge of Christ it was impossible but that the Apostles should take care betimes that the Miracles of Christ should be recorded 10. That the Apostles could not fail to have the Life of Christ written to prevent the erroneous attempts of the Pragmatical to satisfie the Importunity of Believers or in obedience to divine Instigation 11. That it is as incredible that the Apostles neglected the writing of the Life of Christ as that a wise man in the affairs of the World should neglect the writing of his Will when he had opportunity of doing it 12. That it being so incredible but that the Life of Christ should be writ and there being found writings that comprize the same it naturally follows That they are they 1. THese Testimonies out of Heathen Writers may suffice to take off that fond and groundless suspicion of the whole History of Christ being a mere Allegory or Fiction A thing that the greatest Enemies thereof had never the face to object to the Christians neither Iews nor Pagans nor our modern Atheists especially the more nasute sort of them such as Pomponatius and Vaninus who do not only acknowledge Christ's Person but his Miracles only forsooth they referre them to the influence of the Stars and celestial Intelligences of which I shall speak in its proper place The Iews also acknowledge his Miracles but add that he was a Magician And Iulian himself and Celsus who wrote against the Christians never had the face to deny but that Iesus of Nazareth did once live in Iudaea and did strange things though the one revolted from him and the other never believed in him And Hierocles that highly-moral Pagan does not deny the Miracles of Christ nor the excellencie of his Person but contends that Apollonius Tyaneus may at least come into competition with him And to say nothing of Tiberius his purpose of having him entred into the catalogue of the Roman Deities by a decree of the Senate because the report thereof is from parties viz. from Eusebius out of Tertullian we may more appositely adjoin that Adrianus Severus and Heliogabalus though in vain attempted afterward the same thing And particularly of Severus Lampridius an heathen Historian writes that this Emperour intending to erect a Temple to Christ and to worship him amongst the rest of the Gods was hindred by the Priests qui consulentes sacra repererant omnes Christianos futuros si id optatò evenisset templa reliqua deserenda who by some way of divination or other had found out that if the Emperour's mind was fulfilled all would turn Christians and the other Temples would be left desolate So that there was a very high and venerable opinion of Christ even with those that were not Christians 2. Which evidences out of prophane Writers surely even alone can have no small force to beget the belief of that which I now contend for viz. That Christ did once live here on Earth and that he was a Person very famous and remarkable for some things in him done by him or hapning to him To which Testimonies if you add those clear Prophecies that foretold that the Jews Messiah was to come about that time that Christ is said to have lived in which both the Heathen and Christian stories do agree and those Characters that we know for a certain do belong to him such as I have already largely enough insisted upon it is impossible unless Scepticism be heightned unto a disease as perfect as either Madness or down-right Mopedness but that any one should believe more of Christ then I contend for at this present 3. And yet the Characters of his Person set out in the Prophecies are still more exact then what I have produced hitherto to prove that he was indeed the expected Messiah As that he should be of the Family of David of the Tribe of Iuda born of a Virgin and in Bethlehem that he should open the eyes of the blind and make the lame walk and other such like miracles that he should be put to such a death as that his hands and feet should be pierced that they should cast lots for his garment and give him vinegar to drink c. But these particularities having no force till we have proved that the History of the Gospel is true we must defer making any use of them till we have cleared that point In the pursuit whereof we must endeavour to prove these three things 1. That the Life and Death of Christ was writ in a serious manner by some or other not Romantically but Historically as Plutarch Tacitus and Suetonius are conceived to have writ the Lives of Illustrious Persons and Emperours 2. That it was maturely writ while there were living Eye-witnesses of the things related 3. And that those Gospels we receive now-adays are the true Copies of those that were so maturely written 4. The first part seems to me fully demonstrable from what we have proved already without any recourse to the History of the Gospel viz. That there was a very transcendent Eminency in the Person of Christ as to whom both the Time and main Characters of the expected Messiah did so exactly agree Whence he could not but attract the eyes of the World after him and gain very zealous and faithfull Followers that would at least by word of mouth divulge the things they saw and observed so strange
this was in stead of all other Righteousness to him and that he was reputed as righteous all over now although he were not so at all in any other things 7. Now for Iustification we shall best understand the meaning of the word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First therefore besides the forensal acception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be just Gen. 38.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamar is more righteous then I. So Eccles. 31.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that loves gold will not be just Secondly it signifies to appear just Psa. 51.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that thou maist plainly appear or approve thy self to be just And Psal. 143. â— For in thy sight no man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall appear just Thirdly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make just and pure to free from vice and sinfulness Psalm 73. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore have I cleansed my heart in vain And Eccles. 18.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec tuam probitatem usque ad mortem differas saies the Translation And Rom. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is freed from sin Also Act. 13.39 And by him all they that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. Ye are more throughly cleansed and purged from sin and wickedness then you could be ever under the Law of Moses Which is consonant to other passages in Scripture as That the Law makes nothing perfect and again If there had been a Law that could have given life then verily righteousness might have been of the Law And now we have found out a warrantable sense of these words we shall be able more expeditely to discover the sense of the foregoing places of Scripture alledged for this pernicious conceit of a Christians being righteous without any real Righteousness in him 8. Wherefore to that in the 4. to the Romans whose force will be the greater if we adde that also which is written a little before in the 3 chap. v. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and what he inferrs also vers 9. That Iews and Gentiles and all are under sin Wherein the meaning of the Apostle is to magnifie as was most fit the ministration of the Gospel and so he signifies to the world that whatsoever is discovered hitherto is imperfect lapsed and ruinous all but weak and sinful before the coming in of Christ even the works of the Law themselves and that smooth external Righteousness of mere Morality and Ceremony So that all the world are found guilty before God and by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight For by the Law is but the knowledge of sin vers 20. it gives no strength to perform Wherefore now reckoning nothing upon all these things we are as it were to begin the world again and to endeavour after such a Righteousness as is by Faith in Christ Jesus and not to rest in any thing that may be done by the ordinary power of the flesh but to aspire after that Righteousness which is communicable to us by that Spirit which raised Jesus Christ from the dead But neither Abraham nor any one else can be justified by any carnal righteousness of their own but that highly-spiritual act of Abraham reaching beyond the common rode of Nature who against hope believed in hope that was that which commended Abraham so much to God And thus from the Example of Abraham would the Apostle commend the Christian faith to the world and in particular to the Jews the Offspring of Abraham For at the end of the fourth chapter he makes this use of Abraham's faith being imputed to him for Righteousness that is reputed by God as a very excellent good act as it indeed was that we might also be brought off to believe on him that raised up â—esus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification In which verse are contained the two grand priviledges of the Gospel that is the forgiveness of sins upon the satisfaction of Christs death and the justifying of us that is the making of us just and holy through a sound faith in him that raised Jesus from the dead Which interpretation the 11 verse of the 8 Chapter doth sufficiently countenance But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you viz. to Righteousness as is plain out of the foregoing verse And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse that is The body of death which we desire to be delivered from as the Apostle speaks appears by the presence of Christ in us to be thus deadly a body by reason of sin we feeling for the present nothing but an heavy indisposition to all holinesse and goodnesse in the body and its affections and all sinfulnesse and unclean Atheisticall suggestions from the flesh which is death to the Soul For to be carnally-minded is death So that by reason of the sinfulnesse of our body and the sad heavinesse thereof it appears as deadly and ghastly a thing to us as Mezentius his tying the living and the dead together when once Christ is in us but our Life is then that Righteousnesse which is of the Spirit we finding a comfortable warmth and pleasure in the gratefull arrivals of that holy and Divine sensation But he that raised Christ from the dead will in due time even quicken these our mortall bodies or these dead bodies of ours and make them conspire and come along with ease and chearfulnesse and be ready and active complying Instruments in all things with the Spirit of Righteousness Which belief is a chief Point in the Christian Faith and most of all parallel to that of Abraham's who believing in the Goodness and Power and Faithfulness of God had when both himself and his wife Sara were dry and dead as to natural generation and so hopeless of ever seeing any fruit of her womb who had I say Isaac born to him who bears Ioy and Laughter in the very Name of him and was undoubtedly a Type of Christ according to the Spirit For Isaac is the Wisedom Power and Righteousness of God flowing out and effectually branching it self so through all the Faculties both of mans Soul and Body that the whole man is carried away with joy and triumph to the acting all whatsoever is really and substantially good even with as much satisfaction and pleasure as he eats when he is hungry and drinks when he is dry And thus by our entrance and progress in so holy a
Dispensation are we well approved of by God and being justified thus by faith we have peace with him through our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that this Iustification is not a mere belief that Christ died for us in particular or that he was raised from the dead whereby anothers Righteousness is imputed to us but a believing in God that he has accepted the bloud of Christ as a Sacrifice for sin and that he is able through the power of the Spirit to raise us up to newness of life whereby we are encouraged to breath and aspire after this more inward and perfect righteousnesse Which advantages God propounds to all the hearers of the Gospel without any respect of works or former demurenesse of life if so be they will but now come in and close with this high and rich dispensation and be carried on with couragious resolutions to fight against and pull down the man of sin within themselves that this living and new way of real Divine righteousnesse may be set up and rule in their hearts I say if they be encouraged to this holy enterprise by Faith in Christ for the remission of sins and for the power of his Spirit to utterly eradicate and extirpate all inward corruption and wickednesse this Faith is presently imputed to them for Righteousnesse that is they are and are approved by God as dear children of his and as good men and are of the seed of the Promise For they are born now not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of the will of God and their will is wholly set upon righteousnesse and true holinesse which they hunger and thirst after as sincerely and eagerly as ever they did after their natural meat and drink and God who feeds the young Ravens is not so cruell as to deny them this celestial food which food they reach at and as it were wrest out of his hands by Faith in the power of his Spirit whereby they account themselves able to doe all things 9. And this is the only warrantable notion that I can finde of being justified by faith Nor do those places above recited prove any other then this For that which seems to make most of all for another viz. Rom. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness may very well be interpreted according to that tenour of sense I have already declared For that is the great and comfortable priviledge of the Gospel that without any respect of former works if so be we do but now believe remission of sins in Christ and believe in his power that justifies the ungodly i. e. that makes just the ungodly and purifies and purges them from all sin and iniquity from which by their own naturall power they could not purged and restores them to inward reall righteousnesse by the working of his Spirit this Faith is imputed for Righteousnesse For they that do thus believe are good and righteous men for matter of sincerity so that they have peace with God through the bloud of Christ and by the power of that Spirit that is now working in them are renewed daily more and more into that glorious image and desirable liberty which arises in the further conquest of the Divine life in them and makes them righteous even as Christ was righteous And now the hardest is satisfied the other places alledged will easily fall of themselves by the application of what has been said concerning this nature of Faith and Iustification 10. As for those places of Scripture that seem to attribute the Righteousness of Christ to us as where he is said to be made unto us wisedom righteousness sanctification and redemption the sense is only this that he works in us wisedom righteousness c. Otherwise it might be inferred that we shall have only an imputative Redemption and that we shall not be really saved and redeemed As for that other As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one man many shall be made righteous I say it is a place against themselves For by Adam we became really sinners and sinful contracting original corruption from his loins therefore by Christ we are to be