Wondered at because it is foretold and Prophesied of that in the last days and therefore in our days many False teachers shall arise and deceive many i. e. So many that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect many saying Lo here is Christ and lo there some saying this is he and others saying that is he Mat. 24. 23 24. The Devil and his Imps setting up many Christs if by any means they can delude poor Souls and draw them from the true Christ but our Lord hath forwarned us not to go after them because he hath told us these things before Mat. 24. 25. Mark 13. 21 22. And being forewarned I trust by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be fore-armed all his Disciples even we Lay. Men not excepted and be enabled to withstand and to stand against all the Seducers the cunningly devising Fablemen of our day And for the incouragement of our Faith and Hope we ought to remember that the Promise of impossibility of being deceived is not confined to the Ministry but to all Gods Elect to every true Disciple of Jesus Christ And it is almost in so many words foretold at least it is plainly implyed that many of the Ministery many of the pretended Ministers of Christ should be those very deceivers themselves Why else doth our Lord call them false Prophets false Christs Mat. 24. 23. Mark 13. 21. 22. and false Teachers 2 Pet. 2. 1. It 's those Wolves coming in Sheeps Clothing that do so disturb the Church and in a great measure take Peace from the same and by there pretentions to Reason and great swelling Words of Vanity concerning their great Reason and Learning Lead away silly Women laden with divers lusts And for ought I know as many silly Men too Hence it comes to pass that although the Preaching the everlasting Gospel be the most Honourable and Glorious Imployment that ever God call'd a Mortal to in this World Yet because many of the Sons of Ely do so manifestly declare themselves to be the Sons of Belial the offerings of the Lord are abhorred for the Priests sake It is to be lamented and I cannot without grief of Heart write it nor think on it that the Ministers of the Gospel should be so much slighted contemned and despised as at this day they are because I Read the Bible and there I find our Lord saith speaking of his Ministers to be sure if not of all his Disciples He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And I dread what the consequence of the despising of Christ and him that sent him will amount unto and yet I am no more a Biggot to their Ministry than I am a dispiser of them For however mean or Contemptible my Circumstances and Imployment may be in the World yet it hath pleased God to Bless me with such a Berean Spirit that by the Grace of God I will neither follow their Doctrine nor their Practice any further then I have good Warrant from the Word of God that they follow their and my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And therefore if thou ask me what I think should be the Reason why in a professed Christian Nation a Christian Ministry is so much despised I must needs say I think they may thank themselves for it for when by the Grace of God a Church or Ministry is made Beautiful as Tirzah the same Grace will make them as terrible as an Army with banners Cant. 6. ver 4. And although the World hates them yet Herod like they must fear them although they kill them and they kill them because they fear them as well as hate them Christ will honour them that honour him and although Christ Disciples must suffer Persecution and be Reproached and Vilified yet at the same time the fear and the dread of them must fall upon those very beasts that worry them And therefore it is observable that in times of Persecution the Church and her Ministers are hated and troubled on every side But at the same time they are feared not slighted their Persecutors being moved with Envy rather then Contempt The Reason is because the fire of Persecution makes them more bright and Beautiful and therefore more terrible But when there is Peace to the Church from outward Persecution and as in Constantines time great Worldly Grandeur is added thereunto then is the time for the Devil to Play his Pranks another way by sending in false Brethren among them to preach the Gospel for filthy Lucre sake And at this very door it is that many of the lowest of the People are Let in to be Priests and which is worse if worse can be many of the lowest of the People make themselves Priests But which way so ever they get in whether by the negligence or ignorance of the Door-keepers or whether they Climb up some other way It is too Evident that too many of these sorry Tools are in to the dishonour of the Ministry and when they are in it is no wonder though they quickly discover themselves to be as they are and when they do so discover themselves it is no wonder if the lowest of the People do look upon them as lower than themselves and that must be very low indeed It is very sad that our Bishops the Ministers of the Gospel should have such an unjustifiable and dishonourable regard for Ely's Seed seeing the Lord hath rejected them from being Priests to minister before him and yet when any of these fulfil the Curse that was pronounced against that good Mans wicked Seed and comes and croucheth to them for a peice of Silver and a Morsel of bread saying put me I pray thee into one of the Priest Offices that I may have a piece of Silver and a piece of bread presently