false argues the exquisite Perfection of the Life of Christ and the Transcendency of that Divine Spirit in him that no Pagan could reach by either Imagination or Action 3. The Spirit of Christ how contemptible to the mere Natural man and how deare and precious in the eyes of God 4. How the several Humiliations of Christ were compensated by God with both sutable and miraculous Priviledges and Exaltations 5. His deepest Humiliation namely his Suffering the death of the Cross compensated with the highest Exaltation 1. WHerefore we shall find the Life of our Saviour quite contrary to his there being nothing recorded in him that is plausible to flesh and bloud no splendour of Parentage no streams of Eloquence no favour of Potentates no affectation of any Peculiarity to himself in any thing but being every where reproached and despised he ceased not to do good without any mans applause And whereas the very Spirit and life of all Apollonius his Actions is a gallant sense of Glory which the Devil befool'd him by so that which perpetually breath'd in the Actions of our Saviour was a passive loving profound Spirit of Humility which is the most certain character of the Divine life of any thing that is 2. So that let the History of Apollonius be wholy true or partly false or wholy false it is all one to me For if it be True this grand example of Divine vertue as he is pretended falls infinitely short of the truth of the Divine life manifested in Christ there being indeed nothing found in Apollonius that is truely Divine But if it be a Figment in whole or in part how transcendent then is that Divine worth in Christ and how lovely and illustrious is the Beauty of his Image that the pens and pencils of the most learned and accomplish'd Pagans cannot draw one line thereof nor give one touch or stroke near his resemblance 3. And indeed how should it ever come into the minde of a mere natural man to think of an humble passive Soul-melting self-afflicting and self-resigning Divinity lodging in any Person or if it did that there was any such great price upon that Spirit more then on that which seems to the world more gallant and generous But certainly this is more precious in the eyes of God then all things in the world beside and whatsoever injury is done to this it is like the touching of the Apple of his own eye And so tender was he over our Saviour in whom this was so transcendently found that he ever compensated his Sufferings with a proportionable Triumph and his willing Submissions and Debasements of himself with an answerable Exaltation 4. And therefore his humble Birth he honoured with the Musick of a Quire of Angels from Heaven and the Homage of the Wise men from the East who brought presents to him as to a new-born King So his long Fasting in the Desart was compensated by the power not onely of curing diseases but of turning water into wine and of miraculously feeding of multitudes in the wilderness As also his refusing of all the pomp and glory of the World which was shewn him from the top of a mountain by the Transfiguration of his person on the top of mount Tabor into so great a glory as all the speciosities of the world could not equalize his face shining as the Sun and his garments being bright as the Light And lastly his being carried from place to place by the hand of Satan as an innocent Lamb in the Talons of an Eagle this Temptation also was amply recompensed by having a palpable power over the Kingdome of Satan and dispossessing Daemoniacks and putting to flight many thousands of Devils at once as you heard concerning him whose name was Legion 5. But the emergency of the greatest Honour that accrew'd to him was from the deepest Sufferings even from his bitter Passion on the Cross Which was fully remunerated by so glorious a Resurrection and Ascension by his Session at the right hand of God and his Exaltation above all principalities and powers whether in Heaven or Earth he being made Head and Soveraign over Men and Angels and indued with a power of crowning all believers with a glorious Immortality at the last day Of all which we shall speak in order shewing the Fitness and Reasonableness of every thing in its place CHAP. XIII 1. The ineffable power of the Passion of Christ and other endearing applications of him for winning the World off from the Prince of Darkness 2. Of his preceding Sufferings and of his Crucifixion 3. How necessary it was that Christ should be so passive and sensible of pain in his suffering on the Cross against the blasphemy of certain bold Enthusiasts 4. Their ignorance in the Divine life and how it alone was to triumph in the Person of Christ unassisted by the advantages of the Animal or Natural 5. That if Christ had died boldly and with little sense of pain both the Solemnity and Usefulness of his Passion had been lost 6. That the strange Accidents that attended his Crucifixion were Prefigurations of the future Effects of his Passion upon the Spirits of men in the World 7. Which yet hinders not but that they may have other significations 8. The third and last Reason of the Tragical unsupportableness of the Passion of Christ in that he bore the sins of the whole World 9. The Leguleious cavils of some conceited Sophists that pretend That it is unjust with God to punish the Innocent in stead of the Guilty 10. The false Ground of all their frivolous subtilties 1. FIrst therefore as concerning his Passion I say it is an enravishing consideration to take notice how this humble Candidate for so great an Empire as I have described applies himself to his design giving an infallible proof not onely of his Power that he is able to protect but of his dear affection and entire Love to his people in that he can undergo so horrid agonies in their behalf and being to win the Kingdomes of the Earth out of the possession of the Devil how he uses no other Engine then the displaying of his own Nature and the endearing Loveliness and Benignity of his own Spirit to shame and confound the ugliness and detestableness of his usurping Competitor Wherefore he did not onely tread counter to the wayes of Satan in Humility and Purity and continual Beneficency in his life-time but further to shew the vast Disparity or Discrepancy betwixt that old Tyrant and this gracious Prince that is so succeed whenas the Devil as you have already heard inflicted unsupportable penances upon his abused Vassals ingaging them to cut and slash their own flesh and frantickly to dismember themselves to whip themselves with knotted cords or stinging nettles to wound themselves with sharp flints to fast macerate themselves so as to pine away in desarts or break their necks down some steep rock or precipice as Acosta reports of them Christ
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
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
tell you of them Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the end of the earth ye that go down to the sea and all that is therein the Isles and the inhabitants thereof Let the Wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice the villages that Kedar doth inhabit Let the inhabitants of the rock sing let them shout from the top of the mountains let them give glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the islands The Lord shall goe forth as a mighty man he shall stir up jealousie like a man of war he shall cry yea roar he shall prevail against his enemies I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will make wast mountains and hills and dry up all their hearbs I will make the rivers Islands and I will dry up the pools And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in paths that they have not known I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight These things will I doe unto them and not forsake them 4. It is a very high representation of that mighty power of God from above that assists his Church and how Christ by the dispensation of the Gospel does set us free from the bondage of sin how he opens the understandings of the ignorant and procures liberty for those that were shut up in the dungeon of a dark conscience and held in captivity under sin how those that are dry and barren like the wilderness and the tops of rocks shall be watered with springs of living water and how the villages that Kedar possesses that is those that are overshadowed with sorrow and darkness a light shall spring up unto them and how they shall give glory unto the Lord for that he himself will be their champion he shall fight their battels and by the power of his Spirit and by that fire wherewith he will plead with all flesh wither the top and flower of their pride and dry up their restagnant lusts and lighten their paths before them and lead them forth into the land of Righteousness These are the true Warfares and Victories of the Church of Christ as those that have the veil taken off from their eyes and hearts can easily discover And surely with any other usefull sense then this cannot we ordinarily read the like descriptions of the Churches triumphs by Christ over her enemies or by those that have been Types of him as David was an eminent one And therefore if I would read the 18 Psalm I will love thee O Lord my strength c. I should hope for very small edifying thereby but in such a Mystical sense as this is that is by supposing that in me which partakes of Christ that is my inward Mind or Spirit raising war against Saul which is the power of the Flesh the craving pit of Hell that sin that lodges in this mortal body whose vain desires have no bottom nor end 5. I might abound with these allegations out of the Prophets and Psalms but I have given a Key into the hand of the judicious and he may unlock those treasures himself if he desires to have his Faith enriched and strengthened by those plentiful Promises of this assistance we speak of made to them that are serious professors of the Gospel I shall only adde one testimony more which in my apprehension is very express and that is Isa. 35. Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees Say to them that are of a fearfull heart Be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you Then shall the eyes of the blinde be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped Then shall the lame man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desart And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land Springs of water In the habitations of dragons in the places where they lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes And an high-way shall be there and a way and it shall be called a way of holiness the unclean shall not passe over it but he shall walk in the way with them and the simple shall not erre No Lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away CHAP. IX 1. The great use of the belief of The Promise of the Spirit 2. The eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his bloud what it is 3. Further proof of the Promise of the Spirit 4. That we cannot oblige God by way of Merit 5. Other Testimonies of Scripture tending to the former purpose 1. THese places which we have recited out of the Old Testament cannot but warm and encourage him that reads them by reason of the loftinesse of their Prophetical style provided that he have in himself a facility of mystically applying of things to the great purpose they drive at But what we shall adde out of the New though they will not strike the phansy with so high language yet they will it may be reach ones Reason more surely and extort assent more powerfully even from them that are loth to finde it true That there is such a mighty supernatural assistance afforded from God viz. the Cooperation of his holy Spirit in our conflicts against sin Which perswasion is of great consequence to make us resolute in resisting all Temptations and to gain the victory in every assault and therefore we will produce sufficient evidences of the truth thereof 2. And the first that occurs to my minde is that of our blessed Saviour Luke 11.13 If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him And that this Dispensation of the Spirit of Sanctification is a common gift to all Christians appears out of what we have already recited out of S. Matthew where Iohn professes himself only able to baptize with water unto repentance but that the Baptisme of Christ should be with the holy Ghost and with fire that is with the power of the Spirit that will melt and purifie us as silver is purified in the fire Also from Ioh. 6. where Christ styleth himself the Manna that came down from Heaven and declareth that he that eateth his flesh and drinketh his bloud hath eternal life with other expressions of the like nature Wherefore his Disciples began to be scandalized at it but Jesus answered and
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
any external inconvenience but naturally as I may so speak that is from a Divine nature and power in him and therefore with as much chearfulnesse and willingnesse as the natural man does eat and drink And of this Isaac was born Iacob who was called Israel which Philo the Jew interprets one that sees God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but you may be remembred that Ismael in the first signification of his name noted one that did onely know God by hear-say which is quite contrary to the seeing of God For that priviledge is proper to the true Christian to whom Isaac is born and from him Israel but he is quite out of the line of Ismael having now nothing to do with hear-saies and conjectures and fruitlesse disputacity upon the mistaken letter and Polemical Divinity and vain and ridiculous altercations and janglings for he is now a Citizen of that New Ierusalem from above and the onely true Ierusalem according to the notation of the name which they will have to signifie The vision of Peace He is a living stone of the Temple of Him that is greater then Solomon where there is not heard the noise of any axe or hammer Thirdly and lastly This Isaac was not born according to the flesh but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Per eam vim extraordinariam quam Deus promiserat for it is a Metonymy as the Interpreter rightly has noted Isaac was not born according to the power of Nature for that Natural power of begetting and bearing Children was then extinct in Abraham and Sarah by reason of old age as the Text tells us but he was born by the power of God working extraordinarily in Nature which power Abraham having a faith in and believing the promise he at the appointed time saw and enjoied the effect of it And this is the precious Christian Faith so mainly necessary and yet so little spoken of by them that spake much in matters of Divinity For without this Faith in the power of God Isaac will not be born in us and if he be not born in us I know no warrant we have to conclude our selves Christians or men under the Second Covenant Wherefore it is a point mainly necessary to be insisted upon that we may at length be really that which we pretend to be that is Sons of the Free-woman and not of the Bond-woman that the true Isaac may be in us which is Christ according to the Spirit the Wisdome and Power of God a Divine vigor and life whereby we are inabled with joy and chearfulnesse to walk in the waies of God 6. And verily it was this so necessary and useful Faith that was so commended in Abraham that it was imputed to him for righteousnesse as I have above noted viz. his believing the Promise of God in things above the ordinary power of Nature For it is the nature of men that make large professions of God and Divine Providence yet never to believe him further then in Natural Causes and humane probabilities But this is not so much to believe God as Nature nor to depend on him but on our own cold and ineffectual Reason concluding from accustomary probabilities Which if Abraham had done it might well have forfeited the birth of his Son Isaac And it will be very reasonable to examine our selves if we do not now hinder the birth of the spiritual Isaac by reason of our unbelief For we finding the generality of men so evil as they are and being conscious to our selves of abundance of corruption and all manner of weaknesse and proclivity to what is bad and finding it so common a thing for men to continue in their evil wayes and not to put off their wonted habits and that in our own attempts and resolutions we have been often baffled and cast back again we are likely through a spirit of Infidelity to conclude that that which is so hard to flesh and bloud and is so seldome seen in the course of the World will not be at all effected in us and therefore either live as it happens or at least make very small progresse in matters of true Religion and Piety I am sure fall short of that high calling whereunto we are called viz. that glorious liberty of the Sons of God from the slavish inveiglements of all uselesse Ceremonies and real sins And this is for want of Abraham's Faith who believed contrary to all probability of Nature that for all his decaied body and Sarah's barren womb yet God would raise up seed to him and that they should have a Son in their old age We are therefore to imitate Abraham the Father of the faithful and what we finde our selves weak in not to distrust but that God in his good time can make it out to us and therefore with patience and perseverance to presse forward and by Faith in the power of God who raised Christ from the dead to expect that after we have been made conformable to his death we shall also partake of the Resurrection from the dead For Christ in our Souls wading through the death with us that is supporting and strengthening us in our greatest Agonies brings up himself and us into a glorious Resurrection from the dead which you may call a Birth if you please as well as a Resurrection using but the same liberty that is already in the Scripture where speaking of his Resurrection the Apostle cites that in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And this is the Son who as he professes of himself if he make us free we are then free indeed For he is the Son of Sarah the Free-woman and we being of one Spirit with him do ipso facto become free 7. And if we would compendiously declare the grand difference betwixt the First and Second Covenant it does consist mainly in these two points we are upon First That a true Christian or one attained to the End and Scope of the Second Covenant is what he is by Faith in a supernatural power working him to it Secondly That that condition he has attained to is a condition of true and perfect Freedome properly so called But he that is under the First Covenant is what he is by the power of Nature onely and by applying himself as well as he can to the external Rule he has set before him And verily he that does no more then thus in Christianity it self that is outwardly apply himself to the Letter of the Gospel has not arrived to the End of the Gospel nor is Isaac yet born in him but is under an outward legal Form in stead of the Law of the Spirit of Life And he cannot be born of the Free-woman forasmuch as the Law of the Spirit of Life is wanting in him which does really free us from the Law of Sin and Death But now by reason that a true Christian arrives to that happy condition he is in by a Supernatural power
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
