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
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
then by any other way conceivable For those words of so great sound and of no less import namely the Millennium the Reign of the Saints the New Jerusalem and the like to them that are not very wild or ignorant can signifie nothing else but the recovery of the Church to her ancient Apostolick purity wherein nothing shall be imperiously obtruded upon men but what is plainly discoverable to be the Mind of Christ and his Blessed Apostles There shall be nothing held Essential and Fundamental but the indispensable Law of the Christian life and that Doctrine that depends not upon the fallible deductions of men but is plainly set down in the Scripture other things being left to the free recommendation of the Church ensnaring no mans Conscience nor lording it over the flock of Christ. 14. Which certainly they do that call those things Antichristian that are not and thereby make more Fundamentals then Christ or his Apostles which Errour is the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme and of the grand Apostasy of the Church As methinks should appear plainly to any man that considers it from the description of the New Jerusalem whose Foundation and whole Fabrick runs so upon Twelve For truly it seems to me very unsafe and over-near the brinks of reproach to the Spirit of God to conceit that Wisdome which dictated this Prophecy so shallow and trifling as to mean nothing by that so industriously inculcating the number Twelve but the Churches proceeding first from the preaching of the Apostles a Truth that no man never so destitute of the spirit of divination could misse of or possibly think otherwise Wherefore the meaning of the Prophecy questionless is That after the Church has added false Fundamentals to the Christian Faith and as bad Superstructures the time will come when it shall be again restored to its former purity and That as the root Twelve is the Embleme of the pure Church so there is also a root of a number that will discover that Church which is the Mother of this great Apostasy as really in my judgement Mr. Potter in the number 666. has ingeniously demonstrated But it is manifest that all the zealous Corrivals for the Government of this Nation by either decrying things for Antichristian that in themselves are innocent and of an indifferent nature or by obtruding Opinions that are worse then indifferent have but shewed themselves Branches of that great Stock of Apostasy and are too far removed from the reputed merit of either being or beginning of a Church that is purely Apostolical 15. This Honour therefore seems to have been reserved by Providence for the eternizing the happy Reign of our Gracious Soveraign and all the parturient Agonies and zealous presages of the people of this Nation as if there was an approach of some extraordinary Good to be revealed suddenly to the World to have been nothing else if they knew their own meaning but a less explicite presensation of the return of CHARLES the Second to the rightfull Government of his Kingdomes And truely it will be the greatest Miracle to me in the world if he can frustrate our expectation For whether we consider the excellent Qualifications of our Gracious Prince whom Providence has so long time disciplined in the most effectual method of Prudence and Vertue besides the express Declaration of His own Royal inclinations this way or whether we look upon the Reasonableness of the thing it self it being not onely recommended to us both by Precept and Prophecies but also offering so irrefragable evidence from its own nature of the indispensableness of the duty there being no other possible means to reduce the World to a right Christian tenour of Spirit and to recover it to a due strength and soundness of complexion but by shearing off those large excrescencies of either useless or scandalous Ceremonies and Opinions the foments of strife and palliations of Hypocrisy men seeking by these to be excused from the most weighty Precepts of the Gospel or lastly we take notice of the great Interest the wise and reverend Clergy of this Nation cannot but discover herein even in reference to themselves it is almost impossible to doubt of either endeavour or success in this so important affair For certainly nothing can so well secure their peace and make them impregnable as the using of their Power and exercising their Discipline in the behalf of such Truths and Rites as are plainly and confessedly Apostolical and the being more facil and easie in additional circumstances and cutting quite off all useless and entangling Opinions For hereby will their Opposers be manifestly found to fight against God and his Christ while they contest with his Ministers who urge nothing upon the People but what was plainly taught and practised by himself and his Apostles whose Waies and Doctrines are so sacred that they ought to be kept up with all lawful severity Which one plain and generous Rule of Government if faithfully kept to is the most effectual means imaginable of making the world good and for both the Unity and Enlargement of the Church infinitely above all those many fine artifices and small devices of the most professed Politicians in the Church of Rome provided we be not course and sordid but reverent and comely in our publick Worship 16. But to return In the third and last place Although the exigency of the Times which then urged me to write thus carefully touching the Quakers and Familists is now God be thanked changed into a more safe Scene of things and the resettlement of our Gracious Soveraign in his Throne doth again secure the Scepter of Christ to his Church yet I thought it fit not to exâ—unge what I had wrote concerning these Sects For for the present It cannot but contribute considerably to an unfained composure of their Spirits and peaceful acquiescence in the known Christian Truth their minds being more at leisure now better fitted to consider what is true then they were before when the heat of Enthusiastick hopes of I know not what great success inflamed them and blew them up so high that the voice of sober Reason could not well be heard in that fanatick storm and Bluster nor an Errour easily let go which seemed a pledge of the sudden approach of so great advantages to the entertainers of it And then for the future So fundamental a discovery of the unsoundness and madness of these Sects cannot I think but be very effectual for the preventing their spreading hereafter that it will not be any longer in the power of their false Teachers to befool well-meaning men with fine words and make them unawares countenance a Faction the deepest Arcanum whereof is absolute rebellion against the Person of Christ and an utter abrogation of Christian Religion Which task though others heretofore have undertaken and I question not but with like faithful and zealous regard to the good of the Church yet their discovery
and what he utters concerning the Spirit chap. 16.14 He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Wherefore I say the Fathers being every way so fairly invited to bring the Platonick Notion of the Trinity into the Church assuredly if themselves had been Platonists and had fetched the Mystery from that School they would not have failed to have done it 7. Secondly Admit that the ancient Fathers were Platonists and brought the Mystery of the Trinity into the Church of the Christians it does not straight follow That it is therefore a Pagan or Heathenish Mystery Pythagoras and Plato having not received it from Pagans or Heathens but from the learned of the Iews as sundry Authors assert the Iews themselves in long succession having received it as a Divine Tradition and such is Platonisme acknowledged to be by Iamblichus who sayes it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And assuredly if there had not been some very great reason for it men so wise and profoundly knowing as Pythagoras Plato Plotinus and others would never have made so much adoe about it 8. Thirdly and lastly I say it is not only impious but vain and foolish to asperse that Mystery with the reproch of Paganisme that is so plainly to them that be not prejudiced set down and held forth in the Holy Scripture For the very Forme of Baptisme prescribed by our Saviour evidently enough denotes Three Divine Hypostases Of the Father there is no question Concerning the Divinity of the Sonne we shall speak more fully in the Second point we proposed That the Holy Ghost is not a mere Power Property or Attribute of God but an Hypostasis one free enough from being swai'd by Tradition or Authority of any Church and as himself conceits a very close and safe adherer to Scripture does grosly enough acknowledge while he makes it some created Angel that bears the sacred Title of the Holy Ghost and undergoes those Divine functions that are attributed to him But we need not maintain Truth by any mans Error it being sufficiently able to support it self and therefore we will make use of no advantage but what Scripture it self offers us And this Forme of Baptisme affords us something to the evincing that the Holy Ghost is not an Attribute but an Hypostasis For sith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to give up a mans self to the Discipline Government and Authority of this or that Person it is the most natural sense to conceive that all Three mentioned in the Forme are Persons we being so well assured that two of them are But there are other passages of Scripture that will make the point more clear Rom. 15.13 The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Now if the Holy Ghost were but a Power not a Person what a ridiculous Tautology would it be for the sense would be through the power of the holy power Again John 16.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very ill Syntax were it not that there is a Personality in the Holy Spirit which by what follows is most undeniably evident For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak To receive of one and communicate to others by way of hearing and speaking what can that belong to but a Person or Hypostasis To this you may adde also Mark 13.11 Whatsoever shall be given you in that hour that speak ye for it is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost Now that this Hypostasis is not a created Angel amongst other Reasons the Conception of Christ may well argue it being more congruous That that spirit that moved upon the waters and created the world should form that holy Foetus in the womb of the Virgin then that any created Angel should apply himself to that work for he had not then been the Son of God but of an Angel as in reference to his birth in time 9. Besides this one Individual Spirit in Scripture in represented as every where ready to sanctify to regenerate to distribute various gifts and graces to the Church to have spoke by the mouth of the Prophets to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a discerner of the thoughts of the heart Baptisme also and Benedictions are imparted in his name he is also called to witness which is a piece of Divine worship all which seems more naturally to be understood of him whom we properly call the Spirit of God then of any particular created Angel whatsoever 10. We shall onely adde one place more which will put all out of doubt to them that do not doubt of the Text it self 1 John 5.7 There are three witnesses in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are One What can be writ more plain for the proof of the Triunity of the Godhead But for those that suspect the Clause to be supposititious I shall not trouble my self to confute them that task being performed so solidly and judiciously by a late Interpreter that nothing but Prejudice and Wilfulness can make a man depart unsatisfied with so clear a demonstration Wherefore secure of this Point Concerning the Trinity we go on to the next concerning The Divinity of Christ. CHAP. V. 1. That the natural sense of the First of S. Iohn does evidently witness the Divinity of Christ. 2. A more particular urging of the circumstances of that Chapter 3. That S. Iohn used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Iewish or Cabbalistical notion 4. The Trinity and the Divinity of Christ argued from Divine worship due to him and from his being a Sacrifice for sin 5. That to deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ or to make the Union of our selves with the Godhead of the same nature with that of Christ's subverts Christianity 6. The uselesness and sauciness of the pretended Deification of Enthusiasts and how destructive it is of Christian Religion 7. The Providence of God in preparing of the Nations by Platonisme for the easier reception of Christianity 1. THat Christ is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a mere Creature but a divine Hypostasis or truly really and Physically not Allegorically and Morally joyn'd with that Divine Hypostasis which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if men would not bring their own sturdy preconceptions but listen to the easy and natural aire of the Text the Beginning of S. Iohns Gospel would put out of all controversy For I 'le appeal to any supposing the Union of Christ's Humanity with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be true in what fitter more significant or better-becoming way could it be expressed then already it is in the Beginning of that Gospel Wherefore to interpret it in any other sense is to delude themselves and to abuse the Scripture through the prepossessions of their
their polluted Vehicles less of Heaven then the meanest Regenerate Soul that dwels in these Tabernacles of Earth and that of the Prophet is most true of them that their Sun is gone down at mid-day 3. Sixthly That the Destruction of these Aethereal Vehicles was not an utter Extinction of life to them but onely an Exclusion from the life and pleasures of that Supernal Paradise which they enjoyed in those Heavenly Vehicles For that they now live and move and act is manifest in that the whole World rings of their exploits and villanies 4. Seventhly That the Souls of men which are as much Immortall they being Spirits as those of the faln Angels are are not devoid of life after the death of this Body For as the Souls of the fallen Angels descended from thinner to thicker without the loss of Sense and Life so do our Souls ascend from thicker to thinner habitations with the like if not greater security of acting and living after the Death of the Body 5. Which we shall the easilier believe if we consider how contemptible and homely a thing that Organ is which is the ultimate and immediate conveigher of whatever we perceive in the outward world and which is most remarkable in which alone the Soul has any Sense at all of any thing that arrives to her cognoscence Which if it be not the Animal Spirits within the Brain which makes most of all for us I confess with Cartesius I think it most probable to be the Conarion then which nor Water nor Air nor Aether nor any other Element else seems more Simple and Homogeneal So that the advantage seems not to be in the nature of that Organ but it is because the Soul by those lawes that brought her into the Body has placed her Centre of Perception there 6. Which little Pavilion of the Soul's Centre of Perception being of so gross consistence as it is and becoming thereby less Passive and Alterable it was very requisite that there should be that curious frame of the external Organs of the Eye the Ear the Nose and other parts to strengthen those motions and impressions that they transmit so that they may be able forcibly enough to strike upon the Conarion or at least strike through the Organs and penetrate to the Animal Spirits in the Brain supposing them the most inward and immediate Organ of Perception And that the Conformation of the external Organs of Sense is such that they are to admiration fitted to this end is a thing so well known amongst the Anatomists that I need not insist on the proof of it as it is also among Physitians That none of the external Organs have any Sense at all in them no more then an Acousticon or a Dioptrick glass From whence is discovered the Unreasonableness of their Despair that conceit that when the Soul is devested of her Organical Body she can have no Sense nor Perception of any thing For this curious Organization tends to nothing else but the proportionating the vigour of Motion to the difficulty of its passage through the Nerves or to the grossness of the consistency of the Conarion Which Organical contrivance therefore may not be at all needfull in the Soul separate from the Body the Centre of Perception being placed bare in a more tender and passive Element such as Air Aether and the like So that it will be the greatest wonder in the world that the Soul should sleep after death so small a thing being able to waken her 7. Besides it is not Unreasonable but that She and other Spirits though they have no set Organs yet for more distinct and full perception of Objects may frame the Element they are in into temporary Organization and that with as much ease and swiftness as we can dilate and contract the pupil of our Eye and bring back or put forward the Crystalline humor 8. And not only to respect the Natures of Humane Souls but also the Will and Purpose of God there was never any yet that pretended to knowledge in Philosophy that denied the Immortality of the Soul in this sense which we contend for but they deni'd first a Particular Divine Providence which for my own part I think it is impossible for any one to deny that will diligently and indifferently search into the matter And therefore this Seventh Assertion may very well stand That the Souls of men are Immortal and act and live after Death Of this Subject I have wrote more lately and more fully in my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul to which the Reader may have recourse CHAP. V. 1. The Eighth Assertion That there is a Polity amongst the Angels and Souls separate both Good and Bad and therefore Two distinct Kingdomes one of Light and the other of Darkness 2. And a perpetual fewd and conflict betwixt them 3. The Ninth That there are infinite swarms of Atheistical Spirits as well Aereal as Terrestrial in an utter ignorance or hatred of all true Religion THE Eighth Assertion is That every Angel Good or Bad is as truly a Person as a man being endued also with Life Sense and Understanding whence they are likewise capable of Ioy and Pain and therefore coercible by Laws And mutual Helps being able to procure what Solitude cannot they must of necessity be Sociable and hold together in Bodies Politick and obey for either hope of advantage or fear of mischief Out of the whole masse therefore of the Angelical Nature taking in also according to Philo the Souls of men be they in what Vehicles they will there arise since their Fall two distinct Kingdoms the one of Darkness whose Laws reach no further then to the Interest of the Animal life the other of Light which is the true Kingdom of God and here the Animal life is in subjection and the Divine life bears rule as the Divine life is trodden down in the other Kingdom and the Animal life has the sole Jurisdiction 2. Now the inward life and spring of Motion in each Kingdom being so different it follows that these two Kingdoms must alwaies be at odds and that there must be a perpetual conflict till victory Which we shall still more easily conceive if we admit what is very reasonable That the Kingdom of Light reaches from Heaven to Earth that is That as there are found on the same surface of the Earth Animals both wilde and gentle harmless and poisonous and men good and bad pious and impious so likewise even in the same Regions of the Air that there are scatter'd Spirits of both Kindes good and evil Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light In the order of those Aereal Angels the ancient Philosophers ranked the Souls of men deceased whether Vertuous or Wicked unless they had reached to an extraordinary and Heroical degree of Purity and Perfection for then they conceited that they were carried up to those more high and Aethereal Regions 3. Ninthly That there
