himself and in all his house of unblamable Godliness and Christianity that makes his Visitations in his Diocese in his own person and vibrates that sacred thunder and lightning the truely-dreadfull sentence of Excommunication by no other arme but his own nor to any other aime then the dissipating of Vice and Wickedness and all Rebellion and Disobedience to the known and acknowledged Lawes of Christ that inflicts no Mulcts but what are bestowed in relief of the poor of the respective Parish and the needfull repairs or comely adornings of the Church that is watchfull prudent and compassionate and has the art and patience of conversing with the meanest capacities and the skill and sagacity of finding out the reason where he findes the End of the Gospel notoriously defeated in any place that has counsell in readiness and fit applications whether the Pastour or his charge be discovered to be in fault that exhorts every where to sobriety and brotherly-kindess and is diligent to pluck up or prevent the growth of such Opinions as serve the end of Sin and encourage men to leudness that gravely and severely rebukes the bold offender and affectionately bewails the failings of the weak and chearfully expresses his sincere joy whereever he finds a people live orderly and unblamably and gives the best countenance and encouragement he can devise for the furthering the same I say I could not have forborn to pronounce that to decry such a Bishop as this for Antichristian were an unpardonable piece of Antichristianisme and to murmure against his Visitations to repine at the annuall return of the Sun by whose warmth all things live and flourish For there is not any effectualler means imaginable to make the People believe in good earnest that Religion is worth the looking after then to find themselves lookt after so carefully and affectionately in reference to Religion by persons of so honourable rank and quality 23. Lastly That will also be added to the number of Defects by some that I have not as well endeavoured to shew the Reasonableness of the Precepts of Christ as of his Actions and Miracles To have done this I confess had been pertinent enough had it been needfull For I could not imagine that the Precepts of Christ could seem unreasonable to any that did not pervert the meaning of them They may seem indeed severe and difficult at first sight but the Severity is no greater then the cure of the Disease requires Ut valeant homines ferrum patiuntur ignes And to deny thy self and to mortifie thy self is neither the killing nor denying of any thing in thee but thy Vices upon which there accrews unto thee unspeakable joy and ease Nor are thy Difficulties in these undergoings so great but that thy Helps are farre greater provided thou be an unfeigned Believer For what Lust canst thou stick to part withall for his sake who parted with his life for thee or what present enjoyment canst not thou easily quit if thou believe that future Happiness that attends thee in the other world and how canst thou fail to fly fornication whilest thou considerest that by practising this unclean vice thou makest a vile strampet corrivall with the holy Ghost whose Temple thy Body is if thou beest a Christian and whose Temple it cannot be if thou indulge to thy self so dangerous a liberty there being nothing that does more extinguish the operations of the Spirit then the letting thy self loose to lawless lusts But the Reasons of Christ's Precepts are so obvious in Theory and so faithfull in Experience that I think it needless to insist upon this Theam assuring every one that he shall best understand their solidity by life and practice 24. But there are others whose reprehensions I shall hardly escape for that I have gone about to render the Reason of any thing in Christian Religion Religion seeming to them in the best dress when it appears most unreasonable Which humour is the most treacherous to true Christianity that any thing can be and a sure barre to her progress amongst free and ingenuous persons But truly whenas the Efficacy of the Gospel is not deemed hopeless no not upon the coursely covetous enormously ambitious and sottishly sensual I could see no cause why Freedome Ingenuity Reason and Philosophy should be such crimes as to make men less capable of the benefit thereof and therefore I must profess that for their sakes chiefly that are over-prone to these more noble infirmities of the Mind I have represented Christianity no less Reasonable then it is and that is I hope as Reasonable as any judicious spirit could desire or expect 25. And if in my Discovery of the Reasonableness of things a more then ordinary heat has accompanied that light and may seem to have armed my Style in some places with over-much sharpness and vehemence I would desire so soft and prudent a Soul to consider with himself whether there be not men in the world as bad as I describe and whether he ought in charity to conceit I mean any other then those and being such as they are whether they can deserve less and if he be none of them himself why he should partake of their sinnes by disallowing of their deserved chastisement and rebuke Against which there can be no colourable reason unless that these which deserve this punishment may have grown past feeling Which insensibleness is more to be deplored and pitied then their being exposed to the search of a faithfull Chirurgion the method of whose Art forces him if he could possibly to launce them to the quick But those that have digested Wickedness into Principles and framed Religion it self into a compliance and furtherance to the foulest conversation it is no wonder while they can upon such fantastick grounds conceit themselves the darlings of Heaven and children of the most High that they look for proportionable honour and respect from men and would march on though in these ill wayes as solemnly and securely as the Children of Israel out of Aegypt of whom it is said that not a dogge should move his tongue against any of them 26. Concerning that sense of the Apocalyptick Visions which Mr. Mede has hit upon and which for the main I have professed my self to conceive to be true there is nothing seems to me so harsh therein as that Objection of some who contend that it implies that all the Adherers to the Romane Church after this her Apostacy will be certainly damned The concocting or ruminating on which sad sentence cannot but be to a benigne nature like the eating of the little book which contains the Visions of this Apostacy bitter in the stomack though the first pleasures of unriddling these prophetick aenigmes may be as honey to the mouth And to speak freely for a man to be easily contented that another should be damned is no good sign that himself is in the way of Salvation That was a witty decision of
would be which would signifie then at large only the adding of further clothing whether within or without but is to be expounded as circumstances require 4. Being thus fitted for the purpose we shall now briefly paraphrase the six first verses of the 15. chap. which they alledge against us thus 1. For we know that if this Earthly and Mortal Body of ours were destroyed that yet we have an Heavenly one whose Author and Maker is God 2. And for this cause is it that we groan so earnestly to be clothed also with our Heavenly Body within this Earthly 3. Because we being thus clothed when we put off our Earthly Body we shall not be found naked nor our Souls left to float in the crude Air. 4. For we that are in these Earthly Bodies groan earnestly being burdened not as if we had a desire to be stript naked of all Corporeity or that we should be presently rid of these Earthly Bodies before God see fit but that we may have a more Heavenly and Spiritual clothing within that mortality may be swallowed up of life 5. Nor do we arrive to this pitch by our own power but it is God who works upon us as I said both Body and Soul and frames us into this condition by the operation of his holy Spirit which he has given as a pledge of our Eternal Happiness 6. And therefore we are alwaies of a good courage not discontented at any thing For whether we be in this Earthly Body it is tolerable as being our usual and natural home or whether we go out of it which is most desirable we shall then go to the Lord our inward man being so fitly clad for the journey 5. That this is the genuine sense of these verses the 16 verse of the Chapter immediately going before will further confirm where the Apostle saith That though his outward man perish yet his inward man is renewed day by day which is Though his Earthly Body be in a perishing and decaying condition yet his Spiritual and Heavenly gets strength and flourisheth every day more and more Now the Resurrection and Attainment of the Heavenly Body being all one it were worth the while to enquire into the meaning of the Apostle Philipp 3. v. 11. where he professes his unwearied endeavours to attain to the Resurrection of the dead where presently it follows Not as if I had already attained it or as if I were already perfected For if he meant not this Inward Spiritual body inveloped in the Earthly he need not tell the Philippians that he had not yet attain'd it But the Point in hand is sufficiently plain already 6. We have seen what weak Demonstrators the Psychopannychites are against the Life and Operation of Souls out of the Body in their appeals to Scripture We shall now see how improbable their aspersion is of the Opinion being a Pagan or Heathenish invention derived as they say merely from the School of Pythagoras and Plato and from thence introduced into the Church CHAP. VIII 1. That the Opinion of the Soul 's living and acting immediately after Death was not fetched out of Plato by the Fathers because they left out Preexistence an Opinion very rational in it self 2. And such as seems plausible from sundry places of Scripture as those alledged by Menasseh Ben Israel out of Deuteronomy Jeremy and Job 3. as also God's resting on the seventh day 4. That their proclivity to think that the Angel that appeared to the Patriarchs so often was Christ might have been a further inducement 5. Other places of the New Testament which seem to imply the Preexistence of Christ's Soul 6. More of the same kinde out of S. John 7. Force added to the last proofs from the opinion of the Socinians 8. That our Saviour did admit or at least not disapprove the opinion of Preexistence 9. The main scope intended from the preceding allegations namely That the Soul 's living and acting after death is no Pagan opinion out of Plato but a Christian Truth evidenced out of the Scriptures 1. AND I think it is not hard for a man to prove that this sinister conceit of theirs is almost impossible to be true For if the ancient Fathers by vertue of their conversing so much with Plato's writings had brought this opinion of the Souls living and subsisting after death into the Christian Religion they could by no means have omitted the Preexistence of it afore which is so explicite and frequent a Doctrine of the Platonists especially that Tenet being a Key for some main Mysteries of Providence which no other can so handsomly unlock and having so plausible Reasons for it and nothing considerable to be alledged against it For is it not plain that the Soul being an Indivisible and Immaterial Substance can not be generated Now if it be created by God at every effectual act of Venery besides that in general it is harsh that God should precipitate immaculate Souls into defiled Bodies it seems abominable that by so special an act of his as Creation he should be thought to assist Adultery Incest and Buggery Of this see more at large in my Trestise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 12 13. But they 'l still urge That it was not the Unreasonableness of the Opinion but the Uncompliableness of it with Scripture that made them forgoe the Preexistency of the Soul though they retained her Subsistency Life and Activity after death 2. But it had assuredly been no hard matter for them to have made their Cause plausible even out of Scripture it self The Jewes would have contributed something out of the Old Testament Menasseh Ben Israel cites several places to this purpose as Deuteronomy 29.14 15. insinuating there that God making his covenant with the absent and the present that the Souls of the posterity of the Jewes were then in Being though not there present at the Publication of the Law For the division of the Covenanters into absent and present naturally implies that they Both are though some here some in other places This Text is seriously alledged by the generality of the Jewes for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls as Grotius has noted upon the place Also Jeremy 1. verse 5. The forenamed Rabbi renders it Antequam formassem te in ventre indidi tibi sapientiam reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel not in Cal. Before I formed thee in the belly I had made thee of a wise ingenie fitted thee to all holy Knowledge c. We will add a third place Job 38. He renders it Nosti te jam tum natum fuisse Knowest thou that thou wast then born and that the number of thy daies are many Then viz. from the beginning of the Creation or when the Light was made a symbol of Intellectual or Immaterial Beings The Seventy also plainly render it to that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know that thou wast formed then and that the number
that they that obey it not shall be damned That Christ knew the very thoughts of mens hearts that he raised the dead that he healed men of incurable diseases that he gave sight to the blind and made the dumb to speak That the Apostles of Christ Matthew Peter and Paul healed one Habib Anaiar of the Leprosie at Antioch and raised the King's daughter from the dead as also gave sight to a childe that was born blinde And lastly three Preeminences the Alcoran gives to Christ which it gives not to any other Prophet to Abraham Moses no nor Mahomet himself The first is That he was carried up to Heaven bodie and soul where it is expresly added in Zuna that he shall return from thence to judge the world with righteous judgment The second That he shall be called The Word of God The third That he should be called The Holy Spirit of God These things you may read more at large in Iohannes Andreas his Confusio Sectae Mahometanae as also in others out of whom you may also add that the Turks have so venerable an esteem of S. Iohn's Gospel that they wear it next their bodies as an amulet when they goe to war to keep them from gun-shot 8. This I thought worth the noting partly that that Honour which is due to Christ may not be given to Mahomet of whom the best that can be said is only this That he did not so utterly pervert and deprave the mystery of the Gospel by either his ignorance political tricks or fanatical humours and whimsies but that there was so much of the substance and virtue thereof left as being seconded with the dint of the Sword was able enough to hew down the more gross Heathenish Idolatry chastise the disobedient Hypocritical Christians and ruine the external dominion of the Devil in the World and partly that we may discern what great hopes there are that in due time when the chief scandals of Christendome are taken away they being so far prepared already in their reverend opinion concerning our blessed Saviour the whole Turkish Empire may of a sudden become true Christians that which is vain and false among them having no better prop then the foolish and idle Visions false pretended Miracles and groundless fables of a mere wily phansifull and unclean Impostour whenas the pure Christian Religion comprehended in the Gospel is so solid sincere rational that no man that is master of his wits but may be throughly satisfied concerning the truth thereof CHAP. XIII 1. The Triumph of the Divine Life not so large hitherto as the overthrow of the external Empire of the Devil 2. Her conspicuous Eminency in the Primitive times 3. The real and cruel Martyrdoms of Christians under the Ten Persecutions a demonstration that their Resurrection is not an Allegorie 4. That to allegorize away that blessed Immortality promised in the Gospel is the greatest blasphemy against Christ that can be imagined 1. YOU see then how large the Success or Event of our Saviour's coming into the World is in reference to the external overthrow of the Kingdome of the Prince of this World that old Usurper over the sons of men If you demand of me how great the Triumph of the Divine Life has been in all this victory I must answer I could wish that it was greater then it is that it had been larger and continued longer but something has been done all this time that way too 2. For Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a firm Belief of a Life to come and the Effect of this Faith which is the very nature and Spirit of Christ dwelling in us consisting of Purity Humility and Charity this sound constitution was very much in the Church in the Primitive times even then when they had no succour nor support from the hands of men nay when they were cruelly handled by them they chusing rather to be banish'd imprisoned tortured and put to any manner of death then to deny him who had redeemed them with his most precious Bloud and had prepared a place of Eternal happiness for them with himself in Heaven 3. Here Faith and the Divine Life was very conspicuously victorious and triumphant in that in the eyes of all the world it set at nought all the cruel malice of the Devil and the terrour of death it self in the most ghastly vizard he could put on as you may see innumerable Examples in the Ten bloudy Persecutions under the Heathen Emperours Which History must needs make a man abominate such light-headed and false-hearted Allegorists that would intercept the Hopes of a future life by spirituallizing those passages in Scripture that bear that sense into a present Moral and Mystical interpretation as if the Gospel and the precious Promises therein conteined reached no further then this life we now live upon Earth 4. Which is the highest reproach and blasphemie that can be invented against Christ Iesus as if he were rather a Betraier then a Saviour of Mankind and that he was more thirsty after humane bloud then those Indian Gods we have spoken of who were so lavish thereof in their sacrifices and as if it were not Love and dear Compassion towards us that made him lay down his life but hatred and a spightfull plot of making myriads of men to be massacred and sacrificed out of affection to him that thus should betray them Wherefore whosoever interprets the New Testament so as to shuffle off the assurance of Reward and Punishment after the death of the Body is either an arrant Infidel or horrid Blasphemer CHAP. XIV 1. The Corruption of the Church upon the Christian Religion becoming the Religion of the Empire 2. That there did not cease then to be a true and living Church though hid in the Wilderness 3. That though the Divine life was much under yet the Person of our Saviour Christ of the Virgin Mary c. were very richly honoured 4. And the Apostles and Martyrs highly complemented according to the ancient guize of the Pagan Ceremonies 5. The condition of Christianity since the general apostasie compared to that of Una in the Desart amongst the Satyrs 6. That though this has been the state of the Church very long it will not be so alwaies and while it is so yet the real enemies of Christ do lick the dust of his feet 7. The mad work those Apes and Satyrs make with the Christian Truth 8. The great degeneracy of Christendome from the Precepts and Example of Christ in their warrs and bloudshed 9. That though Providence has connived at this Pagan Christianism for a while he will not fail to restore his Church to its pristine purity at the last 10. The full proof of which Conclusion is too voluminous for this place 1. WE have given a light glance upon the condition of the Primitive Church before Christianity became the Religion of the Empire what change would be wrought then a man might
his Church cannot cease himself not ceasing to be but he is a Priest and King for ever according to the Prophecies CHAP. IV. 1. Our Saviour's strict injunction of Purity from whence it is also plain that the Love he commends is not in any sort fleshly but Divine 2. Several places out of the Apostles urging the same duty 3. Two more places to the same purpose 4. The groundless presumption of those that abuse Christianity to a liberty of sinning 5. That this Errour attempted the Church betimes and is too taking at this very day 6. Whence appears the necessity of opposing it which he promises to doe taking the rise of his Discourse from 1 Iohn 3.7 1. THE third Branch of the Divine Life is Purity In the urging whereof both Christ and his Apostles being so earnest it is plain that that Love which they recommend to the World can be no suspected affection like that which the canting language of the Enthusiasts may justly be thought to favour but that it is that pure and holy Love indeed which deservedly we have styled Divine And how severely this Purity we speak of is required I shall give you some few but very sufficient instances Matth. 5.27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart And if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better for thee that one of thy members should perish then that thy whole body should be cast into Hell And if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee c. What more serious and earnest monition can there be made to Continence and Abstinence from sensual pleasures then this of our Saviour who upon no less penaltie then the torments of Hell interdicts us all looseness and uncleanness forbidding us all preludious preparations to the foul acts of Lust and not permitting so much as an imaginary scene of illicit transactions to which our will could really assent if opportunity were offered 2. And we shall find the Apostles insisting in the footsteps of their Master in this matter 2. Corinth 6. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separated saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God And 1 Thessalon 5. The God of peace sanctifie you wholy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ. And in the former chapter ver 3. For this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God And 1 Corinth 6. ver 13. Now the bodie is not for fornication but the Lord and the Lord for the bodie And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also quicken us by his own power Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid And a little after Flee fornication Every sin that a man doth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body What know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodie and in your Spirit which are God's Also Coloss. 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Fornication Uncleanness immoderate affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience Parallel to which is that Ephes. 5.3 Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us but fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness let it not be so much as once named amongst you as becomes saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdome of Christ and of God Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not you therefore partakers with them And 1 Corinth 6.9 Know ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Be not deceived neither fornicatours nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God 3. I have made a more ample collection of the enforcements of this duty of Purity and Sanctity then I intended and yet I cannot abstain from adding of two more the one out of S. Peter 1 Epist. ch 2. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. The other out of him which I have already so often cited Rom. 13.12 The night is far spent and the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambring and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 4. I have now abundantly shewn how plainly and explicitly Christ and his Apostles urge all men that are hearers of the Gospel to be carefull and conscionable doers of the same that they should be holy even as Christ was holy in all manner of conversation that they are bound to endeavour and aspire after the participation of the Divine life and all the Branches thereof Humility Love and Purity hating even the garment spotted by the flesh as the Apostle Iude speaks And how this Holiness and Righteousness is required of them with no less seriousness and earnestness then upon the forfeiture of their eternal Salvation if they do not act according to those Precepts Insomuch that I stand amazed while I consider with my self that hellish and abominable gloss that some have put upon the Gospel as if it were a mere school of loosness and that the end of Christs coming into the world was but to bring down a commission to the sons of men whereby they might be enabled to sin with authority I am sure with all desirable security and impunity nothing
this was in stead of all other Righteousness to him and that he was reputed as righteous all over now although he were not so at all in any other things 7. Now for Iustification we shall best understand the meaning of the word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First therefore besides the forensal acception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be just Gen. 38.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamar is more righteous then I. So Eccles. 31.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that loves gold will not be just Secondly it signifies to appear just Psa. 51.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that thou maist plainly appear or approve thy self to be just And Psal. 143. â— For in thy sight no man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall appear just Thirdly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make just and pure to free from vice and sinfulness Psalm 73. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore have I cleansed my heart in vain And Eccles. 18.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec tuam probitatem usque ad mortem differas saies the Translation And Rom. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is freed from sin Also Act. 13.39 And by him all they that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. Ye are more throughly cleansed and purged from sin and wickedness then you could be ever under the Law of Moses Which is consonant to other passages in Scripture as That the Law makes nothing perfect and again If there had been a Law that could have given life then verily righteousness might have been of the Law And now we have found out a warrantable sense of these words we shall be able more expeditely to discover the sense of the foregoing places of Scripture alledged for this pernicious conceit of a Christians being righteous without any real Righteousness in him 8. Wherefore to that in the 4. to the Romans whose force will be the greater if we adde that also which is written a little before in the 3 chap. v. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and what he inferrs also vers 9. That Iews and Gentiles and all are under sin Wherein the meaning of the Apostle is to magnifie as was most fit the ministration of the Gospel and so he signifies to the world that whatsoever is discovered hitherto is imperfect lapsed and ruinous all but weak and sinful before the coming in of Christ even the works of the Law themselves and that smooth external Righteousness of mere Morality and Ceremony So that all the world are found guilty before God and by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight For by the Law is but the knowledge of sin vers 20. it gives no strength to perform Wherefore now reckoning nothing upon all these things we are as it were to begin the world again and to endeavour after such a Righteousness as is by Faith in Christ Jesus and not to rest in any thing that may be done by the ordinary power of the flesh but to aspire after that Righteousness which is communicable to us by that Spirit which raised Jesus Christ from the dead But neither Abraham nor any one else can be justified by any carnal righteousness of their own but that highly-spiritual act of Abraham reaching beyond the common rode of Nature who against hope believed in hope that was that which commended Abraham so much to God And thus from the Example of Abraham would the Apostle commend the Christian faith to the world and in particular to the Jews the Offspring of Abraham For at the end of the fourth chapter he makes this use of Abraham's faith being imputed to him for Righteousness that is reputed by God as a very excellent good act as it indeed was that we might also be brought off to believe on him that raised up â—esus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification In which verse are contained the two grand priviledges of the Gospel that is the forgiveness of sins upon the satisfaction of Christs death and the justifying of us that is the making of us just and holy through a sound faith in him that raised Jesus from the dead Which interpretation the 11 verse of the 8 Chapter doth sufficiently countenance But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you viz. to Righteousness as is plain out of the foregoing verse And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse that is The body of death which we desire to be delivered from as the Apostle speaks appears by the presence of Christ in us to be thus deadly a body by reason of sin we feeling for the present nothing but an heavy indisposition to all holinesse and goodnesse in the body and its affections and all sinfulnesse and unclean Atheisticall suggestions from the flesh which is death to the Soul For to be carnally-minded is death So that by reason of the sinfulnesse of our body and the sad heavinesse thereof it appears as deadly and ghastly a thing to us as Mezentius his tying the living and the dead together when once Christ is in us but our Life is then that Righteousnesse which is of the Spirit we finding a comfortable warmth and pleasure in the gratefull arrivals of that holy and Divine sensation But he that raised Christ from the dead will in due time even quicken these our mortall bodies or these dead bodies of ours and make them conspire and come along with ease and chearfulnesse and be ready and active complying Instruments in all things with the Spirit of Righteousness Which belief is a chief Point in the Christian Faith and most of all parallel to that of Abraham's who believing in the Goodness and Power and Faithfulness of God had when both himself and his wife Sara were dry and dead as to natural generation and so hopeless of ever seeing any fruit of her womb who had I say Isaac born to him who bears Ioy and Laughter in the very Name of him and was undoubtedly a Type of Christ according to the Spirit For Isaac is the Wisedom Power and Righteousness of God flowing out and effectually branching it self so through all the Faculties both of mans Soul and Body that the whole man is carried away with joy and triumph to the acting all whatsoever is really and substantially good even with as much satisfaction and pleasure as he eats when he is hungry and drinks when he is dry And thus by our entrance and progress in so holy a
said Does this offend you What if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That will be a very strange and stupendious spectacle to you and such as will assure you of my Divinity but withall remove my body so far from you that you cannot then if you would mistake so grosly as to think I speak of this body and bloud I carry now about with me It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life that is to say They are touching the spiritual body which is the inmost Temple of the holy Ghost and which you are in some measure to partake of here and which shall have its compleat refinement when I shall crown you with the perfection of Life Eternal at the last day Or They are simply concerning the Spirit and that Life which I my self am according to my Divinity viz. The Eternal Word in whom is the Life and that Life is the light of men This is that which you are to feed on and to drink into your Souls when you have not my particular bodily presence with you For this Word and Spirit is every where to be taken in by them that breath and thirst after this Heavenly sustenance of their Souls and so is that fulfilled which he declares v. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him For the eating of the flesh is in some measure partaking of the spiritual body and the drinking of the bloud the imbibing that life therewith that rayes out from the Eternal Word into all purged and purified hearts whereby Christ dwelleth in them and they in him and God in all 3. Again Iohn 7.37 In the last day that great day of the Feast Iesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believes on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Which he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive as the Text it self expounds it And therefore is a good ratification of the Mystical sense of those Prophecies we rehersed out of Esay But these things are spoken more plainly and without a Metaphor Ioh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Which Precept and Promise is like that of Esay chap. 58. which is that if we seriously compose our mindes to do due acts of obedience to God he will pour out his Spirit upon us Then shall thy light break forth like the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward He shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not That is as any spiritual Christian would be apt to interpret the place If thou thirst after Righteousnesse and in the mean time to thy utmost power do the outward functions thereof in thy duties to God and man at length this Spirit of truth will break forth like the morning light within thee and the emanations of the holy Ghost will so throughly refresh thee and strengthen thee that with ease and pleasure thou shalt walk in all the wayes of God which shall be like the flowry Alleys of a Paradise to thee both to thine inward and outward man 4. Not that our endeavours or desires are any obligation to God by way of merit on our part but it is his mercy to the Soul that does in good earnest pant after him For till he has compleated his work in us all our works are worth nothing and whenever they are worth any thing they are not ours but his And to this sense speaks Paul to Titus chap. 3. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us or poured out upon us as the Original has it abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Like that of the Prophet Thou shalt be like a watered garden 5. Adde to these Ioh. 3.5 Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit And Rom. 8.9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his And vers 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered And also 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And lastly Ephes. 3.14 For it were infinite to reckon up all places of Scripture that tend to this purpose For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inward man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us To him therefore be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulnesse of the Gospel and the Necessity of undeceiving the world in those points that so nearly concern Christian Life 2. The ill condition of those that content themselves with Imaginary Righteousnesse figured out in the Fighters against Ariel and Mount Sion 3. A further demonstration of their fond conceit 4. That a true Christian cannot sin without pain and torture to himself 1. VVE have now abundantly proved out of places of Scripture The necessity of inward Sanctification and reall in-dwelling Righteousness
in it but what they themselves have bestowed upon it For every Substance is of it self an Individual Substance and Universals but a Logical notion arising from our comparing of Substances of like nature together Neither is there any Substance but by due preparatory modifications may be capable of being united with some other Individual Substance and these Two Individual Substances become One whole Substance Which yet are not so One as that they cease to be Two Numerical Substances because they arâ—â—o otherwise said to be One I am sure are no otherwise One then by the apt Union of one with another Which yet hinders not but that they are still and if they are they are Two namely my Soul and Body are still this Individual Soul and this Individual Body though they be as they term it Hypostatically united For it onely implies conjunction not confusion of Substances nor any losse of the Individuality of the Substances thus conjoined For there is no Substance conjoinable with another but remains this Individual Substance even for that very reason because it is a Substance every Substance being of it self Individual as I have already said and yet conjoinable with another Substance whence it is plain that the Scholastick notion of Suppositum is a mere foolery 6. Out of which we may easily understand how that the Humanity of Christ and the Eternal Word may be Hypostatically united without any contradiction to humane Reason unsophisticated with the fopperies of the Schools and both their Hypostases remain still entire Of which I will exhibite this as a more sensible representation Suppose a vast Globe made all of solid Gold saving one very small section which we will suppose of Silver This individual Gold and this individual Silver remaining still this individual Gold and Silver make up one entire Globe which is not an entire Globe without either So in Christ made up as I may so speak of the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity and of that humane Person that conversed at Jerusalem He is that individual Silver and the other that individual Gold and both these together One Christ the sphere of whose Divinity filling all things and being every where at hand cannot but be a warrantable Object of our Praiers and Invocations as the passive Humanity of Christ the prop of our Faith and confidence by his bitter Passion and Intercession 7. What Superstition therefore can there be or least suspicion of Idolatry when we pray unto Christ if we do but think of him to whom we pray For the Eternal Godhead does so outshine every thing in this Object of Devotion that our minde is in a manner wholly transported into God though with a due reflexion of honour upon the Person of our Saviour in virtue of whose Death and Intercession we make our addresses Which Truth might also passe with the Jew without any scruple at all if he do but call to minde with what devout Humility their fore-fathers have adored the presence of Angels To whom in their Law Iehovah the most holy name of God is also attributed And if an Angel that sustains the Person of God onely by way of Embassy has this divine honour how much more then is due to Christ who is Iehovah not onely by Title and external Function but by real Union with the Eternal Son of God Which the Platonists in their Triad also call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same in Greek that Iehovah is in Hebrew 8. Or if they could imagine that there was so extraordinary a kind of Union of these Angels with God where so high a name is attributed to them as being in such an universalizing Rapture that they had lost the sense of their own Personalities and were wholly actuated by God who used them as fully and commandingly as our Soul does our Bodies yet this may fall short in a two-fold respect of that Union which is betwixt the Humanity of Christ the Eternal Word For first it may not be of the same kinde but differs as much it may be as the union of a Spirit with a dead Corps does from the union of the Soul of Man in an healthful body Or if it could be admitted that there was some Principle excited and awaked or some way inserted into the Essence of an Angel whereby he might have real and vital union with God yet it being but temporary it is not to be compared with this lasting and durable union in the Messias Nor does the visible presence of the Angel warrant Divine worship more to him then to Christ. For Christ according to his higher and more adorable nature is every where present 9. I conclude therefore that the Divinity of Christ is not at all repugnant to Reason I mean his Real and Physical union as I may so call it with the Eternal Word For being that it was this VVord or Eternal VVisdome whereby God made all things it is very decorous and congruous that that great Instrument of the restoring so choice a piece of his Creation as Man is should be united particularly to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eternal VVord Nor is it unconceivable how he may be united particularly and immediately to this Hypostasis and not the other two from what we observe in Nature For even the Faculties of the Soul residing in the same part of the Soul according as the part of the Body is tempered or modified one Faculty may exert it self in the part and another be silent and take no hold thereon And further it is evident that though the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of Nature be every where present in the World and lie in the very same points of space yet their actions applications or engagings with things are very distinct For the Spirit of Nature takes hold only of Matter remanding grosse bodies towards the centre of the Earth shaping Vegetables into all that various beauty we finde in them but does not act at all on our Souls or Spirits with divine illumination no more then the Holy Spirit meddles with remanding of Stones downwards or tumbling broken tiles off from an house Which things rightly considered and improved make this Mystery intelligible enough for those that are fit for such Speculations So that I need adde nothing more having already proceeded further then I intended in zeal against the fraud of some and indiscretion of others who so confidently maintain That some main Points in Christian Religion are not onely obscure which I willingly acknowledge and that thereby our Religion is the more Venerable but also repugnant to Reason which I utterly deny and shall in its due place shew the sad inconvenience of so rash an Assertion CHAP. III. 1. That the Communicableness of Christian Religion implies its Reasonableness 2. The right Method of communicating the Christian Mystery 3 4. A brief example of that Method 5. A further continuation thereof 6. How the Mystagogus is to behave himself towards
