Vision or Dream Nor is there any thing in his Law Morall or Ceremoniall by which they were taught there was any such Enthusiasme or any Possession When God is sayd Numb 11. 25. to take from the Spirit that was in Moses and give to the 70. Elders the Spirit of God taking it for the substance of God is not divided The Scriptures by the Spirit of God in man mean a mans spirit enclined to Godlinesse And where it is said Exod. 28. 3. Whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdome to make garments for Aaron is not meant a spirit put into them that can make garments but the wisdome of their own spirits in that kind of work In the like sense the spirit of man when it produceth unclean actions is ordinarily called an unclean spirit and so other spirits though not alwayes yet as often as the vertue or vice so stiled is extraordinary and Eminent Neither did the other Prophets of the old Testament pretend Enthusiasme or that God spake in them but to them by Voyce Vision or Dream and the Burthen of the Lord was not Possession but Command How then could the Jewes fall into this opinion of possession I can imagine no reason but that which is common to all men namely the want of curiosity to search naturall causes and their placing Felicity in the acquisition of the grosse pleasures of the Senses and the things that most immediately conduce thereto For they that see any strange and unusuall ability or defect in a mans mind unlesse they see withall from what cause it may probably proceed can hardly think it naturall and if not naturall they must needs thinke it supernaturall and then what can it be but that either God or the Divell is in him And hence it came to passe when our Saviour Mark 3. 21. was compassed about with the multitude those of the house doubted he was mad and went out to hold him but the Scribes said he had Belzebub and that was it by which he cast out divels as if the greater mad-man had awed the lesser And that John 10. 20. some said He hath a Divell and is mad whereas others holding him for a Prophet sayd These are not the words of one that hath a Divell So in the old Testament he that came to anoynt Jehu 2 Kings 9. 11. was a Prophet but some of the company asked Jehu What came that mad-man for So that in summe it is manifest that whosoever behaved himselfe in extraordinory manner was thought by the Jewes to be possessed either with a good or evill spirit except by the Sadduces who erred so farre on the other hand as not to believe there were at all any spirits which is very neere to direct Atheisme and thereby perhaps the more provoked others to terme such men Daemoniacks rather than mad-men But why then does our Saviour proceed in the curing of them as if they were possest and not as if they were mad To which I can give no other kind of answer but that which is given to those that urge the Scripture in like manner against the opinion of the motion of the Earth The Scripture was written to shew unto men the kingdome of God and to prepare their mindes to become his obedient subjects leaving the world and the Philosophy thereof to the disputation of men for the exercising of their naturall Reason Whether the Earths or Suns motion make the day and night or whether the Exorbitant actions of men proceed from Passion or from the Divell so we worship him not it is all one as to our obedience and subjection to God Almighty which is the thing for which the Scripture was written As for that our Saviour speaketh to the disease as to a person it is the usuall phrase of all that cure by words onely as Christ did and Inchanters pretend to do whether they speak to a Divel or not For is not Christ also said Math. 8. 26. to have rebuked the winds Is not he said also Luk. 4. 39. to rebuke a Fever Yet this does not argue that a Fever is a Divel And whereas many of those Divels are said to confesse Christ it is not necessary to interpret those places otherwise than that those mad-men confessed him And whereas our Saviour Math. 12. 43. speaketh of an unclean Spirit that having gone out of a man wandreth through dry places seeking rest and finding none and returning into the same man with seven other spirits worse than himselfe It is manifestly a Parable alluding to a man that after a little endeavour to quit his lusts is vanquished by the strength of them and becomes seven times worse than he was So that I see nothing at all in the Scripture that requireth a beliefe that Daemoniacks were any other thing but Mad-men There is yet another fault in the Discourses of some men which may also be numbred amongst the sorts of Madnesse namely that abuse of words whereof I have spoken before in the fifth chapter by the Name of Absurdity And that is when men speak such words as put together have in them no signification at all but are fallen upon by some through misunderstanding of the words they have received and repeat by rote by others from intention to deceive by obscurity And this is incident to none but those that converse in questions of matters incomprehensible as the Schoole-men or in questions of abstruse Philosophy The common sort of men seldome speak Insignificantly and are therefore by those other Egregious persons counted Idiots But to be assured their words are without any thing correspondent to them in the mind there would need some Examples which if any man require let him take a Schooleman into his hands and see if he can translate any one chapter concerning any difficult point as the Trinity the Deity the nature of Christ Transubstantiation Free-will c. into any of the moderne tongues so as to make the same intelligible or into any tolerable Latine such as they were acquainted withall that lived when the Latine tongue was Vulgar What is the meaning of these words The first cause does not necessarily inflow any thing into the second by force of the Essentiall subordination of the second causes by Which it may help it to worke They are the Translation of the Title of the sixth chapter of Suarez first Booke Of the Concourse Motion and Help of God When men write whole volumes of such stuffe are they not Mad or intend to make others so And particularly in the question of Transubstantiation where after certain words spoken they that say the White nesse Round nesse Magnitude Quality Corruptibility all which are incorporeall c. go out of the Wafer into the Body of our blessed Saviour do they not make those Nessles Tudes and Ties to be so many spirits possessing his body For by Spirits they mean alwayes things that being incorporeall are neverthelesse moveable from one place to another So