made really righteous And this was the end of his obedience that was obedient even to the death of the crosse that we being buried with him by baptisme into death like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. Wherefore there really being no ground in Scripture for this childish mistake and it being as unreasonable that one Soul should be righteous for another as that one Body should be in health for another if I shew that the Scripture it self does expresly require of us that we be righteous and holy in our own persons there is then nothing wanting to the full discovery of this childish and ungrounded conceit of being righteous without any Righteousness residing in us 11. And in my apprehension this very Text of S. Iohn is a clear eviction of this Truth it plainly declaring that they are mistaken who ever conceit themselves righteous without doing righteousnesse or without being righteous in such a sense as Christ himself was righteous There are also several other Testimonies of the Apostles to the same purpose some whereof I have noted already as where he saith That Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that he came to destroy the works of the Devil and that he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God abideth in him that is a permanent Principle of Divine life and sense whereby he seeth and abhorreth whatsoever is wicked and unholy And again 1 Ioh. â— Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him but whose keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected Hereby know we that we are in him He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Like that 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity CHAP. VI. 1. Their alledgement of Gal. 2.16 as also of the whole drift of that Epistle 2. What the Righteousnesse of faith is according to the Apostle 3. In what sense those that are in Christ are said not to be under the Law 4. That the Righteousness of faith is no figment but a reality in us 5. That this Righteousnesse is the New Creature and what this new Creature is according to Scripture 6. That the new Creature consists in Wisedom Righteousness and true Holiness 7. The Righteousnesse of the new Creature 8. His Wisedom and Holinesse 9. That the Righteousness of faith excludes not good Works The wicked treachery of those
many of us as were baptized into the Lord Iesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newnesse of life For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroied that henceforth we might not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin 3. You see how the most urgent Exhortations of the Apostles to kill and overcome our Lusts are back'd and edged if you will with a reflexion upon the Crucifixion of our Saviour Which allusion if it were no more then that odde perverse Sect which I have so often named would make it who desire to allegorize away the whole History of Christ to a mere Fable as if it were nothing but a mere fictitious Representation of things to be morally transacted in us truly the Argument were nothing For the death of a Ram or a Goat would serve to represent the sacrificing of our sensual Lusts rather better then the death of Christ who was so innocent a person But the stress of the Argument lyes in this That a person not onely so immaculate and innocent but so holy and sacred so honourable and Divine that the Son of the living God declared so from Heaven foretold evidently by the mouths of the most infallible Prophets and that at the distance of so many Ages and undeniably demonstrated to be such by his own Miracles and by that Miracle of Miracles his Resurrection from the dead and his visible Ascension into Heaven in the eyes of his Disciples that this so noble and Divine a Person that this Son of God should in dear Compassion and Love to Mankinde give himself up not onely to a poor despicable beggarly life but be contented to be whipped and scourged and put to a death both painful and shameful with Thieves and Malefactors and this merely to atone the wrath of God and open the gates of Heaven to bewildred mankind that were wandring further and further from their primeval Happiness This is such an Argument as would melt the hardest Heart and awake the dullest Understanding into a quick and chearful apprehension of that duty that so nearly concerns him viz. to be if it were possible more resolvedly willing to die to all his sins and worldly vanities then Christ was to lay down his life to redeem him from them 4. This mighty Power of the Death of Christ is of such invincible efficacy to them that will but seriously dwell upon the Meditation thereof that no strong hold of Sin will be able to resist it no evil and inordinate affection but the consideration of this Passion will calm keep under and utterly subdue The very counting the circumstances of his Sufferings will put us out of conceit even with those Vices that we have most familiarly entertained and still all those Perturbations and Disquietnesses of Minde that the crossest accidents of the World and our own Weakness can expose us to Art thou a lover of money how canst thou abstain from blushing whilst thou remembrest that Covetousnesse betraied and sold thy Saviour for thirty pieces of Silver or refrain from communicating thy goods to the poor when Christ has been so prodigal of his bloud for thee Art thou proud how canst thou but be ashamed to exalt thy self when the onely-begotten Son of God took upon him the form of a Man yea of the lowest sort of men and humbled himself and became obedient to death even the reproachful death of the Crosse that he might teach us Humility that the same minde might be in us that was in him as the Apostle speaks Art thou neglected scorned or reviled Thy Saviour was buffetted mocked and spit upon Are thy Inferiours preferred before thee Barabbas was held a more worthy person then Iesus Are thy friends false to thee Christ was betraied by Iudas with a kisse Dost thou fall from or fall short of thy expected honours Iesus wore no earthly Crown but that of Thorns nor Scepter but a Reed nor any Robe but such as the abusive Souldiers put on him to make legs to him and mock him Art thou traduced for one as not sound in thy Religion Thy Saviour was accused as a Blasphemer What motion therefore or disturbance of Pride shall be able to disquiet thy minde if thou do but reflect on thy Saviours Sufferings 5. And for Envy Hatred and Revenge how canst thou harbour the least touch or sense of them while thou lookest upon him who out of love laid down his life for us even then when we were Enemies to him yea for those very persons that crucified him praying unto God for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do And if thou be transportable into vain Mirth what can better calm that giddy temper then the remembrance of his Sadnesse whose Soul was sorrowful even unto death And if the highest and most searching Afflictions attempt thee what can more strongly arm thy Patience then if thou ruminate on that bitter cup the consideration whereof put thy Saviour into such an Agony that he sweat drops of bloud that fell down to the ground And lastly if Lust and Wantonness do assault thy Soul the most present Remedy is the contemplation of thy dying Lord and Master who with his out-stretched arms on the Crosse to embrace thee presents himself a Corrival in thy strongest Affections Look upon his inclined Head not crowned with roses but wounded with thorns view his half-closed Eyes heretofore filled and beautified with lucid Spirits whose milde motions were the perpetual Interpreters of his Kindness and Compassion to the Sons of men but now overcast with the heavy cloud of Death Kisse his cold and pale Lips and receive his last breath and tell me if thou didst not hear this whisper in it Canst thou love any thing better then me who out of love do undergo this painfull and reproachfull death for thee 6. But what I have appropriated to this foolish Passion of Wantonnesse may equally take place in any inordinate affection and our Saviour may justly expostulate how unkindly how ungrateful he is dealt with when his pretended Disciples refuse to mortifie any lust whatsoever for him who gave up himself to death for them This consideration is so urgent and convictive that none that have the least spark of Ingenuity can be able to resist it And therefore whatever conceited high-flown Fools may imagine of the Cross of Christ and the meditation of his Crucifixion as a thing that may rather fit Children in Christianity then grown men I say it is the great Power of God to Salvation and so long as a man findes any sin in him he is to have recourse