I have noted above that Mundus and Iupiter in the Pagan Philosophy is one and the same And Plutarch speaks expresly concerning the Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they account the World or Universe to be the same with the prime God or First Cause of all things Him the Aegyptians worshipped under the name of Serapis who being asked by Nicocreon King of Cyprus what God he was the Oracle gave this Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such is my Godhead as to thee I tell The Heaven 's my Head the Seas my Belly swell The Earth's my Feet my Ears lye in the Aire My piercing Eye 's the lamp of Phaebus fair From which Hypothesis is most easily understood what is meant by that Enigmatical Inscription in the Temple of Sais in Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am all that was and is and is to come and my veil no mortall ever did yet uncover A venerable Riddle under which there lyes not one grane of Truth unless there be nothing but modified matter in Being But thus to make the World God is to make no God at all and therefore this Kinde of Monotheisme of the Heathen is as rank Atheisme as their Polytheisme was proved to be before CHAP. III. 1. The last Apologizers for Paganisme who acknowledge God to be an Eternal Mind distinct from Matter and that all things are manifestations of his Attributes 2. His Manifestations in the External World 3. His Manifestations within us by way of Passion 4. His more noble emanations and communications to the inward Mind and how the ancient Heathen affixed personal Names to these several Powers or manifestations 5. The reason of their making these several Powers so many Gods or Goddesses 6. Their Reason for worshipping the Genii and Heroes 1. THE last and best sort of Apologizers for Paganisme are those who profess one Eternal Spiritual and Intellectual Being the Governour and Moderatour of all things Such as Plutarch a Pagan Priest defines God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore God is a Mind or Intellect an Abstract Forme or Being pure from all Matter and disintangled from whatever is passible Which he sets down according to the mind of Socrates Plato and his own The most subtil therefore and ingenious among the Heathen defend themselves thus We acknowledge say they One Eternal Deity infinitely Holy and Benigne Omniscient Omnipotent which is the First Cause and Original of all things in the world as well Spiritual as Corporeal and that there is nothing in the world but what is a Manifestation of the Presence and precious Attributes of this one Deity And therefore we look upon the vast capacity of the wide Universe as a most august and most Sacred Temple of His Divine Majesty who fills and possesses every part thereof every appearance to our outward Senses every motion and excitation within our own bodies every impression upon our Mindes being nothing else but so many Manifestations of either the Wisdome the Goodness the Power the Justice or the Wrath of that One God whose appearances we are every where ready to adore 2. Whether therefore our Eyes be struck with that more radiant lustre of the Sun or whether we behold that more placid and calme beauty of the Moon or be refreshed with the sweet breathings of the open Aire or be taken up with the contemplation of those pure sparkling lights of the Starres or stand astonished at the gushing down-falls of some mighty River as that of Nile or admire the height of some insuperable and inaccessible Rock or Mountain or with a pleasant horrour and chilness look upon some silent Wood or solemn shady Grove whether the face of Heaven smile upon us with a chearfull bright azure or look upon us with a more sad and minacious countenance dark pitchy Clouds being charged with Thunder and Lightning to let fly against the Earth whether the Aire be cool fresh and healthful or whether it be soultry contagious and pestilential so that while we gasp for life we are forc'd to draw in a sudden and inevitable Death whether the Earth stand firm and prove favourable to the industry of the Artificer or whether she threaten the very foundations of our buildings with trembling and tottering Earth-quakes accompanied with remugient Echoes and ghastly murmurs from below whatever notable emergencies happen for either Good or Bad to us these are the Ioves and Vejoves that we worship which to us are not many but one God who has the onely power to save or destroy and therefore from whatever part of this magnificent Temple of his the World he shall send forth his voice our Hearts and Eyes are presently directed thitherward with Fear Love and Veneration 3. Nor does our Devotion stop here or rather stray only without but those more notable Alterations and Commotions we find within our selves we attribute also to him whose Spirit Life and Power filleth all things And therefore those very Passions of Love and Wrath on the former whereof dependeth all that kindly sweetness of affection that is found in either the friendship of men or love of women as on the latter all the pompe and splendour of warre these with the rest of the Passions of the Soul we look upon as the Manifestations of His Presence who worketh every where for our Solace Punishment or Trial. 4. Nor can we omit those more noble Communications of His and Heavenly emanations into our Minds such as are Wisdome Iustice Political Order and the like all which with the former and an innumerable companie more which we have passed by the Religion of our Ancestours fram'd into Personal Gods and Goddesses calling Wisdome Minerva Justice Dice or Themis Political order Eunomia to Love is to be referred Cupid and Venus to Wrath Mars and the Furies That Power which shaketh the Earth is termed Enosichthon The Sea they call Neptune the Aire Iuno the Sun Apollo the Moon Diana the Earth Vesta the Corne Ceres Wine Bacchus and so of the rest 5. Of which certainly there can be no other Reason then that the ancient Instituters of Paganisme were so Enthusiastically transported in the single contemplation of every Divine power or Manifestation in the world that being rapt with admiration of the great consequence thereof they were resolved in their Devotional thoughts and Meditations to dwell on every one singly alone and not to huddle up all those Excellencies in one general worship they having so reverent esteem of every Attribute of God that they thought it sufficient of it self to constitute a Deity And therefore they understood by these Personal Appellations whether Male of Female for God say they is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same Deity under This or That manifestation of himself in the world according to which they gave him a proper name as if he were a different person when as it is but with him
as with the Ocean who changes his name according to the Coasts he beats upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dionysius notes in his Geographicall Poem 6. And if they took into their Religious consideration the worship of the Genii or Spirits whether such as whole appearance was so horrid and terrible that it caused affrightment or such as whose benign aspect was accompanied with a more pleasing wonderment and joy these they look'd upon also as eminent manifestations of that One Eternal Deity which runs through all things giving life and Being to all whom therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom though they make three viz. Iupiter coelestis Iupiter marinus and Iupiter infernalis the latter two whereof they also call Neptune and Pluto yet it is one Eternal Spirit say they which we worship in these Three whose Kingdome and Dominion is over all though the administration thereof differ according to the nature and merit of them that are Governed The same Apology we may make for that Honour we do to the deceased Heroes whose noble persons and refined Spirits the Divine excellencies more illustriously shone through then ordinary For in truth we do not so much worship them as God shining through them as he that bows to the Sun or Moon through a glass-window intends not his obeisance to the glass but to those Celestial Luminaries nor do we bow our body to those Luminaries but to God who to us appears through all things CHAP. IV. 1. The Heathens Festivals Temples and Images 2. Their Apology for Images 3. The Significancy of the Images of Jupiter and Aeolus 4. Of Ceres 5. Of Apollo 6. Their Plea from the significancy of their Images that their use in Divine worship is no more Idolatrous then that of Books in all Religions as also from the use of Images in the Nation of the Iews 7. Their Answer to those that object the Impossibleness of representing God by any outward Image 8. That we are not to envy the Heathen if they hit upon any thing more weighty in their Apologies for their Religion and why 1. NOW according to the various appearances of This One Divinity that puts forth it self every where our Ancestors instituted various Religious Rites and Ceremonies appointed sundry sorts of Festivals and Sacrifices built Temples set up Altars with several inscriptions and erected Images proper and significative of that or this Divine Power which at set times and places they were to worship To which Religious Customes under which we were born we submitted our selves without being obnoxious as we conceive to any just imputation of Idolatry 2. For we worshipped not those Images which were thus erected no more then any other Nation does the Holy Volumes of their Law or Religion when either they pray out of them have them read or use them in the administring of an Oath For that reverence that is done is not done to the Book but to him whose Word it is said to be to him whom they pray to or swear by and those Images to us are not unlike the Religious Books of others they being very expressive of the circumstances of the exertion of that Divine Power which we at any time adore As you may see in the Images of Iupiter Aeolus Ceres Apollo and the rest 3. For Iupiter who was their God of Thunder as he bore in his left hand a royal Scepter his right hand was charg'd with Thunder according to that of the Poet Cui dextra trisulcis Ignibus armata est Aeolus the God of the Winds he was made standing at the Mouth of a Cave having a linnen garment girt about him and a Smiths bellows under his feet at his right hand stood Iuno covered with a cloud putting a Crown upon his head as having given her Kingdome to him and on his left hand stood a Nymph up to the middle in Water which Iuno gave him to wife Which Image is very significative of the Nature and Causes of the Windes and so intelligible if we do but take notice that Iuno is the Aire that it wants no further explication 4. Ceres was made in the figure of a country-woman sitting upon an Oxe having in her right hand a Plough-share and a basket of Seeds hanging from her arme in her left hand a sickle and a flayle Iuno the Goddess of the Aire and of the Clouds was on one side and Apollo or the Sun on the other intimating how the warmth of the Sun and kindly showrs are to second the labour of the Husbandman or else nothing will prosper 5. The figure of Apollo or the Sun was thus His Image had a Youthful countenance in his right hand he held a Quiver of arrows and a Bow in his left an Harp under his feet was a terrible Monster in the form of a Serpent having three heads viz. of a Wolf of a Lion and of a fawning Dog on the Top of his head was a golden Trivet and about his temples a Crown of Twelve precious stones The meaning whereof though it may seem abstruse at first sight yet if you consider it a while it very fitly sets out the nature of the Sun and of Time whose knowledge depends on him and of Knowledge which depends on Time His Bow and Arrows signify nothing but the darting of his Beams from so far a distance whence he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Poets and his youthful countenance nothing but his unfading vigour which Age seems not at all to diminish His Harp signifies the dance of the Planets about him as if he sate and played to them or at least according to the other Hypothesis as if he led the dance himself playing on his Harp and the rest of the Planets followed him The twelve precious stones signifie the twelve signes of the Zodiack with which he is incircled and the three-headed Serpent deciphers Time in the threefold notion of it Past Present and to come The time past as Macrobius notes like a ravenous Wolfe devouring the memory of things the time present being urgent and raging like a Lion through its instant actuosity and the time to come flattering us with hopes like a fawning Dog And lastly the golden Trivet or Tripod denotes the Threefold object of Knowledge which Time affords them that are wise such as Homer makes Calchas the Priest of Apollo to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who knew what was what is and what 's to come So that it is apparent how strange soever the use of these Images may seem that it was no other then that of Books they raising our minds and it may be with a greater advantage of devotion and admiration into the sense and consideration of that Divine Power which we were to adore 6. Wherefore that imputation is very unjust that would charge us with Idolatry properly so called as if we did worship the Idols themselves But to use Images in Divine worship there being
Virginia Mexico Peru and Brasilia But it would be as tedious as needless to harp so long on one string by so voluminous an Induction and it is more warrantable to be sparing then over-lavish in so copious and confessed a matter Whoever reads those Writers which are numerous enough that can inform them in this inquiry he will assuredly find That the Religion of the Heathen reached no further then the Objects of the Animal life and that though they may go under several names yet that they are the same things every where viz. Wrath Lust and Sensuality or such things as are in subserviency to these as Corn Wine and other Requisites for the necessities or delights of Man as also those Powers that have an influence upon these as the Sun Moon and Stars Fire Water Air and the like 8. We may adde to these Inanimate things Eminent persons whom they could not but acknowledge as their great Benefactors Such were their Law-givers Kings and Commanders that fought their battels successfully the first Inventours of Arts or any useful contrivance for the convenience of life Wherefore the most subtil defenders of the worship of the Pagans let them elude the charge of Idolatry as well as they can or Polytheism yet they can never avoid the imputation That their serving of God in the Heathens Ceremonies is not any thing more then the acknowledging that Power that is able to gratifie or grieve the Spirit of the mere Natural Man CHAP. VIII 1. That Judaism also respected nothing else but the Gratifications of the Animal life as appears in all their Festivals 2. That though the People were held in that low dispensation yet Moses knew the meaning of his own Types and that Immortality that was to be revealed by Christ. 3. That their Sabbaths reached no further then things of this life 4. Nor their Sabbatical years and Iubilees 5. Nor their Feasts of Trumpets 6. Nor their Feast of Tabernacles 7. Nor their Pentecost 8. Nor lastly their Feast of Expiation 1. AND truly that the absolute Transcendency of the Christian Religion may be the better understood I cannot here omit that Iudaism does very much symbolize with Paganism in this point we are upon For though the Iewes were very right and orthodox in this in that they did direct their worship to that One and only true God that made Heaven and Earth and is the Author and Giver of every good gift and that without the offence and scandal of Idolatrous worship yet under this dispensation of Moses he seems openly to promise nothing more to the people of the Iewes then the present enjoyments of this Natural life nor threatens any thing but the plagues thereof as seems manifest Deuteronomy 28. where the Blessings of obedience to Moses his Law and the Cursings of disobedience are largely set down 2. Not but that I can easily believe that Moses himself understood the Mystery of Immortality and the Promise of those Eternal joyes to be revealed by the Messias in the fulness of time as also the meaning of all the Types that refer unto him and that his Successors also in that nation their Holy Men or Prophets had some measurable Knowledge thereof But my meaning is that the Generality of the Iews were locked up in this lower kind of Dispensation and that Moses his Law in the Externals thereof drives at no higher then thus as is apparent from all the Festivals thereof they none of them concerning any thing more then the enjoyments and conveniences of this present life 3. For as for their Sabbaths they were but a Memorial of the Creation of this visible world the belief whereof the Sadducees embraced as well as others though they denied that there was either Angel or Spirit for there is not any mention of the Creation of any such thing in the external letter of Moses and therefore the Appearances of Angels they look'd upon as only present Emanations from God which ceased as he disappeared 4. And for their Sabbatical year as also the year of Iubilee which was celebrated at the end of seven times seven years besides that they are not without a reflection upon the Creation of the World which was compleated at the seventh day wherein therefore God rested the other reasons according to the Text of Moses reach no further then the things of this present life For as concerning the Sabbatical year the Precept runs thus Six years thou shalt sow thy land and gather the fruits thereof but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lye still that the poor of thy people may eat in like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy olive-yard And for the Iubilee it is evident that it had a secular use for the releasment of Servants and restoring of lands to their first owners who were necessitated to sell them Those Feasts therefore were instituted in order to a Political good 5. Their Feasts of Trumpets and their New-Moons seem indeed to have an higher use to call the people together to hear the Law but I told you before that the Blessings and Cursings of the Law were merely Temporal And for their Sacrifices of Thanksgiving and of Atonement they were in reference to what is Good or Evil to this life of the Flesh. 6. Their Feast of Tabernacles was instituted in remembrance that the Children of Israel dwelt in Tabernacles and Boothes when God brought them out of the land of Aegypt As also their Passeover was a more particular representation of the manner of their delivery out of the hands of the Aegyptians as you may see Exodus the 12. 7. Their Pentecost that is the fiftieth day after the Passeover in this they offered two wave-loaves as upon the second day of the Passeover they offered a sheaf of the first fruits of their Harvest so that those Solemnities respected merely the Fruits of the Earth 8. And lastly as for the Feast of Expiation wherein the Scape-goat carried away the sins of the people and the evils deserved thereby into the wilderness being as I have already intimated that those plagues or evils denounced in Moses his Law be but of a secular consideration it is plain that this particular Ceremony in the Religion of Moses in the letter thereof reaches no further then the Pleasures or Aggrievances of this mortal life It being reserved for Christ alone to bring the most certain and most comfortable News of that Eternal Joy which we shall be made partakers of with him for ever in the Heavens who was to abolish Death and to bring Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel as S. Paul speaks CHAP. IX 1. The Preeminency of Judaism above Paganism 2. The Authors of the Religions of the Heathen who they were 3. How naturally lapsed Mankind fals under the superstitious Tyranny of Devils 4. The palpable effects of this Tyranny in the Nations of America 5. That that false and wilde Resignation in the Quakers does