a man should say an Incorporeall Body But in the sense of cōmon people not all the Universe is called Body but only such parts thereof as they can discern by the sense of Feeling to resist their force or by the sense of their Eyes to hinder them from a farther prospect Therefore in the common language of men Aire and aeriall substances use not to be taken for Bodies but as often as men are sensible of their effects are called Wind or Breath or because the same are called in the Latine Spiritus Spirits as when they call that aeriall substance which in the body of any living creature gives it life and motion Vitall and Animall spirits But for those Idols of the brain which represent Bodies to us where they are not as in a Looking-glasse in a Dream or to a Distempered brain waking they are as the Apostle saith generally of all Idols nothing Nothing at all I say there where they seem to be◅ and in the brain it self nothing but tumult proceeding either from the action of the objects or from the disorderly agitation of the Organs of our Sense And men that are otherwise imployed then to search into their causes know not of themselves what to call them and may therefore easily be perswaded by those whose knowledge they much reverence some to call them Bodies and think them made of aire compacted by a power supernaturall because the sight judges them corporeall and some to call them Spirits because the sense of Touch discerneth nothing in the place where they appear to resist their fingers So that the proper signification of Spirit in common speech is either a subtile fluid and invisible Body or a Ghost or other Idol or Phantasme of the Imagination But for metaphoricall significations there be many for sometimes it is taken for Disposition or Inclination of the mind as when for the disposition to controwl the sayings of other men we say a spirit of contradiction For a disposition to uncleannesse an unclean spirit for perversenesse a froward spirit for sullennesse a dumb spirit and for inclination to godlinesse and Gods service the Spirit of God sometimes for any eminent ability or extraordinary passion or disease of the mind as when great wisdome is called the spirit of wisdome and mad men are said to be possessed with a spirit Other signification of Spirit I find no where any and where none of these can satisfie the sense of that word in Scripture the place falleth not under humane Understanding and our Faith therein consisteth not in our Opinion but in our Submission as in all places where God is said to be a Spirit or where by the Spirit of God is meant God himselfe For the nature of God is incomprehensible that is to say we understand nothing of what he is but only that he is and therefore the Attributes we give him are not to tell one another what he is nor to signifie our opinion of his Nature but our desire to honor him with such names as we conceiv◅ most honorable amongst our selves Gen. 1. 2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters Here if by the Spirit of God be meant God himself then is Motion attributed to God and consequently Place which are intelligible only of Bodies and not of substances incorporeall and so the place is above our understanding that can conceive nothing moved that changes not place or that has not dimension and whatsoever has dimension is Body But the meaning of those words is best understood by the like place Gen. 8. 1. Where when the earth was covered with Waters as in the beginning God intending to abate them and again to discover the dry land useth the like words I will bring my Spirit upon the Earth and the waters shall be diminished in which place by Spirit is understood a Wind that is an Aire or Spirit moved which might be called as in the former place the Spirit of God because it was Gods work Gen. 41. 38. Pharaoh calleth the Wisdome of Joseph the Spirit of God For Joseph having advised him to look out a wise and discreet man and to set him over the land of Egypt he saith thus Can we find such a man as this is in whom is the Spirit of God And Exod. 28. 3. Thou shalt speak saith God to all that are wise hearted whom I have filled with the Spirit of VVisdome to make Aaron Garments to consecrate him Where extraordinary Understanding though but in making Garments as being the Gift of God is called the Spirit of God The same is found again Exod. 31. 3 4 5 6. and 35. 31. And Isaiah 11. 2 3. where the Prophet speaking of the Messiah saith The Spirit of the Lord shall abide upon him the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of counsell and fortitude and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. Where manifestly is meant not so many Ghosts but so many eminent graces that God would give him In the Book of Judges an extraordinary Zeal and Courage in the the defence of Gods people is called the Spirit of God as when it excited Othoniel Gideon Jephtha and Samson to deliver them from servitude Judg. 3. 10. 6. 34. 11. 29. 13. 25. 14. 6 19. And of Saul upon the newes of the insolence of the Ammonites towards the men of Jabesh Gilead it is said 1 Sam. 11. 6. that The Spirit of God came upon Saul and his Anger or as it is in the Latine his Fury was kindled greatly Where it is not probable was meant a Ghost but an extraordinary Zeal to punish the cruelty of the Ammonites In like manner by the Spirit of God that came upon Saul when hee was amongst the Prophets that praised God in Songs and Musick 1 Sam. 19. 20. is to be understood not a Ghost but an unexpected and sudden Zeal to join with them in their devotion The false Prophet Zedekiah saith to Micaiah 1 Kings 22. 24. Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee Which cannot be understood of a Ghost for Micaiah declared before the Kings of Israel and Judah the event of the battle as from a Vision and not as from a Spirit speaking in him In the same manner it appeareth in the Books of the Prophets that though they spake by the Spirit of God that is to say by a speciall grace of Prediction yet their knowledge of the future was not by a Ghost within them but by some supernaturall Dream or Vision Gen. 2. 7. It is said God made man of the dust of the Earth and breathed into his nostrills spiraculum vitae the breath of life and man was made a living soul. There the breath of life inspired by God signifies no more but that God gave him life And Job 27. 3. as long as the Spirit of God is in my nostrils is no more then to say as long as I live So