more Particular answer to that of the 32 of this Chapter where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be either interpreted if the Souls of just men deceased obtain not their glorified or heavenly Bodies For though it were granted that they did in the mean time live and act in Aery vehicles yet that State and Region as the Earth being common to good and bad they had yet obtained no peculiar reward for their hardship and toil here Or else which is the more safe sense by far it may be interpreted at large of the life and subsistency of the Soul after its departure according to the last signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the third Premiss And thus is the strength of the main proof of the Psychopannychites utterly enervated 10. But there are other places of Scripture which they misapply to the same purpose as the Answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees question concerning the Resurrection I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Hence our Adversaries would conclude That the Souls of the departed do not live because if they did our Saviour's argument would be invalid for the Resurrection For if Abraham's Spirit were now alive God might be his God though his Body never rise But this is easily satisfied out of the second Premiss By Resurrection there being understood a Life hereafter and the Opinion of the Sadducees being That there is neither Angel nor Spirit nor Life to come he does not exactly tie himself to that particular circumstance of a blessed Immortality that consists in the enjoyment of glorified Bodies but answers more at large concerning the subsistence of Souls of men departed that they are and live and that therefore there are Spirits and so handsomly confutes the whole Doctrine of the Sadducees by that citation out of their own Pentateuch and a skilful application thereof CHAP. VII 1. A General Answer to the last sort of places they alledge that imply no enjoyment before the Resurrection 2. A Particular answer to that of 2 Cor. 5. out of Hugo Grotius 3. A preparation to an Answer of the Author 's own by explaining what the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie 4. His Paraphrase of the six first Verses of the forecited Chapter 5. A further confirmation of his Paraphrase 6. The weakness of the Reasons of the Psychopannychites noted 1. THE third and last way of proving the Sleep of the Soul is from such Passages in Scripture as seem to joyn the Hour of our Death immediately with the Day of our Resurrection as in 2 Cor. 5. Where the Apostle seems to intimate that there does nothing intercede betwixt the solution of our Earthly Tabernacle and being clothed with the Heavenly which not being till the Day of Judgment it is a sign that the Soul is in no condition unless that of Sleep till then So likewise in 2 Tim. chap. 1. and chap. 4. In the former he speaks of his Depositum which he intrusts God with till that Day and prays that Onesiphorus may finde mercy at that Day and in the latter he speaks of a Crown of righteousness that the Lord the righteous Judge will give him at that day as if all were defer'd till then But in my conceit it is a weak kinde of Argument Because the Souls of the Saints receive not their great reward till the Day of Iudgment that therefore they receive nothing at all nay that they are in a worse state then in this life as having lost all Sense of Existence or Being Their opinion to me seems more tolerable then this who though they do not presently mount them up in their Ethereal Chariots to Heaven yet permit them to move and to act in their Aereal Vehicles at a less distance from the Earth But that Last day being a day of that high Solemnity dreadful Glory and Majesty it is no wonder that for the better moving of the Minds of men he so often mentions that time without taking any notice of the interceding Space For thereby it also seems more nigh as a distant Object does to the sight no visible thing coming between 2. Now for the second to the Cor. 5. chap. There be two waies of clearing that difficulty there The one of Hugo Grotius in which a late learned Interpreter of our own does also insist expounding as they may well the third verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus If so be we shall be found in the number of those that are still clothed with these Earthly bodies not stript naked of them by death This Interpretation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 going afore makes still the more warrantable as also that following phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used by the Apostle in a parallel case This Exposition utterly destroys all the force of the Psychopannychites Argument taken from this place For whereas the Apostle seems to speak as if immediately upon the solution of this Earthly they were to be invested with a Heavenly Tabernacle which is mainly to be gathered out of the second and fourth verses it is only upon the supposition that the day of the Lord might come while they were yet clothed with flesh 3. But because this Interpretation may seem to be something derogatory to the Apostle's Knowledge as if he were pendulous and uncertain whether the day of Iudgment might not be in his time which some men will not bear I shall propound another that they may take their choice The former seems to have a special advantage in the proper sense of those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if we can but come off well here we shall carry on the rest handsmooth We premise therefore thus much concerning the meaning of those two words That as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies simply to put on a garment so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well signifie to put on an inward garment For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie within in composition as the Latine word In does in Inducula Inducium and Interula all which signifie an inward Garment and the two former they ordinarily derive from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this proper signification of the word And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie to put on an inward garment so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie an addition of an inward garment to an outward for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie in composition as if the sense were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be content to wear an upper garment only but to put on also an inward as we do in winter add an half-shirt or a wastcoat Or if this look like too curious a Criticism let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Adversaries term it of the Soul 's being able to act after the death of the Body from the Philosophy of Plato it had been even impossible for them to forgoe the latter part concerning the Pre-existent life of the Soul before she comes into these Bodies which is the thing I have all this while driven at CHAP. IX 1. Proofs out of Scripture That the Soul does not sleep after death as 1 Peter 3. with the explication thereof 2. The Authors Paraphrase compared with Calvin's Interpretation 3. That Calvin needed not to suppose the Apostle to have writ false Greek 4. Two waies of interpreting the Apostle so as both Grammatical Soloecisme and Purgatory may be declined 5. The second way of Interpretation 6. A second proof out of Scripture 7. A third of like nature with the former 8. A further enforcement and explication thereof 9. A fourth place 10. A fifth from Hebr. 12. where God is called the Father of Spirits c. 11. A sixth testimony from our Saviours words Matth. 20.28 1. BUT that this so Usefull and Comfortable a Doctrine of the Soul 's living and subsisting after the shipwrack of this Body may be firmly established I shall further adde what plain Evidences there are in Scripture for the proof thereof For as for those of Reason I shall refer you again to my above-named Treatise Book 2. ch 16 17 and 18. And I conceive that of 1 Pet. 3. v. 18 19 20. is none of the meanest if Prejudice and Violence wrest it not out of its genuine sense which any man may easily apprehend to be this For Christ also has once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death as to his Body or Flesh but yet safe and alive as to his Soul and Spirit By which also he went and preached unto the separated Souls and Spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient viz. in the days of Noe. 2. That solid interpreter of Scripture Iohn Calvin expounds it in the main according to this Paraphrase only for being alive as to his Soul or Spirit he reads it vivificatus Spiritu meaning by Spirit the Spirit of God But it is plain that the Antithesis is more patt and punctual as we have rendred it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as warrantably interpreted to be alive as to be made alive as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be grave not to be made grave Beside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Septuagint signifies not only to revive one dead but to save alive according to which sense we have translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is also another slight difference betwixt us in that he had rather have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated a watch-tower then a prison Which we should easily admit who alledge this place against the Sleep of the Soul but he acknowledging also that the other sense is good we have not varied from the common Translation The greatest discrepancy is that he conceives that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Dative for a Genitive absolute but I leave him there to compound that controversie with the Grammarians The truth is the learned and pious Interpreter thought it more tolerable to admit that the Apostle writ false Syntax then unsound Doctrine the fond opinion of the Papistical Purgatory being a worse Soloecisme in Religion then to Latinize in Greek or put a false Case is in Grammar 3. But this being too loose a Principle wholy unsatisfactory to our Adversaries to phansie the Holy Writers to soloecize in their language when we do not like the sense he had better have taken some other course more allowable to save us from the peril of Purgatory and in my judgment there are two either of which will suffice to fence us from the Assaults of the Romanists 4. The first is By observing a latitude of sense in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as Aristotle notes in his Metaphys lib. 4. cap. 12. the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition does not only signifie perfect privation but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence we may well translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in times past were not so obedient or so believing as they should be and who were so bad that they might be punished in their bodies and perish in the Deluge but yet so good that at length they must attain to an higher degree of eternal life by Christ's preaching to the dead as is also intimated in the following chapter of this Epistle ver 6. Wherefore acknowledging but Two states viz. of either Hell or Paradise we say that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were in the very lowest degree of Paradise in which they were kept as in an inferior Mansion which was as a kind of prison or close custody unto them their desires aspiring higher till there was made a great accession unto their happiness upon Christ's appearing and preaching unto them And this is the very sense that Calvin aims at in his Commentarie upon this place 5. But there is yet another Interpretation which we will propound in the second place as free from the fear of any Purgatory as the former and requires no immutation at all in our foregoing Paraphrase We 'll admit therefore that these Disobedient Souls were in Hell not in the lowest Region but in the more tolerable parts thereof It does not at all from hence follow because Christ in his Spirit exhibited himself to these preached to them and prepared them by the glad tidings of the Gospel after carryed them to Heaven with him in Triumph as a glorious spoil taken out of the jaws of the Devil that there is any Redemption out of Hell now much less any Purgatorie For there were two notable occasions for this such as will never happen again For it respects the Souls of them that were suddenly swept away in the Deluge and the Solemnity of our Saviours Crucifixion and Ascension He even in the midst of Death undermining the Prince of Death and at his Ascension victoriously carrying away these First-fruits of his Suffering and presenting them to his Father in the highest Heaven But to expect from this that there should be still continued a daily or yearly releasment out of Hell or Purgatory is as groundlesly concluded as if because at the solemn Coronation of some great Prince all the prison-doors in some City were flung open Malefactors should infer that they will ever stand open all his whole Reign Thus we see how safe also the easy and obvious sense of this place is which I thought fit to rescue from the torture of other more learned and curious Expositors that it might be able to give its free suffrage for the Confirmation of a Point so usefull as this we have in hand For it is plain that if Christ preached to the dead they
were not asleep at so concerning a Sermon 6. Again 2 Cor. 5. v. 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly intimates a going out of this Mortal Body not a change of it into an Immortal one therefore we may safely conclude that this courage and willingness of the Apostle to die implies an enjoyment of the presence of Christ after death before the general Resurrection Else why should he rather desire to die then to live but that he expects that Faith should be presently perfected by Sight as he insinuates in the foregoing verse But assuredly better is that enjoyment which is onely by Faith then to have no enjoyment at all as it must be if the Soul cannot operate out of this Body 7. A like Proof to this and further Confirmation of the Truth is that of Philipp 1.21 22 23 24. where the Apostle again professing his courage and forwardness to magnifie Christ in his body whether by life or by death uses the like Argument as before For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain But if I live in the flesh it will be worth my labour yet what I should chuse I wote not For I am in a strife betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you 8. The genuine sense of which Place is questionless this That while he lived his life was like Christ's upon Earth innocent but encumbred with much hardship and affliction bearing about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus but if he died he should then once for all seal to the Truth of his Martyrdome and not onely scape all future troubles which yet the love of Christ his Assistance and Hope of Reward did ever sustain him in but which was his great gain and advantage arrive to an higher fruition of him after whom he had so longing a desire But if to be with Christ were to sleep in his bosome and not so much as to be sensible he is there it were impossible the Apostles affections should be carried so strongly to that state or his judgement should determine it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so exceedingly much better especially his stay in the flesh being so necessary to the Philippians and the rest of the Church and what he suffered and might further suffer in his life no less a Testimony to the Truth then Death it self 9. Fourthly Those phrases of S. Peter 2 Pet. 1.13 Yea I think it meet so long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up and put you in remembrance Knowing that I must shortly put off this Tabernacle c. And so vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all likelyhood alludes to the same as if his Soul went out of the Body as out of a Tabernacle All these Phrases I say seem to me manifestly to indicate that there is no such necessary Union betwixt the Soul and the Body but she may act as freely out of it as in it as men are nothing the more dull sleepy or senseless by putting off their cloaths and going out of the house but rather more awakened active and sensible 10. Fifthly Hebr. 12. There God is called the Father of Spirits the Corrector and Chastiser of our Souls in contradistinction to our Flesh or Bodies and then vers 22. lifting us up quite above the consideration of our Corporeal condition he brings us to the Mystical mount Sion the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the Universal assembly and Church of the first-born which are inrolled in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect Now I demand what Perfection can be in the Spirits of these just men to be overwhelmed in a senseless Sleep or what a disproportionable and unsutable representation is it of this throng Theatre in Heaven made up of Saints and Angels that so great a part of them as the Souls of the Holy men deceased should be found drooping or quite drown'd in an unactive Lethargie Certainly as it is incongruous in it self so it is altogether inconsistent with the magnificency of the representation which this Author intends in this place 11. Sixthly Matth. 10.28 The life of the Soul separate from the Body is there plainly asserted by our Saviour Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell i. e. able if he will to destroy the life both of Body and Soul in Hell-fire according to the conceit of those whose opinions I have recited in my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 3. chap. 18. or else miserably to punish or afflict both Body and Soul in Hell the torments whereof are worse then Death it self For as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perire signifie to be excessively miserable so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perdere may very well signifie to make excessively miserable But now for the former part of the verse but are not able to kill the Soul it is evident that they were able if the Soul could not live separate from the Body For killing of the Body what is it but depriving it of life wherefore if the Soul by the death of the Body be also deprived of life it is manifest that she can be killed which is contrary to our Saviour's Assertion CHAP. X. 1. A pregnant Argument from the State of the Soul of Christ and of the Thief after death 2. Grotius his explication of Christ's promise to the Thief 3. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. How Christ with the Thief could be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise at once 5. That the Parables of Dives and Lazarus and of the unjust Steward implie That the Soul hath life and sense immediately after death 1. WE have yet one more notable Testimony against our Adversaries Our Saviour Christ's Soul and the Thief 's upon the Cross did subsist and live immediately upon the death of the Body as appears from Luke 23.42 43. And he said unto Iesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome And Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise As if he should thus answer Thou indeed beggest of me that I would be mindfull of thee when I come into my Kingdome but I will not deferre thee so long onely distrust not the unexpected riches of my goodness to thee For verily I say unto thee That this very day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And there is no evasion from this Interpretation the Syriack as Grotius noteth interpointing betwixt I say unto thee and Today and all the Greek copies as Beza affirmes joyning
reaching to every Individual thing or Person in the world It being as easie for God to see all things as to see any one thing his Perception being Infinite and therefore Undistractable and Indefatigable Now his Goodness and Power being no less immense it will necessarily follow That there is not any thing that befalls the meanest Creature in the whole Creation but that it was suitable to the Goodness of God either to cause it or permit it For though it may seem at the present harsh to that particular Being yet at the length it may prove for its greater Advantage at least it may be deemed good for the Universe as Marcus Aurelius solidly and judiciously ever and anon does suggest and I think he is but a shallow Philosopher that cannot maintain this Cause against all Atheistical surmises and cavills whatsoever CHAP. III. 1. His Third Assertion That there are Particular Spirits or Immaterial Substances and of their Kinds 2. The Proof of their Existence and especially of theirs which in a more large sense be called Souls 3. The Difference betwixt the Souls or Spirits of Men and Angels and how that Pagan Idolatry and the Ceremonies of Witches prove the Existence of Devils 4. And that the Existence of Devils proves the Existence of Good Angels 1. MY Third Assertion is That there are Particular Spirits or Immaterial Substances Which will easily flow from what is so firmly proved already That there is one Omnipotent Omniscient and infinitely-Benign Spirit which we call GOD who therefore acting according to his nature we cannot doubt but that he has created innumerable companies of Spirits to enjoy themselves and their Creatour Which are either purely Immaterial having no communion at all with Matter with the Greeks again divide into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into pure Intellects or Minds and simple Unities or else such as although according to their very Substance or Essence they be Immaterial yet have a propertie of being vitally united with and also affected by the Matter To these Spirits for want of a better term I must take the boldness to abuse a known word to a greater latitude of sense and give the name of Souls to them all because they do vitally actuate the Matter be it Aethereal Aereal or Terrestrial Whether there be not also a middle sort betwixt these Souls and pure Intellects a man may well doubt which differ from Intellect in having an immediate power of moving the Matter and from Souls in not being vitally joined therewith but acting merely as Assistent Formes such as the Aristoteleans phansie their Intelligencies to be 2. For the Existence of the Three first Orders we have intimated already a considerable Argument which reaches all the Orders of Spirits indifferently The last Order falls not only under the knowledge of more abstracted Reason but also under Experience it self For that there is a Spirit in the Body of Man is evident to us because we find such Operations in us as are incompetible to Matter if we more closely and considerately examine them This Spirit that thus acts in us is called a Soul But that there is some such analogical Principle in the Aereal or Aethereal Genii the actions and conditions of some of them do confirm For if their Nature were not such as we have described that is if they did not inhabit and vitally actuate corporeal Vehicles how could they ever sin or fall For it is out of the conjunction of these two Principles Spirit and Vehicle that there ever could be brought in any inward Temptation Distraction or Confusion in any of the Orders of the Genii or Angels But Pure and Simple Abstract Beings seem utterly Impassible and therefore Impeccable Wherefore it is very highly probable That all fallen Angels which we ordinarily call Devils are of the Fourth Order of Spirits which we have described 3. Which Spirits of the Genii fallen or not fallen notoriously differ from these Spirits of men in that they are not capable of informing an Humane or Terrestrial Body and therefore bear themselves above them as a Superior Being and out of their pride and scorn have ever since their fall either by fraud or force universally entangled poor contemptible Mankinde in sundry performances of Idolatrous worship unto them which they could not have done if men were not lapsed as well as they Wherefore the Pagans Superstitions and the History of Witches will make good that there are Devils and that they are of that nature we speak of 4. And I think this being evinced no man will question but that there are also Good Angels to conflict with and moderate the Bad. For God will not let the great Automaton of the Universe be so imperfect as to be forced to step out perpetually himself to do that which some Noble part of his Creation might perform nor set those things one against another that are quite of another kinde Besides those Philosophers that have wrote of these things with most judgment do not easily conclude That there are any other created Intellectual Beings but such as are capable of being vitally united with some Vehicle or other Which if it were true is nothing prejudicial to us the admission of the Three First Orders being little or nothing serviceable to our design And lastly it is improbable but that the Fall of the Angels being from a Free principle as some fell so others stood and that there has ever been since their fall both Good and Bad Angels in the world in that sense as I have explained the Nature of the Angels or Genii whether Good or Bad. CHAP. IV. 1. His Fourth Assertion That the Fall of the Angels was their giving up themselves to the Animal life and forsaking the Divine 2. The Fifth That this fall of theirs changed their purest Vehicles into more gross and feculent 3. The Sixth That the change of their Vehicles was no extinction of life 4. The Seventh That the Souls of Men are immortal and act and live after death The inducements to which belief are the Activity of fallen Angels 5. The Homogeneity of the inmost Organ of Perception 6. The scope and meaning of External Organs of Sense in this Earthly Body 7. The Soul's power of Organizing her Vehicle 8. And lastly The accuracy of Divine Providence 1. WE add Fourthly That these Angels before their Fall had a twofold Principle of Life in them Divine and Animal and that their Fall consisted in this In leaving their obedience to the DIVINE LIFE and wholy betaking themselves to the ANIMAL LIFE without rule or measure 2. Fifthly That this Rebellion had an effect upon their Vehicles and changed their pure Aethereal Bodies into more Feculent and Terrestrial understanding Terrestrial in as large a sense as Cartesius does which will take in the whole Atmosphere They have forfeited therefore these more resplendent mansions for this obscure and caliginous Air they wander in and have now in
The three Branches from this Root Humility Charity and Purity and why they are called Divine 3. A Description of Humility 4. A Description of Charity and how Civil Justice or Moral Honesty is eminently contained therein 5. A Description of Purity and how it eminently contains in it what ever Moral Temperance or Fortitude pretend to 6. A Description of the truest Fortitude 7. And how transcendent an Example thereof our Saviour was 8. A further representation of the stupendious Fortitude of our Saviour 9. That Moral Prudence also is necessarily comprized in the Divine life 10. That the Divine life is the truest Key to the Mystery of Christianity but the excellency thereof unconceivable to those that do not partake of it 1. AND now I have advanced the Animal life so high by adding this Middle Nature to it that you may perhaps marvail upon what I shall pitch that may seem more precious and desirable unless it be some wonder-working Faith whereby a man might cast out Devils and command mountains to remove and be carried into the midst of the Sea But it is so far from proving any such like priviledge that the Tumour of the natural Spirit of man would please it self in that I am afraid when I shall describe it he will have no relish at all of it scarce understand what I mean and if he do yet he will look upon it as a dry insipid Notion without any fruit or pleasure therein But however I will declare it to him as well as I can and that nothing may be wanting I shall First give a short glance at the Root of this Divine life also which is an Obediential Faith and Affiance in the true God the Maker and Original of all things From this Faith Apostate Angels and lapsed Mankind are fallen but the Soul of the Messias ever stood upright wading through the deepest Temptations that humane Nature could be encumbred with 2. But this Holy and Divine life to such as have an eye to see will be most perceptible in the Branches thereof though to the Natural man they will look very witheredly and contemptibly These Branches are Three whose names though trivial and vulgar yet if rightly understood they bear such a sense with them that nothing more weighty can be pronounced by the tongue of men or Seraphims and in brief they are these Charity Humility and Purity which where-ever they are found are the sure and infallible marks or signes of either an unfallen Angel or a Regenerate Soul These we call Divine Vertues not so much because they imitate in some things the Holy Attributes of the Eternal Deity but because they are such as are proper to a Creature to whom God communicates his own nature so far forth as it is capable of receiving it whether that Creature be Man or Angel and so becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For such a Creature as this and Christ was such a Creature in the highest manner conceivable has conspicuously in it these three Divine Vertues namely Humility Charity and Purity 3. By Humility I understand such a Spirit or gracious property in the Soul of man or any Intellectual Creature as that hereby he does sensibly and affectionately attribute all that he has or is or can do to God the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift This is the highest piece of Holiness and the truest and most acceptable sacrifice we can offer to God thus lively and freely to acknowledge that all we have is from him From whence we do not arrogate any thing to our selves nor contemptuously lord it over others In this Grace is comprehended an ingenuous Gratitude which is the freest and most Noble kind of Iustice that is A full renouncing of all Self-dependency a firm and profound Submission to the Will of God in all things and a Disgust or at least a Deadness to the glory of the World and the applause of men 4. By Charity I understand an Intellectual Love by which we are enamoured of the Divine Perfections such as his Goodness Equity Benignity his Wisdome also his Iustice and his Power as they are graciously actuated and modified by the forenamed Attributes And I say that to be truly transformed into these Divine Perfections so far forth as they are communicable to Humane nature and out of the real sense of them in our selves to love and admire God in whom they infinitely and unmeasurably reside is the truest and highest kind of Adoration and the most grateful Praising and Glorifying God that the Soul of man can exhibit to her Maker But in being thus transformed into this Divine image of Intellectual Love our Mindes are not onely raised in holy Devotions towards God but descend also in very full and free streams of dearest Affection to our fellow-Creatures rejoycing in their good as if it were our own and compassionating their misery as if it were our selves did suffer and according to our best judgement and power ever endeavoring to promote the one and to remove the other And this most eminently conteins in it whatever good is driven at by Civil Iustice or Moral Honesty For how should we injure those for whose real welfare we could be content to die 5. By Purity I understand a due moderation and rule over all the Joyes and Pleasures of the Flesh bearing so strict an hand and having so watchful an eye over their subtil enticements allurements and so firme and loyal affection to that Idea of Celestial Beauty set up in our Mindes that neither the Pains of the Body nor the Pleasures of the Animal life shall ever work us below our Spiritual Happiness and all the competible enjoyments of that life that is truly Divine And in this conspicuously is contain'd whatever either Moral Temperance or Fortitude can pretend to For ordinarily he is held Temperate enough that can but save his brains from gross sottishness and his Body from diseases but this Purity respects the Divine life it self and requires such a Moderation in all the affairs of the Flesh that our Bodies may still remain unpolluted Temples and meet Habitations for the Spirit of God to dwell in and act in whether by way of Illumination or Sanctification and Animation to interiour duties of Holiness And as for Fortitude it is plain that this Purity of the Soul having mortified and tamed the exorbitant lusts and pleasures of the Body Death will seem less formidable by far and this mortal Life of lesser value 6. But the greatest Fortitude of all is when Love proves stronger then Death it self even in the deepest and most bitter sense of it and not so much the weakness and insensibleness of the Body nor yet the full carreer or furious heat and hurry of the naturall Spirits makes Pain and Death more tolerable but the pure courage of the Soul her self animated onely by an unrelinquishable
a Specimen of a wonderfull power residing in him in his Transfiguration on the Mount and that he carried that about him then that was able to swallow up mortality into life though it was usually restreined as a light in a dark lanthorn His Divinity therefore with his inward exalted Humanity I mean his Soul took hold again of His Body and did vitally irradiate it so that he was as naturally united with it as any Angel is with his own Vehicle or any Soul of man or any other Animal with their Bodies Nor was it any greater wonder that Christ should rarifie his Body into a disappearing Tenuity then that Angels and Spirits condensate their Vehicles into the visibility and palpability of a Terrestrial Body the same Numerical Matter still remaining in both CHAP. III. 1. The Ascension of Christ and what a sure pledge it is of the Soul's activity in a thinner Vehicle 2. That the Soul's activity in this Earthly Body is no just measure of what she can doe out of it 3. That the Life of the Soul here is as a Dream in comparison of that life she is awakened unto in her Celestial Vehicle 4. The activity of the separate Soul upon the Vehicle argued from her moving of the Spirits in the Body and that no advantage accrews therefrom to the wicked after death 1. THere is no reasonable allegation therefore against the Resurrection of Christ And as Usefull and Intelligible a Mystery is his Ascension For we are not less assured by his ascending into Heaven of the life and activity of the Soul out of an organical terrestrial Body then by his Resurrection of her Immortality For the body of Christ in his Ascension though it left the earth in all likelihood organiz'd and terrestrially modified yet passing through the subtil Air and purer Aether it cannot be conceived but that it assimilated it self to the Regions through which it passed and became at last perfectly Celestial and Aethereal whatsoever was Earthly or Feculent being absorp't or swallowed up into pure Light and Glory 2. Nor can it seem harsh to any that has well considered these things that the Soul freed from this Terrestrial dungeon should have so great power and activity over a thinner Vehicle the subtiltie thereof in all likelihood contributing much to this activity and vigour Of which though she have but a small spark at first yet the power of the Minde being kindled therewith may as she pleases convert her whole Vehicle into an Aethereal flame For we are no more to measure what she can doe being rid of the fatall Entanglements of this Earthly prison by what she does in it then we can of the prowess and activity of some Captive Champion when he is set free by what he does in fetters and hard bondage or of her own agility reason and perspicacitie when she is awake by her stupidity and inconsistency of thoughts while she is asleep 3. For the whole life of man upon Earth day and night is but a Slumber and a Dream in comparison of that awaking of the Soul that happens in the recovery of her Aethereal or Celestial body Which though it be unless it please her occasionally to mould it into any organiz'd shape one Simple and Uniform Light which we may call an Aethereal star as Ficinus calls those of less purity stellas aereas yet all the more noble functions of life are better performed in this Heavenly Body then in the Earthly such as Intellection Volition Imagination Seeing Hearing and the like The same may be said of the Passions of the Mind they being more pure more pleasing and more delicate then can possibly happen or at least for any time continue with us in this life 4. What I have affirmed of this Aethereal Body this Uniform and Homogeneal Orbe of Light cannot seem rashly spoken to them that understand the immediate Organ of Sense in those Bodies we are now united with Which I have already intimated to be either the Animal Spirits or the Conarion as unlikely a seat of Sense as the Air or Aether and either of these as unlikely to be disobedient to the power of the Soul as the Animal Spirits now are in the state of conjunction And therefore it being undeniable but that the Soul does move them some way in the Body I see no difficulty but in her releasement from the Body she may be able to act upon her Vehicle of like Tenuity with them so as to mould and transfigure it even as she pleases that natural charm that lull'd her Active powers asleep while she was in the Body loosing its force now she is out of it Which notwithstanding will prove no advantage to the wicked they being thereby awakened into a more eagre and sharp torment and more restless Hell CHAP. IV. 1. Christ's Session at the Right hand of God interpreted either figuratively or properly 2. That the proper sense implies no humane shape in the Deity 3. That though God be Infinite and every where yet there may be a Special presence of him in Heaven 4. And that Christ may be conceived to sit at the Right hand of that Presence or Divine Shechina 1. TO the Ascension of Christ we are to add his Session at the Right hand of God his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Intercession with God for his Church And for the First there is no difficultie therein whether we understand the phrase Figuratively as Calvin seems to doe For then by his Sitting at the Right hand of God nothing else is signified but that he is next to God in the administration of his Kingdome that he is as his Right hand to sway his Scepter over men and Angels to bruise the wicked as with a rod of Iron and to receive the righteous into favour or whether we understand it Properly as some others would have it to be understood For there is no inconvenience to acknowledge the Glorified body of Christ to be in humane shape and that this organized light will sit as steadily on an Aethereal throne as a Body of flesh and bones on a throne of Wood or Ivory 2. Nor does that expression of the Right hand of God implie any absurdity in it as if God himself were an Essence also in Humane shape and that he had a Left hand as well as a Right and the rest of the parts of the Body of a man For from the words of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man may as well prove that he has many Right hands as any at all which shews plainly that the Anthropomorphites have no ground for their fond conceit from such passages of Scripture as these 3. But yet though God be Infinite and consequently every where at once nothing hinders but that there may be some special presence of him in one place more then another whither if a man had access he may be truly said to converse with God face to face We will
an Aereal Body in which if Stories be true they have sometimes appeared after their decease And that they may act think and understand in these Aiery vehicles as well as other Spirits doe is not at all incredible nor improbable the Faculties of an humane Soul being not inferiour to the Faculties of some Orders of Spirits whose Understandings are not so clear but that they are divided in their judgments some being of one Sect of Philosophers some of another as those that appeared to Cardan's father professed themselves Avenroists 2. But secondly if it were granted that the Souls of the deceased were stript of all Corporeity and yet could act we may nothwithstanding very well conceive that that which once had so intimate union with the grossest of Bodies has certainly a very strong propension natural complacency or essential aptitude alwaies to join with some Body or other Which power if we may not infallibly affirm to be so catching that the Soul is never disappointed of some kinde of Vehicle yet we may safely pronounce that when that natural capacity is satisfied there accrues a greater accomplishment and more vigorous enjoiment to the Soul her Operations thereby being made more sensible and vivid And therefore that great Reward of an Heavenly Aethereal or Immortal body which shall be given at the last day is of very high concernment for the compleating of the happiness of the Souls of the faithfull whether we suppose them in the mean time to live without Bodies or to be alive only in Aiery vehicles the latter whereof if examined to the bottome will appear the most unexceptionable opinion and least liable to the Cavils of Gainsaiers But whether of them be most true I leave to the grave and wise to determine 3. This Rub being thus removed out of the way we now proceed to the special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former of which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection to Condemnation the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection to life the Resurrection of the just and simply the Resurrection as it is 1 Cor. 15. and elsewhere Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they belong to the wicked have no further sense of Revivification then in that general way we have explained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying that they were raised and made to appear at this day of general Summons merely to receive the sentence of Eternal Death Goe ye accursed into everlasting fire c. But now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is appropriated to the Resurrection of the just and is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies in it a further and more peculiar Revivification or Re-enlivening viz. into that life which was lost by the first Fall that Paradisiacal life that Aethereal and Heavenly life which is unrecoverable unless we recover those Heavenly glorified bodies which are promised to us by Christ at his coming 4. For this muddy Earth and vaporous polluted Air which is the very Region of Death wherein all the Pleasures Joyes and Triumphs of this Present Life are but like the grinning laughter of Ghosts or the dance of dead men these foul Elements I say can afford no such commodious habitation for the Soul as to arrive any thing near to the height of that Happiness which she shall be possessed of when Christ shall be pleased to change these our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious bodie and so to recover us into the enjoiment of that Heavenly Life which we unhappily forfeited by our first Fall For which purpose he came into the world as himself professes John 6. v. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever sees me and believes in me should have everlasting life and that I should raise him up at the last day 5. And so certainly it will be at his coming to Judgment that they that then see him and firmly believe on him ardently loved him and vehemently desired his Appearing shall find such a warming change in themselves partly by the glorious approach of his Person and Lustre of his numerous Retinue partly by the wonderfull secret workings of the Divine Presence in their very Bodies and Souls that at last there will be kindled such an irresistible Faith so rapturous a Joy and transportant Love that breaking out upon the Body be it what it will it will turn all into a pure Aethereal flame and so Elias-like in those Celestial chariots shall they ascend up to Christ and meet him in the Air and join with his Armie whereever it moves as becoming then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Vehicles being transformed by the power and presence of Christ and the working of his Divinity into a pure Paradisiacal and Angelical nature 6. And thus shall he make his word good of raising us up at the last day in that he does re-enliven us and restore us to that Life and Joy which we had fallen from re-enthrone us into that Glory we had defaced in our selves and was lost in these dark Bodies of ours and raise us up to that pristine state of Happiness and that superiour Paradise which we could not re-enter into or be re-estated in but by becoming wholly Aethereal or Celestial CHAP. VI. 1. That he has freed the Mysterie of the Resurrection from all Exceptions of either Atheists or Enthusiasts 2. That the Soul is not uncapable of the Happiness of an Heavenly Body 3. And that it is the highest and most sutable Reward that can be conferr'd upon her 4. That this Reward is not above the power of Christ to confer proved by what he did upon Earth 5. That all Iudgment is given to him by the Father 6. Further arguings to the same purpose 1. AND now I think we have so disentangled the Mystery of the Resurrection from all the Prejudices and conceived Difficulties that it was involved in that I may challenge all the World the Atheist Infidel and new-fangled Enthusiast if they can frame any solid Exception against it which they can manage by Reason and is not a mere sullen dictate of their own dark and dull minds 2. For this precious Crown of Immortality which Christ shall then crown us withall is neither beyond his power to give nor our capacity to receive For the offers and fluskerings as I may so say of the Faculties of the Soul of man even in this state of Death and Imprisonment are so High so Noble and Divine as well in Speculation as Devotion especially when our Spirits are more then ordinarily pure and come nearer to an Aethereal kind of defecacy that they that have the experience thereof cannot distrust but that if she had the advantage of an Angelical Bodie her operations would prove little inferiour to theirs Which is a demonstration that she is as well capable of such Bodies as they As
also of the worth and value and of the fitness and accommodateness of so ample a Reward 3. For Philosophy herself can witness That according to the greater purity of our Spirits the Motions and Passions of our Minds are changed and become more holy and divine our Thoughts and Apprehensions more clear our Love to God more ardent and sincere our Benignity to men more free and general and all the Faculties of our Soul in a ready posture to comply with the best commands or suggestions of Reason or Religion Of what infinite importance therefore must it be to have such a Body as is not only perpetually thus compliable with the Best motions of the Soul but by virtue of its Heavenly purity does naturally encline the Mind to such Thoughts Motions and Affections as are most acceptable to God and most enravishing to her self Which consideration does evidently demonstrate that high Reason that is in our Religion in the Promise of a glorified Body as the greatest Reward of our earnest colluctations and obedient endeavours in this life For nothing but Divine Inspiration or some infallible Method of Philosophy could discover to the Mind of man so concerning a Point 4. But to doubt whether Christ can cloath us with such Bodies as those or enliven our whole man in whatsoever bodies we be found into that Immortality and Life which accrues to us by transforming our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious Bodie is either to forget or not to believe what mighty power he had when he was here upon earth how merely by his word he calmed the raging of the seas silenced the tempestuousness of the windes multiplied a few loaves and a few fishes so in the very eating of them that he fed many thousands therewith in the wilderness which was an eminent specimen of his power of transforming Matter into what modification he pleased besides his healing of the sick not only those that were present and believed on him but also the absent to which you may add the raising of the dead which comes nearer to our purpose as also the Resurrection of those that rose with him to signifie his enlivening power who himself so miraculously rose from the Grave 5. By which wonderfull works he did plainly demonstrate That what he professed of himself was true That as the Father has life in himself so he has also given the Son to have life in himself that is the power of vivification or enlivening of others as you may see by the context John 5. v. 26. And not only so but he has given him also the power of punishing as well as rewarding as it follows in the next verse And he hath given him authority to execute judgement because he is the Son of man viz. That Son of man that upon his sufferings and after his being risen from the dead should have all power given to him in Heaven and in Earth Which we may easily believe whenas he had so vast a power in the lowest ebbe of his Humiliation when he went up and down afflicted despised and neglected being attended only by a few contemptible fisher-men and others of like inferiour condition and yet then he opened the eyes of them that were born blind and at a distance healed the sick and being unaccompanied with any visible pomp or power with one word of his mouth drove away a Legion of Devils at once What shall he not then be able to doe when he shall return in the highest Glory and Majesty that the visible Divinity can appear in when the Heavens shall be filled with the brightness of his Camp and all the Nations of the World shall be astonished at the dreadfull splendour of his coming 6. Shall not he then who in his dejectment could raise to life not only a faithless but senseless corps enliven those that at his glorious Appearance are so filled with Faith Love Joy Desire and Admiration that their empassioned Souls are ready to leave their Bodies if it were possible to come and doe their homage to their long-expected Saviour and Redeemer Shall not that Divine and Omnipotent Power then that worketh round about him so cooperate with those kindled Affections as to change their very Bodies into an ability of naturally ascending up to him and joining with him Or is it hard for him to convert Flesh or Air into a pure Aethereal Fire to awake such a Facultie in the Soul as shall kindly and vitally inactuate it who turned Air into Flesh and prepared the dead carcase of Lazarus so fittingly for reunion with the Soul that he raised him out of the Grave on the fourth day Wherefore this Resurrection Life and Immortality we speak of being neither impossible for Christ to give nor our nature uncapable to receive it remains that we shall enjoy it because Christ both himself and by his Apostles has so plainly and expresly promised it CHAP. VII 1. Caecilius his scoffs against the Resurrection and Conflagration of the World That against the Resurrection answered already 2. In what sense the soberer Christians understood the Conflagration of the World 3. That the Conflagration in their sense is possible argued from the Combustibleness of the parts of the Earth 4. As also from actual Fire found in several Mountains as Aetna Helga and Hecla 5. Several instances of that sort out of Plinie 6. Instances of Vulcanoes out of Acosta 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla 8. Vulcanoes without smoak having a quick fire at the bottome 9. Vulcanoes that have cast fire and smoak some thousand of years together 10. Hot Fountains Springs running with Pitch and Rosin certain Thermae catching fire at a distance 1. THe Third thing we propounded comprized in Christ's Return to Judgment is the Conflagration of the world a Point as incredible to most of the Heathen as the Resurrection of the dead and the comparing of them both together made it the more ridiculously-incredible to them as you may see by that Jear that Caecilius gives the Christians in Minucius Felix Quid quod toti Orbi ipsi Mundo cum sideribus suis minantur incendium ruinam moliuntur quasi aut Naturae divinis legibus constitutus aeternus ordo turbetur aut rupto omnium elementorum foedere coelesti compage divisâ moles ista quâ continemur cingimur subruatur Nec hâc furiosâ opinione contenti aniles fabulas astruunt annectunt Renasci se ferunt post Mortem Cineres Favillas Nescio quâ fiduciâ mendaciis suis invicem credunt Putes eos jam revixisse Anceps malum gemina dementia Coelo astris quae sic relinquimus ut invenimus interitum denunciare sibi mortuis extinctis qui sicut nascimur interimus aeternitatem repromittere To which you may add how they menace burning and meditate ruine to the whole Earth and to the Heaven it self with the Stars thereof as if the Eternal Order constituted by the divine