World who have ever and anon had new Instances of Apparitions and Communications with evil Spirits and fresh occasions of executing the Laws they had made against Witches and wicked Magicians 4. I should now pass to the second head I propounded could I abstain from touching a little upon the circumstances of the Birth of that famous Corrival of our Saviour Apollonius Tyaneus whose story writ by Philostratus though I look upon it as a mixt business partly true and partly false yet be it what it will be seeing it is intended for the highest Example of Perfection and that the Heathen did equalize him with Christ you shall see how ranck his whole History smells of the Animal Life and how hard a thing it is either in actions or writings to counterfeit that which is truly holy and divine For which end I shall make a brief Parallelisme of the Histories of them both in the chief matters of either that the Gravitie and Divinitie of the one and the Ridiculousness and Carnality of the other may the better be discerned 5. As in this very First point is plain and manifest which is dispatched in a word For in that Philostratus writes how Apollonius was of an ancient and illustrious Pedigree of rich Parents and descended from the founders of the City Tyana where he was born is not this that which is as sweet as honey to the Natural man and such as an holy and divine Soul would set no esteem upon Like to this is his Mother's being waited upon by her Maidens into a Meadow being directed thereto by a Vision where while her servants were straying up and down making of posies and chaplets of flowers O what fine soft pompous doing is here and her self disporting her self in the grass she at last falls into a slumber the Swans in the mean time rangeing themselves in a row round about her dancing and clapping their wings and singing with such shrill and sweet accents that they filled the neighbouring places with their pleasant melody they being as it were inspired and transported with joy by the gentle breathings of the fresh and cool Zephyrus whereupon the Lady awaking is instantly delivered of a fair Child who after his Fathers name was called Apollonius 6. The amenity of the story how gratefull and agreeable it is to flesh and bloud But how ridiculous is that dance and rountlelay of the musical Swans compared with that Heavenly Melody of the holy Angels at the Nativity of Christ For that if it could be true is but a ludicrous prodigie and presignification that Apollonius would prove a very odde fellow and of an extraordinary strein and serves only for the magnifying of his person But this is a grave and weighty indication of the Goodness of God and the Love of his holy Angels to men and a prediction of that peace and grace which should be administred unto them through Jesus Christ that was then born Behold said the chief Angel whose glorious presence surrounded the shepheards with light Behold said he I bring you good tidings of Great joy which shall be unto all people For unto you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord whereupon there was suddenly with this Angel a multitude of the heavenly Hoast praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men CHAP. III. 1. That whatever miraculously either happened to or was done by our Saviour till his Passion cannot seem impossible to him that holds there is a God and ministration of Angels 2. Of the descending of the Holy Ghost and the Voice from Heaven at his Baptisme 3. Why Christ exposed himself to all manner of hardship and Temptations 4. And particularly why he was tempted of the Devil with an answer to an Objection touching the Devil's boldness in daring to tempt the Son of God 5. How he could be said to shew him all the Kingdoms of the Earth 6. The reason of his fourty daies fast 7. And of his Transfiguration upon the Mount The three first reasons 8. The meaning of Moses and Elias his receding and Christ's being left alone 9. The last reason of his Transfiguration That it was for the Confirmation of his Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul 10. Testimonies from Heaven of the Eminency of Christs person 1. WE have done with the Birth of Christ we proceed now to his Life wherein we shall consider only those things that extraordinarily happened to him or were miraculously done by him till the time of his Passion wherein nothing will be found impossible to them that acknowledge the Existence of God the active malice of Devils and the Ministery of Angels But that which I intend mainly to insinuate is the comeliness and sutableness of all things to so Holy and Divine a person which that it may the better appear I shall after shew the difference of this true example of solid Perfection Christ and that false pattern of feigned holiness in that Impostour Apollonius whom the later Heathen did so highly adore 2. The chief things that happened in an extraordinary way to Christ before his Passion are these Three 1. The descending of the Holy Ghost upon him in the shape of a Dove at his being baptized and the emission of a Voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2. The Temptation of the Devil upon his fasting and 3. His Transfiguration upon the Mount Concerning the First there is great reason for that Miracle For God having a design to set on foot the Divine life in the World by his Son Iesus Christ why should he not countenance the Beginning of his Ministery by some notable sign by which men might take notice that he was the Messias sent of God And Iohn the Baptist confesses himself assur'd thereof by this Indication And being there was to be some extraordinary appearance what could be more fit then this of a Dove a known embleme of Meekness and Innocency inseparable branches of the Divine life and Spirit and at what better time then when Iesus gave so great a Specimen of his Meekness and Humility as to condescend to be wash'd as if he had been polluted when he was more pure then light or snow and to be in the form of a disciple to Iohn when he was able to teach him and all the world the Mysteries of God Which may be noted to the eternal shame of our conceited Enthusiasts who phansying they have got something extraordinary within contemn and scorn the laudable Institutions of the Church which is an infallible argument of their Pride as this of our Saviour's Humility But while he humbled himself thus God did as highly advance him adding to this silent show an articulate voice from Heaven the better to assure the by-standers that he was the Messias the Son of God 3. As for his being tempted of the Devil it has the same meaning that the
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
Bloud as common and unholy as that of the malefactors that were crucified with him the Wrath of God being not all atoned as they say by his suffering because it is unjust that an Innocent man should be punished for those that are guilty But what Unjustice is done to him that takes upon him the debt or fault of another man willingly if he pay the debt or bear the punishment provided that he that may exact or remit either will be thus satisfied 10. But such trivial and captious intermedlers in matters of Religion that take a great deal of pains to obscure that which is plain and easie deserve more to be flighted and neglected then vouchsafed any answer For all their frivolous Subtilties and fruitless intricacies arise from this one false ground That the Soveraign Goodness of God and his kind condescensions and applications to the affections of man are to be measured by Iuridical niceties and narrow and petty Laws such as concern ordinary transactions between man and man But let these brangling Wits enjoy the fruits of their own elaborate ignorance while we considering the easie air and sense of Sacrifices in all Religions shall by this means be the better assured of the natural meaning of it in our own CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasments 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 great disservice some corrosive Wits doe 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 1. HOW General the Custome of Sacrificing was in all Nations of the World is a thing so well known that I need not insist upon it and That their Sacrifices were accounted an Appeasment of the Wrath of the Gods and Expiation for their faults is also a Truth so conspicuous that it cannot be denied Hence these Sacrifices we speak of were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Placamina Februa Piamina Much of this nature you may read in Grotius De Satisfactione Christi cap. 10. where he does not only make good by many Expressions and Examples That the Sacrifices of the ancient Heathen pacified the Anger of the Gods but also which is nearer to our purpose That the Punishment of those that were thus reconciled and purged was transferred upon the Beast that was sacrificed for the clearing whereof he alledges many citations and these two amongst the rest One out of Cato Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur victima pro te Since thou thy self art guilty why Does then thy Sacrifice for thee die The other out of Plautus Men ' piaculum oportet fieri propter stultitiam tuam Ut meum tergum stultitia tuae subdas succedaneum that is to say Is it fit that I should be made a piacular Sacrifice for your foolishness that my back should bear the stripes that your folly has demerited 2. Wherefore this being the sense of the Sacrifices we speak of in all the Religions in the World it is more fit to interpret the Death of Christ who gave himself an Expiation for the sins of the World according to that sense which is usual in the mysteries of Religion then according to the entangling niceties and intricacies of secular laws 3. But as for those busie and Pragmatical spirits that by the acrimonie of their wit eat off the comely and lovely gloss of Christianity as aqua Fortis or rather aqua Stygia laid on polish'd metal what thanks shall they receive of him whom yet they pretend to be so zealous for the most winning and endearing circumstances of his exhibiting himself to the World being so soiled and blasted by their rude and foul breath that as many as they can infect with the contagion of their own Errour Christianity will be made to them but a dry withered branch whenas in it self it is an aromatick Paradise where the Senses and Affections of men are so transported with the Agreeableness of Objects that they are even enravished into Love and Obedience to him that entertains them there And nothing can entertain the Soul of man with so sweet a Sorrow and Joy as this Consideration That the Son of God should bear so dear a regard to the World as to lay down his life for them and to bear so reproachfull and painfull a Death to expiate their sins and reconcile them to his Father 4. But this is not all the Advantage he had to win the Government of the World unto himself For not only his exceeding Love to Mankind was hereby demonstrated but the cruel and execrable nature of that old Tyrant the more clearly detected For whereas the Devil who by unjust usurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest cruelty and scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane bloud and in most parts of the World as I have already shewn required the sacrificing of men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Iesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became a Sacrifice for us making himself at once one Grand and All-sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Piamen to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God 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 Historians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted be several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Further 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 affirm this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not implie 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 1. WE have seen how Reasonable the History of Christ's Passion is neither do I know any thing that may lessen the Credibility of it unless it be the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun Not that the Eclipse it self is so incredible but that it may seem incredible that so wonderfull so generally-conspicuous an Accident of Nature should be recorded by none but by the Evangelists themselves Learning and Civility in those times so universally flourishing and there being no want of Historians to recount such things This Objection makes a great shew at first but
concerning the Contempt of Death that he so gravely imparts to Damis and Demetrius encouraging them to suffer any thing for the cause of Philosophy hypocritical and ridiculous So whifling and ludicrous is every thing of Apollonius if compared with that solid Truth and real Excellency that is discoverable in Christ. BOOK V. CHAP. I. 1. 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. Gods 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 1. WE have done with the Passion of Christ we come now to his Resurrection and Ascension and First his Resurrection Concerning which it is observable That our Saviour's eye was fix'd upon nothing more then it He prophesying of it in his life-time under that Parable of destroying the Temple and then raising of it up within three daies meaning the Temple of his body as also in the application of that strange Accident that befell Ionas For as Jonas was three daies and three nights in the Whales belly so the son of man should be three daies and three nights in the belly of he Earth He deferred also the divulging of his Transfiguration in the mount till his Resurrection as not being of any such efficacy to beget Faith in the people till this also had happened unto him 2. Now the grand importance of this so wonderfull an Accident consists chiefly in these Three things First In that it is a very eminent Triumph of the Divine life in the Person of Christ. Secondly In that it is so plain an assurance of a blessed Immortality And Thirdly In that it is so sure a Seal and so clear a Conviction of the truth and warrantableness of all the Miracles Christ did in his life-time 3. That our Saviour Christ was the most illustrious Example of the Divine life that ever appeared in the world cannot be denied by any but such as are blinde and have no eyes to behold that kind of splendour But that the judgement of the world might be the more notoriously baffled God assisted this Divine worth with many strange Miracles that they might more fixedly and considerately contemplate this so holy and lovely a person But the more it seems they looked upon him the more they disliked him the whole World being so deeply lapsed into the Animal life the Jews themselves not excâ—pted that they had no knowledge nor relish of the Divine Nay they had an Antipathy against him as the wise man expresses it He is grievous unto us even to behold His life is not like unto other mens his waies are of another fashion He was made to reprove our thoughts 4. Wherefore they having so settled an hatred against him all the Miracles that he did or whatsoever happened miraculously unto him did but set a more venemous edge of their spleen against him From whence it was easie for them to misinterpret and elude every thing imputing his casting out Devils to a contract with Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils The Testimony from Heaven That he was the Son of God to the delusion of evil Spirits that would lapse them into Idolatry His feeding the multitudes in the Wilderness to Witchcraft and Sorcecery and his raising of men from the dead to the nature of some Lethargical or obstupifying disease that may seem to make a man devoid of life for four daies together The Eclipse of the Sun indeed was a very strange thing if the darkness was in the Sun it self but they might remember at least from the relations of others that it was strangely obscured for a whole year together about the death of Iulius Caesar and so interpret this at the Passion as a mere casual coincidence of things or that some delusive Spirits intercepted the light of the Sun in favour of the great Magician whom they thought just to crucifie betwixt those other two Malefactors 5. But he whom they numbred amongst the transgressours and took to be the vilest of men because he was not recommended by any thing that the Animal life likes and applauds as Nobleness of Birth the power of popular Eloquence Honour Wealth Authority high Education Beauty Courtship Pleasantness of Conversation and the like he is I say notwithstanding this general contempt from men very highly prized by him who is the infallible Judge whose waies are not as our waies nor his thoughts as our thoughts But that he might conform our apprehensions to his own raised Iesus Christ from the dead bringing that passive contemptible Divinity that lodged in him into a deserved victory and triumph exprobrating to the blind world the ignorance of that Life that is most dear and precious to himself making him alive whom they maliciously killed and preparing a way to an universal Homage for him who was universally scorned and became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the off-scouring of all though his Spirit Life and Nature was of more worth then all the things of the World beside 6. Nor is this Resurrection of Christ only a particular honour and high Testimony given to the person of Christ who was so splendid an Habitation of the Divine life but it is also an assurance of a blessed Immortality to all those that will adventure to follow his Example that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And therefore he is not said here to rise alone but in token of what a general concernment his Resurrection was the Monuments of some lately-deceased Souls flew open and themselves appeared to several in the Holy City Which things were a palpable Prohetical prefiguration of that blessed Immortality that Christ has purchased for all men that believe in him and obey him 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 the 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 1. THE last End of Christ's Resurrection is the Confirmation of his whole Ministry For assuredly the Jews dealt with him as with some
but the incomparable Dignity of the Person of Christ and the weighty circumstances of Providence that gave such ample testimony to him which made the world turn Christians rather then Apollonians that is made them rather embrace the Gospel then continue in Paganisme though reformed after the neatest and most refined manner by the noblest and gallantest personage that ever was purely Pagan the famous Apollonius 2. But that he may have the field clear to himself it will not be amiss to digress a little further and take notice of some few others that put in for an Equality with him or a Superiority above him and the chief of them are these Three Mahomet David George and the begodded man of Amsterdam whom I dare not venture to bring into the list without a Preface for pardon and excuse for that which looks so like a piece of dishonour and disrespect to our blessed Saviour But Duessa till unstripped will compare with Una you know the story in Spencer and the bold ignorance of some does ordinarily make others take a great deal of pains to explain and evince that which to any indifferent man is usually true at first sight Which kind of undertakings though they be no great arguments of a mans wit yet they are of his faithfulness and sincere love to the Truth which is far better 3. First therefore to speak a little of the two latter David George and him of Amsterdam those two meal-mouth'd Prophets that court the world to follow them by so many mystical good-morrows making the whole Gospel but as one long-winded Fable and themselves the onely inspired and infallible Lights of the World because they phansie they have found the right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it So that their excellency seems to consist mainly in these Two things in a resolved infidelity or stout misbelief of the History of Christ so far as it is Miraculous and a dexterity in a moral Mythology thereof whereby the Gospel is utterly abrogated and more fundamentally destroy'd then the Law of Moses is by the Gospel For there was never any Christian so immodest as to deny the Miracles of Moses and so consequently the Truth of the History of the Old Testament which these do in the New by which you may judge what they do concerning the Old also For it is most likely they believe there were never any such things as Miracles done any where 4. But if they believe there were Miracles let them shew their Reasons why they distrust that what is recorded of our Saviour is but a Fable and let them produce Miracles themselves to demonstrate to us that we believe a falsehood and that God has sent them upon such a special errand as they pretend If they can do no Miracles God is no witness unto them but they witness only of themselves and therefore are mere Fanaticks and distemper'd Enthusiasts having nothing to drive them forwards to so bold and prodigious an enterprise as the superannuating of Christianity and the abrogating of the office of the Person of Christ but the pride and fury of their own inflam'd Spirits and a phantastical conceit of themselves as if God had inlightened them more then all the world besides 5. If according to the impulse of that Spirit of infidelity in them they conceive there never was nor ever will be any Miracles done in the world but that all things are carried according to the course of Nature they betray themselves in this that they are so far from being extraordinarily illuminated that they are more blinde and blockish then every ordinary man that has the fear of God before his eyes and that they are what some suspect them to be a skulking kinde of Epicureans and Atheists But this I dare boldly say that strip their style of all Scripture-phrases and all allusions to the History of Christ and of the old Testament you shall finde nothing affirmed in these Authors that will rise higher then the faith of Epicurus Democritus or Lucretius they positively affirming nothing but what any ordinary moral Pagan would affirm nay not so much as the Better sort that held the Immortality of the Soul 6. But this is the wicked plot of the Devil in this Sect that he clothes their Style with Scripture-language that they may as it were wear the colours of the Kingdome of Light and so covertly destroy or win the Christian Souldiers from their allegiance to Christ and lapse them into the bondage of the dark Kingdome So that that mighty prop of Faith in those precious promises of the Gospel being taken away their heart may fail them in the hour of temptation and they may be wrought by degrees into a full compliance with every transitory pleasure which the natural man relishes whether in riches honour or satisfaction of the flesh and that upon whatever terms the world shall propound it to them So far therefore are those two forward fellows of Delph and of Amsterdam from approving themselves so great lights of the World as they pretend that they are more dark in their Understanding then many of the Heathen who had some kind of glimpse of a world to come believed the Existence of Spirits and the power of Miracles 7. Which Consideration would make a man think that they were not so much as honest through-crackt Enthusiasts but rather knowing Cheats and Impostours who being down-right Epicureans but of something a finer contexture could abuse their rapturous and Enthusiastick complexion to deceive the whole Christian world calling them off from Christ to an admiration of themselves which might be a considerable profit as well as no small pleasure to them and under pretense of teaching them the Great Mystery of the Gospel might endeavour to undermine the Gospel by taking away the Substantial History of it wrapping up ordinary Precepts of life such as any moral Pagan can give concerning Vertue in the mysterious dress of the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ making the whole Mystery of Christianity nothing but a finely-contrived Fable to set out some trivial moral Truths such as are acknowledged by almost every Atheist and Epicurean and the practice whereof reaches no further then the more advantageous managements of the pleasures and enjoiments of this present life 8. I do not deny but that the frequent use of Scriptural allusions and phrases in their writings may raise in well-meaning men a sense beyond the feeling of them that wrote them But where Faith in Christ is extinct and of those promises that he made so clearly known to the world by his Resurrection and Ascension I conceive that this is an infallible argument that the Divine life is extinct also and that it is from some impurity of Body Soul or Spirits that a man sinks below that belief and that his Vertues then are but Complexional or merely Moral such as are found in a cicurated Beast or some better-natur'd Brute This in all likelihood was the
