Writer of the Apocalypse adorning his style with allusions to the most rouzing and most notable real or Physical Objects which is observable all along the Apocalypse it may be a sign that a new Heaven and a new Earth succeeding the Conflagration is one of those noble Phaenomena true and real amongst the rest which he thought fit to adorn his style with by alluding thereto So that though the chief intended sense of the Apocalypse be Political yet by its allusions it may countenance many noble and weighty Truths whether Physical or Metaphysical As The existence of Angels which is so perpertually inculcated all along the Book from the beginning to the ending The Divine Shechina in the celestial Regions The Dreadsul Abyss in which rebellious Spirits are chained and at the commination whereof they so much tremble The Conflagration of the Earth and lastly The renewing and restoring this Earth and Heaven after the Conflagration Pag. 150. The main Opinion of Pre-existence is not at all concerned c. This is very judiciously and soberly noted by him And therefore it is by no means fairly done by the Opposers of Pre-existence while they make such a pudder to confute any passages in this Hypothesis which is acknowledged by the Pre-existentiaries themselves to be no necessary or essential part of that Dogma But this they do that they may seem by their Cavils for most of them are no better against some parts of this unnecessarie Appendage of Pre-existence to have done some execution upon the Opinion it self which how far it extends may be in some measure discovered by these Notes we have made upon it Which stated as they direct the Hypothesis is at least possible but that it is absolutely the true one or should be thought so is not intended But as the ingenious Author suggests it is either this way or some better as the infinite Wisdom of God may have ordered But this possible way shews Pre-existence to be neither impossible nor improbable Pag. 151. But submit all that I have written to the Authority of the Church of England c. And this I am perswaded he heartily did as it is the duty of every one in things that they cannot confirm by either a plain demonstration clear authority of Scripture Manifestation of their outward Senses or some rouzing Miracle to compromise with the Decisions of the National Church where Providence has cast them for common peace and settlement and for the ease and security of Governours But because a fancy has taken a man in the head that he knows greater Arcana than others or has a more orthodox belief in things not necessarie to Salvation than others have for him to affect to make others Proselytes to his Opinion and to wear his badge of Wisdom as of an extraordinarie Master in matters of Theory is a mere vanitie of Spirit a ridiculous piece of pride and levitie and unbeseeming either a sober and stanched man or a good Christian. But upon such pretences to gather a Sect or set up a Church or Independent Congregation is intolerable Faction and Schism nor can ever bear a free and strict examination according to the measures of the truest Morals and Politicks But because it is the fate of some men to believe Opinions to others but probable nor it may be so much as the motion of the Earth suppose and Des Cartes his Vortices and the like to be certain Science it is the interest of every National Church to define the truth of no more Theories than are plainly necessary for Faith and good manners because if they either be really or seem to be mistaken in their unnecessary Decisions or Definitions this with those that are more knowing than ingenuous will certainly lessen the Authority and Reverence due to the Church and hazard a secret enmity of such against her But to adventure upon no Decisions but what have the Authority of Scripture which they have that were the Decisions of General Councils before the Apostasie and plain usefulness as well as Reason of their side this is the greatest Conservative of the Honour and Authority of a Church especially joyned with an exemplary life that the greatest Prudence or Politicks can ever excogitate Which true Politicks the Church of Rome having a long time ago deserted has been fain an horrid thing to think of it to support her Authority and extort Reverence by mere Violence and Bloud Whenas if she had followed these more true and Christian Politicks she would never have made herself so obnoxious but for ought one knows she might have stood and retained her Authority for ever In the mean time this is suitable enough and very well worth our noting That forasmuch as there is no assurance of the Holy Ghost's assisting unnecessary Decisions though it were of the Universal Church much less of any National one so that if such a point be determined it is uncertainly determined and that there may be several ways of holding a necessary Point some more accommodate to one kind of men others to another and that the Decisions of the Church are for the Edification of the people that either their Faith may be more firm or their Lives more irreprehensible these things I say being premised it seems most prudent and Christian in a Church to decline the Decision of the circumstances of any necessary point forasmuch as by deciding and determining the thing one way those other handles by which others might take more fast hold on it are thereby cut off and so their assent made less firm thereto We need not go far for an example if we but remember what we have been about all this 〈◊〉 It is necessarie to believe that we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Immortal Spirit capable of Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ording as we shall behave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revealed to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But though this Opinion or rather Article of Faith be but one yet there are several waies of holding it And it lies more easie in some mens minds if they suppose it created by God at every conception in the Womb in othersome if they conceive it to be ex Traduce and lastly in others if it pre-exist But the waies of holding this Article signisie nothing but as they are subservient to the making us the more firmly hold the same For the more firmly we believe it the greater influence will it have upon our lives to cause us to live in the fear of God and in the waies of Righteousness like good Christians Wherefore now it being supposed that it will stick more firm and fixt in some mens minds by some one of these three waies rather than by either of the other two and thus of any one of the three It is manifest it is much more prudently done of the Church not to cut off two of these three handles by a needless nay a harmful Decision but let every one choose that handle that he can hold the Article fastest by
