THE REASONABLENESSE OF WISE AND holy truth and the absurditie of foolish and wicked Errour ECCL 7. 27. I haue compassed about both I and mine heart to knowe and to enquire and to search wisdome and reason and to knowe the wickednesse of folly and the foolishnesse of madnesse MATTH 11. 19. But wisdome is iustified of all her children AC OX AT OXFORD Printed by Iohn Lichfield and William Wrench Printers to the famous Vniversitie 161â— TO THE RIGHT REVErend Father in God ARTHVR Lord Bishop of BATH and WELLES Vice chancellour of the Vniversitie of Oxford and Warden of New Colledge IOHN TERRY wisheth all increase of that Glory and Vertue wherevnto you are called by our most glorious holy Lord. 2. Pet. 1. 2. MY duety bindeth me right Reuerend and my very Good Lord to offer vp to God for you the sacrifices of thankesgiuing and prayer Some of the Heathen offred sacrifice to the sunne rising for benefits to come and other to the Sunne setting for such as were already receaued VVherefore it being a great shame for a Christian to be out gone in any good dutie by an Heathen I cannot but offer vp to our most blessed Sauiour Christ the true Sonne of righteousnesse the sacrifice of thanksgiuing first for causing such a bright starre as your Lordship is to appeare aboue our Horizon in the west and secondly for causing you to set with leauing much good to that Colledge whereof my selfe was once a member And how can I also but offer vp prayer to God first that the fresh memorie of your renowned learning and religious life may instill such a sweet influence of celestiall grace into the hearts of all the members of that societie that they may bee effectually stirred vp to walke in your waies and to devote themselues by your example to the publike good as secondly I am to beseech him that walketh in the midst of the seauen golden Candlesticks and holdeth the starres in his right hand that he would hold vphold you long to his owne glory and to the edification and comfort of his people among whom hee hath now placed you to hold out the word of life And thus commending you to God the Father of light and to the word of his grace the most worthie instrument thereof with all humble thanks vnto your Lordship for your louing acceptance of this small paper present I rest Your Lordships in all Christian loue and dutie JOHN TERRY IOHN 17. 17. Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth THis Chapter containeth a most divine and heavenly prayer of our most blessed Saviour Christ wherein hee requesteth of his Father that hee would by the gracious word of his Gospell make more and more manifest the glorious worke of mans redemption For that hereby he and his father should be most glorified and all such as his father had giuen him should be made partakers of life everlasting For this is everlasting life saith he to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent videlicet to accomplish the worke of the redemption of all the elect Iesus Christ For the cleere doctrine of the Gospell laying open the glorious worke of mans redemption doth make manifest the light of Gods countenance shining in Christ and doth giue vnto all that are truely lightned therewith the holy eie of sauing faith whereby they assuredly apprehending and most certainely beleeuing the vnspeakable loue of God towards them that do cleaue vnto Christ and are made one with him and by him haue communion and fellowship with God and so are made partakers of life everlasting And verily the true sauing faith wrought by the Gospell is nothing else but such a sure and certaine knowledge of Gods vnspeakable loue in Christ as is accompanied with all manner of holy and heavenly graces And therefore as v. 8. our Saviour testifieth that he had given his Fathers words to them which he had giuen vnto him and they had receaued them and had surely knowne that hee came from the Father had beleeued that the Father had sent him so in this verse hee prayeth to his Father that the would sanctifie them with the truth that was contained in the same word In the which petition of our Saviour Christ we are to obserue these two points first the thing that our Saviour requesteth at his Fathers hands that hee would bestow vpon all those that he had giuen him which is Sanctification Secondly the meanes whereby it is wrought which is the truth of his owne word Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Now the sanctification that our Saviour here prayeth for is not maymed wanting any essential part but totall and whole even such a sanctification as doth sanctifie the minde with sauing knowledge faith the will and the affections with all other graces and gifts of the holy Ghost and so doth sanctifie the whole man Neither is this whole and total sanctification bestowed onely vpon some principall persons in the Church of Christ but even vpon the meanest also As the Apostle testifieth 2. Cor. 3. 18. Wee all saith he behold as in a mirrour the glory of God with open face there is the subiection action obiect clerenesse of faith and are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord there is the inseparable effect of sauing and sanctifying faith one and the same in substance though not in circumstance in all the faithfull And verily how can it otherwise bee but that all such as by faith are engraffed into Christ Rom. 11. 