of two flight shot but could not see the face of God by reason of the hot gleames and glorious raies that streamed from those veils of light But God laid his hand upon him to refresh him which felt exceeding cold 7. In this congress he received the Law from God and many wonderfull secrets but he glories most of all that in this night he had conferr'd upon him Five things which no man before or after ever had First That God then made him the first and most chief Creature in Heaven and in Earth Secondly That he should be the most excellent and most honourable amongst the Sons of Adam at the day of Iudgment Thirdly That he should be the general Redeemer of the World Fourthly That he should have the knowledge of all tongues Fifthly and lastly That he should be victorious and carry away the spoils of war 8. We see how high Mahomet has mounted himself how much Political craft is intermix'd with this fanatical figment For Enthusiastick madness as it is never disjoined from the highest kinde of pride even there where it seems to be most humble For the attributing nothing to it self but that all its knowledge and power is immediately from God is nothing else but an ostentation of an higher kind of Power and more infallible way of knowledge then other Mortals have of which this Vision of Mahomet's is a lively Representation so it has very often strange and unexpected fetches of fraud and guile in it such as would not easily come into the mind of an ordinary sober man Whereby an Enthusiast amongst rude people if he be not quite crackt but be of an active spirit and have opportunity offered him may doe wonderfull things in the world such as no sober man could ever atchieve or dare to attempt Such is the case of this Mahomet who in the midst of his fanatical madness wilde mirth insatiable lust and ambition Poetical raptures and Martial fury lai'd the foundation of that mighty Empire that all the world stands amazed at at this day The first step to which was that Enthusiastick phrensie that emboldened him either to think or at least to profess himself The Last and Greatest Prophet that ever God would send into the World For the bold inculcation of this seconded with many occasional fetches of wit to save himself when his impostures were discovered carried the business successfully with that rude nation he had to deal with 9. As for that Pride that accompanies Fanatical madness I must confess there were others had their minds set as high on that rack as he I mean David George he of Amsterdam the Peruvian Doctour and others who affected the same Title and Office with him and it may be being more throughly mad at least some of them did more firmly believe themselves to be That great Prophet God would send into the world then Mahomet did But Mahomet having a more governable Enthusiasm in him and a more Martial and Political Spirit and what is chiefest of all better opportunity of playing his game as having to deal with rude and illiterate people his success did not only exceed theirs but prov'd so admirable as it might have become a True Prophet indeed CHAP. X. 1. That Mahomet was no true Prophet discovered from his cruel and bloudy Precepts 2. From his insatiable Lust. 3. From his wildeness of Phansy and Ignorance in things What may possibly be the meaning of the black speck taken out of his Heart by the Angel Gabriel 4. His pretence to Miracles as his being overshadowed with a cloud when he drove his Masters Mules 5. A stock of a Tree cleaving it self to give way to the stumbling Prophet The cluttering of Trees together to keep off the Sun from him as also his dividing of the Moon 6. The matters hitherto recited concerning Mahomet taken out of Johannes Andreas the Son of Abdalla a Mahometane Priest a grave person and serious Christian. 1. BUT that he was not a true Prophet but a mere Political Enthusiast of a vafrous and versatil wit with a little smack of cracktness and Lunacy is very deprehensible as well from his Immorality as his Ignorance of things and the Wildness of his Phansy I shall give some few Instances of each And to the First I refer his Cruelty in giving Laws to butcher all men that would not presently turn to his Religion Which Precept is set down in the Alcoran as also in Zuna Occidite homines quousque omnes Mauri fiant And that they may act this Tragedy more zealously and not be affraid of being kill'd themselves he promised them so great a joy in that death besides their speedy entrance into Paradise and feasting it there with their Creatour that they would even willingly leave Paradise and come again into the flesh to be capable again of so great joy as that kinde of Death affords them 2. Besides that he was thus Cruel he was also insatiably Venereous as may be gathered by several acts of his as his taking away his servant Zeydin's wife from him whenas himself had no less then nine at home already of his own and Zeydin but this one In the book Azear and Assameil he is said to have fifteen wives and extolled for his virility in that he had to doe with them all in one hour He committed Adultery also with one Marina a Jewish girle which was given him of fifteen years of age and being caught in the act by Axa and Hafeza the two chiefest of his wives and chid for it he swore to them he would never meddle with her again but his Lust being stronger then the obligation of an oath his two wives found him at that unlawfull game once more whereupon Mahomet enlarged the Laws of Matrimony to save his own credit and made it lawfull for all his followers to have to do with their maid-servants He is said also when he had already seven wives to have married that Axa at six years of Age and to have lyen with her when she was but eight years old Finally at last he set no bounds to his lust but taught the people he might lie with whom he would though he kept them within a certain stint whereby he was not so kind as David George that permitted this freedom to all his followers as well as to himself 3. His Wildness of Phansy and Ignorance in things is evident in several passages as his making Mary the Mother of Iesus the Sister of Moses and Aaron in asserting the Stars to be hung in golden chains and that the biggest of them are no bigger then a great mountain in affirming that God has established the Earth on a Bulls horn and that the shaking of his head is the cause of Earthquakes This Mahomet delivers in the Book Zuna where also he teaches how when a man is buried two black Angels come unto him and force him to raise himself on his knees and to put on his
no not the fear of death or torment could hinder them from being open witnesses to the World of all those things which they had seen and most certainly knew concerning the crucified Iesus the Son of God and Saviour of Mankind 3. We have seen in general how requisite this Supernatural assistance was to the Apostles We shall now take notice in particular how congruous at least decorous the First appearance thereof was at the day of Pentecost The Apostles together with other Disciples being met in an upper room at Ierusalem and being all of one mind and of one faith and expectation of the promise of the Spirit at the above-named day of Pentecost of a suddain there came upon them a sound from Heaven as of a mighty rushing winde which filled the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven Tongues like as of Fire which sate upon each of them and they all filled with the Holy Ghost began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 4. Supposing a God a Providence and the Ministry of Angels and Spirits there is not a jot of this impossible or incredible But we shall also take notice of the Congruity of circumstances which are either for an handsome Symbolical sense or else for a more indispensable convenience as I conceive the Day to be and their assembling thus together on this day of Pentecost in one place For their seeing what happened thus miraculously to every one of them is a stronger confirmation of all their faiths and they are the more sufficient witnesses to all the World of what thus miraculously befell them And the Day of Pentecost was the most convenient time for this to happen because of the greater concurse of people on that day 5. But it does not exclude that more Mystical and Symbolical sense of S. Austine's That as the written Law was given to the Iews on the fiftieth day after the Passeover so the Law of the Spirit which was to be written in mens hearts was thus wonderfully begun here on the same day by the preaching of the Apostles on whom the Spirit descended in such an extraordinary manner Nor does that other sense concerning the Unity of place exclude that Moral intimation of Grotius Deus dona sua promisit unitati That also of their being seated in an upper room must signifie Morally or nothing considerable for else the more removed from the Earth the never nearer to God especially within the smell of the Atmosphere Which Philosophick contemplation Apollonius pursues with a great deal of pomp and gravity indoctrinating Damis while they were travailing on mount Caucasus which the neighbour Inhabitants look'd upon as the holy Mansion of the Gods as other hills also are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that opinion that a man is never the nearer the knowledge of Religion and Vertue if he were mounted upon the highest Athos Olympus or all the Caucasus's in the World unless he contemplate religious and Divine matters not so much in a pure and subtile Air as from an undeprav'd and sincere Spirit 6. But that which is of the greatest significancy is the mighty rushing Wind and the fiery cloven Tongues The former whereof is an Emblem of the External violence which God would doe to the World in the introducing of the acknowledgment of his Son into it For without doubt those wonderfull Miracles that were done by the Apostles beat so strongly upon the outward Senses of men that they were after a manner forcibly driven to acknowledge that the hand of God was with them and that the doctrine which they taught was true The knowledge whereof at last with the fame of their Miracles filled the whole World as that Sound from Heaven and mighty rushing Wind filled the whole house where they sate I am sure the chief Priests complained betimes that the Apostles had filled all Ierusalem with their doctrines 7. The latter viz. the Fiery cloven Tongues the fieriness of them intimates the searching penetrating melting and purifying power of the Spirit as their being cloven or divided the effect of the living word which accompanied their preaching which we may better call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then the Stoicks their meager Reason For this is that which is sharper then any two-edged sword dividing the very joints and marrow and piercing to the inmost penetrals of the heart as may be observed at the preaching of Peter's Sermon Or not to be altogether so Mystical or Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these divided or cloven tongues may be only an external symbol of that inward power given them to speak and understand several Tongues though they were never taught them Which was a gift of very sober and necessary use as all the Miracles are that were done either by Christ or his Apostles they being to preach to men of several Nations then sojourning at Ierusalem and afterwards to travail into several Countries to convert men to the Faith 8. This is a solid account of all the Circumstances of that great Miracle done partly upon and partly by the Apostles after Christ's Ascension into Heaven Which Divine power ever after assisted them in all their travails and labours in the Gospel as you may see in the Acts. Where you shall find them not only endued with this miraculous power themselves but by prayer and imposition of hands conferring it upon others for the benefit of the Church where you shall see them healing the sick making the lame to walk raising the dead casting out devils and doing over again all the most considerable Miracles of our Saviour and some which he never did as the speaking with tongues and healing by the mere shadow of their bodies which seems more wonderfull then by the touching of the hem of Christ's garment To which you may adde what strangely happened to them as upon their praiers and devotions how the house shaked under them as in an Earthquake through the sensible presence of the Divine power attending them Their being transported through the Air by the hand of an Angel from one place to another Their being visited by Angels in prison who opened the prison doors and made the fetters fall off from their bodies of their own accord The transfiguration of their countenances into an Angelical glory and the appearance of Christ from Heaven to them in a splendour more bright and radiant then the Sun at mid-day as it happened to Paul as he was travailing to Damascus The Credibility of which things as also of the Resurrection and Miracles of Christ the Success it self does plainly argue 9. For it seems utterly impossible that Christ a man cut short of all accomplishments that are plausible to flesh and bloud being neither arm'd by the power of Eloquence the knowledge of Philosophy the authority and honour of the World nor the advantages of Birth or Fortune but on
that they that obey it not shall be damned That Christ knew the very thoughts of mens hearts that he raised the dead that he healed men of incurable diseases that he gave sight to the blind and made the dumb to speak That the Apostles of Christ Matthew Peter and Paul healed one Habib Anaiar of the Leprosie at Antioch and raised the King's daughter from the dead as also gave sight to a childe that was born blinde And lastly three Preeminences the Alcoran gives to Christ which it gives not to any other Prophet to Abraham Moses no nor Mahomet himself The first is That he was carried up to Heaven bodie and soul where it is expresly added in Zuna that he shall return from thence to judge the world with righteous judgment The second That he shall be called The Word of God The third That he should be called The Holy Spirit of God These things you may read more at large in Iohannes Andreas his Confusio Sectae Mahometanae as also in others out of whom you may also add that the Turks have so venerable an esteem of S. Iohn's Gospel that they wear it next their bodies as an amulet when they goe to war to keep them from gun-shot 8. This I thought worth the noting partly that that Honour which is due to Christ may not be given to Mahomet of whom the best that can be said is only this That he did not so utterly pervert and deprave the mystery of the Gospel by either his ignorance political tricks or fanatical humours and whimsies but that there was so much of the substance and virtue thereof left as being seconded with the dint of the Sword was able enough to hew down the more gross Heathenish Idolatry chastise the disobedient Hypocritical Christians and ruine the external dominion of the Devil in the World and partly that we may discern what great hopes there are that in due time when the chief scandals of Christendome are taken away they being so far prepared already in their reverend opinion concerning our blessed Saviour the whole Turkish Empire may of a sudden become true Christians that which is vain and false among them having no better prop then the foolish and idle Visions false pretended Miracles and groundless fables of a mere wily phansifull and unclean Impostour whenas the pure Christian Religion comprehended in the Gospel is so solid sincere rational that no man that is master of his wits but may be throughly satisfied concerning the truth thereof CHAP. XIII 1. The Triumph of the Divine Life not so large hitherto as the overthrow of the external Empire of the Devil 2. Her conspicuous Eminency in the Primitive times 3. The real and cruel Martyrdoms of Christians under the Ten Persecutions a demonstration that their Resurrection is not an Allegorie 4. That to allegorize away that blessed Immortality promised in the Gospel is the greatest blasphemy against Christ that can be imagined 1. YOU see then how large the Success or Event of our Saviour's coming into the World is in reference to the external overthrow of the Kingdome of the Prince of this World that old Usurper over the sons of men If you demand of me how great the Triumph of the Divine Life has been in all this victory I must answer I could wish that it was greater then it is that it had been larger and continued longer but something has been done all this time that way too 2. For Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a firm Belief of a Life to come and the Effect of this Faith which is the very nature and Spirit of Christ dwelling in us consisting of Purity Humility and Charity this sound constitution was very much in the Church in the Primitive times even then when they had no succour nor support from the hands of men nay when they were cruelly handled by them they chusing rather to be banish'd imprisoned tortured and put to any manner of death then to deny him who had redeemed them with his most precious Bloud and had prepared a place of Eternal happiness for them with himself in Heaven 3. Here Faith and the Divine Life was very conspicuously victorious and triumphant in that in the eyes of all the world it set at nought all the cruel malice of the Devil and the terrour of death it self in the most ghastly vizard he could put on as you may see innumerable Examples in the Ten bloudy Persecutions under the Heathen Emperours Which History must needs make a man abominate such light-headed and false-hearted Allegorists that would intercept the Hopes of a future life by spirituallizing those passages in Scripture that bear that sense into a present Moral and Mystical interpretation as if the Gospel and the precious Promises therein conteined reached no further then this life we now live upon Earth 4. Which is the highest reproach and blasphemie that can be invented against Christ Iesus as if he were rather a Betraier then a Saviour of Mankind and that he was more thirsty after humane bloud then those Indian Gods we have spoken of who were so lavish thereof in their sacrifices and as if it were not Love and dear Compassion towards us that made him lay down his life but hatred and a spightfull plot of making myriads of men to be massacred and sacrificed out of affection to him that thus should betray them Wherefore whosoever interprets the New Testament so as to shuffle off the assurance of Reward and Punishment after the death of the Body is either an arrant Infidel or horrid Blasphemer CHAP. XIV 1. The Corruption of the Church upon the Christian Religion becoming the Religion of the Empire 2. That there did not cease then to be a true and living Church though hid in the Wilderness 3. That though the Divine life was much under yet the Person of our Saviour Christ of the Virgin Mary c. were very richly honoured 4. And the Apostles and Martyrs highly complemented according to the ancient guize of the Pagan Ceremonies 5. The condition of Christianity since the general apostasie compared to that of Una in the Desart amongst the Satyrs 6. That though this has been the state of the Church very long it will not be so alwaies and while it is so yet the real enemies of Christ do lick the dust of his feet 7. The mad work those Apes and Satyrs make with the Christian Truth 8. The great degeneracy of Christendome from the Precepts and Example of Christ in their warrs and bloudshed 9. That though Providence has connived at this Pagan Christianism for a while he will not fail to restore his Church to its pristine purity at the last 10. The full proof of which Conclusion is too voluminous for this place 1. WE have given a light glance upon the condition of the Primitive Church before Christianity became the Religion of the Empire what change would be wrought then a man might
