our Saviour doth often appeal to their Testimony as where he saies I have a greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me And again If I had not done among them the works which no other man did Joh. 15.24 they had not had sin But that which our Saviour most insisted upon was the Scriptures to them he refers the Jews out of these do the Apostles altogether argue and to the search of these are all conjoyn'd and still we can ground our belief upon their Testimony whatever we boast of is not Faith but Fancy and will not hold out in a time of Triall Then the soul can only sit down satisfied when by comparing the Predictions of the Old Testament with the fulfillings of the New it can subscribe probatumest I have examined and find it true Now because this is a matter of very great importance and yet too much neglected therefore I shall press it upon these Considerations 1. This will sweeten our Obedience Till we are satisfied as Men we can never obey as Christians For Faith is nothing else but another kind of Reason whose Basis and Foundation is laid in humility Therefore the Apostle calls that great Action of a Christian when he doth not as in the Old Law sacrifice an Oxe but himself up to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a service suiting us as reasonable Creatures In things of Art the hands will not do what the head doth not direct so in spiritual things we quite mistake our way if we think of going blindfold and hood-winck'd to Duty Ignorance and Implicite Obedience is a fit Sacrifice for the devil whose kingdom is founded in darkness when as Regeneration is nothing else but renewed Light And the clearer Discoveries are made to the Understanding the more pliant and obedient is the Will 1 Cor. 14. and the more easie doth it find the Yoke For this end is Preaching and Prophesying in a known Tongue commanded that there might be a Race of knowing Christians And Paul would not so much as Sing or Pray or do any other Act of Religious Worship with his Spirit only but with his Understanding also There cannot be a greater brand cast upon any ones devotion than to worship they know not what Joh. 4.22 for that is that which our Saviour doth especially blame the Samaritans for 2. This is the best way to win upon others And this principally concerns Ministers of the Gospel whom I may ask in the Apostles words Thou that teachest another Rom. 2.20 wilt thou not teach thy self Thou who commandest another to believe wilt thou not give him a Reason why he should believe and so leave him without excuse 1 Tim. 4.12 Thus the Apostle bids Timothy be an example to the Faithful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. in reasoning and gives this general charge that a man of God must be apt to teach in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves There are indeed some men of diseased minds who have quenched in themselves all Principles by which they may recover and be enlightened But there are in the World many sober Dissenters who stand off from embracing Christianity meerly from the apprehensions they have that the Tenets of it are Absurd and Unreasonable Act. 17.20 such as these must be won by Argument Thus Paul dealt with the Athenians who when they desired to be better informed of his Doctrine he makes a most excellent discourse to them concerning Providence and clears by unanswerable Reason that their way of Worship was false because it begot in mens minds low and mean opinions of the Deity as if he were confined to Place or did take delight in outward Representations Thus did our Saviour deal with Nicodemus In short Ignorance in a Gospel-Teacher is a capital crime for our Saviour when ever he preached he did it with this Preface Hear and Understand and when his Disciples were somewhat dull of Apprehension he sharply reproves them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What are you whom I design to be Lights and Guides of the World without Understanding 3. The want of this is the cause why Christians stand so much at a stay and make no better Progress Total Ignorance is a certain sign of Perdition â— Cor. 4.3 If our Gospel saith the Apostle be hid it is hid to them that are lost Partial Ignorance is a sign of weakness for there is that Light that Evidence in our Religion that if it be followed it will alwaies fill the mind with fresh Discoveries They who first read the Scriptures are like such that see a glorious Palace at a distance it is wrapped up in a Mist and the Beauty of it lies concealed but the nearer we approach the more intently we view it the more is the Lustre of it manifested The World i.e. Carnal men do count the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Idoll and a Foolish thing but Paul tells us and all true Believers find it to be the Wisdome of God a Plot laid from all Eternity for the effecting of which the World was made and when the Mystery of Salvation there declared is perfected the World shall be laid aside as an useless Scene Christ to invite our Study doth stile himself the Light of the World and who doth not see that all who are not enlightned by him are covered with Darkness Uncertainty and doubting But John calls our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. in the proper signification of the word Reason he being that Eternal Fountain from whom true Reason sprung and by whom our lost and ruin'd Reason is repaired 1 Cor. 2. The Spirit saith the Apostle searcheth the depths of God i.e. the Spirit of