above described does plainly implie Repentance which comprehends in it a rejection of such apprehensions as we now have discovered to be false and an abhorrence from and sorrow for all our misdeeds with a willingness to make satisfaction where we have done wrong if it lie in our power and a proneness to take revenge of our selves in curbing our selves and cutting our selves short of the ordinary enjoiment of such things as are in themselves lawfull they being for the present not so expedient for us but rather hurtfull and dangerous 3. He that is thus affected as we have described and can thus willingly and sincerely close with Christ and receive him as King as well as Priest and Prophet and holds himself bound in duty to live in the World as he lived following his Example in all things and has as I have already said a love and liking of those Graces he has recommended to the World is a fit New-Covenanter For flesh and bloud has not revealed these things unto him but the Spirit of God that remains in him he being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible the word of God that lives and abides for ever Of this state may be understood that of S. John Whosoever confesses that Iesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and chap. 5. Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God And this is that new birth without which there is no entrance into the Kingdome of Heaven namely unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit that is to say born of the Spirit which is figured out in Baptismal water which is the outward sign of this inward Regeneration whereby a man is a capacity of thus Covenanting with God obteins remission of sins in Christ and becomes a real and visible member of his Church 4. And when he is thus born into the Church he is not then taken into the armes of absolute Omnipotency to support him defend him and nourish him but there is much-what the same reason that there is of a young plant newly sprung out of the earth or a young child newly born into the world unless they meet the one with a carefull and skilfull Gardener the other with good Nurses they are both in hazard of being spoiled with one sad accident or other their growth may be hindered if not life extinguished by neglect or untoward handling For the influence of Grace is not always irresistible nor the purpose of it undefeatable but is much-what as the power of Nature and her offerings and attempts towards the perfection of those Species of things she produces as I have also above noted She works alwaies towards the best but may be checked or stopped and the Spirit the Apostle saies may be quenched as well as natural Fire And though Nature freely offers that comfortable principle of life the fresh Aire yet the Lungs of the child may be so stuffed by the unwholsome milk of a wretched and unfaithful Nurse that he cannot receive it to continue life and health but the poor Infant must be forc'd to yield to the importunity of the disease and to dy by their hands who professed to administer life and nourishment to him 5. There is the same reason in those that are as yet Infants in Christianity that have really a life and sense and desire to what is truly good but are not yet come to that growth but that they are to suck from others If they that pretend to nurse them up impart poison in stead of the sincere milk of the Word there is no question but they are in very great danger of losing that life they are newly begotten into and of falling from this New Covenant That there were of old such Nurses or rather Witches that in stead of feeding these Infants suck'd the very bloud and life of Religion out of them several passages in the Epistles of the Apostles do intimate as I have already taken notice namely That they were little Children whom those Impostours would make believe that they might be righteous though they were not righteous as Christ was righteous Which is to squeeze cold poison into their mouths not to suckle them with the saving milk of the Word St. Paul was a more faithfull Nurse and taught Titus to be so too Chap. 3. where after the mention of the entrance into this new Covenant by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost he presently addes This is a faithfull saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works CHAP. X. 1. The First Principle the new-Covenanter is closely to keep to 2. The Second Principle to be kept to 3. The Third and last Principle 1. WHerefore that there be no Recidivation nor standing still but that there may be a due advance and growth in the Christian life the First Principle that the new-Covenanter is to adhere to stedfast and unshaken is this That there is an indispensable obligation in this new Covenant of living up so near as we possibly can to those Precepts of the Gospel that are delivered either by the mouth of our Saviour himself or the holy Apostles and that we are not to allow our selves in any thing that our own consciences tell us is a Sin nor be discouraged as men out of hope if we finde our selves against our own meaning and purpose at any time mistaken but with chearfulness and confidence in the mediation of our Saviour to adde more resolute endeavours and the greater circumspection for the future making even an advantage of our lapses that sudden surprisal or any errour or frailty brought us into for an higher and more speedy advance in the Divine life These two considerations of our indispensable obligation to duty and Christs Intercession and propitiation for us S. Iohn has prudently bound up together 1. Epist. 2. My little children these things I write unto you that you sin not But if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is a propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours onely but for the sinnes of the whole world Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements is a liar and the truth is not in him But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected As this point is exceeding clear as I have more largely proved elswhere so is is most necessary to be believed and to be remembred perpetually that we may keep our selves safe from tasting touching or coming any thing near the sight or sent of that lushious poison of Libertinisme let it be coloured sugared over or perfumed with the most gracious termes or glorious expressions that the deceivable Eloquence of man can put upon it and that we may
AN EXPLANATION OF The grand Mystery OF GODLINESS OR A True and Faithfull Representation OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL Of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST the Onely Begotten Son of GOD and Sovereign over Men and Angels By H. More D. D. 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the Mystery of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory Acts 1.10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward Heaven as he went up behold two when stood by them in white apparell Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Iesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Gal. 1.8 Though an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then this let him be accursed LONDON Printed by I. Flesher for W. Morden Bookseller in Cambridge 1660. To the READER READER 1. IF thine own Curiosity has given thee the trouble of perusing what I have wrote hitherto that thou maiest not suspect thy task will prove endless give me leave to informe thee that there is no small hopes that this Discourse may prove the last from my hand that shall exercise thy patience In which if thou wilt not believe me on my bare word the better to ease thee of thy fears I shall back it with some reason I must indeed confess That free Speculation and that easie springing up of coherent Thoughts and Conceptions within is a Pleasure to me far above any thing I ever received from external Sense and that lazy activity of Mind in compounding and dissevering of Notions and Ideas in the silent observation of their natural connexions and disagreements as a Holy-day and Sabbath of rest to the Soul But the labour of deriving of these senses of the Mind with their due advantages and circumstances to the Understanding of another and to find out Words which will prove fâ—â—thful witnesses of the peculiarities of my Thoughts this verily is to me a toil and a burden unsupportable besides the very writing of them a trouble so tedious that if any one knew with what impatience and vexatiousness I pen down my Conceptions they might be very well assured that I am not onely free from but incapable of the common disease of this Scripturient Age. 2. No smal Engines therefore could ever move so heavy and sluggish a Soul as mine to so ungratefull a piece of drudgery as thou thy self maiest collect from my very Writings themselves the subjects of them being matters of the highest consequence that the Mind of man can entertain her self withall The writing whereof was in a manner a necessary result of my natural Constitution which freeing me from all the servitude of those petty designs of Ambition Covetousness and the pleasing entanglements of the Body I might either lie fixt for ever in an unactive idleness or else be moved by none but very great Objects Amongst which the least was the Contemplation of this Outward world whose several powers and properties touching variously upon my tender senses made to me such enravishing musick and snatcht away my Soul into so great admiration love and desire of a nearer acquaintance with that Principle from which all these things did flow that the pleasure and joy that frequently accrued to me from hence is plainly unutterable though I have attempted to leave some marks and traces thereof in my Philosophical Poems 3. But being well advised both by the Dictates of my own Conscience and clear information of those Holy Oracles which we all deservedly reverence That God reserves his choicest secrets for the purest minds and that it is uncleanness of Spirit not distance of place that dissevers us from the Deity I was fully convinced that true Holiness was the onely safe Entrance into Divine knowledge and having an unshaken belief of the Existence of God and of his Will that we should be holy even as he is holy there was nothing that is truly sinful that could appear to me assisted by such a power to be unconquerable Which therefore urged me seriously to set my self to the task Of the Experiences and Events of which Enterprize my Second and Third Canto of the Life of the Soul is a real and faithful Record 4. My enjoyments then increasing with my Victories and Innocency and Simplicity filling my mind with ineffable delight in God and his Creation I found my self as loath to die that is to think my Soul mortal as I was when I was a child to be called in to go to bed in Summer evenings there being still light enough as I thought to enjoy my play Which solicitude put me upon my first search into the Nature of the Soul which I pursued chiefly by the guidance of the School of Plato whose Philosophy to this very day I look upon to be more then Humane in the chief strokes thereof But launching out so very early into so deep a Theory I think it not amiss to advertise the Reader that he would do well where he finds a difference in my discoveries to interpret and also rectifie if need be my First thoughts by my Second my Philosophick Poems and whatever is writ in that Volume by my later and better concocted Prose These were the first Essaies of my Youth and how great and serious the Objects of my Mind were therein thou canst easily judge 5. And after this where I seem most light and trivial and play the sportful Satyrist against Enthusiastick Philosophy my design even then was as seasonable serious and of as grand importance as I could possibly undertake which I have more then sufficiently demonstrated in those Writings themselves And though some over-subject to the Fanatick disease have looked upon that unexpected sally of mine as a very extravagant exploit yet I did easily bear with their ignorance deeming it in my silent thoughts in some sort parallel to that of the peevish Hebrew who reproached Moses for slaying of the Egyptian not knowing that it was a preludious act to his delivering of his whole nation from the bondage of Aegypt 6. And I hope I may speak it without vanity that what is discovered concerning Enthusiasme in my Enthusiasmus Triumphatus together with that which is comprehended in this present Volume will contribute no small share to a rightful and justifiable subduing of so dangerous a distemper and to the slaying or at least fettering that wild Beast that the Devil himself rides upon when he warres against the Lamb whose Throne I have seen shaken with the pushings of this monsters horns for these many years together though never clearer then now of late And I dare pronounce with a loud voice aforehand That if ever Christianity be exterminated it will be by Enthusiasme Of so great consequence is it rightly to oppose so deadly an evil Which
Solomon in defining her to be the true Mother that could not endure that the Child should be divided and killed And whatever Church is cruell and remorsless in either Temporall persecution or the Eternall damnation of such men as believe in Christ according to the plain and easie meaning of the Scripture and live accordingly she may approve her self to be an imperious Harlot but no discerning spirit will ever take her for the true Mother that new Ierusalem which is the Spouse of Christ or Wife of the Lamb. Wherefore those are very weak Christians that are so low-belled by this terror as to be taken up and captivated by the Church of Rome and acknowledge her the mother-Church by force of that Argument that demonstrates the contrary to say nothing of their disingenuous abuse of the Charity of the Reformed Churches But for my own part I confess that for sureness I had rather exercise my Charity in wishing them Converts from Popery then express any great confidence of their being safe in that Religion Not that it is possible for me who cannot infallibly demonstrate to my self that all that lived under Paganisme are certainly damned to imagine that all that have gone under the name of Papists have tumbled down into Hell But the case is much like that in Shipwrack on the sea or Pestilence in a City where we will suppose not a house free no man can pronounce that it is impossible that such or such a person should escape nor that any of them are in any tolerable safety The danger is alike to them that adhere to the Apostate Church for though there be a possibility of some mens being saved by an extraordinary or miraculous Providence they breaking through all those impediments and snares that are laid in their way and attaining to a Dispensation above the Church they live in as haply some under Paganisme did yet it cannot be denied but that the Oeconomie of that Church naturally tends to the betraying of Souls to Eternall destruction that falling out which our Saviour said of old of the Pharisees They compass sea and land to make one profelyte and when he is made he becomes twofold more the child of the devil then themselves For he will not stint his Hypocrisie in Religion by the measure of their gain that invented the forme and submit to it for their End but for his own namely that he may excuse himself from all reall holiness by keeping to the observation and profession of their vain inventions And thus are the Commandements of God made of none effect by their Traditions In brief the whole frame of that Church is fashioned out so near to the ancient guise of Idolatrous Paganisme or else to the liveless and ineffectual forme of Judaisme both which Christ appeared on purpose to destroy as either contrary or ineffectuall to Salvation and does explicitly recommend to the world a pure and spirituall worship that we should worship the Father in Spirit and in truth or lastly is so full of Contradictions and Impossibilities in their feigned Stories and imperiously-obtruded Opinions that the natural result of being born under such a Religion or of turning to it is either to become a besotted Superstitionist to believe or do any thing that others will have him to do which is a sign the Spirit of Regeneration has not yet passed upon him and that there is no life nor light in him or else which is too frequent to turn down-right Atheist it being so grosly discernable that the Tenents of their Church are impossible and their Practices fraudulent fitted chiefly for filthy lucre and their Ceremonies useless thankless and ridiculous And therefore if any be saved in the Church of Rome they are such as are not truely of it but above it and fend for themselves as well as they may by some pardonable sleights of Prudence accompanied with an impregnable innocency of Spirit and readiness of doing all possible good they can they sparing their own lives and liberties upon no other account then that and out of a perswasion that he that commanded them to be wise as Serpents as well as innocent as Doves has given them no commission inconsiderately and to no purpose to betray themselves into the power of his usurping Enemy But for others that are perfect Papists and swallow down all that Church proposes to them without chewing or distasting any thing it is a Demonstration there is no Principle of life in them but that they are like dead earthen pitchers which receive poison and wholesome liquors with a like admittance And if there be no principle of life there is no seed of Salvation in a man For it is most certainly true and the Scripture it self doth witness to it That unless a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdome of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This is the new Creature that is created in wisdome righteousness and true holiness The first of which the Church of Rome expunges in that it gives no leave to a man never so regenerate to judge for himself but he must say as the Church sayes right or wrong and for the other two all their superstitious Ceremonies put together adde nothing to them but rather stifle and sufflaminate them Again S. John tell us That he that hates his brother is in the dark and walketh in the dark and knows no whither he goes But others may know it as appears by another saying of the same Apostle Every one that hates his brother is a murderer and no murderer hath eternall life abiding in him But on the contrary he affirms That Love is of God and that he that loveth is born of God and knowes God Now to apply the Case to these Rules If Love be an essential Character of a Regenerate soul and Hatred of Errour Darkness and Eternal Death or to come yet closer If Hatred it self be Murder what will Murder it self be added thereunto And if any thing be Murder I demand whether this be not namely to take away the life of a member of Iesus Christ who does fully and freely profess the Ancient and Apostolick Faith according to the Letter or History of the New Testament and does seriously compose his life according to the Precepts therein contained and does onely declare against and reject the Contradictious Opinions and Idolatrous Practices that have no ground at all in Scripture nor Reason but are quite contrary to both I say if this be no Murder there is no Murder in the world and how guilty the Church of Rome is of this Crime all the world knowes Wherefore this being one of the Principles of that bloudy Church and he that is a perfect Papist being of one mind and suffrage with his Church in all things for she will be held no less then Infallible 't is apparent that no through-paced Papist can ever go to
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
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