to it for his cure as the Israelites in the Wildernesse as often as they were bit with the fiery flying Serpents were to look up unto the Brazen Serpent which Moses had erected in their Camp And those that make no use of the benefit thereof I should suspect them to be no Israelites but a genâ—ration of Vipers or Serpents themselves to whom the poison of Sin is so congenerous that it is their nature and pleasure no pain at all to them so that they desire no cure but flee from the Crosse as Scorpions do quit the place where a Telesme is erected against them 7. But our Saviour Christ knew the power and efficacy of his Passion so well that he made a speciall provision for the Commemoration of that often which it was fit he should suffer but once This we usually call the Eucharist or the holy Communion A Solemnity never to be antiquated till our Saviour return again to judgement visibly in the clouds of Heaven as S. Paul intimateth 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as you eat this bread or drink this cup you do shew the Lords death till he come For the solid use of it cannot cease till then when all is accomplished For so long as men are to have any growth in Godlinesse or are to animate themselves to any holy designes or sin is to be encountred with or thanks to be given for the victories of the Cross the holy Eucharist cannot possibly cease For the most proper Preparation for the receiving of the Sacrament is a serious Meditation on the Passion of Christ which is commemorated therein The consideration whereof what mighty power and efficacy it has for the vanquishing and subduing of all manner of sins and corruptions I have given sufficient intimation So that every Celebration of the Communion should be as it were a repeated Resolution and corroborated Conspiracy in the bloud of the New Covenant to do our utmost against all the Powers of Sin of Darkness and of the Devil and this upon the sense of that great Love and Loialty we owe to our dear Saviour and Soveraign Iesus Christ who died for us and poured out his own bloud to glue and cement us to himself and to one another So that the Mystery of Christian Religion is a Mystery of the deepest and dearest Friendship and of the most indissoluble Union of Affection that can possibly be excogitated Wherein neither Distance of Place nor Time can make any division but it holds together Heaven and Earth and bindes what is past to what is present and actuates and invigorates what is present to a prosperous and successful bringing on that which is to come Thus it is with all those that are true Christians and do really communicate in the bloud of Christ They have one Minde and one Heart they have one Vote and one Interest which is the Advancement of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world in Truth and Holiness and that Christian Peace Faith and Love may flourish even to the ends of the Earth CHAP. XVII 1. The sixth Gospel-Power is the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The priviledge of this Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality above that from the Subtilty of Reason and Philosophy 2. The great power this consideration of the Soul's Immortality has to urge men to a Godly life 3. To wean themselves from worldly pleasures and learn to delight in those that are everlasting 4. To have our Conversation in Heaven 5. The Conditions of the Everlasting Inheritance 6. Further enforcements of duty from the Soul's Immortality 1. THe sixth Gospel-Power is the Contemplation of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ in respect of which stupendious event the Apostle has declared how it is Christ Jesus that has abolished death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel For truly whatsoever Traditions there were amongst the Iewish Rabbins whatever Disquisitions or Conclusions amongst the Philosophers whether Platonists or Aristoteleans concerning the Soul's Immortality they were either so uncertain and fallacious in themselves or so subtil and unintelligible to the People that they could not satisfie the World concerning this so important a matter And if a man should write never so accurately and Apodictically of this point the use thereof would reach but to a few namely such as are of a very patient and comprehensive Spirit that have leisure and take delight in perusing of subtil and close-wrought contextures of Reason which to most men is a toilsome and tedious thing And when a man has writ and read all he can of this Subject and has met with the very best and most Demonstrative arguments for the Conclusion yet for use and service the Recollection of them is voluminous and cumbersome as well as the Collections from them doubtful and fallible at least to them that are not fully masters of their Reason But as the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour is certain as known to be de facto by abundance of Witnesses so is the Remembrance and Representation of it to our mindes at once and strikes strong upon our Phansie and reaches our Reason with that powerful conviction that believing this we cannot any longer doubt of either the Existence of God or our own Immortality And if we once be but well assured of the Existence of God and of our own Immortall state after this Life methinks this alone should be able to lift us above all the Snares that Satan has laid in this World to entangle us 2. Mortality one would think if well considered might give us some check from too eager pursuit of Honours and Riches from worldly Plots and Designes as also for fear of diseases that accelerate death from over-lavish Indulgence to Sensuality and Intemperance But the Certainty of a Life to come the condition whereof shall be such as our Demeanour here layes the seeds of whether for Happinesse or Misery and that in a measure unspeakably above what happens or can happen in this life this consideration must have such virtue in it if we duly meditate upon it that it should win us with all willingnesse to forsake all the unlawful Pleasures and Projects of this transient World to get some sure Interest in that which is to come and not to trust all in one bottom if any thing at all I mean in the leaking vessel of this mortal Body which is ever and anon ready to sink or topple over and so to drown all the hopes we placed in it Wherefore as ye heard out of Saint Peter we are like Strangers and Pilgrims in this life to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul that our Minds going out impolluted of the Foulness and Contagion of this defiled Earth they sojourn in may be received into the happy Society of just men made perfect as the Author to the Hebrews speaks Whenas if they go out foul and impure their Reception must be accordingly