they are ready to lay Hands on them But I would to God they would rather reject all such Petitions and Petitioners with the greatest contempt and scorn to the Petition and the Greatest pity and Compassion and Fatherly Admonition to the Petitioners But no doubt the Aged Pauls of our day would willingly see young Timothies growing up in their stead And why then do they not observe the Rule given to the First Bishop of Ephesus to lay hands suddenly on no Man nor at any time upon a Novice but on such as desire the Office of a Bishop because it is a good Work and to prove them too for this was to be done before they took the Office of a Deacon how much more before they took the Office of a Bishop and for want of this it is I am greived to see it and so are other Christians to that the Ministers of the Gospel are in general and the Gospel it self is so much slighted and despised There is not that Majesty and Lustre upon Ministers and Christians as there was in the Primitive times and no wonder if Men slight when God departs
had contradicted himself and his Argument would have been meer Nonsence and would have run thus a Man humbled himself and took on him the form and fashion of a Man Besides it is a Contradiction in the Nature of the thing it self and is no better Sence than to say a Man made himself a Man It may seem strange that Men should be so blind but how can it be otherwise when they will needs war against him who is the Light and Life of Men. I always thought that my Author was endu'd with a considerable stock of Learning only it look'd like a Jewel set in Lead for want of sound Reason and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to manage it until I met with his reconciling Faculty in his aforesaid 18th page and that brought to my Mind what the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 3. 15 16. where speaking of some of Paul's Epistles of which this to the Philippians and that to the Hebrews are some He saith There are some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also other Scriptures to their own Destruction And when I read these things I cannot for my Life forbear thinking on my Nameless Author For besides the flat Contradiction he gives the Holy Ghost it is directly contrary to the Scope of the Apostle which was to move them to Humility and Condescension one to another from Christ's Example But if he were a Man only to say nothing of the Nonsence that there is in saying a Man humbled himself to become a Man the Man Jesus considered as a Man only was highly honoured in his being conceived and brought forth of a Virgin in such a Miracnlous Manner So that consider the Text which way you will either with respect to the Words themselves or with respect to the Context we are bound to believe the Truth as it is revealed that He thought it no Robbery to be equal with God There is nothing more material in my Author which I have not taken Notice of and shewed how unreasonable it is especially where he pretends Scripture for his cunningly devised Fables And the Truth is those Gentlemen would make much surer Work in their Babel Building if they could but race out the Scriptures from among us than ever they will be able to do by wresting them one by one to speak according to their foolish Reason And indeed the Considerator in his Answer to his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury bids fair for it for though he had tryed in vain by false and absurd Glosses to make the first Chapter of John and many other Texts mentioned by his Lordship to speak according to his own and his Master Socinus his foolish Reason or rather corrupt Mind Yet he flies at first to his best shift though for Subtilty sake somewhat indirectly to except against the Gospel of St. John the three Epistles and the Revelations and would impose upon us that they were counterfeited by one Cerinthus in John's Name And therein he hath not only secur'd his own Cause but greatly oblig'd the Papists a piece of Wickedness they never had the Impudence to attempt though they kept them lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue Yes but the Considerator tells us that the Revelations of St. John were denied and writ against by some of the Papists as being no part of Divine Writ Well be it so every Body knows for what Cause we have it recorded in Acts 6. 10. because they were not able to resist the Holy Ghost that speaks therein and at the same time others of them are striving with all the might they have to ward off the Blow that the Spirit gives to that Interest in wresting it to any sence that may secure their Popish and Foppish Cause In like manner doth the Considerator not only with the Revelations but with the Gospel of St. John and his three Epistles and scarce any Text that is urg'd against them but they say either it is not right translated or it is no Scripture or else they manifestly wrest it from the plain Sence and Meaning of the Holy Ghost There in one Instance among many we have in the Gospel of John Chap. 8. v. 58. where our Lord saith Before Abraham was I am Considerator pag. 57. colume 1. that is saith he In the Decree and Counsel of God Why good Mr. Considerator what a great Secret have you found out now are not all God's Works known to him from Eternity were not you and I and all the Men that shall be in the World to the end thereof in the Counsel and Decree of God from Eternity Surely God is not like Man to determine and purpose