liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of Hell Psal. 89. 48. And as Jacob talked of going down to Hell to Joseph when he thought some evil Beast had devoured him Gen. 37. 33 35. In both which places the word translated Grave in our Bibles in the Greek is Hades the very word that stands for Hell here in the Creed Oft-times indeed especially in the New Testament Hell fignifies not in general the state of the Dead but particularly the state of the Wicked and the place of Torment In which sense it is not likely that Christ descended into Hell after his death because in his dying hour he told the Penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. CHAP. III. Of the Resurrection of Christ and his sitting at God's Right-Hand The Contents An Account how Christ may be said to have been three days in the Earth His Resurrection proved The necessity of it He ascended to Heaven What is meant by his sitting at the Right-Hand of God. There he 1. Intercedes for us as our Priest. This intercession not vocal by Words and formal Pleas but by presenting himself and his own meritorious Sacrifice He intercedes only for Covenant-Mercies and on Covenant-Terms He is an Intercessor of absolute Power with God and truest Affection for us One part of his intercession is to hand and present our Prayers to God. Therefore whensoever we pray for any thing 't is both our duty and wisdom to apply by him 2. Governs his Church as a King. In what Acts this consists 3. Instructs his Church as a Prophet by sending to it the Holy Ghost Christ's Body having now taken up its fixt abode at God's Right-hand we are not in any Ordinances to expect his Bodily Presence but only a Presence by his Spirit which is more to be desired Some Inferences from Christ's sitting at God's Right-hand Quest. How long did Jesus Christ abide in the state of the Dead till his Body was corrupted Answ. No he staid not so long God did not suffer his Holy one to see Corruption Acts 13. 35 36 37. but reunited his Soul and Body and raised him from the dead on the third day before the time Corruption usually seizes the Bodies of dead men Quest. Christ said of himself as the Jews told Pilate That after three days he would rise again Mat. 27. 63. And as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly so says he shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Mat. 12. 40. But if he died as we commemorate his death upon Good-Friday and rose early on Easter-day in the morning there were only part of two days and one entire day between Answ. That is three days according to common computation of days both Ancient and Modern and particularly in Scripture reckoning Thus Lazarus is said four days dead though the fourth day whereon Jesus raised him up was one of them Joh. 11. 39. And eight days are said to be accomplished for Christ's Circumcision but the day of his Birth and Circumcision too went both in to that Reckoning Luk. 2. 21. And the Priests in their courses were appointed and reputed to Minister before the Lord eight days though the time of Entrance and Release was every Sabbath day morning And accordingly what in the currant way of expression is thus sometimes termed three days our Saviour speaking more exactly at other times expresses by on the third or within three days Jesus shewed his Disciples he should rise again the third day Mat. 16. 21. and 17. 23. and 20. 19. And destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2. 19. or within three days as the Jews who otherwhere call it after three days related it Mark 14. 58. Quest. How doth it appear that Christ was raised again from the dead Answ. It might appear to any who had the curiosity to look into the Sepulchre for they would see he was gone Quest. What said the Watch who stood to guard him Answ. They knew it full well for when the Angel with a Countenance like Lightning descended in an Earth-quake to roll back the Stone the Keepers saw it and shaked and became as dead men Mat. 28. 2 3 4. But the Jewish Rulers bribed them to say his Disciples came by night and stole him away while they slept v. 11 12 13 14. which was a foolish lie and bore along with it its own Confutation Quest. How so Answ. Because if they were asleep how could they tell any one stole him If they had any thoughts of what others did then it could be only in a Dream unless they would pretend to sleep with their Senses awake and their Eyes open Quest. But this saying saith St. Matthew is commonly reported among the Jews and passes for a Truth with them Mat. 28. 15. And by what other ways can you convince them that Christ is risen Answ. By those that saw him and conversed with him after his Resurrection For he appeared for the space of forty days to his Apostles and to satisfie them he had a real Body eat and drank with them after he was risen Acts 10. 41. Luk. 24. 43. He appeared to Thomas who searched the holes the Nails had made in his Hands and thrust his Finger into his Side where the Spear had pierced it before he would believe him Joh. 20. 27 28. To five hundred Brethren all at one time 1 Cor. 15. 6. To Stephen in a bright Glory from Heaven at his Martyrdom Acts 7. 56. and to Saul at his Conversion Acts 9. 3 4. Yea after he was risen and gone to Heaven he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles and followers which shewed not only that he is alive again but also that he lives in Power Quest. The Apostles seem extraordinary careful to confirm the Resurrection of Christ and call the ordaining one to be an Apostle ordaining him to be a witness of it Acts 1. 22. Was it necessary that Christ should rise from the dead Answ. Yes to shew the debt he died for was discharged and that his satisfaction was accepted He died as a Sacrifice to satisfie for our sins and till God raised him up again it did not appear that he was satisfied with what Christ had done for us If Christ be not risen ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15. 17. Quest. But was not his death a full payment and on the Cross did he not relate to that when he said it is finished Joh. 19. 30 Answ. It was so indeed the price of Redemption then was fully paid But till he raised him up again God had given no publick Acquitrance nor done any open Act to shew we were discharged by it So that by his Resurrection we are said to be justified that is declared to be so He died for our sins and rose again for our
therefore no Persons to whom God has given Estates must think them a priviledge for being idle and careless or for spending them wholly upon sports and pastimes as if wealthy Persons were made for no other business but diversions and much less for laying them out in ostentation of Pride and Vanity or in ministring to Vice and Luxury Health and Wit and Wealth and other Temporal advantages being only Loans of God are to be Faithfully stewarded and laid out not slothfully neglected wasted embezelled or abused Quest. Are we to learn from it any thing further Ans. Yes Fifthly to be humble and think modestly and soberly of our selves under any preeminence of Body or Parts Power or Possessions When these advantages puff Men up with pride and vain fondness and self-conceit they arrogate all the fancied honour and estimation of them to themselves as if they were Proprietors But when they own them as God's Gifts and Trusts and themselves as holding them only during Pleasure by uncertain Tenures they will ascribe all the Honour of them to him and learn Modesty Care Dependance and Thankfulness And withal never insult or deride the want of them in others remembring that he who mocketh the poor and the case is the same in all other Natural Defects or Calamities reproacheth his Maker who disposed of him in that condition as Solomon says Prov. 17. 5. Quest. By this I see God Almighty is an immensly Great Being How must the thoughts of such an irresistible Might and absolute Sovereignty affect us Ans. With the greatest submission of Humility and Reverence For such immense Greatness and Majesty should strike us with holy fear and submission in the highest degree every time we think or speak of this Great God especially in all acts of Adoration and Worship which we pay to him Thou must fear this glorious and fearful name the Lord thy God Deut. 28. 58. He is the excellency of Jacob Amos 8. 7. the most high over all the earth Psal. 83. 18. a great God a mighty and terrible Deut. 10. 17. glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Exod. 15. 11. Holy and reverend is his name Psalm 111. 9. Quest. By this Almighty Power 't is easie to believe God made the World. Ans. Yes thereby in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth Gen. 1. 1. And by the same Power he still Governs and Preserves it as I have before explained The End of the First Part. Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Practical Believer Part II. Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. á Sacr. Domest June 28. 1688. THE Practical Believer PART II. OR THE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST By John Kettlewell Minister of Coles-Hill in Warwick-shire LONDON Printed for Robert Kettlewell and are to be sold by R. Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard and W. Rogers at the Sun in Fleetstreet 1689. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the Office and Natures of Jesus Christ. In what Salvation by Christ consists Being Christ notes his being 1. A Prophet to teach his Church We must hear and learn of him in the Holy Scriptures and at the mouths of his Ministers 2. A Priest to Redeem and Intercede for it 3. A King to Govern it by his Laws And by his Officers whom we are to submit to in his place Also to Protect it against all visible and invisible Enemies Jesus Christ is the Son of God as having receiv'd from the Father the Nature of God. And the Power of God. On both these Accounts and others he is our Lord. And to be worshipped What we learn from his being our Lord. Of Christ's being Conceiv'd of the Holy Ghost and Born of a Virgin. He was truly Man. And why he was so CHAP. II. OF the Sufferings of Christ. An Account of what Christ suffer'd and from whom Both he and God the Father were consenting to it What he suffer'd was for our sins to save us from suffering for them when we truly repent of them Pardon on Repentance the design of his Satisfaction and the Merit of his Death This is a free Grace which implies that it is not given in Recompence of our Deserts not that it requires no Conditions An Account why God would not grant this Grace of Pardon to Penitents without Christ's dying to satisfie for them And how his Death serv'd all the designs of God's Justice full as well as their own would have done Christ's Sacrifice but once offered but daily commemorated Several useful inferences from Christ's dying for us Christ's dead Body was Buried Of his descent into Hell. CHAP. III. OF the Resurrection of Christ and his sitting at God's Right-hand An Account how Christ may be said to have been three days in the Earth His Resurrection proved The necessity of it He ascended to Heaven What is meant by his sitting at the Right-Hand of God. There he 1. Intercedes for us as our Priest. This intercession not vocal by Words and formal Pleas but by presenting himself and his own meritorious Sacrifice He intercedes only for Covenant-Mercies and on Covenant-Terms He is an Intercessor of absolute Power with God and truest Affection for us One part of his intercession is to hand and present our Prayers to God. Therefore whensoever we pray for any thing 't is both our duty and wisdom to apply by him 2. Governs his Church as a King. In what Acts this consists 3. Instructs his Church as a Prophet by sending to it the Holy Ghost Christ's Body having now taken up its fixt abode at God's Right-Hand we are not in any Ordinances to expect his Bodily Presence but only a Presence by his Spirit which is more to be desired Some Inferences from Christ's sitting at God's Right-hand CHAP. IV. OF the Future Judgment The necessity of the Future Judgment All men are judged and made happy or miserable at their Deaths But not so fully then as they will be afterwards The Compleat and General Judgment is at the end of the World. In that Jesus Christ is to be the Judge Who are to be Judged In that Judgement no Condemnation but for breaking God's Laws So not for indifferent things Men shall be tryed and sentenced for all their sinful Actions with regard to their lasting Effects For their most secret ones And such ill deeds as were disguised under the fairest Pretences For their sinful Omissions And Neglecting to employ and improve their Talents For sinful Words And Thoughts and Desires For all these Men shall be judged impartially without respect of Persons But with Equity and Candor not in Rigor The Benign Judge will be very ready to observe what makes for us and make the best of our Performances And interpret the seemingly Rigorous Expressions of his own Laws with great condescension to Humane Measures He will allow for involuntary Failings And judge Candidly and Favourably of that involuntariness And for Natural Infirmities And for Providential disadvantages as Multiplicity of