speaking by the Spirit or Inspiration was not a particular manner of Gods speaking different from Vision when they that were said to speak by the Spirit were extraordinary Prophets such as for every new message were to have a particular Commission or which is all one a new Dream or Vision Of Prophets that were so by a perpetuall Calling in the Old Testament some were supreme and some subordinate Supreme were first Moses and after him the High Priests every one for his time as long as the Priesthood was Royall and after the people of the Jews had rejected God that he should no more reign over them those Kings which submitted themselves to Gods government were also his chief Prophets and the High Priests oâ—…fice became Ministeriall And when God was to be consulted they put on the holy vestments and enquired of the Lord as the King commanded them and were deprived of their office when the King thought fit For King Saul 1 Sam. 13. 9. commanded the burnt offering to be brought and 1 Sam. 14. 18. he commands the Priest to bring the Ark neer him and ver 19. again to let it alone because he saw an advantage upon his enemies And in the same chapter Saul asketh counsell of God In like manner King David after his being anointed though before he had possession of the Kingdome is said to enquire of the Lord 1 Sam. 23. 2. whether he should fight against the Philistines at Keilah and verse 10. David commandeth the Priest to bring him the Ephod to enquire whether he should stay in Keilah or not And King Solomon 1 Kings 2. 27. took the Priesthood from Abiathar and gave it verse 35. to Zadoc Therefore Moses and the High Priests and the pious Kings who enquired of God on all extraordinary occasions how they were to carry themselves or what event they were to have were all Soveraign Prophets But in what manner God spake unto them is not manifest To say that when Moses went up to God in Mount Sinai it was a Dream or Vision such as other Prophets had is contrary to that distinction which God made between Moses and other Prophets Numb 12. 6 7 8. To say God spake or appeared as he is in his own nature is to deny his Infinitenesse Invisibility Incomprehensibility To say he spake by Inspiration or Infusion of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit signifieth the Deity is to make Moses equall with Christ in whom onely the Godhead as St. Paul speaketh Col. 2. 9. dwelleth bodily And lastly to say he spake by the Holy Spirit as it signifieth the graces or gifts of the Holy Spirit is to attribute nothing to him supernaturall For God disposeth men to Piety Justice Mercy Truth Faith and all manner of Vertue both Morall and Intellectuall by doctrine example and by severall occasions naturall and ordinary And as these ways cannot be applyed to God in his speaking to Moses at Mouut Sinai so also they cannot be applyed to him in his speaking to the High Priests from the Mercy-Seat Therefore in what manner God spake to those Soveraign Prophets of the Old Testament whose office it was to enquire of him is not intelligible In the time of the New Testament there was no Soveraign Prophet but our Saviour who was both God that spake and the Prophet to whom he spake To subordinate Prophets of perpetuall Calling I find not any place that proveth God spake to them supernaturally but onely in such manner as naturally he inclineth men to Piety to Beleef to Righteousnesse and to other vertues all other Christian men Which way though it consist in Constitution Instruction Education and the occasions and invitements men have to Christian vertues yet it is truly attributed to the operation of the Spirit of God or Holy Spirit which we in our language call the Holy Ghost For there is no good inclination that is not of the operation of God But these operations are not alwaies supernaturall When therefore a Prophet is said to speak in the Spirit or by the Spirit of God we are to understand no more but that he speaks according to Gods will declared by the supreme Prophet For the most common acceptation of the word Spirit is in the signification of a mans intention mind or disposition In the time of Moses there were seventy men besides himself that Prophecyed in the Campe of the Israelites In what manner God spake to them is declared in the 11 of Numbers verse 25. The Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto Moses and took of the Spirit that was upon him and gave it to the seventy Elders And it came to passe when the Spirit rested upon them they Prophecyed and did not cease By which it is manifest first that their Prophecying to the people was subservient and subordinate to the Prophecying of Moses for that God took of the Spirit of Moses to put upon them so that they Prophecyed as Moses would have them otherwise they had not been suffered to Prophecy at all For there was verse 27. a complaint made against them to Moses and Joshua would have Moses to have forbidden them which he did not but said to Joshua Bee not jealous in my behalf Secondly that the Spirit of God in that place signifieth nothing but the Mind and Disposition to obey and assist Moses in the administration of the Government For if it were meant they had the substantiall Spirit of God that is the Divine nature inspired into them then they had it in no lesse manner then Christ himself in whom onely the Spirit of God dwelt bodily It is meant therefore of the Gift and Grace of God that guided them to co-operate with Moses from whom their Spirit was derived And it appeareth verse 16. that they were such as Moses himself should appoint for Elders and Officers of the People For the words are Gather unto me seventy men whom thou knowest to be Elders and Officers of the people where thou knowest is the same with thou appointest or hast appointed to be such For we are told before Exod. 18. that Moses following the counsell of Jethro his Father-in-law did appoint Judges and Officers over the people such as feared God and of these were those Seventy whom God by putting upon them Moses spirit inclined to aid Moses in the Administration of the Kingdome and in this sense the Spirit of God is said 1 Sam. 16. 13 14. presently upon the anointing of David to have come upon David and left Saul God giving his graces to him he chose to govern his people and taking them away from him he rejected So that by the Spirit is meant Inclination to Gods service and not any supernaturall Revelation God spake also many times by the event of Lots which were ordered by such as he had put in Authority over his people So wee read that God manifested by the Lots which Saul caused to be drawn 1 Sam. 14. 43. the