one thing yesterday and another to day But pray Sir be pleased to take a View of your own Learned Countenance in your 6th page colume 1st and 2d There you give several Arguments to prove a thing cannot be possess'd before it is in being and in particular you instance the Day of Judgment which is not yet come and therefore not possess'd I hope you will not say it is not or that it was not in the Decree of God when and before he made the World Therefore your Saying after Grotius that a Man descending from Abraham could not be any otherwise before Abraham than in Divine Purpose and Decree is very true and turns the Argument against you Besides Abraham was in the Decree of God as soon as any Man Therefore you must own that our Lord did exist before he was born of the Virgin or that he spoke Nonsence for they themselves knew that the Decrees of God were Eternal and our Lord had not given them an Answer to their Question which was whether he had seen Abraham he being not fifty years old Besides our Lord had told a plain direct Lye if he had said he was in the Decree of God before Abraham For Abraham was in God's Decree as soon as Adam and therefore no Man descending from Abraham could be in God's Decree before him But the Considerator goes a little further and saith our Lord did exist in the Promise of God before Abraham which is very true also for he was promised the same day of the Fall but neither will this do the Business nor discharge our Considerator from charging our Lord with Folly or Nonsence or both For it was promised presently after the Flood long before Abraham that God should perswade Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem and yet the Gentiles the Seed of Japhet did not receive the Gospel till since our Lord 's coming in the Flesh So likewise was it prophesied of Josiah an hundred years before he was born could he therefore say before I was born I am Nay is not Mr. Considerator himself and the rest of his Learned Brethren prophesied of by Name in 2 Pet. 2. 1. where the Holy Ghost tells us there shall be false Teachers among Christians who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies denying
and Errors the Trinitarians may be guilty of yet it is certain they cannot be guilty of greater not indeed so great Boldness and Folly as our Accountant is as we have seen but now in his last Argument For I do not find that they enter into Judgment with God nor charge the most high foolishly nor with folly and I pray Sir upon second thoughts tell me which is the greatest Folly and boldness to believe what God declares of himself to be reasonable and true though we do not understand it or to give God the Lye and and tell him that what he declares of himself is false unreasonable and absurd because we do not understand it Such an Answer as this from a Servant to a Master would be Accounted Impudent boldness and we see there is nothing more common among Men whose Understandings and Reason differ greatly yet far enough are they from differing infinitely yet among Men it is no new thing for the Wise and Learned to understand and know that to be true and Reasonable which the more Ignorant are rather more ready to wonder at than they are able to give a Demonstration of Yet are these Gentlemen so confident in their own Reason that they will give the Lye to God himself if he tell them the Father the Word and Holy Ghost are One So careful are these Gentlemen that their Faith may not stand in the Power of God but in the Wisdom of Men. But whether it be right in the sight of God to believe or obey Men rather than God judge ye Acts. 4. 19. I have now done with my short Accountant the rest of his Book being meerly Historical of what did pass between him and B. R. S. and the Church of which he was a Member but I have nothing to do with that my Business being only to contend for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and to believe the Truth as it is in Jesus I shall therefore now take a view of our Nameless Author again and see if he can produce any sound Reason to perswade us to deny our Lord Jesus Christ For I take it for granted that it is as great a denial of him to deny him to be as he is God over all blessed for ever more as it is to deny him to be our redemer For indeed the Holy One of Isarel is the Redeemer thereof But on a Second view of our Author in his Divine Vnity asserted I do not find any other Reasons than what I have already considered and find in my Accountant save only he is somewhat larger and in his 10th page Colume 1. he would deny the Divinity of our Lord and prove it too if he didbut know how from this Argument that Man is made after God's own Image Now saith he If God be a Trinity and Man be his Image we may find an Image of that Trinity in our selves But he excludes the Body from any part of this Image which may look tolerable enough at first view because God is a Spirit and if he had stopt here he might have carried his Sophistry off pretty fair but the Wits of our day must over shoot themselves He tells you the Reason why the Body is excluded because saith he It is imperfect and there is no Imperfection with God Good Sir did you expect to find the Soul of Man a perfect Image of God when you first entred on this Argument really you might well have spared your Pains here and have given the Spirit of God the Lye once more and you should have as good Reason so to do as you have to give our Lord himself the Lye as you do in your 15th page colume 2. where you say The same worship which is due to the Father is not to be given to Christ but that which may be given to a Creature for God's sake Wherein you do in plain English give Truth it self the Lye for he hth told us that all Men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father as hath been already proved by Scripture John 5. 