of Second causes partly Natural partly free Agents amongst whom the highly-exalted and supereminently-divine Soul of Iesus is the chief we discover a power able to effect more then we have declared concerning the Conflagration of the Earth And when this will suffice how over-evidently are we assured of the feisableness of this Atchievement from what S. Peter has suggested concerning the absolute power of the Word of God by whom all things are and who is a perpetual Spectatour of his Works For the spirit of the Lord filleth the world as the Wise man speaks and that which containeth all things has knowledge of the voice And it is as true that all things lye open to his sight and that the Earth is alwayes under the present eye of God Wherefore he that perpetually looks on is it hard to conceive that at last at some solemn period of time he may in a special manner step out into action if need so require and he be invoked thereunto 7. Wherefore the Faithful being gathered from all the corners of the Earth and carried up to Christ their Saviour and joyning with his Legions of Light there being then left in the Earth and in the inferiour Parts of the Aire none but obdurate Adherents to the dark Kingdome which shall now be made more externally dark then ever black pitchy clouds covering the whole face of the Sky and making Night fall upon the Inhabitants of the World even at mid-day in the midst of this sad silent and louring aspect of the Heavens He that in the flesh was heard and answered by Thunder when he prayed saying Father glorifie thy name shall by the same interest in the Eternall God cause such an universal Thunder and Lightning that it shall rattle over all the quarters of the Earth rain down burning Comets and falling Starres and discharge such claps of unextinguishable fire that it will do sure execution whereever it falls so that the ground being excessively heated those subterraneous Mines of combustible Matter will also take fire which inflaming the inward exhalations of the Earth will cause a terrible murmur under ground so that the Earth will seem to thunder against the tearing and ratling of the Heavens and all will be filled with sad remugient Echoes Earthquakes and Eruptions of fire there will be every where and whole Cities and Countries swallowed down by the vast gapings and wide divulsions of the ground Nor shall the Sea be able to save the Earth from this universal Conflagration no more then the Fire could preserve her from that overspreading Deluge for this fiery Vengeance shall be so thirsty that it shall drink deep of the very Sea nor shall the water quench her devouring appetite but excite it For such is the nature of some Fires as history every where testifieth 8. Wherefore the great channel of the Sea shall be left dry and all Rivers shall be turned into smoak and vapour so that the whole Earth shall be inveloped in one entire cloud of an unspeakable thickness which shall cause more then an Aegyptian darkness clammy and palpable to be felt which added to this choaking heat and stench will compleat this External Hell a place of Torment appointed not onely for the prophane Atheist and Hypocrite but also for the Devil and his Angels where their pain will be proportionated according to the untamedness of their Spirits and unevenness of their perverse Consciences CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithful 1. I Hope by this time we have prevailed so far as to perswade the Possibility of the Conflagration of the World in that sense we have explained it And truly I know nothing that should keep a man from assenting to it as possible but that dull Fallacie whereby we conclude That nothing can be done but what we have seen done or phansie we could doe our selves And this is the reason that makes the Atheist misbelieve Creation because he himself can make nothing but out of prejacent Matter and a settled course of things causes so deep an impression in our Senses that we can hardly phansie they will ever alter Which makes some men never think of Death especially if they have never been sick a flattering impossibility by reason of so long continuance of life stealing into their hopes as if they should never die And therefore that great Monarch was fain to have one to rub up his memory every day with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember that thou art mortal Well may we phansie then such unalterable Laws of Nature as shall secure the Earth from such a destruction as we speak of when we are led unawares into so favourable a conceit of our own life or fortune after we have for a competent time been well settled in either as not at all to think of the mutability of our condition Wherefore I hope any one that is aware of this ordinary Fallacie will easily recover himself into so much use of his Reason as not to conclude the Conflagration of the Earth impossible because he knows not how to burn it himself or that it will alwaies continue unburnt because it has been unburnt thus long 2. But that which I drive at is to shew that the belief of a Christian is not only of things possible but reasonable which I have in some sort made good already by discovering the manifold treasures of the fiery and combustible principles in Heaven and Earth to which I add further First That Providence ordering all particular corporeal things by number weight and measure it is reasonable that the continuance of this present stage of things be numbred that is have its number of years set so that there be a full pause or Period a last Exiit and Plaudite to this Tragick Comedie 3. Secondly Whatever particular corporeal structure has a Beginning unless it be a Body inacted with a glorified Spirit will also have an End naturally of it self and that which will have an End is subject to decaying And for my own part I question not but that the Earth is of such a nature and that it waxes old by degrees will grow more more dry steril in succession of Ages whereby it
some time or other should send into the world such a Prince and Redeemer of his People out of the Captivity of the Devil as we have described who having declared the Promises of Eternal life to his faithful Followers and so raised himself a party against the Powers of the Dark Kingdome should exercise the Creation with this noble and high-concerning Conflict and after a due time of trial of the Faith Resolution Constancy Love and Obedience of his Adherents return visibly again at last according to promise giving Victory Peace and a Blessed Immortality to his own and pouring down Wrath and Vengeance and utter Destruction upon his implacable and contemptuous Enemies This Providential Contrivance I say looking upon it in the Idea is so Congruous and Rational that there is no wise and vertuous man but will easily assent that it will some time or other be set afoot in the World But I shall now endeavour to make good That it is already on foot and that this Period of Providence is begun in the Appearance of Iesus Christ the Son of God and of the blessed Virgin that is That our Christian Religion as it relates to the Person of Christ according as I have propounded it and displaied it in the main Branches thereof is not a mere Idea but a real and actual Truth Which I think will be sufficiently demonstrated if I prove That the expected Messias is come and That the Writings of the New Testament are true For nothing then can defeat our design unlesse a man will be so wild as to pervert the Literal sense of those Writings and turn every thing miraculous there into an Allegory CHAP. XII 1. That the chief Authour of this Mystical Madness that nulls the true and literal sense of Scripture is H. Nicolas whose Doctrine therefore and Person is more exactly to be enquired into 2. His bitter Reviling and high Scorn and Contempt of all Ministers of the Gospel of Christ that teach according to the Letter with the ill Consequences thereof 3. The Reason of his Vilification of them and his Injunction to his Followers not to consult with any Teachers but the Elders of his Family no not with the Dictates of their own Consciences but wholy to give themselves up to the leading of those Elders The irrecoverable Apostasie of simple Souls from their Saviour by this wicked Stratagem 4. His high Magnifications of himself and his Service of the Love before the Dispensation of Moses John the Baptist or Christ himself 5. That his Service of the Love is a Third Dispensation namely of the Spirit and that which surpasses that of Christ with other Encomiums of his doctrine as That in it is the sounding of the last Trump the Descent of the new Jerusalem from Heaven the Resurrection of the dead the glorious coming of Christ to Iudgment and the everlasting Condemnation of the wicked in Hell-Fire 6. That H. Nicolas for his time and after him the Eldest of the Family of the Love in succession are Christ himself descended from Heaven to judge the World as also the true High Priest for ever in the most Holy 1. THere being therefore this only obstacle to our prosperous procedure in this Affair and the spreading of this mystical Madness being most of all from the esteem and Authority of that highly-adored Enthusiast H. Nicolas of Amsterdam I find my self necessitated to make here some stop to discover his enormous doctrines and the groundlesness of them as well to undeceive his seduced Admirers as to justifie my own publick Dislike of him that I may not seem to have been in the least measure either rash or injurious And that we may the better proceed therein I shall first present him to you in all his ruffe and glory adorned with the testimonies of his own style such as he would appear to the World to be and then examine if there be any ground of believing him to be such and lastly offer reasons whereby I shall clearly demonstrate that he is not what he pretends to be 2. And that his Lustre may seem as big as he desires you shall first hear what pittifull things all are that are not found of his Sect if you will believe his censure of them namely That there is no Knowledge of Christ nor of the Scripture but in his Family That without his God-service of the Love all the God-services Wisdome and Doctrine out of the Scripture let them be taught by those that are never so well learned therein is but witchery and blindness And that as many as misbelieve and oppose his Service of the Love are earthly and devilishly minded And that there is no Remission of sins out of his Communialty That it is assuredly all false and lies seducing and deceitfull what the ungodded or unilluminated men out of the Imagination or riches of their Knowledge and out of the Learnedness of the Scriptures bring forth institute preach and teach That all Teachers and Learners out of his Communialty are a false Christianity and the Devil's Synagogue or School yea a Nest of Devils and all wicked Spirits And of their Knowledge compendiously and at once he pronounces It is a false Being the Devil the Antichrist the wicked Spirit the Kingdome of Hell and the Majesty of the Devil No better then this is the most sober and carefull reasoning out of the Holy Scriptures or the simple apprehension of the History of Christ and all his Promises be they by never so sincere and devout Souls if they be not of his blessed Family of the Love who have the luck to be the only-illuminated in the World Of this you may read more fully in his first Exhortation Chap. 15. and 16. Which Ugly and uncharitable Character he gives of all Christians besides his own Family who yet are indeed as you shall hear anon no Christians at all must needs imbitter the Spirits of his professed Followers and envenome them beyond all measure against the Ministry of the Gospel according to the Letter thereof Which yet clearly enough sets out to us the History of Christ his Promises and Precepts neither is there any Mystical meaning that is true that is not literally set down in the Text. So that all their boast is but of Allusions and Phrases nor can they produce any thing that is not already plainly before our eyes in the Letter it self And therefore if they have any choice Secret to themselves it is the Mystery of Infidelity and Unbelief a bold and groundless Presumption that the History is not true 3. Which Presumption makes them so peremptorily conclude all the Scripture-learned under Ignorance none of them hither to having been so nasute as to smell out the least falsity in the oldness of the Letter And therefore that their Novices may not be entangled nor distracted through the simple Belief or plain Doctrine of ordinary Christians he exhorts them not to hearken to nor
the Love sect 3. and 7. See him also upon the Beatitudes sect 6. And it is no wonder we hear nothing of that Reconciliation made by the Cross of Christ for he does plainly aver sect 34. That the true being in the Love is that peace with God and man mentioned Ephes. 2.14 and the true Testament that standeth fast for ever And Exhortation chap. 12.44 Remission of sins is gained only by submitting to the House of the Love The same that David George boasted of his doctrine Therefore my beloved children change ye not nor turn away your selves from the House of Love For there is in the same the stool of grace to an everlasting remission of sins over all such as cleave thereon and to a peace and rest of the life to all such as humble them there-under By such slips and omissions as these those that are not very dull of perception may easily spel out his meaning Which yet is more clear by other places of his Evangely chap. 13. Where he setleth the Everlasting Priesthood not upon Christ's person but makes this Kingly Priest no person at all but a thing a state or condition of him and his followers here upon earth And therefore he calls there this mystical Christ The Lords Sabbath The seventh day in the Paradise of God The perfection c. And chap. 22. he makes the entrance of Christ into heaven and his visible ascending up thither and sitting at the right hand of God and sending down the holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost which was a real effect of his eternal Priesthood and Intercession with God for his Church nothing but the appearing of him according to the Spirit out of the Heavenly Being in their Minds or Souls upon which he sent down his Spiritual or Heavenly Powers Wherefore this Mystical Christ is the only high Priest that he acknowledgeth and will allow him no otherwise then in this mystical and spiritual sense to be an everlasting and true Christ of God See the place of which you will assure your self I have given the right sense if you compare it with chap. 26. sect 10 11 12. where he more plainly affirms That it is the upright being of the Love Christ after the Spirit which he calls the true light which is that high Priest that abideth for ever at the right hand of God in the Heavenly Being Which phrase Heavenly Being alwaies signifies morally or mystically with him and means something within us And yet he has the impudence to alledge Acts 1. v. 11. where Christ is said to ascend into Heaven literally and naturally so called his disciples gazing upon him as he went up Thus you see how industriously nay how madly and rashly he shuffles out the Humane person of Christ from his Priestly Office every where And as he will have the Heaven or most Holy within us so will he have his Sacrifice and Passion within us too Introduct chap. 8.38 Where doe any now saith he keep the Supper of Christ where they break distribute and eat the bread which is the true Body of Christ to a remembrance of Christ that he hath suffered in us for the sins cause the death of the Cross and so his death is published till he come in his glory Where it is plain that the Crucifixion of Christ is a mystery in us and it is insinuated a duty too For the Body and the Flesh of Christ is Christ according to the History Which Christ according to the Flesh is to be slain in us if we celebrate the Passeover aright and thus we must publish his death till he come in glory that is in the Spirit 4. And truely no other is his glorious coming to judgment with this Sect then this Mystical and Spiritual coming which was the second part I intended to pursue which I question not but I shall make as clear as noon-day Of this there are so many Testimonies and so pregnant that the only fear is of being too copious in the proof of this matter Revel Dei cap. 7. There his illuminate Elders together with his Family of Love are the Heavens in which Christ the Son of God comes gloriously and triumphantly to judgment to reign with God and his righteousness everlasting upon earth Which plainly excludes the ending of the World and that coming of Christ that all Christians expect And chap. 15. sect 6. he affirms that in this Eighth day which is the day of the Spirit of Love all the dead that are deceased in the Lord Iesus Christ do rise from the death and all Generations of Heaven and Earth do become judged in the judgement of God with equity Again in his Introduct Chap. 1. he saith That now the true glorious God who is the Resurrection and the Life revealeth his Saints out of his bosome where since the time they fel asleep they have rested untill this day of the Love because they should now in these last times in the resurrection of the righteous be manifested with Christ in glory to a righteous judgement of God on the earth And chap. 12. he there also affirms That in this day of the Love there appear and come to us livingly and gloriously all God's Saints which in times past died and fell asleep in God And chap. 22. there he also tells us how that in sure and firm hope of everlasting life the upright believers have rested in the Lord Iesus Christ till the appearing of his coming which is now in this day of the Love revealed out of the heavenly Being with which Iesus Christ the former Believers of Christ who were fallen asleep rested or died in him are now also manifested in glory being raised from the dead to the intent that they should reign alive with him over all his enemies To which you may add what he has wrote chap. 16. in his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Make you to flight make you to flight yea get you now all out of the way ye enemies of the Lord and of his service of the Love and give the Lord with his holy ones the roome yet shall ye not escape the vengeance of God For he saith the Lord cometh to judge betwixt the Family of the Love and the rest of the world where-through the Earth is now moved the Heavens troubled the Elements melt with heat and the token of the coming of the Son of man appears in Heaven with which rumour or rushing noise of the power of God and his holy ones the last trumpet doth also presently give forth her sound through whose blast of her vehement sound and through the appearing of the coming of Christ the dead shall stand up and arise unto the judgement of God who having revenged the bloud of his holy ones that the sinners have spilt and shed upon the earth he puts this pure Family in peaceable Possession thereof that they may reign there-over or judge the same with righteousness from henceforth world without
all divine Ioy 8. Of Health and Safety 9. And of eternal Salvation 10. That God also hereby is deprived of his Glory and the Church frustrated of publick Peace and Happiness 1. THis sad reckoning may be comprized under these two general heads The Good of man and The Glory of God Those particulars in which the Good of man chiefly doth consist be these 1. True Wisedom and a sound Iudgement in things 2. Noble and profitable Actions 3. Honourable Repute 4. Peace and Tranquillity of Minde 5. Divine Ioy and Triumph of Spirit 6. Health and Safety here in this life 7. Eternal Happiness hereafter And now first that we are deceived and cheated of true Wisedom and a sound Mind by this fond supposal That we may be righteous though we be not righteous as Christ was righteous that is in doing of righteousness will sufficiently appear from this That Righteousness and Holiness is the only true way to Divine Wisdome and a sound judgement in things Which may be made good both by manifold testimonies of Scripture and from the nature of the thing it self If any one will doe the will of God he shall know of my doctrine saith Christ whether it be from God or whether I speak of my self John 7. And in the Psalms The fear of the Lord by which is understood Righteousness the eschewing evil and doing good as the Psalmist himself explains it is the beginning of wisdome a sound Iudgement have they that doe thereafter c. And elsewhere The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he is mindfull of his Covenant to make them know it as the Hebrew will be well rendred And Job 32. I said Daies should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdome But there is a spirit in a man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding But how this Inspiration and Spirit of Wisdome has for its abode an heart really righteous the Wisdome of Solomon will tell us insomuch that he that is contented to forgoe Righteousness must also of necessity fall short of Wisdome Wisdome cannot enter into a wicked heart saith he nor dwell in a body that is subject unto sin For the holy Spirit of discipline fleeth from deceit and withdraweth her self from thoughts that are without understanding and is rebuked when wickedness cometh in Wisdome therefore and Unrighteousness cannot abide under the same roof Our bodies cannot be both the Temples of the living God and of a deceitfull Idol And if it were needfull to add any thing Allegorical and Mysterious to these plain Testimonies of Scripture we might also urge that this precious truth That Wisdome rises out of Righteousness was also shadowed out in the fourth days Creation wherein the lights of Heaven were made For that mysterious Jew on the place records this observable priviledge of the number Four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Quaternarie Number is the first Quadrate pariter par or equally equal the measure of Iustice and Equity Wherefore the number here of the Day being a Symbol of Righteousness that which was created in that day viz. the Lights of Heaven may very well be the Symbols of divine Knowledge or Wisdome viz. the Sun of Righteousness as Christ is called intimating that the Divine Wisdome is conceived and brought forth or if you will created in Righteousness So that this Intellectual Sun does not arise and shine upon our Minds til this fourth day the day of Righteousness But then that in the Proverbs is made good That the path of the just is as the shining light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that goes on and shines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 til the firmitude or stability of the day and that 's at Noon which is the Solstice of the day where his altitude does not so sensibly vary So that the sense is That the path of the righteous is like the course of the Sun who still climbs up til he fully reach his Meridian But the way of the wicked is as darkness as it is in the following verse they know not at what they stumble 2. And thus it is plain from Testimonies of Scripture That divine Wisdome and a sound Mind is not to be attained unto but through Righteousness And that consequently he that forgoes real Righteousness must of necessity lose true Wisdome But beside this there are also innate arguments taken from the things themselves whereby the same Truth may be proved For it is apparent that Corruption of the Will like rust eats away the strength defaces the beautie and obscures the brightness of the Understanding and dulls the edge of the natural wit But to point out more at large some Reasons why the unrighteous must be also unwise The first is From the falseness of the wicked heart the second From the asymmetry or incongruity the vitious Mind has with divine Truth And for the former it is a manifest reason why God does not commit the treasures of Wisdome to the unrighteous For he will not put it into the custody of false men How carefull the divine Wisdome is in this point Siracides has very fitly described chap. 4. For first she will walk with a man by crooked waies and bring him unto fear and dread and torment him with her discipline until she have tried his soul and proved him with her judgements Then will she return the straight way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets and heap upon him the treasures of knowledge But why she will not commit this great and pretious treasure to polluted and unholy minds is as I have said because of their faithlesness they being so likely to abuse it that is they will either contemn it as a swine does a pearl preferring either the sensual pleasures or the riches or the honours of the world before it and so quenching the good grace of God by their base lusts and evil desires are cast off by God in a deserved scorn For the divine Wisdome is not so vile and cheap a thing as to intrude her self like an impudent woman into the familiarities of men but is rebuked and checked and goes her way at the entrance and appearance of her bold corrivals if they be entertained viz. The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and many such affronts will quite chase her away so that whereas she sought after us before she now sought after by us will be hard to be found or else if we do not seem to contemn her and slight her yet we may shew our selves faithless and treacherous in betraying her to other uses then God intended her As if so be we should thence endeavour to exalt our own name and please our selves in our own arrogancy setting our selves above others or use the quickness and sagacity of our Understandings to deceit or the patronizing of evil in our selves or others I say because the unrighteous man would be subject to
which condition is to be freely and naturally righteous and good that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Divine nature which when we have attained to we may be properly said naturally and without straining to do that which is good and righteous we discover here a very eminent Object of our Faith viz. this Divine power by the help whereof we are to be wrought up into this happy condition of a living inward Righteousnesse that is as near to us as our own Souls and is the life and spirit of our Soul as our Soul is of our Body And thus are we made just by Faith as I have elsewhere intimated viz. by Faith in the power of God whereby he is able to raise Jesus Christ from the dead in us or what is all one whereby he is able to make the Spiritual Isaac grow in our withered and barren wombs and to bring to passe in us that by his assisting Grace which would never have come to passe by the mere strength of Nature This I say is a very eminent and highly-considerable Object of our Christian Faith And the want of this Faith the Prophet may seem to complain of in a mystical sense when he saies Who has believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed that is Men are very slow to believe that the power of God in Christ is so efficacious as it is to cast down every strong hold of Satan and to kill and slay the body of Sin in us that the spirit of Righteousnesse may be revived and restored in us And thus much briefly of the First point wherein the Second Covenant differs from the First The Second point is this That the state of the Second Covenant is a state of Liberty as that under the First of Bondage 8. And this Liberty consists in these three things especially First In that we are freed from the tedious and voluminous luggage of Ceremonies nor are any longer superstitiously hoppled in the toiles and nets of superfluous Opinions which tend not at all of their own nature to the advancement of the Divine life and the Kingdome of Christ in the world And verily it cannot sink into my minde how Zeal about unnecessary knowledge can be any better then the boiling of the natural heat in the behalf of that which is alike dear nay more dear to Devils and Natural men then to the true Children of God in whom the curious desire of Speculative knowledge is very much extinguished through their ardent thirst after Divine life and sense which will most vividly possesse them upon a due measure of Regeneration or the Resurrection from the dead when we have risen with Christ as well as died with him In the mean time while we are passing through the painful Agony of Mortification all fine Opinions and Curiosities of Religion will lie scattered and neglected about us as toies and gew-gawes by a child that is deadly sick 9. Secondly the Second part of our Liberty consists in this that we are free from Sin They are the very words of the Apostle For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroied that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin And hence I think it is very plain that a man that has had his due progress under the Second Covenant I mean the Gospel of Christ is freed from the rebellion and tumult of the body of sin And that we may not shuffle off so general a notion and elude the force thereof I will particularize He is freed from Pride from Envy from Hatred from Wrath from Grief from Covetousness and from sensual Lust. And some of these are so incompetible with the nature of a Christian as Pride and Envy that they are like the rankest poison not in the least degree consistent with the condition we speak of And though something in reason may be said for Hatred yet I believe it will lie very crosly and unevenly in the heart of a good Christian and I see no need of it whenas Anger and Sorrow that is Pity will supply the place of it And we may observe our Saviour Christ surprized with Anger and melted in Grief and Pity but there is not the least intimation of Hatred in any passage of our Saviours life So that it is the safest and most warrantable to be angry at or pity wicked men not to hate them lest we become in some measure hateful our selves by putting on that so deformed vizard As for sensual Lust and all Voluptuousness it is so conspicuous an Object of mortification that he that does not hit the mark there and strike dead kills nothing at all For it is the most crass and gross enormity of them all and the most scandalous and the most importunate disturber of men that make towards God and the greatest extinguisher of true Faith and Sense in Divine things and so besmears the wings of the Soul as it were with bird-lime that she cannot move upward nor at all release her self from the impediments of the Body nor have any phansy nor conceit of what is Heavenly and Divine But now Pride and Voluptuousness being exterminated it is plain that Covetousness will be set packing for it is ordinarily onely a purveior for those two Vices And those that are the most sordidly covetous are well aware that Mony being able to do all things let men talk what they will they really are not nor can be despicable 10. The Third and last is his Freedome to Righteousness And that this is true is very plain from what has been said before For he being free from that load of unnecessary Ceremonies and from the intanglements of fruitless and superstitious Opinions and from the body of Sin what can now hinder that Divine principle of Regeneration from acting chearfully freely and comfortably For every mountain is cast down and every valley is exalted and all is made plain and even before him that with pleasure ease and joy he may walk in the wayes of that Everlasting Righteousness that Christ brings into the world For the Eternal seed of the Word that is engrafted in him or that living law of Righteousnesse planted in his heart does as naturally guide and actuate him as the Soul does move an unshackled Body and it is no more constraint or bondage in him to do what is truly good and holy then it is to the unregenerate to do that which is natural or vitious And thus have I plainly and truly set before you the Idea of a well-grown Christian that has made his due proficiency under the mighty advantages of the New Covenant the Gospel of Christ that we may know what to aspire to and breath after and that we may never be quiet till we be possessed
Libertinism as you may see more at large in that Chapter 5. Wherefore it appears out of what already has been said That there are Terms to be performed on out part in this New Covenant as well as there are Promises on God's part and that Christianity is no such loose remiss and inert Religion as some Deceivers would make it which we shall make still more plain from several other testimonies of Scripture Matth. 11. The Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Whence is plainly intimated that no lazy or careless endeavours will carry us on to the enjoiment of the Promises of the Covenant As elsewhere He that laies his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdome of God And Luke 13.24 Strive to enter in at the streight gate For I say unto you many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Because streight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that goe in thereat As it is in the parallel place of S. Matthew Which plain places of Scripture one would think should awake those filthy dreamers out of their mischievous conceits opinions whereby they would make us believe the Evangelical dispensation is so soft and delicate a thing that there is no laying of the hand to the plough no crouding or striving but that we shall be carried to heaven on that easie featherbed of unactive Faith or fanatick Libertinism Whenas the Evangelical Oracles tell us that we are to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that we are to run and to wrastle to fight and to resist even unto bloud 1 Cor. 9.24 Know ye not that they that run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize So run that ye may obtain And every one that strives for the victory is temperate in all things Now they doe it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I my self should become a cast-away And yet S. Paul was as chosen a vessel as the choicest of these pieces that befool themselves so with self-flattery that they think they have found an easier way to Salvation then Paul himself knew that think they shall get the victory and the crown by not fighting against their own corruptions but by beating the Air with knackish forms of gracious speeches and vain grandiloquence that tends to nothing but the masking of their own Hypocrisie and unfaithfulness in the Covenant and to the seduction and ruine of others 6. But S. Paul however they would abuse some passages in him to the favouring of their ill cause is an utter disclaimer of such false doctrine and does yet more expresly tell us That the promises of the Gospel are conditional This is a faithfull saying saith he to Timothy 2 Epist. chap. 2. If we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us If we deal unfaithfully in the Covenant yet he is faithful and cannot deny himself He will stand to his Covenant in all the intents and purposes thereof whether to punishment or reward And Rom. 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus but their qualification presently follows that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and ver 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if this Spirit be in you the body is dead unto sin And again If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live And ver 16. The Spirit it self bears witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God And if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also glorified with him Which plainly implies that the Inheritance of Heaven or Kingdome of glory is a conditional Kingdome or Inheritance And not to speak of Kingdoms we shall not so much as have remission of sins but upon condition Matth. 6.14 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses What can be more evident then this CHAP. IX 1. What it is really to enter into this New Covenant 2. That the entring into this Covenant supposes actual Repentance 3. That this New Covenanter is born of water and the Spirit 4. The necessity of the skilfull usage of these new-born Babes in Christ. 5. That some Teachers are mere Witches and Childe-Suckers 1. WE have therefore undeniably demonstrated That this New Gospel-Covenant is a conditional Covenant and but that Hypocrisie and Impietie has made mens souls so degenerate that Sense and Non-sense is alike to them they would from the very sound and signification of the word perceive that there are mutual Terms and Conditions implied or else it could be no Covenant This therefore being premised we shall the better understand what is that due affection and qualification of mind that is required of him that would enter into this Covenant or what it is whereby he has really entred into it For it is not a mere Historical Faith or Belief of those things that are in the New Testament and an acknowledgment that they all tend to the peace and salvation of man and that he is obliged to live up to the utmost of his power to those holy Precepts that are there conteined but further there is a love and liking of the said Precepts as well as a desire of the enjoiment of the promise of Eternal life and a sincere resolution of endeavoring to live as near as he can according to those Evangelical Rules and a chearfull expectation of Divine assistance that God will enable him by the cooperation of his Holy Spirit to make such due progresses in life and Godliness as shall become an unfeigned professour of Faith in Christ Jesus 2. He that upon the perusal of the Records of the Gospel as they are found in the New Testament or by what other way soever the substance thereof is communicated to him and so upon information of his errours and mistakes whether in opinion or practice is thus affected as we have declared it is manifest that he has already repented him of his sins and errours and is in a real mislike of his former Conversation so far forth as it was unconformable to the mind of Christ. So that the state
rejecting their Messias 2. From the many Sects amongst Christians 3. Their difference in opinion concerning the Trinity 4. The Creation 5. The Soul of Man 6. The Person of Christ 7. And the Nature of Angels 1. HItherto we have argued the Obscurity of the Christian Mystery from the Reasons and Causes thereof whereby we have evinced That it ought to be Obscure and that therefore in all likelyhood it is so But the Effects are so manifest that if we do but briefly point at them it will be put beyond all doubt That it is so indeed Let us now instance in some few Why are the Iews yet unconverted or rather why did they at first cast off their Messias but because the Prophesies in Scripture were so Obscure that they had taken up a false Notion of him and of the Condition he was to appear in For they expected him as a mighty Prince that should restore the kingdome to Israel and that Victory Peace Prosperity and Dominion should be accumulated upon the Iewish nation by his means Which opinion I conceive the Lowness of the Mosaical dispensation under which they lived that perpetually propounded to them worldly advantage as a reward of their obedience and the Obscurity of the Predictions of the Messias engaged them in For they being either Figurative and Allegorical or mingling sometimes the state of his Second coming with his First their eager eye being so fully fixt upon what sounded like worldly happiness they could mind no other sense but that in these Enigmatical writings Which yet proved clear enough to as many as God had prepared and belonged to the election of Grace But he might if it had pleased his Wisdome so to do have made all things so plain that we should not need at this day to expect the calling of the Iews but they might have been one Body with us long since But their Rejection is a greater assurance to us of the Truth of our Religion we being able to make it good even out of those Records that are kept by our professed Enemies Besides a man can no more rationally require that all Israel should have flowed in at the first appearance of Christ then that his Second coming should be joyned with his First or his First drawn back to the next Age after Adams fall nor that more rationally then that Autumne should be cast upon Summer and both upon Spring The Counsels of God are at once but the fulfillings of them ripen in due order and time 2. But though we let go the Iews and contain our selves within the compass of those that either are or would be accounted Christians their Opinions and Sects both have been and are so numerous that the very mention of so confessed a Truth may sufficiently evince the Obscurity of those Divine Oracles to which they all appeal I will instance only in things of greater moment which will be a sure pledge of the certainty of their innumerable dissensions in smaller matters 3. Wherefore to say nothing of that more intricate Mystery of the Triunity in the Godhead where the curious Speculators of that difficult Theory are first divided into Trinitarians and Anti-Trinitarians and then the Trinitarians into Heterusians Homousians and Homoeusians we shall see them disagreeing not onely in the Distinction of the Persons but concerning the Essence it self Some affirming God to be Infinite others Finite some a Spirit others a Body othersome not onely a Body but a Body of the very same shape with mans Of which opinion the Aegyptian Anthropomorphites were so zealously confident that they forced the Bishop of Alexandria out of fear of his life to subscribe to their gross conceit 4. Again concerning the Creation of the world some affirme That God made it of Matter coaeternal with and independent of himself Others that he created it of Nothing Others that he made it not at all but that it was made as some would have it by good Angels others by the Devil 5. Concerning the Soul of man some say it subsists and acts before it comes into the Body Others onely in the Body and after the solution of the Body Others in the Body alone Others not there neither as holding indeed no such thing as a Soul at all but that the Body it self does all Which some hold shall rise again others not but that the whole Mystery of Christianity is finished in this life 6. Concerning Christ some were of Opinion that he was onely God appearing in humane shape others onely man others both others neither 7. Concerning Angels some affirm them to be Fiery or Aery Bodies some pure Spirits some Spirits in Aery or Fiery Bodies Others none of these but that they are momentaneous Emanations from God Others that they are onely Divine Imaginations in men which can be by no means allowed unless we should admit the Holy Patriarch Abraham to have arrived at such a measure of dotage as to provide cakes and a fatted calf to entertain three Divine Imaginations which visited him in his tent But certainly such slight and exorbitant glosses as these can argue nothing else but a misbelief of the Text and indeed of all Religion and that the Interpreter is no Christian but either Atheist or Infidel Wherefore to leave such Spirits as these to the confident Dictates of their own foul Complexion we shall rather take into consideration some Few but Main points wherein certain men otherwise Rational enough in their sphere and hearty Assertors of the Authority of Scripture disagree from the Generality of other Christians The first of them is Concerning the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead The second Concerning the Divinity of Christ. The third and last Concerning the State of the Soul after Death Which Points though I must confess they are of subtle speculation yet they seem so necessary and essential the two former especially to Christian Religion that I think it fit not to pass them over with a bare mention of them nor yet to speak much in so profound and Mysterious a matter CHAP. IV. 1. That the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church by the Fathers 2. A Description of the Platonick Trinity and of the difference of the Hypostases 3. A description of their Union 4. And why they hold All a due Object of Adoration 5. The irrefutable Reasonableness of the Platonick Trinity and yet declined by the Fathers a Demonstration that the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church 6. Which is further evidenced from the compliableness of the Notion of the Platonick Trinity with the Phrase and Expressions of Scripture 7. That if the Christian Trinity were from Plato it follows not that the Mystery is Pagan 8 9 10. The Trinity proved from Testimony of the Holy Writ 1. NOw concerning the First The Trinity say they objecting against it in general is nothing else but a Pagan or Heathenish Figment brought out of the Philosophy