17. should immediatly be made good trees so consequently be enabled to beare good fruit Mat. 7.17 How can it otherwise be but that all such as by the linely word of God Heb. 4. 12. are quickned to a liuing faith Gal. 2. 20 should shew themselues to be aliue to God Rom. 6. 11. by the exercise of al holy and godly works For nature is never idle much lesse grace Gal. 5. 6. and therefore as the body without the operatiue spirit is dead so faith without workes is dead also Iac. 3 26. And therefore the same Apostle in the same chapter willeth Natura est nunquam otiosa all such as lay claime to a true faith to make proofe thereof by their good workes after the example of Abraham the father of the faithfull For after that he had shewed himselfe readie at the commandment of God to offer vp in sacrifice his most deare sonne Isaac then he made it manifest that he so firmely apprehended by an assured faith the incomprehensible loue of God in Christ Eph. 3. 19. towards himselfe that he preserred it before his most intire loue towards his own most deare sonne and then was the Scripture fulfilled Abraham beleeued God and it was imputed to him for righteousnes Wherefore it was not without cause that S. Peter writing to such as had obtained like pretious faith with himselfe willeth them to
and peculiar to the teachers of the truth but to all the godly professors of the same For none come to salvation but by the knowledge of the truth 2. Th. 2. 10. 11. In which place knowledge and faith are ioined together as inseparable companions as Ignorance is set downe as a separatist from faith salvation in the former chapter of the same Epistle Now to knowe a thing is to knowe the reasons thereof Scire est per cau sas scire Wherefore the true Christian faith grounded vpon knowledge doth no otherwise worke in the faithfull a right assent to the severall doctrines of faith then by grounds thereof This truth is manifestly proued throughout the whole body of the sacred Scripture which teacheth that the true Christian faith is a wise and holy not foolish and wicked a seeing and not a blind a cleere and not a darke a manly and not a childish a reasonable and not a brutish perswasion Faith is a wise assent grounded vpon the wise doctrines of the word of God which are able to make vs wise to salvation by faith in Christ 2. Tim. 3. 15. And what is wisdome but a right apprehensiō of truth the reasons thereof by the testimonies of divine humane autors I haue saith Solomō the wise compassed about both I mine heart to knowe and inquire and to search wisdome reason Eccl. 7. 27. by the which manner of annexing the one to the other hee giueth vs to vnderstand that the one ariseth out of the other So Aristole the wisest of all Philosophers Prudence is an habit ioyned with right reason So Tully one of the wisest of all Orators Hee that doth best apprehend truth in every thing the reasons and grounds thereof is worthely to bee esteemed the most prudent and wise of all other Wherefore our Christian faith being a wise apprehension and assent vnto truth must needs apprehend the reasons whereon it is grounded The wisdome of the prudent saith Solomon is to vnderstand his way but the foolishnesse of fooles is deceit Prov. 14. 8. That is wisdome lightning the vnderstanding by meanes of true reason doth sanctifie it with truth as folly darkning it with ignorance leadeth it into errour both in matters of faith and of life and conversation For the foolishnesse of a man perverteth his waie Prov. 19. 3. for folly is the mother of wickednesse Eccl. 7. 27. Wherefore such as bee foolish shall not stand in Gods sight for he hateth all such as worke wickednesse Ps 5. 5. But the wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament Dan. 12. 3. The foolish Virgins could not enter into the marriage because their lamps were gone out Mat. 25. 10. That is they made profession of the word of God which is a lanthorne to our feet and a light to our paths without the vnderstanding thereof For what is the word not vnderstood but a lampe without oile or a candle without light But the wise that had oile in their lamps that is rightly vnderstood the doctrines of Gods word were admitted into the marriage For they that truely knowe God shall bee Visio iustificans Visio glorificans knowne of him and they that now see him with the eye that iustifieth shall hereafter see him with the eye that glorifieth But they that knowe not God shall not be knowne of God 2. Thess 1. 8. Hos 4. 6. Prov. 1 22. And all such as see him not with the eye of faith shall never see him with the eye of glory Prov. 29. Fooles mad men may be Saints with foolish and mad Mahomet but the children of wisdome Mat. 11. 19 are the chil dren of the most wise God such as haue their minds and affections sanctified by wisdome are his Saints in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Coll. 2. 3. Now if faith be a wise assent then it is not blind and darke but eyefull and cleere I saw saith Solomon the wise that there is more profit in wisdome thē in folly as the light is more excellent then darknesse Eccl. 2. 13. for a wise mans eyes are in his head but a foole walketh in darknesse Wisdome and faith are the sight of the eye of the mind and truth rightly apprehended and assented vnto is the light that leadeth in the' right way Morio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnto God Ps 43. 3. But a foole vnbeleeuer is a blind and a darke man 2. Pet. 1. 