in Ezek. 1. 20. the Spirit of life was in the wheels is equivalent to the wheels were alive And Ezek. 2. 30. the Spirit entred into me and set me on my feet that is I recovered my vitall strength not that any Ghost or incorporeall substance entred into and possessed his body In the 11 chap. of Numbers verse 17. I will take saith God of the Spirit which is upon thee and will put it upon them and they shall bear the burthen of the people with thee that is upon the seventy Elders whereupon two of the seventy are said to prophecy in the campe of whom some complained and Joshua desired Moses to forbid them which Moses would not doe Whereby it appears that Joshua knew not they had received authority so to do and prophecyed according to the mind of Moses that is to say by a Spirit or Authority subordinate to his own In the like sense we read Deut. 34. 9. that Joshua was full of the Spirit of wisdome because Moses had laid his hands upon him that is because he was ordained by Moses to prosecute the work hee had himselfe begun namely the bringing of Gods peoplâ—… into the promised land but prevented by death could not finish In the like sense it is said Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his not meaning thereby the Ghost of Christ but a submission to his Doctrine As also 1 John 4. 2. Hereby you shall know the Spirit of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flâ—…sh is of God by which is meant the Spirit of unfained Christianity or submission to that main Article of Christian faith that Jesus is the Christ which cannot be interpreted of a Ghost Likewise these words Luke 4. 1. And Jesus full of the Holy Ghost that is as it is exprest Mat. 4. 1. and Mar. 1. 12. of the Holy Spirit may be understood for Zeal to doe the work for which heâ—… was sent by God the Father but to interpret it of a Ghost is to say that God himselfe for so our Saviour was was filled with God which is very unproper and unsignificant How we came to translate Spirits by the word Ghosts which signifieth nothing neither in heaven nor earth but the Imaginary inhabitants of mans brain I examine not but this I say the word Spirit in the text signifieth no such thing but either properly a reall substance or Metaphorically some extraordinary ability or affection of the Mind or of the Body The Disciples of Christ seeing him walking upon the sea Mat. 14. 26. and Marke 6. 49. supposed him to be a Spirit meaning thereby an Aeriall Body and not a Phantasme for it is said they all saw him which cannot be understood of the delusions of the brain which are not common to many at once as visible Bodies are but singular because of the differences of Fancies but of Bodies only In like manner where he was taken for a Spirit by the same Apostles Luke 24. 3 7. so also Acts 12. 15. when St. Peter was delivered out of Prison it would not be beleeved but when the Maid said he was at the dore they said it was his Angel by which must be meant a corporeall substance or we must say the Disciples themselves did follow the common opinion of both Jews and Gentiles that some such apparitions were not Imaginary but Reall and such as needed not the fancy of man for their Existence These the Jews called Spirits and Angels Good or Bad as the Greeks called the same by the name of Daemons And some such apparitions may be reall and substantiall that is to say subtile Bodies which God can form by the same power by which he formed all things and make use of as of Ministers and Messengers that is to say Angels to declare his will and execute the same when he pleaseth in extraordinary and suâ—…naturall manner But when hee hath so formed them they are Substances endued with dimensions and take up roome and can be moved from place to place which is peculiar to Bodies and thâ—…refore are not Ghosts incorporeall that is to say Ghosts that are in no place that is to say that are no where that is to say that seeâ—…ing to be somewhat are nothing But if Corporeall be taken in the most vulgar manner for such Substances as are perceptible by our externall Senses then is Substance Incorporeall a thing not Imaginary but Reall namely a thin Substance Invisible but that hath the same dimensions that are in grosser Bodies By the name of ANGEL is signified generally a Messenger and most often a Messenger of God And by a Messenger of God is signified any thing that makes known his extraordinary Presence that is to say the extraordinary manifestation of his power especially by a Dream or Vision Concerning the creation of Angels there is nothing delivered in the Scriptures That they are Spirits is often repeated but by the name of Spirit is signified both in Scripture and vulgarly both amongst Jews and Gentiles sometimes thin Bodies as the Aire the Wind the Spirits Vitall and Animall of living creatures and sometimes the Images that rise in the fancy in Dreams and Visions which are not reall Substances nor last any longer then the Dream or Vision they appear in which Apparitions though no reall Substances but Accidents of the brain yet when God raiseth them supernaturally to signifie his Will they are not unproperly termed Gods Messengers that is to say his Angels And as the Gentiles did vulgarly conceive the Imagery of the brain for things really subsistent without them and not dependent on the fancy and out of them framed their opinions of Daemons Good and Evill which because they seemed to subsist really they called Substances and because they could not feel them with their hands Incorporeall so also the Jews upon the same ground without any thing in the Old Testament that constrained them thereunto had generally an opinion except the sect of the Sadduces that those apparitions which it pleased God sometimes to produce in the fancie of men for his own service and therefore called them his Angels were substances not dependent on the fancy but permanent creatures of God whereof those which they thought were good to them they esteemed the Angels of God and those they thought would hurt them they called Evill Angels or Evill Spirits such as was the Spirit of Python and the Spirits of Mad-men of Lunatiques and Epileptiques For they esteemed such as were troubled with such diseases Daemoniaques But if we consider the places of the Old Testament where Angels are mentioned we shall find that in most of them there can nothing else be understood by the word Angel but some image raised supernaturally in the fancy to signifie the presence of God in the execution of some supernaturall work and therefore in the rest where their nature is not exprest it may be