of Pythagoras and Plato and inserted into the doctrine of the Church by the ancient Fathers who most of them were Platonists But to this I answer That it is very highly improbable that the Fathers borrowed the Mystery of the Trinity from the School of Plato which you shall easily understand when we have so far as serves to our purpose explained the doctrine of the Platonical Triad which is briefly thus 2. There are Three Hypostases say they in the Deity namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Good or First self-originated Goodness Intellect or the Eternal Mind and lastly Soul or Spirit Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they distinguish all Three after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Good Intellect Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First One. One All. One and All. If we would ease our Apprehension here by the help of our Phansy we might compare the First to Simple and pure Light the Second to Light variegated into Colours as in the Rainbow the Third to those Rayes of light for all is Light that receive and carry down these Colours to the ground and impress them and reflect them from some standing pool or plash of water Again the First Hypostasis is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially the Good Causally the Intellect The Second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially Intellect Causally Soul Participatively the Good The Third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially Soul that is Love and Operation Causally Matter and the World Participatively the Good and Intellect 3. Now for the Union of the Three Hypostases we shall understand the accuracy thereof by degrees As first That the proper life and energie as I may so say of each Hypostasis is not contein'd within it self but like a vocal and audible Sound in a still silent Night perpetually re-ecchoes through the whole Deity Or as when a Song of Three parts is sung each Musician enjoys the harmony of the whole But this I must confess looks more properly like Communion then perfect Union we step therefore a degree further and affirme That as Body and Soul is conceived to make up one man and this Individual Body and this Individual Soul to make up this Individual man so these Three Hypostases to make up one Individual Deity their Union and Actuation one of another being infinitely and unspeakably more perfect then in any other Being imaginable And as the Motions of the Body are perceptible to the Soul of man and the Impressions of the Soul upon the Body would be perceptible to it if it had of it self a Faculty of Perception So likewise by this ineffable close Union and mutual Actuation of the Three Hypostases all their proper Energies become fully perceptible to one another And the Life of the first so infinitely and unexpressibly gratifying the Second and Both the Third by an immutable necessity and congruity of nature it is evident they can have but One Will which is as it were the Heart the Centre or Root of the Deity the Eternal Self-originated Good But thirdly and lastly These three Hypostases are not One onely by this actuating Union which may seem to admit of a real separability but there is also a real Unity or Identity in them the distinction among them being as Tatianus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Rayes of the Sun in respect of the Sun or if you will as the Centre Rayes and Surface of a Globe which implyes a Contradiction to be conceived without them or as the Faculties of the Soul are to the Soul which are as inseparable from her as she is from her self The Union therefore of them all and the Emanation of the Second and Third from the First being so Necessary Natural and Inevitable For the First can be no more without the Second or the Second without the Third then the Sun can be without his Rayes or the Soul without her Faculties there is no scruple say they but we may call all this the Godhead or Deity the Second and Third coming so unavoidably out of the First Root and being so inseparable from it And therefore there is nothing here properly Creature Creation being a free act and if not Creature what can it be but God 4. And since from these Three are all things that are made and in their hands is the guidance of all things Nothing less then Divine Adoration can of right belong unto them For though there may be some allay of Excellency in their descent from the First yet they being all our Creators and Governors none ought to fall short of Divine worship 5. This is a brief Summe of the Platonists Doctrine concerning the Triunity of the Godhead Which as it seems in it self Rational enough so it is not obnoxious to several bold cavils that over-daring Wits make against the Sacred Mystery of the Trinity alledging against Distinction of Persons without difference of Essence That there are only Three Logical Notions attributed to one single and individual nature and against Three Essences of the same Nature That it looks like an unnecessary and groundless repetition and That that great Chasma betwixt God and Matter will be as wide as before That it is unconceivable but the Last being of the same nature with the First that it should be also Prolifical and so in infinitum That these Three must of necessity be Three Gods if any of them be God because they are all exquisitly of the same Kind whenas in the Platonick Triad the First is only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some have also ventured to affirm in the Christian Trinity Now I say all being so easy and unexceptionable in the Platonical speculation of this Mystery it seems almost impossible but that if the Fathers had borrowed this Notion of the Trinity from the Platonists they would have explain'd it in this more facile and plausible way 6. But you 'l object That though it may seem more Rational in it self yet it might not be so happily applied to Places of Scripture and that 's the reason why the Fathers though they took the Mystery from Plato in the gross yet did not particularly explain it after the way of the Platonists But without doubt there is not only no place of Scripture that plainly clashes with the above-described Mystery but sundry Places that may be very speciously alledged for it It is plain that as the Second Hypostasis in Platonisme is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in Christianity called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if Wisdome and Intellect were acknowledged his proper Character in both They might also plausibly enough draw to their sense what Christ speaks John 14.28 My Father is greater then I
therefore all the Three Hypostases being alike offended at Sin and alike prone to pardon the Sinner and recover him to Obedience contrived such a way of declaring their pardon as might shew their highest dislike of sin and win most upon the Sinner by moving his affections to a serious Sorrow and Remorse Wherefore the Divine complotment was this That the Eternal Son of God should be made Flesh and to testifie the Hatred of God to Sin and his Love to mankind should be sacrificed for an Atonement for the sins of the world Then which a greater Engine cannot be imagined to move us to an Abhorrence of sin and to the Love of his Law that thus redeemed us and wrought our reconciliation with the Father To whom being as I may so say the Head in the Divinity and of all things and having in his Paternal right the First power of punishing and pardoning this Pacification is naturally directed For it is as if a Father of a Family or the Prince of a Nation having a minde to pardon some Malefactor that he might not seem too prone to Mercy and so encourage men to Rebellion should plot with his Eldest Son to be an earnest Intercessor in the behalf of the party when yet the Son disrelisheth the crime of him he intercedes for as much as his Father did There is the same Reason in the Intercession of Christ with the Eternal Father saving that it was with more earnestnesse and greater agony even unto death and of farre higher consequence But that such an Intercession and Pacification as this should be made up in the solitary Scene of one Person is impossible 5. Wherefore the denying of either the Divinity of Christ or the Trinity seems a Subversion of the Christian Religion And not onely so but that Fanatical piece of Magnificency of some Enthusiasts who would make their Union with God the same with that of Christ's For then were they truly God and Divine Adoration would belong unto them or if not it is a sign they are not God and that therefore Christ is not Either of which confounds or destroys our Religion But if you demand what the Difference is betwixt the Union of Christ and Ours with the Divinity I have intimated it before In one the Divinity is Forma informans in the other but Forma assistens in the one it is as Lux in Corpore lucido in the other as Lumen in Corpore diaphano The Divinity in Christ is as the Light in the Sun the Divinity in his Members as the Sun-shine in the Aire 6. And this distinction and due distance being kept which some saucy and high-flown Enthusiasts do not observe there is yet scope and encouragement enough for them to strive to be full as good as they pretend I am sure farre better then they are there ordinarily being no difference betwixt them and the meanest Christians but that their Tongues are swelled with greater tumor and turgency of speech and their Minds filled with more vain phantasyes and exorbitant Lunacyes whenas the other speak conformably to the Apostolick Faith and with less noise live more honestly But that no less Union with God then Real and Physical Deification must make them Good is a sign they are stark naught and that Pride has laid wast their Intellectuals For is not that Spirit that created and framed all things able to reforme us unto the most unblamable pitch of Humility Self-denial Dependency upon God Love of our neighbour Obedience to Magistrates Faith Temperance and Holiness without being any more Hypostatically united with us then with the Earth Sea Sun Moon and Starres and the Natural parts of the Creation Wherefore we conclude That to assert That the Union of any true Christian with God is the Same with that of Christ's is a bold useless and groundless Opinion and inconsistent with and destructive of the Christian Religion 7. We have seen How Necessary and Essential to Christianity the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ is and consequently of the Trinity without which the other cannot be rightly conceived and therefore we do not onely disapprove of those frivolous slanders and cavils that would brand that Sacred Mystery with the infamous note of Paganisme but highly magnifie and humbly adore the Providence of God that that Truth should be kept so long warme and be so carefully polished by those Heathens that knew not the main Use thereof or to what end the Tradition was delivered to the ancient Patriarchs Prophets or holy Sages of old in either Aegypt or Iudaea from whence Pythagoras and Plato had it and prepared those parts of the World where their Philosophy had taken foot-hold to an easy reception of Christianity but this we have glanced at elsewhere CHAP. VI. 1. The danger and disconsolateness of the Opinion of the Psychopannychites 2. What they alledge out of 1 Cor. 15. set down 3. A Preparation to an Answer advertising First of the nature of Prophetick Schemes of speech 4. Secondly of the various vibration of an inspired Phansie 5. Thirdly of the ambiguity of words in Scripture and particularly of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. And lastly of the Corinthians being sunk into an Unbelief of any Reward after this life 7. The Answer out of the last and foregoing Premisse 8. A further Answer out of the first 9. As also out of the second and third where their Objection from verse 32. is fully satisfied 10. Their Argument answered which they urge from our Saviours citation to the Sadducees I am the God of Abraham c. 1. WE proceed now to the Third and Last Point propounded which is Concerning the state of Souls departed which we assert not to sleep that is not to be void of all Operation and Sense of Joy or Punishment but that they have a Knowledge and Apprehension of their own condition be it Good or Bad. Which Article I hold as undoubtedly True though not so indispensable as the Two former and though not so Necessary yet exceeding Convenient to be entertain'd It being a great Abater to our zeal and fervency in Religion to think that in the end of our life we shall be dodged and put off by a long senseless and comfortless Sleep of the Soul under the sods of the Grave for many hundreds if not for some thousands of years Besides an indulgence to such a Dulness and Heartlesness of Spirit as to be content to intermit the Functions of Life for so long a time may at last work the Soul into a sottish mistrust of ever being awaked and make her conclude the Mystery of Christianity within the narrow verges of this mortal life as David George and other Enthusiasts did who were more in love with many Wives then with any Article of Faith that promised such pleasures as might not be reaped in this Flesh. 2. But we are here to deal not with such vain Fanaticks but with severely-devoted Sons of
of thy years are many The Author of the Book of Wisdome who though he be not Canonical yet is acknowledged a very venerable Writer speaks out plainly concerning the Soul of Solomon chap. 8. v. 19 20. For I was a witty childe and had a good Spirit Yea rather being good I came into a body undefiled 3. Besides they might have alledged how inconsistent the daily Creation of Souls is with God's resting on the Seventh day as having then finished the whole work of his Creation 4. Moreover their inclination to think that in sundry of those Apparitions of Angels to the ancient Patriarchs it was Christ himself that appeared would further have enticed them to retain this Doctrine of Preexistence of Souls that that opinion of Christ's appearing then might be more entire and determinate as it would be also in those that hold Melchisedec that blessed Abraham to have been Christ which opinion Cunaeus looks upon as true nor can Calvin look upon it as strange if he do but hold to his own words in his readings upon Daniel In eo nihil est absurdi quòd Christus aliquam speciem humanae naturae exhiberet antequam manifestatus esset in carne And that the Angel that led the Israelites into the land of Canaan was Christ seems plainly asserted 1 Cor. chap. 10. v. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted him and perished by Serpents But Christ is a complexion of the Humane nature with the Divine Consider also Hebr. 11.26 which seems to implie that the Soul of the Messias was a Patron and Protector of the Holy seed betimes and had a special relation to the Iews above any other Nation And therefore when he came into the world i. e. was born brought up and conversed among the Jews he might the more properly be said to come to his own though his own knew him not John 1.11 And verily that the Soul of the Messiah was in Being before he took upon him our flesh the most easie and natural meaning of 1 Joh. 4.2 seems also to import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here S. Iohn seems to cabbalize as in several places of the Apocalypse that is to speak in the language of the Learned of the Jews For the genuine sense is He that confesses that Iesus is the Messiah come into the flesh or into a Terrestrial Body is of God Which implies that he was before he came into it Which is the doctrine of the Jews and expressed so exactly according to their sense that themselves could not have uttered it more naturally and significantly and therefore might they say it is unnatural and violent to put any other meaning upon it 5. Again He being happily before the Generation of men and the peopling of the earth the Messiah Elect as I may so speak united also with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and resplendent with Celestial glory and beauty amongst the Angels in Heaven this Hypothesis will give a very easie and natural sense to sundry places of the New Testament that otherwise seem very obscure As that of Philipp 2.6 7 8. For it has racked many mens minds to conceive how an Exinanition of himself can belong to the Eternal and Immutable God by becoming man which the Text seems to point at But it may very properly belong to the Soul of the Messiah who was yet truly God by a Physical union with the Godhead So likewise John 17.4 5. I have glorified thee upon earth for which purpose I was sent down thither And now Father bring me up back again to thy self that I may again enjoy that Glory which I had with thee in the Heavens before the world and Generations of men were This is the easie meaning of those two Verses For that this is to be understood of the Humanity of Christ Grotius is so confident that he is fain to turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I was to have or which I was designed to have before the world was But this present gloss needs no such distortion or force done to words but is very natural and genuine 6. Again John 6.38 I came down from Heaven not to doe mine own will but the will of him that sent me and chap. 3.31 He that comes from Heaven is above all and yet clearer chap. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father But clearest of all chap. 3.13 where speaking of his Ascension and that was Local he mentions also his Descension which it is most natural to understand in the same sense No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man who is in Heaven i. e. whose mind and conversation is there though his Personal and visible presence be here on earth as Grotius also interpreteth these last words To all which you may adde John 6.26 What if you shall see the Son of man ascend where he was before 7. These Scriptures which we have cited bear so strong towards a Local descending from as well as ascending up to Heaven that some have thought that Christ was besides his Ascension after his Resurrection bodily taken up into Heaven and that he there received instructions from God and was then sent down to publish the Gospel But certainly so notable a Transaction of Christ then in the flesh would never have been omitted by the other three Evangelists nor so slightly and obscurely intimated by this 8. But this Evangelist flying higher then to be kept within the compass of the time since his Incarnation it had been very easie for the Fathers to have pleaded for the Preexistence and Descent of the Soul of the Messiah from Heaven into an Earthly Body from those passages of Scripture which we have quoted And to make all sure they might have further alledged for this opinion of the Soul's Preexistence that it was at least unreproved if not approved of by our Saviour himself as appears out of John 9. where he being asked by his Disciples whether it was the blind mans own fault or his parents that he was born blind which question plainly implies a Preexistence before this life he seems to admit it is certain he does not reprehend the Hypothesis No more then he does Mark 8.27 28. or Matthew 16.14 where his Disciples telling him that some took him for Elias others for Ieremias or for some one of the old Prophets or other he there again admits or not gainsaies the opinion of the Jews concerning the Preexistence or Transmigration of Souls as Grotius himself acknowledges that of Ieremie to be referred ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but passes to a questioning of them whom they thought him to be 9. I conclude therefore there being such plausible pretensions to prove the Preexistence of Souls not only out of Reason but Scripture it self if the Fathers had been imbued with that Heathenish and Pagan opinion as our
eminent and known Aphorisms in Philosophy and free Reason which will no less gratifie our Understanding in this present pursuit after Truth then the pleasant reflections of the Sun's beams from the tops of the hils do the eye of the early traveller But we shall only rehearse not insist much upon the proof of these Conclusions they being either so fully and irrefutably demonstrated in other writings See my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul and my Antidote against Atheism or else of that Evidency in themselves that they want nothing but simple perception for their Demonstration 2. The First and Chiefest is The Existence of God that is of a Being both infinitely Wise Good and Powerful Which it is manifest cannot be Matter or Body grinde it as thin as you will in your Imagination and therefore he must be a Spirit Omnipresent pervading and penetrating all things Which Conclusion is so agreeable to the Natural Faculties of our Mind if we were once acquainted with them For some men are become even strangers to the better part of themselves that any thing contrary or on this side of this Poâ—ition will certainly lie very unevenly and untowardly in our Conception 3. For whereas it is impossible but Something must be of itself is it not far more congruous to our Reason That that be of itself whose very Nature and Idea importeth so much then that not only This should not be at all but also some other thing should be of itself whose nature imports no such matter Wherefore it is most easie and most suitable to the Dictates of our own Faculties to admit the Existence of God From whence we are enabled to give a rational account of the most considerable Objects that fall under our Contemplation For if any man will dare to assert That Matter exists of it self his Assertion is at randome nor can he render any Reason for it there being no such thing conteined in the Idea thereof But if he asserts God to exist and any should further demand How it comes to pass the very Idea of God represents his Nature to be such that he cannot fail to be For the Idea of the most Absolute and Perfect Essence cannot but represent it to our minds to be such as has the most Absolute and Perfect relation to Existence From whence it follows if we believe our own Faculties That he does exist Otherwise when our Faculties tell us That Necessary Existence belongs to him we shall notwithstanding affirm That it does not belong unto him as certainly it does not if he exist not at all which is a palpable Contradiction 4. But what a madness were it in a man to deny the free Dictates of his own Reason in a Point not only so plain in itself but so serviceable and delightfull in the Contemplation of the Works of Nature and that Corporeal Matter of which they are made For as for the Existence of the very Substance of Matter we cannot be at a loss in the search of the Cause thereof though it contein no reason of its Existence in its Idea For though every part thereof be independent of the rest and separable and therefore there might have been a Want of Matter in the world or it may be an Overplus yet neither of these have fallen out but how Matter came to be produced such and so much as it is we have already found out a true and sufficient Cause an Omnipotent Deity that can perform any thing that implies no Contradiction and such is the Production or Emission of Matter into Being CHAP. II. 1. That the wise contrivances in the works of Nature prove the Being of a God 2. And have extorted an acknowledgment of a General Providence even from irreligious Naturallists 3. That there is a Particular Providence or Inspection of God upon every individual person Which is his Second Assertion BUT we proceed to that which is most curious and admirable namely The Contrivance of this Matter into such various forms of living Creatures wherein there is such excellent and accurate Wisdome and Skill discovered that it is utterly impossible that the mere motion of the Matter should ever reduce it without an Intellectual Guide into such perfect form and order But to call the First Cause of all this Nature rather then God is to talk either very ignorantly or very humorsomely For if they make Nature a blind and unknowing Principle how can she keep so constant a tenor of such cunning artifice in all kinds of living Creatures But if they will admit in her Knowledge and Skill it is then a frivolous and an humorsome controversie whether the First Principle of all things should be deemed a God or a Goddess and be called Deus or Natura But they that are not wilfully ignorant may understand That there is That Order and Contrivance in the works of Nature that the First Original cannot but be Intellectual or Rational and That all things are ordered for the best purpose and greatest happiness of the Creation So that what we find in the Idea of God that is Infinite Wisdome and Goodness we find also reflected from the Objects of Nature and can thence with a great deal of the highest Devotion and pleasure both further confirm that Innate Notion we have of God and ease our Minds in resting in so full and sufficient a Cause of those exquisitely-framed Phaenomena that daily appear unto us in the World 2. And verily the Species of things are so excellently-well provided for that it has extorted an acknowledgment of a General Providence even from such men as if their Intellectuals would have permitted them their Morals would scarcely have upheld them from sinking into the dullest degree of Atheisme But seeing things so framed in Nature as they are they could not but affirm That they came from an Intellectual Principle which is God allowing him an ineffable happiness in contemplating of Himself and His own Wisdome in forming of the World and the various kinds of Creatures therein but phansying him withall so fatally affixed to his own seat that he cannot bow himself to look so low as to take notice of any Particular or Personal carriages of men nor stretch forth his arm either to reward or punish them An Opinion that seems either to arise out of a desperate inability of giving a Reason of sundry accidents that happen to particular Creatures in the world or else out of a tender regard to their own Interest they being afraid of any other God then such as they have promised themselves will act nothing above or contrary to the ordinary and known course of Nature which as they think is a very certain assurance of future Impunity 3. But to me it seems impossible that so excellent a Being as the Deity is should be ignorant of any thing that implies no Contradiction to be known And therefore our Second Assertion shall be That there is a very exquisite Particular Providence
their polluted Vehicles less of Heaven then the meanest Regenerate Soul that dwels in these Tabernacles of Earth and that of the Prophet is most true of them that their Sun is gone down at mid-day 3. Sixthly That the Destruction of these Aethereal Vehicles was not an utter Extinction of life to them but onely an Exclusion from the life and pleasures of that Supernal Paradise which they enjoyed in those Heavenly Vehicles For that they now live and move and act is manifest in that the whole World rings of their exploits and villanies 4. Seventhly That the Souls of men which are as much Immortall they being Spirits as those of the faln Angels are are not devoid of life after the death of this Body For as the Souls of the fallen Angels descended from thinner to thicker without the loss of Sense and Life so do our Souls ascend from thicker to thinner habitations with the like if not greater security of acting and living after the Death of the Body 5. Which we shall the easilier believe if we consider how contemptible and homely a thing that Organ is which is the ultimate and immediate conveigher of whatever we perceive in the outward world and which is most remarkable in which alone the Soul has any Sense at all of any thing that arrives to her cognoscence Which if it be not the Animal Spirits within the Brain which makes most of all for us I confess with Cartesius I think it most probable to be the Conarion then which nor Water nor Air nor Aether nor any other Element else seems more Simple and Homogeneal So that the advantage seems not to be in the nature of that Organ but it is because the Soul by those lawes that brought her into the Body has placed her Centre of Perception there 6. Which little Pavilion of the Soul's Centre of Perception being of so gross consistence as it is and becoming thereby less Passive and Alterable it was very requisite that there should be that curious frame of the external Organs of the Eye the Ear the Nose and other parts to strengthen those motions and impressions that they transmit so that they may be able forcibly enough to strike upon the Conarion or at least strike through the Organs and penetrate to the Animal Spirits in the Brain supposing them the most inward and immediate Organ of Perception And that the Conformation of the external Organs of Sense is such that they are to admiration fitted to this end is a thing so well known amongst the Anatomists that I need not insist on the proof of it as it is also among Physitians That none of the external Organs have any Sense at all in them no more then an Acousticon or a Dioptrick glass From whence is discovered the Unreasonableness of their Despair that conceit that when the Soul is devested of her Organical Body she can have no Sense nor Perception of any thing For this curious Organization tends to nothing else but the proportionating the vigour of Motion to the difficulty of its passage through the Nerves or to the grossness of the consistency of the Conarion Which Organical contrivance therefore may not be at all needfull in the Soul separate from the Body the Centre of Perception being placed bare in a more tender and passive Element such as Air Aether and the like So that it will be the greatest wonder in the world that the Soul should sleep after death so small a thing being able to waken her 7. Besides it is not Unreasonable but that She and other Spirits though they have no set Organs yet for more distinct and full perception of Objects may frame the Element they are in into temporary Organization and that with as much ease and swiftness as we can dilate and contract the pupil of our Eye and bring back or put forward the Crystalline humor 8. And not only to respect the Natures of Humane Souls but also the Will and Purpose of God there was never any yet that pretended to knowledge in Philosophy that denied the Immortality of the Soul in this sense which we contend for but they deni'd first a Particular Divine Providence which for my own part I think it is impossible for any one to deny that will diligently and indifferently search into the matter And therefore this Seventh Assertion may very well stand That the Souls of men are Immortal and act and live after Death Of this Subject I have wrote more lately and more fully in my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul to which the Reader may have recourse CHAP. V. 1. The Eighth Assertion That there is a Polity amongst the Angels and Souls separate both Good and Bad and therefore Two distinct Kingdomes one of Light and the other of Darkness 2. And a perpetual fewd and conflict betwixt them 3. The Ninth That there are infinite swarms of Atheistical Spirits as well Aereal as Terrestrial in an utter ignorance or hatred of all true Religion THE Eighth Assertion is That every Angel Good or Bad is as truly a Person as a man being endued also with Life Sense and Understanding whence they are likewise capable of Ioy and Pain and therefore coercible by Laws And mutual Helps being able to procure what Solitude cannot they must of necessity be Sociable and hold together in Bodies Politick and obey for either hope of advantage or fear of mischief Out of the whole masse therefore of the Angelical Nature taking in also according to Philo the Souls of men be they in what Vehicles they will there arise since their Fall two distinct Kingdoms the one of Darkness whose Laws reach no further then to the Interest of the Animal life the other of Light which is the true Kingdom of God and here the Animal life is in subjection and the Divine life bears rule as the Divine life is trodden down in the other Kingdom and the Animal life has the sole Jurisdiction 2. Now the inward life and spring of Motion in each Kingdom being so different it follows that these two Kingdoms must alwaies be at odds and that there must be a perpetual conflict till victory Which we shall still more easily conceive if we admit what is very reasonable That the Kingdom of Light reaches from Heaven to Earth that is That as there are found on the same surface of the Earth Animals both wilde and gentle harmless and poisonous and men good and bad pious and impious so likewise even in the same Regions of the Air that there are scatter'd Spirits of both Kindes good and evil Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light In the order of those Aereal Angels the ancient Philosophers ranked the Souls of men deceased whether Vertuous or Wicked unless they had reached to an extraordinary and Heroical degree of Purity and Perfection for then they conceited that they were carried up to those more high and Aethereal Regions 3. Ninthly That there
hardship of his whole life For being that the Kingdome of God on earth which is the Church was to overcome the kingdome of Satan by suffering our Saviour Christ gives himself an example of all manner of trials and troubles of the most tedious difficulties that could occurre like a wise and couragious Commander animating his Souldiers by his own willingness to suffer as deeply as they that he commands Which Polyaenus relates to be the stratagem of Iphicrates who when he saw it convenient to draw out his souldiers in a cold frosty night to assault the enemy and observed their aversness by reason of the bitterness of the season and the thinness of their clothing he straitway clad himself more thin then the thinnest of them and on his bare feet trudged from tent to tent to shew himself to his Camp which did so encourage the souldiers that they set upon the enterprize without delay under the conduct of so wise and valiant a Commander 4. And therefore Christ in like manner for the incouragement of his followers went before in all manner of difficulties not onely in poverty in reproach and in a constant refusal of all the pleasures riches and honours of this present World as being to establish the faith of a better but he was given up also to be tempted of the Devil that we may not be dismai'd by such encounters and know how to behave our selves when we are ingaged in them For his being transported thus securely in the aire by the hand of Satan like some innocent bird in the talons of a rapacious Hawk and yet not fainting under it what can it be but an eminent effect of his Faith in the living God which is the very Root and inmost original of the Divine life The same may be said of his miraculous Fast For himself in answer to the Tempter did profess man lived not onely by bread but by Faith in that Word that sustaineth all things That also is worth the noting that Grotius observes upon the place That this Threefold temptation wherewith the Devil tempted Christ is the most usual and most prevalent that he assalts mankind withall viz. Egestas Confidentia Praedestinationis Spes splendoris humani especially those that have disentangled themselves from the more soft and sensual desires of the Flesh and the advantage of Christs Temptation is that we are punctually instructed aforehand how we are to oppose Wherefore this History of his Temptation is very decorous and agreeable to Reason Nor does the relation of the Devil 's assalting of the Son of God make it the less credible for it is most likely that he was not sure yet he was such in that sense that we understand the Son of God and a question whether all the Devils be yet convinced that he is what we rightly believe him to be But for his own curiosity to try what he was as well as out of a malicious design to pervert him if he could he assalted him after this manner in the Wilderness 5. That of shewing him all the Kingdomes of the Earth from an exceeding high mountain seems to have some difficulty in it For if it was onely a prestigious representation of the glory of the Kingdomes of the Earth what needed a transportation of him to the top of a mountain or at least of a mountain so exceeding high But if it was a real view of them the highest mountain in the world will not enlarge our prospect so as to take in one ordinary Kingdome under our sight But to this I answer That this cunning Prestigiator took the advantage of so high a place to set off his Representations the more lively and to make them the more probable to be true For the Prospect seeming so great to the eye and ruder phansies imagining the Earth a round flat this old Jugler might easily hope that he might delude the Carpenters son with so large a show and perswade him that what was so great was all especially perstringing his sight so as that the whole Horizon should seem full of the pompous varieties of the Powers and Principalities of the world 6. As for the long and solemn Fast of Christ and his retirement into solitude for fourty dayes after notice was given from Heaven that he was the Messias the Son of God this was very seemly and convenient to sharpen the desire of the people to receive him when he did return and to gain more Authority to his doctrine which he was to teach them and to inculcate to his successors by his Example how fit it is to starve the Animal Life and quite vanquish all the pleasures of the Body before they take upon them to be instructers in Divine matters which are of eternal concernment to the Soul When as now-a-daies by how much more a mans skin is full treg'd with flesh blood and natural Spirits and by how much the more eager appetite he has to the things of the World by so much impatienter he is to get into the Pulpit to exercise his voice and lungs and thereby to approve himself for a preferment whenas Christ would not exercise this office of preaching the Kingdome of Heaven before he had at once despised all the riches pomp and pleasures of the Earth And as his Wisdome is discovered in undertaking this solemn Abstinence and Retirement so is also his Humility in affecting no innovation therein but he took up the example of Moses and Elias who after conferr'd with him in the mount at his Transfiguration which is the Third and last eminent accident which happen'd to our Saviour before his Passion and which is not recited to fill up the Story but is of very deep and weighty consequence 7. Our Saviour takes unto him Peter Iames and Iohn three of the prime of his Apostles to be spectatours and witnesses of what they should see on the Mount whither he carried them where he was transfigured before them his face shining like the Sun and his raiment becoming as white as the light where Moses also and Elias talked with him concerning his Death and glorious Resurrection Which conference was First a great Cordial to animate our Saviour the better to go through his heavy sufferings and Secondly a great Satisfaction to as many of the Jews as should be converted to Christianity that Moses and Elias that is their Law-giver and ther chiefest of their Prophets were abettours to Christ in this new Dispensation he was to set up in the World and Thirdly there was a particular injunction even while Moses and Elias were present with him face to face to hearken and yield obedience now to Christ as to the beloved Son of God and to let Moses and Elias go all things being compleated in him For a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud saying This is my wel-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him 8. And the very Vision was a representation
in the town stocking after him and heightening his intoxication by their apish injuries But I will not insist upon this 3. Secondly It is not so strange that there should be a greater number of possessed in Christs time then now because since Christianity the power of the Devil is much more curbed For it is plain that where Paganisme rules the persons of men are more subject to the cruelty of the Devil As appears by what is recorded in History concerning the Inhabitants of several Countries as of Madagascar where the Devil afflicts them bodily in Florida he astonishes them with dreadfull Apparitions and cuts their very flesh off in his approaches they of Guiana are beat black and blew by him and the Brasilians so grievously tormented that they are ready to dy for fear upon the very thought of him The Apostate Jews that they fell under his power is the opinion of their own Rabbins and the primitive Christians delivered to Satan felt to their smart the rigour of his lash All which may go for a sufficient proof That the profession of Christianity and the worship of the true God in that way that he will be worshipped is a personal protection from the gross assaults of the Devil 4. A man might adde further That not onely they that are duly excommunicated by the Church are made obnoxious to his Tyranny but also those that revolt of themselves and deny the Lord that bought them by their misbelief of the sacred History of the Gospel and the Personal office of Christ even of him that died betwixt two thieves at Ierusalem As is notoriously apparent in some of the forlorn and giddy-headed Sects of these times amongst whom I dare say a man may find out a greater number of true Daemoniacks then Christ and his Apostles are said to cure 5. For to what more rationally then to the possession of these deceiving Spirits can be attributed those wild extasies they are in their falling down dead the swelling of their bodies and foaming at the mouth their neglectedness sordidness and abhorring from all order and humanity their antick postures gestures one going in the open Marketplace with his head lift on high and his arms spread out roaring and mouthing out fanatical denunciations and another following him at the heels with a soft sneaking pace his head hanging down as if his nose bled and his hands pressing his navel as if he were troubled with the Belly-ach others creeping on all four like brute beasts and wallowing and tumbling on the ground like dogs or swine Others taken with the expected power they lay vacant for were hurried on in a very swift pace on tip-toes with their hats inverted on their heads and yet not falling off and their arms stretched directly upwards with their fore-fingers pointing to the Zenith and this for so long a space as no ordinary man could doe the like 6. Adde to this their being troubled with Apparitions their fearfull and hideous howlings and cryings their wild and extatical singings and frantick dancings their running naked through Towns into Churches and private houses their violent and irresistible shakings to the utter weakening of nature and making their very bodies sore and all this transacted by a Power or Spirit which themselves confess distinct from themselves which also speaks distinctly and audibly in them and uses their arms and hands to the beating their head and body which imposes upon them very absurd commands macerating most killing some with fasting tyrannizing over them all in every thing almost as much as the Devil does over the poor Indians 7. Creeping crouching licking the dust eating of Butterflies feeding of nought but crums and bones such as we fling to dogs Cabbage stalks and leaves of Coleworts scattered and cast away by the Market-women these are smaller services of that imperious fiend within them But this new guest countermanding the allowable voice of Nature so as scarce to suffer a man to take four and twenty hours rest in five and twenty daies to condemn him to the guidance of every foolish fly that comes in his sight and so to adjudge him to hold his leg so long and so close to the fire the fly guiding him the time that it was scorched from the knee to the foot in such grievous manner that it was not to be cured in less then a quarter of a year these are more severe and rigid services of that infernal Task-master Besides that ever and anon this inward voice and sometimes outward utters very audibly to them some place or other of Scripture to a ridiculous abuse and prophanation of it and not that only but enforces the poor captivated vassal in scorn and contempt of the person of Christ to act some remarkable passages in his story such as his Death and Triumph at Ierusalem the former by Iames Milner and Iohn Toldervy the latter by Iames Naylor who had his horse led in triumph by two women trudging in dirt at his entring Bristol with Holy Holy and Hosanna's sung to him by the Fanatical company that attended him garments also in some places being strowed in the way Such wild tricks as these are these deluded Souls made to play to make sport for those aerial Goblins that drive them and actuate them 8. I might enlarge further upon this matter but this short glance at things might be enough to induce any indifferent man that can at all believe That there is any such thing as Witches and possession of Evil Spirits not easily to mistrust but that the distemper of this present Age has been such and it may be still is that if there were any such Venerable person as could command them from under this Power by which many of them are so madly actuated there would plainly prove a more plentifull harvest of Daemoniacks in these times then in our Saviour's and a number more besides Iohn Gilpin and Iohn Toldervy would acknowledge themselves to have been possessed by the Devil But at least we will gain this reasonable Observation from our Digression we have made which will be succedaneous to what we mainly aim'd at viz. That if one Age be so exceeding Fanatical above another why may not one Age be as much more Daemoniacal then another 9. Thirdly Such distracted and Epileptical persons as also Daemoniacal would not be talked of unless they were miraculously cur'd which not happening in other Ages they are not so much taken notice of Fourthly Our Saviour going from place to place and his fame flying further then the motion of his person he was likely to meet with and to have brought to him more of such persons by far from the Pagan nations about him then otherwise at any time could in any likelihood have been taken notice of though there were in other parts of the World and in other Ages as many 10. Fifthly Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called in the Scripture there is no need to take them all in
