〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that people are composed to the greatest sobriety among whom the citizens stand in more fear of dispraise then of law supposing that state to be best qualified where virtue and every part of good living which laws are wont to prescribe hath acquired so great a credit and reputation among all that without fear of punishment from laws or Magistrates the very dread of shame and disgrace shall be able to contain all men within the bounds of exact living and awe them from admitting any thing which is foul or sinful To which purpose also is that of Hippodamus the Pythagorean that there be three causes of virtue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shame is the last of them of which saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. good customes are able to infuse a dread into all men that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well cultivated and make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have a reverence or pudicitious chaste fear of doing any thing which is ill And according to this prudential notion of these wise men of the world is this piece of Christian discipline instituted by our Saviour to deprive vice of its greatest temptation the praise of men to exalt and set up virtue the onely creditable thing and brand sin as infamous And if this of shame superadded to the former of losse and both being met together as the sinners portion here perfectly prefiguring the two saddest ingredients in hell deprivation of the blissful vision and confusion of face cannot prove efficacious and successful to the mortifying of unprofitable vice the Church doth then give over the patient as desperate pretends not to any farther methods of working on such obdurate sinners § 34. Nor indeed is it reasonable it should when beside the Foundation consisting of so many stones each of them elect and pretious chosen by the wisdome of heaven for this admirable work of reforming the most obdurate Jew or heathen this series and succession of so many powerful methods being farther prescribed by God and administred by the Church have found so discouraging a reception that nothing but the violence of storming or battery the course which God is forced to take for the destroying but cannot without changing the course of nature for the converting of sinners can hope or pretend to prove successful on them § 35. What hath been said of the wise disposition of God in preparing instituting this series of necessaries for the effecting this great work the reformation of mens lives the latter annext to the former each to adde weight and authority and to vindicate the contempts of the former might more largely be insisted on yet on a farther designe to give us a just value of that sacred office which Christ fixed in the Church in his Apostles and the Bishops their successors and honoured it and them in this especially that he hath put these weapons into their hands intrusted to and invested in them the Power of dispensing all these and by that means rendred them necessary to the planting and supporting a Church of vital Christians to the maintaining of pious practise in any community of Professors But this would soon swell this discourse beyond the limits designed to it § 36. All that is behinde will be by way of Comment on that part of the Church of England's charity which hath constantly called to God that he will inspire continually the Vniversal Church with the Spirit of truth unity and concord and grant that all they that doe confesse his holy name may agree in the truth of his holy word and live in unity and godly love A Prayer O Most gracious Lord God the Creator of all things but of men and all mankinde a tender compassionate father in Jesus Christ thou that hast enlarged thy designes and purposes of grace and mercy as the bowels and blood-shedding of thy Son with an earnest desire that every weak or sinfull man should partake of that abysse that infinite treasure of thy bounty Thou that hast bequeathed to us that Legacie and example of a sacred inviolate Peace a large diffusive charity We meekly beseech thee to overshadow with thy heavenly grace the souls of all men over all the world O Lord thou lover of souls to bring home to the acknowledgment and embraces of thy Son all that are yet strangers to that profession and in whatsoever any of us who have already received that mercy from thee may be any way useful or instrumental to that so glorious end to direct and incline our hearts toward it to work in us all an holy zeal to thy name and tender bowels to all those whose eternity is concerned in it O give us a true serious full comprehension and value of that one great interest of others as well as our selves shew us the meanest of us some way to contribute toward it if it be but our daily affectionate prayers for the enlarging of thy kingdome and the care of approving all our actions so as may most effectually attract all to this profession And for all those that have already that glorious name of thy Son called upon them