other World But of this enough CHAP. XVII 1. The Third Observable The Mediation of Daemons 2. This Superstition glanced at by the Apostle in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that Daemons are the Souls of men departed according to Hesiod 3. As also according to Plutarch and Maximus Tyrius 4. The Author's inference from this position 1. THE Third thing Observable is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Daemons I mean their Dii Medioxumi or rather Those Spirits that were Mediatours as I may so call them betwixt the Supreme Deities and Men. According to this sense is that of Plato in his Symposion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God intermingles not himself with man but all the Converse and conference betwixt the Gods and Men is performed by Daemons And the same Philosopher saies plainly and expresly That these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive the praiers and oblations that men make and present them to the Gods and bring back from them rewards and injunctions which they communicate some way or other to men But this is not Plato's opinion alone but of most of the ancient Philosophers that would venture to say any thing at all in Religion as of Zoroaster Thales Pythagoras Celsus Plutarch Apuleius and who not Nay this conceit is so natural that it is found among the rude Americans who profess that their Zemes are no other then Mediatours and Messengers from the great God that is Eternal and Invisible as Peter Martyr relates in his first Decad lib. 9. concerning the Inhabitants of Hispaniola 2. This opinion of the Heathen was glanced at by the Apostle Coloss. 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius observeth upon the place Nor does the difference of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make any difference in the thing the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo has noted and either of them is competible to the Soul out of the Body as the same Author also acknowledgeth But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies also the Soul in the Body according to Xenocrates in Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. In like manner that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. happy who has a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Genius as Xenocrates says that be is happy or has a good Genius that has a good Soul For the Soul is every man's Daemon or Genius But the more proper sense and that which we mean in this place is that of Philo to whom we may add the suffrage of Hesiod out of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But Soules that have quit themselves from Generation and are for the future free from the incumbrances of the Body become Daemons carefull Inspectours over mankind according to Hesiod From whence haply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divido it signifying the very same that Anima separata 3. And Plutarch himself subscribes to Hesiod's opinion That Souls freed from their Bodies become Daemons or Genii and that they goe up and down the Earth as being observers and rewarders of the actions of men and that though they be not actors themselves yet they are abbettors and encouragers of them that act as old men that have left off the more youthfull sports love to set the younger sort to their games and exercises themselves in the mean time looking on So Plutarch in his De Genio Socratis and Maximus Tyrius endeavour at large to prove that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Genii are nought but the Souls of men departed who are occupied much-what in such emploiments as they were in the flesh 4. From whence it will follow that Good men that were full of humanity love to mankind will prove good Genii by how much their Love is greater and their Spirits more free and universal that they will have a more generall inspection or at least they will be more fit for it were they but armed with sufficient Power and Authority from above answerable to that noble dear affection they bear to man and in that themselves have been in the flesh and tasted what belongs to our condition they will be the more kindly Mediatours and Negotiatours in our affairs So reasonable is this opinion of the Pagans concerning the Intercession of their Genii but their Worshipping of them as rash they having no sufficient warrant thereunto CHAP. XVIII 1. The Fourth and last thing to be noted namely their Heroes who were thought to be either begot of some God or born of some Goddess the latter whereof is ridiculous if not impossible 2. The former not at all incredible 3. Franciscus Picus his opinion of the Heroes feigned so by the Poets as begot of the Gods that they were really begotten of some impure Daemons with Josephus his suffrage to the same purpose 4. The Possibility of the thing further illustrated from the impregnation of Mares merely by the Wind asserted by several Authors 5. The application of the History and a further confirmation from the manner of Conception out of Dr. Harvey 6. Examples of men famed for this kind of miraculous Birth of the Heroes on this side the tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. THE Fourth and last thing I would propound to your view is their Heroes which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also that is the Souls of men departed this life but there was something special in their Birth in that they were conceived to be born of some Goddess impregnated by a man or of some woman impregnated by some God From whence Plato would give the reason of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love Because the Heroes were begot by some God or Goddess falling in love with Mortals Such was the birth of Aeneas as Antiquity has conceited who was begot on Venus by Anchises and of Achilles the Son of Thetis by Peleus But that Goddesses that is Spirits susteining the person of Women should bring forth Children though there be pretended true stories of such things and that it may be it is not impossible yet it seems to me very incredible 2. But that the Genii or Spirits which Antiquity called Gods might impregnate Women so that they might bring forth children without the help of a man seems not to me to be at all incredible and most of your Heroes have been reported to be such the greater number of the most famous of them being certain By-blows of Iupiter upon several women he fell in love with For he is said to beget Hercules upon Alcmena Pelasgus of Niobe Sarpedon of Laodamia Dardanus of Electra Amphion of Antiope Minos and Rhadamanthus of Europa of Leda Castor and Pollux and Perseus of Danae His four last Adulteries are handsomely comprized in a Distich by the Epigrammatist with the fashion or fraud he
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
of what was to come to pass For after this Moses and Elias vanished and his disciples when he had raised them up from the ground for they had fallen flat on their faces out of fear lifting up their eyes saw no man save Iesus onely 9. Fourthly and lastly It was a very fit and powerful Instance to assure men of the Immortality of the Soul and to beget a more unshaken belief of the Resurrection of Christ out of the grave and therefore Christ bad his disciples tell no man of the Vision but reserve it till its due use and time that is till Christ had risen from the dead to be added as a further confirmation of that mystery of enjoying of Life and Immortality in a glorified Body against that dull infidelity of Atheisticall men that think the Soul of man cannot act unless in the flesh 10. In the First and Last of these memorable accidents we rehearsed there is an eminent witness from Heaven of the Excellency of Christs person to which that nothing remarkable may be omitted we shall adde also that recorded in John 12. where Christ praying Father glorify thy name there came a voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again CHAP. IV. 1. What miraculous accidents in Apollonius his life may seem parallel to these of Christs His superstitious fasting from flesh and abstinence from wine out of a thirst after the glory of foretelling things to come 2. Apollonius a Master of Iudiciary Astrology and of his seven Rings with the names of the seven Planets 3. Miraculous Testimonies given to the eminency of Apollonius his Person by Aesculapius and Trophonius how weak and obscure 4. The Brachmans high Encomium of him with an acknowledgment done to him by a fawning Lion The ridiculous Folly of all these Testimonies 1. WE have now gone through the chiefest things that happened to Christ in an extraordinary manner before his Passion Before we proceed any further being mindful of our promise we shall give a glance at what may seem parallel in the life of Apollonius And to the miraculous Fast of Christ undergone for so sober purposes which he was carried to by the power of the Spirit I finde nothing to be compared in that famous Philosopher if he deserved so solid a Title but his continual voluntary abstinence from flesh and wine Which needless Superstition is coloured with as contemptible an End that is a vain affectation of glory by foretelling of things to come a faculty that mightily pleases and tickles the natural man and the affectation thereof shews the Levity and Pride of Apollonius his Spirit as also of his grand Instructers in that Science the Brachmans of India who having asked Damis if he had any skill in Divination and he professing that his study and knowledge reached no further then to things usefull and necessary laughed him to scorn 2. But Philostratus writes of Apollonius as wholy giving himself up to the study of Divination and Iudiciary Astrology and how Iarchas the chief of the Brachmans gave him seven Rings with the names of the seven Planets inscribed upon them as also that Apollonius wrote four books of this Art Which things are a demonstration of his gross ignorance in Nature and Philosophy and of the petty temper of his Spirit and that there was nothing truly divine in him though the deceived Pagans adored him for a God For those that descend to such Arts it is a sign there is no solid knowledge in them much less any supernatural principle either in them or assisting to them but that their predictions are Diabolical or else that they are mere Whiflers and Juglers and have no extraordinary assistance at all 3. I shall adde but another parallel and so proceed and that is the Testimonies concerning the Eminencie of their persons in which there is as great a difference as of their persons themselves The person of Christ being witnessed to by an audible voice from Heaven God affirming thereby to the World that he was his beloved Son and requiring their obedience to him but the Eminency of Apollonius being recommended by none but the Ghost of Aesculapius and Trophonius whose den he entred and as it became a Necromancer confabulated there a long time with him as he did also with Achilles at his tombe who imploy'd him to renew his annual Rites and Honours in Thessalie But this recommendation of his was not immediate from either but by their Priests who being informed the one by a dream the other by some obscure voice in the Temple of which there was no witness but the Priest himself gave out great matters of Apollonius 4. We may adde also the Testimony of the Brachmans those famous Magicians whom Apollonius so much applauding they claw'd him again and concluded among themselves that he was worthy to be honored as a God both alive and after Death Nay we will give him in all to make up the weight A certain tame Lion in Aegypt seem'd also to acknowledge his Divinity coming to him as he was sitting in the Temple and crouching under him who when Apollonius told the people that he was that ancient Aegyptian King Amasis come into a Lions body the Beast began to roar and lament and weep bitterly as begging his succour in so bad a condition Which Apollonius being sensible of got the Lion to be sent to Leontopolis a City of Aegypt and there to be kept in such sort as was more sutable to his Royal Soul How obscure confounded and ridiculous are all these Testimonies of the Eminency of the person of that subtil Impostor So base and evanid is all humane contrivance against the Glory and Soveraignty of Christ the true Son of God CHAP. V. 1. Three general Observables in Christs Miracles 2. Why he several times charged silence upon those he wrought his Miracles upon 3. Why Christ was never frustrated in attempting any Miracle 4. The vanity of the Atheists that impute his Miracles to the power of Imagination 5. Of the delusive and evanid viands of Witches and Magicians 1. VVE come now to what Jesus miraculously did in his life-time We may referre the most of his Miracles to these four heads His feeding the hungry multitudes His healing the sick His raising of the dead and his dispossessing of Devils In all which you may observe First That his wonder-working power was exercised upon known and familiar objects such as often occurre amongst men For such are Hunger Sickness Death and Possession of Devils or Witchery not that I think them both one but that sundry persons are possessed that way and it may be most frequently Secondly That Christ puts forth his power no where out of any levity or vain ostentation but as the necessities of men required it all his Miracles being a perpetual exercise of love and compassion to mankind To which we might adde also in the Third place what is likewise general to them all his purpose
that this History should be recorded as well as transacted that the Church might have the more strong Faith in the Son of God who even while he was in the flesh had such Noble victories over the Powers of the dark Kingdome putting to flight many thousands of Devils at once 5. The truth whereof was very handsomely assured by Christs permitting what these unclean Spirits desired which was to goe into a heard of swine which the Text saies was about two thousand which was a very fair pledge of their numerosity to them that will not cavil these impure Spirits as both Trismegist and Psellus have observed pleasing themselves to dabble in the bloud of Brutes as well as of Men and therefore to lodge themselves in their Veins and Arteries And Malice being as sweet to them as the refreshing of their other foul appetite every souldier of this dark Regiment would be very nimble at seizing of his prey and so they dividing their booty amongst them every one reaped the satisfaction of his own foul and malicious mind by entring the swine and hurrying them into the midst of the Sea which they indeed had not been able to doe had not Christ permitted them But Christ was not at all overshot in this concession or permission to effect their project For though they desired it for mischief sake that they might incense the Gadarens against him yet he plainly outwitted them in their project it being more serviceable to him then to them 6. For hereby was the foulness and mischievous virulency of the Devils more plainly demostrated Whence his mercy to the possessed was the more fully illustrated and by the loss of the Swine the Temper of the Gadarens was also discovered the Mosaical abstinence seasonably coutenanced against the Apostate Jews of that Country the swinish nature of men aenigmatically perstringed and the Divine power of Christ as I said who alone could deal with such numerous troops of Infernal Spirits manifested to the world and the mouth of such frivolous Allegorists stopped as would make the Devils that Christ is said to cast out of the possessed to be no Essential Spirits but only deprav'd Affections as Calvin observes upon the place Wherefore there is nothing of Levity Injury or any Extravagancy in the whole Story but all Circumstances therein are sober just and usefull 7. For Christ was not bound to hinder the loss of the Swine their perishing being for so publick a good and of so great importance as to assure us of the vast power he has who shall one day be Judge and do final vengeance upon all the Infernal powers at once and that though he be so full of compassion towards Mankind as to lay down his life for the World that through belief in him he may save them from eternal destruction yet no softness or effeminacy of Spirit or unseasonable pity to the brute creatures shall hold his hands from doing execution upon unbelieving and obdurate persons but that as here the Devils and the Swine were plunged together into the bottom of the Sea so a deludge of fire shall be poured out upon the Earth at the Last Judgement wherein all terrestriall Animals together with the Devils and the Damned shall burn in flames unquenchable CHAP. VIII 1. Of Christ's turning water into wine 2. The Miraculous draught of Fish 3. His whipping the Money-changers out of the Temple 4. His walking on the Sea and rebuking the Winde 5. His cursing the Fig-tree 6. The meaning of that Miracle 7. The reason why he expressed his meaning so aenigmatically 8. That both the Prophets and Christ himself as in the Ceremonies he used in curing the man that was born blind spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Typicall Actions 9. The things that were typified in those ceremonies Christ used in healing the blinde as in his tempering Clay and Spittle 10. A further and more full Interpretation of the whole Transaction 11. Some brief touches upon the Prophesies of Christ. 1. BEsides those Miracles which are referrable to the Four general heads we noted there be also other Single Examples of different natures such are His turning water into wine The Miraculous draught of Fish His driving the buyers and sellers out of the Temple His walking on the Sea and his rebuking of the Winds To all which it is common with the rest That they were not done out of any Vanity or Ostentation but out of a Principle of Love and kind affection being alwaies invited by some present exigency to shew his wonder-working power As in that of turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee which he did at the solicitation of his Mother though with some reluctancy because of the Envy of the Pharisees that sought to kill him as also out of a principle of Humanity they being at a loss for Wine more company its likely for Iesus his sake coming to the Marriage-feast then was expected nay I may say out of a frame of Spirit becoming the Divinity of his Person For what is more Divine or God-like then himself being utterly exempted from the pleasures of this life and the knowledge of the Nuptial bed yet wholly laying aside all superciliousness and exprobrations to others to countenance necessary Marriage gratifying their lawfull desires who could not well be disentangled from these things in the ordinary and natural enjoyments of the Body 2. The miraculous draught of Fish Simon pulled up after he had cast his net at our Saviour's appointment it was partly a compensation of their long toil all night when they caught nothing and partly a prefiguration of Peter's excellent success when he was become a fisher of men 3. That Miracle of whipping the Money-changers out of the Temple for so Grotius will have it to be esteemed Christ performing it as he writes nullâ vi externâ solâ divinâ virtute venerabilis though it seem full of unwarrantable passion or fury yet the Provocation was very just and the Principle from whence this fit of Zeal did flow the best that could be viz. a dear regard to the despised Gentiles whose Atrium or place of worship the Jews did thus contemptuously prophane and a just indignation against the Iews who out of a fond pride and conceit of their being the seed of Abraham though they prov'd themselves the sons of the Devil scorn'd and despised the poor Gentiles for whom Christ was to die and it was an Act full of Love and Heroical affection to right them thus while he lived 4. His walking on the Sea it was to come to his Disciples that were toiling and rowing against the winde and the stream he having in all likelihood not the convenience of taking boat any where to come unto them And lastly His rebuking the Wind and the Sea in a mighty storm necessity plainly extorted that Miracle the Ship being covered with waves and his disciples as they conceived ready to be cast away which made them awaken him crying
the contrary being disadvantaged by leading a life and offering himself an example of manners that are either scorn'd or hated by every natural man who was still made more odious and contemptible by his suffering a shamefull death betwixt two groâ—s Malefactors I say if an high hand from Heaven had not carried on the affairs of Christianity that is if Christ had not done some such Miracles himself as are recorded if he had not risen from the dead ascended into Heaven and thence powred forth his Spirit upon the Apostles and enabled them to doe such wonderfull works as they did it had been utterly impossible that Christianity could have had any such success in the world as we see it has at this day So that the whole History of Christ is very congruous and coherent and such as according to the nature of the thing ought to be whenever the Messias was to come into the World CHAP. XII 1. Three main Effects of Christ his sending the Paraclete foretold by himself Iohn 16. When the Paraclete shall come c. 2. Grotius his Exposition upon the Text. 3. The Ground of his Exposition 4. A brief indication of the natural sense of the Text by the Author 5. The Prophesie of Christ fulfilled and acknowledged not only by Christians but also Mahometans 6. That the Substance of Mahometism is Moses and Christ. Their zealous profession of One God 7. Their acknowledgment of Miracles done by Christ and his Apostles and of the high priviledge conferred upon Christ. 8. What Advantage that portion of Christian Truth which they have embraced has on them and what hopes there are of their full conversion 1. IT would be too tedious a business particularly to prosecute that ample Success that the Passion Resurrection Ascension of Christ and his Sending the Holy Ghost had in the World but the most universal and farthest-spreading Effects thereof we cannot pass by in silence especially those Three which himself foretells of John 16. That when the Paraclete should come he would convince the world concerning Sin Righteousness and Iudgment Concerning Sin because they believe not on me Concerning Righteousness because I goe to the Father and you see me no more Concerning Iudgment because the Prince of this World is judged 2. All which as Grotius interprets the place in a Forensal sense is of a very large extension and acknowledged as well by Turk as Christian. For that learned Expositour makes Christ to send the Spirit as an Advocate to plead his cause against the World and indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so and nothing else and thereby to convince the World First of that great Crime of Infidelity and of killing of their true Prophet nay their expected Messias This properly respects the Jews who crucified him and they felt the Divine vengeance for so heinous a fact their City being sacked their Temple demolished and themselves scattered and made underlings in all places of the World Secondly of the Equity and righteous dealing of the just God with Christ who because he had suffered so wrongfully made him a compensation by making him a partaker of his Heavenly glory for the reproach and injury he bore upon the Earth Thirdly lastly of Iustice betwixt party and party and that therefore as the Devil excited the Jews to put Christ to death so by way of Retaliation Christ should put the Devil out of his present dominion and rule in the world by the destruction of Idolatry and the worship of those Apostate Spirits though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems something lame here the members being so heterogeneall one to another 2. But the Exposition will appear sufficiently ingenious for all that if we do but consider what he sets down for the ground of his interpretation That Sin Righteousness and Iudgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answer to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying publica judicia de criminibus but the other two privata judicia unum ex aequo bono which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alterum certam ex lege formulam habens which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which assuredly comprehends such Laws as concern the right of Possession as well as that of Retaliation which Grotius so specially aims at in his citing Levit. 24.20 The Devil therefore being a mere usurper and having no right to the rule and dominion of the World the Action will lie against his Usurpation and thus the Interpretation will be unexceptionable And that the action is of this kind is plain in that Christ the Son of God is heir of all things as himself somewhere intimates and the Apostle also in plain terms declares 4. The sense therefore of the forecited Text in short is this That the Spirit which is called the Paraclete or Advocate when he comes should convince the World of the Veracity of Christ and the Infidelity and Cruelty of the Iews that crucified him who was a true Prophet neither Deceiver nor deceived and of the Equity of God that compensated his sufferings amongst the Jews by taking him to himself and crowning him with immortal glory and of the Iudgment of God against the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God has given sentence against him already that he shall be ejected out of his usurped dominions and that all the Pagan forms of worship shall be abrogated and destroy'd 5. This the Paraclete or Spirit of God coming upon the Apostles and assisting them and the Church so miraculously for many Ages has with such undeniable conviction made good that not only all Christendome is assured thereof but that vast Empire of the Turks and all the Mahometans whereever dispersed in the World So that after a manner the whole Earth is filled with the belief thereof which I thought worth the taking notice of that this Success may not seem less ample then it is 6. For though the Mahometans are not Christians but Pagans in too true a sense yet it is plain that much of the letter of their law is Moses and Christ. And to the confusion of gross Idolatry and Polytheism they profess One only God Creatour of Heaven and Earth and their great stress of their Religion lies upon this main Article with which they are so transported that they spend a great deal of their time in their Mosco's in chanting out this one Truth La illa ilella la illa ilella that is There is but one God as Historians relate But this is no more then the Jews believe nor upon so good grounds but they proceed further as if they were ambitious to make out that broken title that one gives them who calls them Semichristianos Half-christians 7. For partly in their Alcoran and partly in Zuna it is recorded how Iesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and so born of the Virgin Mary That the Gospel is the way the light and salvation of men and