the strictest sense Mad-men Lunaticks or Epileptical men or any men extraordinarily distempered with Melancholy being by the Iews deemed and called Daemoniacks the people being as much over-prone to ascribe natural diseases to the Devil as many Physicians are to ascribe Diabolical distempers and vexations to Nature But Christ cured the diseases by his word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffering the people to call them by what title they pleased as he that has a Catholick Medicine is not very curious of either the name or the nature of Maladie But there is no question but that there was a competent number of Daemoniacks properly so called 11. Sixthly and lastly Supposing all so called were properly Daemoniacks and that there were a greater number of them in Christ's time and in those parts then there elsewhere has been at any time what inconvenience is there in this if Providence would so dispense for so good a purpose as Christ intimates in the case of the man that was born blinde where he professeth That it was not his Parents fault nor his own that he was born blind but it was the will of God it should be so that he might have the occasion of doing the more glorious miracle And there wanted nothing then but the Divine permission to make so many Daemoniacks no more then there was any thing more requisite but the permission of Christ for the Gadaren Devils to take possession of the Swine and so to hurry them into the midst of the Sea And certainly they are very captious that will not permit so free a Soveraignty to the Almighty to lay some hardship on some few of his Creatures for the general good of the rest especially when those Creatures themselves may have deserved infinitely worse at his hand then he inflicts upon them and are compensated with a peculiar advantage for their sufferings Some one of these Answers or several of them put together are sufficient if not more then sufficient to satisfie this first Difficulty CHAP. VII 1. That the History of the Daemoniack whose name was Legion has no incongruity in it 2. That they were a Regiment of the Dark Kingdome that haunted most the Country of the Gadarens and that whether we conceive their Chieftain alone or many of his army to possess the man there is no absurdity therein 3. How it came to pass so many Devils should clutter about one sorry person 4. The Reason of Christs demanding of the Daemoniacks name and the great use of recording this History 5. The numerositie of the Devils discovered by their possession of the Swine 6. Several other Reasons why Christ permitted them to enter into the Gadarens heards 7. That Christ offended against the laws of neither Compassion nor Iustice in this permission 1. THE Second Difficultie concerning that fierce Daemoniack that had so many Devils in him that he thought fit to call himself by the name of Legion as being possest by such a multitude of unclean Spirits though it bears at the first view the face of an extravagancie yet if it be throughly examined it will prove a very weighty History all being found congruous to the nature of things and decorous and beseeming so Divine a person as our Saviour who was to conquer the Devil and ruine his Kingdome as we see he has in some measure done at this very day That there should be such an Army of Spirits in one place ought not to seem strange to him that will believe the sight and report of the young man whose eyes were opened at the praier of Elisha whereupon he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about the Prophet Nor is it any real incongruity that there should be a multitude of Daemons or Spirits within the compass of one mans Body though it may be so many of that Legion were not entred into him but that he was actuated principally by the Captain thereof he being rebuked by Christ in the singular number and he answering as one in the name of many Which we may as well understand of those that were near him and followed him and had some maligne influence its likely on the Daemoniack by way of Obsession as of such only as were entred into him and properly did possess him 2. For it seems by their petition to Christ they were a Regiment of the Dark Kingdome that use to rove and ramble about in the Countrey of the Gadarens out of which they had no mind to depart those parts being more obnoxious to the Infernal powers they abounding so with Apostate Iews who being fallen from the holy Covenant became more subject to the Tyranny of the Devil Wherefore there is no necessity of granting◠a whole Legion of Fiends in this Daemoniack but a competent multitude or some Chief one of the Legion Though without any violence to their natures there may many lodge in the Body of a man these Spirits being able to draw themselves out of their usual extent into a far narrower compass and perhaps wholly to quit their own Vehicle to make use of anothers and so many may unite with the Blood and Spirits of a man 3. Nor need it seem so harsh that so great a number should be busied about one sorry Wight For that military word Legion suggests unto us a very fit and easie solution of this Difficultie viz. That this did not happen primarily but by consequence the Chief commander of this dark Regiment having his usual haunt and recourse to him therefore the obsession of this numerous rabble is only by sequel as if some Captain should make his stay for his own pleasure in some blind solitary cottage in the field it would be no wonder to see the house beset with the multitude of his Souldiers they being there in attendance on him rather then in any satisfaction or advantage to themselves there being not a proportionable booty for so great a company but the place notwithstanding would not fail to be foully pestred by them After this sort it far'd with this miserable Daemoniack who could not but be even stifled with the throng of this hellish Legion 4. Nor is it any question but that Christ knew how strong they were and numerous and therefore that the greater glory may accrew to himself and to him that sent him he makes them confess their numerosity by asking the possessed his Name And it was more fit that the Power of Christ should be demonstrated and the Divinity of his person in chasing a whole Hoast of Devils relating to one possessed then that there should be as many possessed as there were Devils for him to shew his power on For the victory is never the less the Devils being nothing the weaker for not appearing harnessed with humane flesh and a great deal of inconvenience to Mankind was declined besides the great noise and turbulency in the world which would have risen thereupon which Christ ever avoided But it was fit
others out of the captivity of the Kingdome of darkness and Tyranny of Devil 5. Wherefore if any man start up and pretend an Equality with Christ he is ipso facto convinced of ignorance in the Mystery of Godliness and deprehended to be an Impostour and a Lyar or he is haply a Beast and an Epicure denying the Immortality of the Soul and thereupon building all his slights and contempts of the Personal knowledge of our Saviour he deeming him as all men else wholly Mortal and therefore utterly to have perished above sixteen hundred years agoe CHAP. VI. 1. An objection against Christ's Soveraignty over Men and Angels from the meanness of the rank of Humane Spirits in comparison of the Angelical Orders 2. An Answer to the objection so far as it concerns the fallen Angels 3. A further inforcement of the Objection concerning the unfallen Angels with an Answer thereto 4. A further Answer from the incapacitie of an Angels being a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World 5. And of being a fit Example of life to men in the flesh 6. That the capacities of Christ were so universal that he was the fittest to be made the Head or Soveraign over all the Intellectual Orders 7. Christ's Intercession his fitness for that Office 8. What things in the Pagan Religion are rectified and compleated in the Birth Passion Ascension and Intercession of Christ. 1. BUT it may be further objected That although it be very Reasonable that the Angels and the Spirits of men whether in the body or out of the body be reduced under some Political form of Government yet it seems very incongruous and disproportionable that some one of the lowest rank of all the Orders of Rational Creatures should be made the Soveraign over all over Angels and Archangels and all Principalities and Powers whatsoever whether in Heaven or in Earth 2. But to this I answer That though the Superiour Orders of Intellectual Beings may have far more strength and natural Understanding in them then Man yet the Humanity of Christ may not be inferiour to them in Humility and an holy adhesion to God in Self-resignation and Faith in him who is the Root of all things in Love also and dear Compassion over the whole Creation and in a word in whatever appertains to the Divine life But as for the lapsed Angels let them be otherwise as cunning and knowing in all Arts and Subtilties of Nature let them be as powerfull as Gigantick as they will even to the overturning mountains and striking down steeples at a blow yet Christ has infinitely the preeminence of them in those Divine accomplishments I have recited nay he has a Principle beyond them removed above their Sphere as man has a Principle beyond Beasts And therefore it is no more wonder that God has constituted him Lord over these rebellious Titans then that Man is made superiour to Lions Elephants Whales and other mighty and monstrous Creatures 3. But you 'l say Though it seem just that the usurped Empire of the Devil be taken from him and given to Christ yet there is no reason that the unfallen Angels should be brought under his sceptre they being naturally of an higher order then himself and having forfeited nothing by rebellion or disobedience to God And therefore it had been more Reasonable for God to have united himself Hypostatically as they call it with some Angel then with Humane nature But what art thou O man that pretendest to be so wise as to give laws to God may not he dispose of his own and of himself as he pleases Besides there being so great a Revolt in the Angelical Orders who tempted also Mankind into their lapse the pretermission of them all in the conferring of so great an Honour as was conferred upon Christ was but a just check and slight cast upon all their Orders at once the Angelical bloud as I may so say being tainted with Treason Again the revolt and rebellion of the Apostate Angels being nothing else but a wilde and boundless giving themselves up to the pleasures and suggestions of the Animal life and Christianity as I have already defined it nothing else but a Triumph of the Divine life over the Animal this Triumph Scorn and Insultation over the Animal life is more exactly pursued by how much in every place those things that seem of most value to it are left out as slighted and disregarded and the whole Mystery of the Recovery of the lapsed Creation to God performed by him who undertook it without the false pomp of those needless circumtances of highness of Order Nobleness of Birth worldly Authority Strength and Beauty of body Subtilty of Wit Knowledge of Nature Plausibility of Eloquence or whatsoever else seems precious to the mere Natural or Animal Spirit So that upon this very account the Angels were to be excluded from this function 4. But fourthly and lastly If any Angel would have been competitour with our Saviour in this Honour that question put to Zebedee's Children might well have dash'd him out of countenance in his competition You know not what you ask can you drink of the cup that I am to drink of and be baptized with the Baptisme that I am to be baptized with that is Can you undergoe that shamefull and scornfull death of the Cross Certainly an Angel cannot For if he could be born into the World in Humane flesh and suffer those agonies the Soul of the Messias did this Angel were no Angel but an Humane Soul But perhaps you 'l replie that though an Angel cannot suffer death in an Humane body yet he is so capable of torment and punishment that he may be made an Expiation for the Sinnes of the World But I demand how we that are so much concerned in it shall know of that suffering For the Transactions of men are a spectacle to the Angels but the Transactions of Angels are not discerned by men by reason of the Tenuity of their Vehicles But this suffering Angel would have appeared on purpose Yet how unsatisfactory and phantastical would this have been conceived in comparison of the real and assured Passion of our Saviour Christ. 5. Besides If an Angel had undertaken this office he could not have been so fit an Example of life to us as Christ who was a man subject to the same infirmities with our selves and who really felt what belong'd to the imbecillity of our natures For the Passions of his Minde were no more abated nor destroyed by his union with the Deity then the Passibility of Matter is by being united with a Soul Wherefore Christ wading thus faithfully without sin or blame throughout all the incumbrances of the Flesh which are greater then those that the Angelical Orders are liable unto is a very concerning spectacle of both Men and Angels But what an Angel could do would but very little concern us men 6. Wherefore he who was of so universal a capacity as to be an
but the incomparable Dignity of the Person of Christ and the weighty circumstances of Providence that gave such ample testimony to him which made the world turn Christians rather then Apollonians that is made them rather embrace the Gospel then continue in Paganisme though reformed after the neatest and most refined manner by the noblest and gallantest personage that ever was purely Pagan the famous Apollonius 2. But that he may have the field clear to himself it will not be amiss to digress a little further and take notice of some few others that put in for an Equality with him or a Superiority above him and the chief of them are these Three Mahomet David George and the begodded man of Amsterdam whom I dare not venture to bring into the list without a Preface for pardon and excuse for that which looks so like a piece of dishonour and disrespect to our blessed Saviour But Duessa till unstripped will compare with Una you know the story in Spencer and the bold ignorance of some does ordinarily make others take a great deal of pains to explain and evince that which to any indifferent man is usually true at first sight Which kind of undertakings though they be no great arguments of a mans wit yet they are of his faithfulness and sincere love to the Truth which is far better 3. First therefore to speak a little of the two latter David George and him of Amsterdam those two meal-mouth'd Prophets that court the world to follow them by so many mystical good-morrows making the whole Gospel but as one long-winded Fable and themselves the onely inspired and infallible Lights of the World because they phansie they have found the right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it So that their excellency seems to consist mainly in these Two things in a resolved infidelity or stout misbelief of the History of Christ so far as it is Miraculous and a dexterity in a moral Mythology thereof whereby the Gospel is utterly abrogated and more fundamentally destroy'd then the Law of Moses is by the Gospel For there was never any Christian so immodest as to deny the Miracles of Moses and so consequently the Truth of the History of the Old Testament which these do in the New by which you may judge what they do concerning the Old also For it is most likely they believe there were never any such things as Miracles done any where 4. But if they believe there were Miracles let them shew their Reasons why they distrust that what is recorded of our Saviour is but a Fable and let them produce Miracles themselves to demonstrate to us that we believe a falsehood and that God has sent them upon such a special errand as they pretend If they can do no Miracles God is no witness unto them but they witness only of themselves and therefore are mere Fanaticks and distemper'd Enthusiasts having nothing to drive them forwards to so bold and prodigious an enterprise as the superannuating of Christianity and the abrogating of the office of the Person of Christ but the pride and fury of their own inflam'd Spirits and a phantastical conceit of themselves as if God had inlightened them more then all the world besides 5. If according to the impulse of that Spirit of infidelity in them they conceive there never was nor ever will be any Miracles done in the world but that all things are carried according to the course of Nature they betray themselves in this that they are so far from being extraordinarily illuminated that they are more blinde and blockish then every ordinary man that has the fear of God before his eyes and that they are what some suspect them to be a skulking kinde of Epicureans and Atheists But this I dare boldly say that strip their style of all Scripture-phrases and all allusions to the History of Christ and of the old Testament you shall finde nothing affirmed in these Authors that will rise higher then the faith of Epicurus Democritus or Lucretius they positively affirming nothing but what any ordinary moral Pagan would affirm nay not so much as the Better sort that held the Immortality of the Soul 6. But this is the wicked plot of the Devil in this Sect that he clothes their Style with Scripture-language that they may as it were wear the colours of the Kingdome of Light and so covertly destroy or win the Christian Souldiers from their allegiance to Christ and lapse them into the bondage of the dark Kingdome So that that mighty prop of Faith in those precious promises of the Gospel being taken away their heart may fail them in the hour of temptation and they may be wrought by degrees into a full compliance with every transitory pleasure which the natural man relishes whether in riches honour or satisfaction of the flesh and that upon whatever terms the world shall propound it to them So far therefore are those two forward fellows of Delph and of Amsterdam from approving themselves so great lights of the World as they pretend that they are more dark in their Understanding then many of the Heathen who had some kind of glimpse of a world to come believed the Existence of Spirits and the power of Miracles 7. Which Consideration would make a man think that they were not so much as honest through-crackt Enthusiasts but rather knowing Cheats and Impostours who being down-right Epicureans but of something a finer contexture could abuse their rapturous and Enthusiastick complexion to deceive the whole Christian world calling them off from Christ to an admiration of themselves which might be a considerable profit as well as no small pleasure to them and under pretense of teaching them the Great Mystery of the Gospel might endeavour to undermine the Gospel by taking away the Substantial History of it wrapping up ordinary Precepts of life such as any moral Pagan can give concerning Vertue in the mysterious dress of the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ making the whole Mystery of Christianity nothing but a finely-contrived Fable to set out some trivial moral Truths such as are acknowledged by almost every Atheist and Epicurean and the practice whereof reaches no further then the more advantageous managements of the pleasures and enjoiments of this present life 8. I do not deny but that the frequent use of Scriptural allusions and phrases in their writings may raise in well-meaning men a sense beyond the feeling of them that wrote them But where Faith in Christ is extinct and of those promises that he made so clearly known to the world by his Resurrection and Ascension I conceive that this is an infallible argument that the Divine life is extinct also and that it is from some impurity of Body Soul or Spirits that a man sinks below that belief and that his Vertues then are but Complexional or merely Moral such as are found in a cicurated Beast or some better-natur'd Brute This in all likelihood was the
utmost of that Light which was in those two grand Boasters which compar'd with that in Christ bears not so much proportion as the flame of a stinking Lamp to the glorious lustre of the Sun Insomuch that if they had not been both by themselves and others either equalized to or preferred before our Saviour I should not so much as have vouchsafed to have made any Comparison betwixt them or ever to have mentioned them in my Writings CHAP. IX 1. Mahomet far more orthodox in the main points of Religion then the above-named Impostours 2. The high pitch this pretended Prophet sets himself at His journey to Heaven being waited upon by the Angel Gabriel His Beast Alborach and of his being called to by two Women by the way with the Angels interpretation thereof 3. His arrival at the Temple at Jerusalem and the reverence done to him there by all the Prophets and holy Messengers of God that ever had been in the world 4. The crafty political meaning of the Vision hitherto 5. Mahomet bearing himself upon the Angel Gabriel's hand climbes up to Heaven on a Ladder of Divine light His passing through Seven Heavens and his commending of himself to Christ in the Seventh 6. His salutation of his Creatour with the stupendious circumstances thereof 7. Five special favours he received from God at that congress 8. Of the natural wilyness in Enthusiasts and of their subtile pride where they would seem most humble The strange advantage of Enthusiasme with the rude multitude 9. And the wonderfull success thereof in Mahomet Other Enthusiasts as proud as Mahomet but not so successfull and why 1. THE Third pretended Prophet and Head of the Nations is Mahomet who though he haply be not so moralized a man or at least not so cautious as these Two we last spoke of but more openly entangled in the pleasures of the Flesh if he be not belied then these two Sadducees were and more able to enjoy himself in those pleasures yet be it luck or choice or mere policy he seems more orthodox in the grand points of Religion then they he holding not only the Existence of a God and of Angels and Spirits but also the Immortality of the Soul and a solemn Judgment to come wherein every man shall receive according to what he has done in the flesh whether it be good or evil 2. The Success of this pretender has been so wonderfully great in the world that I think it not amiss to make somewhat a longer stay upon him then upon the two former We shall therefore take notice what pitch he sets himself at and after endeavour to level him and reduce him to his due place If we will then believe his own testimony we shall find him so much favoured by God and the Heavenly Powers as to be carried up into the highest Heavens at least by Vision But he tells the story of himself as if it was a real transaction viz. That once about midnight the Angel Gabriel knocked at his door and told him that he should travail up to Heaven for God Almighty would speak with him That the Angel brought along with him a milkùwhite Beast called Alborach something bigger then an Ass but less then a Mule which the Angel bad Mahomet get upon but the Beast kicking and refusing his Rider the Angel asked him why he did so for he never did nor ever could receive upon his back a better man then Mahomet But Alborach answered he would not admit him unless he would promise to procure him an entrance into Paradise which Mahomet promising he got up and the Angel led the Beast by the rains of the bridle till they were come to Ierusalem Now as they were in their way upon their journey Mahomet heard the voice of a certain woman crying to him aloud Mahomet Mahomet but the Angel forbad him to answer and when they had gone further another woman called him after the same manner but the Angel commanded him to hold his peace And that afterward he asked the Angel what these women were to which the Angel replied that the First was the Promulgatress of the Iewish the Second of the Christian law and that if he had answered to the first woman all the Mauri had become Iews if to the second Christians 3. When they had come to the gate of the Temple at Ierusalem that Mahomet lighted off from his beast Alborach and that he and the Angel went into the Temple where all the Prophets and Messengers of God that ever came into the world met him and saluted him saying Ioy to the Messenger and honourable Prophet of God Afterwards waiting on him in great pomp to the Chappell Mihrab with much reverence they desired him that he would pray for them all which when he had done they besought him also that he would be mindfull of them when he came into the presence of God This done they all went away and Mahomet and the Angel were left alone in the Temple 4. By which crafty figment Mahomet assuredly meant nothing else but a justification of himself for beginning a Third Sect distinct from the Religions of Iews and Christians and the recommendation of himself to the World as the greatest Prophet that ever yet appeared on earth But we are not come to the height of the Vision yet 5. The Angel and Mahomet afterwards coming out of the Temple found a Ladder made of Divine light which reached from Earth to Heaven whereby they both Mahomet bearing himself upon the Angels hand ascended up thither passing through seven Heavens The first of pure Silver where Adam was the second of Gold where Noah the third of a certain precious Gemme wherein was Abraham the fourth of Smaragdus wherein Ioseph the fifth of Adamant wherein Moses the sixth of Carbuncle wherein Iohn the Baptist was found and the seventh of Celestial light wherein was Iesus Christ. All these venerable personages welcomed Mahomet with loving salutations and kind embraces and commended themselves to him but in the seventh Heaven Mahomet seems to commend himself to Christ. The infinite numbers monstrous figures and immense bignesse of Angels that he sets off his Vision by for the greater astonishment of his Followers I thought good to omit as being too vile and tedious and he is not got to his journies end yet 6. The Angel Gabriel takes leave of him in this seventh heaven telling him he may goe no further with him but that God alone now must be his guide Mahomet therefore holding on his journie was carried on the tops of incredible heights and sublimities wading through much water and deep snow insomuch that he had been quite spent had not a voice refreshed him saying Mahomet come hither and salute thy Creatour He following therefore the sound of this voice saw so great a Light that he was almost blinded therewith For the Face of God was cover'd with veiles of Celestial light seventy miles thick to which he approached within the space
feet and they lout and ly prostrate to the names of those men whose lives if they were on the Earth again they are so contrary to theirs they would unreconcilably hate and scorn their persons for their meanness and tread them under feet nay it may be with more shame and cruelty then ever make them suffer once again those bloudy Martyrdomes 7. So that it is an uncouth spectacle to consider what strange ridiculous work these Satyrs Monkyes and Baboons I mean the unregenerated Mass of Mankind who are enlivened with nothing but the mere Animal life have made these many hundred years in the Wilderness with the most precious Truth of the Gospel what Sophistical knots and nooses fruitless subtilties and niceties what gross contradictions and inconsistencies the Schoolmen and Polemical Divines have filled the World with what needless and burdensome Ceremonies what ensnaring new coined Articles what setting up of self-flattering Sects and Interests what variously-carved Formes and new-fangled Curiosities have been contriv'd and shap'd out by either Superstitious Church-men or Carnal Politicians 8. But if there were nothing worse then this though this be ill enough the Scene would seem only Comical in comparison But at last the Ape cuts his own throat with the shoomakers knife and Christendome lyes tumbling and wallowing I know not for how many Ages together in its own bloud The reason of which is that in this long bustle for and great ostentation of an External Religion the inward life and Spirit of Christianity which consists in Humility Charity and Purity is left out and Pride Lust and Covetousness are the first movers in all our Actions So that though we be called by the name of Christ yet our hearts and reall services are grosly Pagan we consecrating our very Souls with all the Powers Affections and Faculties of them to the worst-titled Deities of the Heathen and being strictly commanded by our Saviour to love one another as it were in despight to shew what real Apostates we are to Paganisme rather pour forth one anothers bloud as a drink-offering to Mars then keep that inviolable and indispensable Precept of his whom we profess to be our liege Lord and Soveraign 9. Thus has it pleas'd that ever-watchfull Eye of Providence to connive as it were a while at this Pagan Christianisme as well as he did in former Ages at the ancient Paganisme But assuredly it will be better and all the glorious Predictions of the Prophets concerning Christ even in this World will not end in so tedious a Scene where there is so little good and such a floud of filth and evil But the Spirit of the Lord will blow upon these dry bones and actuate this external forme of Religion with life and power and the scales will fall from her eyes and that load of scurf and ascititious foulness will fall from her skin and her flesh shall be as of a tender child and she shall grow strong healthful and irreprehensibly lovely to look upon When these things come to pass the Divine Life will be in her highest Triumph or exaltation upon earth and this excellent state of the Church will continue for a very considerable time But the wicked shall again assault the just and Christ visibly returning to judgement shall decide the controversy 10. This is the truest and most faithful representation in general so far as my skill in Church-History or Prophecies will reach that I can make of that Interval of time betwixt Christ's powring forth of the Holy Ghost on his Apostles and his coming again to Judgement But because it would be a voluminous business more particularly to make good what I have asserted and that it is not so essential to the present purpose I have in hand I hold it not at all necessary to engage in any operose endeavours of demonstrating the truth of the conclusion I shall rather send him that doubts to satisfie himself in the perusing of the learned writings of that incomparable Interpreter of Prophecies Mr. Ioseph Mede whose proceedings are with that care and caution with that clearness and strictness of reason with that accuracy of judgement and unparallel'd modesty and calmness that the study and enquiry into these matters which had even grown odious and infamous by the wild and ridiculous miscarriages of hot fanatick spirits has in my apprehension gained much credit and repute by the orderly and coherent methods and unexceptionable ratiocinations of this grave and venerable Person Upon whose account I am not ashamed to profess that I think it clear both out of Daniel and the Apocalypse that the Scene of things Christendome will be in due time very much changed and that for the better And because there does nothing so much counterbalance the weight of Mr. Mede's reasons as the autority and lustre of that worthily-admired Name of the learned Hugo Grotius who has interpreted the Revelations to quite another sense the ingenuities and prettinesses of whose expositions had almost imposed upon my self to a belief that there might be some such sense also of the Revelation as he drives at to make all clear I shall take the pains of exhibiting both to the view of the Reader Who I hope will not take it ill that so pious so learned and judicious a person as Mr. Mede and that in a matter to which he may seem to be peculiarly selected and set apart to by God and Nature to which he mainly applied himself with all possible care seriousness and devotion should see further then Hugo Grotius who has an ample harvest of praise from other performances and who by reason of his Political emploiments could not be so entirely vacant to the searching into so abstruse a Mystery CHAP. XV. 1. Grotius his reasons against Days signifying Years in the Prophets propounded and answered 2. Demonstrations that Days do sometimes signifie so many Years 3. Mr. Mede's opinion That a new Systeme of Prophecies from the first Epocha begins Chap. 10. v. 8. cleared and confirmed 4. What is meant by the Three days and an half that the Witnesses lye slain 5. Of the Beast out of the bottomless pit 6. Of the First Resurrection 7. The conclusion of the matter in hand from the evident truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms 1. THE strongest Presumption that Grotius has against Mr. Mede's way is his confidence that Days never signifie Years Which if he could make good it would utterly invalidate and make useless the whole frame of Mr. Mede's Apocalyptical Interpretations But he affirms it with all boldness imaginable Dies etiam apud Prophetas dies sunt non anni ut quidam somniant And endeavours to prove it and pretends he has done it very plainly from Daniel 8.14 And he said unto me Unto two thousand and three hundred days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed compared with vers 26. And the Vision of the Evening and the Morning which was told thee is true that is saith he has nothing
as well as Christians to neither of which capacities could that fearfull destruction of their City be so comfortable a contemplation whenas it drew tears from our Saviour's eyes though at a greater distance of time And his great solicitude that they should have these things alwaies in remembrance after his death is a sign that what he insists upon is a matter of more consequence and longer continuance then what respects the Burning of the City 9. Furthermore the Argument whereby he would set on these things upon the Spirits and belief of them he wrote to that he was an Eye-witness of the glorious Transfiguration of Christ when his person appeared in that splendour which might become a glorified body such as himself will appear in at his return to Judgment makes it still more reasonable that that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that powerful coming of Christ there mentioned is his Final coming in Glory when he shall change our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious bodie according to the working of his mighty power This chief Article therefore of the Christian Faith in which all Christians are the most highly concerned was that which the Apostle did press so earnestly and carefully upon them before his departure which was the chief Prop of their Faith and Patience and which he affirmed from a special experiment of his own in that glorious Transfiguration on the Mount where Moses and Elias talked with Christ which was a most certain argument of the Soul's Immortality to be no cunningly-contrived fiction but a certain Truth both from what he saw there before his eyes and what he heard discoursed at that holy meeting Where the Passion of Christ was treated of and the exceeding glorious consequences of it of which the greatest of all is his last Return to Judgment when he shall consummate the Happiness of all Believers with everlasting glory and so restore the Creation to a perfect recovery into what they had fallen from and punish the obstinate with eternal Fire Which things being declared without the circumstance of the series of Time it was easie for those three Auditors on the Mount to conceive them to be very shortly to come to pass and therefore to make that Enquiry of Elias his coming first according as their Scribes taught them out of Malachi if simply the Appearance of Elias and his going away again contrary to their expectation and desire did not put them upon that question 10. But that the glorious Coming or powerfull Presence of Christ which he so solicitously would ascertain them of is not his coming to destroy Ierusalem appears further from the nineteenth verse of this Chapter where after he has endeavoured to establish them in the belief of that main Article from the resplendent Transfiguration of the person of Christ of which he was an Eye-witness on mount Tabor as also as Ear-witness of that voice from Heaven This is my beloved Son and of that precious Promise that he was to be the Performer of at the last day which Transfiguration was a visible pledge of his being invested into that supereminent office of the glorious Judge of the quick and the dead and had recommended to them also the Prophecies of the Old Testament as a light that shines in the dark to give some direction yet he insinuates further that they shall have a more clear and firm assurance of this so concerning a Truth the day dawning and the day-star arising at length in their hearts Which is very harsh to applie to any thing but to the more clear conviction by the Spirit of God in their Souls of the truth of this Promise of an Eternal Reward of that Crown of a blessed Immortality to be given at Christ's Return to Judgment at the last day These and such like considerations make it seem to me utterly incredible that by this Fiery Destruction should be understood the burning of Ierusalem and not the Conflagration of the Earth and by the Appearing and Coming of Christ so often mentioned in these Epistles his Vengeance on the Iewes and not his final Return to judge the whole World a supposition in my apprehension far more agreeable to the weight and gravity of this Apostles style Thus much by the way for the rescuing of these two excellent Epistles to that more natural and more solemn and useful sense they were ever understood in till of late though I must confess they have not depraved the meaning of the seventh verse of the last Chapter of the second Epistle it being indeed impossible to interpret it otherwise then of the burning of the World which alone is sufficient for our present purpose 11. We might adde several other passages as well in the Prophets as in the Apocalypse and other places that tend to the same purpose with this of S. Peter for the proving of this final Judgment of God by Fire as also such places of Scripture elsewhere as implie that there is some notorious Punishment reserved for the Devils which shall be inflicted upon them at last For when and upon what occasion can it begin so fitly as at the Conflagration of the World That there is a certain horrible torment in store for them is plain from Matth. 8.29 Art thou come to torment us afore the time and 2 Pet. 2.4 as also Ep. of Jude ver 6. where the Devils are said to be reserved in chains of Darkness unto the Iudgment of the great Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God has confined them to this lower Region of caliginous Air as to a dark Prison till the great Assizes as some very judiciously expound it With which places if you compare that last Malediction or severe sentence of our Saviour against the wicked Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels it will be very easie to infer what this final Punishment is and when and how it will begin But we need not insist upon these things we having sufficiently proved the point already CHAP. II. 1. The Fitness and Necessity of Christ's visible Return to Iudgment 2. Further arguments of his Return to Iudgment for the convincing of them that believe the Miraculousness of his Birth his Transfiguration his Ascension c. 3. Arguments directed to those that are more prone to Infidelitie taken out of Historie where such things are found to have hapned already in some measure as are expected at Christ's visible Appearance 4. That before extraordinary Iudgments there have usually strange Prodigies appeared by the Ministry of Angels as before great Plagues or Pestilences 5. As also before the ruine of Countries by War 6. Before the swallowing down Antioch by an Earthquake 7. At the firing of Sodome and Gomorrha 8. And lastly before the destruction of Jerusalem 1. IT remains now that we shew That these Three main Circumstances of Christ's coming to Judgment which we have proved to be contained in the Mystery of our Religion are
of our Bodies in the Resurrection Because say they the Anthropophagi or Cannibals are continually fed with mans flesh as also they feed one upon another To give therefore the highest instance against this Assertion How can that man say they that has been fed with mans flesh in a manner perpetually and at last himself fed upon by men have the same Body at the Resurrection For he will be left as bare of flesh as the Crow was of feathers when every bird had pecked away what belonged unto themselves Besides the hazard of losing that flesh that was his own if any was his own by being himself devoured and digested into the flesh and body of others 5. Their second Objection is against mens Bodies rising out of their graves and runs thus It implies say they that all men were buried whenas Myriads have been drowned in the seas and eaten by fishes Besides infinite numbers that have had the usual burial of their Nations have had a very inconsiderable part of their bodies committed to the ground only a few ashes in an Urn the rest of their body in the burning vanishing into Air. Which in some sort comes to pass in them that are wholy buried in the Earth For the Body rots and melts away there into fume and vapours which the heat of the Sun exhales and draws into the Air. Some it may be shoot up into the blades of Grass which either rots upon the ground or is food for horses to whose shares it doth not fall to have honest burial but lie to rot also in the open fields or else are eaten by those Creatures that at length doe so So that the Soul if she were to seek for her Body would hear more likely news of it in the Air then in the Earth So incredible is it that it is kept circumscribed in so particular a part of the Earth as the Grave 6. And lastly to make all sure They endeavour to enervate the very grounds and dig down the deepest foundation of this Assertion of Identity of bodies at the Resurrection by alledging that the very end thereof implies a contradiction For whereas the reason is given That the Body that was partner either in unlawfull pleasures or the laudable pains and labours of the Soul might partake also of her Punishment or Reward here they pretend that the Bodie is not the same numerical body throughout the whole life of a man no more then a river is the same river but that the Bodie wasts and is restored that the present Spirits Bloud and Flesh are passing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Heraclitus speaks and new supplies are perpetually made by food and that therefore we have no more the same numerical body always then the same numerical cloaths but that in both we wear out the old and get new but in our cloaths at once in our Bodies by degrees Wherefore to contend that the same numerical body shall rise that was buried and that upon point of Justice is to contend for the greatest piece of Injustice that may be For so shall the Body of an old man be punished for the sins of that Body he had when he was young 7. These and such like are the Arguments of those that would overthrow Religion upon this advange as they deem it and something they drive at that seems to tend to a perswasion of some kind of incongruity and incredibility in the matter but it will not all amount to an utter Impossibility But to me it seems so inconsiderable that I shall not vouchsafe it an Answer upon those terms and that Hypothesis they goe upon I shall soar a little higher that my way being aloft as the Wise man speaks I may be free from the snares beneath But what I answer I would be understood to direct to the Atheist and the Infidel permitting them that already believe the substance to vary their phansies with what circumstances they please But for these others I must hold them to hard meat and cut my skirts as short as I can that they sit not upon them CHAP. IV. 1. An Answer to their first and last Cavil from those Principles of Plato's School That the Soul is the Man and That the Bodie perceives nothing 2. An Answer to their second by rightly interpreting what is meant by Rising out of the grave in the general notion thereof 3. That there is no warrant out of Scripture for the same numerical bodie but rather the contrary 4. The Atheists Objection from the word Resurrectio answered whose sense is explained out of the Hebrew and Greek 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the meaning of them is in that general sense which is applicable as well to the Resurrection of the unjust as of the just 1. I Answer therefore first out of the best sort of Philosophers That Animus cujusque is est quisque and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Soul of every man is his individual Person and That she alone it is that hears that sees that enjoies pleasure and undergoes pain and That the Body is not sensible of any thing no more then a mans doublet when he is well bastinado'd And this Answer takes away all occasion of the First and Last Cavil For why are men solicitous of the same numerical body but that they may be sure to find themselves the same numerical persons But it being most certain there is no stable Personality of a man but what is in his Soul for if the Body be Essential to this numerical Identity a grown man has not the same individuation he had when he was Christned it is manifest that if there be the same Soul there is exactly the same Person and that the change of the Body causes no more real difference of Personality then the change of cloaths And why do men plead for the consociation of the Soul 's numerical body in Reward or Punishment but that they phansie the Body capable of pleasure and pain But they erre not knowing the nature of things the Body being utterly uncapable of all sense and cogitation as not only the best of the Platonists but also that excellent Philosopher Des-cartes has determined and is abundantly demonstrated in my Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul 2. This therefore being cleared I answer also to their second Cavil concerning mens rising out of the very graves they wery buried in That the expression is only Prophetical and Symbolical though I do not deny but that in some it may happen literally to be true and that it signifies no more then thus That the same men that die and are buried shall as truly appear in their own persons at the Day of Iudgment as if those Bodies that were interred should be presently actuated by their Souls again and should start out of their graves and to give an instance they shall be as truly the same persons as Lazarus when he rose body and
This destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven assented to by Heathens as well as Christians is so ample a pledge of the possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth that though I could out of Plinie and others adde other such like instances of Cities being burnt down with Thunder yet I shall content my self with this so notable an example And having shewn that there are such copious and rich treasures of the fiery Principle in Nature I shall make this brief demand Why may not this Principle sometime so break out and overflow that there may be an universal rage of Fire upon Earth as well as there was once of Water For the hidden causes and principles of Nature sometimes work scantly sometimes moderately sometimes as if they had broke all laws and bounds as is observable in Torrents and Earthquakes they sometimes being kept within the compass of a very few miles othersometimes being in a manner universal as those Earthquakes were that hapned in the years 367 and 1289. So flouds sometimes are so small that they scarce cover a whole Meadow othersometimes so great that they drown whole Towns and othersometimes they are either so large as to be universal or at least to cover vast Kingdomes and Continents at once Such were the Deluges of Deucalion of Ogyges and that of Noah So likewise we see also in History what particular executions the Element of Fire either by fulgurations from Heaven or eruptions out of the Earth has done on this House on that Town nay upon whole Countries why may not the rage of it then at last so break out that it may be called even a general Deluge of fire 7. This seems so farre from an Impossibility to Plinie that considering how full fraught the World is with this Element and how propagative it is of it self he saith it is the greatest Miracle of all that this universal Conflagration has not already hapned Excedit profectò omnia miracula ullum diem fuisse quo non cuncta conflagrarent CHAP. IX 1 The Conflagration argued from the Proneness of Nature and the transcendent power of Christ. 2. His driving down the Powers of Satan from their upper Magazine 3. The surpassing power and skil of his Angelical Hosts 4. The efficacy of his Fiat upon the Spirit of Nature 5. The unspeakable corroboration of his Soul by its Union with the Godhead and the manner of operation upon the Elements of the World 6. That the Eye of God is ever upon the Earth and that he may be an Actour as well as a Speculatour if duly called upon 7 8. A short Description of the firing of the Earth by Christ with the dreadful effects thereof 1. THat therefore which Nature seems thus perpetually to threaten of her self can it be hard for us to believe that Christ and his glorious Host of Angels who have a power above Nature will be able to effect when it shall seem good to him whom God has made visible Judge of the World Remember what command he had over the Elements when he was in the Flesh in the lowest state of Humiliation and what power he had over them that for so long time have been permitted to lord it in this grosser Elementary World whose Chieftain is called the Prince of the Aire Remember how by a word of his mouth he sent packing a whole Legion of his Kingdome at once What is it then that he cannot do in His exalted estate when he returns to Judgement in so exceeding great Majesty and Glory when he shall descend with the sound of the Trump and face the Earth with his bright squadrons and fill the whole Arch of Heaven with innumerable Legions of his Angels of Light the warm gleames of whose presence is able to make the Mountains to reek and smoak and to awake that fiery principle that lies dormient in the Earth into a devouring flame 2. But besides this By descending thus low they drive the old Usurper and his dark Legions from that upper Magazine and now can turn his Artillery against himself and make use of all the provision fit for Fire-Works For this is the time that Diphilus the Tragedian prophesies of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense The time will come when as the golden Sky His hidden fiery treasures shall let fly And raging flames burn up all and consume Filling both Earth and Aire with noisome Fume And if there were not here already matter enough to contrive into the most mischievous kind of fiery Meteors such as will be sure to do execution yet that Word that created all things can easily change so much of any Matter into such a modification as will most effectually serve for this heavy Vengeance 3. But I make no question but that there are Second causes on this side that Omnipotent Creative power of the Godhead that are sufficient for such ministries of Providence as this As truly those innumerable bright Legions of Angels may seem to be whose Skill and power of Imagination upon the Elements of Nature is certainly transcendently above what we can conceive their Faculties at least some of them as farr surpassing ours as ours do those of brute beasts who have not the least conceit of our power and artifice in doing things 4. What power think you then is in the Head of these Heavenly hosts Christ Iesus who in the flesh as I have often noted shewed such mighty specimens thereof over the Elements of the world The mere Fiat therefore of his Imagination and Will acting upon the Spirit of Nature whether nearer hand or farther of cannot but prove sufficient if he so please to undoe that universal coalition of particles out of which arises the Compages and consistence of every earthly Substance and to turn them into such a flame as some would have the whole Earth anciently to have been or so to moderate the action and fire it so deep and with such a qualification of parts as shall be most sutable to his present and after-design 5. This Effect will not seem beyond that inherent power in the Divine Soul of Iesus if we consider its unspeakable corroboration by his mysterious union with the Godhead and the obedience of the Spirit of Nature to the exalted powers of the Soul and the power of this Spirit upon the subtil matter of the World and the force of that subtile Matter to disjoyn all coalescencies and then the promptness of these dissolved particles to close again unto such a forme as the regulated activity of the Spirit of Nature shall command them into For all this is but an higher and diviner kind of Magick working by the excitation of the Spirit of Nature upon the changeable Elements of the world no Creation nor Annihilation of any thing 6. So that keeping our selves on this side the naked Deity to the consideration
Truth whose Foundation is no less firm then what is built upon these undeniable Grounds That there is a God and a Perfect and Particular Providence That there are Angels and Spirits of men really distinct from their Bodies and That the one as well as the other are lapsable Which things I have demonstrated partly in this present Treatise partly in other Writings and I appeal to all the World if they have any thing solid to oppose against what I have writ Moreover That this Lapse of Men and Angels is their forsaking of the Divine Life and wholy cleaving to the Animal without any curb or bounds whereby as well the fallen Angels or Devils as Man himself are become as much as respects the inward life mere Brutes being devoid of that touch and sense of the Divine Goodness And therefore their Empire is generally merely like that of the Beasts according to Lust and Power where the stronger rules with Pride and Insolency over the weaker and so the Devils being a degree above men of more wit and power then they it naturally falls to their shares to tyrannize over Mankind who were in the same condemnation with themselves having become Rebels to God as well as they 3. And it is but a piece of Wisdome and Justice in that great Judge and Dramatist God Almighty to permit this to be for a season And therefore the generality of the World were to be for a time under the Religion and Worship of Devils who were wild and enormous Recommenders of the mere Animal life to the sons of men without any bounds or limits themselves in the mean time receiving that tribute of abused Mortals which was most agreeable to their Pride and Tyrannical natures that is Religious Worship and Absolute Obedience as I have proved by many Examples in History 4. And that God should stand silent all this time is no wonder partly from what I have intimated already and partly because he is out of the reach of any real injury in all this as also because the Object of this irregular Fury of both Men and Devils in which they please themselves so much is but the Effect of that one Power from whence are all things or some shred or shadow of the Divine Attributes For I have shewn fully enough That all the Branches of the Animal life are good and laudable in themselves and that only the Unmeasurable Love and Use of them is the thing that is damnable The great Rebellion therefore of both Men and Angels is but a phrantick dotage upon the more obscure evanid and inconsiderable operations or manifestations of that Power which hoots into all 5. In this low condition is held the Kingdome of Darkness who maugre all their Lawlesness and Rebellion do ever lick the very dust of his feet from whom they have revolted For there is no Might nor Counsell against the Eternal God but his Will shall stand in all That all-comprehending Wisdome therefore was not outwitted by these Rebels but she suffered them to introduce a Darkness out of which herself would elicite a more marvellous and glorious Light and let them prime the tablet with more duskish colours on which she was resolved to pourtray the most illustrious beauty that the eyes of man could desire to look upon 6. And that there is a Lapse of Men and Angels is very manifest That of Man is so plain that not only the better sort of Philosophers such as the Pythagoreans and Platonists but the making of Laws and appointing of Punishments and mens general confession of their Proneness to Vice and Wickedness doth abundantly testifie And that there are wicked Spirits or evil Genii as well as good the Religion of the Pagans and the Confession of Witches and the Effects of them in the possessed are a sufficient argument 7. Now that Wisdome as I have said that orders all things sweetly is not in the least measure baffled by this Misadventure of the fall of Angels and Men but looks upon it as fit fuel for a more glorious triumph of the Divine Life And that noted Aphorisme amongst the Pythagoreans who laid no Principles for mean ends comes in fitly here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Worser is made for the service and advantage of the Better And the Kingdome of Darkness no question by Him that rules over all is very dextrously subordinated to the greater advantage of the Kingdome of Light it yielding them a due exercise of all their Faculties in the behalf of the Divine life which God most justly does magnifie above all things as also a most successfull victorie and triumph So that the Period of Ages ought to end so exact a Providence attending things as a very joyfull and pleasant Tragick Comedie This the Reason of man will expect upon supposition that there is a God and Providence as most certainly there is both especially if one quality of Souls and Spirits be better and more precious then another and the Divine life the most lovely Perfection of all 8. Which is as true as touch to all that have once tasted the Excellency of it and the Ignorance of the blinde is no argument against the certain Knowledge of them that see For one Soul Angel or Spirit though they may be the same in Substance as all Corporeal things are the same in Matter may differs as much from another as Gold Diamonds and Pearls do from common Dirt or Clay or the most exquisite Beauty from the horriblest Monster That therefore that is base shall be rejected and that which is precious and noble shall be gathered up in that day that the Lord shall make up his Jewels 9. And that there will be such a visible Day of Vengeance wherein the whole Earth shall burn with the wrath of God not only the common Fame throughout all Ages and Places of the Final Conflagration of the World and natural Reasons in Philosophy but also a necessity of some universal palpable and sensible Punishment on impudently-prophane and Atheistical People is a warrantable Inducement to believe 10. The great Good therefore that does arise out of this Revolt of Men and Angels is a setting the Activity of the Creation at an higher pitch and making the Emanations of all manner of Life felt more to the very quick exciting and employing all the Faculties and Passions of Souls and Spirits in a greater degree of life and motion with more vigilancy and a more favoury sense of acquired enjoiments then if there had been no such opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdomes 11. Now therefore though God may seem at first to give the Dark Kingdome and Animal life the start of the Divine yet he is in due time by some very effectual means so to raise up so to back and assist the Divine Life against the Powers of Darkness that she may be found to have very visible Victories against the usurpation of Satan over the sons of men Wherefore
the Immortality of the Soul the main Branches of the ancient Cabbala was also communicated But it is no where said nor can be conceived That God the Father distinctly from the Son and Holy Ghost gave the Law to Moses but it was an act as all acts ad extra are of the entire Godhead Nor is the Father nor the Holy Spirit excluded in the oeconomie of the Gospel but their Glory is acknowledged coequal and their Majesty coeternal Nor again can the Church ever cease to be under the Belief of Iesus Christ so as that any other God-service should justle that out by its succession For the Belief of the Promises of Christs coming again visibly to Judgement and Crowning his true members with Eternal Life and Glory must of necessity continue till the Promises themselves be fulfilled Which are but phantastically conceived to be fulfilled in the Service of the Love 6. Moreover how can that Dispensation pretend to be the Ministry of the Spirit where men are kept off from believing the inward manifestations of their own Mind where alone they can be properly said to be taught of God and urged to give up all their Light and Consciences to be rul'd at the pleasure of the Elders of his Family This is not to be inspired by God but to be taught merely by men and to be carved and shaped out like a piece of dead Marble by the hand of the Statuary So wholy unlike the Dispensation of the Spirit is this Oeconomie of the Service of the Love Beside that it is a piece of Rapine and Robbery to appropriate that to their Family which is the Peculiar of every true Believer in Christ who assuredly have the assistance of the Holy Spirit as I have proved at large in the following parts of my Discourse 7. But if any one will adventure to affirme That after this dead Forme of Religion and external flattery of the Person of Christ which has continued too-many Ages there will succeed a more general Reign of the Spirit of Life and experimental knowledge of his Sceptre and Power in us subduing all his enemies there under his feet and renewing the World in true Righteousness and Holiness it is that which I in no wise oppose nay I must confess I have a fatal and unalterable propension to think it to be true and that this may be that Regnum Spiritús which the Cabbalists of old did presage and does begin with the Reviving of the Witnesses in the Apocalypse of S. Iohn Of which things I have already spoke But in the mean time this is not the special work of any one man but like the Vision of Ezekiel where Breath comes from the four Winds of Heaven upon the bones already covered with sinews flesh and skin and behold they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great Army an orderly Company such as the Church of Christ ought to be For this Internal power of the Spirit will not annul or destroy the External Frame of Christian Religion as it referrs to the Offices of the Person of Christ the Head of his Church as these Satanical Impostors would pretend but rectifie and corroborate it and make it more irreprehensibly and enravishingly beautifull as there was more lustre in those raised Bodies after the Spirit of life had entred into them then when they were mere dead carkasses 8. Besides if we did conceive that this Dispensation of Christ in the Spirit was to be in a more special manner promoted by the Ministry of some one Person it does not at all follow that H. Nicolas is the man and not onely so but I am confident I shall make it manifest that it is impossible that it should be he Which I shall have sufficiently performed when I have demonstrated that he is nothing at all of that which he pretends to be but only a mere mistaken Enthusiast if not worse which was the last part of my Purpose And this I conceive is fully evinced by proving him to have laid aside all the Offices of the Person of Christ as he is Man and intercepted all the hopes of his Visible Return to Judgement in the clouds of Heaven and of rewarding all true Believers with that glorious Crown of Life in an Heavenly Body at the last day Which things are so clear in Scripture that the Scripture it self must loose its authority if these things once loose their belief as is manifest by what we have said already in this present Treatise And therefore he that denies these things it is plain he is not inspired of God but is a Minister and Factor for the Devil CHAP. XV. 1. That the Personal Offices of Christ are not to be laid aside That he is a Priest for ever demonstrated out of sundry places of Holy Writ 2. That the Office of being a Iudge is also affixed to his Humane Person proved from several Testimonies of Scripture 3. Places alledged for the excluding Christ's Humanity with Answers thereto 4. The last and most plausible place they do alledge with an Answer to the same 1. NOW that the Humane person of Christ as I may so call it is not to be laide aside is evident not to repeat what I have elsewhere alledged from the whole Epistle of the Author to the Hebrews For he that there is said to be an high Priest for ever is that very man who was crucified on the Cross at Ierusalem who was said to be like unto his brethren in all things that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things appertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that tempted And it is further clear that it is this very man we speak of in that he is said to be born not of the Tribe of Levi but of the Tribe of Iuda chap. 7.14 and yet he is there declared a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec Read the whole Chapter nothing can be more clearly asserted then the Everlasting high-Priesthood of this man who sanctifying the People with his bloud suffered without the gate Which are such particularities as must needs affix the Eternal high-Priesthood to the Humane person of Christ. Again in that he is said to suffer but once it is apparent that it is to be literally understood of his Humane person And every priest standeth dayly ministring and offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away sins But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God c. And yet more fully in the foregoing Chapter For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entreth into
have vented 4. Who also held That Angels and Devils are onely Good men and Bad men or their Vertues and Vices in whose footsteps this scholar of his Hen. Nicolas treads very carefully as appears from his Revel Dei cap. 14. where he makes the Righteousness the true Spirits or holy Angels As also elsewhere he saith that he that has the seven deadly sins in him is possest of the seven horriblest and destructionablest Devils intimating that the rest of the Vices are Devils also but not so destructionable And he insinuates further in the same place that the Seven Devils cast out of Mary Magdalen were those seven deadly Sins And I am certain that the most knowing of the Family have freely professed that there are no Devils nor Witches nor Angels but those in us Which things being supposed it is necessary either to cast away the Scriptures or else to allegorize them away into a mere moral or mystical sense as these Enthusiasts have done 5. They believing therefore the Existence of neither Angel nor Spirit of necessity they must believe no Immortality of the Soul And that they believe no such thing there is still a further evidence in that he never exhorts any man to Holiness upon that account which yet is he most powerful argument to make men good that can be propounded nor ever makes use of such places of Scripture as imply a blessed Immortality to come after this life in the literal meaning of them His encouraging his followers to comply with any Superstition be it never so uglily idolatrous rather then to expose themselves to danger agrees also well with this Supposition And some have noted that they have alledged this reason for it That the temple of God may not be destroied Whereby they mean their humane persons which they suppose lost irrecoverably in the death of the body And that there may be no doubt at all that this is their opinion I will conclude with a reference to one of his Epistles where he speaks to this very question which he does with so many hacks and hesitations with so much shuffling and doubling and insinuations to the contrary that no rational man can be unsatisfied but that he held it mortal For if he had held it immortal it had been impossible he should have concealed his opinion or intimated any thing to the contrary it being so useful a doctrine for others and so commendable for himself to profess Which obdurate conceit of his made him allegorize away all the Articles of the Creed and so deny the Resurrection of Christ as well as of all others that believe on him and being secure as he thought that he does not now subsist he could not dream of any Christ that could be Head of the Church but that mystical one he insists so much upon the Upright Being of the Love the Perfection of all And verily if there be nothing to come after this life I dare allow him to be as great a Prophet as either himself or his followers desire he should be esteemed 6. He is therefore upon his own Hypothesis very consonant to himself in removing the Humane person of Christ as a thing that has perished one thousand six hundred years ago and in riveting the Godhead into his own person so thwackingly and substantially as that he may give the World to understand that he was as much God as that Christ that died at Ierusalem and that all those that attained to the perfection of the Love were so too that he might abundantly compensate thereby the loss of that one that died upon the Cross having fallen into the hands of merciless sinners This I say is a consistent dream of his and that it is no more but a dream I partly have already and shall still more clearly demonstrate in this present Discourse 7. In the mean time it is very plain that though he sets out himself in such Seraphical language and adorns his own person with such gorgeous Titles as if nothing ever yet appeared in the World so holy and divine yet he is indeed much inferiour to the better sort of Pagans as being nothing more then an Enthusiastick Sadducee or a Fanatick Deist if so much For I wonder what a kind of God he imagins to himself to whom he makes the Senate of Heaven so unmannerly as to use such formes of speech to him as he does Revel Dei cap. 21. Go to then let it even be so O God it is vouchsafed thee that thou shouldest first bring forth a Declaration of thy right But I have no mind to dive any further into this depth of Satan from which I pray God deliver every good Christian CHAP. XVIII 1. The great mischief and danger that accrues to the World from this false Prophet 2. The probable Ferocity of this Sect when time shall serve and eagerness of executing his Bloudy Vision 3. That Familisme is a plot laid by Satan to overthrow Christianity 4. What the face of things in likelyhood would be supposing it had overrun all 5. The Motives that inforced the Authour to make so accurate a Discovery of this Imposture 1. OUT of the Description we have given hitherto we may easily compute the great mischief that accrues to the World from this false Pretender to Revelations whereever his Witchcraft has power to seize the spirit of a man For first That admirable Wisdome of God in the outward frame of Christian Religion as it respects the Person of Christ his endearing Passion his glorious Resurrection and Ascension his comfortable Intercession and his joyful Return to judgement when our Immortality shall be completed in heavenly Glory all this is swept away and therewith our assurance of Eternal Life And besides this that there may be nothing wanting to the perfecting of that monstrous Evil that is hatched in this Family it may prove a Pandora's box to Mankind even in this life if a more benigne Providence do not prevent it For they having as I have told you a full licence from their infallible Prophet to dissemble and aequivocate to comply with any Religion whatever they may multiply hiddenly in great numbers to the hazard of a State or Commonwealth For being taught by their illuminate Elders That there is nothing to be expected after this life it must needs make them hang their lips very longingly after the greatest enjoyments they can of this present World The Possession and Rule whereof their Prophet has promised them with such magnificent words and Enthusiastick Grandiloquence that they cannot but be inflamed into violent attempts upon the first occasion that they shall phansy safe to make use of And what full right do you think will they imagine themselves to have to fly upon all whenas they phansy the Head of their faction to be no less then Christ himself come to judge the World in righteousness 2. Wherefore if some sullen fellow amongst them of a peremptory and imperious Spirit
best have long since before this inveterate contest betwixt the Iew and Christian interpreted them so 5. The sixth Character of his Person is the Excellencie of his Doctrine This is intimated as I said Isaiah 53. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many but is more fully express'd Malachi 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his Temple which might have been produced as another Prophecie of the Divinity of the Messiah even the messenger of the Covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousness Whereby is plainly denoted the purity and sanctity of that Law and Spirit that the Messiah was to communicate to his serious followers that he would throughly purifie them and purge them from their Hypocrisie and Sinfulness And again Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall he not break and the smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgment unto truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his law Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant unto the people for a light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house And Isaiah 49. Listen O Isles unto me and hearken ye people from far The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowells of my mother hath he made mention of my name And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid me And verse 5. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Iacob again unto him Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength And he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Iacob and to restore the desolations of Israel I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles that thou maiest be my Salvation to the end of the earth My Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an allusion to the very name of Isaiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies The Salvation of the Lord Which seems to be alluded to in the first verse also from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name Which is so near a kin to the name of Iesus that the Messiah may seem to be prefigured in the very name of the Prophet Isaiah as well as in his Person As it must be confessed that both these two Prophecies do in some measure belong to Isaiah himself first But considering how the more excellent Kings and Prophets were to be Types of the Messiah and that the language is so very high it cannot be doubted but that in these Divine raptures and exaltations of Spirit the Minde and Tongue of Isaiah was carried above what was competible to his own Person and therefore must naturally be transferred to the Messiah it being plain from other places that there was at last to come some one transcendent Prince and Prophet anointed in an higher manner and measure then any other Which the Iews expected and called their Messiah And therefore it is therewithal manifest that their Messiah was to be an eximious Teacher Prophet or Law-giver 6. The seventh Character is that he should be very welcomely received of the Nations that which these last Prophecies also intimate But I shall add others also To this sense the Jews themselves interpreted that ancient Prophecie of Iacob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him shall be the gathering together of the Nations the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he is the hope or expectation of the Nations And there is yet one more ancient then that which implies it viz. the Promise to Abraham that he should be a Father of many Nations and that in his seed all Nations of the Earth should be blessed Of which other Prophecies also witness Isay 2.2 And it shall come to pass in the last daies that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it The Jewish Doctours themselves acknowledge this to be understood of the times of the Messiah And chap. 11. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious or Him shall the Gentiles seek viz. in a devotional way shall pray unto him and sing praises unto him For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And his rest shall be glorious sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum so some turn it and truely not rashly nor without cause For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in several places signifies the rest of the dead Job 3. v. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is in Iob's description of the state of the dead Also Proverbs 21.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall rest in the congregation of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is better for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one as appears Psalm 88. v. 11. Lastly Psalm 23. v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquae requietum implies such a rest as Sleep the brother of death For there is nothing more prone then to lye and sleep on the shadie banks of a River Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well signifie Dormitorium ejus or Sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum that is That it shall at last be exalted to the nature of a Temple he shall have Divine Honour done unto him and the Gentiles shall pray unto him and adore him as is intimated in the words immediately going before But this was more then
fruit of Godliness properly so called Nor can we applie our hearts seriously and sincerely to this kind of Godliness long but we shall find answers to our praiers and breathings after God beyond both our own expectation and the belief of others and therefore enjoying the victory through the Divine grace that is sufficient for us and getting so glorious a triumph over our lusts we finding our Souls transported with an high sense of thankfulness to our Redeemer and Benefactour who wants nothing of our retributions himself the stream of our affections is naturally driven downwards to his Church to the Saints that dwell upon earth and those that excell in vertue or at least pretend unfeigned endeavours after it And this is properly brotherly Kindness which carries our affections to those that profess the same Religion with our selves Which brotherly Kindness arises not only out of this consideration of thankfulness toward God but out of the very temper and condition of the Soul thus purified according to what S. Peter intimates that having purified our Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit the end and result thereof is the loving our brethren Or else what serves this Purification for Shall Envy shall Hatred shall Lust shall Ambition shall Luxury shall those enormous desires and affections be cast out of the Soul by Sanctity and Purity that she may be but a transparent piece of ice or a spotless fleece of snow Shall she become so pure so pellucid so crystalline so devoid of all stains and tinctures of all soil and duller colours that nothing but still shadows and Night may possess that inward diaphanous Purity Then would she be no better then the nocturnall Air no happier then a statue of Alabaster All would be but a more cleanly sepulchre of a dead starved Soul But there is no fear of so poor an event upon so great preparations For Love and Desire are so essentiall to the Soul that she cannot put them off but change them She is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Psellus calls her an immaterial and incorporeal fire an unextinguishable activity and will catch at some Object or other And therefore if she has ceased to love the world and the Lusts of her own body she will certainly love the body of Christ the Church and study how to help them and advantage them Nor can she stop here but this pure and quick flame mounts upwards and is reflected again downwards and vibrates every way reaching at all Objects in Heaven and in Earth as natural fire enters all combustible matter And therefore in her pure and ardent speculations of the Godhead and his unlimited Goodness and also her observations of the capacity of the whole Creation of receiving good both from him and one another she overflowes those narrow bounds of brotherly Love and spreads out into that ineffably-ample and transcendently-divine grace and vertue universal Charity which is the highest accomplishment the Soul of man is capable of either in this life or that which is to come and thus at last she becomes perfect as her Father which is in Heaven is perfect 5. This is that most excellent way which S. Paul speaks so transportedly and triumphantly of 1 Cor. ch 13. Where having first numbred out the manifold Gifts that God bestowed upon his Church as Preaching Prophesying working of miracles gifts of healing and diversity of tongues he immediately breaks out in the rapturous commendations of Charity above all Though I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels and have not Charity I am become as a sounding brass and a tinckling cymball And though I have the gift of Prophecie and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have no Charity I am nothing And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing And after he has raised our expectation and estimation of this Heavenly grace with these high words of his he does not as the vain Enthusiast does heat our phancies and leave our judgment in the dark but he does very distinctly and copiously describe to us the nature of this Divine vertue so that we may plainly know where to be and what to seek after and how to be satisfied whether we have attained to it or no. 6. Charity suffereth long and is kinde Charity envies not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave her self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evill complies not with iniquity but rejoiceth with the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things This is a very full and lively description of Love and Charity and the character of the sweetest and Heavenliest perfection that is communicable to the nature of man and so warmly poured out from the sincere heart of this rich possessour of it the holy Apostle that it is to me more moving then all the canting language of the highest fanatical Pretenders to the profession of this Mystery 7. This is the highest participation of Divinity that humane nature is capable of on this side that Mysterious conjunction of the Humanity of Christ with the Godhead and therefore this is that whereby we become the Sons of God as S. Iohn has evidently declared in his 1. Epistle general ch 4. Beloved let us love one another for Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love And vers 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another No man hath seen God at any time If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us And again vers 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Several other Testimonies there are of the high estimate the true Church of Christ has of this holy Vertue of Love but what I have already cited is sufficient to shew how urgent the Precepts of the Gospel are for this excellent branch of the Divine life which we call Charity as also how inexcusably injurious impious and blasphemous to Christ those fanatical Impostors are that revolt from the Church superannuate Christ's offices and antiquate the Christian Religion under a pretence of an higher dispensation and Revelation upon which they have set the Title or Superscription of Love adorning themselves with the Churches colours that by this evil stratagem they may the more safely fall upon her and destroy her at least seduce the most simple and many times the best-meaning members of the Church from their true Head Christ Jesus who ransom'd them with his own most precious bloud Whose Soveraignty over
that teach the contrary 1. AS for that Text which we deferred to speak to we shall now take it into consideration It was Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Iesus Christ even we have believed in Iesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified From this place of Scripture also there are some that would inferre a superannuating and annulling of all moral honesty and reall Righteousness whatever pretending that nothing but mere Faith is required to make us approvable before God And indeed they fansy that this whole Epistle administers invincible arguments to maintain this mischievous Conclusion though there be not to any indifferent Judge any solid reason of so full a confidence Which we shall easily understand if we take notice that the designe of this Epistle is only to reduce those Galatians again to the truth of Christianity that were almost apostatizing to Iudaisme and the Ceremonial Law of Moses Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed labour on you in vain Chap. 4.10 11. But the main scope of the Apostle is against Circumcision as is plain upon the very first perusall of the Epistle which he beating down together with the Law of Moses and extolling the Faith in Christ seems sometimes to excuse a man from walking according to the moral Law under the pretence of Faith in Christ. But as S. Peter hath well observed there be many things in S. Pauls Epistles hard to be understood which foolish men pervert to their own destruction But that we be not led into the same errour and mischief it will be of no small concernment to trace the footsteps of S. Paul that so we may wind our selves out of this dangerous Maze or Labyrinth 2. Whereas then he seems to nullifie or vilifie at least the Law in the advancing of that Righteousnesse that is by faith let us see what this Righteousnesse that is by faith and what that of the Law is Chap. 2.19 For I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I through the Law am dead unto the Law what a riddle is this that the Law should deprive it self of its disciples And yet it doth so For it is a Schoolmaster to Christ or rather an Usher which when it hath well tutour'd us and castigated us removes us up higher to be made in Christ perfect who is the perfection of the Law But the Law it self makes nothing perfect and this is the reason that Righteousness is not of the Law And to this purpose speaks the Apostle in this very Epistle at the 21 verse of the 3. Chapter Is the Law then against the promises of God God forbid For if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousnesse should have been by the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A law that could enliven and enquicken us But that is beyond the power of the Law That 's the title and prerogative of Christ who is the Way the Truth and the Life I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Joh. 11. This therefore is the Righteousness of Faith or belief far above the Righteousness of the Law or killing letter 3. Wherefore when this Faith is come that worketh us up to a living frame of Righteousness within us we are no longer under the servility of the Law of Moses but are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Now none are the children of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God as the Apostle elsewhere witnesseth in his Epistle to the Romans And those that have the Spirit of God what fruits they bring forth is amply set out by the Apostle in this to the Galatians chap. 5. v. 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance against such there is no law For indeed there is no need of it they being a law unto themselves So we see how those that are in Christ are not under the Law because that inward fountain of obedience or living law in their hearts is above it They do really and truly fulfill it through the Spirit that is by faith For that Spirit is the begetter of Love and Love is the fulfilling of the Law For all the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Gal. 5.14 This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another that ye may not do the things ye would Which certainly is the true and genuine sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius also has noted And these are contrary that is to say oppose one the other namely the Spirit the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end you may not do those things that your own corrupt will or carnall minde inclines you to which naturally coheres with what follows But if you be led by the Spirit you are not under the Law For against such there is no law as was said before Which implyes if they be not led by the Spirit they are liable to the curse of the Law to death hell and damnation For so also speaks the Apostle when he hath reckoned up the works of the flesh That they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God ver 21. And v. 25. he openly declares That they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts 4. So we see plainly that the Righteousnesse that is of faith is not a mere Chimaera or phansie but a more excellent Righteousness then that of the Law For the Law is no quickening spirit but a dead letter But Christ is the Resurrection and the Life And he is God our righteousness mighty to save and can with ease destroy the powers of death darkness and the Devil out of the Soul of man but we must have the patience to endure the work wrought in us by him I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And if we will still cloak and cover our foul corrupt hearts with forged conceits of Hypocrisie's own making and excuse our selves from being good to one another or to our selves because God in Christ is so good to us hear what the Apostle speaks in the sixth and last Chapter of this Epistle at the seventh verse Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also
mean The evidence that we are to be inwardly and really righteous and not only so but in an extraordinary manner are the two Powers of the Gospel that comprehend our great and ultimate duty of being holy as he that has called us is holy of becoming perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect The following Gospel-Powers all of them are aids and helps to this design The first whereof is The Promise of the Spirit through Christ's Intercession the second The Example of Christ the third The Meditation on his Passion the fourth on his Resurrection and Ascension and the last on the last Iudgement These Powers are of such admirable efficacy if rightly applied that they are able to pul down every strong hold and to cast out all evil imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ as the Apostle speaks No strength of habituated sin no violence of any lust shall be able to stand before them 3. The first of these Powers is The Promise of the Spirit I do not mean for the doing Miracles for that was but a transient business and accommodate only to the first Ages of the Church but for through-sanctification and cleansing us from all our sins and for our perfect growth in Righteousness and Holiness That this Power is a concomitant to the Dispensation of the Gospel in all true Believers is apparent both from the predictions of the Prophets and from the mouth of our Saviour and his blessed Apostles Esay 44. Hear now O Iacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen Thus saith the Lord that made thee and framed thee from the womb and will help thee Fear not O Iacob my servant and thou Iesurun whom I have chosen For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring And they shall spring up as among the grass and the willows by the water-courses Which Prophecie is most properly applicable to the Church of Christ who is the true seed of Iacob those wrastlers with God and strivers to get in at the narrow gate that leads to life they are the true Iesurun the upright of heart and sincere seekers after God those that truly hunger and thirst after righteousness and therefore God will satisfie them by the supernatural assistance of his blessed Spirit Again Ezekiel 36. ver 25. prefiguring the blessed dispensations of the Kingdome of Christ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and doe them Also Esay 41. v. 10. where certainly according to analogie of interpretations of Prophecie the seed of Abraham being a Type of the Spiritual Church of Christ and their warfare not carnal but spiritual nor the waters promised by Christ such liquors as run in Brooks and Rivers but emanations of the purifying and refreshing powers of the Spirit of God we may see with what close and faithfull assistance God is pleased to adhere to his true Israel in whom there is no guile but they are sincerely waging war and to the utmost resisting all the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil But thou Israel my servant Iacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaied for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded they shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them even them that contended with thee they that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee Fear not I will help thee Fear not thou worm Iacob and ye men of Israel behold I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaffe Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the whirlwind shall scatter them and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord and shalt glory in the holy One of Israel When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the vallies I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water This Prophecie is an exquisite description of those full and complete Victories the Church gets against Sin and Satan by the supernatural assistance of the Spirit of God Which Promise is again repeated in the following chapter which though it be larger then the former and part cited already to another purpose yet I cannot refrain from transcribing the whole it being so plain a Prophecie of Christ as appears from the fore-part thereof and of the power of his Kingdome through the Spirit for the vanquishing of all sin and wickedness in them that do truly believe Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgement unto truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his Law Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath to the people upon it and spirit to those that dwell therein I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to graven images Behold the former things are come to pass and new things do I declare before they spring forth I