for his own support and Edification For thus every one laying firm hold on that handle that is best sitted for his own grasp the Article will carry all these three sorts of believers safe up to Heaven they living accordingly whenas two sorts of them would have more slippery or uncertain hold if they had no handle ossered to them but those which are less suitable to their grasp and Genius Which shews the Prudence Care and Accuracy of Judgment in the Church of England that as in other things so in this she has made no such needless and indeed hurtful Decisions but left the modes of conceiving things of the greatest moment to every ones self to take it that way that he can lay the fastest hold of it and it will lie the most easily in his mind without doubt and wavering And therefore there being no one of these handles but what may be useful to some or other for the more easie and undoubted holding that there is in us an Immaterial and Immortal Soul or Spirit my having taken this small pains to wipe off the soil and further the usefulness of one of them by these Annotations if it may not merit thanks it must I hope at least deserve excuse with all those that are not of too sowre and tetrick a Genius and prefer their own humours and sentiments before the real benefit of others But now if any one shall invidiously object that I prefer the Christian Discretion of my own Church the Church of England before the Judgment and Wisdom of a General Council namely the fisth Oecumenical Council held at Constantinople in Justinians time under the Patriarch Eutychius who succeeded Menas lately deceased to whom Justinian sent that Discourse of his against Origen and his errours amongst which Pre-existence is reckoned one In answer to this several things are to be considered that right may be done our Mother First What number of Bishops make a general Council so that from their Numerosity we may rely upon their Authority and infallibility that they will not conclude what is false Secondly Whether in whatsoever matters of debate though nothing to the Salvation of mens souls but of curious Speculation fitter for the Schools of Philosophers than Articles of Faith for the edification of the people whose memory and conscience ought to be charged with no notions that are not subservient to the rightly and duly honouring God and his onely begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ and to the faithful discharging their duty to man the assistance of the Spirit of God can rationally be expected or onely in such things as are necessary to be professed by the people and very useful for the promoting of Life and Godliness And as Moses has circumscribed his Narrative of the Creation within the limits of Mundus Plebeiorum and also the Chronology of time according to Scripture is bounded from the first Adam to the coming again of the second to Judgment and Sentencing the wicked to everlasting punishment and the righteous to life everlasting so whether the Decisions of the Church are not the most safely contained within these bounds and they faithfully discharge themselves in the conduct of Souls if they do but instruct them in such truths only as are within this compass revealed in sacred Scripture And whether it does not make for the Interest and Dignity of the Church to decline the medling with other things as unprofitable and unnecessary to be decided Thirdly Whether if a General Council meet not together in via Spiritus Sancti but some stickling imbitter'd Grandees of the Church out of a pique that they have taken against some persons get through their interest a General Council called whether is the assistance of the Holy Ghost to be expected in such a meeting so that they shall conclude nothing against truth Fourthly Whether the Authority of such General Councils as Providence by some notable prodigie may seem to have intimated a dislike of be not thereby justly suspected and not easily to be admitted as infallible deciders Fifthly Whether a General Council that is found mistaken in one point anathematizing that for an Heresie which is a truth forfeits not its Authority in other points which then whether falshoods or truths are not to be deemed so from the Authority of that Council but from other Topicks Sixthly Since there can be no commerce betwixt God and man nor he communicate his mind and will to us but by supposition That our senses rightly circumstantiated are true That there is skill in us to understand words and Grammar and schemes of speech as also common notions and clear inferences of Reason whether if a General Council conclude any thing plainly repugnant to these is the Conclusion of such a Council true and valid and whether the indeleble Notices of truth in our mind that all Mankind is possessed of whether Logical Moral or Metaphysical be not more the dictates of God than those of any Council that are against them Seventhly If a Council as general as any has been called had in the very midnight of the Churches Apostasie and ignorance met and concluded all those Corruptions that now are obtruded by the Church of Rome as Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints Worshipping of Images and the like whether the Decisions of such a Council could be held infallible or valid What our own excellently well Reformed Church holds in this case is evident out of her Articles For Eighthly The Church of England plainly declares That General Councils when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all are not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining to God Wherefore saith she things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Artic. 21. Ninthly And again Artic. 20. where she allows the Church to have power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith but with this restriction That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another she concludes Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation What then does she null the Authority of all the General Councils and have no deference for any thing but the mere Word of God to convince men of Heresie No such matter What her sense of these things is you will find in 1 Eliz. cap. 1. Wherefore Tenthly and lastly What General Councils the Church of England allows of for the conviction of Hereticks you may understand out of these words of the Statute They shall not