feet and they lout and ly prostrate to the names of those men whose lives if they were on the Earth again they are so contrary to theirs they would unreconcilably hate and scorn their persons for their meanness and tread them under feet nay it may be with more shame and cruelty then ever make them suffer once again those bloudy Martyrdomes 7. So that it is an uncouth spectacle to consider what strange ridiculous work these Satyrs Monkyes and Baboons I mean the unregenerated Mass of Mankind who are enlivened with nothing but the mere Animal life have made these many hundred years in the Wilderness with the most precious Truth of the Gospel what Sophistical knots and nooses fruitless subtilties and niceties what gross contradictions and inconsistencies the Schoolmen and Polemical Divines have filled the World with what needless and burdensome Ceremonies what ensnaring new coined Articles what setting up of self-flattering Sects and Interests what variously-carved Formes and new-fangled Curiosities have been contriv'd and shap'd out by either Superstitious Church-men or Carnal Politicians 8. But if there were nothing worse then this though this be ill enough the Scene would seem only Comical in comparison But at last the Ape cuts his own throat with the shoomakers knife and Christendome lyes tumbling and wallowing I know not for how many Ages together in its own bloud The reason of which is that in this long bustle for and great ostentation of an External Religion the inward life and Spirit of Christianity which consists in Humility Charity and Purity is left out and Pride Lust and Covetousness are the first movers in all our Actions So that though we be called by the name of Christ yet our hearts and reall services are grosly Pagan we consecrating our very Souls with all the Powers Affections and Faculties of them to the worst-titled Deities of the Heathen and being strictly commanded by our Saviour to love one another as it were in despight to shew what real Apostates we are to Paganisme rather pour forth one anothers bloud as a drink-offering to Mars then keep that inviolable and indispensable Precept of his whom we profess to be our liege Lord and Soveraign 9. Thus has it pleas'd that ever-watchfull Eye of Providence to connive as it were a while at this Pagan Christianisme as well as he did in former Ages at the ancient Paganisme But assuredly it will be better and all the glorious Predictions of the Prophets concerning Christ even in this World will not end in so tedious a Scene where there is so little good and such a floud of filth and evil But the Spirit of the Lord will blow upon these dry bones and actuate this external forme of Religion with life and power and the scales will fall from her eyes and that load of scurf and ascititious foulness will fall from her skin and her flesh shall be as of a tender child and she shall grow strong healthful and irreprehensibly lovely to look upon When these things come to pass the Divine Life will be in her highest Triumph or exaltation upon earth and this excellent state of the Church will continue for a very considerable time But the wicked shall again assault the just and Christ visibly returning to judgement shall decide the controversy 10. This is the truest and most faithful representation in general so far as my skill in Church-History or Prophecies will reach that I can make of that Interval of time betwixt Christ's powring forth of the Holy Ghost on his Apostles and his coming again to Judgement But because it would be a voluminous business more particularly to make good what I have asserted and that it is not so essential to the present purpose I have in hand I hold it not at all necessary to engage in any operose endeavours of demonstrating the truth of the conclusion I shall rather send him that doubts to satisfie himself in the perusing of the learned writings of that incomparable Interpreter of Prophecies Mr. Ioseph Mede whose proceedings are with that care and caution with that clearness and strictness of reason with that accuracy of judgement and unparallel'd modesty and calmness that the study and enquiry into these matters which had even grown odious and infamous by the wild and ridiculous miscarriages of hot fanatick spirits has in my apprehension gained much credit and repute by the orderly and coherent methods and unexceptionable ratiocinations of this grave and venerable Person Upon whose account I am not ashamed to profess that I think it clear both out of Daniel and the Apocalypse that the Scene of things Christendome will be in due time very much changed and that for the better And because there does nothing so much counterbalance the weight of Mr. Mede's reasons as the autority and lustre of that worthily-admired Name of the learned Hugo Grotius who has interpreted the Revelations to quite another sense the ingenuities and prettinesses of whose expositions had almost imposed upon my self to a belief that there might be some such sense also of the Revelation as he drives at to make all clear I shall take the pains of exhibiting both to the view of the Reader Who I hope will not take it ill that so pious so learned and judicious a person as Mr. Mede and that in a matter to which he may seem to be peculiarly selected and set apart to by God and Nature to which he mainly applied himself with all possible care seriousness and devotion should see further then Hugo Grotius who has an ample harvest of praise from other performances and who by reason of his Political emploiments could not be so entirely vacant to the searching into so abstruse a Mystery CHAP. XV. 1. Grotius his reasons against Days signifying Years in the Prophets propounded and answered 2. Demonstrations that Days do sometimes signifie so many Years 3. Mr. Mede's opinion That a new Systeme of Prophecies from the first Epocha begins Chap. 10. v. 8. cleared and confirmed 4. What is meant by the Three days and an half that the Witnesses lye slain 5. Of the Beast out of the bottomless pit 6. Of the First Resurrection 7. The conclusion of the matter in hand from the evident truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms 1. THE strongest Presumption that Grotius has against Mr. Mede's way is his confidence that Days never signifie Years Which if he could make good it would utterly invalidate and make useless the whole frame of Mr. Mede's Apocalyptical Interpretations But he affirms it with all boldness imaginable Dies etiam apud Prophetas dies sunt non anni ut quidam somniant And endeavours to prove it and pretends he has done it very plainly from Daniel 8.14 And he said unto me Unto two thousand and three hundred days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed compared with vers 26. And the Vision of the Evening and the Morning which was told thee is true that is saith he has nothing
add the Description of the General Resurrection chap. 20. Which things being uttered by a Prophet whose Visions hitherto so punctually answer the known Events of things cannot but be an unexceptionable Demonstration of the Resurrection of Christ and of our own Immortality And indeed of the whole Truth of Christianity and especially of those two highest points thereof the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity of the Godhead For it being so generally acknowledged by the Church of God That the Gospel and the Epistles of S. Iohn and this Book of the Apocalypse have all one Author as indeed the very matter and style of them do further argue the Phrases and matter coming nearest the notions of the ancient Cabbala of the Jews as in particular his using of the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them all concerning Christ it cannot but be a great satisfaction that a person so highly honoured with the gift of Divine Revelation is so express an assertor of that holy Mysterie as he is surely in the beginning of his Gospel Which therefore even they are also to believe with reverence that are not able to fit themselves with any easie conception thereof it being not at all unreasonable that one so highly inspired as S. Iohn should have something communicated to him that passes the understanding of ordinary capacities So that Pride here must be the mother of Unbelief And this is the first and main general Use that may be made of this eminently-Divine Book of the Apocalypse and has reached I must confess further then the order of things requireth at this time But I cannot but prefer the Usefulness of my Discourse before the elegancy and accuracy of my proposed Method 3. But then secondly There is also another excellent Use thereof even against those whom either the pretence to or affectation of such kind of Knowledge has made either to appear or really to be very mad and extravagant For I think it not improbable that some men may be content to appear this way minded upon design and for advantage Which political abuse of the holy Oracles of God is in my apprehension one of the worst and the most execrable kinds of Sacrilege that is But by being well skilled in the meaning of the Visions of this Book we shall be the more able to defeat the evil purposes of such Enthusiasts and Impostours who being wholy ignorant of the affairs of the Kingdom of Christ will yet pretend to be the great Instaurators of his Empire and the beginners of the blessed Millennium and of the Reign of the Spirit Whose fraud and villanie is easily discoverable from the solidly-framed Synchronisms of Mr. Mede I speak chiefly in reference to that great Prophet of the Familists whom I have so often named whose imposture is easily confutable out of the Apocalypse For the Church having continued for some Ages Symmetral that is commensurable to the Reed of the Angel which Ages were before the Apostasie of the Church it is evident that the Faith and Practice of the Church Catholick then is allowable and approvable by the rule of God and therefore not to be reproved by men nor to be reformed any further then into that Primitive state when they held the Creed in the plain literal sense thereof without any shuffling Allegories as also the distinction of Laity and Clergy and met together in places set apart for publick Worship Which is an undeniable testimonie out of this so divinely-inspired Prophet S. Iohn against all those that would lay aside the Person of Christ and deny his Divinity with the Triunity of the Godhead antiquate his Mediatorship make no distinction betwixt Laity and Clergy would pull down Churches with the like wild fanatical professions and intentions Which certainly would have been accounted abominable in those Ages that the Church was Symmetral which lasted till about four hundred years from the Birth of Christ as appears out of that ingenious inference of Mr. Mede from the proportion of the outward Court of the Temple to the inward which according to Villalpandus is as 7 to 2 and therefore 1260 daies of Apostasie implies 360 daies of the Purity of the Church foregoing this Apostasie which added to the years from the Birth of Christ to his Suffering make up 400 years or thereabouts Or else if you reckon from these very times wherein this period of Apostasie should be near its expiration backward and take 1260 from 1660 there will remain 400 years again Till which time the Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church is out of the Visions of the Apocalypse assured to us as approvable before God Which I look upon as a fit Engine to beat back the fury of such Reformers as those Enthusiasts are I mentioned and a demonstration that for all their heat and canting they are but Demoniacks and no divinely-inspired men But as in the times that the Messias was personally to come into the world many Impostours instigated by the Devil stood up to deceive the people of the Iews and brought them into much misery and mischief so now the times being at hand that Christ is to appear in the Spirit and the dead Witnesses are to rise up and rule many false Dispensations will crowd in with fury boldness and tumult and pretend to be the true Dispensation Which will not be prevented by slurring the main Scope of the Apocalypse and pretending that all the matters there are meant either of the Destruction of Ierusalem or else of Rome Heathen this is but like the sprinkling a little water upon too violent a fire which will but make it rage the more but by applying our minds more throughly to understand the meaning of these Divine Visions that we may be the more able thereby to steer the zeal of men off from doing so much hurt as they may be instigated to doe that the wheat be not burnt up with the cockle but that what is pure and Apostolical may be preserved And so also in Secular affairs Whereas the very Power of the Civil Magistrate and his security is hazarded by wild and hot-spirited men that would raise a Fifth Monarchie by Bloud and Rapine and tumble down all Government according as either their own Enthusiastick heat shall instigate or opportunity invite or give leave pretending that all Authority all Orders and Degrees in this Fourth Monarchie are unholy and prophane and that they are the Pioners to level all plain and break all Government in pieces that Christ the Fifth Monarch may personally come and begin his Millennial Empire upon Earth it behoves the Christian Rulers whether Ecclesiastical or Civil to be so well acquainted with the meaning of these Prophecies that they may be able to stop the mouths of these loud Fanaticks by those holy Oracles they pervert thus and abuse and to shew them that there is no proof at all of such things as they thus vainly imagine as assuredly there is not as I have
has hapned in England 5. But I shall rather pass to the other Prodigies of Warre concerning which Machiavel does plainly confess as well as Cardan that before great Commotions Warrs and sacking of Cities there have often appeared strange Prodigies and particularly the skirmishing of Armies in the Aire such as was seen over Aretium before the coming of the French King into Italy as Machiavel himself testifies And Cardan also doth furnish us with farther examples as that of Mexico before it was destroyed where the like Prodigies hapned A Cross also was seen by the Mexicans in the East and a man of so high stature that his head seemed to touch the Heavens which much terrified them He writes also of the Picts in England that before their destruction there were seen fiery Armies in Heaven fighting with one another and that in the confines betwixt the Picts and Scots at mid-day there was so great a noise of armed horsemen that encountred one another that it almost frighted the poor countrymen out of their wits 6. That was also a terrible Prodigie that preceded that hideous ruine of Antioch by an Earthquake There was seen over that great City a Spectrum in the Aire of a vast stature in the habit of a Woman but with an horrid countenance so that she frighted all that looked on her but especially when she slash'd a whip which she had in her hand the cracks thereof were so loud and dreadful This continued for fifteen nights together from two a clock till four in the month of May Anno 349. 7. But there is nothing more accommodate to our purpose then the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrha with fire from Heaven a compendious representation of the final burning of the World For before that vengeance was done upon those two wicked Cities three Angels appeared to Abraham and revealed that design to him two also visited Lot and by a main hand drew him out of the Fearful destruction 8. I might adde many more Examples but I shall content my self with the superaddition onely of that one and most eminent instance of the destruction of Ierusalem wherein the invisible Powers I mean the Angels were discerned to act in a sensible and palpable manner Which is deprehended not onely by that flaming sword that hung over the City for a whole year together and a sudden light in the night-time that shone about the Altar and the Temple so that it made it as light as day as also the spontaneous opening of the East gate of the Temple which was so heavy and massy as being made of brass that it was as much as twenty men could do to shut it to which you may adde the Voice that was heard by the Priests as they went into the Temple by night at the time of Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go hence but mainly and what is most of all to my purpose by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those chariots and armed companies of Souldiers which were seen round about in the Aire before Sun-set to sally out of the clouds and to fill all with the numerosity of their troups Wherefore if such particular Judgements were executed with a visible attendance of the Angels of God when he shall execute Vengeance on the whole World can we think it strange if he then shall appear more then ordinarily glorious in his Heavenly Retinue thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him as the Prophet speaks Which Prophecy if it could respect shorter Periods of time yet certainly the fullest and most proper Completion of it will be at the last Judgement CHAP. III. 1. The Resurrection of the dead by how much more rigidly defined according to every circumstance and punctilio delivered by Theologers by so much the more pleasant to the ears of the Atheists 2. That the Resurrection in the Scholastick Notion thereof was in all likelihood the great Stone of offence to those two Enthusiasts of Delph and Amsterdam and emboldened them to turn the whole Gospel into an Allegorie 3. The incurable condition of Enthusiasts 4. The Atheists first Objection against the Scholastick Resurrection proposed 5. His second Objection 6. His third and last Objection 7. That his Objections do not demonstrate an absolute impossibility of the Scholastick Resurrection with the Author's purpose of answering them upon other Grounds 1. WE come now to the second particular propounded The Resurrection of the dead which I dare say the Atheist will listen to with more then ordinary attention and greedily suck in the Doctrine provided it be stated with the most curious circumstances that the rigidest of Theologers will describe it by and mainly by these two That we shall have the same Numerical Bodies in which we lived here on Earth and That those very bodies the molds being turned aside shall start out of the Grave This doctrine the Atheist very dearly hugs as a pledge in his bold conceit of the falseness and vanity of all the other Articles of Religion Wherefore he phansying the upshot of Christianity to be so groundless and incredible he fairly quits himself of the trouble of all and yields himself up wholly to the pleasures of this present World 2. And I question not but that this is the great Stone of offence upon which those two blind Enthusiasts of Delph and Amsterdam of whom I have so often spoken fell and split themselves the Rock which made them suffer the Shipwrack of their faith in allegorizing the Resurrection of the dead and the last Judgment into a mere Moral sense and in conceiting the last Trump to be only their doctrine and that Christ was come in them to judge the quick and the dead and that the happy Resurrection so much talked of and so long expected was nothing else but to be raised up into the like life and belief with these Fanaticks as I must call them and I would ask them what is meant by the Resurrection of the unjust if this be the Resurrection of the just or if this be the Resurrection to life what is meant by the Resurrection to condemnation 3. But in truth it is scarce fit to ask Enthusiasts any questions at all they under pretence of inspiration wholy disclaiming the use of Reason and imperiously dictating their own wilfull Imaginations to the World for certain and undisputable Revelations And therefore in this regard there is more hope of the Atheists then of them who by propounding their Objections put men in a capacity of finding out an Answer but when men will haughtily and superciliously deny a Truth under the pretence of the Spirit without rendring a reason this Ignorance or rather Madness is utterly incurable 4. Leaving therefore these men to the full enjoyment of their own phansies let us hear the Objections of the Atheists against this Article so stated as has been above defined which are chiefly Three First against the numerical Identity
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