Business greatness of Temptations Bodily Indispositions For Pitiable Defects of Degrees in Duties Great Latitude on the side of Bliss and all not required to be of the same Size He will Reward Good Things tho' done with Difficulty and Reluctance yea when Pitiably stain'd with impure mixtures Our Judge will shew all this Candor and would have us expect it In Recompencing good Men he will consider the Difficulties and Oppositions And the hazard and cost of their Services And the hardships of Providence allotted to exercise good Men in this Life Of the Condemnation of ill Men. The Fire which is to torment them shall burn up and dissolve the World. Practical Inferences from the last judgment ☞ Through a Mistake there is neither 5th 6th nor 7th Chapters But tho' in the numbering of the Chapters there is this mistake yet there is no omission of matter CHAP. VIII OF the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost is God. What he hath done for our Salvation Of his extraordinary Gifts bestowed on Apostles and Evangelists which were for the Planting and Propagating Christ's Religion 1. The gift of inspiration in Revelations This bestowed upon the Apostles These Revelations they have fully set down in the Holy Scriptures after which we are not to look for any others This Gift of knowing Religion by immediate Revelation necessary only in Apostles and Evangelists And design'd for the Infancy of the Church Other Rules whereby to examine new Lights and Revelations in Religion As try them by the Scriptures Call for their Miracles wherewith God still empower'd men when he sent them to reveal new Things No need of Miracles when men pretend only to revive old and acknowledged Revelations If they shew Miracles for things plainly against Scripture they must work more than were wrought to confirm the Scripture An account of Joel 2. 28 29. Which seems to foretell the commonness of Revelations among Christians The first Inspirations were not only in Doctrinal Points but also in Devotions And about Temporal matters Subservient to this Gift of Revelations was the Gift of discerning Spirits This done afterwards by ordinary Rules And the Gift of utterance and boldness Their minds not influenced by this constantly and at all Times But ordinarily they were and especially when they had most need of it 2. Of the Gift of Miracles Miracles a Proof of Divine Revelation How discernible from Lying Wonders by the Doctrines built on them By their ends and usefulness and being wrought on needful Occasions Of the miraculous Gift of healing Diseases This sometimes by annointing with Oyl And Prayers Of casting out Devils and other Miracles Of delivering to Satan what it was and why so call'd Of Joy in Tribulations and what was extraordinary in that of the Apostles To the working these Miracles there was always required Faith in him that wrought them And sometimes Faith in him that received them 3. of the Gift of Strange Tongues The ends of this And of the Gift of Interpreting such Strange Tongues What is meant by the Holy Ghost being a Comforter The Sin against the Holy Ghost is a Sin against these extraordinary Gifts Why Blasphemy against him more irremisable than against the Father or the Son. Extraordinary Gifts no mark of a justified State. Of Offices appointed by the Holy Ghost Some of these Temporary others to continue through all Times the present Officers ordaining Successors of the Holy Ghost's ordinary Graces By these we may know he dwells in us Our care required towards these Of Preventing Grace in outward advantages and inward good motions Directions how we are to endeavour after saving Graces in six Particulars How God gives them though we are thus to acquire them The Holy Ghost works also in us Spiritual Joys and Comforts This he doth not in all the minds he sanctifies because some are unfit for them through intrinsick impediments But they are with-held from none through his Arbitrary withdrawing which some count Spiritual Desertion CHAP. IX OF the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints No assurance of Salvation by Christ but in his Church This Church Holy. And Catholick Admission into it by Baptism when regularly perform'd in any one valid in all Churches Excommunication is so too This Church is one Body by external visible unity Of the Communion of Saints in this Church Of their visible Union in Faith or Doctrine And in Prayers and Devotion Of communicating in Publick Prayers A Sin to separate without just cause Imposing Sins or Errours as Conditions of Communion is a just cause Not Lawful to separate for Things indifferent Nor for better means of edification Just to separate from a Church that doth not impose her Corruptions when her Errors in Faith overthrow the Foundation That is when she ceases to own the one true God. Or denys Jesus to be the Christ or Salvation by his Merits and Mediation Owning Jesus to be the Christ implies owning the Articles of the Apostles Creed which contains all Fundamentals Whilst any Churches hold to this Creed which is the Foundation Errors in other things do not unchurch them But such Erroneous are in a worse state than Orthodox Christians Nor is her Communion to be deserted meerly for such Errors tho' very gross if she doth not impose them Just to separate from a Church of a corrupt Worship when sinful things pollute her Publick Offices Or when good Devotions are put up in a strange Language not for Rites and Customs about indifferent matters Nor just to separate for scandalous Members where a Churches constitution is faultless Nor tho' it neglect Discipline which should reform them Of keeping Fellowship with the Apostles by submitting to our lawful Bishops their Successors Christians to communicate in Affections in Alms and Temporal good Things CHAP. X. OF the Forgiveness of Sins What Sin is Of wilful sins Of sins of Ignorance Surreption Passion Forgiveness of sin is the Release of its Punishment When Eternal Punishments are remitted Present and Temporal are often exacted What is the Time of Relaxing these Punishments Remission of all Sins but Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost And wilful Apostacy from Christianity Wilful sins forgiven when we Repent and forgive others Sins of Ignorance and inadvertence upon our Charity to others This forgiveness outwardly dispensed in Baptism The Eucharist And Sacerdotal Absolution The Power of the Keys lies in Retaining as well as Absolving which ought to beget a just dread of Excommunication What is meant by our Forgiving sins What use we are to make of the Forgiveness of Sins CHAP. XI OF the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting The Resurrection not meerly of our Spirits from sin but of our Bodies from the Grave This to be brought about by the Almighty Power of God. The Perfections of Glorified Bodies viz. Immortality Spirituality and Glory The Bodies of the Wicked Immortal And exquisitely sensible Some Inferences from the Resurrection of our Bodies Good Souls carried straight-way into a
Holy Ghost is God. What he hath done for our Salvation Of his extraordinary Gifts bestowed on Apostles and Evangelists which were for the Planting and Propagating Christ's Religion 1. The gift of inspiration in Revelations This bestowed upon the Apostles These Revelations they have fully set down in the Holy Scriptures after which we are not to look for any others This Gift of knowing Religion by immediate Revelation necessary only in Apostles and Evangelists And design'd for the Infancy of the Church Other Rules whereby to examine new Lights and Revelations in Religion As try them by the Scriptures Call for their Miracles wherewith God still empower'd men when he sent them to reveal new Things No need of Miracles when men pretend only to revive old and acknowledged Revelations If they shew Miracles for things plainly against Scripture they must work more than were wrought to confirm the Scripture An account of Joel 2. 28 29. Which seems to foretell the commonness of Revelations among Christians The first Inspirations were not only in Doctrinal Points but also in Devotions And about Temporal matters Subservient to this Gift of Revelations was the Gift of discerning Spirits This done afterwards by ordinary Rules And the Gift of utterance and boldness Their minds not influenced by this constantly and at all Times But ordinarily they were and especially when they had most need of it 2. Of the Gift of Miracles Miraracles a Proof of Divine Revelation How discernible from Lying Wonders by the Doctrines built on them By their ends and usefulness and being wrought on needful Occasions Of the miraculous Gift of healing Diseases This sometimes by anointing with Oyl And Prayers Of casting out Devils and other Miracles Of delivering to Satan what it was and why so call'd Of Joy in Tribulations and what was extraordinary in that of the Apostles To the working these Miracles there was always required Faith in him that wrought them And sometimes Faith in him that received them 3. of the Gift of Strange Tongues The ends of this And of the Gift of Interpreting such Strange Tongues What is meant by the Holy Ghost being a Comforter The Sin against the Holy Ghost is a Sin against these extraordinary Gifts Why Blasphemy against him more irremisable than against the Father or the Son. Extraordinary Gifts no mark of a justified State. Of Offices appointed by the Holy Ghost Some of these Temporary others to continue through all Times the present Officers ordaining Successors of the Holy Ghost's ordinary Graces By these we may know he dwells in us Our care required towards these Of Preventing Grace in outward advantages and inward good motions Directions how we are to endeavour after saving Graces in six Particulars How God gives them though we are thus to acquire them The Holy Ghost works also in us Spiritual Joys and Comforts This he doth not in all the minds he sanctifies because some are unfit for them through intrinsick impediments But they are withheld from none through his Arbitrary withdrawing which some count Spiritual Desertion Quest. WHat is the eighth Article of the Creed Answ. I Believe in the Holy Ghost Quest. Is the Holy Ghost very God Answ. Yes For Lying to the Holy Ghost is call'd Lying to God Act. 5. 3 4. And because Christians are the Temple of the Holy Ghost they are said to be the Temple of God 1 Cor. 3. 16. And all the Properties of Divinity are ascribed to him as knowing all things ubiquity or Presence in all Places Eternity or duration through all Times Creating the World being joyned with God who will not impart his Glory to another as an Object of Faith and Worship in Baptism and the Apostolical Benediction and the like Quest. But if both the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost be God are there not three Gods Answ. No because these three are One that is one in Nature or one Thing 1 Joh. 5. 7. There is a Trinity of Persons but these three are mysteriously united in Nature and dependance which makes but one God-head not three Gods. Quest. But why is he call'd Holy more than the Father or the Son Since Holiness was reckon'd one of the Divine Attributes are not all the three Persons who are equally God equal also in Holiness Answ. Yes But though they are equally Holy in Nature or Essence yet is he particularly styled so in respect of his Operations For as God the Father particularly undertook for the Creation of men and God the Son for the Redemption of them so did God the Holy Ghost for their Sanctification being always ready to work holiness in those who set themselves to fear God and to serve our Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by the renewal of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5 6. And purified through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. Quest. Why do we profess Faith and trust in him Answ. Because we are to receive all our Graces and preparations for Eternal Glory from him For after Christ had Redeemed us with his Blood and ascended into Heaven the Rest which was to be done further for our Salvation here on Earth was left to the care of the Holy Spirit whom Christ sent down as his substitute to supply his absence and minister whatsoever he left wanting to his Body which is the Church to perfect it in Faith and Holiness Quest. By this I perceive a great part of Christian Knowledge lyes in understanding what the Holy Spirit has done and is still to do for us Pray what has he bestowed for the effecting of this great work Answ. Gifts of two sorts 1. Extraordinary bestowed upon the Apostles and Evangelists for the Planting and Establishing Christ's Church and Religion 2. Ordinary that are given in common to all oothers for every particular man's Salvation Quest. What are his extraordinary Gifts bestowed upon the Holy Apostles for the Planting and Establishing of Christ's Church and Religion Answ. They consist not only of Gifts but likewise of Offices which he is the Author of Quest. What are the Extraordinary Gifts he gave them to this end Answ. I shall reduce them to three The Gift of Inspiration which revealed Christianity to themselves of Miracles which enabled them to prove it undeniable unto others and of Tongues whereby they could publish it over all the World and be understood by men of every Language Quest. When were these extraordinary Gifts bestowed Answ. First at the Feast of Pentecost upon the Twelve when the Spirit descended on each of them in the shape of Cloven Tongues Act. 2. 3. And afterwards generally upon others at the imposition of their hands as abundantly appears from St. Luke's account of the Acts of the Holy Apostles Quest. And all these you say were to enable them to Plant and Propagate their Religion Answ. Yes for by these Gifts which are call'd the Promise of the Father Act. 1. 4. that is that Spirit which Christ had promised