blessed Lord that they may at length according to the many engagements of their profession depart from iniquity that that holy city that new Jerusalem may at length according to thy promise descend from heaven prepared as a bride adorned for the husband Christ that that tabernacle of God with men may be illustriously visible among us that we may be a peculiar people and thou our God inhabiting in power among us that we which have so long professed thee and been instructed by thee may no longer content our selves with that form of knowledge which so often engenders strife contentions animosities separating and condemning one another and that most unchristian detestable guilt of blood but endevour and earnestly contend for the uniform effectual practise of all the precepts of thy Son the fruits and power of all Godliness that all the Princes and people of Christendome the Pastors and sheep of thy fold may at length in some degree walk worthy of that light and that warmth that knowledge and those graces that the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings hath so long poured out upon us Lord purge powerfully work out of all hearts that profaneness and Atheisticalness those sacrilegious thirsts and enormous violations of all that is holy those unpeaceable rebellious mutinous and withall tyrannizing cruell spirits those prides and haughtinesses judging and condemning defaming and despising of others those unlimited ambitions and covetings joyned with the invasion and violation of others rights those most reproachful excesses and abominable impurities which to the shame of our unreformed obdurate hearts doe still remain unmortified unsubdued among us but above all those infamous hypocrisies of suborning religion to be the engine of advancing our secular designes or the disguise to conceal the foulest intentions
of bringing down that most sacred name whereby we should be saved to be the vilest instrument of all carnality and by the power of thy convincing Spirit Lord humble and subdue all that exalts it self against the obedience of Christ And when thou hast cast out so many evil spirits be pleased thy self to possesse and inrich our souls to plant and root and confirm and secure in us all those pretious fruits of piety and faith and obedience and zeal toward thee of purity and meekness and simplicity and contentedness and sobriety in our selves of justice and charity and peaceableness and bowels of mercy and compassion toward all others that having seriously and industriously as our holy vocation ingages us used all diligence to adde unto our faith virtue and to virtue patience and perseverance in all Christian practise we may adorn that profession which we have so long depraved and having had our fruit unto holiness we may obtain our end everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Contents CHAP. I. THe Notation of the word Fundamental Page 1 CHAP. II. The Division of the discourse into four parts What are Fundamental in general Page 15 CHAP. III. A particular view of Fundamentals Jesus Christ indefinitely Page 24 CHAP. IV. Jesus Christ Crucified Page 35 CHAP. V. Jesus Christ raised c. Page 38 CHAP. VI. Other Articles of Belief in Christ Page 42 CHAP. VII The Faith in Baptisme Page 56 CHAP. VIII Of the Creeds in general and first of the Apostles Creed Page 58 CHAP. IX Of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds together and severally of the Nicene Page 82 CHAP. X. Of the Athanasian Creed Page 91 CHAP. XI Of the Superstructure and the particular branches thereof Page 94 CHAP. XII Of the Doctrines that hinder the superstructing of good life on the Christian belief first among the Romanists a Catalogue of them especially that of the Infallibility of the Church 2. Among others 1. that of the Solifidian Page 108 CHAP. XIII Of the Fiduciarie Page 120 CHAP. XIV Of Christ's dying for none but the Elect Page 130 CHAP. XV. Of the irrespective decrees of Election and Reprobation Page 145 CHAP. XVI Of the Predetermination of all things Page 156 CHAP. XVII Of the Spirits acting all things within the man Page 192 CHAP. XVIII Of the Mistakes concerning Repentance Page 202 CHAP. XIX Of the necessaries to the superstructing of good life on this Foundation Page 211 A Prayer Page 240 THE END ERRATA PAge 51. line 12. re Christ p. 60. § 4 l. 9. re Eutychen p. 77. l. 1. after omitted adde p. 90. l. 25. after practise adde p. 95. l. 17. after the adde most p. 110. marg the note subditos-with that next following it Valdi belong to p. 111. l. 7. and the word guilt p. 111. the note Summorum belongs to lin 19. and the word deviabilis p. 111. the note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to p. 112. l. 16. and the word secure p. 114. l. 19. after principle for put l. 20. after falshoods for put l. 21. after practises adde l. 23. after bread adde of l. 24. after God adde p. 128. l. 4. after not re but be reasonable p. 172. l. 19. after nature adde and p. 178. l. 10. dele was p. 189. l. 20. re 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 198. l. 17. re § 11. p. 