the Scripture The Word of God is outwardly written in the whole Creation To believe and serve God only and not Saints or Angels or Idols is Gods Word To Obey Princes and Priests is Gods Word To Rebell is Witchcraft and the Devils Word Rewards of Grace not Merit is Gods Word Christ the only true Priest and Sacrifice and Mediator is Gods Word No other Name given under Heaven by which we can be saved Baptism and the Lords Supper in both kinds is Gods Word Marriage in all is the Ordinance of God and Gods Word Justice and Mercy to all is Gods Word Religion to be perswaded not forced is Gods word Common Salvation is Gods Word Christ died for all Scriptures common to all Gods Testament Gods Word God no Respecter of Persons is Gods Word These things are good and profitable to all men These things exhort and teach with all Patience and long Suffering Freely we have received freely give If these Doctrines were preached amongst Papists and Protestant Dissenters of unbiassed Spirits they would listen diligently and be pricked in their hearts and cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do But alas the poor well-meaning Souls are led away by the crafty wiliness of those deceitful workers that lye in wait to deceive that make a Gain of Godliness writing and preaching and practising un-Gospel-like things We endeavour and pray and hope and long for this happy Reformation and till it be perfected continue to protest against all that is contrary to sound Doctrine and this is all our Forefathers did or that we can do and God accepts of it and will help our good work and labour of Love And still God and his Truth shall never want their Witnesses When we have tried all the ways we can what ever the Success be it was fairly offered we shall not lose our Reward we have wronged no body our Reward is with the Lord it shall return into our own Bosoms we shall see the travel of our Souls and be satisfied and the work of the Lord shall prosper in our hands Let God do his work in his own time and in his own way we have saved our own Souls Their blood shall be upon their own heads There is set before us Jewish Divinity Heathenish Divinity Popish Divinity Reformed Divinity Try all things hold fast that which is good But above all Stand fast in the Liberty with which Christ hath made you free and be not entangled again in the Yoke of Bondage which neither you nor your Fore-fathers were able to bear SECT VI. If there be Custom Customs or Education or Credit or Interest in the case you may come off from all these for the Gospels sake and for your Souls sake and for Gods sake except ye be Reprobates and will be Reprobates except ye be Barbarous and will be Barbarous The ignorant and slavish Greeks stand off from Reformation by any Copy Greek because they will not alter though for the better lest the Turks under whose Bondage they live should deny them that Liberty they have for siding with their Western Enemies 'T is a sore necessity 't is Barbarism their Forefathers disdained the Title 'T is their greater misery and their less sin by how much the more they are oppressed and by how much the less they understand and by how much the more they would know better if they knew how If they had known the things that we know and were in that Liberty and Plenty that we are in they would do better things than we do No body knows what Slavery is but they that feel it No body knows what Poverty is but they that feel it No body knows what Ignorance is but they that are under it and think there is no other Knowledge Magnum est humanae fragilitatis remedium Necessitas Sen. Customs barbarous Many Customs of Nations though never so Barbarous are diligently observed as lying with Mothers and Sisters among the Persian Magi Prostituting Wives as the Lacedemonians did and Indians do and count it a great honour and civility eating their Old Parents alive so to bury them in their Bowels a great Piety Stealing an honourable employment amongst the Idumaeans and Arabians and Algerines c. ever since Nimrods time the old Thief-hunter Canibals eating of Men. Wives buried or burnt alive with their dead Husbands c. But we are a Civilized as well as a Christianized People and may and do understand and practise better things We know our Masters Will and do it not we deserve to be beaten with many stripes We live not among Turks and Infidels but among Christians We are not Slaves but Freemen We may be wiser and honester if we will for we know better things So that we have no Cloke for our sins we can make no just excuses we can frame no righteous pretenses we are verily guilty for being no better because we are better taught than to be Idolaters Covenant-breakers Murderers Robbers Profane and downright Atheists So making our selves sinful as we are so making our selves miserable as we are and more and more sinful and miserable as we deserve to be even forsaken of God whom we have forsaken and then looking upon one another for help but not upon God SECT VII O the Right Spirit of the Gospel is quite another thing than that which shews it self abroad in the World in our days 1. The Clergy are not to Lord it over the Laity as far as Princes as they do Clergy for they are the Lord's Inheritance 2. The Clergy are not to Lord it over the Clergy as they do for they are the Lord's Inheritance How plain is Christ's Prohibition to the contrary It shall not be so among you My Kingdom is not of this World c. This is unreasonable this is unsufferable I will not say unpardonable whether it be in the Pope as it hath been a long time viis modis God knows how Or whither it be in the Presbyterian Independant Anabaptists or c. as it was for a short time in comparison viis modis God knows how To be sure they all equally claim Infallibility and Supremacy Infallibility and Supremacy if they could catch it and would practice equally Rebellion Murder and Rapine if they durst What else are those indeed and in truth but Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity how true is it that Instruments of Cruelty are in their Habitations how true is it that they have brought a scandal upon the peaceable Gospel of Christ to be the cause of all the Blood that hath been spâ—lt in Christendom and made the names of Christians stink among all the Inhabitants of the World that have heard of their Doctrines and Doings Surely the Lord will be avenged upon some body for these things The true zealous Protestant party wash their hands from this guilt and though they dy Ten Thousand Deaths will never stain their hearts with such Blood guiltiness