lasted and Prayer was added to it Is any Sick among you says St. James let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them Pray over him anointing him with Oyl in the Name of the Lord for in Christ's Name all their Miracles were wrought And the Prayer of Faith i. e. put up in Faith of the miraculous cure shal save the sick viz. from his Disease and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed Sins i. e. if any Sins brought this sickness they shall be forgiven him in the cure of it Jam. 5. 14 15. Quest. By saving of the Sick here indeed may seem to be meant saving of him from his Disease because it follows and the Lord shall raise him up But the Prayer of Faith and forgiveness of Sins seem to note something else Answ. As for the Prayer of Faith that Agrees very well for a Faith or belief that God will enable him to do it is necessary in every one that works a Miracle And as for the Forgiving of his Sins you must know that the Punishment of Sin is not only eternal Death but Present Diseases and therefore that the sin is forgiven at least in part when either of these is taken off And thus the Scripture speaks of it For when any sickness or infirmities come for sin our Saviour makes it the same thing to say thy sins are forgiven as to say arise and walk and accordingly when he design'd to work a Cure he would say thy sins are pardoned Mat. 9. 2 5. Quest. What other Miracles had they the gift of Answ. Of casting out Devils as the Apostles did out of Multitudes Act. 5. 16. Of Raising the Dead as Peter raised Dorcas Act. 9. 39 40. and Paul Eutichus Act. 20. 9 10 12. Of inflicting Bodily Diseases and Torments as well as Spiritual Horrors and Supernatural Agonies on contumacious sinners as Paul did on Elymas the Sorcerer striking him with blindness Act. 13. 8 9 11. and on the incestuous Corinthian whom he thus punished for the destruction of the Flesh 1 Cor. 5. 5. Which Corporal inflictions he seems plainly to threaten the Back-sliders at Corinth withal when he tells them of coming to them with a Rod 1 Cor. 4. 21. Of using sharpness 2 Cor. 13. 10. Of Revenging all Disobedience 2 Cor. 10. 6. Yea of such sharpness as would over-awe and humble the most carnal minds and contemptuous Opposers of Church Authority and Censures bringing down the Flesh as he said of the Incestuous Persons and making them afraid to Blaspheme as he said of Hymeneus and Alexander who were most contemptuous and stubborn in their Heretical Opinion 1 Tim. 19. 20. And this infliction of smart and Bodily Diseases upon obstinate Sinners is called Delivering over unto Satan as the Apostle says he had done in these last mentioned Cases Quest. Why was this infliction of Bodily smart and punishment upon them called Delivering over to Satan Answ. Because these Pains were to be the Effect of God's immediate Justice and Satan should be the Tormentor and Executioner of God's Vengeance And therefore when these Offenders were given up to God's Justice they were said to be delivered into his Hands When God in a more immediate and extraordinary way sends present heavy Plagues upon Men especially as a Punishment for sin Satan is often said to inflict them Saul's Melancholly is called an Evil Spirit from the Lord upon him 1 Sam. 18. 10. God's Plagueing the Egyptians sending evil Angels among them Ps. 78. 49. The Woman who had been bowed together eighteen years one whom Satan had bound Luk. 13. 11 16. The Lunatick a Demoniack or one vexed with an unclean Spirit Mat. 17. 15 18. and Luk. 9. 39 42. And thus when the Apostles gave up offenders to God to punish them because the Devil executes the Punishment which God decrees it is called Delivering them over unto Satan Quest. This delivering to Satan then was an Act of Divine Justice upon these Criminals and God commanded Satan thus to afflict them as formerly he afflicted Job at the instance of the Apostles Answ. Yes and therefore as 't is not improbable it was done with Prayer to God to take vengeance For so the Apostle may seem to express himself on his Delivering up Alexander Alexander the Copper-Smith did me much Evil the Lord reward him according to his Works 2 Tim. 4. 14. In this he Acted as a Spiritual Judge delivering up to Justice and Prayed God to exact the Penalty according to his Sentence Quest. Had they the Gift of any other Miracles Answ. Yes for such I reckon was their Joy in Tribulations and Glorying even in the very Hour of their sufferings When the Council had beaten them they departed from their Presence rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name Acts 5. 40 41. Whilst their Stripes were yet sore and they were pinched in the Stocks in the Dark Dungeon Paul and Silas sang Praises to God and triumphed rejoycing Act. 16. 23 24 25. And upon their Persecution at Antioch the Disciples were filled with Joy and with the Holy Ghost Act. 13. 50 52. Thus as if they were not of the same Mold nor had Bodies like other Men did they Glory in their Shame for Christ and rejoice in Tribulation Quest. But is not Joy an ordinary Fruit of the Spirit And why then do you think this rejoicing of theirs had something Miraculous in it Answ. A secret Joy in the sense of God's Love is common among Good Men and an ordinary Fruit of the Spirit and so 't is reckon'd Gal. 5. 22. Yea and Joy in Tribulation after the Tribulation is past for afterwards it yields the Peaceable Fruits of Righteousness to those that are exercised with it Heb. 12. 11. But to rejoice in the very midst of it and under the Stroke as they did I think has an extraordinary Gift and miraculous Aid in it For under the ordinary Assistance of the Spirit the Bodily Pain hinders rejoycing at the very instant For the Present no chastening seemeth to be joyous but grievous Heb. 12. 11. Quest. What say you then to the Words of Christ Rejoice and be exceeding glad when you are Persecuted for my sake Mat. 5. 11 12. Answ. I think they do not so much express a Duty that he strictly exacts as a Gift and Priviledge which he sometimes bestows upon his Martyrs and Confessors As was visible in the Apostles days and among the Primitive Martyrs For their minds were sometimes so ravished and transported with Spiritual Consolations as to seize all the Powers of their Souls and not suffer them to attend to the most Exquisite Bodily Tortures So as they could smile upon Racks and sing under their Executioners and be so far intranced in Spiritual Comforts as to declare under the most Bloody Butcheries that they were not sensible of any Pain And the same stupendious supports God has sometimes vouchsafed in later and modern Persecutions
must be in following our Callings with Prudent Care and Diligence And in like sort when we seek to him for any Virtues it must be in the use of such Probable and Discreet ways as are like to make us Masters of them Quest. Would you add any thing further about the use of these means Answ. Yes Fourthly that it be with a Faith in God's Power and Spirit and a confidence of success through that Assistance God has promised his Grace and Spirit to make us Good as well as his Mercy to Pardon us when we are so And we must eye this Promise of his Powerful assistance when we set about any Vertue and Goodness A Faith in his Power is as necessary to make us Good as Faith in his Mercy towards all good Men is to make us desirous of being Good. And to this Faith the Scripture Directs us in working out our Obedience Work out your own Salvation for it is God that worketh in you and so strengthen your Hands in that expectation Phil. 2. 12 13. And we are kept by the Power of God through Faith viz. in that Power unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. Quest. Is there any other Rule to be observed in seeking these Graces of the Holy Spirit Answ. Yes Fifthly that in all the Time we are endeavouring after them we do nothing to Grieve or annoy him 'T is with him as 't is with every ingenious Person he grows weary of staying where he finds he is not welcome and where men are still taking occasion to displease and pass Affronts upon him And therefore when we are warn'd against several sins to conclude all we are cautioned not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God which is to restrain us from them Eph. 4. 30. Quest. What things will grieve him Answ. The Apostle there particularly mentions obscene Talk and corrupt Communication ver 29. But he is grieved by our consenting to all sorts of Sin for he is a declared Enemy to all of them Especially if we commit any against many of his suggestions and checks of Conscience As David did in the Murder of Uriah after which he was sore afraid lest God should take his Holy Spirit from him Ps. 51. 11. or if we have sinned our selves up to a Custom or take delight in sinning Quest. Doth it offend him knowingly to Neglect and Slight his good suggestions Answ. Yes for he is concerned to have them take Place since he suggests nothing to us but what is most agreable to his own most Holy Inclinations the Honour of God and our Eternal Happiness Let us have that is use Grace that we may serve God acceptably Heb. 12. 28. And therefore let this pass for a Sixth Rule of obtaining his saving Graces to cherish the Good Suggestions he inspires and always improve the Grace he has already given to bring down more from him For to him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance Mat. 25. 29. In things of Trust this is the way of all Discreet Persons and so 't is his Quest. If we idely neglect and fail to cultivate our Present Grace then he will withhold such further Measures as he Designed us Answ. Yes and after long Patience at last withdraw the former too For from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath Mat. 25. 29. Thus Felix when he trembled at St. Paul's Sermon not fomenting that Fear nor proceeding to improve and penitently resolve upon it fell back and as we have cause to think heard no more of it Act. 24. 25. Quest. These seem Good and plain Rules for the attainment of these Graces of the Spirit And when we are careful to use them may we be confident of his Gift and promise our selves that he will bestow them Answ. Yes for therein he fulfâ—ls the Design of Christ that sent him and gratifies his own inclination And this God has promised and ordered us to expect from him Bidding us seek and we shall find Mat. 7. 7. and declaring how to him that hath shall be given and God will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him Quest. You have shewed me how we are to attain the Graces of the Spirit But if they are thus to be our own Attainment how are they God's Gift And if as you said before God gives them what need we take all this care and Pains to acquire them Answ. If they were an absolute Gift indeed we should not need to do it For when a Gift is absolute no Conditions are required on our part And then no defects in us can hinder nor any dispositions of ours further and make way for it It depends not on any thing in us but is purely God's Act So that nothing is left for us to do towards it But these Graces are not an absolute but conditional Grant before the Spirit gives them he requires something towards them and works them not in all Men but only in those who are prepared for them Some things hinder them and they are to be carefully avoided Others further them and they are to be diligently pursued So that we are not to expect them from God's Grace and Spirit alone unless we our selves also in such sort as I have described concur and joyn with him Quest. By what you have said I perceive how careful the Holy Ghost is to fill our Souls with gracious dispositions Doth he not also refresh them with such Spiritual Joy and Comforts as are apt to result from them Answ. Yes For St. Paul reckons joy and Peace as well as Meekness and Temperaâ—ce for Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. and Prays that the God of Hope would fill them with all Joy and Peace in Believing and that they may abound in Hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. And St Luke says the Churches walked in the Comfort of the Holy Ghost Act. 9. 31. And St. Peter of the Dispersed Strangers that in believing they rejoyced with Joy unspeakable 1 Pet. 1. 8. And therefore good Christians must not affect Scruples or think it any sign of Spirituality to be of a Down-looked and Melancholy Religion Since Joy and Peace a Filial Hope and ingenious chearfulness are Fruits that he loves to produce in them Quest. But doth the Holy Ghost inspire these comforts into all minds wherein he displays his saving Graces which are the Ground of them Answ. He is inclined to do it in all And doth it in one degree or other not always producing Raptures and Transports of Mind indeed but ease and quietness an inward complacency and comfortable Hope if they themselves do not put a Bar against him But some minds he sanctifies are of a Melancholly Temper that is prone to sadness and suspicions especially of themselves Or are frighted by undue-thoughts of God as if he were Stern and Rigorous soon offended but very difficult to be reconciled Or mistake the Gospel Terms as if they were over-rigid