9. For infidelitie and folly is the blindnesse of the mind and where these lead the will and affections there is a wandring from God seeing he that walketh in darknesse woteth not whether hee goeth Ioh. 12. 35. and there is a falling into the pit of all errors and sinnes seeing where the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch Wherefore blessed are their eies who seeing see and doe perceaue hearing heare and doe vnderstand and so are converted so are saved Mat. 13. 16. And blessed are all not some but all beleeuers because they all behold as in a myrror the glory of God with open face are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of God 2. Cor. 3 18. Neither doth our wise Christian faith bring onely sight and light to all that beleeue but also a behauiour fit for men indued with sound and right reason and de liuereth them from childishnesse brutishnesse also It is the propertie of a child to doe childishly When I was a child saith the Apostle I spake as a child I vnderstood as a child but when I was a man I put away childishnesse Non qu◠eundū sed quo itur 1. Cor. 13. 11. So it is a propertie of a brute beast to goe not whether they should goe but whether others goe But the faithfull should not be children in vnderstanding but of a ripe age 1. Cor. 14. 20. Neither should they bee like the horse and mule in whom there is no vnderstanding Ps 32. 9. For children are childish and are led with such motiues as most prevaile with the affections and brute beasts are brutish and follow sense but the wise Christian beleeuer will take especially notice of such inducements as soundly informe the vnderstanding and are powerfull to rule direct the affections and senses in a right course Now by all these properties and effects of a true Christian faith it is evident that whosoever desireth to attaine therevnto must labour to vnderstand the severall reasons whereon the severall doctrines of faith are grounded that so he may bee enabled thereby to stand vpon the iust defence of his owne faith Thus much is Bellarmine himselfe forced to confesse in that hee maketh sanctity of doctrine which is the wisdome and reasonablenesse thereof to be a note of the true Church and of the right faith professed therein vpō that ground taketh exception against our
supplication to a Prince and not vnderstand what is contained in his supplication much lesse should he doe it to the king of kings vnlesse he looke to be reâ—ected as a foolish and an absurd companion yea as a frantike mad man Thirdly is it not absurd to pray to Saints for such blessings as cannot be giuen but by God alone seeing it is all one as if one should seeke for that of a subiect which is only in the hands of a king to giue Fourthly were it not absurd when thou hast the kings eldest and dearest sonne to be thy mediator to his father to request some meane persons of the court to be thy mediators also as if the mediation of such a person were not sufficient So is it farre more absurd to ioine the Saints to the Sonne of God in the worâ—e of mediation whereas his intercession with the father is 10000000000 times more respected of God then is the intercession of all Angells and Saints Lastly is it not absurd to make the Saints mediators to Christ when be himselfe calleth thee promiseth to heare and helpe thee also whensoever thou by thy selfe shalt come vnto him in faithfull and humble prayer Mat. 11. 28. For hee loueth his faithfull servants better then any creature can loue him and therefore they ought to come rather to him then to any other I come with more comfort said an ancient autor to my Iesus then to any of the Saints For this cannot be the saying of S. Austine because he renounceth Dulcius ad meum Iesum accedo quam ad queÌ„vis sanctorum all other mediators but Christ and saith more over that if S. Iohn himselfe should take vpon him to bee our Mediator he should shew himselfe thereby to be a very Antechrist Aug. cont ep Parm. l. 2. c. 8. Last of all concerning faith they teach most absurdly of all other For where as our commoÌ„ Creed containing the summ of our Christian faith teacheth vs to beleeue in God that is to be fully perswaded that God is our God and louing father in Christ and hath taken vs for his adopted children even all and every one of vs vnto whome he hath giuen a true faith how can this faith taught in our common Creed stand with that of the church of Rome which commandeth vs still to stand in doubt of Gods loue Why is not Gods loue towards his faithfull and obedient children greater then is the loue of any earthly father to his And would not an earthly Father who hath declared his great loue toward his louing child in giuing him the best education that hee can and the greatest portion the largest inheritance take it very vnkindly at his childs hand if for all this he should make but the least doubt of his so entire and tender affection and loue Now our heauenly father giueth to all that are adopted sonnes by faith in Christ a farre better education greater portion and larger inheritance then all earthly parents can giue and that to this end to testifie vnto them the vnsearchable riches of his goodnesse towards them and to giue them full assurance of his vnspeakable loue And yet shall they be commanded still to make doubt thereof yea whereas all professions in the whole world bee they heathenish Iewish Haereticall or schismaticall doe make solemne protestation that they will giue assurance albeit vpon most false and deceauable grounds to their Disciples and followers that if they will rightly embrace their rules and put in practise their commandements they shall thereby be brought neare vnto God haue assurance of his favour and loue And shall our christian profession which only delivereth the true grounds of our reconciliation and peace with God and of his good will and loue towards the faithfull even by the testimonies of a multitude of heavenly Angels Luk. 2. 