made none but our selves onely imagine them Again as for Idolatry another known Character of the Beast cannot we find that also amongst our selves I do not mean Covetousness onely which the Apostle cals Idolatry but the adventuring to erect Imaginations if not Images of God some more horrid and affrightful then those that stand in the most polluted Temples of the Pagans the Statue of Saturn tearing his own children a pieces with his teeth and eating of them is but an Hieroglyphick of Mercy in comparison thereof while in the mean time the mournful Witnesses testifie both out of Moses and out of S. Iohn That the nature of God is quite another thing God is Love and he that abideth in Love abideth in God and God in him The Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth And yet what forcible assaults are there to set up this Idol or false Image in the Temple of every mans Minde which otherwise should be consecrated to the Love of God and the warm and comfortable residence of his Holy Spirit That also is a blind Image of God worse then the Pagan Cupid which some conceited Fondlings set up in favour of themselves That God sees no sin in his Elect let them sin never so grosly whenas the Scripture expresly affirms That his eyes behold his eye-lids try the Children of men and That he is of purer eyes then to endure iniquity any where To say nothing that Opinions themselves that are framed by humane curiosity in points of Religion though otherwise harmless become Idols and have the very same effect that Idols have that is They lay asleep the Minde and besot it so that it becomes senseless of the indispensable motions of the Divine life And further That the tricking up our selves with such curiosities is but a self-chosen holiness and a worshipping and serving God after our own humour which assuredly is little better then Idolatry 8. And lastly more compendiously and at once Let us consider the nature of the Witnesses slain by the Beast of the bottomless pit Which is a childish thing to conceit to be Two persons forasmuch as they prophesy for 1260 years together as Mr. Mede has well defined and I also adde that they are dead in another sense even that time they are said to prophesy as I have above noted and I think there is very little doubt to be made of the Interpretation Let us therefore now consider what these Two Witnesses are And truely according to the richness of Prophetick expression I do not think they are restrained to one single signification but type out at least these two things The Old and New Testament which by a Prosopopoeia are here called the Two Witnesses or else The Magistracy and Ministery forasmuch as those things they are described by are allusions to Moses and Aaron and to Zerobabel and Ieshua The Concinnity of the former interpretation does not depend onely on that obvious allusion to that Latine word Testament but is further ratified from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently signifiing the Laws or Institutes of God rendred also for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to adde that the Old and New Testament are whether they were called so or no Two eximious Witnesses of the Mind of God unto the World Wherefore now more Prophetico making these Two Books Two persons they may be said to be alive or slain either in a Political or Moral sense They would be alive in a Political sense if they had the only rule in the transactions of the affairs of Church and Commonwealth that there should be no injunctions as indispensable in matters of Religion but such as they plainly determine much less any thing against them And so likewise in State-affairs all Oppression and Tyranny would be prohibited Wherefore while the Inventions of men rule in the Church instead of the Dictates of those holy Oracles and while course Oppression and Tyranny over the members of Christ is prevalent that is while men think they have power and wealth and wit and policy merely to tread down the people and not to succour them and guide them for their real good and to ennoble their spirits as much as they are capable rather then to make them besotted vassals and slaves to put out their eyes to make mill-horses of them that they may the better droile and drudge for the satisfaction of their lusts whereever things are carried on this way the Beast of the bottomless Pit has slain the Two Witnesses in the Political sense the Law of God in the mean time protesting against their proceedings both in the Old and New Testament as is plain to every one that peruses those Writings The Witnesses also would be alive in a Moral sense if those indispensable Precepts of life witnessed by them were really turned into life and practice in us For the External Word is but a dead letter but then is properly alive when that life is begotten in us whereof it testifies Which if it be neglected as also their Rule so farre forth as it respects Ecclesiastick Policy be declined and men act both in Political affairs and in their private capacities according to the Rules of men and their unprofitable Institutes and thereby neglect the indispensable Commands of God who cannot but see that the Two Witnesses we speak of are plainly slain and that the Old and New Testament are but as two liveless carkasses lying unburied indeed for they will not burn them and put their ashes into an urne and hide them under ground for fear of the people but useless and unactive having no power to curb the wicked enormities of the world who have taken up another self-chosen Law to themselves minted and forged by the false Antichristian Church consistent enough with nay very favourable to all those pomps and vanities that we are sworn against in our very Baptisme Whence it is said that the Inhabitants of the World are so glad and triumphant and send gifts to one another upon the slaying of the Witnesses their death conducing so much to the uncurbed fruition of all worldly and carnal enjoyments but the Church in the mean time becoming no better then Sodome and Aegypt a land of Tyranny and Beastliness a City of Carnality and Oppression Wherein to proceed to the other sense Moses and Aaron Zerobabel and Ieshua the holy and legitimate Magistracy and Ministery are slain that is kept out of all Political power by this Beast out of the bottomless pit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which as it may signifie the Sea may be understood of the Ten-horned Beast but as it may signifie a deep pit in the earth such as that from whence Smoke came and the Locusts may signifie the Two-horned Beast who is said to come out of the Earth and is the Master of that Wisdom that is earthly sensual and devilish and which is accompanied with bloudy zeal 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
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
the Scripture-learned teach them which is plainly to deny the History of Christ and to profess our selves mere Infidels Out of which Spirit of Infidelity he has so distortedly allegorized all the clauses of the Creed that to such as are not bewitched and besotted by his fanatick blasts to a better opinion of him then he deserves he must needs appear an Infidel Lastly in his Introduction Chap. 9. sect 35. there again he does boldly affirm That it is certainly mere lies what the Letter-learned institute or set forth how clear soever in understanding if they be yet unreformed by the Love and her Service And in the following Section he plainly declares That the Scriptures are not to be taught nor held forth Historically but as Prefigurations of the Promises that are fulfilled in his Service of the Love Whence it is evident he had no belief in the Letter of the Scripture nor of the miraculous History of Christ and of the Predictions concerning him whereby our Faith should be affixed to his Humane Person Against which he useth all diligence imaginable as if not simple Care but an inspired Envy or Satanical Spite against the honour of his Person did actuate him in all his Writings 2. To which purpose I conceive is that Caution in his Introduction That no man bind his heart to any outward thing which he is served with to the Righteousness of life For of all outward things nothing can be more serviceable then the Humane Person of Christ who suffered for us and redeemed us from the wrath to come if we stand faithfull in the Covenant Those places also where he saith That the Godly life is the very Saviour himself and that no man knows Christ nor can confess him unless his shape be in him that is his Life and Image be in him seem intended as justling against the External Person of Christ as also what he saith Chap. 22. namely That no other Foundation may be laid then that Iesus Christ who from everlasting was and is and abideth for ever whereby I doubt not but he intends the exclusion of his Humane Person whose compute began but about 16 hundred years agoe But the most wonderfull sleight he puts him off by is his Mystical meaning of Christ's celebration of the Passeover with his Disciples Which we shall easily understand if we take notice what he means by Flesh in his Writings namely by Flesh is meant the Letter or History In his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Chap. 13. ver 4. Verily therefore they do all erre very much that judge according to their understanding out of the earthly Being or out of the Flesh or Letter God's truth which is Heavenly and Spiritual See also Introduct ch 14. sect 20. Now if you will but read his Evangely chap. 21. sect 3 7 8 10. also chap. 22. sect 5 6. and chap. 25. sect 1 2. you shall find in brief for it were too tedious to write these allegorical Ambages that the right Celebration of the Pascha or Passeover with Christ is That he namely Christ after the Flesh they are his own words should be slain that is that Christ according to the Letter or History should be abolished that he may be entertained only according to the Spirit Which is the great Arcanum of this Sect of the Family Behold saith he this is the right Passeover with Christ and the right Supper which the upright Believers and Disciples of Christ keep with Christ to wit that they depart even so with Christ out of the Flesh that is that Christ according to the History or Letter be crucified or slain in them that is nullified and rejected as a mere Legend or Fable and pass into the Spirit that is the spiritual Mystery of Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral of the Fable and out of the Death or Mortality that is out of the dead Letter into the Eternal Life of everlasting Immortality In which sonorous language that you may not promise to your self any such lasting purchase there is nothing meant but the state of Perfection which these Familists phansie to themselves here upon Earth and is everlasting in no other sense then in succession they promising themselves that their Sect will continue for ever and therefore he adds wherethrough sin and all destruction becomes vanquished namely by this state of Perfection wherein sin and every imperfect and destroyable state is swallowed up For they having come to the highest there is no change of things though their persons be mortal according to their own doctrine This Allegorie of the Passeover is so odd a conceit that did I not suppose the Author deeply Fanatical I should suspect it accompanied with a sly jearing and scorn against the History of Christ and to be the product of a scoffing Atheistical Spirit For no Atheist could exercise his wit here with more villainous sliness against the truth of the Scriptures then thus Which makes me sometimes think that he was not simply Fanatical but either Atheistical or possessed by the Devil himself in the mean time not knowing whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was 3. And thus we have had a taste in general how sedulously this Author endeavours to out the Person of Christ. We shall now pursue the matter in two main heads the Office of his Priesthood and his coming visibly to judgment in his Humane person To which is annexed the promise of a glorious Resurrection and Eternal Life in a plain and true sense without any shuffling or equivocating That he makes nothing of the atonement of Christ's personal sufferings he does in my judgment too plainly discover chap. 13. sect 8. of his Documental Sentences where rather then he will acknowledg the usefulness of that Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous who is a propitiation for our sins he does pronounce him that sins by violence or Temptation to be guiltless as the ravished virgin Deuteronomie 22 that so there may be no need of Christ's Sacrifice whose personal death and Priestly office he never takes notice of to this purpose As you may observe further Exhortat chap. 20. from sect 19 to the end of the chapter Where although he supposes a mans stumblings and fallings daily very great and terrible before him and that for that cause he is very wofull of heart feels the pricking of sin the darts of death and condemnation of Hell and so is in much anguish and affliction of mind yet is there no application at all of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross nor any help nor comfort at all held out by his sufferings though it was the most proper place that could be to mention them And chap. 24. in the praiers he puts up there in stead of making use of the mediation of that Christ that felt the pains of death on the Cross for us he makes use only of Gods supposed Promise or Covenant he has made with the House of
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
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
possession And you having flung away that precious Legacy of your dying Lord namely the Love of one another what Injustice is it that an Alien take it up and flourish it in your sight to your utter Shame and Reproach And truly he writes as one that knows his advantage passing well in this regard as you may see if you read his Introduction chap. 4. sect 35. to the end of the chapter as also sect 51 of the eleventh chapter to the end thereof 5. Fourthly Whereas you place all your Piety in an hypocritical Flattery of Christ's Person and have overwhelmed and smothered the Life of Religion with an unsupportable load and luggage of needless and thankless Ceremonies or else have wounded it to death with the acuteness and spinosity of harsh and dry Opinions not heeding at all the renovation of your own minds nor of theirs that are committed to your charge into the lively Image of Christ which assuredly does mainly consist in Christian Love how just is it with God to permit such an Enthusiast to arise who shall make it the great Arcanum of his Religion to slay Christ according to the flesh that is according to the History you having slain him so cruelly and remorslessly according to the Spirit that is extinguished his Life that ought to be in us by substituting your own foolish Opinions and loathsome Ceremonies in the place thereof Nay indeed you have handled the matter so that you have made Christ according to the flesh be the Executioner of himself according to the Spirit making every Article concerning Christ an Engine for either Sensuality or Strife In brief the exteriour oeconomie of Christian Religion being intended for the inward perfecting of our Minds in true Righteousness and Holiness which is Christ in us according to the Spirit you by your Devices defeating this end doe naturally take away the means thereto and thus yourselves are the principal Murderers of Christ even according to the flesh too and H. Nicolas is only your appointed Executioner And therefore it is as I said but just with God you having so long and so constantly abused all the Articles of the Creed to a contrary purpose then was intended by his gracious counsel that he permit such a Mock-prophet to arise that should hazard the peoples misbelief of all and Allegorize away all that solid and useful Truth of the History of Christ into a mere moral or mystical sense as if the Letter were but a Parable or Fable 6. Fifthly In that this Sect we speak of do rattle so about your ears with the loud noise of Perfection though for my own part I am well assured the best of them are far enough from it yet in the mean time I cannot but interpret it an exprobration and reproach to the great abhorrency you have to so searching a doctrine that will touch and wound your Hypocritical hearts with the sense and conscience of wilful sinfulness which you would cloak under that colour of Impossibility of being as you should be as also to your false dealing with those under your charge whom you do bedwarfe and becripple by your poisonous medicines would make them alwaies sorry boies with bibs and aprons or else conceal their age and keep them alwaies in minority for advantage sake like those infortunate Orphans that are betraied into the hands of treacherous Guardians What wonder is it therefore that those that truly hunger and thirst after Righteousness being starved at home with those dilute and corrupt doctrines of the Needlesness of Sanctity of invincible Infirmity slight Attrition frivolous Penances venal Indulgences crawl out abroad to seek better food and so get into the lap and suck the nipples of this sweet Enchantress the lovely Family of the Love whose breasts do promise such strong nourishment that they that drink thereof do not only pass from children to men but from being men doe become Gods 7. And Sixthly and lastly While I contemplate the universal face of Christendome what a Den of Thieves and Murderers it is become what a Region of Robbers and Oppressors what a Sty of Epicures what a Wilderness of Atheism and Prophaneness in a manner wholly inhabited by Satyrs and salvage Beasts when I consider within my self how generally men live as if there were nothing to come after this life and how many already have drunk down that doctrine That there is indeed nothing to come hereafter of which notwithstanding the History of Christ his Death Resurrection and Ascension and his appearing out of Heaven to Paul as he was a going to Damascus are as palpable pledges as Divine Providence could produce as also of his visible Return to Judgement according to the Scriptures I say when I consider how little effect all this has had for the raising of mens minds to an heavenly Conversation but that they live as if they were utterly sunk from this belief I cannot imagine any thing more reasonable then to conclude That out of very Wrath and Indignation God has raised this false Prophet to them that it might be with them according to the Proverb Like lips like lettice Like Prophet like People As if God should thus expostulate with Christendome Behold I have given to you my only-begotten Son out of my own bosome whose authority I ratified unto you by audible Voices from Heaven by mighty Signs and Miracles done by him while he was alive I gave him a sacrifice for sin to reconcile you to my self and to endear your affections unto him and me that ye might cordially follow his Example and keep his Precepts I raised him from the dead and exhibited him visibly to his disciples as an undoubted pledge of a blessed Immortality to them that believe on him which I further confirmed by his Ascension into Heaven and his appearing to that chosen Vessel of mine who has so fully prefigured unto you his glorious Return to Judgment and the Resuscitation of all his Saints into that Eternal Happiness which they had fallen from And now I demand of you what could I have done more for the gaining you back to my self and for the resettling you again in my Heavenly Paradise But because you are so besotted with Earthliness and Sensuality as to make no use of the inestimable advantages of the Gospel but have set your Happiness upon things here below behold I have raised up unto you a Prophet according to your own hearts desire who will help on the completion of your Infidelity and in the midst of a many fine words and sweet friendly phrases close up your eyes in Unbelief and so having sealed unto you by his witchery and enchantments this assurance That the Mystery of Christ reaches no further then the things of this life you may use the present market and enjoy your worldly lusts to the full 8. This surely if I understand any thing is the sense and meaning of God's permission that such a Prodigie as Familisme should appear with so