the Tenor of Christ's own Laws For then they only speak the Language of Christ's own Rules and as Tertullian says are a true anticipation or Fore-hand Draught of the great Judgment And when his Officers only pronounce and say after him there is no doubt but he will confirm what they have pronounced in his Name Quest. But from what you have formerly discoursed I perceive that some things in Religon being against the Prime and Fundamental Doctrines are so Damnable in themselves as not to be capable of any Favour or Allowances And that others being only against inferior Truths are Damnable only as accompanied with an Evil Mind but capable withal of being incurred under Pardonable circumstances Now in these last Points many Persons that mean well and serve Christ sincerely in the main and essentials of a Christian may yet be unhappily mislead into wrong Opinions or Practices And if for their fixedness and obstinacy in these they happen to be cast out of any Church do you think they are always cut off from Christ too and that he will Finally Anathematise and condemn them in his Sentence Answ. No. For the Church as all humane Judges being unable to see into Mens Hearts give sentence in these cases according to outward Actions But Christ in his judgment of them looks also at the mind and heart of the Actors Rateing exactly not only the Punishableness of the Offences but also the Degrees of voluntary and involuntary which makes a Pardonableness or Punishableness of the Offenders And making these Allowances on such scores as fall not under their Notice 't is reasonable to believe he will still own and receive several compassionably mislead who are cast out on these accounts by the Churches Censures Quest. This validity and effect of Church-Censures you say is when they proceed according to Christ's own Rules and upon just cause But if they bind where the Gospel says they should loose and Excommunicate against Reason I suppose those Censures are meer Scare-crows that may serve to make a show but bring no hurt with them Answ. Very true Blessed are ye says our Saviour when Men shall separate you from their Company and expunge or cast out your Name as evil for the Son of Mans sake for so persecuted their Fathers the Prophets Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for your Reward is great in Heaven Luk. 6. 22 23. If good Christians are Excommunicated in any Church for not going against the Scriptures and complying with it in ill things as poor Protestants are by the Romish Church they lose nothing thereby with God who will not ratifie a wrong sentence but will increase their Reward for having bravely suffer'd in his Cause Quest. By what you have said I see how God forgives Sins But when they are committed against us we are bid to forgive them too and that as we our selves hope to be forgiven I pray you what doth that imply Answ. Not our remitting Future punishments which lye at God's mercy not in ours Nor always that we sit still without offering to defend our selves when we are assaulted or to seek redress when we are injured But only that we bear no malice to them in our hearts and if the case require Redress that we seek it not in Spiteful ways and that beside the Reparation of our own Wrong we aim not at our Adversary's Prejudice nor seek his hurt afterwards nor Pray to God or to the Magistrate for vengeance as the Jews might to ease an angry mind when we are able to do no more against him our selves Quest. What use must we make of this Belief of the Forgiveness of Sins Answ. Admire the mercy of God who can forgive such Profligate and Provoking Offenders And the wonderful love of Jesus Christ who could dye to procure this Forgiveness for his utter Enemies And not despair of mercy but stedfastly hope there is place of Pardon after any of our sins And above all to shew true Repentance and forgive others and perform all those things which are the condition and Terms of Forgiveness thereby to secure it to our selves Quest. And when we are once forgiven may we embolden our selves from God's readiness to forgive to Repeat our sins Answ. No by no means Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound in pardoning God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Now thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee said our Saviour Joh. 5. 14. Such ingratitude and abuse of Grace is not only most provoking to the Spirit and tempts him to withdraw from us and calls down from God heavier and surer Punishments But also it brings in force against us all the old scores which were all struck off as I said only on presumption of our Perseverance in repenting of them CHAP. XI Of the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting The Contents The Resurrection not meerly of our Spirits from sin but of our Bodies from the Grave This to be brought about by the Almighty Power of God. The Perfections of Glorified Bodies viz. Immortality Spirituality and Glory The Bodies of the Wicked Immortal And exquisitely sensible Some Inferences from the Resurrection of our Bodies Good Souls carried straight-way into a Place of Bliss Of Eternal Life wherin there is Full and unmixed Happiness Of the satisfaction of their Senses Their clear and distinct Knowledge Perfect Holiness And without Reluctance Blissful Companions Perfection of Love and Kindness Honour and Eminence of Place All these to be injoy'd in the Highest Heavens without satiety or weariness For evermore Of the miseries of the Damned in Tormenting Passions The worm of Conscience Fire and Flames Disgrace Under all which no favour of God. No company but of Tormenting Devils and damned Spirits None to condole when they cannot relieve No rest and sleep for Recruit of Spirits No end of their miseries The Use of this Quest. WHat is the Eleventh Article of the Creed Answ. I believe the Resurrection of the Body Quest. May not the Resurrection be interpreted only of a Spiritual Resurrection from sin Answ. So some taught of old as St. Paul testifies saying the Resurrection is passed already i. e. when Men rose from a State of sin to the fear of God and these says he get credit and overthrow the Faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 18. But the Resurrection we expect is a Resurrection of the Body Our Bodies after we have laid them down by Death shall at the Day of Judgment be quickned and raised up again Then all that are in the Graves shall hear Christ's voice and come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5. 28 29. This mortal Body must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on Incorruption that so all that being revived which Death destroyed Death may be swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. Quest. The
Resurrection of a Body which had been crumbled into Dust seemed an incredible thing when it was preach'd at first When the Philosophers heard of a Resurrection some mocked Act. 17. 32. What can make it credible or fit to be Believed Answ. The Omnipotent Power of God when that is ingaged for it For no one can think it impossible for God to raise up a Body out of dust that at first made it out of dust yea that raised all things out of nothing Ye err saith our Saviour to the Sadduces about the Resurrection not knowing the Power of God Mat. 22. 29. And this Power he has given us a sensible proof of by raising up Christ. If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the Dead i. e. in regard his Rising is such an irrefragable instance and example of it 1 Cor. 15. 12. Quest. Shall the Bodies of the Saints be raised up by the Power of the Holy Ghost Answ. Yes he that now makes them his Temples by displaying in them his Holiness shall at last display in them his Omnipotence breathing into their scatter'd dust the Breath of Life as at first he breathed Life into all things If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall at last also quicken your mortal Bodies as he quickned his Rom. 8. 11. Quest. The Rising of the Saints will no doubt be very Glorious But what Perfections shall their Bodies receive at the Resurrection Answ. First Immortality Nothing after that shall ever be able to pain decay or annoy them they shall not be liable to suffer nor to dye any more This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality 1 Cor. 15. 53. They cannot dye any more Luke 20. 36. Secondly Spirituality it is sown a Natural Body it is raised a Spiritual Body 1 Cor. 15. 44. Whereby is not meant that it shall be a Spirit in Substance but that it shall have those Perfections of Spirits wherein they excel Bodies As 1. being above the gross Pleasures of Sense such as Eating Drinking and carnal Injoyments In the Resurrection they neither Marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels Mat. 22. 30. And Meats for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God shall shortly destroy both it and them viz. in the Resurrection when men shall live without them 1 Cor. 6. 13. 2dly Vigor and Activity such as may answer and keep pace with the vehement Transports and quick Emotions of Glorified Souls and be capable to support their Joys bear their Raptures and express their Activities And 3dly Agility or Spriteliness in their motions moveing towards all Points upwards into the Air and Clouds as St. Paul notes of the Saints in their new Bodies as well as downwards And to Places at any distance with the quickness of Spirits whence they are able in a moment to appear or disappear as the Soul pleases as our Saviour's Body did after his Resurrestion and our raised Bodies must be like his being in this respect also equal to the Angels Luke 20. 36. Quest. Shall they receive any more Perfections Answ. Yes Thirdly not only a perfect Beauty instead of any Mishape or Deformity but also a marvellous Brightness or Glory It is sown in Dishonour but it is raised in Glory 1 Cor 15. 43. The Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Mat. 13. 43. Christ shall change our vile Body that it may be like unto his Glorious Body Phil. 3. 21. And that was full of glittering Splendor Whilst he conversed with his Disciples after his Resurrection here on Earth he laid it aside because fleshly eyes were not able to behold it as appeared by its Striking Saul blind Acts 9. 3 9. But in Heaven he shines with a dazeling Lustre Thus he appeared from thence to Stephen Acts 7. 55. and to Paul who describes the light of his Presence to have been above the brightness of the Sun Acts 26. 13. And his head and his hairs were white like Wooll yea as white as Snow his Eyes as a Flame of Fire his Feet like fine Brass burning in a Furnace and his Countenance as the Sun shining in its strength in that Vision St. John had of him in the Revelations Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. Quest. This will be a most happy Resurrection of the Just But what kind of Bodies shall the Wicked have shall theirs be immortal too Answ. Yes but to their cost and for no other end but that they may be immortally punished For when they always fry in Eternal Fire they shall never be consumed by it Quest. And shall their raised Bodies be sensible of Torment Answ. Yes far more than their Bodies are now and they shall always have the smartest and most terrible things in Nature to Torment them viz. Eternal Fire Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire Mat. 25. 41. There they shall be tormented in the Flames and not have so much as a drop of Water to cool their parched Tongue Luke 16. 23 24. Quest. If it be thus extream violent it will soon consume them or as extremity of pain sometimes causes dictraction so over-power their Souls that they shall not be able to mind or attend to it Answ. No as their sense of pains shall be most exquisite and insensible so shall their Bodies be indissoluble and their sense insuperable As an Almighty Vengeance shall ever inflict the most tormenting strokes upon them so at the same time an Almighty Power shall continue their strength to bear and an exquisite sense or feeling to be most piercingly affected with them Quest. Must not this Belief of the Resurrection of the Body comfort us upon the death of Friends when we lay their Bodies in the Graves Answ. Yes because those Bodies are not perished but only faln asleep and shall be infinitely more perfect and glorious and full of strength when they awake out of it I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them that are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thess. 4. 13 14. Quest. And ought it not to arm us against the fear of our own death too Answ. Yes for since when our earthly House of this Tabernacle is dissolved we have a Building of God Eternal in the Heavens in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloath'd upon with our House which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5. 1 2. Quest. What is the Twelfth and last Article of the Creed Answ. I Believe the Life Everlasting Quest. When good mens Souls leave their Bodies what becomes of them Answ. They are carried into a place of Bliss and Refreshment which Christ in his discourse to the Penitent Thief called Paradise and