Soveraign as they did to Moses to uphold or to forbid them as hee should see cause and if hee disavow them then no more to obey their voice or if he approve them then to obey them as men to whom God hath given a part of the Spirit of their Soveraigne For when Christian men take not their Christian Soveraign for Gods Prophet they must either take their owne Dreames for the Prophecy they mean to bee governed by and the tumour of their own hearts for the Spirit of God or they must suffer themselves to bee lead by some strange Prince or by some of their fellow subjects that can bewitch them by slaunder of the government into rebellion without other miracle to confirm their calling then sometimes an extraordinary successe and Impunity and by this means destroying all laws both divine and humane reduce all Order Government and Society to the first Chaos of Violence and Civill warre CHAP. XXXVII Of MIRACLES and their Use. BY Miracles are signified the Admirable works of God therefore they are also called Wonders And because they are for the most part done for a signification of his commandement in such occasions as without them men are apt to doubt following their private naturall reasoning what he hath commanded and what not they are commonly in Holy Scripture called Signes in the same sense as they are called by the Latines Ostenta and Portenta from shewing and fore-signifying that which the Almighty is about to bring to passe To understand therefore what is a Miracle we must first understand what works they are which men wonder at and call Admirable And there be but two things which make men wonder at any event The one is if it be strange that is to say such as the like of it hath never or very rarely been produced The other is if when it is produced we cannot imagine it to have been done by naturall means but onely by the immediate hand of God But when wee see some possible naturall cause of it how rarely soever the like has been done or if the like have been often done how impossible soever it be to imagine a naturall means thereof we no more wonder nor esteem it for a Miracle Therefore if a Horse or Cow should speak it were a Miracle because both the thing is strange the naturall cause difficult to imagin So also were it to see a strange deviation of nature in the production of some new shape of a living creature But when a man or other Animal engenders his like though we know no more how this is done than the other yet because 't is usuall it is no Miracle In like manner if a man be metamorphosed into a stone or into a pillar it is a Miracle because strange but if a peece of wood be so changed because we see it often it is no Miracle and yet we know no more by what operation of God the one is brought to passe than the other The first Rainbow that was seen in the world was a Miracle because the first and consequently strange and served for a sign from God placed in heaven to assure his people there should be no more an universall destruction of the world by Water â—…ut at this day because they are frequent they are not Miracles neither to them that know their naturall causes nor to them who know them not Again there be many rare works produced by the Art of man yet when we know they are done because thereby wee know also the means how they are done we count them not for Miracles because not wrought by the immediate hand of God but of humane Industry Furthermore seeing Admiration and Wonder is consequent to the knowledge and experience wherewith men are endued some more some lesse it followeth that the same thing may be a Miracle to one and not to another And thence it is that ignorant and superstitious men make great Wonders of those works which other men knowing to proceed from Nature which is not the immediate but the ordinary work of God admire not at all As when Ecclipses of the Sun and Moon have been taken for supernaturall works by the common people when neverthelesse there were others could from their naturall causes have foretold the very hour they should arrive Or as when a man by confederacy and secret intelligence getting knowledge of the private actions of an ignorant unwary man and thereby tells him what he has done in former time it seems to him a Miraculous thing but amongst wise and cautelous men such Miracles as those cannot easily be done Again it belongeth to the nature of a Miracle that it be wrought for the procuring of credit to Gods Messengers Ministers and Prophets that thereby men may know they are called sent and employed by God and thereby be the better inclined to obey them And therefore though the creation of the world and after that the destruction of all living creatures in the universall deluge were admirable works yet because they were not done to procure credit to any Prophet or other Minister of God they use not to be called Miracles For how admirable soever any work be the Admiration consisteth not in that it could be done because men naturally beleeve the Almighty can doe all things but because he does it at the Prayer or Word of a man But the works of God in Egypt by the hand of Moses were properly Miracles because they were done with intention to make the people of Israel beleeve that Moses came unto them not out of any design of his owne interest but as sent from God Therefore after God had commanded him to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage when he said They will not beleeve me but will say the Lord hath not appeared unto me God gave him power to turn the Rod he had in his hand into a Serpent and again to return it into a Rod and by putting his hand into his bosome to make it leprous and again by putting it out to make it whole to make the Children of Israel beleeve as it is verse 5. that the God of their Fathers had appeared unto him And if that were not enough he gave him power to turn their waters into bloud And when hee had done these Miracles before the people it is said verse 41. that they beleeved him Neverthelesse for fear of Pharaoh they durst not yet obey him Therefore the other works which were done to plague Pharaoh and the Egyptians tended all to make the Israelites beleeve in Moses and were properly Miracles In like manner if we consider all the Miracles done by the hand of Moses and all the rest of the Prophets till the Captivity and those of our Saviour and his Apostles afterward we shall find their end was alwaies to beget or confirme beleefe that they came not of their own motion but were sent by God Wee may further observe in Scripture