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
reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting 5. The aim therefore of the Apostle is not to extenuate or discountenance real Vertue and Righteousnesse but to point us to it and shew us where it may be had Not in dayes or years not in New Moons or Festivals not in Circumcision nor in the dead letter of the Law but in Christ and the Spirit of God in the renewed Image of God in the new birth in the new life in the second Adam from Heaven in the new Creature But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world For in Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Which the Apostle elsewhere cals the new man That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man that is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of your minde And that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse that is not in external Ceremonial holiness or outward sanctimonious shew but in the regeneration of the inward Spirit to a new life from the very heart And again Colos. 3. vers 9. Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him where there is neither Greek nor Iew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all 6. This new Creature then is nothing else but the Image of God in the Soul of man So witness both these Texts The new man which after God is created in Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness The very same that Plato speaks at once in his Theaetetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be like God is to become Holy Iust and Wise. But because most men even the old Adam in us take themselves to be holy just and wise it will be seasonable here to see what Iustice Holinesse and Wisedom this is that is in the new Creature 7. And who can tell it so well as he that is it Matth. 5. Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement But I say unto you that whosoever ◠angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councell but whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of hell-fire Ye have heard that it was said by them of old Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Again it was said of old Forswear not thy self But I say unto you Swear not at all but let your communication be Yea yea and Nay nay for whatsoever is more then these cometh of evil Ye have heard it also said An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you Resist not evil Ye have heard also Thou shalt love thy neighbour but hate thine enemy But I say unto you Love your enemies Bless them that curse you Do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you Behold the exact and unblameable Righteousnesse that is in the regenerate Soul far above the doctrine or thoughts of either the Legal Pharisee or mere Moralist External Righteousness in the outward man or to be internally just as far as corrupt Reason suggests is but filthy rags in respect of this Righteousnesse Christ requires of us and the new Creature doth bring into us once grown up to its due stature in us Let every man examine himself by this Rule 8. And as this Iustice is far above yea sometimes contrary to the Justice of the Natural man for with him to hate his enemies to recompense evil with evil is just so the Holiness is far transcending the Holinesse of either the ancient or modern Scribes and Pharisees and Zelotical Ceremonialists For all outward Ceremonies of Time or Place of Gesture or Vestments Rites or Orders they are all but Signes and Shews but the Body is Christ. Lastly that the natural man phansie not himself Wise as who is not of all precious things the most forward to appropriate that to himself that he phansie not himself Wise before he be Holy and Iust let him examine his Wisedom by that square in the third Chapter of S. Iames's Epistle Who is a wise man and endowed with knowledge amongst you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of Wisedom But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth This wisedom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the Wisedom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie The Righteousnesse then of the new Creature is a Righteousness far above the letter of Moses's Law though exactly performed it 's Holiness more resplendent then the Robe of Aaron and all his Priestly attire or whatsoever Ceremonies else God hath instituted or man invented it 's Wisdome far above all the thin-beaten subtilties of either the wrangling Sects or disputacious Schools without contention or bitter contradiction 9. So that it is plain from the constant scope of the Apostle both in this Epistle and every where else That he does not vilifie true Vertue and Morality but drives at an higher pitch and perfection thereof and that the Righteousness of Faith which he prefers before the Righteousness of Works is not by way of exclusion of Good Works out of the Righteousness of Faith but of urging us to exacter and more perfect works of Righteousnesse then could be performed under the dispensation of the Law How wicked a treachery therefore is it against the Church of Christ and how impudent a piece of boldness in those false Teachers that would bear men in hand That this doctrine of the being approved in the eyes of God by a dry and dead Faith devoid and destitute of all real sanctity and holiness is not only a Christian truth but the most choice and principal doctrine in all Christianity when there is not any footstep of any such thing in all the Instructions and Informations of either Christ or his Apostles CHAP. VII 1. That no small measure of Sanctity serves the turn in Christianity 2. As appears out of Scriptures already alledged 3. Further
the power of his might Put you on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world even against the wicked Spirits of the air Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day and having vanquished all to stand Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breast-plate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Above all taking the shield of faith whereby you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God We shall add only a short speech to the Christian souldier thus harnessed from the Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ Revel 3. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne Which things thus put together and carefully considered cannot but awaken us out of that drouzy and lazy dream of unoperative Faith and sluggish sordid slavery to sin under pretence of invincible infirmity into a full belief of the mighty power of Christ and of his Armature and Ammunition whereby we are able to overcome all our domestick lusts though abetted and incensed by the fiery Stratagems of the Devil 6. To him that overcomes When I beseech you is this overcoming Is not Victory wone in the same field the battel is fought and is not our warfare here upon this earth wherefore it is plain our Victory must be here also It is in this life we are commanded to kill and slay the old man in us with all his deceiveable lusts who while he is alive will be alwaies plotting and inventing some evil device or other to undermine and root the Kingdome of Christ out of our hearts And therefore we must be wholy the one or wholy the other We cannot serve Christ and Belial Light and Darkness cannot abide together And verily the Apostle has furnished us with so compleat an armature that we cannot but confess our selves stronger then the strong man that has hitherto kept the house so that if he be not dispossessed it is long of us For the faithfull Christian Souldier is so well appointed being girt with Truth his Heart fortified with Uprightness and Sincerity his Mind with representations of Eternal life his feet with readiness unwearied resolution of walking as becomes the Gospel of Christ his Memory with the choicest and most useful encouraging Precepts of the Scripture his whole Soul bearing it self strong in the Faith of the power of God against all assaults and temptations of the enemies of our Salvation that he cannot but get the day and stand Conquerour in the field though his own domestick lusts be assisted by the powers of the Prince of the Air that rules in the Children of disobedience For this shield of Faith is able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil This is that Faith whereby the ancients have subdued kingdomes and wrought righteousness And this is that whereby every Christian shall advance his conquests against the Kingdome of Darkness and Unrighteousness as much as he pleases For according to a mans Faith so shall it be unto him 7. Wherefore those that plead for a lazy Slackness and Remisness in these attempts are not faithfull Christians but false brethren got amongst us He that puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdome of God Again He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more then me is not worthy of me Nay he that loveth his own life more then Christ is not worthy of him nor can he be his disciple as our Saviour himself has declared How can then any be Christ's disciple that loves any lust whatsoever though never so pleasant though never so profitable more then the Son of God that redeemed him with his own bloud Wherefore all true Christians have been in this point in good earnest in both practice profession and praiers in breathing and contending after all exquisiteness of purity and integrity both of flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God as the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians According to which also S. Iames in his Epistle general chap. 1. v. 4. Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire being defective in nothing Like that praier of Epaphras for the Colossians chap. 4.12 who is said there to labour fervently for them in praier that they may stand perfect and complete in the whole will of God Which is the same with S. Peter's 1 Epist. the last chapter The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Iesus after that you have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you To which we will add that of the Author to the Hebrews and so conclude Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus the great shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to doe his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII 1. That the Christians assistance is at least equal to his task 2. The two Gospel-powers that comprehend his duty 3. The first Gospel-aid The Promise of the Spirit with Prophecies thereof out of Ezekiel and Esay 4. Some hints of the mystical meaning of the last 5. Another excellent prediction thereof 1. WE have made it very evident That that degree of Righteousness that the Christian is called unto is no lazy sluggish inclination to holiness no maimed halting Hypocritical following after Christ but a sound and chearfull endeavour and at last a joifull acquisition of such a degree of Sanctity and Righteousness as far surmounts the pretensions of all other Religions whatsoever and is indeed so exquisite and perfect that nothing better can be desired or imagined So holy and Heavenly a calling is the calling of a Christian. And indeed the expectation is so great that if our aids and assistances were not proportionable we could never arrive to the End of our calling But our helps are in my apprehension far greater then our task if we were not wanting to our selves 2. We have hitherto seen how necessary inward Sanctification is to a Christian as also to how ample a measure he is called Both these he is indispensably obliged to endeavour and breath after perpetually as is manifestly declared by Christ his Apostles and the Prophets before them Wherefore these two I
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
and the high pitch thereof together with the mighty assiâ—â—ance hereunto The Promise of the Spirit of God moving and cooperating in the inward man to the finishing and completing all his works in us that we may be holy and blameless without spot or wrinkle or any such thing We have also prevented all perverse glosses of false Teachers whereby they would slacken and enervate the strength and efficacy of these three Powers of the Gospel we have hitherto spoken of by introducing a bare fruitless and steril Faith or the Imputation of an external Righteousness that according to their compute is further removed from us then the highest Star Which errour were it as harmless as groundless any peaceable good Christian could be content to connive at it but it being an old mischievous Stratagem against the Church and so noted by the wisedom of the Apostles an evil Machination found out by the Prince of darkness to undermine the Kingdom of Christ no faithful Adherent to the interest of the Lord Jesus and the advancement of his Rule and Power in the World can with a good conscience slightly pass it over but will use his best endeavour to undeceive the world in so dangerous a mistake 2. And though I be now hasting apace to the next joynt of the Evangelical Engine I am describing yet I cannot passe on with satisfaction to my self before I have also added to the suffrages of the Apostles who unanimously have voted this opinion of being righteous without doing righteousnesse a very dangerous Imposture and Deceit some rational Considerations that may make us still more sensible of the ill consequences thereof For my own part I must confesse that it is to me a thing utterly inconceivable how a man can be righteous here without Righteousnesse or happy hereafter without Righteousnesse here or how any true Christian can please himself in a Palliation more then a Cure or can be satisfied with any thing but that Manna that came down from heaven the very Flesh and Bloud of Christ in that sense I have interpreted it or without feeding his Soul with that real Spirit of Righteousness or the Divine Nature which is meat indeed and drink indeed For I do not understand how the condition of these Opposers of so Essential and Fundamental a Truth can be any other then what the Prophet Esay has prefigured in those that fight against Ariel the Altar of Holocausts where the whole beastly nature is to be burned by the consuming Fire of God and that lay siege against Mount Sion the Hill of that Drinesse and Thirst which God has promised to irrigate with living Springs of water It shall be as when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint So shall the multitude of the Nations be that fight against Mount Sion This is the condition of all Sects whatsoever that are contrary to them that thirst and hunger after righteousness For these shall be really satisfied the dew of Divine grace shall plentifully showr down upon this Sion and they shall be filled with Spiritual Manna from Heaven whereas the other their hunger and thirst that is their wants and defects being real but not after real Righteousness are fed only by imaginations and dreams and whenever they awake out of them will finde themselves destitute 3. Nay what is yet worse a man may almost conclude that they are not so much as in a capacity of dreaming of celestial food For that is a function of life to dream of such things as are agreeable to such a species of living creatures and those that dream of such things as are congruous to their nature it is because they have had an enjoyment of them and do sometimes enjoy them according to the order of Nature And certainly he that is a true Christian is not a mere natural man but is that New Creature that is framed in righteousness and true holinesse and therefore he must be fed out of such Principles as he was generated from not of the will of man but the Spirit of God and therefore he does not only dream of but really feed of that Manna that is from Heaven that inward essential Righteousnesse that is from God And as it is impossible for one man to eat to drink and to breath for another in a natural way so also is it alike impossible for any one person to eat and drink and breath in a spiritual way for another And if we were wholly alive to that life that is most certainly in every Christian rightly so called we should think it as inconvenient that any one should be righteous for us as that he should be in health for us For what comfort would it be while we are in a tedious fever a sharp fit of the stone or gout that some other person should be sound and at ease for us 4. And therefore it is too shrewd an indication that men in this imaginary perswasion are in a manner past feeling as the Apostle speaks as being devoid of all divine life and sense otherwise Sin and Immorality would be as harsh to their Souls as these Diseases are painful to their bodies And hence it is that S. Iohn saith That he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God remaineth in him as I have noted above For what Principle of life sins against it self what Beast wilfully wounds it self what Tree blasts it self what life will so much as hurt it self any way Will the Eagle swim in the Sea or the Dolphin fly in the Aire Will not all Creatures keep them to their own Element and Original and fly their contrary Element as that which brings destruction or at least a great deal of diseasement to them What regenerate man then can endure to come near the Region of Sin It can be no more pleasant to him then the Smoke to his eyes or the Saw to his hearing How can I do this wickedness and sin against God Nay how can I cut and launce and scorch my self my better self even Christ which lives in me with whom I suffer as often as his image suffers And this may serve for a more generall taste of the unreasonablenesse of this wicked and mischievous Imposture that has ever more or lesse attempted the Church of Christ. But I shall bring you in a more punctual Bill of the losses and damages done thereby CHAP. XI 1. That the want of real Righteousness deprives us of the Divine Wisedom proved out of Scripture 2. As also from the nature of the thing it self 3. That it disadvantages the Soul also in Natural speculations 4. That it stifles all Noble and laudable Actions 5. And exposes the imaginary Religionist to open reproach 6. That mere imaginary Righteousness robs the Soul of her peace of Conscience 7. And of