1. 21 22. 2. Reforms our Practice The Numbers that believed acceptably turned unto the Lord saith S. Luke Act. 11. 21. The Faith which availeth worketh by love says S. Paul Gal 5. 6 it overcomes the world saith S. John 1 Jo. 5. 4. it makes us free from sin says our Saviour Jo. 8. 32. It must carry us on to good deeds as it did Abraham to leave his country Heb. 11. 8. and to sacrifice his son Jam. 2. 21 22. and as it did Rahab to receive the spies verse 25. A working Faith is the only Faith that lives for faith without works is dead Jam. 2. 20. as the body without the spirit is dead so is faith without works dead verse 26. It is the only Faith that profits for if a man say he hath faith and have not works what doth it profit verse 14. It is the only Faith that saves and justifies If a man shows faith without works can faith save him Abraham was justified by works verse 21. and Rahab was justified by works verse 25. ye see then how that by works a man is justified together with Faith and not by faith only verse 24. Quest. If there is no Justification by any Faith but what reforms the heart and practice I perceive in the question of Justification we must no longer oppose Faith and Obedience but take care to secure both it being as S. Paul saith a working faith or as S. James faith and works together that justifies us Ans. Very right Quest. But doth not S Paul when he speaks of our justification say it is by saith without the deeds of the law Rom. 3. 28. Ans. Those deeds are the deeds of the Jewish Law chiefly such distinguishing ones as Circumcision Sacrifices Jewish Holy-Days and observing the Mosaick differences of clean and unclean Meats These some Zelots for Moses pressed upon the Gentile-Converts in many Churches saying Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved Act. 15. 1. And when some started up at Rome to press the necessity of the same to Justification there S. Paul opposes all such deeds and tells them they must not seek to be justified as Jews but as Christians So what he rejects are Mosaick deeds or any others under such qualifications as the Jews obtruded and cried up for Righteousness Quest. Pray what are those Ans. First They set up a mere Humane Righteousness in outward Acts. This is Righteousness in Civil Courts where the Judges are Men that cannot see the Heart but judge and pronounce according to Overt-Actions And the Law of Moses being the Law of their Common-Wealth whose Breaches were triable in their own Courts they esteemed themselves Righteous in the eye of their Law as the World doth in case of other Political and State Laws when they are not liable to be brought in Trouble or Indicted upon them before any of their own Tribunals This sense of their Legal Righteousness was currant among the Doctors And Josephus a learned Jew who lived and flourished in the Apostles own Days asserts it in no less an instance than that of Sacriledge wondering at Polybius an otherwise Praise-worthy Writer as he says for ascribing God's exemplary Vengeance on Antiochus Epiphanes to his Sacriledge only design'd upon the Temple at Elymaïs Whereas says he If he only intended but did not execute and effect it he did not deserve to be punished for it And accordingly in S. Paul's accounts of the Jewish Righteousness he is careful still to call it a Justification or Righteousness of works as consisting only in things brought on to act and practice And measuring themselves thus only by External acts as cognizable before Humane Courts the orderly Livers among them made no more scruple of asserting their Righteousness in the Eye of their Law than any good Subjects do in pleading their innocence as to the Laws of them several Countries As we find the young man did to our Saviour when he posed him upon the Ten Commandments saying all these things have I kept from my youth up Matth. 19. 18 19 20. And as S. Paul did in setting off his Jewish Confidences saying That touching the Righteousness which is in the Law he was blameless i. e. not to be blamed before any of their Tribunals Phil. 3. 6. Quest. But did not some things in the Jewish Law extend to Mens Hearts and Spirits Particularly among the Ten Commandments is there not One viz. the Tenth which forbids all inward coveting of what is our Neighbours Ans. Yes but there being no notice taken of these nor punishments inflicted for them in their Courts the Doctors as may appear from what I have said looked on them rather as Counsels of Perfection than strict Laws of Righteousness Or if as Laws yet such the Breaches whereof were sufficiently atoned by their Daily or Annual Sacrifices which sanctified as S. Paul saith to the purging of the flesh i. e. to indemnifie them before Men as to their Carnal Secular Interests though not to clear them before God or make them perfect as pertaining to the conscience Heb. 9. 9 13. Quest. What other Qualifications did the Jews cry up in those Works which they depended on to make them Righteous Ans Secondly Their merits For they set up a proud boastful Righteousness which should challenge the reward by way of merit and equivalence not being content to reap all the Benefit unless they could also arrogate all the Glory and Honour of it to themselves Quest. Whereon could they pretend to erect this Ans. On two Foundations First The Power of natural free-will affirming their good deeds to be wrought in virtue of their own strength without which whatever Glory there might be in them it could be none of theirs They thought they had Ability enough for all the Righteous works they were to do upon the stock of Nature and needed no inward and enlivening Grace but a meer external Revelation or dead Letter as their Law is stiled in Scripture And all this Power they ascribe to Natural free-will since the fall For the good which Adam did before it say they was as a pure intelligence out of necessity of Nature But his eating of the forbidden tree of the Knowledge of good and ill brought him and his Posterity down to free will or an indifferency to either Which liberty they make most absolute ever since and accordingly interpret that common saying among them All things are in the Hand of God but the fear of God to note such absoluteness of our free-will to good as has nothing to controul it Secondly On the intrinsick worth and value of their own deeds making them to deserve Heaven by way of equivalence They were the great affecters and aspirers after merits saying That happiness by way of reward is far greater and more magnificent than by way of mercy And they were the great asserters of them claiming the reward on such deeds as excluded
their works without any need of Redemption by Christ's Sacrifice as I have already shewed Quest. And S. Paul though he denies such Jewish works asserts works after the Christian Faith wrought in us by God's Grace and accepted through Christ's Sacrifice to justifie and make us Righteous Ans. Yes in the very same Verse wherein he rejects the Law of works that is Jewish works he declares we are justified by another Law viz. the Law of Faith in performing what it imposes Rom. 3. 27. And the Faith which avails to Righteousness in Christ Jesus he says is a working Faith Gal. 5. 6. And the same S. Paul speaking of the Faith which justified the Ancient Worthies particularly notes those correspondent Affections and Practices which it produced in them to make them Righteous As Noah's holy fear and obedience in building of the Ark though all the while he was laughed at for his pains by a merry and secure World and Moses's quitting the highest hopes and honours of Egypt to associate with the persecuted People of God and Abraham's leaving his Country and sacrificing his Son at God's command and all the other instances above-mentioned Quest. By what you have said I plainly perceive that a working Faith or a Faith that suitably influences and affects us is the Faith that always did and always must recommend Men to Almighty God Which when the Scripture contents it self barely to imply the effects it simply calls Faith when it would speak out and express both it calls Faith and Repentance Ans. Very right Quest. But since all Faith doth not atchieve these noble feats and all Graces do not grow upon this single stock in all Believers Pray what are the great properties that fit Faith for these effects and distinguish the Faith of those that show these Fruits from the Faith of those that want them Ans. They are reducible I think to these Two the sincerity and the strength of it Quest. What mean you by the sincerity of this Faith Ans. First That it be real and unfeigned Not a meer pretence of Faith under which Infidels may disguise themselves among Christians to be trusted or emploied Nor a meer outside profession which unthinking Men may chuse and put on as they do their Cloathes without looking for any further reason than to be in the fashion and which they can as easily and readily alter again as they do their Habit when the Mode shall turn But a real inward belief and persuasion It is an unfeigned Faith that S. Paul commends in Timothy 2 Tim. 1. 5. and an unfeigned Faith out of which flows charity 1 Tim. 1. 5. and the Faith or Wisdom which makes Men pure and peaceable c. says S. James is without Hypocrisie Jam. 3. 17. So that they are never like to be fruitful Believers who follow Jesus as some Jews did only to run in with the Crowd or for the sake of the Loaves more than out of inward Convictions Secondly That it be Hearty and Affectionate Not a meer speculative Opinion and careless Notion as of things wherein we are not much interested but a moving and influencing perswasion wherewith all the powers of the Soul are affected Our Opinions must form our Passions and advance into Love Desire Hope Fear Care Endeavour and the like according to the different nature and power of the things believed The Belief that saves says S. Paul is a Belief with the heart as well as with the head Rom. 10. 9. And the Faith which avails to Righteousness works by love Gal. 5 5 6. And therefore they are never like to prove fruitful Believers who read and credit the Story of Jesus and the things of Christianity as they would the Story of Caesar or Alexander of the Assyrian or Persian Empire as things that are very remote in Place or Time and being of little concern to them do not much either delight or afflict them Such indifferent and unconcern'd Believers are like to make no better than Christian News-mongers whose Christian Faith furnishes them only to talk and tell stories Quest. Besides this sincerity is it necessary to a saving and effective Faith that there be moreover a good degree of strength and firmness in it Ans. Yes for such a strong Faith it was that made Abraham and other Holy Men obey God whereupon they were accepted Abraham says the Scripture was not weak or sickly but strong in Faith whereby he gave glory unto God Rom. 4. 19 20. the Faith that fits us for Christian Privileges and the Blessings of Baptism as Philip told the Eunuch is a belief with all the heart Act. 8. 37. If good Fruits do not spring from Faith it is because there is but little of it why take ye thought O ye of little faith Matth. 6. 30. 8. 26. or because there is very small or no life in it Faith being as dead as the body is without the spirit when it stands alone and no vital motions or effects stream from it Jam. 2. 17 20 26. Quest. I perceive this strength of Faith is necessary to enable it to do its work and conquer all that doth oppose it But in what doth this strength consist Ans. In three things especially 1. That it be assured and confident 2. That it be honest or seated in one that makes conscience of being just to his word 3. That it be resolute Quest. Must the Faith that produces these suitable effects be assured and confident Ans. Yes for a wavering Opinion will not accomplish its work It must make us forego many grateful things and undergo many ungrateful ones and attempt many that are very difficult and laborious And Men will not run these ventures and bear these losses on uncertain hopes but only on firm and certain expectations And therefore right and acceptable Believers are exhorted to draw near to God with full assurance of faith and to hold fast their profession without wavering Heb. 10. 22 23. and to shew diligence to the full assurance of hope tâ— the end Heb. 6. 11. And half Faith makes such Believers to be like King Agrippa only half and almost Christians Act. 26. 28. Quest. Must it also be honest that is haâ—e a â—â—â—d Conscience accompanying it and be seated in one who is careful to be just to his word Ans. Yes as it implies the owning of Doctrines and Propositions so it leads to ingage in Promises and Undertakings the good performance whereof includes not only Understanding and Knowledge but also Honesty and good Conscience So that a fruitful Faith must not be a bare skilfulness in Opinion but also a trustiness and integrity in discharging a Profession It effects Obedience only in just and upright tempers that make Conscience to perform their promises to fulfil their pretences and answer all just expectations Among all those several sorts of hearers by whom it was received the word believed brought forth fruit only in an honest and good heart as our Lord himself notes