200. l. 5. for if re of p. 204. l. 27. after being adde l. 30. after God adde p. 206. lin 9. after Repentance adde which is not repentance p. 213. l. 17. after § 6. re First p. 219. l. 3. for in re of p. 223. l. 7. for service re sacrifice p. 229. l. 26. re diffused Foundation is a relative and figurative word The relation of it to superstructure Building on the sand and on a rock The difference between them The Superstructure to which Foundation here relates Two sorts of Superstructures Heaven The Church Heaven cannot be it for two Reasons The first The second Fundamental to a Church to Piety and Christian life This notion of Fundamental confirmed by S. Athanasius Edifying Four branches of discourse proposed The General way of defining Fundamentals by what the Apostles taught every where The foundation laid 1 Cor. 3.11 1 Tim. 6.20 Jude 3. 2 Tim. 1.13 Eph. 4.5 Approved in common by the Apostles Comprehensive of all necessaries to the planting of a Church not to the conversion of every particular person Some Jews reduced to good life without this foundation Synesius a Bishop before he believed the Resurrection Jesus Christ the Foundation 1 Cor. 3.11 The Christian foundation compared with the Natural with the Judaical with the heathen and Mahomedan Christ crucified the Foundation What propriety the Crosse hath to this Christ's resurrection the Foundation an Argument of the greatest conviction A pawn of our Resurrection Corporal and Spiritual An example of new life to us The Mysterie of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 God made manifest by the Flesh The Arians doctrines against it De Fide p. 53. God justified by the Spirit God seen of Angels Preached among the Gentiles Believed on among men the Jewes the Gentiles Received up into glory The Father Son and holy Ghost The Apostles Creed Proved to be the Apostles †Ecclesia per universum orbem usque ad sines terrae seminata ab Apostolis à discipulis corum accepit eam fidem quae est in unuÌ„ DeuÌ„ patreÌ„ omnipotenteÌ„ c. Iren l. 1. c. 2. * Quid si neque Apostoli quidem scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat Ordinem sequi traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus constituebant Ecclesias Cui ordinationi assentiunt mullae gentes barbarorum quorum qui in Christum credunt sine chartâ atramento scriptum habentes in cordibus suis salutare veterem eruditionem diligenter custodientes in unum Deum credentes c. Iren l. 3. c. 4. The articles thereof fundamental to good life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The article of God the Father Of God the Son Of God the holy Ghost Of the Holy Catholick Church Of the Communion of Saints The forgiveness of sins Misinterpreted Rightly understood The want of this to Renovation in a first a second a third respect The necessity of it The belief of the Resurrection of the Body Fundamental to Renovation The want of it very hurtful The perswasion gainfull Everlasting life The necessity of the belief of that The design of â—â—â—er Creeds Defined Of the Nicene One God Of all things visible and invisible One Lord Jesus Christ c. The H. Ghost the Lord and giver of life c. One baptisme for the Remission of sins The Doctrine of the Athanasian Creed The Censures The generall nature of the Superstruction in five particulars The specialties of it Piety in opposition to Idolatrie Piety in opposition to Formality To Hypocrisie To Sacrilege To Profaneness Obedience to Superiors Charitie e. Puritie Contentedness· Taking up the Crosse
attestation given from heaven by voice to all that he should ever teach § 6. 2dly Such was the Spirit 's leading him into the wilderness Mat. ch 4. to subject him to the Devil's examination and thereby to give grounds of conviction to him and those infernal powers that he was the son of God § 7. 3dly Such was his power of doing miracles works of that nature as were by all acknowledged to be above the power of men or devils and only works of the Spirit of God Thus was his curing of Leprosie of which the King of Israel saith Am I a God that this man sends to me to recover a man of his Leprosie 1 Kin. 5.7 and which the Jewes proverbially called the finger of God and is therefore said to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a testimony unto them Mat. 8.4 an evidence of his divinity Thus the giving sight to him that was born blinde which since the world began had not been heard of to be done by any Joh. 9.32 Thus the raising of Lazarus and others and at last his own resurrection from the grave All which being wrought by the Spirit of God and being not otherwise possible to be done by any were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judicial way of approving his Commission from God and his doctrine against all gainsayers and so most eminently tends to the impressing the necessity of that reformation which he came to publish § 8. 