seemed to those pittifull Spectators those strait-laced Pharisees was an odour of sweet savour unto God and as holy Incense filled the court of Heaven as well as the opening of the box of ointment filled the house with an acceptable sent to all but Iudas whose Covetousness made him with a handsome pretence to the poor exclaim of the act as profuse and prodigal and to the abovesaid Pharisees who doubtless thought all the perfume lost saving that fee thereof they felt in their own Nostrils 11. But it is observable that such was the perverse and wicked ingenie of those crooked Superstitionists that true Goodness in no kind of dress would please them In Iohn the Baptist there was that eminent Severity and Austerity of Life accompanying and unreprovable Integrity and Purity of heart that he might one would think have commanded them to that which was good but he must have a melancholy Devil in him Our Saviour came in a more pleasant and careless garb laying aside that awfull and rough severity that was in the other intermingling himself with all companies taking not at all upon him being as other men are in every thing sin only excepted which manner of life as it is of more perfection then the other as supposing more Benignity of nature and more firm radication in Goodness so fewer men are capable of it much less unsteddy and unresolved youth who are to fly from suspected company as from the devouring plague yet I say these wretched Pharisees as true Detesters of real Holiness and Godliness whatever they pretend in the shadow thereof cannot give our Saviour a good word but interpret his good nature good-fellowship or debauched company-keeping and his serviceable intermingling himself with all sorts of men Publicans and Sinners not excepted for their good friendship and countenance to what is evil But our Saviour Christ has sufficiently apologized for himself in this matter in these few words The whole have no need of the Physitian but those that are sick And in another Similitude he fitly represents their cross nature by what is said of those in the song the little children sung in the market-place We have piped to you and ye have not danced we have mourned to you and ye have not lamented that is These inept and unwieldy-spirited fellows the Pharisees could not be moved to what was truly good neither by the sad and austere deportment of Iohn nor by the more free and unaffected carriage of our Saviour 12. And therefore let us leave them at last as remediless examin the last allegation which is taken out of one of his own followers and friends Hebr. 12. v. 2. Looking unto Iesus the Authour and finisher of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Here cavillers will insinuate to the derogation of that perfect Righteousness in Christ that he was a Self-seeker in all that toil and sorrow he underwent for the Sons of men nay an ambitious Kingdome-seeker For That Ioy which sustained him was This Throne mentioned in this Text as I confess cannot be denied by any and that therefore all these Acts and Sufferings of our Saviour that seemed so Heroical do proceed but from a Mercenary Principle But this Allegation is very easily answered For whether we understand by This Throne or Kingdome a more undisturbed enjoiment of the Divinity and fuller possession of God which speaks a more powerfull and high exaltation of the Humane nature of Christ and his more free fruition of the Divine and this respects our Saviour Christs own good or whether we understand That Power he should be endued with whereby he led Captivity captive and procured gifts for men trampling down the powers of Hell and Darkness for the rescue of the Sons of Adam from their long bondage This Throne This Kingdome This Power aimed at implied in our Saviour neither Ambition nor Mercenariness For the desire of a fuller Fruition of God was not Ambition but Divine Love which he not affecting in that Luciferian way Similis ero Altissimo but through an humble enravishment of Spirit in the remembrance of that Divine Beauty was so far from committing any sin that he did that which is Weakness or Sin not to commit And as Iacob could not properly be said to be either a Self-seeker or Mercenary in respect of Rachel for whom he served so many years and whom he so entirely loved but in respect of Laban and his sheep-keeping he might be said to be Mercenary and a Self-seeker for he served him only for Rachel's sake so Christ being enamoured of the Divine Nature for love whereof he went through so much drudgery and misery upon Earth could not in respect of that glorious and soul-ravishing Beauty which he sought to enjoy be said to be either Self-seeking or Mercenary when it was the very Presence of God that he was so taken with as a Friend is with the lovely person of his Friend But now for That Power he foresaw he should be invested withall of leading Captivity captive and procuring gifts for men being that it was for the Universal good of others why might he not please and solace himself in it in the midst of his many tedious encumbrances without the least suspicion of Ambition or Blame Wherefore maugre all that has been hitherto objected or can be devised against that accomplished Pattern of all Righteousness that immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus we will conclude with that Song of praise sung in the Apocalypse by the Elders before the throne of the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and blessing And let every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them help to fill up the heavenly Quire and say Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever CHAP. XIV 1. The reason of his having insisted so long on the vindicating of the Life of Christ from the aspersions of the Malevolent 2. The true Character of a real Christian. 3. The true Character of a false or Pharisaical Christian. 4. How easily the true members of Christ are accused of Blasphemy by the Pharisaical Christians 5. And the working of their Graces imputed to some vicious Principle 6. Their censuring them prophane that are not superstitious 7. The Pharisees great dislike of coldness in fruitless Controversies of Religion 8. Their Ignorance of the law of Equity and Love 9. How prone it is for the sincere Christian to be accounted a Railer for speaking the truth 10. That the least Opposition against Pharisaical Rottenness will easily be interpreted bitter and tumultuous Zeal 11. How the solid Knowledge of the perfectest Christians may be accounted
Houses it would also have hâ—ndred them from lighting their candles at a tinder-box and warming their fingers in a frosty morning And yet this curious Philosopher seems to lament the losse of that Telesme they having thereby as he saies exposed the City to frequent Scale-Fires ever since But let the Telesmatical Sculpture of Fire and VVater be never so like insomuch that we may hope that it may affect the Spirit of Nature something there being no sagacity nor sense in the River Lycus suppose which Apollonius curb'd with such a device nor in Fire now existent much lesse that which is to come how can they withdraw themselves from such places where Telesmes are laid up they having not as Animals have the power of spontaneous motion Lastly There are Telesmes that have no similitude at all with the things they are to keep off as that Man on Horseback in brasse set up at Constantinople against Pestilential Infection which say they being once demolished the City has been extraordinarily subject to Plagues and fearful Mortalities That Ship also of brasse there Telesmatically consecrated against the dangers of that tempestuous Sea it had no similitude at all of either the Water or VVinde but yet of such force it was that a piece of it being broke off and lost the Sea returned to its former Unrulinesse but being found and put together the Sea became quiet again They took it therefore apieces again for experience sake and the Windes and Sea were suddenly rough and boistrous so that a Ship could not come up into harbour but the brazen Ship being again handsomely compacted the Windes and Sea were again peacefull and calme Wherefore if a man do but cast an indifferent eye upon the whole matter it will be very difficult for him not to pronounce That he that can believe that the power of Telesmes is natural is more irrationally credulous then the most simple Superstitionist in the world 8. Out of what has been said it is evident that the Brazen Serpent erected by Moses in the Wildernesse was not a Telesme in that sense Gaffarel would understand the word that is a Sculpture Statue or Similitude of something made so by Astrological Art that what Effects it has for the keeping off evil or remedying what has already befallen is merely from the concurrence of natural causes though the Application of them was Artificial the chief whereof is the Influence of the Heavens and the Figure of the Telesme For it is apparent there can be no such But if they mean by a Telesme such a Figure of some creature consecrated in a way of Religion for the services above-named nothing hinders but that the Brazen Serpent may be a Telesme whether from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies an Image or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes Consecration And this of Moses was both a warrantable and effectual Telesme For it was by the prescription of God himself and throughly did the effect it was set up for But the cures that it did being supernatural and neither the Figure nor the Matter of the Serpent contributing any thing to the healing of them that were bitten by those fiery flying Serpents it is plain that Moses had been left free from making any such Telesme of the Figure of a Serpent there being nothing in the thing it self to invite him to it had not God moved him thereto Nor can we imagine any other cause why divine Revelation should suggest such a thing unto him unlesse there were some mystery in it Something therefore that did notably concern the Church of God was denoted thereby and what I was a going to say at first having removed all obstacles I now again resume and dare pronounce That it was a plain though Typical Prophecy of the Messias his Passion and of the use of it and so clear that no words could have more punctually prefigured it to us For the Analogy and Resemblance is most exquisite if we cast our eye upon the whole Scene of things 9. For how naturally doe the Israelites in the Wildernesse represent the Church of Christ in the World and their being bitten with fiery flying Serpents our being poisoned and pained with vexatious lusts and remorse of conscience when sin has entred into our Souls What could more lively represent our Saviour upon the Crosse who knowing no sin yet was made sin for us then this Brazen Serpent set upon a pole in the Camp of Israel Which indeed had the outward shape of a fiery flying Serpent but was so far from being a Serpent that it had nothing of a Serpent but external form thereof and healed all them that were bit with those poisonous and deadly Serpents So our blessed Saviour devoid of Sin himself yet being in the most ugly outward appearance of Sinfulnesse that could be put upon him he suffering betwixt two criminal Malefactors as it was prophesied of him that he should be numbred amongst the transgressors he is in this posture where he looks so like Sinfulnesse it self unto the whole Church of God when they are smitten with the fiery excitements of Sin or the deadly pangs or remorse of Conscience those rancorous wounds that Sin leaves in the Soul when she has been once bitten therewith he is I say thus hanging upon the Crosse if they look upon him with the eye of Faith the most soveraign Remedy and the most presentaneous asswagement of their Pain and Malady that can be offered to the thoughts of men I am sure of any humble and well-meaning man 10. But for those that are self-conceited of a perverse Reason and of an high-flown Luciferian Temper that prefer the subtilty of their own opinionated Wit and curious search into all secrets and magnifie their own natural Worth before the Friendship of him that loved us even to the death these men are not fit Relishers of the Sweetnesse of that abundant Goodnesse and kinde Condescension of Divine Providence in his manifestation of Jesus Christ to the world as neither the fiery Enthusiast filled with the sense of his own foolish Revelations and Divine Visitations as he phansies them so stout so stiffe and so perfect as the flatteries of his own Imagination would bear him in hand that he findes nothing but God and himself worth thinking of and will be an immediate Reteiner to the Almighty without any Interposal whatsoever To that height and hardnesse is he swollen in his own conceit But the true Character of him is that which the Apostle Iude has given him that he is but a mouth filled with great swelling words puffed up sensual knowing not the Spirit Such as these are those in too great a measure that wholly neglect the meditation on Christs Passion though it be of so great efficacy for the quenching and suppressing of all the restlesse and fiery motions of Sin in them But execrable Blasphemers are they whose Pride and Conceitednesse has made
they being given up into the power of those deformed Fiends of Hell the very thoughts of whose sight and company might be enough to affright any man that is not Atheistically sortish from assimilating himself to those nasty Gaol-birds by repeated acts of Vice and Wickedness Besides what smart of punishment shall reach both their outward Senses and guilty Consciences by the inevitable rod of God's Justice upon them 3. VVherefore it is most indispensably rational to use this VVorld as if we used it not and to addict our selves to such Pleasures as are most proper to the other State such as are those most delicious touches senses of the Divine Love or that pure and intellectual Affection which S. Paul calls Charity VVhereby we delight in the good of another as if it were our own whereby we rejoice in the wisdome goodness of God displaied his Creatures whereby we ardently desire the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ infinitely before any private advantage whatsoever and do faithfully assist and earnestly expect the joyful accomplishment and finishing of the great Mystery of Godliness in the fullest period thereof to a final Triumph over Sin and Satan and a perfect Redemption of the Church of Christ into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 4. These are the warrantable Pleasures of the Soul that has a designe upon the Life to come of a Soul that is risen with Christ and therefore seeks those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And upon this very consideration the Apostle enforceth his Exhortation Colos. 3. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth Fornication Uncleannesse inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry And our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Lay not up for your selves treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves break through and steal For where your treasure is there will your heart be also And therefore Saint Paul professes of himself and exhorts others to imitate him that his minde is wholly taken up with those things which are above Philip. 3.17 Brethren be followers of me and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an example For our conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our municipal affairs our negotiations of greatest concernment are in Heaven of which City we are and from whence we look for our Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 5. And verily he that through Faith is once possest of these things it is a wonder to me how he can think of any thing else As the Prisoner could not abstain from the pleasure of thinking of the known day of his Liberty or a poor man of an Inheritance that would certainly fall to him within the term of few years And if it were Conditional as this of the Kingdome of Heaven is we may easily conceive how much he were concerned to have a care punctually to observe the Conditions propounded or earnestly to endeavour to get such Qualifications as that he may not forfeit the enjoiment of that Fortune which otherwise would naturally fall to his share And how they are to be qualified that are to be Heires of that everlasting Inheritance the Scripture doth plainly set out there must no unclean thing enter into the Holy City None can be Heirs of this Kingdome but the sons of God nor any be the sons of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8. And what are the Fruits and Effects of that domestick Guide the Apostle has plainly told us already Galat. 5. That the fruits of the Spirit are Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse Faith Meekness Temperance And they that are Christs in whose Title alone it is that we can lay claim to Heaven have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And again Rom. 8. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live that is to say ye shall live the life of Peace and Joy and Righteousness here and of Eternal Glory hereafter 6. Wherefore we see what an urgent Power the Meditation of future Happiness is to the Believer to make him endeavour to the utmost to be Partaker of the Divine Nature and to aspire to a due measure of Holiness without which we shall necessarily be frustrate of our expected Happiness The consideration whereof cannot but wean him from all the exorbitant desires of the Pleasures Profits or Honours of this World Which though they had not intermingled with them many vexations and distasts much care and solicitude but were certain for this life and entire yet Life being uncertain and the longest terme thereof but like a Dream or a Post that goes by in comparison of our future abode elsewhere I dare leave it to the worldly mans own computation what a pittiful bargain he has made in forgoing what is to come for these temporary Enjoyments worse far then he that sold his Birth-right for a mess of Pottage But I shall not dilate any further on so plain a matter All the Wit and Rhetorick of Man cannot move him whom those known but weighty Words of our Saviour will not VVhat will it profit a man to gain the whole VVorld and to lose his own Soul CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace hâ—re shall be in better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happinesse 1. WE come now to the Seventh and last Power of the Gospel which is The consideration of the dreadful Solemnity of the Day of Iudgement the very mention whereof from the mouth of Paul made Felix the Governour to tremble And I must confess it is so hard an Engine that it is more fit to beat upon the obdurate hearts of the Unbeliever and Unregenerate that are crusted over with Iron and Flint then for battery against the truly Regenerate and sincere Believers for those other Powers of the Gospel are more proper and abundantly sufficient for carrying them on with courage and constancy in the waies of God But there is in the Day of Iudgement an Object not