Luke 8. 15. And to draw us near to God with a full assurance of faith we must joyn a true heart and a clean conscience Heb. 10. 22. and the charity which the Law requires flows then only from an unfeigned faith when 't is accompanied with a pure heart and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1. 5. And therefore in Simon Magus it bore no Fruit because his heart was not right in the sight of God Act. 8. 13 21. So that we must not wonder if we see a crue Faith prove barren and producing no obedience in a dishonest and false Man. Since it is not Faith alone but Honesty that must make a Man careful to remember and perform his undertaking and false unjust Persons how right soever they may be in their belief and apprehensions will be as like to break their word with God as they are with their Neighbours Quest. Must it also lastly be resolute and fully fixed after all things are well considered That so when any hardships arise in the way of Faith we may not be soon staggered in mind and put to deliberate anew whether or no to go on in it Ans. Yes when they want this resolvedness Men are not like to hold on in a way of difficulties and such as do every where occur in Faiths race Every true Believer must have cast up all the cost and pains of his way beforehand as our Saviour tells us in the Parables of the wise builder and of the king going to war Luke 14. 28 31. They must stand prepared to run all hazards and sustain all losses setting Faith above all things else and resolving to stick to it whatever prove its trials and discouragements And such Believers as these the Scripture calls grounded and settled in the faith Col. 1. 23. and rooted built up and established in it Col. 2. 7. And the believers or receivers of the word who fell off in tribulation are said to have had no root in themselves Matth. 13. 21. A deliberate resolution is a sure Ground-work and what is built on that may be like to stand a Storm and after all the Assaults that are made upon it remain unshaken Quest. So that the Faith whereon all the fore-mentioned Fruits are like to grow must not be a meer pretence of Faith but sincere and undissembled it must not be â—n empty profession and formal out-side out inward in the apprehension of the mind â—t must not be a wavering Opinion but confident and well assured it must not â—e a speculative cool and unmoving Notion but hearty concerning and affectionate it must not be in a careless forgetful and failing but in a conscientiously careful just and performing Man it must not act on an irresolute heart which will be easily daunted or soon staggered but one that upon good reason and after due deliberation is fully fixt and resolved to follow it Ans. Yes the Faith that influences the Heart and Life and stands in all times and trials must be thus qualified And the Faith which is either dissembled formal wavering unaffecting careless or irresolute some one or other of which the Faith of all Sinners is is like to have no such Blessed Fruits proceding from it As Simon Magus's had not whose heart was not right â—or Agrippa's whose Faith was but almost â—or the Temporary Believers whose faith â—ell away because it wanted root So that these different attendants and various qualifications of Faith make the difference in its Fruits and Effects and distinguish the Faith of Saints from the Faith of Sinners Quest. It has been often said of Faith by some that it is an act of Recumbency or leaning and rolling our selves on Christ for Salvation Are such Phrases applicable to Faith in a literal and common understanding of them Ans. No for Faith is an act of our Spirits and though Bodies lean and rest on Bodies yet Spirits have none of these Bodily Gestures and Affections When such words are used in expressing mental acts they are Metaphors which are applied to them on account of some Similitude and Resemblance Quest. What acts can the Faith of a Man's mind exert about a Person which may answer these forms of recumbing or leaning upon him Ans. Either Believing some Doctrine which he teaches or relying on some Promise which he makes These may be set off by the acts of recumbing leaning and rolling For as these are ways of Bodies resting and depending so are those of a Man's mind's doing the same upon any Person They acquiesce and rest on his Judgment in what he says and on his Fidelity in what he promises which gives them the same ease and settlement as the acts of rolling leaning and recumbing do to Bodies Quest. Faith is also called by some the hand of the Soul that reaches at and apprehends and applies Christ's Merits What is there in this Spiritual Grace that can answer these expressions Ans. Reaching at them is assenting to some Propositions about them And laying hold of and applying them is consenting and complying with some Overtures or fulfilling some terms and conditions whereby they become our own Putting out these mental acts has the same effect and use to our Souls as stretching out the hand to apprehend and apply things has to our Bodies that is to bring the thing desired down to our selves Quest. So that to roll and lean upon Jesus Christ is in plain English only to believe what he says and to rely upon what he promises And to apprehend or lay hold on Christ and apply his Merits in clearer and more intelligible Language is only to fulfil the Gospel-terms or to have Faith with its fore-cited effects that is to believe and repent whereby his benefits become ours Quest. Yes that I take to be the true meaning and explication of these obscure Phrases I confess I am a great lover of plain and intelligible Speech And above all things else I love to hear Men speak plain in the great Truths of Religion and Points of Salvation wherein there is the most need of all to inform and edifie Men's understandings And therefore I heartily wish these dark and intricate words were less used or wholly laid aside in these important matters they being words of Mens invention which the Holy Scripture no where uses about them and such words too as I am sure do more amuse than instruct those that hear them But if any think fit still to use them or meet with Faith set off by them in Books or Discourses this and no more in a true sense and in plain intelligible English I think is the meaning of them Quest. If Faith in Christ be a Faith in his Word then is it no part of Faith for any Man to believe his sins are pardoned nor of Infidelity to doubt of it because particular Men have no word of his for that Ans. Very right He tells us in the general he will pardon Penitents but in his Word he has not descended to
it cut off all hopes of impunity and utterly discourage all future offenders Answ. Because God has no more Sons to die for us and when he was sollicited to remit the punishment of our sins he would not do it upon a less exchange When man sinn'd against the Law of unerring Obedience upon the Merits and Death of his Son God pardon'd that and admitted them to favour again upon their Repentance But if they shall offend against this Law too and be finally impenitent there are no Sons of God to suffer again to purchase their Forgiveness Quest. So that Christ's Suffering for us salved all the Honour of God's Attributes and served all the Purposes of his Justice that would have been served by our suffering for our selves Answ. It did so and to the full as well too the punishing of his own Son when he answered for Sinners shewing a more implacable hatred of sin and inexorable Justice than he could have shewn by punishing all the World who were Sinners themselves And therefore his death was a satisfaction to God for the sins of the whole World. Not only a satisfaction to Benevolence and yielding Goodness as when easy and indulgent Natures are appeas'd by any small returns and incompetent Recompences but a Satisfaction to Justice by way of full Compensation and Equivalence Christ by his one suffering displaying the Honour of all God's Attributes as much as God could have display'd them by punishing the whole Humane Race Quest. If the Death and Sacrifice of Christ were so full a satisfaction at first there is no more now to be paid and it need never be repeated Answ. No nor ever must it The Jewish Sacrifices needed constantly to be repeated because being of little worth and very imperfect their virtue was soon spent so that year by year they were continually offered Heb. 9. 25. and 10. 1 3. But his being full and perfect from the first and leaving nothing to be added He is not to be offered often but at once hath he put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9. 25 26. and 10. 14. But altho his Sacrifice is no more to be really acted as it needs not the whole effect of it being as fresh and full now as it was at first yet is it daily still commemorated and the virtue thereof apply'd in every good Prayer but especially in every Sacrament Quest. What learn you from Christ's dying a Ransom for our sins Answ. 1. To abhor sin since it is so odioâ—â— to God that he can spare it in no person no not in his own Son when he took other men's sins upon him And if he spared not him when he would bear the punishment for us how can we hope he will in the least spare us when we come to undergo it for our selves If these things were done in the green Tree what shall be done in the dry Luk. 23. 31. 2 To give our selves up to the service of Christ who hath bought us for his own property at so dear a rate This is the least we can do in Equity and Justice Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Bodies and Spirits which are God's by such costly purchase 1 Cor. 6. 20. And if there is any spark of Love and Gratitude in our Hearts we can do no less in Resentment of such stupendious kindness For the Love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if Christ died for all they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Quest. Ought it not also to teach us Faith in God and to beget in us a firm Trust that he will perform whatsoever he has promised Answ. Yes as plainly shewing that nothing is too great for his love to make good He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. Quest. Must not his Patience and Charity in his Sufferings not reviling again but praying for his Enemies teach us the same when we are called to suffer Answ. Yes for in suffering thus without threatning and when he was reviled not reviling again he hath left us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2. 21. 23. Quest. Should not God's imposing so many and great secular hardships and sufferings on his own most dear Son make us have easier thoughts of these things than others have and reconcile us to Affliction Answ. In all Reason it should For it shews how inconsiderable worldly Goods and Glories are in Gods Eyes how temporal evils are allotted to the dearest persons how proper they are to Discipline and improve the most virtuous how they perfect Piety and what a step they are to Felicity and Glory Jesus himself tho' he were a Son yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered Heb. 5. 8. He was made perfect through suffering Heb. 2. 10. He ought to suffer and so enter into his Glory Luk. 24. 26. We see him for suffering death crowned with Glory and Honour Heb. 2. 9. And seeing Sufferings not only thus providentially allotted but also thus profitably undergone and highly recompenced in him the blessed Apostles and primitive Saints whose Ambition it was to be in all things his true followers did not repine and mourn but rejoyce and glory in them Quest. And since in dying for us he has shewed us such stupendious Love must not that mutually endear us and teach us if we would be his followers most tenderly to love one another Answ. Yes if God so loved us we ought also to love one another 1 Joh. 4. 11. Nay since hereby we perceive the love of God to us because he laid down his life for us we ought upon just occasion to lay down our lives for the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 16. Quest. In the Creed you say dead and buried When Christ expired upon the Cross was his Body taken down and buried Answ. Yes it was laid in a Tomb and a great Stone roll'd before its mouth according to the Jewish Custom And for fear his Disciples should come by night and steal him away the Jewish Rulers when they had sealed the Stone got a Guard from the Governour to watch it Mat. 27. 64 66. Quest. What mean you by Christ's descent into Hell Answ. His abode in that state of Death and Separation or his Soul 's being in the place of Separate Souls till it was united again to his Body at his Resurrection as it is written Thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell Acts 2. 27. which St. Peter there says was fulfilled in the Resurrection of Christ when he ceased to continue under the power of death and gloriously arose to triumph over it v. 30 31. Quest. Doth the word Hell sometimes signifie only the state of the Dead or the place of Souls departed Answ. Yes as David says of all men What man is he that