4thly Such was the descent of the Spirit on the Apostles authorizing them witnesses of the resurrection and preachers of all that truth and will of God which Christ had in his life revealed to them which consequently gave an attestation to all that the Apostles should teach being thus led by the Spirit into all truth and so was of especiall concernment to the planting of a Church and enforcing that reformation of lives which the Apostles pressed on all that would not be ruined eternally § 9. The third branch of this mysterious divine way of working piety on earth is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being seen by Angels i. e. his divine power discerned and acknowledged and adored by Angels themselves both good and bad by the good 1. at his birth Lu. 2.13 2dly when after his temptation and fasting they came and ministred unto him Mat. 4.12 3dly in the trouble and agonie of his soul before his death Joh. 12.29 Lu. 22.43 4thly at and after his resurrection Mat. 28.2 And by the bad both when he was tempted and when he cast them out of their possessions obeying his command dreading his power and believing and confessing him the son of God most high and when immediately upon his birth the oracles which had before so flourished among the heathens began to droop and decay and from giving responses in Verse descended to Prose and within a while were utterly silenced Which as it was a most regular means to bring all sorts of men heathens as well as Jewes to reformation of all vices those especially which they were formerly taught in their Idolatrous worships and were enslaved to them unwillingly by the tyrannie of those false Gods or devils which required to be thus worshipped Rom. 8.20 and so continued to doe till they were cast out of their Temples so was it an huge obligation on all men to receive and obey him whom the very devils believed and trembled at and a testimonie of the greatest force in the mouth of a whole Province of his greatest enemies that he was what he assumed to be the Messias of the world who if he were not received by consent and readily obeyed would erect his kingdome in the destruction of those enemies an essay of which was thus shewn on the Prince of darkness avenge and utterly consume the adversaries § 10. The fourth is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being preached among the Gentiles or Idolatrous nations of the world The message brought by him from heaven was proclaimed not only to the Jewes but both by himself and by the Apostles to all the Gentiles those that till then had lived in all villanie and impietie and yet had now by Christ's mercy tendred them upon Reformation and thereby is all encouragement afforded to the greatest sinners to forsake and amend their lives and by God's mercifull pardon to the times of their ignorance and forepass'd sins a passage opened to life and eternitie for all that will make use of it and this is the greatest engagement to doe so and not to forfeit and lose so pretious an opportunity § 11. The fift branch is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being believed on in the world the faith of Christ received by many both Jewes and Gentiles Of that people of the Jewes a most stubborn obdurate people that had killed the prophets and stoned them that were sent some considerable number repented and came in upon Christ's preaching about three thousand were added to the Faith at one sermon Act. 2.42 before the Apostles going out from Jerusalem which wants but a seventh part of being half the number of those reserved ones of the whole kingdome of the ten tribes in Elijah's time which had secretly kept out of that Idol-Baal-worship and so proportionably at other sermons so that Act. 20.21 we hear of many myriads of believing Jewes and taking out of these the Gnostick heretical party an hundred forty four thousand sealed out of the twelve tribes as faithful servants of God which had received the faith of Christ and brought forth fruit accordingly Rev. 7. and that though but a small number in proportion to the greater that remained obstinate yet above twenty times as many as they in Elijah's time And when the greater multitude was so terribly destroyed then the believers of that nation were the onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or remnant of it and in a manner that whole people by the conversion of some and slaughter of the rest were soon after though not at the time of the Apostles resolving on this depositum reduced to the Faith and became Christian § 12. And for the Gentiles they were contained in the number of those which were present at that sermon Act. 2.11 and no doubt some of them were wrought on by it as even in Christ's time the Gentiles faith is magnified for great and above the size of what he had found in Israel and they were peculiarly the violent that took the kingdome of heaven by force whilest the children of the Kingdome neglected and were cast out of it And soon after the Apostles going out and preaching to all nations they willingly received the Faith and forsook their Idols and within a while all Asia Act. 19. by St Paul's preaching and other whole nations by each of the other Apostles and at length the whole Roman Empire became Christian and the kingdomes of the world became the kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ Revel 11.15 and the Kings of