whom their dying Lord left that sacred legacy of mutual love sealing it on their mindes with his own stupendious example who being so high above them yet stooped to the shameful and bitter death of the Cross that they might love one another so ardently and entirely that if need required they would not stick to lay down their lives one for another His firm belief in the Providence of God and his special assistance to them that fight his battels His moderate love of this present World and certain expectation of the immediate enjoyments of the Happiness of the other life upon the quitting of this The consideration I say of all these things will arme our Christian souldiery let them be in their private demeanour as milde and humble as tame and lamb-like as you please with such miraculous valour and courage that I cannot but presage that that Benediction of Moses will not fail to attend their enterprizes Five of them shall chase an hundred and an hundred of them shall put ten thousand to flight For the Lord will go before them and the God of Israel will be their Rereward What Nation therefore can grapple with such a people as this For there is neither Strength nor Counsel against the Almighty BOOK IX CHAP. I. 1. The four Derivative Properties of the Mystery of Godlinesse 2. That a measure of Obscurity begets Veneration suggested from our very senses 3. Confirmed also by the common suffrage of all Religions and the nature of Reservednesse amongst men 4. The rudenesse and ignorance of those that expect that every Divine Truth of Scripture should be a comprehensible Object of their understanding even in the very modes and circumstances thereof 5. That Contradictions notwithstanding are to be excluded out of Religion 6. And that the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity of the Godhead have nothing contradictious in them 1. WE have now finished the four Primary Properties of the Mysterie of Godlinesse having treated of the Obscurity Intelligiblenesse of the Truth and Usefulnesse thereof and have already intimated that there arise from these four other properties which if you please you may call Derivative as from the Obscurity of this Mystery arises Venerability from the Intelligiblenesse Communicability from Truth a Power of gaining Assent and lastly from Usefulnesse an affectionate prizing of it and a Zeal or desire of promoting the knowledge and virtue of it in the World as much as we can It remains therefore that we speak something of these but with all brevity possible 2. That a due measure of Obscurity makes a Mystery the more venerable is a Truth suggested to us by several observations How Shades and Silence affect our very Senses every one can witness who is not of so course a contexture of Body that onely gross and fierce Objects can move him But he whose Senses are more passive and delicate can with pleasure relate how he is affected when he enters into some shady and invious VVood or Grove the thickness of whose Trees and redoubled Shadows stops his sight and hopes of ever passing through all that growes on that Sacred ground but what he sees he approves of as delightful and conceives a peculiar pleasure in that confused divination or obscure representation of things there where his Eyes cannot reach nor his Feet approach The Silence also of the place encreases the solemness thereof in which as Plutarch saies well there is something profound and mysterious And for this very reason the shadiness and stilness of the Night ordinarily seems a very venerable object to those whose Senses are so quick and fine that they can feel and rellish all manner of mutations in Nature which impress enriched the Poets Phansie with that expression Noxque tenebrarum specie reverenda tuarum 3. The common Suffrage also of all Religions gives with us who have alwaies affected something not easily Intelligible at first sight And their Temples were so built as to have their Adyta some more Sacred and inaccessible places in them And we may further observe that Sparingness of speech and Reservedness in men does naturally conciliate reverence to them For there is still something behind in them impervious and inaccessible which if they would impart they might lessen their respect and become more contemptible For it is very obvious to humane Nature to brood some strange over-weening conceit of those things they know not and to neglect and slight that which they know These are Thieves that willingly leave the house when they have carried away all the treasure But perpetual expectation continues respect And what makes matter if the bottom of the Well be fathomless if the Water we reach be but pure and useful Wherefore those that contend for such an absolute plainness and clearness in all points of Religion shew more of clownishness and indiscretion then of wit and judgement and their zeal is not so much for Truth as out of Pride Vain-glory they taking it very ill that any thing in the Mysterie of Godliness should be so mysterious as that their conceited Reason should not be able to comprehend it 4. But I demand of those great Pretenders to Reason who would usurp or monopolize that Title to themselves in matters of Religion By what Faculty can they demonstrate that the Divine Oracles should mention nothing to us but what is the adequate Object of our Understandings and that we shall not be puzzled in our endeavouring to comprehend the modes and circumstances of that General Truth which they propose to us For the General proposal may be useful to us whenas the curiosity of Circumstances may serve for nothing but the feeding of our foolish desire of devouring all Truth we can meet with and priding our selves in the booty I speak this in reference to the most obscure Articles of our Religion touching the Triunity of the Godhead and the Divinity of Christ. For that the Holy Scripture does affirm both I have already sufficiently shown And being that they come to us with the same authority that the whole new Testament does we cannot with any face deny the assertions and yet profess our selves Christians For the adverse party have no plea but the Incomprehensibleness of the manner of the thing which allegation is most unjust and ridiculous For that which comes to us by Divine Revelation is as certain as our Senses But our Senses do assure us of such things as no faculty can conceive how they are such as our Senses warrant them to be As for example The immediate Union of Matter with Matter and The power we have by Will and Thought to move any member of our Body These things we know to be but are as incomprehensible as any thing that the Scripture has declared of the Triunity of the Godhead or Christ's Divinity And therefore all their Arguments against those two Articles are weak and vain For it is sufficient that for those useful purposes I have often