Examples of Impunity Extenuate Praemeditation Aggravateth Tacite approbation of the Soveraign Extenuates Comparison of Crimes from their Effects Laesa Majestas Bribery and False testimony Depeculation Counterfeiting Authority Crimes against private men compared Publique Crimes what The definition of Punishment Right to Punish whence derived Private injuries and revenges no Punishments Nor denyall of preferment Nor pain inflicted without publique hearing Nor pain inflicted by Usurped power Nor pain inflicted without respect to to the future good Naturall evill consequences no Punishments Hurt inflicted if lesse than the benefit of transgressing is not Punishment Where the Punishment is annexed to the Law a greater hurt is not Punishment but 〈◊〉 Hurt inflicted for a fact done before the Law no Punishment The Representative of the Common-wealth Unpunishable Hurt to Revolted Subjects is done by right of War not by way of Punishment Punishments Corporall Capitall Ignominy Imprisonment Exile The Punishment of Innocent Subjects is contrary to the Law of Nature But the Harme done to Innocents in War not so Nor that which is done to declared Rebels Reward is either Salary or Grace Benefits bestowed for fear are not Rewards Salaries Certain and Casuall Dissolution of Common-wealths proceedeth from their Imperfect Institution Want of Absolute power Private Judgement of Good and Evill Erroneous conscience Pretence of Inspiration Subjecting the Soveraign Power to Civill Lawes Attributing of absolute Propriâ—…ty to 〈◊〉 Dividing of the Soveraign Power Imitatioâ—… of Neighbour Natiouâ—… Imitation of the Greâ—…ks and Romans Mixt Government Want of Mony Monopolies and abuses of Publicans Popular men Excessive greatnesse of a â—…own multitude of Corporations Liberty of disputing against Soveraign Power Dissolution of the Common-wealth The Procuration of the Good of the People By Instrâ—…ction Lawes Against the duty of a Soveraign to relinquish any Essentiall Right of Soveraignty Or not to seâ—… the people taught the grounds of them Objection of those that say there are no Principles of Reason for absolute Soveraigâ—…ty Objection from the Incapacity of the vulgar Subjects are to be taught not to affect change of Government Nor adhere against the Soveraign to Popular men Nor to Dispute the Soveraign Power And to have dayes set apart to learn their Duty And to Honour their Parents And to avoyd doing of Injury And to do all this sincerely from the heart The use of Uâ—…iversities Equall â—…xes Publique Charity 〈◊〉 of Idlenesse Goâ—… Laweâ—… whâ—…t Such as are Necessary Such as are Perspicuous Punishments Rewards Counsellours Commanders The scope of the following Chapters Psal. 96 1. Psal. 98. 1. Who are subjects in the kingdome of God A Threefold Word of God Reason Revelation Prophâ—…y A twofold Kingdome of God Naturall and Prophetique The Right of Gods Soveraignty is derived from his Omnipotence Sinne not the cause of all Affliction Psal. 72. ver 1 2 3. Job 38. v. 4. Divine Lawes Honour and Worship what Severall signes of Honour Worship Naturall and Arbitrary Worship Commanded and Free Worship Publique and Private The End of Worship Attributes of Divine Honour Actions that are signes of Divine Honour Publique Worship consisteth in Uniformity All Attributes depend on the Lawes Civill Not all Actions Naturall Punishments The Conclusion of the Second Part. The Word of God delivered by Prophets is the mainprinciple of Christian Politiques Yet is not naturall Reason to be renounced What it is to captivate the Understanding How God speaketh to men By what marks Prophets are known 1 Kings 22. 1 Kings 13. Deut. 13. v. 1 2 3 4 5. Mat. 24. 24. Gal. 1. 8. The marks of a Prophet in the old law Miracles and Doctrin conformable to the law Miracles ceasing Prophets cease and the Scripture supplies their place Of the Books of Holy Scripture Their Antiquity The Pentaâ—… not written by Moses Deut. 31. 9. Deut. 31. 26. 2 King 22. 8. 23. 1 2 3. The Book of Joshua written after his time Josh. 4. 9. Josh. 5. 9. Josh. 7. 26. The Booke of Judges and Ruth written long after the Captivity The like of the Bookes of Samuel 2 Sam. 6. 4. The Books of the Kings and the Chronicles Ezra and Nehemiah Esther Job The Psalter The Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Canticles The Prophets The New Testament Their Scope The question of the Authority of the Scriptures stated Their Authority and Interpretation Body and Spirit how taken in the Scripture The Spirit of God taken in the Scripture sometimes for a Wind or Breath Secondly for extraordinary gifts of the Vnderstanding Thirdly for extraordinary Affections Fourthly for the gift of Prediction by Dreams and Visions Fifâ—…ly for Life Sixtly for a subordination to authority Seventhly for Aeriall Bodies Angel what Inspiration what The Kingdom of God taken by Divines Metaphorically but in the Scriptures properly The originall of the Kingdome of God That the Kingdome of God is properly his Civill Soveraignty over a peculiar people by pact Holy what Sacred what Degrees of Sanctity Sacrament Word what The words spoken by God and concerning God both are called God 's Word in Scripture 1 Tim. 4. 1. The Word of God metaphorically used first for the Decrees and Power of God Secondly for the effect of his Word Acts 1. 4. Luke 24. 49. Thirdly for the words of reason and equity Divers acceptions of the word Prophet Praediction of future contingents not alwaies Prophecy The manner how God hath spoken to the Prophets To the Extraordinary Prophets of the Old Testament he spake by Dreams or Visions To Prophets of perpetuall Calling and Supreme God spake in the Old Testament from the Mercy Seat in a manner not expressed in the Scripture To Prophets of perpetuall Calling but subordinate God spake by the Spirit â—…od sometimes also spake by Lots Every man ought to examine the probability of a pretended Prophets Calling All prophecy but of the Soveraign Prophet is to be examined by every Subject A Miracle is a work that causeth Admiration And must therefore be rare and whereof there is no naturall cause known That which seemeth a Miracle to one man may seem otherwise to another The End of Miracles Exo. 4. 1 c. The definition of a Miracle Exod. 7. 11. Exod. 7. 22. Exod. 8. 7. That men are apt to be deceived by false Miracles Cautions against the Imposture of Miracles The place of Adams Eternity if he had not sinned had been the terrestiall Paradise Gen. 3. 22. Texts concerning the place of Life Eternall for Beleevers Ascension into heaven The place after Judgment of those who were never in the Kingdome of God 〈◊〉 having been in are cast out Tartarus The congregation of Giants Lake of Fire Vtter Darknesse Gehenna and Tophet Of the literall sense of the Scripture concerning Hell Satan Devill not Proper names but Appellatives Torments of Hell Apoc. 20. 13 14. The Joyes of Life Eternall and Salvation the same thing Salvation from Sin and from Misery all one The Place of Eternall Salvation 2 Pet. 2. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 13.