God in man makes him unquiet and restless in his search till he hath sounded those depths which the Ignorant and Lazy World pass hastily over How easily by this light would those Mists about Incarnation Providence Resurrection c. which to this day perplex the disputing world be all dispersed and scattered As to this last the Apostle here is very Positive that he would venture all upon a Dispute and that the best reason should carry it Use 2 The second Use is to shew the Necessity of Christian Life and this is so clear from the Premises that it need not be long insisted on For If the Dead rise not 1 Cor. 15.32 the consequence which Paul brings in wicked men making is very Natural Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye But if the dead rise then Peter hath made a Rational Inference 1 Pet. 4.7 The end of all things is at hand let us be sober and watch unto Prayer For the time is coming when the hidden things of our shame shall be brought to light 1 Cor. 4.5 this certainly if once believed would keep us honest in the dark one Sermon about it made Felix tremble though being a Roman his Unbelief made him careless and his calling valiant Did but men once give themselves leave to think of it they would not so spend their daies as if they had nothing but this Inch of time to provide for For as our souls are alwaies on the wing so our bodies are not entirely our own but hereafter to be resumed again and made either Cages for Unclean or Mansions for Clorified Spirits And therefore that unchangeable state into which they shall once pass is by all wise and knowing men most to be secured So that I shall conclude in the words of the Prophet Hosea Who is wise Hos 14.9 and he shall understand these things Prudent and he shall know them For the waies of the Lord are right and the Just shall walk in them but the Transgressour shall fall therein FINIS Errata PAge 16. Line 2. by yet more r. yet more by p. 13. l. 24. doctrine dangerous r. doctrine is dangerous Ib. l. 26. have r. leave p. 18. l. 7. Regimenâ— r. Regâ—men p. 24. l. 34. destroyed r. descryed p. 25. l. 13 Bounds r. Mounds p. 27 l. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 32. l. 19. desire r. desired p. 56. l. 28. still r. till
Rev. 19.20 So that our Saviour and his Apostles do both grant that Miracles may be done by a false Power and likewise affirm that whoever hath nothing else to alledge for his Religion but meerly Miracles that same is Antichrist For Truth stands not in need of such outward Circumstances to underprop it and according to the Scripture Miracles are not to prove the Doctrine but the Doctrine is to prove the Miracles whether they are from God or not But yet saith our Saviour with those Arts and waies he shall so far prevail as even almost to stagger the belief of the very Elect Many shall follow their destructive Doctrines 2 Pet. 2.2 Rev. 13. saith Peter the World shall wonder after the Beast saith John and he shall deceive the Inhabitants of the earth c. all which places do note an almost Universal seduction And if any ask how it comes to pass that Corruption so contrary to the received Tenets and Maximes of Christianity should be so generally embraced 2 Thes 2 10 11 the Apostle Paul hath given it Because men have not received the love of the Truth that they might be saved therefore shall God send upon them the strong working of deceit 2 Thes 2.9 that they should believe a Lye i.e. Men being unwilling to give themselves up to the guidance of Truth which shines clearly by its own Light both in Scriptures and in their own Understandings therefore shall God suffer them to be so brutish and Sottish as to quit their Reason and to be led up and down by any fond and ridiculous Errour as those Impostors shall guide them I have done with the Prediction of our Saviour concerning Antichrist V. Canenes Concil Trident. and if upon your enquiry you find that there is that Religion in the world which hath espoused and embodied into their Confession of Faith all the Opinions of Antichrist If there be that Church in the world which still pretends to do and for ought I know doth reall Miracles upon which they bottome their Plea to be the true Church if they maintain Persecution Violence and Fraud if they have dispirited and disenvigoured Religion by their worldly Pompe and Gallantry and make thriving in this world a sign that God doth love and favour them all which are Antichristian Tenets and Practices If there be that Person in the world who hath assumed the very stile of Antichrist who hath trampled upon Kings and trode upon the Necks of Emperours who in his Canon Law is called God and like God doth dispense with all both Divine and Humane Laws then first certainly Antichrist is already come and to deny it is to deny as great evidence and notoriety of fact as to deny it is day when the Sun shineth And secondly He which foretold that Antichrist should thus come with all these Circumstances that I have summed up he was undoubtedly a true Prophet the true Messiah for to repeat the Argument in my Text He told us these things before they came to pass and we find that they are come to pass and therefore he is The Use that I shall make of this whole Discourse is 1. To convince the Unresolved 2. To confirm those who are already setled Use 1 The first use shall be to convince the Unresolved I have already spoken something to awaken those that are resolute and peremptory Unbelievers but there are many who may be yet in their enquiring