his power to doe and not according to what he hath not as Chrysippus is by Cicero judged to have done § 34. All which being duly considered and the absurdities of that distinction thus applied betwixt the act and the obliquitie as manifest as those of Chrysippus's expedient in those so many forementioned respects and the contrary so wide from the truth of Scripture the attributes of God and common notions of piety written in men's hearts and experimented in the government of the world and lastly so noxious and poysonous to good life we may certainly conclude with Prosper that great asserter of God's Grace Resp ad 14. Object Vincent Ad praevaricationem legis ad neglectum religionis ad corruptelam disciplinae ad desertionem fidei ad perpetrationem qualiscunque peccati nulla omnino est Praedestinatio Dei To the forsaking the law to the neglecting religion to the corrupting discipline to deserting the Faith to the perpetration of whatsoever sin there is not at all any predestination of God Si ergo in sanctitate vivitur If we live in sanctity grow in virtue and persevere in good purposes the gift of God is manifest in all this Si autem ab his receditur But if we go back from these if we passe over to vices and sins here God sends no evil temptation forsakes not the desertor before he be forsaken and very frequently keeps him that would depart from departing and causeth him to return though he be departed To which may be added that of the Arausican Councel which was very careful to assert the necessity of Grace and yet pronounces an anathema against those who affirm any to be by God predetermined to sin CHAP. XVII Of the Spirits acting all things within the man § 1. WHat hath been said of the doctrine of God's decrees fatally passed upon our persons or our actions will be farther extended to the pretensions of the Spirit and the opinion that of late begins to diffuse it self among some that all that is designed or done by them is the dictate and motion of the Spirit in them § 2. Of this it is evident that either that man which thus pretends never commits any act prohibited by the Word of God and vulgarly called sin after the minute of such pretension and then that were a rare charm indeed to render him impeccable or that this is the means of consecrating every sin of his and so the opinion being imbibed by one that lives in rebellion murther adulterie pride or schisme or any other one or more grossest sins the effect must be that he believe every one of these to be infusions of the Spirit of God and so no more fit to be resisted before nor repented for after the Commission of them then the most eminent acts of piety should be And when it is thus become impious to resist any temptation of our own flesh which sollicites within us or of Satan that suggests and whispers within us too i. e. to omit the acting of any sin that we are any way inclined to what place can be left for exhortation to Christian life as long as I have any temptation against it § 3. This is a doctrine which a man would think should not finde admission with any considerable sort of men and therefore it will be lesse pertinent for this Discourse to take any larger notice of it yet for the preventing and intercepting any farther growth of it where it may unhappily have found any reception It will not be amisse to adde and evidence these few things § 4. First concerning the Spirit which is thus pretended to That the Descent of the Spirit of God was principally for three ends 1. to give Testimony that Christ was the Son of God sent with authority to reveal his will and to command our faith and obedience and consequently to this to give the world assurance that the Apostles were sent by him and to signe the Commission of preaching to all Nations to propagate what he had taught 2dly to assure all men that the Rules which Christ gave us are absolutely necessary to be observed to render us capable of those Promises made those benefits purchased by him And 3dly that we being so corrupt by nature so farre from prone or inclinable in our Flesh to obey those Rules the Graces of his holy Spirit accompanying the Revelation or preaching of his will and word should incline our corrupt hearts to keep his laws § 5. Secondly that after the mission of the Spirit God was pleased for posterity otherwise to expresse his care and love to mankinde viz in giving and consigning to them his written word for a Rule and constant directer of life not leaving him to the duct of his own Inclinations § 6. Thirdly that God hath made and continued through all ages both of Jewes and Christians one sort of men to teach another to learn Among the Jewes one to preserve knowledge in his lips and with the same to dispense it the other to enquire and seek the Law at his mouth and under the Gospel Pastors and Teachers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers set over men for their good Which is a visible prejudice to the pretended