shun the breath of such a Seducer as of one that is infected with the pestilence and whose converse is death and the eternal ruin of our very Souls 2. The Second Principle that he is closely to keep to is That I had almost said Omnipotent Faith in God through Christ I mean the belief of the assistance of his holy Spirit to overcome all manner of sin in us For if we keep up duely to this nothing will be able to withstand us but by patience and perseverance we shall be able to beat out Satan out of his strongest holds According to thy faith so be it unto thee is true as well in Christs healing our Souls as in his curing the bodies of the sick when he was upon earth This is a prime branch of that saving Faith and the greatest strength and sustentation we have to keep us from sinking back into sin and from being drown'd and carried away with the flouds of ungodliness If we let this hold go all is gone For they that doe not believe that they have power to resist sin must of necessity give up themselves captives to it And this is that which makes S. Paul so affectionately devout in the behalf of the Ephesians that God would be pleased to give them this special gift of Faith for their strength and corroboration of the inward man chap. 3. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love c. according as I have elswhere rehearsed And in the Doxologie immediately following this prayer of what unconceivable efficacy the operations of the Spirit are in us the Apostle again does intimate in a very high strain Now unto him that is able to doe exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Which words plainly imply that such is the inexhaustible richness of Grace and Assistance from the Spirit of God that the effect of its inward workings in us is for the present not imaginable much less expressible Wherefore our Faith cannot be too great in this supernatural Principle and the greater it is the greater courage and the more speedy and more absolute victory 3. And yet there is still another Principle that will further actuate our Faith and make us still more lively resolute and invincible and that is The Love of Christ which every young Christian is to warme himself with and inflame his courage more and more which he will best do by frequent Meditations upon Christs Passion what shame what sorrow and pain he underwent to gain the love of Souls and so to try them to himself in those sweet and inviolable bands of sincere love and friendship that by this golden chain he may pull them up after him from Earth to Heaven Let therefore our new-Covenanter as often as he reflects upon the exceeding great love of his Saviour and finds his heart begin to grow hot being touch'd with a ray from that celestial Flame that bright Sun of righteousness that now shines at the right hand of God let him be sure to remember what compensation he requires for all that dear affection he has shewn to us The lesson is but short and therefore must not be forgotten If you love me keep my Commandements CHAP. XI 1. The diligent search this new-Covenanter ought to make to finde out whatsoever is corrupt and sinful 2. That the truly regenerate cannot be quiet till all corruption be wrought out 3. The most importunate devotions of a living Christian. 4. The difference betwixt a Son of the Second Covenant and a Slave under the First 5. The Mystical completion of a Prophecy of Esay touching this state 1. THE young Christian being thus armed with Faith and Love and an unwavering sense of his duty in becoming holy even as he that called him is holy he will be then both willing and ready to look his enemies in the face and to seek them out if he cannot at first sight finde them and to pull them out of every hiding-place of Hypocrisy and bring them into the open light and slay them And if after diligent search he can finde none yet he will be so modest as to distrust the measure of his skill and will be earnest in Prayer to God to discover what inward hidden wickedness there may lurk yet in him to the end that the old Leven may be utterly cast out and that there may be nothing left that is contrary to the Scepter of Christ and the Kingdome of God in his heart 2. For indeed it is impossible that one is truely regenerate and has the seed of God and the life of his Spirit actually in him should be quiet till all that which is unholy and corrupt be wrought out But the case is much-what as in the natural body that is sick either death or health will in a competent time possess the body If the morbifick matter be not carried away by sweating purging or some evacuation or other Life it self will be carried away but if that which is contrary to life be remov'd Health must certainly take place 3. And so it is in the Divine life it self when it has taken root and growth whatever is contrary to it is burdensome to it like that tyrannick project of tying the living and the dead together Wherefore the true Christian can never be at ease and rest till he has cast off that heavy load the body of sin the old man that stinks earthily and unsavourly if he be perceived at all and indeed so unsufferably that the divine life and sense in a man cannot endure it Nor can endure to be in a condition so sensless that there should be any of that â—our Leven left and yet there be no perception of it And therefore the most importunate address to the throne of Grace in a living Christian is that God would be pleased to discover whatever ugliness or deformity there is in him in either practise or principle Which God of his mercy does by degrees not all at once that there may not arise overmuch distraction and confusion But if we be not wanting to our selves the work will be accomplish'd in due time and the Kingdom of heaven as well within as without will be as a grain of Mustard-seed The Crisis of the disease will be in a competent time as I said before and our whole man re-enlivened with the Spirit of God and restored to the state of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost 4. For verily to be quiet upon any other terms but these is not to be a Son of the Second Covenant but a careless
Slave under the First that acts not out of a principle of Love and inward Life and liking but out of some external respect and cares not how little he does or what is the frame of his mind so he may but scape being well cudgelled for the present and receive at last the promised wages of his Master But under the Second Covenant the case is quite otherwise For the true Christian there is impatient of Sin merely because it is Sin and bears the same analogie to the sense of his Soul that a wearisome or torturous disease does to the sense of his Body and therefore it is intolerable till he be freed from it and that the more by how much the more assured he is that it is contrary to the will and minde of Christ who came into the world to heal us of our iniquities and to free us from all sin 5. And therefore lastly we are never to rest contended till we find our selves through the power of God arrived to this state and frame of spirit and that in such an height as is competible to humane nature that there may be nothing undestroied that is contrary and opposite to the Life of God in us That that may be fulfilled which is prophesied in Isaiah That they that fight against Israel shall be as nothing and they that strive with him shall perish Thou shalt seek them and shalt not finde them even them that contended with thee they that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought CHAP. XII 1. That the destroying of Sin is not without some time of conflict The most infallible method for that dispatch 2. The constant ordering of our external actions 3. The Hypocritical complaint of those for want of power that will not doe those good things that are already in their power 4. The danger of making this new Covenant a Covenant of Works and our Love to Christ a mercenarie friendship 5. Earnest praiers to God for the perfecting of the Image of Christ in us 6. Continual circumspection and watchfulness 7. That the vilifying of outward Ordinances is no sign of a new-Covenanter but of a proud and carnal mind 8. Caution to the new-Covenanter concerning his converse with men 9. That the branches of the Divine life without Faith in God and Christ degenerate into mere Morality The examining all the motions and excursions of our Spirit how agreeable they are with Humility Charity and Purity 10. Cautions concerning the exercise of our Humility 11. As also of our Purity 12. And of our Love or Charity The safe conduct of the faithfull by their inward Guide 1. AND this may serve for a more general direction and encouragement but we shall annex also what