23. and by the Example of the Worshippers in Heaven But if you had been sincerely looking for a faint Resemblance of the Image of God in Man as a Trinity to say nothing of that Moral Likeness that God at first stampt on Man's Nature of himself which consisted in Righteousness and true Holiness which indeed was the greatest Resemblance in Man to God And yet we have reason to believe that the Angels were every whit as much like God as in this sense Man was Therefore it must be something else in the make of Man that did bear some Image of God for which cause it is said he made Man in his own Image and if you had not wilfully shut your Eyes you could not but see that the Scripture speaks of Body Soul and Spirit in Man as the Apostle Paul prays for the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5. 23. that They might be sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit And if there be such a thing as Body Soul and Spirit in Man then here is some faint Resemblance in Man of a Trinity in God I say a faint Resemblance for I am not so void of Reason as to think that a finite weak Man can be a perfect Image of God Yet our Author to shew what a Talent of Wit he hath spends all his 10th page both columes and part of 11th to prove that which no Body denies or that which is forreign to the purpose But in his 11th page his Wit runs over and his Invention will run too fast for his Reason do what he can for he saith That cannot be called Generation or Origination which never began to be generated or originated and if he had stopp'd here he might have danc'd in the Dark and they that have no Eyes could never have seen him But the Gentleman's Invention hangs in the Light of his Reason He tells us the Reason is That which never began to be a doing was never done and therefore ETERNAL GENERATION must be ETERNAL NONSENCE Well argued most Learned Doctor a Man would be ready to think you were a Pensioner to Hobbs to make way for and gain Proselytes to his Leviathan For by this Argument that which never began to be cannot have a Being and then the Fool may ask us Where is your God and the Truth is the Attribute of God's Eternity is as much above and out of your Reason as the Doctrine of the Trinity and if you tell me there is a difference between a Being and an Act. I Answer that an Eternal Act is as much without a Beginning as an Eternal Being and it is equally as great a piece of Nonsence and as derogatory to the Glory of God to say God was before he acted as to say he acted before he was Really Gentlemen but only for the great Names and Titles by which you are pleased to dignifie and distinguish your selves from the common
3 4. where he tells the Corinthians that though he is absent in Body yet he as present in Spirit had Judged already as though he were present concerning him that hath so done this Deed And in the next verse tells them what they should do wehen they wre gathered together and my Spirit with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ Colo. 2 5. to the same purpose but were not Mr. Considerator one of the best or rather the worst at perverting of Scripture and one of the greatest reproachers of sound Reason under the greatest pretentions to it I should not have mentioned these Scriptures as having the least shew of Reason in them to invalidate the Truth of our Lords Promise or that he will not be with his People and that really present with them to the end of the World in all Places and in all Conditions according to that gracious Promise in Isa 43. 2. When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee and the waters shall not overflow thee If you tell me this Promise in Isaiah must be understood of God the Father I answer if it be so it doth but confirm our Lords Deity the Promise being no more then what he Promiseth his Disciples which clearly proves our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Omnipresent God that fills Heaven and Earth with his presence for what Paul said to the Corinthians and Colossians is no more then what we may all say to one another when we are desirous to have a good Work carried on by the Church or any other Civil Society at which we have a right to be present as Member tho' we are else where detained yet approving the Work we say our Heart is with them our Mind and Spirit is in the Work But will Mr. Considerator say this is all the comfort our Lord promises his Disciples Mat. 28. Truly if so they might say of him as Job said of his Friends miserable comforters have ye been but our Lord cannot deceive any more then he can be deceived and therefore he will come unto his People and will take up his abode with them according to his gracious Promise in Joh. 14. 23. Jesus answered and said if a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Here the Son is to come and be as much present with his Disciples as the Father And in ver 16. of the same Chapter our Lord saith I will pray the Father and he shall send you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever All which with many other Texts of Scripture not only prove the Son to be Omnipresent but also the Unity of the Divine being and the Trinity of that Unity and doth undeniably prove to all sincere unbyast Christians the Divine authority and Truth of that Word in Joh. 5. 