will become more kexy and loose of its Solidity For a Body that is porous and can imbibe moisture the more moist the more solid it is the more solid the Earth is the better it will keep its distance from the Sun as it is swung about him in this common Vortex of the Planets Wherefore the distance of the Earth lessening so as Astronomers observe might it not come from other causes would be a parlous Symptome and sign that the Earth grows old apace and much exhausted And the more it is exhausted the nearer still it will be wrought toward the Sun according to the Cartesian Philosophy So that at last what by its over-drieness and what by its approaching so near to the Fountain of heat not only Forrests and Woods which has happned already but the subterraneous Mines of Sulphur and other combustible Matter will catch fire and set the whole Earth in a manner on burning 4. I say therefore that the Earth will thus at the long run be burnt either according to the course of Nature of which manner of destruction these be the main concomitants That by reason of a long distemper and languishment she will be utterly unable or very wretchedly able to sustain either Man or Beast for abundance of Ages together before she be ruined and burnt up by this mortiferous Fever and after this death and destruction of hers far less able she becoming then but as a Caput Mortuum by reason of the long exhaustion of the life and heart of the soil before this lingring Conflagration or else by a more special or solemn appointment of Providence the Period of her Conflagration shall be shortned From which if any universal good doth accrue to the Creation it is not unworthy of the Son of God and his mighty and most glorious Host to be emploied in so weighty a performance For is not the whole Earth the Vineyard of the Lord a particular platt of his skillfull Culture and Husbandry 5. Thirdly and lastly There being so many obdurate rebellious Spirits as well among the Apostate Angels as Men that are so far revolted from God that they scarce retain any sense of him in their minds that peremptorily deny a particular Providence and stoutly phansie that if there be a Deity he takes no notice of the affairs of any particular Creatures that jear and flout at Religion and look upon the life of the Son of God when he lived in the world as a poor and contemptible Example of Pusillanimity and Dejectedness of Spirit that contemn all his true followers for moaped Fools but make their own Lusts their law in all things and therefore are insensible of whatever Injustice or Cruelty they commit or whatever Beastliness or Vileness they give themselves up to these being past all sense within but all of them sensible enough in their bodies or vehicles the Devils themselves not excepted how fitting nay how necessary is it that a fiery Whirlwind and Tempest of Vengeance should rattle upon their external persons and that corporeal pain should pierce them to the very quick and that all whatever they took delight in should be demolisht and that they should be smothered in tormenting Heat and Darkness of which they know no end 6. These Considerations which I have alledged make the Conflagration of the World not only possible but also very reasonable especially with that circumstance of not coming naturally for they would then look on it only as a common calamity but of being inflicted visibly by one whose Person and Laws are so much vilified and scorned by all the Powers of the Dark Kingdome And then again for further conviction and aggravation after such a time as they have seen the supernatural deliverance of the righteous before their eyes For this makes good that Promise and Threatning of our Saviour what difference he would make betwixt the Sheep and the Goats saying to one Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom and to the other Goe ye accursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels CHAP. XI 1. A Recapitulation or Synopsis of the more Intelligible part of the Christian Mysterie with an Indication of the Usefulness thereof 2. The undeniable Grounds of this Mystery The existence of God A particular Providence The Lapsableness of Angels and men The natural subjection of men to Devils in this fallen Condition 3. God's Wisdome and Iustice in the Permission thereof for a time 4 5. Further Reasons of that Permission 6. The Lapse of Men and Angels proved 7. The Good emerging out of this Lapse 8. The exceeding great Preciousness of the Divine Life 9. The Conflagration of the Earth 10. The Good arising from the Opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdome 11. That God in due time is in a special manner to assist the Kingdome of Light and in a way most accommodate to the humane Faculties 12. That therefore he was to send into the World some Venerable Example of the Divine Life with miraculous attestations of his Mission of so sacred a Person 13. That this Person by reason of the great Agonies that befall them that return to the Divine Life ought to bring with him a palpable pledge of a proportionable Reward suppose of a Blessed Immortality manifested to the meanest Capacity by his rising from the dead and visibly ascending into Heaven 14. That in the Revolt of Mankind from the Tyranny of the Devil there ought to be some Head and that the Qualifications of that Head ought to be opposite to those of the old Tyrant as also to have a power of restoring us to all that we have lost by being under the Usurper 15. That also in this Head all the notable Objects of the Religious propensions of the Nations should be comprized in a more lawfull and warrantable manner 16. That this Idea of Christianity is so worthy the Goodness of God and so sutable to the state of the World that no wise and vertuous Person can doubt but that it is or will be set on foot at some time by Divine Providence and that if the Messias be come and the Writings of the New Testament be true in the literal sense it is on foot-already 1. WE have I think fully enough set forth the Reasonableness of Christian Religion in the Idea thereof it may be more fully then was needfull before we come to prove That it is more then an Idea We shall by way of Recapitulation contract the more Intelligible frame thereof into a lesser model that its due symmetrie and proportion may be better seen at once Which will be both a relief to our Memory and also a help to our Judgment when we shall have a more easie opportunity of considering the solid strength and handsome congruity of the whole Fabrick 2. And I dare challenge the most maliciously-wise and skilfull if he can find any rational exception against the structure of this so intelligible a
some time or other should send into the world such a Prince and Redeemer of his People out of the Captivity of the Devil as we have described who having declared the Promises of Eternal life to his faithful Followers and so raised himself a party against the Powers of the Dark Kingdome should exercise the Creation with this noble and high-concerning Conflict and after a due time of trial of the Faith Resolution Constancy Love and Obedience of his Adherents return visibly again at last according to promise giving Victory Peace and a Blessed Immortality to his own and pouring down Wrath and Vengeance and utter Destruction upon his implacable and contemptuous Enemies This Providential Contrivance I say looking upon it in the Idea is so Congruous and Rational that there is no wise and vertuous man but will easily assent that it will some time or other be set afoot in the World But I shall now endeavour to make good That it is already on foot and that this Period of Providence is begun in the Appearance of Iesus Christ the Son of God and of the blessed Virgin that is That our Christian Religion as it relates to the Person of Christ according as I have propounded it and displaied it in the main Branches thereof is not a mere Idea but a real and actual Truth Which I think will be sufficiently demonstrated if I prove That the expected Messias is come and That the Writings of the New Testament are true For nothing then can defeat our design unlesse a man will be so wild as to pervert the Literal sense of those Writings and turn every thing miraculous there into an Allegory CHAP. XII 1. That the chief Authour of this Mystical Madness that nulls the true and literal sense of Scripture is H. Nicolas whose Doctrine therefore and Person is more exactly to be enquired into 2. His bitter Reviling and high Scorn and Contempt of all Ministers of the Gospel of Christ that teach according to the Letter with the ill Consequences thereof 3. The Reason of his Vilification of them and his Injunction to his Followers not to consult with any Teachers but the Elders of his Family no not with the Dictates of their own Consciences but wholy to give themselves up to the leading of those Elders The irrecoverable Apostasie of simple Souls from their Saviour by this wicked Stratagem 4. His high Magnifications of himself and his Service of the Love before the Dispensation of Moses John the Baptist or Christ himself 5. That his Service of the Love is a Third Dispensation namely of the Spirit and that which surpasses that of Christ with other Encomiums of his doctrine as That in it is the sounding of the last Trump the Descent of the new Jerusalem from Heaven the Resurrection of the dead the glorious coming of Christ to Iudgment and the everlasting Condemnation of the wicked in Hell-Fire 6. That H. Nicolas for his time and after him the Eldest of the Family of the Love in succession are Christ himself descended from Heaven to judge the World as also the true High Priest for ever in the most Holy 1. THere being therefore this only obstacle to our prosperous procedure in this Affair and the spreading of this mystical Madness being most of all from the esteem and Authority of that highly-adored Enthusiast H. Nicolas of Amsterdam I find my self necessitated to make here some stop to discover his enormous doctrines and the groundlesness of them as well to undeceive his seduced Admirers as to justifie my own publick Dislike of him that I may not seem to have been in the least measure either rash or injurious And that we may the better proceed therein I shall first present him to you in all his ruffe and glory adorned with the testimonies of his own style such as he would appear to the World to be and then examine if there be any ground of believing him to be such and lastly offer reasons whereby I shall clearly demonstrate that he is not what he pretends to be 2. And that his Lustre may seem as big as he desires you shall first hear what pittifull things all are that are not found of his Sect if you will believe his censure of them namely That there is no Knowledge of Christ nor of the Scripture but in his Family That without his God-service of the Love all the God-services Wisdome and Doctrine out of the Scripture let them be taught by those that are never so well learned therein is but witchery and blindness And that as many as misbelieve and oppose his Service of the Love are earthly and devilishly minded And that there is no Remission of sins out of his Communialty That it is assuredly all false and lies seducing and deceitfull what the ungodded or unilluminated men out of the Imagination or riches of their Knowledge and out of the Learnedness of the Scriptures bring forth institute preach and teach That all Teachers and Learners out of his Communialty are a false Christianity and the Devil's Synagogue or School yea a Nest of Devils and all wicked Spirits And of their Knowledge compendiously and at once he pronounces It is a false Being the Devil the Antichrist the wicked Spirit the Kingdome of Hell and the Majesty of the Devil No better then this is the most sober and carefull reasoning out of the Holy Scriptures or the simple apprehension of the History of Christ and all his Promises be they by never so sincere and devout Souls if they be not of his blessed Family of the Love who have the luck to be the only-illuminated in the World Of this you may read more fully in his first Exhortation Chap. 15. and 16. Which Ugly and uncharitable Character he gives of all Christians besides his own Family who yet are indeed as you shall hear anon no Christians at all must needs imbitter the Spirits of his professed Followers and envenome them beyond all measure against the Ministry of the Gospel according to the Letter thereof Which yet clearly enough sets out to us the History of Christ his Promises and Precepts neither is there any Mystical meaning that is true that is not literally set down in the Text. So that all their boast is but of Allusions and Phrases nor can they produce any thing that is not already plainly before our eyes in the Letter it self And therefore if they have any choice Secret to themselves it is the Mystery of Infidelity and Unbelief a bold and groundless Presumption that the History is not true 3. Which Presumption makes them so peremptorily conclude all the Scripture-learned under Ignorance none of them hither to having been so nasute as to smell out the least falsity in the oldness of the Letter And therefore that their Novices may not be entangled nor distracted through the simple Belief or plain Doctrine of ordinary Christians he exhorts them not to hearken to nor
that are so transported and overcome with those Allusions and Allegorical Reflexions as such high Attainments that they think themselves illuminated above the capacities of all other Mortals being more pleased with the gaudy colours of the Rainbow then with the pure light which is reflected thence Which yet all true Christians plainly see and feel in the simplicity of its own nature without any such cloudy refractions and know that the rest is not the dictate of the Spirit but the mere service of Phansy lending its aid to the setting forth of divine Perceptions And yet this slight sallad is the chief food this pretended Prophet feeds his followers withall and the greatest demonstration of his being extraordinarily called and inspired 5. For as for Miracles he never did any as you may see in that Book of his Life entituled Mirabilia Dei where nothing miraculous is recorded unless a certain Prophetical Dream wherein he seemed to be frighted together with some devotional expressions after he awakened out of it as also a lucky escape out of the hands of his Persecutors who haply being not so vigilant as they might be the phrase of the story makes them struck with blindness and lastly his witty questions and answers to the Priest or Confessor when he was a child wherein he does so fully utter the chief of his Doctrine that he seems as wise at eight years old as ever he was since though he lived to a very considerable Age. But any one that has any insight in things may easily discern that the Discourse was never intended for a true History but a spiritual Romance So that as petty businesses as these are they have no assurance of their truth 6. Now for his Pretensions of being the most eminent Preacher of Perfection it is a mere Boast For whether he means by Perfection Love which is the perfection of the Law it cannot be more clearly and advantageously preached then it is in the New Testament by Christ and his Apostles And what Comparison is there betwixt such a Teacher of Love who being the declared Son of God by Signes and Miracles gave his life out of dear compassion to mankind and a soft Fellow that onely talks fine phrases to the World Or whether he pretend to a more general Perfection in the divine Graces or holy Life whose Root is true Faith in God and his Promises through Christ and the branches Charity Humility and Purity it shall appear anon that as for true Faith he is perfectly fallen from it and that he is as a dead tree pulled up from the root And for the present it is evident also out of his own writings not to charge him with accusations out of others that he is far from being perfect either in Charity Humility or Purity For what greater sign of Uncharitableness then to charge all men that are not of his Communialty to be of the Synagogue of Satan and children of the Devil and what greater Pride then to prefer himself before Abraham Moses and Christ and make as if he were God himself come to judge the World with his thousands of Saints and Seraphims And lastly what greater Symptoms of Lust Impurity then to be sunk down from all sense and presage of a life to come To say nothing of his complaints in his Glasse of Righteousness of such as came in to spy out their liberty and his lusty animations against Shamefacedness and Modesty in men and women and their shiness to such acts as ordinary Bashfulness is loath to name Which in my apprehension are very foul spots in that Glasse of his as if it had been breathed upon by the mouth of a menstruous Woman 7. But there is also a more subtil Uncleanness from which who is not free if he knew his own weakness he would be ashamed to profess himself perfect and that is the Impurity of the Astral Spirit in which is the Seat and Dominion of unruly Imagination Hence are our Sidereal or Planet-strucken Preachers and Prophets who being first blasted themselves blast all others that labour with the like impurity by their Fanatick Contagion Those in whom Mortification has not had its full work nor refined the Inmost of their natural Complexions are subject to be smitten and overcome by such Enthusiastick storms till a more perfect Purification commit them to the safe custody of the Intellectual Powers Wherefore let this pretended Prophet boast as much as he will of his glorious Resurrection from the dead it is manifest to the more perfect that he has not yet so much as passed through that Death that should have led him to the unshaken Kingdome of Truth and letten him in to the immovable Calmness and serene stilness of the Intellectual World where the Blasts and Blusters of the Astral Spirit cease and the Violence of Phansy perverts not the faithful representations of Eternal Reason For God is not in these fanatick Herricanoes no more then he was in the tempestuous Wind Earthquake or Fire that passed before the Prophet Elias But the Divine Truth is to be found in that still small voice which is the Echo of the Eternal Word not urg'd upon us by that furious Impulse of complexionall Imagination but descending from the Father of lights with whom there is no shadow of change This was an Attainment out of this Boasters reach of which he had not the least sense or presage and therefore was wholy given up to the hot scalding Impressions of misguided Phansy in his Astral Spirit Which being strangely raised and exalted in this false light has a power by words or writings to fire others and to intoxicate them with the same heat and noise in their enravished Imagination whereby that still and small voice of Incomplexionate Reason cannot be heard CHAP. XIV 1. That neither H. Nicolas nor his Doctrine was prophesied of in Holy Scripture That of the Angel preaching the Everlasting Gospel groundlesly applied to him 2. As also that place Iohn 1.21 of being That Prophet 3. His own mad Application of Acts 17. v. 31. to himself 4. Their Misapplication of 1 Cor. 13. v. 9 10. and Hebr. 6. v. 1 2. to the Doctrine of this new Prophet 5. Their arguing for the authority of the Service of the Love from the Series of Times and Dispensations with the Answer thereunto 6. That the Oeconomie of the Family of Love is quite contrary to the Reign of the Spirit 7. That the Author is not against the Regnum Spiritûs the Cabbalists also speak of but onely affirms that this Dispensation takes not away the Personal Offices of Christ nor the External comeliness of Divine Worship 8. That if this Regnum Spiritûs is to be promoted by the Ministry of some one Person more especially it follows not that it is H. Nicolas he being a mere mistaken Enthusiast or worse 1. AND therefore being blinded with the wind and dust of this Fanatick Tempest they are carried on
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