is of more particular consideration For we have express'd our selves hitherto as if so soon as a man were under the Second Covenant there needed nothing but the finding out of his Sins for then armed with Faith and Love he could suddenly destroy them But that I may be rightly understood it cannot be without some time of conflict But the stronger he is in these Divine Vertues the Victory will be the easier and the speedier But in the mean time the Flesh will be working against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and Patience and Faithfulness is required on our side that we doe what God already has put into our power And assuredly it is in the power of the new-Covenanter to mortifie all manner of corruptions and immoderate desires in due time by this short and infallible method viz. By a constant denial of their cravings Give a Begger nothing at thy door and he will never visit thee Desire is starved by being unfulfilled A man you know often loses his appetite by staying over-long for his dinner 2. Inordinate Desire will haunt a man like an Ague if we pamper and satisfie it The Devil and the Sop will both down into our bellies at once But thou maiest pine out both Desire and the Devil that lurks in it by a pertinacious Temperance or stopping thy self in thy outward Actions Affect not Vain-glory and applause in thy outward actions or speeches but modestly decline it and Pride will fall in thy Soul In good time thou shall finde Humility rise in thy heart and sweetly shine in thee with her milde light Give not thine Anger vent and it will be extinct like smothered fire Answer not thy Lust or Lasciviousness and it will cease to call unto thee but die as a weed trod down into the ground Dare to doe good though thy base heart gainsay it and pleasure thy very enemies those that hate thee or envy thee For Covetousness and Hatred being thus oft crossed will out of discontent at last quite leave thee 3. But if thou be false to God and thine own Soul in those things which he hath put in thy power and he hath put the outward man plainly in thy power and neglectest the performance of them and yet dost complain of want of strength thou art in plain English an Hypocrite and dealest treacherously with Christ in the Covenant and the Devil and thine own false heart have deceived thee Thou colloguest and flatterest with thy lips and tellest fair stories of the Loving-kindness and free Grace of God in Christ but thy heart is far from him For whosoever names the name of Christ is to depart from iniquity as has been already noted out of the Apostle 4. But now in the second place as we are faithfully to persist in a constant abstinence from outward evil actions and in a perpetual exercise of such as are good so we must by all means have a special care that we take not up our rest in these and so make this new Covenant a mere Covenant of works as if by these external performances we did so oblige Christ as that he were bound to give us Heaven by way of gratitude or of bargain and purchase we dealing craftily herein as poor men doe sometimes with great Persons presenting them with something of small value to get from them a reward of far greater worth they having in the mean time no cordial affection to those they present with their gifts but only baiting the hook to catch a fish Nay I adde further That personal Love and Affection merely upon this account of being externally beneficial to us in dying for us and delivering us from eternal destruction even this does not fill up the End and purpose of the Second Covenant For this were little better then a kind of mercenary Friendship and such as is competible to the mere Natural man for he can love him that does him such a good as his very Animal frame or temper is sensible of But our Love and Friendship with Christ must be still more inward and more intimate we being tied to him not only by the sense of external Benefits but by Unity of Spirit there being the same Life and
Theologers by so muchâ— the more pleasant to the ears of the Atheists 2. That the Resurrection in the Scholastick Notion thereof was in all likelihood the great Stone of offence to those two Enthusiasts of Delph and Amsterdam and emboldened them to turn the whole Gospel into an Allegorie 3. The incurable condition of Enthusiasts 4. The Atheists first Objection against the Scholastick Resurrection proposed 5. His second Objection 6. His third and last Objection 7. That his Objections do not demonstrate an absolute impossibility of the Scholastick Resurrection with the Author's purpose of answering them upon other Grounds 221 CHAP. IV. 1. An Answer to their first and last Cavil from those Principles of Plato's School That the Soul is the Man and That the Body perceives nothing 2. An Answer to their second by rightly interpreting what is meant by Rising out of the grave in the general notion thereof 3. That there is no warrant out of Scripture for the same numerical body but rather the contrary 4. The Atheists Objection from the word Resurrectio answered whose sense is explained out of the Hebrew and Greek 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the meaning of them is in that general sense which is applicable as well to the Resurrection of the unjust as of the just 223 CHAP. V. 1. An Objection against the Resurrection from the Activity of the Soul out of her Body with the first Answer thereto 2. The second Answer 3. The special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first belonging to the unjust the latter to the just 4. That the life that is led on the Earth or in this lower Region of the Air is more truly a Death then a Life 5. The manner of our recovering our Celestial Body at the last Day 6. And of the accomplishment of the Promise of Christ therein 226 CHAP. VI. 1. That he has freed the Mystery of the Resurrection from all Exceptions of either Atheists or Enthusiasts 2. That the Soul is not uncapable of the Happiness of an Heavenly Body 3. And that it is the highest and most sutable Reward that can be conferr'd upon her 4. That this Reward is not above the power of Christ to confer proved by what he did upon Earth 5. That all Iudgment is given to him by the Father 6. Further arguings to 〈◊〉 same purpose 228 CHAP. VII 1. Caecilius his scoffs against the Resurrection and Conflagration of the World That against the Resurrection answered already 2. In what sense the soberer Christians understood the Conflagration of the World 3. That the Conflagration in their sense is possible argued from the Combustibleness of the parts of the Earth 4. As also from actual Fire found in several Mountains as Aetna Helga and Hecla 5. Several instances of that sort out of Plinie 6. Instances of Vulcanoes out of Acosta 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla 8. Vulcanoes without smoak having a quick fire as the bottome 9. Vulcanoes that have cast fire and smoak some thousand of years together 10. Hot Fountains Springs running with Pitch and Rosin certain Thermae catching fire at a distance 230 CHAP. VIII 1. A fiery Comet as big as the Sun that appeared after the death of Demetrius Comets presages of Droughts Woods set on fire after their appearing 2. Of falling Starres Of the tail of a Comet that dried up a River 3. Hogsheads of Wine drunk up and men dissipated into Atoms by Thunder 4. That the fire of Thunder is sometimes unquenchable as that in Macrinus the Emperours time and that procured by the Praiers of the Thundering Legion 5. Of conglaciating Thunders and the transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt 6. The destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven That universal Deluges and Earthquakes do argue the probability of a Deluge of Fire 7. That Plinie counts it the greatest wonder that this Deluge of fire has not haâ—â—ed already 233 CHAP. IX 1. The Conflagration argued from the Proneness of Nature and the transcendent power of Christ. 