doubting and disputing state who are not unwilling to embrace the Faith of Christ but they find it to be so repugnant to every thing of natural Reason within them and likely to be attended with so much hazard and danger that they are either ashamed or afraid to own it but yet are not fixed in positive denial of it but through uncertainty they are alwaies Anxious and wavering Such as these ought to be tenderly and gently dealt with and two things I shall propose to them which may help to alleviate and to abate their Prejudices 1. That Christian Religion is in no part of it unreasonable for since the Proof of it in general depends upon the clearest Demonstration viz. The fulfilling of Prophesies then the belief of it must needs be rational I know very well that the things contained in the Scriptures viz. The Incarnation of the Son of God three Persons of the Godhead the Immediate Acting of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of Believers and the like are all Mysterious and no waies reconcileable to Humane Apprehension but then we must consider that these things are not proposed to our Understandings to comprehend them but meerly to our Faith to believe them which where there is a firm and demonstrable ground of Beliefe may be done even to many things that we understand not And the great hindrance that hath kept Christian Faith from entring into the minds of men is want of attendance to that distinction for many have both confounded themselves and subverted the Faith of others by pressing upon them a comprehension of what is no waies by us Intelligible And therefore all those Disputes about Predestination Trinity Resurrection Incarnation and the like are for the greatest part of them unprofitable and dangerous because they are not content barely to assert the Truth which is then best done when it is put into the plainest and most unscholastick Language of Scripture but our Arguers do over and above enquire de modo and labour to give reasons for those stupendious and amazing Mysteries which the Apostle Paul cries out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon and for the most part ends the Dispute with a Reproof of the Disputer And therefore such of you as are not yet fixed in your belief set your selves purely upon this Article viz. to enquire whether Jesus be the Christ and never give it over till it hath pleased God fully to confirm you in it And my Reasons for this Advice are these three 1. Because this is the most effectual and ready way to prove unto you the Divine Authority of the Scriptures Those who set upon this work by endeavouring to prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God as they lye in gross and in their diffused Bulk proceeding by Chapter and Verse do undertake a Tedious and Impossible Task for there those ordinary and trivial Objections of mistakes and variations in Copies mistranslations and the like are never to be assoiled but if you draw the several lines in Scripture into their Center and contract them into Christ as you use to do the Sun-beams into a burning-glass then do they cast a quick and vigorous lustre sufficient to enlighten and warm even the most stiffe and rigid Opposer He that would demonstrate the Providence of God would not I suppose begin with the Minutiae mundi the lesser things of the World as Flies and Insects but he would fix as David doth upon the Sun or some noble and conspicuous part whose Use is undeniable and
thence conclude that if Providence hath a respect to any one part of the world it cannot be imagined but it should have an Influence over all for else it must either be Finite or Partial which is absurd So in the asserting of Scriptures begin with that which they all point at and which if one place be questioned thousands of the same kind will evince viz. That the Messiah was to come which is the great design of the Old Testament That the Messiah is come which is the sum of the New and then all the other parts of Scripture will be owned as suited to the Divine and Heavenly Nature of our Messiah who took a body not only that he might dye our Price but that he might live our Pattern And almost each Line of Scripture especially in the New Testament describes either his Life or his Language 2. Here the Doubter must begin because this is the readiest way to ascertain himself whether he be guided by the Spirit of God or not So the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 12.3 None can call Jesus the Lord but by the Holy Spirit and John 1 Joh. 4.2 Every Spirit that confesseth Jesus the Messiah to be come in the flesh is of God They do not mean that saying this in words is a sign of the Spirit for what is more easie but the owning it in heart this whoever doth may be sure he hath the Spirit And the reason is plain because where the Object proposed doth exceed any natural power there must be a new power given by which that Object is to be received Thus the Apostle John argues concerning future glory Hereafter 1 Joh. 3.3 saith he we shall be like him i. e. Christ because we shall see him as he is There will be a proportion and similitude between Christs body and ours because our visive Faculty shall be so exceedingly advanced as that we shall be able to perceive him in his utmost radiance of Glory So in belief since the soul when it doth it is heightned beyond any native Virtue of its own it is a sign that Gods Spirit hath illuminated and enlarged its Capacity Thus the Apostle We are saved by Grace through