7. which Mr. Considerator and the rest of his Tribe do so much Bark at but they shall never be able to Bite it out of Gods Bible as long as the Sun and Moon indure nor can they though in Conjunction with the Gates of Hell be able to Rob the People of God of the comfort and Consolation that they enjoy by Communion with the real though Spiritual and Divine presence of Jesus Christ For when the Atheist and Deist and Mr. Considerator himself have Mock'd and Scoff'd at Communion with God as much as their Elder Brother Ishmael himself did at the Son of the Promise yet know ye there are that know their Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 3. And yet Mr. Considerator to shew what a Doctor in Capernaum and Nicodemus's Divinity he is proves himself as good an Advocate for the abomination of Transubstantion as Belarmine himself or any Cardinal of them all could do Yet is he no Papist but any thing so he can but do some thing against the Truth for in Page 21. Colum 2. and 22. He labours all be can to make the abomination of Transubstantiation to be a small sin if any which he calls a folly or a mistake it is not an impiety he saith but a Philosophical Error Colum 2. Page 21. and hath mis-represented that abomination that he might redicule the Truth For he saith it is not pretended by the Papist that the bread and Wine have received any the least change Where as this is the very thing they have burn'd many a Christian for because they would not believe that the Bread and Wine were changed or Transubstanstiated into the very Body and blood of Christ And as for his Body being present in a Spiritual manner it was the Doctrine of the Lutherans and not of the Papists And in his 20th Page Colum he saith himself the Papists say the words of our Lord import that the Bread of the Sacrament is really and verily made to be the Substance of Christ's body in which he was Crucified But in his Page 21. Colum 2. He tells us they are of another Mind and that they do not pretend that the bread and Wine have received the least change in what is an Object of Sense Why good Sir is not the very Substance of Bread an Object of Sense Perhaps this Gentleman may pretend a License to Contradict himself but the Trinitarians must have a care of saying any thing contrary to the dictates of Mr. Considerators foolish Reason for fear of being Guilty of the unpardonable sin of Contradicton But the Gentleman was labouring to Contradict Christ and to Charge him with Folly and Falshood therefore no wonder if he Contradict himself for our Lord hath promised to be with his People to be really present with them in this World This Mr. Considerator see would prove him to be God the only true God therefore he will Give our Saviour the Lye and say he neither is nor can be Omnipresent Page 11. Colum 2. But our Lord saith Mat. 18. 20. that where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them And that the will be with his People to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. Yet Mr. Considerator is pleased to say the Doctrine of Christ real presence is worse then the abomination of Transubstantiation But that his Fables may pass with some Colour he thinks it meet to colour his Charge with Falshood and tells us of some whom he saith ought not to call themselves the Reformed who believe the real Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament pag. 20. colume 2. But I know none of that Belief except the Papist nor the Considerator neither I believe but the Gentleman's Design was to deny the Real Divine Presence of Christ But that being too great a Truth to be beat out of the Scripture of Truth he contents himself in that place in denying his bodily Presence I have insisted the more on the Omnipresence of Christ because Mr. Considerator in his
still the Principal Matter and Stuff by which this Babel Tower is carried on and supported But let us next consider what Comfort here or Happiness hereafter we could expect from our Redeemers Suffering if he were but a Man or any Created Being whatsoever And here it may be remembred that it hath been already proved that no Creature can merit any thing from God by doing but may not an innocent Creature 's Suffering merit something at the Hands of God for others To this I answer there are but three Accounts or Reasons for which we can suppose God should afflict or punish his Creatures 1. His own absolute Sovereignty and unaccountable Dominion that God hath over all his Creatures and whatever he doth on this Account We all know he can do no Injustice Or 2. God punishes the Creature for its own Sin or Guilt Or 3. For the Guilt of some other But our Lord Jesus Christ did not suffer for himself for though the Messiah was cut off it was not for himself but for his People Dan. 9. 16. For He had no Sin nor was guile found in his Mouth And it hath been proved by Gods own Proclamation in Exod. 34. 