the World by these Pretences Answ. Yes For when the Lord cometh he will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of the Hearts 1 Cor. 4. 5. He shall be of quick Understanding in the Fear of the Lord and shall not judge after the sight of his Eyes nor reprove after the hearing of his Ears i. e. barely from outward Appearances but with Righteousness shall he judge the Poor and reprove with Equity even the Meek upon Earth where they are Trespassers Isa. 11. 3 4. And therefore it nearly concerns us to be sincere in all the Goodness we make shew of and to be the same to God as we appear to be to Men For if we dissemble in any thing he will pluck off the Disguise and shew us openly to be Hypocritical Pretenders and disguised Sinners to all the World. Quest. I see we shall be judged then for all our sinful Actions But shall we judged too for all our sinful Omissions Answ. Yes for we are as much bound to do what God injoyns as to forbear doing what he forbids and at that Day he will call us to an account for both Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire for in my poor Members I felt Hunger and ye gave me no Meat I was Thirsty and ye gave me no Drink a Stranger and ye took me not in Naked and ye Cloathed me not Sick and in Prison and ye visited me not All which are omissions of Duty and for them they are Sentenced Mat. 25. 41 42 43. Quest. I perceive we shall be sentenced for neglecting to fulfill Laws But will Judgment also pass upon us for neglecting to employ or improve our Talents Answ. Yes for the Lord orders the unprofitable Servant who had hoarded up his Talent and made no gain with it to be cast into utter Darkness Mat. 25 25 30. And therefore it concerns all men to whom God has given Leisure or Power or Wealth or Credit or Wit and Parts to look upon all these as Trusts and not to squander them away on Vice or Vanities Sports and Pastimes but as Wise and Faithful Stewards to employ them all for God's service remembring that all these were â—ommitted to them for their Master's â—se and that at the last Day they shall be called to give an account how they have spent them Quest. What say you to our words shall we be judged at the last Day for them too Answ. Yes for by thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy words thou shalt be Condemned Mat. 12. 37. And this should make all men careful to Govern their Tongues since they must give so strict an account for the abuse of them Quest. Christ there says Men shall give account in the Day of Judgment for every idle word v. 26. what then will become of most men in this world For is not any man that Discourses with freedom liable to utter something that is Idle that is works no good or makes none the better for it Answ. By Idle word there is to be understood every False and Slanderous word such as the Jews had then cast out against him when they said he wrought Miracles through Beelzebub v. 24. Quest. But in this strict Judgment for all our sinful Actions and sinful Words will there be any account still further required for our inward Thoughts and Desires of ill which were never come to act Answ. Yes for at that Day God will Judge the Secrets of men Rom. 2. 16. And when the Lord comes to Judgment he will make manifest the Counsels of the Heart 1 Cor. 4. 5. Quest. But is not every man troubled more or less with ill Thoughts and unlawful Desires and like to be so whilst we bear these Bodies about us Answ. Yes for in the Regenerate themselves the Flesh Lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. Quest. How then can any man stand in the Judgment if for these they shall be Condemned Answ. If the bare sudden Thoughts and Desires were Damnable they could not But that for which God will then Condemn men is not all stirring of them but only all yielding to fulfill them Make no Provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. And this the Righteous do not commit or when they do before their Death they Repent of it and amend it Quest. What will be judged yielding to fulfill them Answ. 1. All inward Consent to the fulfilling of them in our hearts tho it may be we cannot do it for want of opportunity For when Lust has thus Conceived it bringeth forth Sin Jam. 1. 15. And our Saviour says Adultery may be committed in the Heart Mat. 5. 28. 2. All Contrivance for the acting and Fulfilling of them after we have consented to them He that Deviseth to do evil shall be called and dealt with as a mischievous Person Prov. 24. 8. And evil Thoughts that is Murderous Machinations and Contrivances are ranked in Guilt and Punishment with Murders themselves Mat. 15. 19. 3. All Actual accomplishment of them in Deed and Practice which is fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh Gal. 5. 16. And this is more provoking still if it be in a settled Custom and constant Tenor of action which is walking or living after the Flesh Rom. 8. 1. 4. 13. Quest. I perceive then when Christ comes to Judgment we shall all be called to Account for all the sinful Deeds we have done and all the sinful Words we have spoken and all the evil Thoughts or Desires we have consented or endeavoured to fulfill and Condemned for them unless we have sincerely repented of them Answ. Yes Quest. But how will Christ proceed in Judging us for these Things Will he pass Sentence impartially without respect of Persons Answ. Yes All that are equal in Guilt shall be sure to have equal Punishment For the Judge is not capable of being Byassed by Fear or Favour by any Fondness or Indulgence towards any Criminals by any of their Flatterâ—◠〈◊〉 Complements Gifts or Services their Crafty insinuations or tiresom importunities by their Kindred or Families Sects and Opinions But absolutely setting aside all by-Respects he will regard only the Merit of Causes and what doth really influence the Case and Sentence every Man according to the Evidence that lyes against him At that Revelation of his Righteous Judgment there is no Respect of Persons with God. They that have sinned without Law shall Perish without Law and as many as have sinned under the Law shall be Judged by the Law. God will render to every man according to his Deeds Eternal Life to those that have continued in well-doing but Wrath and Anguish on every Soul that doth evil whether Jew or Gentile Rom. 2. 5. to 13. God without respect of Persons judges as every Mans work shall be 1 Pet. 1. 17. Quest. But in judging upon all these Points will Christ do it in Rigor pressing all the Punctilio's and taking all the Advantages of Law
The Church is Catholick as containing all Places and Persons but it is not universal as to some Acts which being done any where are valid and equally bind every where Answ. Yes it is Catholick in the Admission into its Baptism which being duly administred in one Church makes a man free of the whole Christian Society and gives him a Right to all Christian Priviledges in all other Churches So that go where he will every Church shall own him for a Christian and admit him to Communion without requiring him to be Baptised over again Quest. So that a true member of Christ who is allow'd to Pray and receive the Sacrament in one Church ought to be allowed the same in every Church Answ. Yes and so they were in ancient times when upon producing their Certificates and Commendatory Letters from their own Churches Strangers and Travellers were owned as Brethren and admitted to Communion in the remotest Places Quest. And is it not fit they should seek this Communion wheresoever they pass Answ. Yes very fit to shew themselves true Catholicks and that they own the Christians of all other places as Brethren and Fellow-members But this must be only where they may be admitted to Communion upon lawful terms For when Churches will suffer none to Pray or Communicate with them without professing some Errors or joyning in some forbidden Practice there is no seeking to associate with such Assemblies Quest. Can you shew this Catholick efficacy in other Acts Answ. Yes not to insist on others secondly in excluding Persons out of the Church by Excommunication For if a man is justly excommunicated in one Place the Church as I shall shew being but one that is valid and ought to stand till he is duly loosed and reconciled again in all places He is cast out by Christ who for any unchristian Practices is regularly and justly bound or excommunicated by the Church of Christ for whatsoever you bind or retain on Earth saith he shall be bound and retain'd in Heaven Joh. 20. 23. and Mat. 18. 18. And whilst Christ himself rejects 't is not for any other Church of Christ to receive him And thus it was in the Ancient Church where if any for Heretical stubbornness or lewd Lives were cut off from Christ by their own Church no other Churches would admit them 'till they had made their peace again And to prevent any over-sight and unwary Communion with an Excommunicate Person when any Strangers and Travellers especially whom they had ground to suspect came to them from Foreign parts they would not admit them to joyn in their Church-Offices till they produced their Communicatory Letters to certifie their being in Communion with their own Churches And this must make all good Christians extreamly careful by all innocent ways to keep the peace of their own Church and never contumaciously provoke or proudly slight it presuming if it casts them out they may do as well by being let in and harboured by others Which if all Christ's Members really believed Church Discipline would not be so precarious a thing nor would any think as I fear too many do that a Church is beholding to them for sticking to her and keeping in her Communion Quest. What is it to Believe the Holy Catholick Church Answ. Not only to believe there is such a Church but also agreeable to that belief in all those Acts which declare our Union with it to adhere to it as its Members against all Factious Innovators and Dividers Quest. Is this Church but one Body Answ. No. For we are call'd to peace in one Body Col. 3. 15. and there is but one Body as one Spirit one Lord one Baptism Eph 4. 4 5. Quest. And is it to be one by an External Visible Unity Answ. Yes for an external Union in the common Offices and Advantages of the Society must shew it to be what the Sripture calls it one Body It must have such an Union as may be taken notice of by Men and from whence they will say Christians are all of one Religion I pray not for these alone but for all that shall believe on me through their word That they may all be one and that so visibly that the World may see it and thereby know and believe that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Joh. 17. 20 21 22 23. And this visible union is their maintaining one Communion and Church-Fellowship i. e. their readiness to Pray and Communicate together and join in all Acts of Christian Worship Faith and Charity with each other By this shall all Men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another If ye Love one another i. e. if ye love so as to unite not only in Faith and Affection but in Worship too and pray and communicate together For a readiness to worship God together must shew as much as any thing their unity in Discipleship and that they are all Servants of one and the same Lord and Master Joh. 13. 35. And accordingly Prayers and Sacraments are set down among the Bonds of Union which compact together the Members of this one Church Of the Eucharist says St. Paul we being many are made one Body by being all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10. 17. And of Baptism we are all Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. and as many as have been Baptized into Christ are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 27 28. And among those various ways whereby the Church becomes one Body he lays down as one Faith which they all Profess So one Baptism whereof they all partake one God and Father of all whom they all invocate with one Hope and one Lord whom they all serve and worship Eph. 4. 4 5 6. Quest. Doth this visible union imply a profest subjection of the whole Church to one visible Head the Bishop of Rome Answ. No that is a Title too haughty to be assumed and a Power too extensive to be managed by any one Person Besides in Scripture there is not the least mention of this universal Headship No not in the Lists of Church-Powers and Ministrations where this which is the highest of all others could not be left out Nor in Silencing any Heresies or deciding any Controversies and Disputes of which there was great number then in the Church and for determination whereof as it ought to have been used so 't is not conceivable had it then been owned but the Apostles would have directed and sent men to it or the Litigants themselves would have appeal'd to its sentence Among the Apostles our Blessed Lord precludes all pretence to such Power telling the Twelve when they were at Strife who should be highest in Empire and Lordship that one of them should not bear Rule and exercise Authority over the rest Luke 22. 24 25 26. And as for St. Peter in particular he set up no claim of Power over the other Apostles but bore