Gardening and the like if he out of a foolish conceit of Light and Reason being only â—â—â—hin one and not without as certainly neither Ink nor Paper nor both put together are any more partakers of the Light of Reason then of Sense and Life would make no use of the Writings of Euclid suppose for Mathematicks nor any other Authour that has writ of such matters and so of the rest of the Faculties I named nor converse with any man by word of mouth nor cast his eyes upon what they have done but only think with himself and sit still by the light of his own lamp within dores will be a very sorry Mathematician Architect Husbandman or Gardener So certainly for Moral and Divine Truth he that will be so taught by himself that he will not use outward advantages such as the Holy Scriptures especially afford will be found at last to have been the Scholar of a very foolish and imperfect Master 4. Besides that these men contradict themselves in their own practices For they vilifie that by which they have been taught and retain the very phrases of what they have learned out of Scripture and know not how to speak without Scripture-terms nor can make any show without Scriptural allusions and that grand Document of keeping to the Light within us they borrow out of S. Iohn's Gospel and yet they are so phrantick and peevish that they would fling away the staffe without which they are not able to make one step in Religion Moreover if this Light within us is so precisely within us that it wants no information from without us why do they themselves scribble such abundance of Pamphlets make Catechisms set out Prophecies why do they exhort rebuke nay reproach and raile against men to convert them if what is without cannot reach that which is within or why do they meet together to hear some one of their Assembly after he has fallen down as in a trance and got up again dictate Oracles out of his disturbed breast For his words which they hear are without and beat upon the Ear they are not the Light within Wherefore it is plain that the Light within may be informed by something which is without whether by voice or writings And if so there is an obligation upon this Light within to be so considerate as to seek the most punctual information it can from what is most likely to inform it from without 5. And therefore they are with all diligence to examine the most venerable Records of Religion and especially of that Religion under which they were not only born but which is absolutely of it self the most renowned Religion that ever was in the World Which therefore none but such as are utterly averse from all Religion as being wholy given up to lust and prophaneness can without examination dare to relinquish and if they will examine it I mean the Christian Religion as it referrs to the Person of Christ that died betwixt two thieves at Jerusalem but rose again the third day that ascended visibly into Heaven and shall again return in a visible manner to judge the quick and the dead I appeal to this Light within them to their Reason and Conscience and that of the most cunning Impostors amongst them all or of whoever will join with them if the evidence for this Religion from Prophecie History and from the Nature of the Religion it self is not such as that nothing but Ignorance of the true meaning thereof and of its right design can hinder it from being acknowledged as a most certain Truth by any but those that are afraid that any Religion that leads to Holiness or promises any thing after this Life should be found true 6. As for that Objection taken from the mighty Power of the Spirit of God as if that were so sufficient of it self that belief therein and assistance therefrom would anticipate the mention and use of any other power whatsoever that may seem to confer to the End of the Gospel the Sanctification of our Souls I answer to this That they that do after this manner argue do erre not knowing the Scriptures For this Power of the Spirit communicable to Believers is not an absolute and omnipotent Power not to be resisted not to be frustrated if there be not due means and wise accommodations concurring with its workings or attempts to work But I may in some manner illustrate the condition thereof from what is observable in the Spirit of Nature the Principle of all natural Generations Growths and Perfections in which there is a kind of Hypothetical Omnipotency as to the work of Nature that is That this Spirit will not fail to assist and complete provided that such and such circumstances in Corporeal Agents be not wanting So is it also in this Divine Spirit or the Holy Ghost as it is communicable to us it will certainly assist and finish its work if there be no impediment on our side which it behoves us to remove out of the way nor any thing wanting which we can applie our selves to for the advance of our Faith perfecting of the holy life such as Meditating on the Scriptures Conferring with Holy men experienced Christians Using with devotion and reverence all the Ordinances of Christ. For though this assistance of the Holy Spirit be unspeakably powerfull to the sincere and diligent yet in the negligent and perverse as I said his attempts are frustrated And therefore Steven expostulates with the Jews in this sense Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost and elsewhere we are exhorted not to grieve the Spirit nor quench the Spirit Which expressions do plainly demonstrate that the Communication of the Spirit is not absolute and omnipotent but received according to certain laws and waies of God's own appointing who of his infinite wisdome has traced out such a method in Christian Religion as is most accommodate to gain Souls to himself of which we have heard part already and shall now proceed to the Four last Powers of the Gospel which are mainly instrumental to the work of the Spirit upon the Hearts of all true Believers 7. And the first of these is the Example of our ever-blessed Saviour who has given us no other Precepts then what himself was the exactest Pattern of and himself such a Pattern of Life that is of Faith in God of Humility Love and Purity that we cannot doubt in following his footsteps that we are in a wrong way he being by voices from heaven and by his miracles upon earth proved and declared to be the only-begotten Son of God Wherefore the nearer we keep to his path the surer we are that we walk upon sound ground Besides that he is our Lord and Soveraign and therefore natural Ingenuity will urge us forward to compose our lives so as is most agreeable to his fashion And he does expresly require this as a Testimonie of
Madness by the formal Pharisee 12. His Proneness to judge the true Christian according to the motions of his own untamed corruptions 13. His prudent choice of the vice of Covetousness 14. The Unreasonableness of his censure of those that endeavour after Perfection 15. His ignorant surmise that no man liveth vertuously for the love of Vertue it self 16. The Usefulness of this Parallelisme betwixt the Reproach of Christ and his true Members 1. AND thus you have seen Christ vindicated from all those several Suspicions and Aspersions laid upon him by malicious and ignorant men whereby they would represent him as not possessed of nor acting from so Noble and Divine a Principle of Righteousness as he himself profest and his Followers have ever witnessed of him In which I confess I have been something more large then might have been expected in pleading the cause of a Person so perfectly pure and innocent But I considering our Saviour Christ not so much in himself as in his members I mean his true members who have one common Spirit with him and how they are liable to the same accusations and misconstructions of spightfull and inconsiderate men that himself was in the flesh I thought it fit more fully to insist upon the clearing and well and rightly interpreting of all the Carriages of Christ that thereby those that call themselves his members may know better how to interpret one another or if they be not so themselves that they may however learn not to judge rashly and inconsiderately of them that are and walk indeed as he walked And that my foregoing pains may be the more effectual to this purpose I shall not stick to second them so far as to shew how men ordinarily cast the same or the like soil and dirt upon the truest members of Christ that they did upon Christ himself 2. And that you may take in this with the more evidence give me leave to prefix in your mind the right Image of a true Christian or living member of Christ. And such an one is he who is a branch of the same Vine has derived into him the same sap and Life partakes of one and the same Divine spirit with Christ the fruit whereof is to love God with all a mans heart and with all his Soul and his neighbour as himself and to doe so to others as he himself would be done to And that I may not name that only which seems nothing in too many mens eyes I add also To know and acknowledge the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent And surely whosoever has this in its due measure and vigour of life is conscious to himself and finds the sweet of so great and glorious an accomplishment of Mind that whatever the Wit or Humour of man can add to it will seem of little more value then dust and straws we tread under our feet 3. And now I have told you what a true and living Member of Christ is let me also tell you what a false or titular or Pharisaical Christian is And he is this One that has not the Divine Sap or Spirit derived to him as being and growing in and becoming one with the true Vine Christ Jesus and is not possess'd nor is sensible of that Sufficiency Joy and Satisfaction that is in the inward Life of Christ and the Spirit of Righteousness and eternal and undispensable Truth of God But being dead to what is most necessary pretious and saving in Christianity and only alive or mainly to the Spirit of the world loves himself with all his heart and all his soul and God and his Neighbour only for his own sake or rather uses and rides his Neighbour having haltered him or obliged him with some prudentially and judiciously-bestowed courtesies and worships God rather then loves him nè noceat beseeching him that upon a special Dispensation though he be no better then others nor ever intends nor hopes to be better yet that it may be better with him in the end then with other folk Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Or it may be what is little better then that in stead of the living Righteousness of Christ he will magnifie himself in some humorous pieces of Holiness of his own For he imagines there is a God and that it is safe to make a friend of him one way or other and therefore that his conscience may be the better excused from those things that are more weighty and substantial he will take up things according to his own humour and phansie as fasting twice in the week making long prayers hearing long sermons sticking curiously to some unnecessary uncertain and fruitless opinions concerning God and Religion such as are warrantable neither out of Scripture nor Reason and growing very hot and zealous in the agitation of these things though to the Disturbance of the Church of God and Injury of his Neighbour yet these trinkets and trumperies of his own humour and complexion this Heat this Noise this Zeal these are the Altar Fire and Holocaust wherewith he sacrifices to God and presents himself an Oblationer before the Almighty And all this to be excused from that which is the very End of all Religion and Worship that is the sacrificing of our own corrupt life and acquiring that prize that is set before us the holy Spirit of Righteousness Equity and Purity whose moderation and guidance is the Light of the world and the Life of man 4. And having thus though but loosely and rudely scattered the delineaments of these two opposite professours of Christianity the true Christian and Pharisaical Humorist I shall from hence as from the Cause and Original derive evidence and light to what I shall now propose to you by way of Parallelisme betwixt what our Saviour in his own person suffered of false Accusations and Aspersions and what his true and living Members are obnoxious to from that Spirit of Pharisaisme that has ever and does to this very day rule still in the world And first of the first Accusation that was laid to our Saviours charge viz. Blasphemy He hath spoken Blasphemy Matth. 26. It is apparent the Pharisaical nature being desirous to be excused from destroying and bringing to nothing in ones self all haughty and ambitious Designes Self-seeking Covetousness and Intemperance doth easily endeavour to make amends for this and to pacifie the conscience and approve ones self to God by laying out all our parts in spinning excellent high Subtilties and amazing Mysteries from any hints taken in Scripture and in adorning the nature of God and Religion according to the garishness of a mans own natural Phansie and Nicety of Wit Whence it may come to pass that these Traditionary Pharisees having made it their business to rack their natural unregenerate minds to find some magnificent conceptions as they imagine them to bestow upon the Deity that one freed by Christ
Ghost by his mysterious union with the Eternal Word by his miraculous Resurrection from the dead and by his visible Ascension into Heaven and Session now at the right hand of his Father This is warrant enough to do all Divine homage to our blessed Saviour as to the only-begotten Son of God And truly the Church to give them their due has not been sparing the very constitution of our Religion being so effectual for this purpose For so Divine a Person as Christ was namely The very Son of God and yet condescending to undergoe so horrid a death for the World how could engaged Mankind stint themselves from shewing of all manner of expressions of Love and Devotion toward him 3. Wherefore they erected innumerable magnificent Structures of Temples Chappels and other Religious Edifices and consecrated them to his Name They endowed the Christian Priesthood with ample Riches and Dignities set up Church-musick sung divine Anthems in honour of our Saviour adorned their Churches celebrated his Passion with unexpressible reverence instituted Festivals and filled both Time and Place with such variety of Ornaments that a man might observe that the greatest part of the Splendour and Pomp of Christendom was in reference to their Religion Which certainly would have been a very goodly and lovely spectacle if Superstition Hypocrisie and Ecclesiastick Tyranny could have been kept out 4. But this External Worship and the Ceremonies thereof things equally performable by the evil and the good by the regenerate and mere natural man these took growth enormously and like ranck Weeds choaked the Corn or what happens in full and over-fed bodies in which natural heat and activity is very much lost the huge load and bulk of visible Formalities extinguished the Life and Spirit of Religion 5. But however this outward Homage to our Saviour continued and does continue in a great measure over the face of Christendom to this very day though their expressions are not alike courtly every where Which continuation of Divine Honour done unto him cannot but gratifie his faithfully-devoted Servants they having a deep resentment of the shameful Sufferings their Lord and Master underwent out of his dear love to them and therefore do naturally rejoyce at this Tribute of Divine Adoration the World gives to so holy and sacred a Person it being so sutable a part of compensation of his Humiliation and Reproach Besides that they receive some satisfaction that Divine Providence has so brought it about touching the true Members of Christ whose Principles are so opposite to the Guise of the world and their Persons so contemptible that yet the World are fain with the lowest prostrations to adore that in Christ which they kick about and trample upon so in his despised Members But I will insist no longer on this Theme having spoke enough of it elsewhere We have now shewn the Usefulness of the Mystery of Godlinesse in all holy and religious respects I shall adde only a word or two in reference to things of this Life and so conclude the fourth part of my Discourse CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulnesse of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 1. THat Christianity contributes also to the Happinesse of this present World is evident both from the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles and also from the nature of the thing it self Matth. 6. Where our Saviour having exhorted us not to be over-sollicitous for the things of this Life food and raiment setting before our eyes the care of Divine Providence in Creatures of far lesse price then our selves how the Fowls of the Air are provided for that neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns how gloriously the Lilies of the Field are arraied that neither weave nor spin he concludes That we should not so eagerly and carefully seek after those things as worldly-minded men do But seek ye first the kingdom of God saith he and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you For your Heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things And Paul to Timothy Godlinesse is profitable for all things having the promise of this life and that which is to come 2. And if we consider the nature of the thing it self there is an accruement of present Happinesse from true Christianity not only by virtue of Promise but even by natural dependence of Causes and Events especially when that Christian frame of Spirit has arrived to any considerable degree of perfection and maturity For there is no such obliging person in the world as a mature and ripe Christian nor any truer Policy then to be obliging Which Temper the more sincere it is the more taking it is and the more sure Fortress against adverse Fortune Wherefore what advantage Humanity has he has it in the greatest measure Besides that his calm and castigate spirit makes him sensible discreet above all expression and of a sagacity beyond all conceit of the unregenerate man His Faithfulnesse also and honest and chearful Industry have their proper blessing attending them And his moderate desires of Riches and Honours and his laudable use of them unblemished with any blot of either sordid Covetousnesse or vain Ostentation prevents or beats back the ill-aimed darts of secret Malice and Envy And if but a meaner share of the things of this world be allotted to him yet his contentments are not the lesse he finding that true which both David and Solomon have pronounced That better is a little that the righteous has then great possessions of the ungodly And when more unsupportable pressures and afflictions fall upon him such as great Fits of Sicknesse Imprisonment and the Approaches of Death his Advantages in this Condition are unspeakably above what any other mortal is capable of For the more these urge his outward man the more his inward is inflamed and excited to the exercise of those powers that are most holy and precious and needing no admonition though so fit and apposite as that of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Circumstances of things themselves will assuredly awaken this Christian Champion to the exertion of all the strength of his Soul and to the successful use of his spiritual weapons wherewith he is armed against the day of battel For
nothing should be exhibited to their belief but what they will all affirm they have a satisfactory conception of they will at last tread down Religion to nothing For they will not stint themselves there I mean in the rejection of the Divinity of Christ and of a Triune Deity but the notion of Angels and Spirits and of an Immateriall Soul and lastly of any Being whatsoever that is truly spiritual will appear so inconceivable to some that at last Religion will be tumbled down as low as mere Body and Matter and will find no Object but the visible World and the Sun and Starrs must be the greatest Deities And so either the ancient Pagan Superstition or else down-right Atheisme must take place CHAP. IV. 1. The due demeanour of a Christian Mystagogus in communicating the Truth of the Gospel 2. That the chiefest care of all is that he speak nothing but what is profitable for life and godliness 3. A just reprehension of the scopeless zeal of certain vain Boanerges of these times 4. That the abuse of the Ministery to the undermining the main Ends of the Gospel may hazard the continuance thereof 5. That any heat and zeal does not constitute a living Ministery 1. SOme such account as this will the prudent Communicatour of the Mystery of Christianity give to him that asks a reason of his Faith declaring his sense of things with meekness and fear as S. Peter speaks that is to say with patience and mildness towards him whom he informs and with holy respect and reverence towards God whose Messenger in some sort he is and therefore ought to be careful that he mistake not his errand in any thing nor mingle of his own what he has no commission to speak nor distort the truth out of fear or favour nor make himself suspected by any levity or affected vanity in style or words that are misbecoming a matter of so great importance For quaintness of wit and studied eloquence may tickle the Ear for a time like a Musical aire the while it is playing but a faithful and serious declaration of the most weighty parts of our Religion will wound the very Heart and captivate the Soul to the Obedience of Christ. 2. And above all things he that either of himself adventures or has any better call to this office let him ever have in his eye the Usefulness of the Mystery he indeavours to communicate remembring that that is an Universal property thereof and that if either his inadvertency or curiosity has carried him into any Useless speculations or Theories he is most certainly led out of his way and that he is now imparting humane inventions which are nothing at all appertaining to the Gospel of Christ that he is now feeding his charge not with the sincere milk of the Word but the brackish sweat of some over-heated Brain This is the most common and the most dangerous mistake that is to be observed in this Function as if their very Art and Faculty were to let fly words for whole hours together whereof not one is directed or intended towards the mark and scope of the Gospel which is the rooting out of Sin and destroying the Kingdome of the Devil 3. And yet it is a wonder to see the zeal and heat and hear the noise of these Boanerges these Sons of thunder as if every sentence were fire and lightning from Heaven against the strong holds of Sin and Satan and that they would humble every thought to the obedience of Christ who came into the World to redeem us from all iniquity and to purchase to himselfe a Church pure holy and undefiled without either spot or blemish Which End notwithstanding is for the most part not onely not aimed at but too often crossed and supplanted by Hypocritical insinuations of either the Needlesness or Impossibility of these things To be short For the most part the discourse is so off and on that a man knows not what they would have but it is as if one should bring Grey-hounds into the field and let them slip and cry allooe when yet there is no game before them Which noise though it may make them skip up and look about a while yet they will presently finde themselves unconcern'd there being nothing in sight for them to pursue 4. But if they would exhort to follow peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord this were worth our pursuance indeed as being the known and certain end of the preaching of the Gospel But if we see no such design therein and therefore act opposite to it and vilify the dawnings of that Day of righteousness that is to arise upon the World and to make that Habitations of Christendome a Land of joy and peace and discourage the people of God by telling them dreadful stories of the Sons of Anak those invincible Giants whenas there is nothing too hard nor invincible to the true Iosua our Lord Jesus the wisdome power of God verily it is to be feared that this Function which was intended by God a Fortress against Sin if it prove by unskilful zeal such a Bulwark of unrighteousness that He may dig it down and remove it as a ruinous wall of a garden whose dead rubbish and stones ever falling on the innocent herbs and flowers do smother and stifle them or as an old decaied hedge which is to be pull'd up and carried away the quick-set being grown 5. But if we will work the works of the Lord in faithfulness and according to the design of the Gospel we our selves shall become part of that Quick-set and be made living stones to hold up one another in the Temple of God And that those that are not thus enlivened may not take themselves to be so by reason of their extraordinary promptitude and vivacity I must not forbear to declare that this life we speak of is no natural heat nor the external effects of it Nor is that a living Ministry according to this sense that makes shew of the greatest zeal For verily it is well known that cooling Physick may be administred in very hot broth And it is too-too possible that such things may be delivered with the greatest heat and fervency imaginable which once received into the Minds of the hearers are so far from warming them afterwards and spiriting them to true holiness and righteousness that they even slake and extinguish the desire thereof which yet is no less a crime then stifling the life of God in the World as much as in us lies and undermining the Kingdome of Christ upon Earth These things I could not but take notice of concerning the Communication of the Gospel as being of very great use as well to the Hearer as the Teacher that neither the one might mistake himself nor the other be deceived by him CHAP. V. 1. The nature of Historical Faith 2. That true Saving Faith is properly Covenant and of the various significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
contract and covenant in a familiar and kind way one with another And the holy Writers are so far from giving any considerable occasion to title the Gospel by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they frequently set it in opposition thereunto And if at any time they attribute that term to it it is ordinarily not without some softning or mitigating qualification as the Law of Faith not of Works and the Law of liberty Jam. 1.25 So that we see that there is a very sufficient ground why notwithstanding the Jews call'd their Pentateuch and other holy writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law that the primitive Christians should call the Evangelical writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant it usually also signifying Testament to which the Author to the Hebrews alludes chap. 9.17 which comes exceeding near to the nature of a Covenant where one is constituted Heir upon Condition 9. The very Title therefore of that Authentical Volume of our Religion gives some general knowledge of the nature of it if it had been fitly translated out of the Greek But the Latine Christians as well in the old as in the new Testament ever translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testamentum etiam ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominatur as Grotius takes notice whenas God yet cannot die and therefore will never have occasion to make his last Will and Testament have given occasion to our English Translatours to follow them in the Title of this Book and to render it Testament rather then Covenant by which notwithstanding is to be understood Covenant Otherwise if you understand a last Will and Testament what sense will the Old Testament bear CHAP. VI. 1. That there were more Old Covenants then one 2. What Old Covenant that was to which this New one is especially counterdistinguished with a brief intimation of the difference of them 3 4. An Objection against the difference delivered with the Answer thereto 5. The Reason why the Second Covenant is not easily broken 6. That the importance of the Mystery of the Second Covenant engages him to make a larger deduction of the whole matter out of S. Paul 1. IN general therefore our Christian Religion is a Covenant the Terms and Conditions whereof are comprehended in those Books which we ordinarily call The New Testament which were better and more significantly rendred The New Covenant The nature whereof we cannot so well understand unless we reflect back upon the Old Covenants mentioned in the Scripture which preceded this and there being more then one take notice which of them especially this New one is set opposite to That there is mention of more Covenants then one is manifest from Ephes. 2.12 And particularly Circumcision in the book of Moses and the Prophets is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament Acts 7.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God gave unto Abraham the Covenant of Circumcision 2. But questionless that One most eminent most solemn and most formal Covenant which God made with the Children of Israel beginning it at their going out of Aegypt but perfecting it on Mount Sinai in Arabia this is that Old Covenant chiefly glanced at by them that styled our Religion The New Covenant and they had a very good warrant for it out of the Prophet Jeremy ch 31. v. 31 32. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Aegypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people Which promise also is recorded in the 54. of Esay And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children So that there is found an Old and a New Covenant set opposite the one against the other by the Prophets own ordering The difference of whose natures consists mainly in this That the Old Covenant is an external Covenant something without a man the other an inwardly-ingrafted principle of Life This is that word which is in our heart as well as in our mouth of which Paul professes himself a preacher and therefore must be the gospel of Iesus Christ. 3. But you 'l say The Evangelists and the Apostles Writings are without too as well as the letter of Moses I but yet for all that it is very manifest and plain that they have not reached the Dispensation of the Gospel that have not attained to an inward principle of life Which being the great distinguishing design of the Gospel we are to look upon it in this design and end and that it has not done its work and is in a manner nothing to us till this be done He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of water And John 6. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Which passages plainly enough import the most intimate principles of life that may be the divine nature being turned as it were in succum sanguinem within us being converted into the juice and nourishment of our Souls 4. But our conversation under the Mosaical Covenant and our frame of Spirit there is but an ordinary accustomary temper or habit of doing or not doing such and such things and consequently all that righteousness but a fleshly rational fabrick of minde which Fear and Custome have carved out in the surface as it were of our Souls which characters by the same instruments are so preserved legible But under the Covenant of Christ nor Fear nor Custome but an inward spirit of life works us into everlasting holiness and a permanent Renovation of nature and Regeneration of the hidden man 5. From whence the reason is to be understood of that difference the Prophet Ieremie intimates betwixt the Old Covenant and the New That the old Covenant was broken by his people but the new one should not be broken For the one being an external yoke and the other the inward pleasure of life and radicate desire of the Soul it is no wonder that what is forced lasts not long but that upon the first opportunity and provoking occasion like unmanaged horses we cast off the burden that so pinches us and galls us in lying so heavy upon us and being no part of us But the perfect Law of liberty becoming as it were our own life and nature our greatest burden would
no better a dispensation then under the Law is plainly a Stranger to them For the Law conveies no life but all congruity sympathy and vital affinity must arise out of a Principle of life And hence it is that the Law makes nothing perfect and that Righteousness cannot be of the Law as I have above intimated out of the Apostle The Law therefore giving no life a mere Legalist is even a stranger to those things he practices and imitates under the Law and acts so as the Parot speaks by external imitation not from a due inward Faculty Secondly This Agar her condition was a bond-woman and what I pray you is it to be in bondage or not sui juris but to be constrained to act ad nutum alterius And in this condition are all those that are under the Law For they do not act according to a free inward and living Principle in them but are fain to be curb'd and fettered by an outward imposition which is perfect and proper bondage And there is no bondage but to doe or suffer otherwise then a man would himself 3. Thirdly Of this Agar is begot Ismael What 's that Ismael may signifie these two things viz. either one that has only a knowledge of God by hearsay from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus or so far as some external letter conveies it to him resolving all his faith in things concerning God into an outward Scripture only and haply is so earthly and carnal that he would scarce believe there were a God unless it were for the Scripture Or else from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedire from obeying God in a servile and external forc'd way For Obedience implies some kind of reluctancy or that that which we obey in goes something against the hair with us but yet in obedience to the Commander we doe it nevertheless as being bound to obey And this is most of all proper to them under the first Covenant For that Law not giving life there is no Principle of life and natural and genuine compliance of the Soul of man with the spirituality of the Law under the First Covenant and therefore that of the Law which he endeavours to perform must needs go cross to him and it will be merely the obedience to the Precept not the love of the thing that will make him endeavour the performance And this is the true condition of Agar's Son Ismael And it would not be unseasonable to add also that he is a great and fierce Disputer upon the letter a notable Polemical Divine and his ignorance and untamedness of his carnal heart makes him very bold and troublesome his hand is against every man and every mans hand against him as the Scripture witnesses of him But I will not insist upon these things Fourthly and lastly This Ismael the Son of Agar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was begotten and born after the flesh or according to the ordinary and accustomary power of Nature And such an one is he that is merely under the First Covenant He is not born of the Spirit or regenerated 〈…〉 nary power and assistance of God which he that is un 〈…〉 Covenant takes hold of by Faith in the Promise but toiles and tugs with that Understanding and ordinary Naturall power is in him of externally conforming himself to the proposed Rule and under this poor dispensation when he is come to the best of this his either birth or growth he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is but Flesh and not Spirit For that which is born of the Flesh that is of our own natural abilities is but Flesh but that which is born of the Spirit that is of God and his Divine seed in us that is Spirit the true Spiritual man the Lord from Heaven Heavenly in a Mystical sense But this under the Law is but the Son of the Flesh or the Earth is not a Son of that Ierusalem that is from above the Heavenly Ierusalem which is the Mother of as many as are real and true Christians For this is Sarah the Free-woman but the old Ierusalem is in bondage with her Children as the Apostle plainly tells us 4. And thus far have I described the condition or nature of the Old Mosaical Covenant so far forth as is intimated in the Text. I proceed now to the Second or New Covenant under Christ. And the first Particular in the Protasis here is Sarah Domina a Free-woman libera à vitiis ac ritibus as the Interpreter speaks very well one that is not commanded into obedience by others but is sui juris does what she pleases and so she may very well for nothing pleases her but what is good and therefore fit to be done For Sarah or the New Ierusalem from above is of one Spirit and one mind with Christ. And this is the true Church of Christians in whom the body of sin being dead they are free from it as the Apostle speaks to the Romans being quit thereof they walk freely and safely etiam custode remoto that surly Paedagogue the Law no longer dogging them at the heels For whatever it can suggest from without the Spirit of God whispers to them from within or indeed that living Form of all holinesse and righteousnesse the Image of Christ recovered in them guides them as easily and as naturally to as our external Senses guide our Natural man in this outward and visible world This therefore is the condition of the Church of Christ and every true member of it at least arrived to its due maturity and perfection that every Soul there is as Sarah Domina as a Queen Regent in her little world her self acting nothing forcedly but freely as from a living principle and keeping those under her in due order and subjection Which condition undoubtedly the Scripture does point at in such phrases as these He hath made us Kings and Priests and elsewhere You are a Kingly Priesthood and the like 5. Secondly Of this Sarah was born Isaac which signifies Laughter and is a signe of Chearfulness and Ioy. Because he that is a true Christian acts and walks with joy and chearfulnesse in the waies of holinesse and righteousnesse And herein is he mainly distinguished from Ismael who acts merely out of obedience to an external form and so forces himself against the hair to do or omit that which were it not that he was bound in obedience to do or omit he would take the boldnesse to neglect his inward principle being contrary to it As for example he would revenge did not the Law forbid him he would immerse himself into all manner of Sensual pleasures were he not aw'd as an hungry dog by the lash and penalty of the Law and so in other things But the Soul of a true Christian in whom Isaac is born does not act what is good or omit what is evil out of any force or fear of
Spirit in us that was in him here on Earth And therefore there will be in our very Souls an high Sympathy and ineffable pleasure and liking of that Nature and Spirit that breaths in all the actions and speeches recorded of our Saviour and a transporting delight in all the Precepts of the Gospel whether delivered by himself or his holy Apostles they will be sweeter then the honey and the honey-combe and more desirable then thousands of gold and silver as the Prophet David speaks 5. Wherefore we are never to be quiet till we find our selves fully enamoured on the very Character and Genius as I may so speak of our blessed Saviour and find our selves so affected as he was affected in the world And therefore we are to adde to our external profession fervent Prayer to God not only to resist temptations or to doe outward good works but that he would also wholly renew our nature in us that our Regeneration may be perfected and that we may be entirely transformed into the lively Image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And this not only at set times but continually as we have opportunity and vacancy from the throng and urgency of worldly affairs For then should we commune with our hearts and meditate on that divine Image and Character The Life of Christ and observe wherein we are most wanting and to what part thereof our affections are the most cool and so with serious and earnest ejaculations to God implore the help and assistance of his Spirit to compleat the good work that he has begun in us and so we shall fulfill that Precept of the Apostle Pray continually that is whether upon the emergency of some temptation or upon self-examinations and devout Meditations 6. And as we are to pray continually so we are to watch continually that is to pass from one transaction to another with circumspection making our very converse with men and affairs in the world an advantage to our main design of improvement in the Divine Life For coming thus out into company and emploiment we have thereby a present exercise of that Grace that is in us and can find thereby the better our own inabilities and defects as also what strength we are of and what proficiency we have made in the way we have chosen And so what we have will be thereby corroborated and what we want being discovered to our selves we know the better to ask it at the hands of God 7. Thus will the work assuredly go on by perpetual Meditations Prayer and Watchfulness And while thou art thus taken up with thy self take heed how thou meddlest with other men And particularly beware of despising the publick Ordinances of thy Church For thou mayst hear the same advice given thee in the open congregations that thou hast assented to as true in thine own Conscience from a faithful and knowing Ministry Which if thou beest what thou pretendest to will delight thy heart both in that it is a Testimony of the Truth and that it may take effect in others by God's blessing as well as in thee Wherefore it is no sign of a New-Covenanter but of a proud and carnal mind and of a wicked designer to vilifie these things 8. Moreover thou art to take this Advertisement along with thee concerning thy converse with men That first thou censure not any man for external matters of an indifferent Interpretation in Diet Apparel or Civil behaviour whether he be more courtly or plain in carriage whether more chearfull or more sad whether he drink wine or refrain from drinking whether he wear good clothes or goe in a meaner dress and so of other things of like nature Thou oughtest I say to passe no censure no not so much as in thy tacit thoughts about these things but esteem every man from what is truly Christian or Unchristian in him And then secondly Thou art carefully to take heed that the just liberty of another lead thee not into any inconvenience by tempting thee to imitate him But thou art strictly to keep to what thou knowest in thine own Conscience to be most for thine own safety that the good work may goe on in thee and that Righteousness may have its firm rooting and full growth But in the mean time thou art to look after thy self as a tender child or sick person who are rightly forbidden such things as grown men and in health take their liberty to make use of These two Cautions will prevent all Scandal whereby thou maiest either harm thy self or be injurious to others 9. Lastly I shall more particularly and expresly recommend to thee the frequent Meditation of these three branches of the Divine Life Humility Charity and Purity together with their deepest Root Faith in God through Iesus Christ. For if this be not taken in thy progress in the Second Covenant may degenerate into a mere accustomary or complexional frame of Morality and have nothing in it that is really Divine I am sure it will not be of that nature as to fit thee for that Eternal salvation that is promised to those that are true Believers And as concerning those Three branches of the Divine Root I would have thee to place them ever in thine eye and examine all the motions and excursions of thy Spirit into outward actions how sutable they are to these and closely observe when thou thinkest thy self so zealously carried out by the moving of one of these Principles if thou dost not run counter to another Nay it may be thy Enthusiastick Heat may carry thee so far as to sin against that very Principle that thou thinkest thy self to be moved by 10. Thus whilst thou affectest too extravagant expressions of thy Humility the discreet and knowing in Religion will thereby find out thy Pride As if thou shouldest not be content to entertain the poor at thy table but thou wilt also wait upon them with a trencher in thy hand bare-headed and doe all the offices of a Servitour to them as if thou wert celebrating the old Saturnalia Look to thy self that there be no touch of Vain-glory in it and that thou dost not desire to be talked of Consider also if it be not an offence against Charity and a scandalizing those that are without who if they can fansie thee sincere will be forcibly invited to deem thee very fanatical and melancholick and that all Religion is nothing else But true Charity doth nothing unseemly 11. When the desire of Purity also puts thee upon the chastisement of thy body doe it so hiddenly that thou maiest not offend against Humility by thy Pharisaical ostentation Wherefore if thou dost give thy mind to the mortification of the flesh shew it not to men in thy sordid clothes nor in thy sour face and hard looks but keep it to thy self as secret as thou canst that he that seeth in secret may reward thee openly 12. Art thou warmed with the sense of Charity which thou