A SHORT ESSAY OF Modern Divinity BY ROBERT DIXON D.D. LONDON Printed by S. R. for R. Clavell at THE PREFACE THE Invasion of the Pulpit and the Separation from the Publick Worship are the Mothers and Nurses of Dogm's and Practises of Rebellions and Massacres for the Ruin of Civil and Ecclesiastical Government The Supream Power hath Religiously commanded general Humiliation of Fasting and Prayer to prevent our Distractions and Destructions The Outward Command is obeyed of God and the King the next is the Inward Duty of Reformation and Fasting from Sin Let every one turn from the Evil of his Way and from the Violence that is in his Hands lest it be returned upon us by God after our Sawcy Charge upon God Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our Soul and thou takest no knowledge Behold in the day of your Fast you find pleasure and exact all your labours Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of Wickedness Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on High Is it such a Fast that I have chosen A day for a man to afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his Head as a Bullrush and to spread Sackcloth and Ashes under him Wilt thou call 〈◊〉 this a Fast and an Acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen to loose the Bonds of Wickedness to undo the Heavy Burdens and to let the Oppressed go free and that ye break every Yoke Is it not to deal thy Bread to the Hungry and that thou bring the Poor that are cast out to thy House When thou seest the Naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own Flesh Vnto which Praecept is added the Promise due when the Command is performed Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee and the Glory of the Lord shall be thy Reward Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say Here I am If thou take away from the midst of thee the Yoke the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity And if thou draw out thy Soul to the hungry and satisfie the afflicted Soul Then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon day and the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy Soul in drought and make fat thy Bones and thou shalt be like a watred Garden and like a Spring of Water whose Waves fail not And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places thou shalt raise up the foundations of many Generations and thou shalt be called the Repairer of the Breach the Restorer of Paths to dwell in for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Know therefore for certain That the performance of the Covenant on our Part engages the performance of the Covenant on God's Part. This is Justice with God and Man Look to it Do no private wrong to your Neighbour do no publick wrong to the Government of Church or State which is Gods Both these are good nay the best of Governments yet as all other things are subject to failings these may be rectified but the Government its self must stand or else we must fall Blind Sampsons will pull down a strong House over their own heads for a private Revenge or in fond hopes to build a better by their Children when they are dead but the cause of Ruine is rather like to fall upon them who have ruined others If therefore after Fasting and Praying we fall to pulling down and rooting up we mock God and undo our selves with our own hands so our Destruction is from our selves and we frustrate our own hopes when in God we might have help The teeming Cause that produces the sad Effects of of all our Miseries and Distractions being the Malice and Cruelty of the Church of Rome on the one side and the Factious Sects on the other side endeavouring the same Extirpation of the Church of Engand and of the Government of this Kingdom which they did once bring to pass in the late Twenty Years Rebellion to the allmost final Ruine of the Royal Family the Nobility Gentry Clergy and Magistracy whose Honours Estates were swallowed up by them I thought fit to add this small Treatise to demonstrate the necessity of promoting the true Reformation of Theology from those Seditious Superstitious and bloody Principles which have prevailed over this part of Christendom as being the only Remedy under God to set all to rights in this Church and State Therefore I beg the favour of all Divines who most of all Professions have the Peoples ear and consequently most influence upon their Actions to make it their more than ordinary business to Preach and Practise the Pure Doctrine and Spiritual Worship of the Gospel after the Pattern of the Primitive times This will be most acceptable service in this Critical Parocysm of Jealousies and Fears While we stand stareing one upon another in fury watching to destroy one another or as in a storm in fear looking when the Waves should open their Mouths to devour us all together When we had more need to look up unto God to save us in our extremity and by Fasting and Prayer and mutual Charity unite against the Common Enemy to propitiate the offended Deity Other Remedies besides this there can be none it will be our wisdom to joyn all together for this Holy purpose before it be too late Are we mad to Act the same Tragedy over again in the same Age by the same Persons most of them must be dead on both sides those that are alive must be old on both sides and shall the young ones out-fool or out-knave the old ones shall the young Men rise up to play their bloody sport before the old ones again will they suffer it Shall the Sword devour for ever and we make our selves and our Posterity miserable once more Take heed trust them not you have smarted by them already It will be bitter in the latter end And what will you do in the end thereof Dulce Bellum inexpertis The burnt Child should dread the Fire A SHORT ESSAY OF Modern Divinity SECT I. Christ Infallible CHrist as God and Man is Infallible The Apostles as all Men were Fallible as Inspired Apostles Infallible in Revelations in what they were Inspired while they were Inspired Infallible In other things deceived in their own Opinions like other men As of the Temporal Kingdom of Christ and being the Greatest therein As of the Day of Judgement to come in their days c. Erred in their Manners denied forsook their Master sought for greatness Paul not free Peter most to blame sifted by Satan yet their Faith did not fail Only their Revelations were Infallible Such as their