of their foretelling that one of the Iewish Lineage should become a great Prince and sway the sceptre over the Nations which prediction was alwaies looked upon as some peculiar Honour and Priviledge to the Iews that only a forraigner coming to Iudaea and for no better end then to sack their City destroy their Temple and make vassals of them and slaves that this man after should be chosen Emperour of Rome as others had been before him Whether awe and fear might baffle the understanding of Iosephus so as to think this a true Glosse though it be but servile flattery I will not dispute but whether he thought it false or no that it is so I think I have put out of Controversie 4. But what Iosephus records concerning the opinion of his Nation that they thought the coming of their Messiah to be about that time is got into the History of the Pagan Writers also Cornelius Tacitus writes so like to what Iosephus has set down that it seems something like a translation of him as in his speaking of the Prodigies that did fore-run the destruction of the City Visae per coelum concurrere acies rutilantia arma subito nubium igne collucere templum Expassae repentè delubri fores audita major humanâ vox Excedere Deos simul ingens motus excedentium That is Armies were seen skirmishing in the Heavens weapons glittering and the Temple filled with light from the sudden flashing of the clouds The door also of the Temple instantly flung open and a voice was heard bigger then the voice of any man That the Gods go out and withall a mighty bustle of them as going out together After this presently he addes Quae pauci in mâ—tum trahebant pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri co ipso tempore ut valesceret Oriens profectique Judaeà rerum potirentur quae ambages Vespasianum Tiâ—um praedixerunt i. e. Which some few interpreted as a dangerous Presage most were perswaded that it was contained in the ancient Books of their Priests that at that very time the East should grow potent and that those come from Judaea should obtain the Empire which ambages presignified Vespasian and Titus In which he plainly intimates that the Opinion of the near approach of their Messiah was so strong that it bore against all the ill Prodigies nay made them interpret them to a good sense as if this excedere deos was but their hastning out to take possession of the Nations which was true in no other sense then in that Christ who was the peculiar Guardian Angel as I may so speak of the Jews before became afterward the worship of the whole Empire Or if you will God who was in a manner Topical before restrained to Iudaea became the known and acknowledged God of the whole Earth 5. Suetonius in the life of Vespasian cap. 4. in express terms calls this Expectation of the Iews veterem constantem opinionem Percrebuerat saith he Oriente toto vetus constans opinio esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judaeâ profecti rerum potirentur Id de Imperatore Romano quantum eventu postea praedictum patuit Judaei ad se trahentes rebellarunt c. An ancient constant opinion had grown very common over all the East that the fates had so destined that at that time those that came from Judaea should become masters of all Which fate as appeared by the event foretold of the Roman Emperour the Jews interpreting in favour of themselves rebelled c. By which expressions of Suetonius we may understand how assured the Iews were that that was the time of the coming of their Messiah and that the fame of it was not contained within their own Precincts but had spred over all the East and that the whole World was at a gaze in expectation of the Great Prince of the Iews CHAP. VII 1. That it being evident the Messiah is come it will also follow that Jesus is he 2. That the Prophets when they prophesied of any eminent King Priest or Prophet were sometimes carried in their Prophetick Raptures to such expressions as did more properly concern the Messiah then the Person they began to describe 3. That these References are of two sorts either purely Allegorical or Mixt and of the use of pure Allegories by the Evangelists and Apostles 4. Of mixt Allegories of this kind and of their validity for Argument 5. That eminent Prophecie of Isaiah that so fully characterizes the Person of Christ. 6. That the ancient Jews understood this of their Messiah and that the modern are forced hence to fancy two Messiahs The Soul of the Messiah appointed to this office from the beginning of the World as appears out of their Pesikta 7. The nine Characters of the Messiah's Person included in the above-named Prophecie 8. A brief Intimation in what verses of the Prophecie they are couched 9. That this Prophecie cannot be applied to the People of the Iews nor adequately to Jeremie's person 10. Special Passages in the Prophecie utterly unapplicable to Jeremie 1. WE have I think sufficiently demonstrated That the time of the coming of the Messiah is expired and therefore the Predictions of him and Promises being not conditional as I have above intimated but absolute it undeniably follows that he is come Upon which we might immediately infer especially considering the Time of his coming That Iesus Christ is he For whom else can they possibly pitch upon But we shall proceed more punctually and suspend that Inference until we have laid before you those Prophecies that characterize his Person What a one he should be What he should doe and What should betide him 2. Of which there is none so full as that of Isaiah Chap. 53. But before I enter upon it or any other it will be very convenient for the preventing of all Cavils and Tergiversations to set down a Supposition which is both rational in it self and allowed of nay highly magnified in things where their Interest does not lie at stake by the most learned of the Iews And it is this That that eminent Person whom they call their Messiah being at last to give them a visit in this World and as the very sense of his Name imports which signifies Anointed being to be the Top and Flower of those three Functions in which this Anointing was used viz. Prophet Priest and King it is very rational to conceive how in their Actuations by the Spirit of God when he fell upon the Prophets that while they prophesied or spake of some more considerable Priest Prophet or King that Wisdome guiding them which is omniscient and more moving then any motion which reacheth from one end to another mightily and sweetly orders all things they were so actuated and transported that in that fatidical Rapture they were caught up into the sense of their Mind and Words was carried further then the particular Person they began to
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
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
to it for his cure as the Israelites in the Wildernesse as often as they were bit with the fiery flying Serpents were to look up unto the Brazen Serpent which Moses had erected in their Camp And those that make no use of the benefit thereof I should suspect them to be no Israelites but a genâ—ration of Vipers or Serpents themselves to whom the poison of Sin is so congenerous that it is their nature and pleasure no pain at all to them so that they desire no cure but flee from the Crosse as Scorpions do quit the place where a Telesme is erected against them 7. But our Saviour Christ knew the power and efficacy of his Passion so well that he made a speciall provision for the Commemoration of that often which it was fit he should suffer but once This we usually call the Eucharist or the holy Communion A Solemnity never to be antiquated till our Saviour return again to judgement visibly in the clouds of Heaven as S. Paul intimateth 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as you eat this bread or drink this cup you do shew the Lords death till he come For the solid use of it cannot cease till then when all is accomplished For so long as men are to have any growth in Godlinesse or are to animate themselves to any holy designes or sin is to be encountred with or thanks to be given for the victories of the Cross the holy Eucharist cannot possibly cease For the most proper Preparation for the receiving of the Sacrament is a serious Meditation on the Passion of Christ which is commemorated therein The consideration whereof what mighty power and efficacy it has for the vanquishing and subduing of all manner of sins and corruptions I have given sufficient intimation So that every Celebration of the Communion should be as it were a repeated Resolution and corroborated Conspiracy in the bloud of the New Covenant to do our utmost against all the Powers of Sin of Darkness and of the Devil and this upon the sense of that great Love and Loialty we owe to our dear Saviour and Soveraign Iesus Christ who died for us and poured out his own bloud to glue and cement us to himself and to one another So that the Mystery of Christian Religion is a Mystery of the deepest and dearest Friendship and of the most indissoluble Union of Affection that can possibly be excogitated Wherein neither Distance of Place nor Time can make any division but it holds together Heaven and Earth and bindes what is past to what is present and actuates and invigorates what is present to a prosperous and successful bringing on that which is to come Thus it is with all those that are true Christians and do really communicate in the bloud of Christ They have one Minde and one Heart they have one Vote and one Interest which is the Advancement of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world in Truth and Holiness and that Christian Peace Faith and Love may flourish even to the ends of the Earth CHAP. XVII 1. The sixth Gospel-Power is the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The priviledge of this Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality above that from the Subtilty of Reason and Philosophy 2. The great power this consideration of the Soul's Immortality has to urge men to a Godly life 3. To wean themselves from worldly pleasures and learn to delight in those that are everlasting 4. To have our Conversation in Heaven 5. The Conditions of the Everlasting Inheritance 6. Further enforcements of duty from the Soul's Immortality 1. THe sixth Gospel-Power is the Contemplation of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ in respect of which stupendious event the Apostle has declared how it is Christ Jesus that has abolished death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel For truly whatsoever Traditions there were amongst the Iewish Rabbins whatever Disquisitions or Conclusions amongst the Philosophers whether Platonists or Aristoteleans concerning the Soul's Immortality they were either so uncertain and fallacious in themselves or so subtil and unintelligible to the People that they could not satisfie the World concerning this so important a matter And if a man should write never so accurately and Apodictically of this point the use thereof would reach but to a few namely such as are of a very patient and comprehensive Spirit that have leisure and take delight in perusing of subtil and close-wrought contextures of Reason which to most men is a toilsome and tedious thing And when a man has writ and read all he can of this Subject and has met with the very best and most Demonstrative arguments for the Conclusion yet for use and service the Recollection of them is voluminous and cumbersome as well as the Collections from them doubtful and fallible at least to them that are not fully masters of their Reason But as the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour is certain as known to be de facto by abundance of Witnesses so is the Remembrance and Representation of it to our mindes at once and strikes strong upon our Phansie and reaches our Reason with that powerful conviction that believing this we cannot any longer doubt of either the Existence of God or our own Immortality And if we once be but well assured of the Existence of God and of our own Immortall state after this Life methinks this alone should be able to lift us above all the Snares that Satan has laid in this World to entangle us 2. Mortality one would think if well considered might give us some check from too eager pursuit of Honours and Riches from worldly Plots and Designes as also for fear of diseases that accelerate death from over-lavish Indulgence to Sensuality and Intemperance But the Certainty of a Life to come the condition whereof shall be such as our Demeanour here layes the seeds of whether for Happinesse or Misery and that in a measure unspeakably above what happens or can happen in this life this consideration must have such virtue in it if we duly meditate upon it that it should win us with all willingnesse to forsake all the unlawful Pleasures and Projects of this transient World to get some sure Interest in that which is to come and not to trust all in one bottom if any thing at all I mean in the leaking vessel of this mortal Body which is ever and anon ready to sink or topple over and so to drown all the hopes we placed in it Wherefore as ye heard out of Saint Peter we are like Strangers and Pilgrims in this life to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul that our Minds going out impolluted of the Foulness and Contagion of this defiled Earth they sojourn in may be received into the happy Society of just men made perfect as the Author to the Hebrews speaks Whenas if they go out foul and impure their Reception must be accordingly
mentioned they be proposed in the Scripture but in a more shady obscure and general way that being enough to serve the End they are proposed for And if any one be at a loss how to conceive the Mystery let him make it up with devout admiration and humble veneration Affections better becoming every holy man then a fierce and peremptory pursuit of his own conceited Reason and bold attempt to pry into those things that God has thought fit to hide from him Which is a saucy and clownish as forcibly to unveil or unmask some noble Matron or modest Virgin whether they will or no. 5. But that no fraud be done to Truth nor mankind left liable to all the incredible forgeries and fables of covetous Priests and Impostors we shall more carefully limit this our exaction of Reverence only to such Articles of Religion as are recommended to us not only upon account of Divine Revelation and Serviceableness to some laudable end but are also clear from contradiction and incompossibility For for my own part I am well assured That God who made our Faculties will never offer any thing to us to believe that upon close debate does plainly contradict them Else all Religions were alike credible and the Moons coming out of Mahomet's sleeve as passable as the History of Ionas his being three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly and afterwards coming out alive Which though it be miraculous is not at all impossible 6. And therefore I do with all confidence imaginable assert That the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity so far forth as the Scripture has de-declared it self in these points have nothing of contradiction nor impossibility in them Nay I will go one step further Athanasius his Creed which one would think is expresse enough concerning this Mystery if certain words in it be but varied in that latitude of sense which they are capable of and not only so but must of necessity have in the Creed there may be such an interpretation made of it as the most captious Reason can finde no cavil against CHAP. II. 1. That there is a latitude of Sense in the words of Athanasius his Creed and that One and Unity has not the same signification every where 2. The like in the terms God and Omnipotent 3. Of the word Equal and to what purpose so distinct a knowledge of the Deity was communicated to the Church 4. In what sense the Son and Holy Ghost are God That Divine adoration is their unquestionable right And that there is an intelligible sense of Athanasius his Creed and such as supposes neither Polytheisme Idolatry nor Impossibility 5. That there is no intricacy in the Divinity of Christ but what the Schools have brought in by their false notions of Suppositum and Union Hypostatical 6. That the Union of Christ with the Eternal Word implies no Contradiction and how warrantable an Object he is of Divine worship 7. The Application thereof to the Iews 8. The Union of Christ with God compared with that of the Angels that bore the Name Jehovah in the Old Testament 9. The reasonableness of our Saviours being united with the Eternal Word and how with that Hypostasis distinct from the others 1. NOw that there is necessarily understood this latitude of variety in the sense of several of the words of the Creed is apparent from the consent of those that do subtilize this Mystery to the utmost curiosity For it is impossible for them or any else to think that the Godhead of the whole Trinity is One in the same sense that the Father considered alone is One or the Son or Holy Ghost so considered For then there being no more Unity in the single Hypostases then in the whole Trinity every Hypostasis will be Triune which no man will assert Wherefore there is a latitude of sense in the word One or Unity allowable in the Creed 2. So when the Father is said to be Omnipotent the Son Omnipotent and the Holy Ghost Omnipotent it is evident that Omnipotent has not the same sense in all For the Father has the power of Eternal Generation of the Son and both Son and Father of an Eternal Emission of the Spirit but the Son does not proceed from the Spirit neither is the Father generated of the Son Yet the Spirit and the Son which are both from the Father how infinitely do they exceed the Creation of the World And the like may be said of the term God by which if you understand That which is first of all in such a sense as that all else is from him and he from none the Son and the Spirit cannot be said to be God in this signification because the Father is not from them but they from the Father 3. And therefore it is further manifest that the word Equal is not to be understood mathematically and absolutely but in an useful reference to us Which is a Key that will easily open the whole Mystery of the Creed which God did not communicate to the world to spin and weave unprofitable cobwebs out of but did thus explicitly impart the knowledg of his Divine glory that understanding the Distinctness of his Godhead in the Triunity thereof the Divinity of Christ might the better be conceived and how warrantable an Object he is of our worship Divine Adoration For it passing through the Titles of the Humanity to the Eternal Son of God there cannot be the least scruple or show of Idolatry in such Divine worship 4. For the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God as well as the Father that is to say they are all Eternal Omnipresent Omniscient Omnicreant and therefore Divine Adoration is due without question to the whole Trinity from the Creatures And not upon this account onely but because they are so perfectly One and have the same indivisible Omnipresency and therefore are One entire Godhead One coequal Glory and Majesty coeternal I say then that this latitude of sense being once admitted which is necessarily implied the meaning of Athanasius his Creed may prove such as no imputation of either Polytheisme Idolatry or unconceivable Impossibility can be alledged against it and the end of this Mystery fully served in such an intelligible Interpretation But I shall not undertake any such Paraphrase in this place And what I have already ventured at is rather by way of Essay or invitation to others to make trial then peremptory assertion in so profound a point that deserves rather our humble admiration then curious disquisition It is sufficient that so far as Scripture has determined of this Article it is without exception or Contradiction 5. The Divinity of Christ in my apprehension is a more easie Object of belief being as intelligible as the Union of our Soul and Body For as they two make up one man so God and Man make one Christ as Athanasius himself has expressed it This the Schools call Hypostatical Union which has no intricacy