14. yet be counter commanded herein that by that Church which vaunteth her selfe to bee the only pillar and rocke of faith Vndoubtedly as that person is no chast wife nor true mother that willeth the children still to stand in doubt of the kindnesse of their carefull and louing father so the church of Rome hereby shew eth her selfe neither to bee the chast spouse of Christ nor the naturall mother of the faithfull but the whore of Babylon the mother of all abominations in that shee commandeth the faithfull which are the children of God still to stand in doubt of the loue of God their heauenly father Wherefore to conclude as on the one side we are to pray vnto God our heavenly father that he would still deliuer vs from the wicked doctrines of evill and vnreasonable Papists because they be not the doctrines of faith and truth so we are on the other side still to pray vnto him that he would cause the doctrine of the Gospell to be published more and more that he would giue it a full current and cause it to be glorified throughout the whole earth And let vs also pray that the Lord our God by the ministerie of one Haggei or other would lay open the ends and vses of such gentle corrections which of late yeares our land hath bin visited withal againe and againe stirre vp the spirits of our Zorobabels and Ioshuahs to haue a care first to build the temple of the Lord before the care of building of their own houses And that our wise Solomon would not only haue a care first to build the temple of God before the building of his owne pallace but also haue a greater care for the one then for the other that so of him it might be truely said Behold a greater then Solomon is here Yea that God would more and more settle in the heart of our David King Iames this serious meditation which so throughly possessed the soule of king David Behold I dwel in an house of Cedar trees and the arke of the Lord in divers places of my kingdome dwelleth vnder curtaines by the want of skilfull builders to build it a Temple that so not only our Nathans may say vnto our King Goe doe all that is in thine heart for God is with thee but also his God may say vnto him hast thou such a care to build an house vnto me Behold in lue there of thine house shall bee established and thy kingdome before thee for ever even thy throne shall be established for ever 2. Sam 7. 16. even so oh faithfull Amen say Amen and confirme this thine owne decree that it may be as the decrees of the Medes and Persians that cannot bee altered And say againe and againe of our King Iames and his kingdomes as thou didst once of David his Sion I haue chosen great Brittaine and loued to dwel in it saying This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I haue a delight therein I will blesse her victuals with increase satisfie her poore with bread I will cloth her Priests with health and her Saints shall reioice and sing Here will I make the horne of Iames to flourish I haue ordained a lanthorne for mine annointed And as for his enimies I will cloath them with shame but vpon his head shall the crowne flourish Ps 132. And let every faithfull Britaine crie out to his companion in faith country saying O pray for the peace of London they shall prosper that loue thee Peace be within thy wals and plentie within thy pallaces For my bretheren and companions sake I will wish thee now prosperitie yea because of the house of the Lord our God I will seeke to doe thee good Ps 122. Lastly to conclude let every faithfull soule wheresoever after this or the like maner commend his owne soule and salvation into the hands of his redeemer Into thy hands Lord I commend my spirit which is thy due for why thou hast redeemed it O Lord my God most true Send out thy light that is thy truth and lead me with thy grace which may conduct mee to thine hill and to thy dwelling place One thing of thee I doe require that thou wilt not deny for which I pray and will desire till thou to me apply That I within his holy place my life throughout may dwell to see the beauty of thy face and view thy Temple well The greater sort craue worldly goods and riches doe imbrace but Lord grant mee thy countenance thy favour and thy grace For thou thereby shalt make mine heart more ioyfull and more glad then they that of their corne and wine full great increase haue had In peace therefore lye downe will I taking my rest sleepe for thou only wilt me O Lord alone in safetie keepe The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the loue of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost bee with vs all Amen Yea thou that art God to be blessed for ever so in grace vouchsafe to be with vs that thou blesse the continuall ministerie of thine holy word and heavenly Angels to our continuall sanctification and preservation in this life and to our full and finall glorification in the life to come Amen FINIS