Redemption Church the Lords house Ecclesia properly what Acts 19. 39. In what sense the Church is one Person Church defined A Christian Common-wealth and a Church all one The Soveraign Rights of Abraham Abraham had the sole power of ordering the Religion of his own people No pretence of Private Spirit against the Religion of Abraham Abraham sole Judge and Interpreter of what God spake The authority of Moses whereon grounded John 5. 31. Moses was under God Soveraign of the Jews all his own time though Aaron had the Priesthood All spirits were subordinate to the spirit of Moses After Moses the Soveraignty was in the High Priest Of the Soveraign power between the time of Joshua and of Saul Of the Rights of the Kings of Israel The practice of Supremacy in Religion was not in the time of the Kings according to the Right thereof 2 Chro. 19. 2. After the Captivity the Iews â—…ad no setled Common-wealth Three parts of the Office of Christ. His Office as a Redeemer Christs Kingdome not of this woâ—…ld The End of Christs comming was to renew the Covenant of the Kingdome of God and to perswade the Elect to imbrace it which was the second part of his Office The preaching of Christ not contrary to the then law of the Iews nor of Caesar. The third part of his Office was to be King under his Father of the Elect. Christs authority in the Kingdome of God subordinate to that of his Father One and the same God is the Person represented by Moses and by Christ. Of the Holy Spirit that fel on the Apostles Of the Trinity The Power Ecclesiasticall is but the power to teach An argument thereof the Power of Christ himself From the name of Regeneration From the compariâ—…on of it with Fishing Leaven Seed Fâ—…om the nature of 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1. 24. From the Authority Christ hath lâ—…st to Civill Princes What Christians may do to avoid persecution Of Martyrs Argument from the points of their Commission To Preach And Teach To Baptize And to Forgive and Retain Sinnes Mat. 18. 15 16 17. Of Excommunication The use of Excommunication without Civill Power Acts 9. 2. Of no effect upon an Apostate But upon the faithfull only For what fault lyeth Excommunication Ofpersons liaable to Excommunication 1 Sam. 8. Of the Interpreter of the Scriptures before Civil Soveraigns became Christians Of the Power to make Scripture Law Of the Ten Commandements Of the Iudiciall and Leviticall Law The Second Law * 1 Kings 14 26. The Old Testament when made Canonicall The New Testament began to be Canonicall under Christian Soveraigns Of the Power of Councells to make the Scriptures Law John 3. 36. John 3. 18. Of the Right of constituting Ecclesiasticall Officers in the time of the Apostles Matthias made Apostle by the Congregation Paul and Barnabas made Apostles by the Church of Antioch What Offices in the Church are Magisteriall Ordination of Teachers Ministers of the Church what And how chosen Of Ecclesiasticall Revenue under the Law of Moses In our Saviours time and after Mat. 10. 9 10. * Acts 4. 34. The Ministers of the Gospel lived on the Benevolence of their flocks 1 Cor. 9. 13. That the Civill Soveraign being a Christian hath the Right of appointing Pastors The Pastor all Authority of Soveraigns only is de Jure Divino that of other Pastors is Jure Civili Christian Kings have Power to execute all manner of Pastoral function * John 4. 2. * 1 Cor. 1. 14 16. * 1 Câ—…r 1. 17. The Civill Soveraigne if a Christian is head of the Church in his own Dominions Cardinal Bellarmines Books De Summo Pontifice considered The first book The second Book The third Book * Dan. 9. 27. The fourth Book Texts for the Infaâ—…ibility of the Popes Judgement in points of Faith Texts for the same in point of Manners The question of Superiority between the Pope and other Bishops Of the Popes â—…mporall Power The difficulty of obeying God and Man both at once Is none to them that distinguish between what is and what is not Necessary to Salvation All that is Necessary to Salvation is contained in Faith and Obedience What Obedience is Necessary And to what Laws In the Faith of a Christian who is the Person beleeved The causes of Christian Faith Faith comes by Hearing The onely Necessary Article of Christian Faith Proved from the Scope of the Evangelists From the Sermons of the Apostles From the Easinesse of the Doctrine From formall â—…ud cleer texts From that it is the Foundation of all other Articles 2 Pet. 3. v. 7 10 12. In what sense other Articles may be called Nâ—…cessary That Faith and Obedience are both of them Necessary to Salvation What each of them contributes thereunto Obedience to God and to the Civill Soveraign not inconsistent whether Christian Or Infidel The Kingdom of Darknesse what * Eph. 6. 12. * Mat. 12. 26. * Mat. 9. 34. * Eph. 2. 2. * Joh. 16. 11. The Church not yet fully â—…reed of Darknesse Four Causes of Spirituall Darknesse Errors from misinterpreting the Scriptures concerning the Kingdome of God As that the Kingdome of God is the present Church And that the Pope is his Vicar generall And that the Pastors are the Clergy Error from mistaking Consecration for Conjuration Incantation in the Ceremonies of Baptisme And in Marriage in Visitation of the Sick and in Consecration of Places Errors from mistaking Eternall Life and Everlasting Death As the Doctrine of Purgatory and Exorcismes and Invocation of Saints The Texts alledged for the Doctrines aforementioned have been answered before Answer to the text on which Beza inferreth that the Kingdome of Christ began at the Resurrection Explication of the Place in Mark 9. 1. Abuse of some other texts in defence of the Power of the Pope The manner of Consecrations in the Scripture was without Exorcisms The immortality of mans Soule not proved by Scripture to be of Nature but of Grace Eternall Torments what Answer of the Texts alledged for Purgatory Places of the New Testament for Purgatory answered Baptisme for the Dead how understood The Originall of Daemonclogy What were the Daemons of the Ancients How that Doctrine was spread How far received by the Jews John 8. 52. Why our Saviour controlled it not The Scriptures doe not teach that Spirits are Incorporeall The Power of Casting out Devills not the same it was in the Primitive Church Another relique of Gentilisme Worshipping of Images left in the Church not brought into it Answer to certain seeming texts for Images What is Worship Distinction between Divine and Civill Worship An Image what Phantasmes Fictions Materiall Images Idolatry what Scandalous worship of Images Answer 〈◊〉 the Argument from the Cherubins and Brazen Serpent * Exod. 32. 2. * Gen. 31. 