Faith Eph. 2.8 and that not of our selves it is the gift of God i. e. that very Faith by which we apprehend Christ is as much the gift of God as Christ himself that is apprehended by it I know very well this seems harsh to many who are willing to boast in themselves but if ever you come to believe indeed you will find the Difficulties your Natural Reason doth urge and vex you with to be insuperable untill the Spirit of God by infusing new light doth explain and solve them Lastly Begin with enquiring whether Jesus be the Christ because upon this depends the whole course of your future Obedience Our Saviour required no more of any that came unto him but to believe that he was the Son of God not that he did exclude good works but he knew that this was the only way to facilitate and expedite them All the while we are either uncertain that our past sins are pardoned or our present services accepted how lamely how untowardly do we set about our duty But when once we believe on Christ all that care is over and the firmer our Faith is the higher and more ardent will our Love be which like a flame shoots through the soul and carries it out with an heavenly quickness and ardency Therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 10.9 10. If thou confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord i.e. If thou obeyest him and believest in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead i.e. that he is the true Messiah of which his Resurrection is an infallible proof thou shalt be saved For with the heart men believe unto righteousness i.e. unto the justification of their Persons and with the mouth is confession made unto Salvation But to think of making confession or doing any act of Religion without Faith desire at least and the desire of Faith is Faith this is only to mock God and to undo our selves by our foolish and hypocritical presumptions in presenting unto him a Sacrifice which he abhors For without Faith i. e. reliance upon him for mercy and out of Christ God is nothing else but Justice it is impossible to please him When the Doubter hath gone thus far as to find that if he will be satisfied here he must begin his next course will be to run over in his mind those Arguments which our Saviour useth to evince his being the Messiah such are the heavenliness of his Language Joh. 8.43 Why do you not saith our Saviour know my speech i.e. Why do you not perceive even by my manner of discourse that I am come from heaven full of that God in whose Name I speak Joh. 10.21 For as some of the Jews said these are not the words of him that hath a devil These are not the words of one that came to deceive the world and to boast of himself to be that which he was not Another Argument our Saviour urges is the holiness of his Life Joh 8.46 Joh. 10.32 Which of you saith he doth convince me of sin and many good works have I done amongst you for which of them do you stone me An holy humble self-denying man who forbad even his Miracles to be published cannot without intolerable malice be supposed to assume a title which did not belong to him Add to this the God-like Patience and Resolution of his Death dying in defence of this very Tenet unprovoked with injuries breathing out his soul in charity to men Father forgive them Luk. 23.34 for they know not what they do at the same time both praying and pleading for his bitterest Enemies and then giving up himself unto his Father with perfect Affiance Father Ibid. v. 46. into thy hands do I commend my Spirit Add yet farther the Testimony of his Followers who saw him after he was risen the success of his Doctrine in spite of Persecution and above all the fulfilling of Prophesies as I have already mentioned Truly then if he that doubted be not satisfied if he that was almost doth not become altogether a Christian he is strangely wanting to himself for God is not wanting to assist those who do but begin to enquire after him every doubt that ariseth being nothing else but a Motion of Gods Spirit whereby he would draw us unto himself Having thus cleared that to believe is not unreasonable as the Unbeliever supposeth the next thing I shall propose is this That 2. To obey is not dangerous for though we may lose our Lives yet sure we shall be sufficient gainers if we save our souls And therefore let the Doubter strengthen himself with representing Heaven in its fulness of Joy alwaies before his eyes That Doctrine which teacheth that we are not to have an eye to the
God saith the Angel nothing shall be impossible and for a further strengthening of her Faith Ver. 45. Elizabeth encourages her from her own experience Blessed is she that believeth for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. For who is there that will presume to set limits to Gods Power Or that dare say to an Almighty Agent hitherto canst thou come but no farther He that dares be guilty of so bold and blasphemous an Assertion must likewise allow this contradiction that a Finite Agent can conceive the utmost of an Infinite and Incomprehensible Perfection As therefore in the Question concerning Mans Freewill and Gods Predetermination of Future Contingencies I have by experience found it that the best way to reconcile these two is to deny neither but to charge all doubts upon Gods Omniscience For it is and will be a doubt which none but a Divine and All-knowing Understanding can resolve How Man should Act Freely as we are conscious to our selves that we do and yet not the least Action we