misbeseeming their most serious thoughts which is the perfecting and finishing of the Redemption of the Godly VVe shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed and that for the better For whatever is mortal then shall put on Immortality and none of the Saints shall be worse clothed then in a Body of an Heavenly and Aethereal consistence This is that incorruptible crown of Glory of Life and of Righteousness which the Apostles mention and S. Paul expresly declares to be laid up for him against that day namely the Day of Iudgement Which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give him at that day and not to him alone but to all those that love his appearing that is to say Whose affections and consciences are so sincere that they longingly expect when he will consummate and finish the happinesse of his Church and should be so far from fear that their hearts would exult for joy to hear the sound of the Trump and see the Sky grow bright by the overspreading of his Heavenly Camp in the Air. 2. This Meditation therefore reaching as well the unconverted as the converted it had been ill omitted of us And that it may take the better effect we are to suggest what will be able to break down or prevent such false and foolish Fortifications as the Minde of man may rear up against it to bear off the powerful Assaults it makes upon his Soul and Conscience These are chiefly two The one the long Intervall of time from hence to that Day which makes the terrour thereof little as things seem lesse the farther they are removed from our eyes The second is the hope that within so long a space they may have time to repent and be converted though they live as they lift in this life For they may prepare themselves for that Day in the other life which is to come But to the first I answer That the approach of this Day is very uncertain by reason of the obscurity of Prophecies and of the very Completions of them and is left so for the present exercise of the good and the perpetual vexation of the wicked both in this state of things and that which is to come His appearance therefore will be sudden like a Comet or blazing-Star which no man could tell when it would first appear but more terrible and minacious by farre not threatning the death of this or that Prince or the change of this or that State but the overturning of all States and Kingdoms and the burning up the Earth with all the Works and Inhabitants thereof with unquenchable Fire And that evil which a man does not know but may begin to morrow if duely thought upon cannot seem at a great distance but near at hand and ready to surprise him 3. To the other I answer That he that wilfully rejects the offers of Grace and Opportunities of becoming holy and good in This life he shall have no more priviledge in the other then the Devils themselves have who as S Iude expresly tels us are reserved in everlasting chains of Darknesse unto the Iudgement of the great Day who shall then inevitably undergo the Fate of Sodom and Gomorrha who are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire And what manner of Persons these are Iude and Peter have both very graphically described such as had totally evaded all obligation to true Holinesse and Righteousnesse and were of an impure and foul conversation Filthy dreamers defiling the Flesh despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Followers of Balaam perverting the truth for a reward Spots in the Christian Societies feeding themselves without fear Clouds without water blown about with every winde of false doctrine Fruitless Trees Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Wandring Starres to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darkness for ever No more hope of them therefore then of Lucifer and his accursed Accomplices And S. Peter pronounces the same sentence of them for they are plainly the same persons namely bold and daring spirits arrogant and self-conceited despising government and reproaching authority such as speaking great swelling words of vanity allure through the lusts of the flesh in much wantonnesse those that were clean escaped from them that live in errour Day-rioters having their eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin or forbear the recommending of the liberty thereof to others but beguile unstable souls Having their hearts exercised with crafty and covetous practises Wells without water Clouds carried about with Tempests adjudged to utter darkness for ever For with the Devils they are cast down into Hell and delivered up even as they to chains of darknesse to be reserved to the day of Iudgement 2 Pet. 2. So that there is no more hope of such impenitent Sinners that have laid waste their Consciences and wilfully neglected or resisted the manifold convictions clear illuminations and frequent offers of Grace and Assistance from the dispensations of the Gospel after this life then there is of those old Apostates the wicked spirits that are kept as Prisoners in Hell till that fearful and terrible Day of the Lord. 4. That Day of the Lord wherein all unbelieving Flesh shall tremble and every Face gather blackness For this will prove a day of Wrath indeed a day of Anguish and Distresse a day of Devastation and Desolatenesse a day of Darknesse and of Gloominesse a day of Clouds and of thick Darknesse a day of the Trumpet and Alarm against the fenced Cities and the high Towers not of Iudah only but against all the Nations of the Earth For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven to revenge him of his Enemies He shall take to him his Iealousie for compleat Armour and turn the whole Creation into weapons of his displeasure His severe wrath shall be sharpened for a sword and the World shall fight with him against the unwise Then shall the right-aiming Thunderbolts go abroad and from the Clouds as from a well-drawn Bow shall they fly to the mark And hail-stones of wrath shall be cast as out of a Stone-bow and the waters of the Sea shall boil and rage against them and hot scalding Flouds shall overflow them and drown them and they shall be blown about with fiery Windes and wearied out with the whirlwinde and they shall have no Peace nor Solace for ever The Moon and Stars shall withdraw their shining and the Sun shall be turned into bloud For nothing but Mists and Fogs and Stench nothing but sulphureous Vapours smoring Heat dark Clouds charged with horrid Thunder and Lightning immense Earthquakes and innumerable Eruptions of subterraneous Flames crackling Volcanoes smoaking Mountains high flakes and tortuous streams of Fire from burning Forrests and Woods lowd Shreeks and howlings of affrighted Men and Beasts grim and grisly Apparitions deep and dreadful Groans of tormented Ghosts nothing but such uncomfortable Objects as these shall fill up the Scene of
Faith and Devotion and invigorated Meditations of the other State will so fortifie his spirits and strengthen his minde that in all this affliction he will become more then Conquerour through the power of Christ that enables him to all things And by how much the enjoyments of this present life are diminished the more his thoughts are cast upon those that are to come 3. This brief Intimation shall suffice to shew how serviceable Christianity is for comfort and solace in this present life to every true Christian in his private Capacities But I must not omit to discover also that advantage which a Communialty has by becoming truly Christian. Which I am forced to the rather because some have not stuck to pronounce of Christianity as of a Religion never intended for bodies Politick and very disadvantageous for publick Concerns As if Christian Humility Mortification of the Flesh and Patience of Injuries would so cow and soften a Nation that it would make them as helplesse as innocent and thus betray them to the victorious Fierceness of their invading Neighbours and the Precepts of Charity so indispensably urged but slacken the hands of those that are able to work and fill the whole Land with lazy beggars Such like Cavils as these have some ill-willers not only to Christian Religion but as I suspect to any Religion that would curb their inordinate affections invented and cast abroad but more to the detection of their own ignorance and shame then of any Imperfection or Unfitness in Christianity whereby it may not be the Religion of the most flourishing States and Kingdoms that can be constituted 4. In answer therefore to the proposed Objections I will in the first place acknowledge with them That the Gospel was not intended primarily for the advantages of this Life nor bore in it any Politick design for the administration of Publick affairs of State but for making men in their private capacities good and happy and for working their spirits into such a frame of Life and Holiness as would most certainly assure them of that Joy and Glory that is laid up for Believers in the other World But withall I cannot but take notice By how much it is plain that there is no Political or Worldly Design in the Gospel by so much the more evident it is that there is no deceit nor falshood therein and that it is not the cunning contrivance of some crafty Law-giver but an holy sincere and infallible Testimony of the Will of God concerning the True way of Salvation and of the everlasting Happiness of the Souls of men 5. But though I have been so liberal as to allow them thus much yet I deny That there is any thing in Christian Religion but what is not onely not inconsistent with but highly advantageous to a State or Kingdome that becomes truly Christian. For empty noises and names of things do nothing Wherefore I shall affirme That whatever advantages other Religions may be thought to have for conscientious obedience to the supreme Powers and faithfull dealing betwixt man and man which is the universal scope of all Religions as they are made serviceable to bodies Politick Christianity has these and upon more evident and unquestionable grounds then any Religion else whatsoever For what Religion is there in the World that can give that demonstration of a Life to come that Christianity doth in the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour that infallible pledge of immortal Happiness to all his followers The truth therefore of Christian Religion rightly represented being so irrefutably convincing to both the learned the unlearned the Heart and Conscience not onely of the People but also of the Magistrate will be the more irresistably bound to the performance of their mutual duties one to another The Result whereof is an unviolable Peace and with that all such comforts of Life as the best Laws and Governments pretend to aime at for making a Nation happy 6. Nay I adde further that those things that they object against Christianity are such as if a Nation become truly Christian do most effectually reach the chiefest Ends of Political Government Of which one main one is mutual succour in time of need And what is more proper for this then Charity Nor is there any fear that this proneness to help one another shall relaxate the endeavours of the generality of the body Politick but it only sweetens their care and industry and takes off that torturous solicitude that must naturally attend those that know too well that if they cannot hold up themselves they must certainly perish Which desperate consideration forces them to all possible tricks frauds for Self-Preservation Which uncomfortableness of life and the evil temptations thereof are prevented in a Common-wealth that is truly Christian and consequently sincerely Charitable Neither will Laziness thereby be nourished this same Christian frame of Spirit making them all more ambitious of doing then receiving good according to that noble saying of our Saviour It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive 7. And as it is without controversie that Humility the patient Suffering of injuries and the Mortifying the exorbitant desires of the flesh do tend most certainly in a Polity that is become thus Christian to a constant Peaceableness and a faithful and impartial Administration of Iustice in all things For from whence is Warre and Dissension Violence and Injustice but from the inordinate lusts of the Flesh from Pride and Desire of disproportionable Revenge so is it as true also that they make us not a whit more liable to the invasion of our Enemies as becoming thereby more cow'd or soft in Spirit For a due castigation of the lusts of the Flesh rendreth the Body more healthful and hardy whenas Luxury will certainly make it rotten and effeminate and expose it to all manner of diseases And it is a very unskilful conceit to think that Humility will make them such tame things that the enemy may take them up and carry them away at his pleasure For Christian Humility does not consist in being content to be brought under bondage by men but in not despising others and not arrogating any thing to our selves nor seeking unjust dominion over others for our own pleasure and satisfaction 8. Nor does Patience toward particular injuries inure the Christian at all to be remiss in making resistance against an unjust Invader of his Country and Liberties For the very same Principle namely the Divine Love that prompted him to bear private wrong the damages whereof he could better reckon up will as forcibly urge him to resist such publick Violence done against the body of Christ who are more dear unto him then the apple of his eye and their Concerns as much beyond his private Interest as their Number exceeds his single Person His Love therefore to Christ who died for him and whose Cause then shall really lie at the stake His sincere affection to his fellow-members to
be not to act according to it and to act contrary thereto intolerable For it were the wounding and tormenting a principle of life in us or the Spirit of Christ in us whereby we are not only aided and assisted to every good work but take a natural delight therein whereas under the Mosaical law we have no conformity of Spirit to either the purer Moral precepts or any complacency in the luggage of a company of insipid and burdensome Ceremonies and yet the Mosaical Dispensation though it give no strength to perform what it requires yet like Pharaoh's hard task-masters requires the same tale of brick though they withhold the straw 6. And this gives us some light into the nature of the Two Covenants in reference to the Prophecie of Ieremie But it being an argument of very great consideration I will not content my self with so scant an account thereof but make a more copious deduction of the whole matter out of Paul Gal. 4. that we may the more fully understand so important a Mystery and when I have from thence discovered the excellency of the state of the Second Covenant I shall adde such things as tend to the more useful knowledge of the entrance into it and advance in it CHAP. VII 1. The different states of the Two Covenants set out Galat. 4. by a double similitude 2. The nature of the Old Covenant adumbrated in Agar 3. As also further in her Son Ismael 4. The nature of the New Covenant adumbrated in Sarah 5. As also in Isaac her Son and in Israel his offspring 6. The necessity of imitating Abraham's faith that the Spiritual Isaac or Christ may be born in us 7. The grand difference betwixt the First and Second Covenant wherein it doth consist With a direction by the by to the most eminent Object of our Faith 8. The Second main point wherein this difference consists namely Liberty and that First from Ceremonies and Opinions 9. Secondly from all kind of Sins and disallowable Passions 10. Lastly to all manner of Righteousness and Holiness 1. TEll me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law For it is written that Abraham had two Sons the one by a bond-maid and the other by a free-woman But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free-woman was by promise Which things are an Allegorie for these are the Two Covenants the one from the Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is Agar For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all Here the story of Agar and Sarah Ismael and Isaac is made to set out and that very appositely and lively the two different conditions of those that are under the Law and those that are under the Gospel that thereby the advantage and excellency of one above the other being laid open before the eyes of the Galatians they might not hereafter be any more in a tottering and fluctuating condition or sophisticate and adulterate the precious purity of the Gospel with Iudaical superfluities and useless if not now hurtfull Ceremonies but stick fast to Christ alone not going back from him to Moses nor yet mingling Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies with the plainness and sincerity of Christ. In the words we have recited there is a double Similitude We will in each first lay out the particulars of the Protases and then pass on to the Apodoses The particulars of the First are Agar Abraham's bond-woman Ismael the Son of the bond-woman and the manner of the birth of this Son of the bond-woman he was born after the flesh that is according to the ordinary course of Nature Now in the Apodosis Ierusalem that now is that is the Church of the Jews answers to Agar Abraham's bond-woman and those of that Church to Ismael the Son of the bond-woman and to the being born after the flesh the being born out of the outward letter of the Law The particulars in the Second Protasis are Sarah the free-woman and Isaac the Son of Abraham which he had of this free-woman and lastly the manner of his birth it was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not after the ordinary course of Nature but the extraordinary power of God signified in his promise And now in the Apodosis Ierusalem that is from above that is the Church of true Christians answers to Sarah the Free-woman and those of that Church to Isaac the Son of the Free-woman and their being born of the Spirit not of the letter to the being born by promise not according to the flesh And now if we compare the particulars of these two Protases one with another in their due order we shall find a main difference or rather contrariety For Agar and Sarah differ as Bondage and Freedome and Ismael and Isaac as bond and free and the condition of their births as Nature and God And consequently there must arise a real difference or contrariety in the particulars of the Apodoses viz. betwixt the Old terrestrial Ierusalem and the New one from above betwixt the Jew Pharisee or outward Legalist and the true and real Christian and lastly betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit And so to speak compendiously this Text of the Apostle is nothing else but a description of the different conditions of the Two Covenants set out in an historical Allegorie taken from Agar and Sarah and their two Sons c. I shall therefore now fall upon them in that order as I have laid them out 2. And First therefore of Agar the bond-woman which signifies the Covenant of the Law given upon Mount Sinai For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia Which is spoken Synecdochically from a Town there called Agra by Plinie and by Dion Agara and the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek Geographers as Grotius has pertinently observed This allusion therefore to Agar on Mount Sinai where the Law was given does commend to us more handsomely and facilitate the Allegory taken from the story of Agar and Sarah But if there were not this Geographical advantage the Application will be found very sutable and apposite even without it And much of the nature of the Old and New Covenant is hinted at even in the names themselves as in this of Agar which they ordinarily interpret Peregrina What the relation of habitude is betwixt the Soul of man and the things of the Old Covenant is very fitly set down in the meaning of this Name Agar For verily as for those things that were Positive and Ceremonial in the Law of Moses they are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things strange and of no affinity with the Soul and as for those things that are most precious and most indispensably good in the Law of Moses the Soul in
shun the breath of such a Seducer as of one that is infected with the pestilence and whose converse is death and the eternal ruin of our very Souls 2. The Second Principle that he is closely to keep to is That I had almost said Omnipotent Faith in God through Christ I mean the belief of the assistance of his holy Spirit to overcome all manner of sin in us For if we keep up duely to this nothing will be able to withstand us but by patience and perseverance we shall be able to beat out Satan out of his strongest holds According to thy faith so be it unto thee is true as well in Christs healing our Souls as in his curing the bodies of the sick when he was upon earth This is a prime branch of that saving Faith and the greatest strength and sustentation we have to keep us from sinking back into sin and from being drown'd and carried away with the flouds of ungodliness If we let this hold go all is gone For they that doe not believe that they have power to resist sin must of necessity give up themselves captives to it And this is that which makes S. Paul so affectionately devout in the behalf of the Ephesians that God would be pleased to give them this special gift of Faith for their strength and corroboration of the inward man chap. 3. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love c. according as I have elswhere rehearsed And in the Doxologie immediately following this prayer of what unconceivable efficacy the operations of the Spirit are in us the Apostle again does intimate in a very high strain Now unto him that is able to doe exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Which words plainly imply that such is the inexhaustible richness of Grace and Assistance from the Spirit of God that the effect of its inward workings in us is for the present not imaginable much less expressible Wherefore our Faith cannot be too great in this supernatural Principle and the greater it is the greater courage and the more speedy and more absolute victory 3. And yet there is still another Principle that will further actuate our Faith and make us still more lively resolute and invincible and that is The Love of Christ which every young Christian is to warme himself with and inflame his courage more and more which he will best do by frequent Meditations upon Christs Passion what shame what sorrow and pain he underwent to gain the love of Souls and so to try them to himself in those sweet and inviolable bands of sincere love and friendship that by this golden chain he may pull them up after him from Earth to Heaven Let therefore our new-Covenanter as often as he reflects upon the exceeding great love of his Saviour and finds his heart begin to grow hot being touch'd with a ray from that celestial Flame that bright Sun of righteousness that now shines at the right hand of God let him be sure to remember what compensation he requires for all that dear affection he has shewn to us The lesson is but short and therefore must not be forgotten If you love me keep my Commandements CHAP. XI 1. The diligent search this new-Covenanter ought to make to finde out whatsoever is corrupt and sinful 2. That the truly regenerate cannot be quiet till all corruption be wrought out 3. The most importunate devotions of a living Christian. 4. The difference betwixt a Son of the Second Covenant and a Slave under the First 5. The Mystical completion of a Prophecy of Esay touching this state 1. THE young Christian being thus armed with Faith and Love and an unwavering sense of his duty in becoming holy even as he that called him is holy he will be then both willing and ready to look his enemies in the face and to seek them out if he cannot at first sight finde them and to pull them out of every hiding-place of Hypocrisy and bring them into the open light and slay them And if after diligent search he can finde none yet he will be so modest as to distrust the measure of his skill and will be earnest in Prayer to God to discover what inward hidden wickedness there may lurk yet in him to the end that the old Leven may be utterly cast out and that there may be nothing left that is contrary to the Scepter of Christ and the Kingdome of God in his heart 2. For indeed it is impossible that one is truely regenerate and has the seed of God and the life of his Spirit actually in him should be quiet till all that which is unholy and corrupt be wrought out But the case is much-what as in the natural body that is sick either death or health will in a competent time possess the body If the morbifick matter be not carried away by sweating purging or some evacuation or other Life it self will be carried away but if that which is contrary to life be remov'd Health must certainly take place 3. And so it is in the Divine life it self when it has taken root and growth whatever is contrary to it is burdensome to it like that tyrannick project of tying the living and the dead together Wherefore the true Christian can never be at ease and rest till he has cast off that heavy load the body of sin the old man that stinks earthily and unsavourly if he be perceived at all and indeed so unsufferably that the divine life and sense in a man cannot endure it Nor can endure to be in a condition so sensless that there should be any of that â—our Leven left and yet there be no perception of it And therefore the most importunate address to the throne of Grace in a living Christian is that God would be pleased to discover whatever ugliness or deformity there is in him in either practise or principle Which God of his mercy does by degrees not all at once that there may not arise overmuch distraction and confusion But if we be not wanting to our selves the work will be accomplish'd in due time and the Kingdom of heaven as well within as without will be as a grain of Mustard-seed The Crisis of the disease will be in a competent time as I said before and our whole man re-enlivened with the Spirit of God and restored to the state of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost 4. For verily to be quiet upon any other terms but these is not to be a Son of the Second Covenant but a careless