guidance of the Spirit For if that by the voice within me be the standing guide of all my actions what use of forein teachers or guides or necessity of obeying the Apostle when he commands me to obey those that are set over me § 7. Fourthly that every thing that comes out of the heart of man is not infused into it or placed there by God For besides that from thence proceed many aerial fictions and phasmes and Chymâ—raes created by the vanity of our own hearts or seduction of evil spirits and not planted in them by God or nature or the duct of God's Spirit motions and emissions of our phansie and not of our reason of our sensitive not humane nature and to this all the Idolatrie of the antient heathens and the new phansiful divinity of some present Christians and the whole religion of the Mahomedanes is visibly imputable besides this I say it is affirmed by the Apostle Jam. 3.15 17. that there is a wisdome and that must signifie some Codex of directions for practise some law in the members opposite to that in the minde that cometh not from above as well as a wisdome that cometh from above and in plain terms that it is earthly sensual and devilish as that Law in the members is said to lead the man into captivity to the law of sin which is in the members § 8. So again saith Christ out of the heart proceed all the things that defile a man evil machinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the most mischievous designments by name murthers adulteries fornications incestuous and unnatural commissions contained under the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fornication 1 Cor. 5.1 thefts false-witnesses evil speakings i. e. as by those few
instances is intimated and must be supplied by parity of reason all the contradictions to the several branches and degrees of those branches of the divine or moral law § 9. Secondly that to impose on our selves or others by this fallacie to believe or pretend that whatever our own hearts incite us to doe what they suggest or dictate is the Spirit or word or revelation of the will of God within us is the principle of all villanie the same that hath alwaies acted in the children of disobedience inhaunsed and improved with circumstances of greater boldness and impudence then ever the most abominable heathens were guilty of either in their Oracles or in their mysteries § 10. In their Oracles though their Idol-priests who had the inclosure of this cheat gave responses out of the Caverns of the earth and set up the devil by the advantage of his foreseeing some things in their causes and conjecturing at others above the omniscient God of heaven yet they affixed not the answers of their devils to the true God They worshipped Idols and disclaimed any portion in the true God turned all knowledge or profession of him out of their hearts according to that reasonable proposition of S. Paul 2 Cor. 6.14 15. that there is no possible agreement to be had betwixt light and darkness But these by their refined pretension doe in effect and by way of necessary consequence and direct interpretation turn the God of heaven into that accursed Spirit affix on him receive and deliver as the effata and oracles of God whatsoever the devil or their own lust or revenge or pride or ambition or covetousness so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spontaneous devils can infuse into them and out of their black hearts as out of the most noysome caverns and dens of the earth holding intercourse with hell breath out and deliver to the world § 8. So again in their mysteries and most secret recesses and adyta of their religion their heathen Priests were wont to betray and lead their silly votaries into all the most horrid unnatural sins as into a special part of the devotions and worships required of them by the Gods whom they had undertaken to serve But yet never thought fit to let them out of the dark out of the retirement but by banishing the eyes of men gave witness against themselves accused those facts which were not able to bear the light to which the Apostle seems to referre Ephes 5.13 and so had the excuse of some bashfulness and self-accusation and care not to scandalize other men whilst these that make their own lust their own malice and revenge the voice of the true God the Spirit within them are thereby qualified to act the horrid'st sins avowedly shamelesly and have no checks left no coldness but where they have no temptations no dislikes no shame no objections to any thing but to tenderness to scrupulosity to fear of offending to the doing what they doe in bondage as they call it i. e. to all the reliques or embers of conscience remaining in them and if they can but utterly and finally cast out this fear they are hereby delivered up really to the evil spirit while they most pretend to the guidance of the good The pretended Spirit of God within them by suggesting sins gives a full confidence and security to commit them and then Scripture and conscience and temper and a tolerable degree of good nature any thing lower then the utmost evil is the