I further add touching all this rest of Mankind which I speak of That there is Grace sufficient offered to them some way or other some time or other and that several of them according to their faithfulness to that light and power which God has given them shall be actually saved At which sentence neither the Arminian ought to repine nor the Calvinist For whatever good Arminianism pretends concerning all mankind is exhibited to this part not absolutely elected and to the other part the Goodness of God is greater then is allotted by Arminius And whatever good there is pretended in Calvinism to that part that is absolutely elected the same Goodness is here exhibited and besides that direfull vizard pull'd off that Ignorance and Melancholy had put upon Divine Providence and on the lovely Face of the Gospel 4. I may adde to this That he that finds himself in an extraordinary powerfull manner carried to that which is good may as fully ascribe it to God's free grace as in the Calvinistical Hypothesis and he that has no mind to Goodness cannot lay the fault on God but himself Nor can Satan tempt by that forcible stratagem to either despair or dissoluteness suggesting that if a man shall be saved he shall be saved or if damned he shall be damned and that he can neither help on the one nor hinder the other For unless a man be very deeply radicated in Faith and sincere Obedience I should hold it a piece of fond Self-Flattery to take himself for one of the Elect whenas he may hold of a more seasonable Tenure and act accordingly as a Probationer and when he has got to that irrelapsable condition of those whose Souls are after a manner perfected in Faith and Holiness it will better become him then to entitle God alone to all those Transactions wrought in him and to take up that saying of Jacob Verily God was in this place and I knew it not and name the place he slept in Bethel The Temple of God For such is the body of every Regenerate Christian and especially of the Elect. 5. This Concession of ours thus far as it is most true and certainly not unserviceable for the promoting that thankfull and humble frame of Spirit that would attribute all to the Irresistibleness of free Grace and to the force of their particular and irrevocable Predestination and Election so is it also a mighty safeguard from those dangerous miscarriages that too often happen the other way Wherein there being no mean but one must be either Elect or Reprobate how prone is it out of Self-love to take up a stout and peremptory conceit that a man is the Childe of God destinated thereto before the foundation of the World and that he can no more miss to be saved then he did to be born But as for others poor Offalls and Out-casts of the Creation that they can never find out the way to Heaven and Salvation do what they can let them importune God and vex and weary Nature never so much but are like Sampson with his eyes put out brought upon the stage of this World only to make the Philistims merry or at best to be mere foils and blacks to set off the beauty and lustre of the secure Saints who being unavoidably caught as it were in a nooze or fast snare of Salvation laid for them from all eternity so soon as they once phansy themselves taken by the leg do so bounce and dance in the string with that enormity and violence as if they tried by their wild tugs and jerks whether the force of their Corruption or the Decretall thread be the stronger 6. Nay do grow up to such a pitch of Fool-hardiness as to think themselves not possibly able to run themselves out of breath by the most wild and dissolute courses imaginable nor remove themselves one hairs breadth out of God's favour for all this In fine do proceed so far as to acknowledge no Law but their own Lust and the fulfilling their own masterless will and consequently do conclude that they cannot sin Thus imitating a false Pattern and making themselves compendious Puppets or Pocket-medals of that great Idol of theirs for it is no God that wills as they say merely because he wills And so they dance and sport about the imagination of their own heart as the children of Israel in the Law-givers absence did about the molten Calf Thus has this dark Conceit which some rash spirits have endeavoured to make essential to Christianity led many one into secure Libertinism first and after into most desperate Atheism CHAP. VI. 1. The Scholastick Opinions concerning the Divinity of Christ applied to the foregoing Rules 2. As also concerning the Trinity 3. The Application of the Antitrinitarian Doctrine to the said Rules It s disagreement with the third 4. As also with the second 5. The Antitrinitarians plea. 6. An answer to their plea. 7. How grosly the denying the Divinity of Christ disagrees with the third Rule 1. THE next Opinions that occur are those concerning the Divinity of Christ and the holy Trinity And first those of the Schools of which I shall only say in general That though their industry and sincerity of their design may be commendable which was to unite the Humanity of Christ of Hypostatically to the Divinity that there should be no suspicion of Idolatry in doing the highest divine Honour to Him we call the Son of God and that therefore what they drive at is very agreeable to the second Rule we have set down yet for my own part I think they have made so little proficiency to the main End that that one plain expression in Athanasius As the Body and Soul is one man so God and Man is one Christ is better then all their curious definitions of things which reach to no greater Hypostatical union then that of the Body and Soul whenas I dare say if it were searched to the bottom the Union betwixt the Divinity and Humanity in Christ is more one and more exact then that of Soul and Body which they call Hypostatical But they have defined things so unskilfully and perplexedly that though their design be agreeable to our second Rule yet their performance does clash much with the third and fourth Such contradictions or unintelligible spinofities weakening Faith and hindring the passage of the Gospel to them that are without 2. Which may be rightly said also concerning their subtil and inconsistent disquisitions and conclusions touching the Trinity Wherein though their design be in the same respect commendable as before yet they have made the mystery so intricate and contradictious that they weaken the Christian Faith to those that are within and make it less passable and recommendable to strangers and have given occasion thereby to some bold Spirits it being so disadvantageously represented to them to deny the whole Mystery whereby they have purchas'd to themselves the Title of Antitrinitarians 3. Whose Opinion I
purpose to redeem the world from their vain Conversation and to abolish or destroy the works of the flesh and the devil to tell God in our devotions a long story of our own Fleshliness and Devilishness and to intimate to him to his face that however his Free-Graciousness is content it should be so and that in the application of Christs Righteousness God cannot nor will not see any Unrighteousness of ours and therefore which is worst of all after many long and tedious narrations of which the greatest part is a very foul and black Catalogue of our faults to depart out of his presence without either Hope Resolution or Endeavour of being any thing better then we are Is not this I say to pervert and make ridiculous the good counsel of God even in his own hearing and to jeer him to his face But however he may connive for a while at these follies or affronts yet he will not alwaies keep silence and hold his hands Non semper stolidam praebebit vellere barbam Iupiter He will not alwaies be put off with solemn whimperings Hypocritical Confessions ruful faces sore arms and legs tied up and set on wooden stumps with dolefull acknowledgements of but wilful Misery and Poverty of feigned and counterfeited Maimedness and Inability If his Indignation be kindled yea but a little it will burn off our wood and force us to finde our legs yea and use our arms too to fly or fend off if it were possible the strokes of Divine Vengeance that will justly finde us out CHAP. VIII 1. The flaunting Hypocrisie of the Perfectionists and from whence it comes 2. The easie Laws whereby they measure their Perfection And the sad result of their Apostasie from the Person of Christ. 3. That there is far more Perfection in many thousands of those that abhorre the name of Perfection then in these great Boasters of it 4. In what consists that sound and comely frame of a true Christian Spirit 1. ANd thus much of that creeping Hypocrisie that walks with a still and demure pace in these Opinions of Imputative Righteousnesse Empty Faith and Invincible Infirmity Contrary to which is that flaunting Hypocrisie of the high-flown Perfectionists whose Constitutions yet are ordinarily as unsound as the former and far more opposite and repugnant to the very frame and spirit of the Gospel nay I dare adde that it is an Opinion cunningly urg'd by the envy of the Devil himself upon hot fierce eager and melancholy Spirits that fly high and are exceeding subject to Self-Pride and Arrogance to obliterate in them the remembrance of the Passion of Christ and to elude the use of that precious Sacrifice to slake the affections of men to him and to draw them off from dependence any way on his Person Which we may be the better assured of if we consider what easie Laws they measure their Perfection by and their Freedom from Sin 2. For any ill Motions though never so strong if not assented to they have no shame nor conscience of and if they be carried by the strength of Temptation to commit the act then they lay the blame on the impetuosity of the assault conceit themselves to be only as ravished Virgins according to the softness of their phansie and favourable opinion of their own sincerity deflowred against their own will and still stand upon Self-Justification And what is yet more execrable when they are come to the height of their begodded Condition and arrived to the state of full Perfection then like the Indian Abduti or Spanish Illuminati they cannot sin do what they will let them commit what Foulness they will what Injustice or Cruelty soever is suggested to them these unclean and proud Fanaticks take it all to be Inspiration or else are emboldened at last by the upshot of their Luciferian Apostasie from the simplicity of the Truth of the Gospel to hold that there is no Difference of Good and Evil and that Sin is but a Conceit no real Miscarriage but to those that know not their own Liberty Which final Result of things does plainly indigitate who moved at the bottom of the business in their first alienation from the Person of our Saviour And the Justice of God is very observable in such Apostates how they are strucken with Blindeness how silly and weak they are in their Reason and Imagination and their Lives and Actions odious and abominable 3. But that the Religion of these Perfectionists is not merely a surprisal by the sleights of Satan but a studied and premeditated Revolt from their allegiance to our blessed Saviour though first suggested by the envy of Lucifer against the Son of God is too-too plain in this That when they seem most tolerable and to have some conscience of their waies yet what Christians are troubled at and asham'd of they will not acknowledge to be Sin lest they should seem to want the Sacrifice of Christ or be beholden to him for his Sufferings Which is a sign as I have already said that Familisme was invented by the malice of the Devil to lay aside the Office and Person of Christ let them talk as highly and gloriously of their begodded Estate as they will which their Infernal Teacher has taught them to boast of so much that Christ may seem lesse God then he is But I dare pronounce that thousands of poor modest Christians that abhorre the name of Perfection and speak much of Iustification by Faith alone of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness and complain of their own Infirmity very sadly and seriously have yet arriv'd to a far greater degree of Perfection then these Self-Magnifiers and rude Insulters over these humble and contrite Spirits who having no ill meaning by those frames of speech that are taught them are affectionate Adherers to their Saviour and out of their due reverence to God and hearty abhorrence from all shew of or least approach toward sin and wickedness take Sanctuary in Christ and ease their Souls by their reliance on his Atonement and Intercession for such Infirmities as these bold and fanatical Boasters would bear men in hand and perswade themselves not to be at all sinful And now whether these rampant Enthusiasts or the humble and orthodox Christian be of the sounder complexion let any man that is not wilfully blinde give sentence and how allowable the Doctrine of these Perfectionists is whenas it traiterously strikes at the Person of our Saviour and at the antiquating the office of his Royal Priesthood and is cross to that lovely and decorous frame of spirit which is required of all men and most of all of Christians that they be humble and lowly of minde which the Death of Christ and our reliance upon his Intercession and Sufferings for favour at the hands of God does naturally nourish and keep off that swollen unwholsome distemper of Arrogance and Self-weening 4. In which that no man may mistake me to his own prejudice I say that
not look then like a piece of irreligious rudeness which is truly a kinde of Prophaneness to expect that Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ should give us the meeting in squalid and sordid places even then when we pretend most to shew our Reverence and Devotion to him For though we may make bold one with another to meet where we please yet we making our approaches to God in those places and he thereby making his special approaches to us for in a Philosophical sense he is every where alike questionless it cannot but be an expression of our Reverence unto him to have the Structure of the place proportionably capacious well and fairly built and handsomely adorned and as properly and significantly of our Religion and devotional homages we owe to our crucified Saviour as can be without suspicion of Idolatry or any scandalous Superstition For it is true from the very light of Nature which the knowledge of Christ does not extinguish but direct and perfect That Houses of Publick worship ought to have some Stateliness and Splendour in them expressive of the Reverence we bear to the Godhead we do adore And therefore the Christian Magistrate for the honour of his Saviour who suffered so much shame for him as also for making Christian Religion more recommendable to them that are without for Religion will not seem Religion to any without Publick worship nor a desirable Religion unless this Publick worship be performed with inoffensive Splendour and Decency ought to assist and abett such good practices as these 3. It is beyond the limits of my present Discourse to make any curious inquisition or determination concerning the particularities of this Publick Worship though I cannot abstain from giving some general hints concerning the due managements of the chief matters thereof such as are most obvious to think of and most useful to consider And such are the Enquiries into the nature of the Place of this Publick worship and the Holiness thereof and our Demeanour therein and especially of those chief performances of Preaching Praying Receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme also and of Holy-days To which we may adde those accessory helps of Devotion as some account them Musick and Pictures Concerning which I shall rather simply declare my sense of things then solicitously endeavour to demonstrate my Conclusions by over-operose Reasonings which will but raise a dust and provoke the Polemical Rabble 4. Concerning therefore this House of Publick Worship the Christians meet in I conceive there is no need to phansie it a Temple nay rather it seems fit to look upon it as no Temple the use of that Ceremony being antiquated by the excellency and supereminency of our Religion For the famed Iehovah is not now a Topical Deity nor Christ confined to this or that City or People but is the declared Worship of the whole Earth and is not contained within the wals of any Temple but has his personal Residence in Heaven whither our Devotions are to be directed and our Mindes suspended and lifted up thitherward not debased nor defixed to the corners of any earthly Edifice into which when a man looks he findes nothing worthy of adoration To which Truth both Stephen and Paul give their suffrage the one declaring to the Iews the other to the Areopagites That the most High who is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And our Saviour himself to the Samaritan woman who was solicitous which of those Temples that of Samaria or that of Ierusalem was the right place of Worship he tels her plainly that such Topical or Figurative worshipping of God was shortly to cease That the hour was coming and then was when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth that is by the inward Sanctity of their Souls and with the true service of Prayers and Praises and Alms-deeds of which Incense and Sacrifices were but the figures and shadows Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And lastly S. Iohn in his Apocalyps describing the condition of the New Ierusalem which is the Church of Christ in her best state I saw saith he no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it That is their worship is directed immediatly towards God and Christ not to any place as the Jews ever worshipped toward the Temple of Ierusalem 5. But though the nature and name of a Temple does not belong to this House of Publick worship according to the sense of Scripture which made also the Primitive Christians carefully abstain from that nomination yet I do not see any ground at all why some of our phanciful Sects should take offence at the name of Church applied thereto For the Church being an house wherein we meet to serve the Lord whether God the Father or Christ his Son both which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this house is naturally there from denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek whence is our English word Church as every trivial Grammarian can tell them 6. But now it being thus plain that it is an house for Divine worship and therefore has a special relation to God though it be not dedicated in such a solemn manner as Solomon's Temple yet it does necessarily contract a kinde of Holiness hereby and by this Holiness some measure of respect namely that it should be kept in handsome repair and be carefully defended from all foulness and nastiness both within and without And because Custome has appropriated it to the service of God unless very great necessity urge it is not to be made use of to any other purposes Those that are otherwise affected in this matter may justly seem guilty of a kinde of Incivility against God as I may so call it and hazard the being accounted Clowns in the sight of the Court of Heaven and all the holy Angels As that also might be reputed a piece of unskilfulness and obsolete Courtship to complement any one part of this House as if there were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and the Ark of the Covenant For this would be to turn the Church of Christ into a Temple Wherefore those that at their entrance into the Congregation either kneel down or standing do their private devotion and continue bare-headed before Divine Service begin they mean not this Devotion to the Edifice but testifie only with what fear and reverence they make their approaches to God and their Hearts being in preparation to a nearer approach shew their sense of his coming nearer to them by this reverential observance For Veneration is done at the coming of great
to him and from his being a Sacrifice for sin 5. That to deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ or to make the Union of our selves with the Godhead of the same nature with that of Christ's subverts Christianity 6. The uselesness and sauciness of the pretended Deification of Enthusiasts and how destructive it is of Christian Religion 7. The Providence of God in preparing of the Nations by Platonisme for the easier reception of Christianity 11 CAAP. VI. 1. The danger and disconsolateness of the Opinion of the Psychopannychites 2. What they alledge out of 1 Cor. 15. set down 3. A Preparation to an Answer advertising First of the nature of Prophetick Schemes of speech 4. Secondly of the various vibration of an inspired Phansie 5. Thirdly of the ambiguity of words in Scripture and particularly of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. And lastly of the Corinthians being sunk into an Unbelief of any Reward after this life 7. The Answer out of the last and foregoing Premisse 8. A further Answer out of the first 9. As also out of the second and third where their Objection from verse 32. is fully satisfied 10. Their Argument answered which they urge from our Saviours citation to the Sadducees I am the God of Abraham c. 15 CHAP. VII 1. A General Answer to the last sort of places they alledge that imply no enjoyment before the Resurrection 2. A Particular Answer to that of 2 Cor 5. out of Hugo Grotius 3. A preparation to an Answer of the Author 's own by explaining what the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie 4. His Paraphrase of the six first Verses of the forecited Chapter 5. A further confirmation of his Paraphrase 6. The weakness of the Reasons of the Psychopannychites noted 19 CHAP. VIII 1. That the Opinion of the Soul 's living and acting immediately after Death was not fetched out of Plato by the Fathers because they left out Preexistence an Opinion very rational in it self 2. And such as seems plausible from sundry places of Scripture as those alledged by Menasseh Ben Israel out of Deuteronomy Jeremy and Job 3. As also God's resting on the seventh day 4. That their proclivity to think that the Angel that appeared to the Patriarchs so often was Christ might have been a further inducement 5. Other places of the New Testament which seem to imply the Preexistence of Christ's Soul 6. More of the same kinde out of S. John 7. Force added to the last proofs from the opinion of the Socinians 8. That our Saviour did admit or at least not disapprove the opinion of Preexistence 9. The main scope intended from the preceding allegations namely That the Soul 's living and acting after death is no Pagan opinion out of Plato but a Christian Truth evidenced out of the Scriptures 21 CHAP. IX 1. Proofs out of Scripture That the Soul does not sleep after death as 1 Peter 3. with the explication thereof 2. The Authors Paraphrase compared with Calvin's Interpretation 3. That Calvin needed not to suppose the Apostle to have writ false Greek 4. Two waies of interpreting the Apostle so as both Grammatical Soloecisme and Purgatory may be declined 5. The Second way of Interpretation 6. A second proof out of Scripture 7. A third of like nature with the former 8. A further enforcement and explication thereof 9. A fourth place 10. A fifth from Hebr. 12. where God is called the Father of Spirits c. 11. A sixth testimony from our Saviours words Matth. 20.28 25 CHAP. X. 1. A pregnant Argument from the State of the Soul of Christ and of the Thief after death 2. Grotius his explication of Christ's promise to the Thief 3. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. How Christ with the Thief could be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise at once 5. That the Parables of Dives and Lazarus and of the unjust Steward imply That the Soul hath life and sense immediately after death 28 BOOK II. CHAP. I. HE passes to the more Intelligible parts of Christianity for the understanding whereof certain preparative Propositions are to be laid down 2. As That there is a God 3. A brief account of the Assertion from his Idea 4. A further Confirmation from its ordinary concatenation with the Rational account of all other Beings as first of the Existence of the disjoynt and independent particles of Matter 31 CHAP. II. 1. That the wise contrivances in the works of Nature prove the Being of a God 2. And have extorted an acknowledgement of a General Providence even from irreligious Naturalists 3. That there is a Particular Providence or Inspection of God upon every individual person Which is his Second Assertion 32 CHAP. III. 1. His Third Assertion That there are Particular Spirits or Immaterial Substances and of their Kinds 2. The Proof of their Existence and especially of theirs which in a more large sense be called Souls 3. The Difference betwixt the Souls or Spirits of Men and Angels and how that Pagan Idolatry and the Ceremonies of Witches prove the Existence of Devils 4. And that the Existence of Devils proves the Existence of Good Angels 34 CHAP. IV. 1. His Fourth Assertion That the Fall of the Angels was their giving up themselves to the Animal Life and forsaking the Divine 2. The Fifth That this fall of theirs changed their purest Vehicles into more gross and feculent 3. The Sixth That the change of their Vehicles was no extinction of life 4. The Seventh That the Souls of Men are immortal and act and live after death The inducements to which belief are the Activity of fallen Angels 5. The Homogeneity of the inmost Organ of Perception 6. The scope and meaning of External Organs of Sense in this Earthly Body 7. The Soul's power of Organizing her Vehicle 8. And lastly The accuracy of Divine Providence 35 CHAP. V. 1. The Eighth Assertion That there is a Polity amongst the Angels and Souls separate both Good and Bad and therefore Two distinct Kingdomes one of Light and the other of Darkness 2. And a perpetual fewd and conflict betwixt them 3. The Ninth That there are infinite swarms of Atheistical Spirits as well Aereal as Terrestrial in an utter ignorance or hatred of all true Religion 37 CHAP. VI. 1. His Tenth Assertion That there will be a final Overthrow of the Dark Kingdome and that in a supernatural manner and upon their external persons 2. The Eleventh That the Generations of men had a beginning and will also have an end 3. To which also the Conflagration of the world gives witness 39 CHAP. VII 1. His Twelfth Assertion That there will be a Visible and Supernatural deliverance of the Children of the Kingdome of Light at the Conflagration of the World 2. The Reason of the Assertion 3. His Thirteenth Assertion That the last vengeance and deliverance shall be so contrived as may be best fit for the Triumph of the
Theologers by so muchâ— the more pleasant to the ears of the Atheists 2. That the Resurrection in the Scholastick Notion thereof was in all likelihood the great Stone of offence to those two Enthusiasts of Delph and Amsterdam and emboldened them to turn the whole Gospel into an Allegorie 3. The incurable condition of Enthusiasts 4. The Atheists first Objection against the Scholastick Resurrection proposed 5. His second Objection 6. His third and last Objection 7. That his Objections do not demonstrate an absolute impossibility of the Scholastick Resurrection with the Author's purpose of answering them upon other Grounds 221 CHAP. IV. 1. An Answer to their first and last Cavil from those Principles of Plato's School That the Soul is the Man and That the Body perceives nothing 2. An Answer to their second by rightly interpreting what is meant by Rising out of the grave in the general notion thereof 3. That there is no warrant out of Scripture for the same numerical body but rather the contrary 4. The Atheists Objection from the word Resurrectio answered whose sense is explained out of the Hebrew and Greek 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the meaning of them is in that general sense which is applicable as well to the Resurrection of the unjust as of the just 223 CHAP. V. 1. An Objection against the Resurrection from the Activity of the Soul out of her Body with the first Answer thereto 2. The second Answer 3. The special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first belonging to the unjust the latter to the just 4. That the life that is led on the Earth or in this lower Region of the Air is more truly a Death then a Life 5. The manner of our recovering our Celestial Body at the last Day 6. And of the accomplishment of the Promise of Christ therein 226 CHAP. VI. 1. That he has freed the Mystery of the Resurrection from all Exceptions of either Atheists or Enthusiasts 2. That the Soul is not uncapable of the Happiness of an Heavenly Body 3. And that it is the highest and most sutable Reward that can be conferr'd upon her 4. That this Reward is not above the power of Christ to confer proved by what he did upon Earth 5. That all Iudgment is given to him by the Father 6. Further arguings to 〈◊〉 same purpose 228 CHAP. VII 1. Caecilius his scoffs against the Resurrection and Conflagration of the World That against the Resurrection answered already 2. In what sense the soberer Christians understood the Conflagration of the World 3. That the Conflagration in their sense is possible argued from the Combustibleness of the parts of the Earth 4. As also from actual Fire found in several Mountains as Aetna Helga and Hecla 5. Several instances of that sort out of Plinie 6. Instances of Vulcanoes out of Acosta 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla 8. Vulcanoes without smoak having a quick fire as the bottome 9. Vulcanoes that have cast fire and smoak some thousand of years together 10. Hot Fountains Springs running with Pitch and Rosin certain Thermae catching fire at a distance 230 CHAP. VIII 1. A fiery Comet as big as the Sun that appeared after the death of Demetrius Comets presages of Droughts Woods set on fire after their appearing 2. Of falling Starres Of the tail of a Comet that dried up a River 3. Hogsheads of Wine drunk up and men dissipated into Atoms by Thunder 4. That the fire of Thunder is sometimes unquenchable as that in Macrinus the Emperours time and that procured by the Praiers of the Thundering Legion 5. Of conglaciating Thunders and the transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt 6. The destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven That universal Deluges and Earthquakes do argue the probability of a Deluge of Fire 7. That Plinie counts it the greatest wonder that this Deluge of fire has not haâ—â—ed already 233 CHAP. IX 1. The Conflagration argued from the Proneness of Nature and the transcendent power of Christ. 2. His driving down the Powers of Satan from their upper Magazine 3. The surpassing power and skill of his Angelical Hosts 4. The efficacy of his Fiat upon the Spirit of Nature 5. The unspeakable corroboration of his Soul by its Union with the Godhead and the manner of operation upon the Elements of the World 6. That the Eye of God is ever upon the Earth and that he may be an Actour as well as a Speculatour if duly called upon 7 8. A short Description of the firing of the Earth by Christ with the dreadful effects thereof 236 CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithfull 239 CHAP. XI 1. A Recapitulation or Synopsis of the more Intelligible part of the Christian Mystery with an Indication of the Usefulness thereof 2. The undeniable Grounds of this Mystery The existence of God A particular Providence The Lapsableness of Angels and men The natural subjection of men to Devils in this fallen Condition 3. God's Wisdome and Iustice in the Permission thereof for a time 4 5. Further Reasons of that Permission 6. The Lapse of Men and Angels proved 7. The Good emerging out of this Lapse 8. The exceeding great Preciousness of the Divine Life 9. The Conflagration of the Earth 10. The Good arising from the Opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdome 11. That God in due time is in a special manner to assist the Kingdome of Light and in a way most accommodate to the humane Faculties 12. That therefore he was to send into the World some Venerable Example of the Dâ—vine Life with miraculous attestations of his Mâ—ssion of so sacred a Person 13. That this Person by reason of the great Agonies that befall them that return to the Divine Life ought to bring with him a palpable pledge of a proportionable Reward suppose of a Blessed Immortality manifested to the meanest Capacity by his rising from the dead and visibly ascending into Heaven 14. That in the Revolt of Mankind from the Tyranny of the Devil there ought to be some Head and that the Qualifications of that Head ought to be opposiâ—e to those of the old Tyrant as also to have a
42. r. in time who pag. 242. l. 4. r. true in l. 7. r. needfull Before l. 8. r. Idea we pag. 349. l. 46. r. is built but. pag. 376. l. 37. r. dangerously as in Christianity pag. 379. l. 27. r. righteous As. pag. 426. l. 14. r. sindge pag. 491. l. 37. r. near two thirds pag. 525. l. 10. r. any other Religion In Printing PAg. 25. l. 23. for Souls and Spirits read Souls or Spirits p. 42. l. 10. Embraces r. Embracers p. 80. l. 38. Pan Lycaeus r. Pan Lycaeus p. 87. l. 30. That r. 3. That p. 188. l. 22. but not better dele not p. 190. l. 12. clap ' r. clap'd p. 224. l. 7. wery r. were p. 372. l. 2. glisning r. glinsening p. 309. l. 39. or men r. for men p. 339. l. 42. hat r. thaâ— p. 342. l. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 379. l. 34. whatsoever So r. whatsoever So. p. 412. l. 33. 7. r. 8. p. 470. l. 5. conveies read conveighs The Authors naturall averseness from writing of Books That there was a kinde of necessity urged him to write what he has wrote hitherto The occasion of writing his Psychozoia As also of his Poem Of the Immortality of the Soul His Satyrical Essays against Enthusiastick Philosophie The great usefulness of his Enthusiasmus Triumphatus and of this present Treatise for suppressing Enthusiasme The occasion and preparations to his writing his Antidore against Atheisme and his Threefold Cabbala The urgent occasion of writing this present Treatise as also of his Discourse Of the immortality of the Soul His account of the Inscription of this present Treatise Revelat. 14. His Apology for his so copiously describing the Animal Life And for his large Parallel betwixt Christ and Apollonius The reason of his bringing also Mahâ—â—et upon the Stage and H. N. and of his so large â—xcursions and frequent Expostulations with the Qâ—akers and Familists That the wonderful hopes and expectations of the Religious of the Nation yea of the better-meaning Fanaticks themselves are more likely to be fulfiâ—led by this happy restoring of the KING then by any other way imaginable Wherein consists the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme That the Honour of beginning that pure and Apostolick Church that is so much expected seems to have been reserved by Providence for CHARLES the Second our gracious Soveraign with pregnant arguments of so glâ—rious â—n hope The reasons why he did not cast out of his Discourse what he had written concerning Quakerisme and Familisme notwithstanding the fear of these Sects may seem well blown over through the happy settlement of things by the seasonable return of our Gracious Soveraign to his Throne The reason of his opposing the Familists and Quakers above any other Sects His excuse for being less accurate in the computation of Daniels weeks As also for being less copious in the proving the expected restorement of the Church to her pristine purity together with a Description of the condition of those happy ages to come That this Discourse was mainly intended for the information of a Christian in his private capacities What points he had most probably touched upon if his design had urged him to speak any thing of Church-Government Revelat. 13.11 A Description of such a Bishop as is impossible should be Antichristian Why he omitted to treat of the Reasonableness of the Precepts of Christ. That the pains he took in writing this Treatise were especially intended for the Rationall and Ingenuous His Apology for the sharpness of his style in some places An Objection against Mr. Mede 's Apocalyptick Interpretations from the supposed sad condition of all Adherers to the Apostate Church with the Answer thereto The Adversaries Reply to the foregoing Answer with a brief Attempt of satisfying the same An Apology for his free dislike of that abused Notion of Imputative Righteousness His Defence for so expresly declaring himself for a duly-bounded liberty of Conscience a The Word of God b The Divine Word c God d The First-born Son of God John 8.58 See further of this Subject book 9. c. 1. sect 6. and chap. 2. throughout Chap. 1. v. 12. Chap. 4. v. 8. 2 Cor. 5. Job 38.19 21. Heb. 12.9 * The Spirits of just men made perfect * He descended into Hell * Hades ordinarily translated Hell * He descended * To descend into Hell * For I will go down into the grave to my Son mourning * To Hâ—ll or Haâ—â—â— * Into an obscure and invisible whether the air or some subterraneous place * The invisibility and uncolouredness of the Air is called Hades or Hell * Hades * See my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 2 4 5 6. * See my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 7. sect 16 17 18. and chap. 8. throughout Book 2. chap. 17 18. * See The Immortality of the Soul Book 3. chap. 18. Lib. 1. Lib. 5. Psalm 147.10 11. Job 31.26 27 28. * a divine Man * a divine Daemon * a divine Angel * See further of this Book 8. chap. 11. * See Cabbala Philosophica on Gen. chap. 2 and 3. * The Natural Iupiter * i. e. The Natural Philosophers called the Sun the Minde or Soul of the world But the world is called Heaven which they name Iupiter * See book 5. chap. 16. sect 5. * See further of this Book 8. chap. 15. Rom. 1.19 20. Acts 17.30 * The inward Word * The outward Word or Speech 1 Cor. 2.14 2 Tim. 1.10 John 12.31 Lib. 1. * Adversus Valent cap. 1. * Therap l. 7. * In Protrepi See Purchaâ— his â—ilgrim Part 1. Book 1. Chap. 15. * i. e. That he burnt his own son offering him as an Holocaust according to the customes or superstiâ—ious rites of the Canaanites * The sacrifices of the dead Many Angels of God having to doe with women begot insolent and injurious children despisers of all goodness by reason of their confidence in their own strength Lib. 3. * The fabulos time * Heroical Ephes. 1.10 John 1. v. 32. Need Security or Confidence in Predestination or the Decrees of God and Hope of worldly honour and preferment Luk. 9.34 Mark 6.5 6 * Luk. 4.39 * in types * in words * It is for the same Author to restore what had perished who had made what before had no being 1 Cor. 12.3 John 7 3â— * See Book 7. chap. 17. sect 8. Lib. 1. Lib. 15. John 2.19 Matth. 12.39 40. Wisdom chap. 2.14 15. 1 Cor. 15.58 * See Book 7. chap. 4. * See my Discourse Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 8. * Mark 16.19 * See Book 3. Chap. 3. Matth. 20.22 Matth. 28. 18. See Book 3. ch 17. sect 4. Heb. 4.15 * See Book 4. Chap. 15. Sect. 6. Act. 7.56 Act. 9.4 * the moral meaning of a Fable * See Enthusiasmus Triumphatus sect 34. art 9. * See Iohan.
Slave under the First that acts not out of a principle of Love and inward Life and liking but out of some external respect and cares not how little he does or what is the frame of his mind so he may but scape being well cudgelled for the present and receive at last the promised wages of his Master But under the Second Covenant the case is quite otherwise For the true Christian there is impatient of Sin merely because it is Sin and bears the same analogie to the sense of his Soul that a wearisome or torturous disease does to the sense of his Body and therefore it is intolerable till he be freed from it and that the more by how much the more assured he is that it is contrary to the will and minde of Christ who came into the world to heal us of our iniquities and to free us from all sin 5. And therefore lastly we are never to rest contended till we find our selves through the power of God arrived to this state and frame of spirit and that in such an height as is competible to humane nature that there may be nothing undestroied that is contrary and opposite to the Life of God in us That that may be fulfilled which is prophesied in Isaiah That they that fight against Israel shall be as nothing and they that strive with him shall perish Thou shalt seek them and shalt not finde them even them that contended with thee they that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought CHAP. XII 1. That the destroying of Sin is not without some time of conflict The most infallible method for that dispatch 2. The constant ordering of our external actions 3. The Hypocritical complaint of those for want of power that will not doe those good things that are already in their power 4. The danger of making this new Covenant a Covenant of Works and our Love to Christ a mercenarie friendship 5. Earnest praiers to God for the perfecting of the Image of Christ in us 6. Continual circumspection and watchfulness 7. That the vilifying of outward Ordinances is no sign of a new-Covenanter but of a proud and carnal mind 8. Caution to the new-Covenanter concerning his converse with men 9. That the branches of the Divine life without Faith in God and Christ degenerate into mere Morality The examining all the motions and excursions of our Spirit how agreeable they are with Humility Charity and Purity 10. Cautions concerning the exercise of our Humility 11. As also of our Purity 12. And of our Love or Charity The safe conduct of the faithfull by their inward Guide 1. AND this may serve for a more general direction and encouragement but we shall annex also what is of more particular consideration For we have express'd our selves hitherto as if so soon as a man were under the Second Covenant there needed nothing but the finding out of his Sins for then armed with Faith and Love he could suddenly destroy them But that I may be rightly understood it cannot be without some time of conflict But the stronger he is in these Divine Vertues the Victory will be the easier and the speedier But in the mean time the Flesh will be working against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and Patience and Faithfulness is required on our side that we doe what God already has put into our power And assuredly it is in the power of the new-Covenanter to mortifie all manner of corruptions and immoderate desires in due time by this short and infallible method viz. By a constant denial of their cravings Give a Begger nothing at thy door and he will never visit thee Desire is starved by being unfulfilled A man you know often loses his appetite by staying over-long for his dinner 2. Inordinate Desire will haunt a man like an Ague if we pamper and satisfie it The Devil and the Sop will both down into our bellies at once But thou maiest pine out both Desire and the Devil that lurks in it by a pertinacious Temperance or stopping thy self in thy outward Actions Affect not Vain-glory and applause in thy outward actions or speeches but modestly decline it and Pride will fall in thy Soul In good time thou shall finde Humility rise in thy heart and sweetly shine in thee with her milde light Give not thine Anger vent and it will be extinct like smothered fire Answer not thy Lust or Lasciviousness and it will cease to call unto thee but die as a weed trod down into the ground Dare to doe good though thy base heart gainsay it and pleasure thy very enemies those that hate thee or envy thee For Covetousness and Hatred being thus oft crossed will out of discontent at last quite leave thee 3. But if thou be false to God and thine own Soul in those things which he hath put in thy power and he hath put the outward man plainly in thy power and neglectest the performance of them and yet dost complain of want of strength thou art in plain English an Hypocrite and dealest treacherously with Christ in the Covenant and the Devil and thine own false heart have deceived thee Thou colloguest and flatterest with thy lips and tellest fair stories of the Loving-kindness and free Grace of God in Christ but thy heart is far from him For whosoever names the name of Christ is to depart from iniquity as has been already noted out of the Apostle 4. But now in the second place as we are faithfully to persist in a constant abstinence from outward evil actions and in a perpetual exercise of such as are good so we must by all means have a special care that we take not up our rest in these and so make this new Covenant a mere Covenant of works as if by these external performances we did so oblige Christ as that he were bound to give us Heaven by way of gratitude or of bargain and purchase we dealing craftily herein as poor men doe sometimes with great Persons presenting them with something of small value to get from them a reward of far greater worth they having in the mean time no cordial affection to those they present with their gifts but only baiting the hook to catch a fish Nay I adde further That personal Love and Affection merely upon this account of being externally beneficial to us in dying for us and delivering us from eternal destruction even this does not fill up the End and purpose of the Second Covenant For this were little better then a kind of mercenary Friendship and such as is competible to the mere Natural man for he can love him that does him such a good as his very Animal frame or temper is sensible of But our Love and Friendship with Christ must be still more inward and more intimate we being tied to him not only by the sense of external Benefits but by Unity of Spirit there being the same Life and