in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Abrahams Bosom And the care of conducting them thither as Christ noted in the account of Lazarus is committed to some good Angels For some of these as ministring Spirits always attend the death-beds of God's Saints and receive the departed Soul into their care to guard it from all frights and molestations of envious Fiends as it passes thro' the Regions of the Air which are the Principality or Territory of the Powers of Darkness and to guide it in all that long passage of new and unknown ways which lead to the Blessed Receptacles of departed Spirits Whereas the Souls of the Wicked when they are thrust out of their Bodies are left naked and defenceless to be seiz'd by those greedy and implacable Furies and hurried away upon the award of their most just Judge in extream anguish and despair to their most wretched Prisons Quest. But at the Resurrection I see both Good and Bad shall return to their Bodies again And shall that Life last for ever Answ. Yes for after once they are reunited their Souls and Bodies shall never part any more but the good shall continue in everlasting pleasure and the wicked in everlasting pain Quest. What happiness is there in that Eternal Life of the Righteous Answ. All possible happiness their hearts can wish or their Nature is capable of They shall see and enjoy God who will give himself to them and that implies every thing that is Beatifying all the Blessedness we can imagine and infinitely more being contain'd in God and communicated together with him Quest. And shall this Blessedness never be imbitter'd to them with any care or fear or grief or crosses as all the happyness of this present Life is Answ. No They shall neither hunger nor thirst any more Rev. 7. 16. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more Death nor sorrow nor crying nor Pain for all those former things are passed away Rev. 21. 4. Quest. Shall all their Senses be gratified with the most delightful and agreeable enjoyments Answ. Yes such as the Scripture is wont to set off by Feasts and Banquets and Marriage-Entertainments by melodious Songs and joyful Hallelujahs by transporting sights of all the Beauty the Glory and Magnificence of the Heavenly Court the Majesty of God's Throne and the Splendor of all the Heavenly Host that do surround it Indeed their exalted and refined Senses are above the gross delights of Eating and Drinking and giving in Marriage But such as these the Scripture uses because our present state places so much in them And whatsoever delight and satisfaction they may express to our present Capacities that and abundance more shall the enjoyments of that life yield to our glorified and improved Bodies Quest. 'T is a great heappiness to have clear and distinct knowledge of things and not to be distracted with doubts or posed with difficulties Shall the Righteous in that Eternal Life have such clear and advanced understandings Answ. Yes they shall get rid of all darkness and doubtfulness of mind and know every thing they desire without study or pains Now we see as in a Glass darkly but then face to face Now we know in part but then shall we know even as also we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. Quest. 'T is a singular Point of Bliss to be perfect in Holiness which is one of the most Blissful Attributes of God himself Shall they also be such perfectly Holy Persons Answ. Yes they shall excel in every Virtue and Grace wherein Christ himself doth for when he appears we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3. 2. And those they shall enjoy free of all those weaknesses and defects whereby their Virtues are obscur'd and lessen'd in this World. For in new Jerusalem the Spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12. 23. Quest. And shall they exercise all this Holiness without trouble and reluctance which makes the practice of it painful here on Earth Answ. Yes for they shall neither have any inward Lusts to oppose it nor outward Temptations to draw them from it They hear no advice nor see any example but of what is good Their inclinations are all rectified and become Holiness to the Lord. Their Nature is perfect in good and duty is become their delight so that in conforming entirely to the will of God they do in the highest measure gratifie their own wills too Quest. And with this height of knowledge and of Holiness shall they also be inwardly pleased in their own minds and think themselves happy without which no man is happy Answ. Yes they must needs be infinitely pleased in every thing they have and in every thing they do for whatsoever comes to them is pure happiness and whatsoever proceeds from them is full of Wisdom and Goodness without the least word or action to repent of Their State is all Joy and Peace enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Mat. 25. 21. It is not bid to enter into them being infinitely more than they can hold but they into it as into a vast Ocean of Bliss whereof they shall always drink to the full but never empty or exhaust it Quest. Indeed such compleat Knowledge and perfect Holiness must needs give them cause of greatest satisfaction from themselves But what sort of Company must they keep will they be equally happy in that too Answ. Yes unimaginably happy For they will live always in the presence of God who will ineffably Communicate himself to them and of Jesus Christ who will infinitely rejoyce to see how happy he has made them and of the Holy Ghost who will eternally Congratulate the reward of his own Graces in them and converse with Angels Apostles and Glorified Saints and all their Godly dear Friends whom they valued as their own Souls and whom they clave so fast to in their hearts that they could have followed them into the other World when they were taken from them Quest. And all this God-like Society are every way fitted to be the most happy and delightful Companions Answ. Yes to be the most Blissful that possibly can be thought of For they are all light and quickness in their understandings and all love and tenderness in their Affections and most sweet and obliging in their carriage being perfectly free from all Anger Crossness Scorn or Contempt and every thing that may give offence They all look pleased and inviting in their countenances and are exquisitely wise useful and entertaining in all their Discourses and all agree in the same Opinions and speak the same things and pursue the same ends and are pleased in the same Objects and have no strife among them but who shall love highest and oblige most and be most like to God and agreeable to each other for evermore Quest. You say there shall be no strife but who shall love most Indeed a state of love which is not cooled by any unkindnesses nor crossed
them those intolerable miseries and utter and horrid despair of ever removing or abating them Quest. Is this Sting of Conscience so extreamly tormenting to mens Souls that it should be compared to a Worm preying upon their vitals Answ. Yes for they who feel it and such only can tell the smart of it think it more exquisite and insupportable than the pangs of death it self And therefore they run greedily after Death and seek by any means to make away themselves in hopes thereby to get quit of it The Spirit of a man will sustain all other his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. And if 't is so intolerable here where they have only some beginnings and small fore-tastes of it what must it be when horror is at the heighth and despair and anguish is consummate and the rage of all infernal Spirits is let loose to represent at full the most formidable Phantasms and imprint Anguish and all sorts of Agonies and painful Horrors with the utmost activity of Furious and powerful Spirits as it will be in the next World. Quest. But whilst their forlorn Souls are racked with all these horrible pangs what shall become of their Bodies Answ. They shall Frye in Flames as I said and endure all the Torment which men can feel in the hottest Fire They shall be cast into a Furnace of Fire Mat. 13. 42. and have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21. 8. Quest. This must needs cause excessive pain But shall they not have something to mitigate and make it easier Answ. No not so much as a drop of water to cool their Tongue when 't is parched and tormented in the Flame Luke 16. 24. Nor that poor relief of those who are extream weary and sore to shift sides or change their posture Bind him hand and foot that he cannot stir says our Lord when he Condemns the Sinner to this Lake of Fire Mat. 22. 13. Quest. And shall desperate shame and disgrace be added to all this Answ. Yes For they are all as vile and hateful to God and all good men yea and to themselves too as they can be made and it is purely their own wilful and wretched Folly and desperate wickedness which has brought them to it Quest. But will not God the hope and comfort of all that are in utter distress look upon them and shew them countenance in this wretched state Answ. No they shall never see his face nor receive the least glimpse of favour from his Countenance He will say to them depart from me ye Cursed Mat. 25. 41. And they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord 2 Thes. 1. 9. He will not look upon them but in wrath and fury and never think of them in mercy any more Quest. But when God deserts them shall they be quite forsaken or will they not be allowed some Company in this distress Answ. Yes but that shall be the Company of Devils and tormenting Spirits who thirst more after Blood than ever the most starved Appetite did after food and who have no other way to ease their own pains but by the satisfaction of augmenting theirs Go into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25. 41. Quest. But amidst all this horrid Crew that take such pleasure to despite them shall there be none to help them when they are unable to help themselves at least to pity and condole with them Answ No there are none but Partners in destruction who are all too full of their own miseries to attend theirs And all these in Nature are perfect Furies that have no love and tenderness for others For Hell is no place for pity and kindness since he that dwells in Love dwells in God as St. John says 1 Joh. 4. 16. So that there they shall have no Friend either to help or hearten or sympathize with them But all about them shall spitefully vex and reproach them and add more to their burden which is already heavier by far than they can bear Quest. But there is one thing still that in the extreamest Torments gives some ease and recruit of Spirits tho' it cannot give a full deliverance and that is Rest and Sleep And shall not miserable wretches have some rest from these Torments Answ. No for the smoke of their Torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Rev. 14. 11. Quest. But if this Torment be thus without all intermission and thus violent sure it will not last long but they will câ—â—â—e in good time to an end of it Answ. No it shall never end Their Bodies as I noted shall be made indissoluble and immortal only that their pains may be immortal Their worm dieth not and their Fire never shall be quenched Mark 9. 43 44. Quest. Good God! how intolerable and irremediable is this State will not every man that believes he shall unavoidably suffer all this for persisting wicked take any pains and endure any hardships in Religion and the amendment of his Life to prevent it Answ. Yes most certainly and this is the wise use we are to make of it Knowing the Terrors of the Lord in executing the Wicked after the last Judgment we perswade men to live well here without which there is no avoiding them 2 Cor. 5. 11. Quest. And since the happiness of the Righteous is so infinitely lasting and large must not the belief of that make us contemn all the short pleasures of Sin which would bereave us of it and think all the sufferings of Virtue nothing in comparison of the reward that doth attend it Answ. Yes for since the sufferings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us neither Death nor Life nor Things present nor Things to come nor any other Creature â—â—all be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8. 18 38 39. FINIS Books lately Printed for Robert Kettlewell 1. THe Measures of Christian Obedidience By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire The second Edition In Quarto Price bound 8s 2. An Help and Exhortation to worthy Communicating By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire In Twelves Price bound 2s 6d 3. A Discourse Explaining the Nature of Edification By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire In Quarto Price 6d 4. A Funeral Sermon for the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Digby By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire In Quarto Price 6d 5. The Religious Loyalist Or A good Christian taught how to be a Faithful Servant both to God and the King. By John Kettlewell Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire 6. A Funeral Sermon for the Right Honourable Simon Lord Digby By John Kettlewell Minister of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire 7. A Journey into Greece by Sir George Wheeler in