30. Painting of Fancies no Idolatry but abusing them to Religious Worship is How Idolatry was left in the Church Canonizing of Saints The name of Pontifex Procession of Images Wax Candles and Torches lighted What Philosophy is Prudence no part of Philosophy No false Doctrine is part of Philosophy No more is Revelation supernaturall Nor learning taken upon credit of Authors Of the Beginnings and Progresse of Philosophy Of the Schools of Philosophy amongst the Athenians Of the Schools of the Jews The Schoole of the Graecians unprofitable The Schools of the Jews unprofitable University what it is Errors brought into Religion from Aristotles Metaphysiques Errors concerning Abstract Essences Nunc-stans One Body in many places and many Bodies in one place at once Absurdities in naturall Philosopy as Gravity the Cause of Heavinesse Quantity put into Body already made Powring in of Soules Ubiquity of Apparition Will the Cause of Willing Ignorance an occult Cause One makes the things incongruent another the Incongruity Private Appetite the rule of Publique good And that lawfull Marriage is Unchastity And that all Government but Popular is Tyranny That not Men but Law governs Laws over the Conscience Private Interpretation of Law Language of Schoole-Divines Errors from Tradition Suppression of Reason He that receiveth Benefit by a Fact is presumed to be the Author That the â—…hurch Militant is the Kingdome of God was first taught by the Church of Rome And maintained also by the Presbytery Infallibility Subjection of Bishops Exemptions of the Clergy The names of Saceâ—…dotes and Sacriâ—… The Sacramentation of Marriage The single life of Priests Auricular Confession Canonization of Saints and declaring of Martyrs Transubstantiation Pennance Absolution Purgatory Indulgences Externall works Daemonology and Exorcism School-Divinity The Authors of spirituall Darknesse who they be Comparison of the Papacy with the Kingdome of Fayries
Endor who is said to have had a familiar spirit and thereby to have raised a Phantasme of Samuel and foretold Saul his death was not therefore a Prophetesse for neither had she any science whereby she could raise such a Phantasme nor does it appear that God commanded the raising of it but onely guided that Imposture to be a means of Sauls terror and discouragement and by consequent of the discomfiture by which he fell And for Incoherent Speech it was amongst the Gentiles taken for one sort of Prophecy because the Prophets of their Oracles intoxicated with a spirit or vapor from the cave of the Pythian Oracle at Delphi were for the time really mad and spake like mad-men of whose loose words a sense might be made to fit any event in such sort as all bodies are said to be made of Materia prima In the Scripture I find it also so taken 1 Sam. 18. 10. in these words And the Evill spirit came upon Saul and he Prophecyed in the midst of the house And although there be so many significations in Scripture of the word Prophet yet is that the most frequent in which it is taken for him to whom God speaketh immediately that which the Prophet is to say from him to some other man or to the people And hereupon a question may be asked in what manner God speaketh to such a Prophet Can it may some say be properly said that God hath voice and language when it cannot be properly said he hath a tongue or other organs as a man The Prophet David argueth thus Shall he that made the eye not see or he that made the ear not hear But this may be spoken not as usually to signifie Gods nature but to signifie our intention to honor him For to see and hear are Honorable Attributes and may be given to God to declare as far as our capacity can conceive his Almighty power But if it were to be taken in the strict and proper sense one might argue from his making of all other parts of mans body that he had also the same use of them which we have which would be many of them so uncomely as it would be the greatest contumely in the world to ascribe them to him Therefore we are to interpret Gods speaking to men immediately for that way whatsoever it be by which God makes them understand his will And the wayes whereby he doth this are many and to be sought onely in the Holy Scripture where though many times it be said that God spake to this and that person without declaring in what manner yet there be again many places that deliver also the signes by which they were to acknowledge his presence and commandement and by these may be understood how he spake to many of the rest In what manner God spake to Adam and Eve and Cain and Noah is not expressed nor how he spake to Abraham till such time as he came out of his own countrey to Sichem in the land of Canaan and then Gen. 12. 7. God is said to have appeared to him So there is one way whereby God made his presence manifest that is by an Apparition or Vision And again Gen. 15. 1. The Word of the Lord came to Abraham in a Vision that is to say somewhat as a sign of Gods presence appeared as Gods Messenger to speak to him Again the Lord appeared to Abraham Gen. 18. 1. by an apparition of three Angels and to Abimelech Gen. 20. 3. in a dream To Lot Gen. 19. 1. by an apparition of two Angels And to Hagar Gen. 21. 17. by the apparition of one Angel And to Abraham again Gen. 22. 11. by the apparition of a voice from heaven And Gen. 26. 24. to Isaac in the night that is in his sleep or by dream And to Jacob Gen. 18. 12. in a dream that is to say as are the words of the text Iacob dreamed that he saw a ladder c. And Gen. 32. 1. in a Vision of Angels And to Moses Exod. 3. 2. in the apparition of a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush And after the time of Moses where the manner how God spake immediately to man in the Old Testament is expressed hee spake alwaies by a Vision or by a Dream as to Gideon Samuel Eliah Elisha Isaiah Ezekiel and the rest of the Prophets and often in the New Testament as to Ioseph to St. Peter to St. Paul and to St. Iohn the Evangelist in the Apocalypse Onely to Moses hee spake in a more extraordinary manner in Mount Sinai and in the Tabernaele and to the High Priest in the Tabernacle and in the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple But Moses and after him the High Priests were Prophets of a more eminent place and degree in Gods favour And God himself in express words declareth that to other Prophets hee spake in Dreams and Visions but to his servant Moses in such manner as a man speaketh to his friend The words are these Numb 12. 6 7 8. If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known to him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream My servant Moses is not so who is faithfull in all my house with him I will speak mouth to mouth even apparently not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold And Exod. 33. 11. The Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend And yet this speaking of God to Moses was by mediation of an Angel or Angels as appears expressely Acts 7. ver 35. and 53. and Gal. 3. 19. and was therefore a Vision though a more cleer Vision than was given to other Prophets And conformable hereunto where God saith Deut. 13. 1. If there arise amongst you a Prophet or Dreamer of Dreams the later word is but the interpretation of the former And Ioel 2. 28. Your sons and your daughters shall Prophecy your old men shall dream Dreams and your young men shall see Visions where again the word Prophecy is expounded by Dream and Vision And in the same manner it was that God spake to Solomon promising him Wisdome Riches and Honor for the text saith 1 Kings 3. 15. And Solomon awoak and behold it was a Dream So that generally the Prophets extraordinary in the Old Testament took notice of the Word of God no otherwise than from their Dreams or Visions that is to say from the imaginations which they had in their sleep or in an Extasie which imaginations in every true Prophet were supernaturall but in false Prophets were either naturall or feigned The same Prophets were neverthelesse said to speak by the Spirit as Zach. 7. 12. where the Prophet speaking of the Jewes saith They made their hearts hard as Adamant lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former Prophets By which it is manifest that