do but was Predestined by God from all Eternity which not only plain Texts of Scripture but the Truth of Philosophy and the bare series and subordination of Causes doth clearly demonstrate Here instead of tiring out our selves with vain Reasoning and Uncharitable Reviling the safest and most prudent way is to shelter our selves under Gods Omniscience for it is dignus Numine Nodus and we cannot better discover our own Humility or give God the glory of his Knowledge than if we confess that there are some things which only he can understand So in the dispute concerning the Resurrection when doubts arise as too often they will and the more we think of it the stronger and the more puzling will the Objections be here the best way will be to have recourse to Gods Omnipotence and to believe firmly that God is easily able to do more than Man can conceive Thus did the Apostle Peter answer those Scoffers who began to question whether our Saviour would make good his Promise in coming to judge the World This saith he 2 Pet. 3 5. they are willingly ignorant of that by the Word of God the Heavens were made of old As if he had said These men have no reason to look upon Christs judging the World and destroying it by fire as so incredible a thing for when God made it out of nothing he did produce a greater Wonder So let us not doubt but God is able to recover our scattered Dust where ever it is lodged in the bowels of the Earth who did extract this admirable Frame of all things out of the wombe of Nothing 2. The Resurrection is Possible in respect of the Body which is to be raised for that hath already passed a greater change than the Resurrection doth amount to Since to pass from nothing to something is a much greater change than barely to pass from Death to Life Yet one we have already experimented and why should we then doubt or despair of the other This Holy men in Scripture do often reflect upon c. 10.10 11 12 c. Hast thou not saith Job poured me out as Milk and crudled me like Cheese thon hast cloathed me with Skin and Flesh and hast fenced me with Bones and Sinews Thou hast granted me life c. So that what he speaks a little before Ver. 9. Remember I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay and wilt thou bring me into dust again may be inverted thus God hath made us as the Clay Psal 139.14 and cannot he bring us out of the dust again So David I will praise thee saith he for I am fearfully and wonderfully made my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret when I was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth wherein he eloquently describes the wonderful Art whereby God had made him And cannot he repair these buildings of flesh and bloud with the same ease with which at first he reared them Let him that doubts ask himself this question Was there not a time when once I was not As David My members in continuance or successively were fashioned when as yet there was none of them And as God without my taking care without the expence so much as of a Miracle did joyn and cement these pieces did call for his Wind and breath life into them did put in a portion of his Spirit into them and give them understanding So when they are severed cannot he recall and reunite them Especially since the Parts of our dissolved earth they are scattered only they are not lost Thrown up and down in a seemingly careless manner but still they are under the eye of an All-seeing Providence and laid up like sacred Reliques 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gods store-house to be fetched out thence when the Heavens shall be no more which is an Answer to Job's Melancholy ◠14.12 Man saith he lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep Now we are taught that the Heavens shall be no more 2 Pet 3. and that is the time appointed for this Resurrection Reason 2 The Second Argument which makes the Resurrection seem credible is from the necessity of it It must be there would be no Providence without it For the Resurrection serves to demonstrate two prime Attributes of God without which neither God could be honoured not the World governed 1. It demonstrates Gods Mercy 2. It demonstrates Gods Justice 1. The Resurrection demonstrates Gods Mercy For God hath appointed this order in the World that every thing should have a kind of Resurrection The Sun saith Solomon ariseth Eccl. 1.5 7. and the Sun goeth down and hasteneth to the place where he arose And Unto the place from whence the Rivers came thither they return again Thus Day dies into Night and Night rises into Day Winter is the Death of the Year and Spring is its Resurrection And many more such like instances there are in Nature Now it would not be suited to the Grace and Mercy of our God that every thing should suos patimanes have its Turns and Returns and the Noblest Creature of all Man should be altogether exempted That every thing else should have alternate changes and be repaired by dying and Mans body only should be huddled up in the Horrour of Eternal Night Sure that merciful Father who shewed so much curious Architecture in contriving this Body did not intend it should Act a Part only upon this short Scene of Life for then certainly he would not have conjoyned it with a Guest which looks and breaths after nothing but Immortality Our Saviour Joh. 12.24 prophecying of that Progress his Gospel should make after his decease compares himself to a Corn of Wheat which if it fall into the ground and dye not it abideth alone but if