abridge us of this liberty From which Charge I have endeavoured to free my self briefly by these two ways First by shewing how hard it is to prove the fifth Oecumenical Council so called to be a legitimate General or Oecumenical Council and such as whose Authority we may relie on And secondly if it was such by shewing that it did not condemn simply the Pre-existence of souls but Pre-existence with such and such Appendages So that there is no real clashing betwixt our Church and that Council in this But however this is from the eighth and ninth Heads it's plain enough that the Church of England is no favourer of the Conclusions of any General Council that are enjoyned as necessary to Salvation that be either repugnant to Holy Scripture or are not clearly to be made out from the same which Non-pre-existence of Souls certainly is not but rather the contrary But being the point is not sufficiently clear from Scripture either way to all and the Immortality of the Soul and subsistence after death is the main useful point that way which men can hold it with most firmness and ease her Candour and Prudence has left it free to them to make use of And as for General Councils though she does not in a fit of Zeal which Theodosius a Prior in Palestine is said to have done anathematize from the Pulpit all people that do not give as much belief to the four first General Councils as to the four Gospels themselves yet as you may see in the tenth Head she makes the Authority of the first four General Councils so great that nothing is to be adjudged Heresie but what may be proved to be so either from the Scripture or from these four Councils Which Encomium might be made with less skill and more confidence by that Prior there having been no more than four General Councils in his time But it was singular Learning and Judgment or else a kind of Divine Sagacity in our first Reformers that they laid so great stress on the first four General Councils and so little on any others pretended so to be But in all likelihood they being perswaded of the truth of the prediction of the Apostasiâ—… of the Church under Antichrist how universal in a manner it would be they had the most confidence in those General Councils which were the earliest and that were held within those times of the Church which some call Symmetral And without all question the two first General Councils that of Nice and that other of Constantinople were within those times viz. within four hundred years after Christ and the third and fourth within the time that the ten-horned Beast had his horns growing up according to Mr. Mede's computation But the Definitions of the third and fourth Councils that of Ephesus and that other of Chalcedon which are to establish the Divinity of Christ which is not to be conceived without the Union of both Natures into one person as also his Theanthropy which cannot consist with the confusion of both Natures into one were vertually contained in the Definitions of the first and second Councils So that in this regard they are all of equal Authority and that unexceptionable First because their Decisions were concerning points necessary to be decided one way or other for the settlement of the Church in the objects of their Divine Worship And therefore they might be the better assured that tâ—…e assistance of the Holy Ghost would not be waâ—…ing upon so weighty an occasion And secondly in that those two first Councils were called while the Church was Symmetral and before the Apostasie came in according to the testimony of the Spirit in the Visions of the Apocalypse Which Visions plainly demonstrate that the Definitions of those Councils touching the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ are not Idolatrous else the Apostasie had begun before the time these Oracles declare it did and if not Idolatrous then they are most certainly true And all these four Councils driving at nothing else but these necessary points to be decided and their decision being thus plainly approved by the suffrage of the Holy Ghost in the Apocalypse I appeal to any man of sense and judgment if they have not a peculiar prerogative to be believed above what other pretended General Council soever and consequently with what special or rather Divine sagacity our first Reformers have laid so peculiar a stress on these four and how consistent our Mother the Church of England is to herself that the decisions of General Councils have neither strength nor Authority further than the matter may be cleared out of the Holy Scriptures For here we see that out of the Holy Scriptures there is a most ample testimony given to the Decisions of these four General Councils So that if one should with Theodosius the Prior of Palestine in a fit of Zeal anathematize all those that did not believe them as true as the four Evangelists he would not want a fair Plea for his religious fury But for men after the Symmetral times of the Church upon Piques and private quarrels of Parties to get General Councils called as they fancy them to conclude matters that tend neither to the confirmation of the real Articles of the Christian Faith or of such a sense of them as are truly useful to life and godliness and herein to expect the infallible assistances of the Holy Spirit either upon such terms as these or for rank worldly interest is such a presumption as to a free Judgment will look little better than Simony as if they could hire the assistance of the Holy Ghost for money Thus have I run further into the consideration of General Councils and the measure of their Authority than was requisite upon so small an occasion and yet I think there is nothing said but if seriously weighed may be useful to the intelligent Reader whether he favour Pre-existence or not Which is no further to be favoured than is consistent with the known and approved Doctrines of the Christian Faith nor clashes any thing with the soundest Systemes of Divinity as Dr. H. More shews his way of exhibiting the Theorie does not in his General Preface to his Collectio Philosophica Sect. 19. whose cautious and castigate method I have imitated as near as I could in these my Annotations And he has indeed been so careful of admitting any thing in the Hypothesis that may justly be suspected or excepted against that his Friend Mr. Glanvil might have enlarged his Dedication by one word more and called him Repurgatorem Sapientioe Orientalis as well as Restauratorem unless Restaurator imply both It being a piece of Restauration to free an Hypothesis from the errours some may have corrupted it with and to recover it to its primeval purity and sincerity And yet when the business is reduced to this harmless and unexceptionable state such is the modesty of that Writer that he declares that if he were