thing only to be mortified the one piece of criminous carnality to be burnt up § 12. Thus by turning one pin in the machine the whole scene is shifted and this voice as if an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes out of our own bellies being mistaken for the still language in which God was once heard a congregation of Christians may be soon inspired into a legion of Demoniacks and onely one but that a teeming fruitful error be committed all this while the mistaking our own motions for the incitation of the Spirit of God which till it be reformed or retracted it must be a shortness of discourse to think strange and an injustice to charge of any new crime the infallible consequences of it and such are all the barefaced villanies in the world § 13. For as he that is so sure and confident of his particular election as to resolve he can never fall if he commit those acts or live in those habits against which the words of Scripture are plain that they that doe them shall not inherit eternal life must necessarily resolve that what were drunkenness or adultery in another is not so in him and nothing but the removing his Fundamental error can rescue him from the superstructive be it never so grosse So to this one grand mistake the judging of God's will by the bent of our own spirits all vicious enormous practises even to the taking away of all differences between good and evil are regularly consequent and cannot seem strange to attend daily where the other hath taken up the lodging CHAP. XVIII Of the Mistakes concerning Repentance § 1. ONE sort of doctrines more I cannot but annex here though I have elsewhere already insisted on them and those are the mistakes in the Doctrine of Repentance § 2. Repentance whatever that word signifies and that is certainly a sincere change and renovation of minde a conversion of the sinner to God in a new life repentance from dead works Heb. 6.1 is questionless it to which on purpose Christ came to call sinners His whole Embassie from his Fathers bosome was projected and designed for this grand work and so certainly all the preachings of all the Apostles were of the same making that the Gospel tells us the first-fruits were Repent c. And therefore it will concern us neerly not to be mislead in this matter For should we content our selves with somewhat else under the title or disguise of Repentance which is either not-repentance at all or but an imperfect unsufficient part of repentance and by consequence perswade our selves that by performing of this we shall have fully answered Christ's call done all that he came from heaven to require of us 't is visible what an obstacle this is to the rearing that superstructure which was designed to be erected on this foundation § 3. Now to this head will be referred those that from the misunderstanding of Rom. 7. not observing the custome of that Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figuratively to transferre to himself in the first person what belongs to others have made it reconcileable with regeneration or repentance for those two words certainly signifie one and the same thing in Scripture to be in that state which is there described i. e. to doe what a man allows not but hates v. 15. the evil which he would not v. 19. to be brought into capeivity to the law of sin the law in the members
Christ that pardon of sin and sufficience of strength and grace which were purchased by his death and typified and consigned to us by the sacramental elements so 't is again the ridding us of all our discouraging fears and the animating and obliging of us to make use of that grace which will carry us if we doe not wilfully betray our succours victoriously through all difficulties § 20. 4thly As it is a federal rite betwixt God and us as eating and drinking both among the Jewes and heathens was wont to be so 't is on our part the solemn undertaking of the condition required of us to make us capable of the benefit of God's new Evangelical covenant and that is syncere performance of all duties prescribed the Christian by Christ And he that doth no longer expect good from God then he performs that condition is ipso facto devested of all those fallacious flattering hopes which pretended to make purifying unnecessary and must now either live purely and piously or else disclaim ever seeing of God § 21. Lastly As this supper of the Lord is a token and engagement of charity among the disciples of Christ so it is the supplanting of all the most Diabolical sins the filthiness of the spirit the hatred variance emulation strife revenge faction schism that have been the tearing and rending of the Church of God oft-times upon pretense of the greatest piety but were by Christ of all other things most passionately disclaimed and cast out of his Temple And if by the admonitions which this Embleme is ready to afford us we can think our selves obliged to return to that charity and peaceable-mindedness which Christ so frequently and vehemently recommends to us we have his own promise that the whole body shall be full of light