enought Why then should we not believe those that did work Miracles and were honest too Christ worked Miracles and so did his Apostles and therefore Christ and his Apostles were Teachers that came from God for no man could ever work such Miracles as they did unless they were sent of God Doctrine or matter of Law Beside their Teaching and Doctrine we believe to be true because we find it to be true by natural Reason in matter of Law Why should we not believe their Relations to be true also for matter of Fact For such men as preached such Doctrines and did such Miracles must needs make as true Relations of what they had taught and done for matter of Fact Why should this be the chief Scruple Miracles or matter of Fact Was it impossible for God to work Miracles We cannot say it And did he not work Miracles How can we but say it What did he not therefore work them because we saw them not Others did and they tell us of them and they that did them tell us what they did and others that saw them tell us what they did Shall we believe no Body nor Thing unless we see them How do we believe God whom we never saw 'T is by the Relation of his works they tell us of him Monstrat Quaelibet herba Deum The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work Would not we that are honest be believed that have seen and heard and tell it to others Conveyance Why should not Christ's Witnesses be believed when they tell the World what they have seen and heard Even the wonderfull works of God The Apostle could not but speak presently after Christ's Resurrection with great boldness what they had both seen and heard And though it be now long since to us that are now alive yet they told it to them that were hard by them and they told it to them that were next and so one Generation continued telling it one to another and so down to our time and we shall tell it to them that come after us to the Worlds end there will never be an end of telling it As the Jews did to their Childrens Children c. Is not this a possible and fair Conveyance What can be desired more Vbique Semper ab Omnibus Ob. Some make false Reports Sol. Therefore true Reports are the more Believeable Some speak as true as others speak false or else none speaks true which no Body can say Ob. How shall I be sure who speaks true or false Sol. By the Credit of the Witnesses We that are honest know that we speak true and they that are honest do speak true and therefore all men are not false but some are true And by their works you shall know them whether their words be true Now Christ and his Disciples went about doing all the good they could Preaching Repentance to all and healing every one that was diseased of all manner of Infirmities therefore they were true And besides God was in them and with them to enable them to preach and do Miracles For never men spake as they spake or did as they did therefore both their words and works were all true and therefore worthy of all acceptation and belief Quod erat Demonstrandum We should take it very ill of others if we knowing the Truth to be in our hearts the World should abuse us for Lyars and Dissemblers and that we speak not a word of Truth when God knows and our own hearts do know that we speak the Truth and nothing but the Truth and that we do call God to witness for what we say or do to deal with us no otherwise than as we mean honestly and justly in all that we say or do We believe our selves when we speak truth Why should we not believe others that are as true men as our selves But especially such as had power from God the God of Truth to confirm all their Doctrines and Miracles which power we have not and yet are true men But they had therefore these extraordinary gifts confirmed upon them not for their own sakes but for the sakes of others that they might believe by their Words and Deeds to the Glory of God and to the Comfort and Salvation of their own Souls in the day of the Lord Jesus when the Secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed and we shall understand all truths without all Scruples and when Faith and Hope shall cease because we enjoy the things which we believed and hoped for We cannot therefore say that nothing is true for God is true and God's People are true and therefore something must be true and this which is the word of God if any thing must be true But put the Case that men should be so unreasonable as not to believe as some are for all men have not Faith because they will not have it though they might have it and especially to believe that which is most reasonably and worthy and necessary and most profitable to believe That Jesus Christ came in the Flesh to save Sinners I say suppose men should be thus far unbelieving as to matter of Fact concerning Christ's coming in the Flesh to dy and rise again to save Sinners Doctrine Yet why will they not believe this plain Doctrine of so great a truth as is acknowledged by all that God is to be worshipped that they should work Righteousnes and do to all men as they would be done by which is matter of Right in all and to all Whether Christ came in the Flesh or no to save Sinners yet to be sure all men ought to be honest why then are so many quite contrary in their practice though in their mind they do agree as to common Honesty Though all men are so stubborn that they have not Faith why should they be so perverse as to have no honesty Now what they can say to this or the other I know not except they shall say as they may truly it is their own fault if they do not believe nor live honestly Why Because they will be high they will be rich because they know there is no God or wish so at least They will venture it Certainly every man as he would willingly be believed when he says truth so he would as willing be loved when he does truth that is he would be honestly dealt withal every way by every man with all his heart as he is willing to deal honestly every way to every man with all his heart And withall if there be Salvation they would be glad to be saved Who would not wish to dy the Death of the Righteous and that his last end may be like unto his The most wicked men after all would be glad to be happy The wise tells them they must use the right way that leads to happiness and that calls no other than Holiness Well they that do live honestly are approved tho