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
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
the sound and comely frame of a Christian spirit is this Unfeignedly to endeavour the perfecting of all Holiness both in Heart and Actions and not to allow a mans self in any thing that he thinks is a sin and when he is arriv'd at that height of Sanctity that he is not conscious to himself that he does any thing that is unlawful to give the whole praise to God and to His Merits and Intercession that has procured him the assistance of his holy Spirit and by virtue of his Death has so powerfully engaged him to warre against his lusts and to mortifie all his immoderate Passions and withall to remember that though he know nothing by himself yet he is not thereby justified and that a man cannot be sure but that he may mistake himself in some thing or other though he never sin against his own light and to impute it rather to the mercy of God that he has not led him into such violent Temptations as some have been that he finds himself not to have submitted to evil motions then to ostentate his own strength and contemn the Protection of so kind a Saviour who being acquainted with humane infirmity may justly be thought to have kept off those tempestuous Assaults that otherwise might have invaded us Besides that let us be never so perfect now yet it cannot pay the old score because we ought to have been alwaies without sin and therefore our recourse to so compassionate a Saviour is never out of date Which is a Truth indispensable both for the maintaining of the honour of Christ and keeping our selves in a submiss and humble frame of Spirit towards God and towards men So that the Opinion of these Enthusiastick Perfectionists does plainly transgress against both the second and third Rule we have set down CHAP. IX 1 Sincerity the middle way betwixt pretended Infirmity and the boast of Perfection with the description thereof 2. A more full character of the Sincere Christian. 3. That they that endeavour not after that state are Hypocrites and they that pretend to be above it Conspiratours against the everlasting Priesthood of Christ. 4. The Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and the Millenium in the more sober meaning thereof applied to the above-nam'd Rules 1. TO stear our course right therefore betwixt those Hypocritical Pretenders of Invincible Infirmity and these High-flown Boasters of absolute Perfection we must keep in that safe middle path of Unfeigned Sincerity Which therefore wil neither charge the condition of Nature as being utterly uncorrigible that cannot be reduc'd to Obedience no not by the power of the Spirit of God nor cast it upon God himself as being unwilling or not caring that Nature should be thus reduc'd and brought under to the obedience of Christ But a man will charge himself in all his miscarriages and hold it his duty and such as by Gods assistance he may perform if he be not wanting on his part to yield his Members as Instruments of Righteousness to God as well as he did before yield them as Instruments of Unrighteousness to Sin For Sincerity implying a faithful purpose and will of doing what is right Christ has hereby wone the Castle or Fort of his enemy and all the Ammunition and Engines therein will certainly then be used for right designes The Eyes that before suck'd in rotten corruptive thoughts from false alluring Objects and so set the Heart on fire with filthy lusts are now made Inlets of the light and brightness of the unspotted Wisdome of God fairly pourtraied out in the visible Creature Those Ears that could before drink in with delight the smooth tales of Detraction and Calumny stand now open onely to the sighs of the poor or honest reports of our Neighbour Those Feet that before were swift to shed bloud are now much more ready to rescue the innocent Those Hands that before were onely exercised in griping and pulling from others are now ever open for Alms-deeds and bountiful distribution to the needy That Tongue that in secret would not spare to strike his Friend will now in a just cause defend his Enemy In brief there is no external Action of true Sanctity and Righteousness but the sincere Christian both believes and findes he has a power to perform it and therefore does constantly the good and refuses the evil that his conscience tells him is so indeed and is in his power to do and refrain that is to say He will be sure to refrain from whatsoever is unjust he will never deal with another otherwise then himself would be dealt with he will most certainly abstein from Extortion Adultery Fornication he will never doe any envious or revengeful Actions And not onely so but he does believe that through the grace of God he may be quite devoid of all Envy and Malice and not so much as bear any ill will against any man no not against his Enemies and the same of all other inordinate affections which though they move strongly and rebelliously yet he never assents so far to them as to be willing to doe them though he had a secure opportunity thereof 2. And yet he does not think himself perfect though he thus assents to no Sin while he thinks it so nor at all doubts of his Salvation though he be imperfect And if by the boisterousness and importunity of a Temptation or some unavoidable Inadvertency he falls into any evil action the pleasure he finds from it will be like that which a child gets by falling with his forehead against sharp stones or with his hands into the fire Wherefore his sincere Love to Righteousness and hearty abhorrence from Sin will make him alwaies circumspect For he holds himself bound not onely not to commit sin when it appears to be so which he thinks then impossible for him to do but charges himself with a perpetual watchfulness that he may not commit it when it would insinuate it self under some more specious shape And though by Divine Assistance and faithful Adhesion thereto he finde himself arriv'd to that pitch that he has conquered all corruptions so that he cannot charge himself with either Pride or Lust or Envy or Covetousness or any such like Vice or that he does misbelieve the Promises of God or does not depend upon his Providence or is not willing to submit to his will in all things to whatever condition he shall call him yet he knowing himself withall not infallible nor unconquerable especially without the assistance of Christ as also actually beset with many inconveniences of humane Nature such as are Straying of thoughts Unevenness in Devotion Indisposedness of minde by reason of this Tabernacle of Earth we live in and reflecting on the old reckoning of the Follies of our Life past which nothing but ignorance can conceit to have been without Sin and how all these things though ordinary Philosophy pronounces them to be no Faults but mere Infirmities of Nature they
and more full Interpretation of the whole Transaction 11. Some brief touches upon the Prophesies of Christ. 117 CHAP. IX 1. The Miracles of Apollonius compared with those of Christ. 2. His entertainment at a Magical banquet by Iarchas and the rest of the Brachmans 3. His cure of a Dropsy and of one bitten by a mad dog 4. His freeing of the City of Ephesus from the plague 5. His casting a Devil out of a laughing Daemoniack and chasing away a whining Spectre on Mount Caucasus in a Moon-shine night 6. His freeing Menippus from his espoused Lamia 120 CHAP. X. 1. Apollonius his raising from death a young married Bride at Rome 2. His Divinations and particularly by Dreams 3. His Divinations from some external accidents in Nature 4. His Prediction of Stephanus killing Domitian from an Halo that encircled the Sun Astrology and Meteorology covers to Pagan Superstition and converse with Devils 5. A discovery thereof from this prediction of his from the Halo compared with his phrantick Ecstasies at Ephesus 6. A general Conclusion from the whole parallel of the Acts of Christ and Apollonius 122 CHAP. XI 1. A Comparison of the Temper or Spirit in Apollonius with that in Christ. 2. That Apollonius his Spirit was at the height of the Animal life but no higher 3. That Pride was the strongest chain of darkness that Apollonius was held in with a rehersal of certain Specimens thereof 4. That his whole Life was nothing else but an exercise of Pride and Vain-glory boldly swaggering himself into respect with the greatest whereever he went 5. His reception with Phraotes King of India and Iarchas head of the Brachmans 6. His intermedling with the affairs of the Roman Empire his converse with the Babylonian Magi and Aegyptian Gymnosophists and of his plausible Language and Eloquence 7. That by the sense of Honour and Respect he was hook'd in to be so active an Instrument for the Kingdome of Darkness 8. That though the Brachmans pronounced Apollonius a God yet he was no higher then the better sort of Beasts 124 CHAP. XII 1. The Contrariety of the Spirit of Christ to that of Apollonius 2. That the History of Apollonius be it true or false argues the exquisite Perfection of the life of Christ and the Transcendency of that Divine Spirit in him that no Pagan could reach by either Imagination or Action 3. The Spirit of Christ how contemptible to the mere Natural man and how deare and precious in the eyes of God 4. How the several Humiliations of Christ were compensated by God with both sutable and miraculous Priviledges and Exaltations 5. His deepest Humiliation namely his Suffering the death of the Cross compensated with the highest Exaltation 127 CHAP. XIII 1. The ineffable power of the Passion of Christ and other indearing applications of him for winning the World off from the Prince of Darkness 2. Of his preceding Sufferings and of his Crucifixion 3. How necessary it was that Christ should be so passive and sensible of pain in his suffering on the Cross against the blasphemy â—f certain bold Enthasiasts 4. Their ignorance in the Divine life and how it alone was to triumph in the Person of Christ unassisted by the advantages of the Animal or Natural 5. That if Christ had died boldly and with little sense of pâ—in both the Solemnity and Usefulness of his Passion had been lost 6. That the strange Accidents that attended his Crucifixion were Prefigurations of the future Effects of his Passion upon the Spirits of men in the World 7. Which yet hinders not but that they may have other significations 8. The third and last reason of the Tragical unsupportableness of the Passion of Christ in that he bore the sins of the whole World 9. The Legâ—â—leious cavils of some conceited Sophists that pretend That it is unjust with God to punish the Innocent in stead of the Guilty 10. The false Ground of all their frivolous subtilties 129 CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasements of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The disservice some corrosive Wits do to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 132 CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Hâ—storians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted by several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Farther That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirme this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not imply that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 134 BOOK V. CHAP. I. OF the Resurrection of Christ and how much his eye was fixed upon that Event 2. The chief Importance of Christ's Resurrection 3. The World excited by the Miracles of Christ the more narrowly to consider the Divine quality of his Person whom the more they looked upon the more they disliked 4. Whence they misinterpreted and eluded all the force and conviction of all his Miracles 5. God's upbraiding of the World with their gross Ignorance by the raising him from the dead whom they thus vilified and contemned 6. Christ's Resurrection an assurance of man's Immortality 137 CHAP. II. 1. The last End of Christ's Resurrection the Confirmation of his whole Ministry 2. How it could be that those chief Priests and Rulers that hired the Souldiers to give out that the Disciples of Christ stole his body away were not rather converted to believe he was the Messias 3. How it can be evinced that Christ did really rise from the dead and that it was not the delusion of some deceitfull Daemons 4. The first and second Answer 5. The third Answer 6. The fourth Answer 7. The fifth Answer 8. The sixth and last Answer 9. That his appearing and disappearing at pleasure after his Resurrection is no argument but that he was risen with the same Body that was laid in the grave 139 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 do 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
That the punctual Correspondence of the Event to the Prediction of the Astrologer does not prove the certainty of the Art of Astrology 5. The great Affinity of Astrology with Daemonolatry and of the secret Agency of Daemons in bringing about Predictions 6. That by reason of the secret or familiar Converse of Daemons with pretended Astrologers no argument can be raised from Events for the truth of this Art 7. A Recapitulation of the whole matter argued 8. The just occasions of this Astrological excursion and of his shewing the ridiculous condition of those three high-flown Sticklers against Christianity Apollonius Cardan and Vaninus 356 BOOK VIII CHAP. I. THE End and Usefulness of Christian Religion in general 2. That Christ came into the World to destroy Sin out of it 3. His earnest recommendation of Humility 4. The same urged by the Apostle Paul 361 CHAP. II. 1. Christs enforcement of Love and Charity upon his Church by Precept and his own Example 2. The wretched imposture and false pretensions of the Family of Love to this divine Grace 3. The unreasonableness of the Familists in laying aside the person of Christ to adhere to such a carnal and inconsiderable Guide as Hen. Nicolas 4. That this Whifler never gave any true Specimens of real love to Mankinde as Christ did and his Apostles 5. His unjust usurpation of the Title of Love 6. The unparallel'd endearmentâ— of Christs sufferings in the behalf of Mankiâ—d 364 CHAP. III. 1. The occasion of the Familists usâ—rpation of the Title of Love 2. Earnest precepts oâ—t of the Apostles to follow Love and what kind of Love that is 3. That we câ—nnot love God unlesse we love our neighbour also 4. An Exposition of the 5 and 6 verses of the 1 chapter of the 2 Epist. of S. Peter 5. Saint Paul's rapturous commendation of Charity 6 His accurate description thereof 7. That Love is the highest participation of the Divinity and that whereby we become the Sons of God Aâ—d how injurious these Fanaticks are that rob the Church of Christ of this title to appropriate it to themselves 368 CHAP. IV. 1. Our Saviour's strict injuction 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 necâ—ssiâ—y of opposing it which he promises to do taking the rise of his Discourse from 1 Iohn 3.7 373 CHAP. V. 1. The Apostle's care for young Christians against that Errour of thinking they may be righteous without doing righteously 2. Their obnoxiousness to this contagion with the Causes thereof to be searched into 3. The first sort of Scriptures perverted to this ill end 4. The second sort 5. That the very state of Christian Childhood makes them prone to this Errour 6. What is the nature of that Faith Abraham is so much commended for and what the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. A search after the meaning of the term Justification 8. Justification by faith without the deeds of the Law what may be the meaning of it 9. Scriptures answered that seem to disjoin Reall Righteousness from Faith 10. And to make us only righteous by imputation 11. Undeniable Testimonies of Scripture that prove the necessity of real Righteousness in us 376 CHAP. VI. 1. Their alledgement of Gal. 2.16 as also of the whole drift of that Epistle 2. What the Righteousness of faith is according to the Apostle 3. In what sâ—â—se those that are in Christ are said not to be under the Law 4. That the Righteousness of faith is no figment but a reality in us 5. That this Righteousness is the New Creature and what this new Creature is according to Scripture 6. That the new Creature consists in Wisdome Righteousness and true Holiness 7. The Righteousness of the new Creature 8. His Wâ—sdome and Holiness 9. That the Righteousness of faith excludes not good Works The wicked treachery of those that teach the contrary 384 CHAP. VII 1. That no small measure of Sanctity serves the turn in Christianity 2. As appears out of Scriptures already alledged 3. Further proofs thereof out of the Prophets 4. As also out of the Gospel 5. And other places of the New Testament 6. The strong Armature of a Christian Souldier 7. His earnest endeavour after Perfection 388 CHAP. VIII 1. That the Christians assistance is at least equal to this task 2. The two Gospel-powers that comprehend his duty 3. The first Gospel-aid The Promise of the Spirit with Prophecies thereof out of Ezekiel and Esay 4. Some hints of the mystical meaning of the last 5. Another excellent prediction thereof 391 CHAP. IX 1. The great use of the belief of The Promise of the Spirit 2. The eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his bloud what it is 3. Further proof of the Promise of the Spirit 4. That we cannot oblige God by way of Merit 5. Other Testimonies of Scripture tending to the former purpose 395 CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulness 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 Righteousness 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 398 CHAP. XI 1. That the want of real Righteousness deprives us of the Divine Wisdome proved out of Scripture 2. As also from the nature of the thing it self 3. That is disadvantages the Soul also in Natural speculations 4. That it stifles all Noble and laudable Actions 5. And exposes the imaginary Religionist to open reproach 6. That mere imaginary Righteousness robs the Soul of her peace of Conscience 7. And of 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 400 CHAP. XII 1. Of the attending to the Light within us of which some Spiritualists so much boast 2. That they must mean the Light of Reason and Conscience thereby if they be not Fanaticks Mad-men or Cheats And that this Conscience necessarily takes information from without 3. And particularly from the Holy Scriptures 4. That these Spiritualists acknowledge the fondness of their opinion by their contrary practice 5. An appeal to the Light within them if the Christian Religion according to the literal sense be not true 6. That the Operation of the Divine Spirit is not absolute but restrained to certain laws and conditions as it is in the Spirit of