Mat. 6. that all other Christian virtues will by way of concomitance or annexation accompany or attend them in our hearts § 22. And the several happy influences of all and each of these considerations especially when they are superadded to the three former grand instruments and frequently every month at least and every great Festivity called in to reinforce our watch to remand us to our scrutinie the examination and search of out hearts and purging out all impurity that hath been contracted in those intervals and to renew our vows of temper and vigilance may very reasonably be allowed to have some considerable virtue and efficacy in them to advance that work for which Christ came out from the bosome of his Father to superstruct the practise of all virtue where the Faith of Christ is once planted § 23. After these four which are thus subordinate and preparative the one to the other the later still bringing with it an addition of weight to the former Two more there are which are several from and yet being of continual use are interweaved and mixt with every of these and having their distinct energie proper to themselves when they are in conjunction with the former or added to them they must needs accumulate and superadde a considerable weight unto them § 24. The first is the use of Liturgie the second the word of exhortation among the Jewes and in the Apostles times and proportionable to that the sermons or homilies of the Church § 25. The Liturgie as it contains the whole daily office consisting of Confession prayers Psalms hymnes reading of the scripture of both Testaments Creeds supplications intercessions thanksgivings injunctions of Gestures and of Ceremonies and of Holy-daies is both the exercise of many parts of Piety and the conservatory of the Foundation on which all Piety together is regularly built and a means of hightning devotion and infusing zeal into it And the diligent worthy continual in stead of the negligent formal rarer use of it and the unanimous accord of whole societies and multitudes herein would certainly be very efficacious advancers of all Christian virtue of piety of charity of purity over the world of the two former directly and of the later by way of diversion the frequent performance of such offices obstructing and sealing up the fountains of impurity and intercepting that leisure which is necessary to the entertaining the beginnings of it § 26. So for Preaching or exhorting the people by way of Homilie it appears to have been received from the Jewish by the Christian Church and by the phrase by which it is expressed in the Acts a word of exhortation to the people it appears to have been generally imployed in reprehension of vices and exhortation to virtuous living And if we survey the Homilies of the Antient Church such are those of S. Chrysostome most eminently we shall discern that as upon Festival daies the subject of the Homilie was constantly the business of the Day the clearing the mysterie the incarnation of Christ c. and the recommending the actions or sufferings of the Saint and raising mens hearts to acknowledge the goodness of God in setting up such exemplary patterns and guides before us So upon other daies after some short literal explication of some place of scripture the custome was not to raise doctrinal points according to every preachers judgment or phansie but presently to fall off to exhortation to temperance continence patience and the like Christian virtues which either the propriety of the Text or the wants and sins of the auditory or the times suggested to them And this so farre from being a fault in their method of preaching that it was an eminent exemplary piece of Christian prudence observable and imitable in them as a means of keeping false or unnecessary definitions out of the Church which tend to the increase of disputes and contentions and whilst they they doe so are not to the edification and benefit but to the destruction and mischief of the hearers § 27. Of this usage of the Church it is most visible if it be but by the ill uses which are made of it many times in stirring up seditions rebellions murthers hatreds animosities calumnies revilings of superiors c. in disseminating of heresies infusing of prejudices c. what advantage may be had toward the advancement of all parts of Christian life by a due performance of it 'T is very much in the power of a popular Orator to represent vices in so formidable yet just appearances and to set out each virtue in so amiable a form and to apply this so particularly to those that are concerned to be thus wrought on that the Covetous person shall flie from and scatter most liberally his beloved Idol wealth the rageful person shall finde a calm the lustful a coldness insensibly infused upon his breast and the auditor's phansie and sensitive affections being called in to joyn with his reason and the Spirit of God it will by the blessing of that Spirit be in the power of meditation to radicate these seeds to fix this transient gleam of light and warmth to confirm inclinations and resolutions