6 7. that Guilt must be taken away or else the guilty Sinner cannot be cleared and so will remain under the Law and under the Curse Now Guilt cannot be taken away without suffering the Punishment that Guilt bound the Sinner over to this could not be done by a Man only or any limited Power whatsoever This Mr. Considerator not only owns in pag. 31 and 32. but also denies that the Acts of Christ though they were of an infinite Value which yet he will not own they were but if they were he argues against the Satisfaction of Justice thereby because he saith One infinlte Satisfaction is not equivalent to all those Guilts and Punishments each of which is infinite And this he calls a Reasoning or Computation which is self-evident but why doth not Mr. Considerator see that his Arguing is self-contradictory one while he will not own our Lord Jesus Christ to be God because he saith it implies more infinites than one Which he saith is impossible Now to render him an insufficient Saviour he tells us of a great many infinite Guilts which one infinite Saviour is not able to grapple with What Pains doth this Gentleman take to prove that he is not of Paul's Mind and Faith who saith Christ loved him and gave hsmself for him And that he is not concern'd to be one of that Number spoken of in Isa 53. 3 4 5. where 't is said he bare our Iniquities Griefs Sorrows Chastisements and by his Stripes we are healed And if he bare our Sins or Punishments as the Scripture doth so often declare he either bare all that was due from Divine Justice or he bare but a part If he bare but a part we are but partly cleared he is but a part Saviour Guilt is but in part removed and finally we can be but partly saved which is to be fully condemned for God will by no means clear the guilty And whereas Mr. Considerator speaks of a great many infinite Sins and Guilts yet it is certain that Sin neither is nor can in its own Nature be infinite though as it is committed against Infinite Justice and Goodness it hath a kind of infinite Evil in it but properly it is not nor can be infinite For as there is but one Good that is God so there is but one Infinite that is God And indeed Mr. Considerator should have considered that as he argues in his 33d page he makes it as possible for Sin to destroy the very being of God as to overthrow the Satisfaction of Christ For Sin is Enmity against God and if it had power it would destroy God but as great and as exceeding sinful as sin is yet the Power of God is able to subdue it and the Goodness of God is able to overcome it and the Sufrings of Christ are able to take away the Guilt of it And whereas he saith that one supposed infinite Satisfaction is not equivalent to a great many infinite guilts I have already proved that our Lords Satisfaction was not supposed but really such as Answred Divine Justice by taking away all guilt from all his Elect else they could not be cleared and consequently not saved And as for his setting many infinites of guilt and sin against one infinite satisfaction if it had pleased God to endue him but with half so much sound Reason as he hath bestowed on many of the Common People of whom Mr. Considerator hath Prophesied in his Pag. 30. Colum 1. That they shall turn Divines and raze the very Foundation of Babylon I say had Mr. Considerator been a Legal Freeman of the Common-wealth of sound Reason as he Boasts Pag. 44. Colum 1. he would have easily seen that his Argument is every Whit as strong for the destroying of God himself and Causing him to cease to be as against the satisfaction of Christ For if there be a great many infinite sins and guilts and therefore one infinite satisfaction cannot Answer them because many to one is odds By the same Reason there being a great many infinite Evils and but one infinite good many to one being odds the many infinite Evils must destroy the one infinite good Thus we see God confounds the Wisdom of the Wise and makes their Knowledge foolishness and it is a thing to be much observed that there is scarce any one Argument that our pretenders to Reason make use of against our Lord Jesus Christ But when it is lookt into a Man may see that an Atheist may with as much Reason urge the same against the very being of God The Wisdom and Justice and Soveraginty of God herein is to be humbly and thankfully adored in that he is pleased to hide those things from the wise and prudent and to reveal them to Babes even so O Father because it pleaseth thee This should teach all both learned and unlearned to believe God to be as he himself reveals himself in his Word to be least while we proudly go about to make God like our Selves we provoke him to Leave us to our Selves and then Wisdom must perish from the Wise and understanding from the prudent and in denying God to be as he is we shall proceed to deny him to be And indeed as great Charnock hath well observed of the two it is a greater evil to deny him to be as he is then to deny him to be Let every sincere Christian therefore make it his dayly Prayer to Almighty God to give him an understanding that he may know him that is true and also know that he is in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal Life 1 Joh. 5. 20. and let us one and all with Heart and Voice yield Obedience to the will and Command of God Joh. 5. in honouring the Son even as we honour the Father Joyning with those Blessed Ones we Read of Rev. 5. 9 10 11 12 13. Singing Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving to the Lamb who hath redeemed us by his blood and made us Kings and Priests unto our God Saying Blessing and Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever And let all that Love our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity say A men and Amen FINIS * See Sir Francis Bacons Confession of Faith