2. His driving down the Powers of Satan from their upper Magazine 3. The surpassing power and skill of his Angelical Hosts 4. The efficacy of his Fiat upon the Spirit of Nature 5. The unspeakable corroboration of his Soul by its Union with the Godhead and the manner of operation upon the Elements of the World 6. That the Eye of God is ever upon the Earth and that he may be an Actour as well as a Speculatour if duly called upon 7 8. A short Description of the firing of the Earth by Christ with the dreadful effects thereof 236 CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithfull 239 CHAP. XI 1. A Recapitulation or Synopsis of the more Intelligible part of the Christian Mystery with an Indication of the Usefulness thereof 2. The undeniable Grounds of this Mystery The existence of God A particular Providence The Lapsableness of Angels and men The natural subjection of men to Devils in this fallen Condition 3. God's Wisdome and Iustice in the Permission thereof for a time 4 5. Further Reasons of that Permission 6. The Lapse of Men and Angels proved 7. The Good emerging out of this Lapse 8. The exceeding great Preciousness of the Divine Life 9. The Conflagration of the Earth 10. The Good arising from the Opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdome 11. That God in due time is in a special manner to assist the Kingdome of Light and in a way most accommodate to the humane Faculties 12. That therefore he was to send into the World some Venerable Example of the Dâ—vine Life with miraculous attestations of his Mâ—ssion of so sacred a Person 13. That this Person by reason of the great Agonies that befall them that return to the Divine Life ought to bring with him a palpable pledge of a proportionable Reward suppose of a Blessed Immortality manifested to the meanest Capacity by his rising from the dead and visibly ascending into Heaven 14. That in the Revolt of Mankind from the Tyranny of the Devil there ought to be some Head and that the Qualifications of that Head ought to be opposiâ—e to those of the old Tyrant as also to have a
Nature 7. The fourth Gospel-Power The Example of Christ. 8. His purpose of vindicating the Example of Christ from aspersions with the reasons thereof 408 CHAP. XIII 1. That Christ was no Blasphemer in declaring himself to be the Son of God 2. Nor Conjurer in casting out Devils 3. That he was unjustly accused of Prophaneness 4. That there was nothing detestable in his Neutrality toward Political Factions 5. Nor any Injustice nor Partiality found in him 6. Nor could his sharp Rebukes of the Pharisâ—es be rightly termed Railing 7. Nor his whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple tumultâ—ary Zeal 8. Nor his crying out so dreadfully in his Passion be imputed to Impatience or Despair 9. The suspicion of Distractedness and Madness cleared 10. His vindication from their aspersions of Looseness and Prodigality 11. The câ—oâ—ked and perverse nature of the Pharisees noted with our Saviours own Apology for his frequenting all companies 12. That Christ was no Self-seeker in undergoing the Death of the Cross for that joy that was set before him 412 CHAP. XIV 1. The reason of his having insisted so long on the vindicating of the Life of Christ from the aspersions of the Malevolent 2. The true Character of a real Christian. 3. The true Character of a false or Pharisaical Christian. 4. How easily the true members of Christ are accused of Blasphemy by the Pharisaical Christians 5. And the working of their Graces imputed to some vicious Principle 6. Their censuring them prophane that are not superstitious 7. The Parisees great dislike of coldness in fruitless Controversies of Religion 8. Their Ignorance of the law of Equity and Love 9. How prone it is for the sincere Christian to be accounted a Railer for speaking the truth 10. That the least Opposition against Pharisaical Rottenness will easily be interpreted bitter and tumultuous Zeal 11. How the solid Knowledge of the perfectest Christians may be accounted Madness by the formal Pharisee 12. his Proneness to judge the true Christian according to the motions of his own untamed corruptions 13. His prudent choice of the vice of Covetousness 14. The Unreasonableness of his censure of those that endeavour after Perfection 15. His ignorant surmise that no man liveth vertuously for the love of Vertue it self 16. The Usefulness of this Parallelisme betwixt the Reproach of Christ and his true Members 422 CHAP. XV. 1. The Passion of Christ the fifth Gospel-Power the Virtue whereof is in a special manner noted by our Saviour himself 2. That the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness was a prophetick Type of Christ and cured not by Art but by Divine Power 3. That Telesmatical Preparations are superstitious manifest out of their Collections that write of them 4. Particularly out of Gaffarel and Gregory 5. That the Effects of Telesmes are beyond the laws of Nature 6. That if there be any natural power in Telesmes it is from Similitude with a confutation of this ground also 7. A further confutation of that ground 8. In what sense the Brazâ—n Serpent was a Telesme and that it must needs be a Typical Prophecie of Christ. 9. The accurate and punctual Prefiguration therein 10. The wicked Pride and Conceitedness of those that are not touched with this admirable contrivance of Divine Providence 11. The insufferable balsphemy of them that reproach the Son of God for crying out in his dreadful Agony on the Cross wherein is discovered the Unloveliness of the Family of Love 429 CHAP. XVI 1. The End of Christs Sufferings not onely to pacifie Conscience but to root out Sin witnessed out of the Scripture 2. Further Testimonies to the same purpose 3. The Faintness and Uselesness of the Allegory of Chrâ—sts Passion in comparison of the Application of the History thereof 4 The Application of Christs Sufferings against Pride and Covetousness 5. As also against Envy Hâ—â—red Revenge vain Mirth the Pangs of Deaâ—h and unwarrantable Love 6. A General Application of the Death of Christ to the mortifying of all Sin whatsoever 7. The celebrating the Lords Supper the use and meaning thereof 436 CHAP. XVII 1. The sixth Gospel-Power is the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The priviledge of this Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality above that from the Subtilty of Reason and Philosophy 2. The great power this consideration of the Soul's Immortality has to urge men to a Godly life 3. To â—ean themselves from worldly pleasures and learn to delight in those that are everlasting 4. To have our Conversation in Heaven 5. The Conditions of the Everlasting Inheritance 6. Further enforcements of duty from the Soul's Immortality 440 CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace here shall be in no better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happiness 443 CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendome 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 447 CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulness of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 449 BOOK IX CHAP. I. THe four Derivative Properties of the Mystery of Godliness 2. That a measure of Obscurity begets Veneration suggested from our very senses 3. Confirmed also by the common suffrage of all Religions and the nature of Reservedness amongst men 4. The rudeness and ignorance of those that expect that every Divine Truth of Scripture should be a comprehensible Object of their understanding even in the very modes and