in it but what they themselves have bestowed upon it For every Substance is of it self an Individual Substance and Universals but a Logical notion arising from our comparing of Substances of like nature together Neither is there any Substance but by due preparatory modifications may be capable of being united with some other Individual Substance and these Two Individual Substances become One whole Substance Which yet are not so One as that they cease to be Two Numerical Substances because they arâ—â—o otherwise said to be One I am sure are no otherwise One then by the apt Union of one with another Which yet hinders not but that they are still and if they are they are Two namely my Soul and Body are still this Individual Soul and this Individual Body though they be as they term it Hypostatically united For it onely implies conjunction not confusion of Substances nor any losse of the Individuality of the Substances thus conjoined For there is no Substance conjoinable with another but remains this Individual Substance even for that very reason because it is a Substance every Substance being of it self Individual as I have already said and yet conjoinable with another Substance whence it is plain that the Scholastick notion of Suppositum is a mere foolery 6. Out of which we may easily understand how that the Humanity of Christ and the Eternal Word may be Hypostatically united without any contradiction to humane Reason unsophisticated with the fopperies of the Schools and both their Hypostases remain still entire Of which I will exhibite this as a more sensible representation Suppose a vast Globe made all of solid Gold saving one very small section which we will suppose of Silver This individual Gold and this individual Silver remaining still this individual Gold and Silver make up one entire Globe which is not an entire Globe without either So in Christ made up as I may so speak of the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity and of that humane Person that conversed at Jerusalem He is that individual Silver and the other that individual Gold and both these together One Christ the sphere of whose Divinity filling all things and being every where at hand cannot but be a warrantable Object of our Praiers and Invocations as the passive Humanity of Christ the prop of our Faith and confidence by his bitter Passion and Intercession 7. What Superstition therefore can there be or least suspicion of Idolatry when we pray unto Christ if we do but think of him to whom we pray For the Eternal Godhead does so outshine every thing in this Object of Devotion that our minde is in a manner wholly transported into God though with a due reflexion of honour upon the Person of our Saviour in virtue of whose Death and Intercession we make our addresses Which Truth might also passe with the Jew without any scruple at all if he do but call to minde with what devout Humility their fore-fathers have adored the presence of Angels To whom in their Law Iehovah the most holy name of God is also attributed And if an Angel that sustains the Person of God onely by way of Embassy has this divine honour how much more then is due to Christ who is Iehovah not onely by Title and external Function but by real Union with the Eternal Son of God Which the Platonists in their Triad also call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same in Greek that Iehovah is in Hebrew 8. Or if they could imagine that there was so extraordinary a kind of Union of these Angels with God where so high a name is attributed to them as being in such an universalizing Rapture that they had lost the sense of their own Personalities and were wholly actuated by God who used them as fully and commandingly as our Soul does our Bodies yet this may fall short in a two-fold respect of that Union which is betwixt the Humanity of Christ the Eternal Word For first it may not be of the same kinde but differs as much it may be as the union of a Spirit with a dead Corps does from the union of the Soul of Man in an healthful body Or if it could be admitted that there was some Principle excited and awaked or some way inserted into the Essence of an Angel whereby he might have real and vital union with God yet it being but temporary it is not to be compared with this lasting and durable union in the Messias Nor does the visible presence of the Angel warrant Divine worship more to him then to Christ. For Christ according to his higher and more adorable nature is every where present 9. I conclude therefore that the Divinity of Christ is not at all repugnant to Reason I mean his Real and Physical union as I may so call it with the Eternal Word For being that it was this VVord or Eternal VVisdome whereby God made all things it is very decorous and congruous that that great Instrument of the restoring so choice a piece of his Creation as Man is should be united particularly to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eternal VVord Nor is it unconceivable how he may be united particularly and immediately to this Hypostasis and not the other two from what we observe in Nature For even the Faculties of the Soul residing in the same part of the Soul according as the part of the Body is tempered or modified one Faculty may exert it self in the part and another be silent and take no hold thereon And further it is evident that though the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of Nature be every where present in the World and lie in the very same points of space yet their actions applications or engagings with things are very distinct For the Spirit of Nature takes hold only of Matter remanding grosse bodies towards the centre of the Earth shaping Vegetables into all that various beauty we finde in them but does not act at all on our Souls or Spirits with divine illumination no more then the Holy Spirit meddles with remanding of Stones downwards or tumbling broken tiles off from an house Which things rightly considered and improved make this Mystery intelligible enough for those that are fit for such Speculations So that I need adde nothing more having already proceeded further then I intended in zeal against the fraud of some and indiscretion of others who so confidently maintain That some main Points in Christian Religion are not onely obscure which I willingly acknowledge and that thereby our Religion is the more Venerable but also repugnant to Reason which I utterly deny and shall in its due place shew the sad inconvenience of so rash an Assertion CHAP. III. 1. That the Communicableness of Christian Religion implies its Reasonableness 2. The right Method of communicating the Christian Mystery 3 4. A brief example of that Method 5. A further continuation thereof 6. How the Mystagogus is to behave himself towards
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
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
Reprobationers have defined it namely That God has irresistibly decreed from all Eternity to bring into Being innumerable Myriads of Souls of men exceeding far the number of them that shall be saved who as without their own consent they were thus thrust into the World so let them doe what they will are certainly determined to unspeakable torment so soon as they go out of it and at the last day shall be adjudged to an higher degree of misery so great and so exceeding that all the racks and tortures that the Wit or Cruelty of the most enraged Tyrants could ever invent or execute would be ease and pleasure in Comparison of it and that these Pangs and Torments shall remain fresh upon them for ever and ever 8. This is the Representation of that sour Dogma Which to Reason is as contradictious as if one should name a square Circle or black Light and as harsh and horrid to the eares of the truly-Regenerate into the nature of God who is Love it self as the highest blasphemie that can be uttered Nor is the nature of those that are irreligious enough so much estranged from the Knowledge of God but that they think if there be any at all he cannot be such a one that laid such dark plots from all eternity for the everlasting misery of his poor impotent and unresisting Creature that never did any thing but what the Divine Decrees determined he should doe and therefore was alwaies the Almighties obedient servant For which at last he must be condemned to eternall punishment by him whom he did ever obey The serious and imperious obtrusion of such a dismal Conceit as this for one of the greatest Arcanums of Religion will make the free Spirit and over-inclinable to Prophaneness confidently to conclude That the whole frame of Religion is nothing but a mere Scar-crow to affright Fools and that there is no Hell at all since such Innocent Persons and constant Obeyers of the Divine Decrees must be the Inhabiters ot it CHAP. III. 1. The true Measure of Opinions to be taken from the designe of the Gospel which in general is The setting out the exceeding great Mercy and Goodness of God towards mankinde 2. And then Secondly The Triumph of the Divine Life in the Person of Christ in the warrantableness of doing Divine Honour to him 3. Thirdly The advancement of the Divine Life in his members upon Earth 4. The Fourth and last Rule to try Opinions by The Recommendableness of our Religion to Strangers or those those that are without 1. I Might adde several other Opinions in several parts of Christendome that tend very much to the defeating and eluding the serious End and purpose of Religion but before I go any further I shall set down the main designes of the Gospel of Christ that we may have a more plain and sure Rule and Measure to try all Opinions by The designe therefore of the Gospel in general is the magnifying of the Goodness and Loving-kindness of God that he has afforded mankinde so glorious a light to walk by so effectual means to redeem them from the love of the perishing vanities of this present world and to recall them back again to himself and to the participation of the ineffable joyes pleasures of his celestial Kingdom For God so loved the World that he gave his only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him should be saved And Titus 3. For we our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the Kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of Righteousness 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 abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour To which sense also the Apostle speaks Ephes. chap. 2. And you who were dead in trespasses and sins Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the Aire the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of our fleshly minde and were by nature the children of wrath even as others But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Iesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Iesus Christ. To which lastly you may adde Tit. 2.11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world c. These Scriptures give plain testimony of this more general designe of the Gospel 2. The next designe is an external exaltation of the Divine Life that did so mightily and conspicuously appear in the Person of our Saviour Christ as I have already abundantly declared How the mystery of Christianity comprehends in it chiefly this designe of exalting into Triumph the Divine Life above the Animal and Natural and that either externally in the religious worship we do our Saviour and is done even by Hypocrites and wicked Persons or else internally in the advancing of true Faith and Holiness in his living members and sincere followers of his doctrine Philip. 2. Let the same minde be in you which was in Christ Iesus Who being in the forme of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But emptied himself and took upon him the forme of a servant and was made in likeness of men And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore hath God also exalted him and given him a name above every name That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father And Hebr. 1. Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the Scepter of righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oile of gladness above thy fellows that is to say hath exalted thee to this due honour and rule having put all things under his feet Angels themselves not excepted as S. Peter tells us 1 Epist. 3.22 Who is gâ—ne into Heaven
them and haling them to such actions as they are perswaded God has severely forbid them Verily if this be not unjustly to command him who is under the power of another I cannot imagine what is nor what can be deemed a sin against God if urging others to sin against him be not So that again even upon our Adversaries own terms it is plain that the Soveraign power of God sets the sincere Religionist free in matters of Religion from any external force or power whatsoever 9. Now as this Position recommends it self sufficiently from its own native concinnity and solidity so will it also appear still more solid and more consonous to Reason if we consider the absurdity of the contrary Position namely That liberty of Conscience is by no means to be granted in Religion For from hence it follows that every Religion may nay ought to keep out all other Religions with all care possible For every mans Conscience tels him His is the best or else he would not be of it nay that there is none true and saving but his own For if they will say they may be saved in others then is our former argument a perfect demonstration against them that they are not only injurious to men but absolute rebels against God indeed in treating those ill that are his liege people and whom he loves so well that he intends to save them and in persecuting them even for those very actions wherein they do most seriously express their obedience to him But if there be but one true and saving Religion at once in the world this is the greatest disinterest to it that can be imagined For upon this Position it will be as carefully kept out and as forcibly as any of the rest which in my apprehension is very foul play and therefore this is another evidence of the truth of our Thesis viz. That the contrary is the greatest injury and disinterest to the True Religion that can be supposed which nothing but external force hinders from spreading over all For Magna est veritas praevalebit I mean in the Mindes and Consciences of those men where she may have free audience not in the noise and terrour of tyrannical impositions and obtrusions Besides the frequent misery and calamity this Position brings upon Nations and Kingdoms viz. Wars bloud-shed subversion of Families deposing stabbing or poisoning of Princes perpetual enmity and hatred and all the works and actions of the kingdom of Darkness Of so mischievous consequence is this Opinion we do oppose Whenas if it were acknowledged universally That Liberty of Religion is the natural right of mankinde all these mischiefs would be prevented The Prince could not pretend any quarrel against the People nor the People against the Prince or against one another but in Civil Rights that are more plain and intelligible CHAP. XI 1. That there is a Right in every Nation and Person to examine their Religion to hear the Religion of Strangers and to change their own if they be convinced 2. That those Nations that acknowledge this Right and act accordingly have naturally a Right to send out Agents into other Nations Their demeanour there and the right of revenging their injuries And how this Method had justified the Spaniards Invasion of the Indians 3. The unpracticablenesse of the present Theory by reason of the general perverseness of the World The advantageousnesse of it to Christendome and suitablenesse of it to the Spirit of a Christian. 4. That Religion corruptive of manners is coercible by the Magistrate 5. And that which would plainly destroy the defence of the Countrey 6. As also whatever Religion is inseparably interwoven with Principles of Persecution 7. An Answer to that Objection That all Sects are persecutive and that therefore there can be no Liberty of Conscience given 1. IT is manifest therefore That Liberty of Religion is the common and natural Right of all Nations and Persons that is to say That they have a power as they are Rational men and believe that there is a God and a Life to come to examine what is the best way to serve him for their future advantage and not to be tied up so to that Religion is first proposed to them but that they have a Right to suspect especially if they do not like it that there is some better and therefore that they may confer with those of other Religions send for them out of one Nation into another and entertain them when they are arrived hear them diligently and if they be convinced openly profess it Or if they come of their own accord they are to be entertained with the same security that an Agent of State is and may freely converse with them of the Nation that have a minde to hear them For this is a piece of their Right of Liberty to speak as well as the others to hear Which Transactions would breed no disturbance at all if this Right of Liberty of Religion was universally understood and acknowledged by all the Nations of the World as certainly it is their Right 2. And it being so it seems plainly to follow That any Nation or People that do heartily ackowledge the Reasonableness of this Right and their practice is accordingly that there accrues to them this part of the Right also that they may send of those of the Religion themselves are into their neighbouring Nations to communicate their Religion to them and to try if they can convince them of that which they are perswaded is true and to shew them the errours of their own but at seasonable times and without reproach or tumult or any way confronting them in the exercise of their Religion a thing very barbarous and insufferable at home much more abroad in Countreys where they are Strangers For the avoiding of which wilde enormities it seems reasonable in it self and a thing to be agreed upon that there shall be no security to any stranger that takes upon him to gather the people together under pretence of instructing them in a more perfect Religion unless he be an Agent from his own Nation for that purpose Nor is he to begin with the rude people but to act above-board and to make his applications to the Governours of the places where he arrives and not to pretend to the Juglings of Inspirations and the irresistible blusters and impetuosities of an unaccountable Conscience but first with a discreet candour to allow and commend what is good and praise-worthy in the Religion of the place and then after an unaffected profession of the love and kindeness of them that sent him towards the Nation with all prudent insinuations possible to lay before them the groundlesness or gross falsities which are in their Religion and after that to shew the most demonstrative Reasons he has for the recommending of his own namely such as are agreed upon by the mature deliberation and counsel of them that sent him upon this errand to which it should be
of Conscience the advantage of an honourable and comfortable subsistence for those that labour in the word and doctrine that is to say he is obliged in all reason and conscience to continue it where it is and to raise it whereever it is wanting And I am very confident it is either gross Fanatical ignorance or the hidden malice of Satan against the kingdome of Christ acting either in profane and Atheistical persons or such as are not cordially Christians that suggests any thing to the contrary For the less any Religion is underpropped by External force the more able ought their Heads and Tongues to be that are only by their learning eloquence and innocency of life to support it And the present Ages having so much wit and so little sense of Piety he that will undertake to give a good account of his Religion and to answer all Opposers though the Scruples and Controversies be but concerning that which is plainly in the Scripture he ought to have leisure and vacancy from the affairs of the World to prepare himself and continue his dexterity in this kinde For that tedious buzz and noise of the Spirit has now I think made it self so ridiculous that no prudent man will listen to such lazy Impostures Every one is to give a reason of his faith but Priests or Ministers more punctually then any their Province being to make good every sentence of the Bible to a rational Enquirer into the Truth of those Oracles Who therefore can sufficiently attend these things and be to seek for bread for himself and his Family How unjust and sordid a temper therefore are those persons of that could be content to leave the Clergy to work for their living Any inferiour fellow may talk and prate phrases and make faces but when a sober man would be satisfied of the grounds from whence they speak we shall hear no news of any thing but the Spirit and railing against carnal Reason though it be no soft flesh but hard and penetrant steel and such as pierces them to the very heart for all their contempt and slighting of it 5. And verily while I consider the unreasonableness and ill consequence of this kinde of Enthusiasme I cannot but think the Vigilancy of the Christian Magistrate should extend to this also amongst other things to suppress and keep under all Sects and Religions that hold of so Fanatick a tenour that is to say that profess they believe against the Christian Faith from the illumination of such a Spirit as they can give no account of viz. such as does not illuminate their Reason whereby their doctrine may be accountable and intelligible to others but only heat them and make them furious against the Christian Church For besides the hazarding of making a whole Nation mad for seriously it is an infectious disease if not the very possession of the Devil there may some damnable plot lie under it against Christianity and the State For it is a more easie thing to heat the Phansies of the vulgar then to inform their Iudgements though this tends to sober edification that to confusion and destruction In brief there are these two very bad things in this resolving of matters into the immediate suggestion of the Spirit not acting upon our Understandings First it defaces and makes useless that part of the Image of God in us which we call Reason and secondly it takes away that special advantage that Christianity has above all other Religions that she dare appeal to so solid a Faculty And therefore he that takes away the use of Reason in Religion undermines Christianity and laies it as low as the basest Superstition that ever appeared in the World 6. Now therefore to return I say To talk at the rate of these blinde Illuminati that do not so much as pretend to any solid satisfaction in what they say requires no study nothing but heat and impudency and a careless insensibility of what they said last or whether one thing will hold with another But he that so speaks as ready to give a reason of what he delivers and indeed of all things that are already delivered in the Scriptures so plainly as that it appears what the meaning is for it is no prejudice that there be some depths beyond the present reach of men this man certainly ought not to be tied up to the cares of the world by being put to labour for his bread but ought to have a liberal certain and honourable allowance But to contemn the Christian Clergy or to endeavour to make them contemptible by impoverishing them and forcing them to base terms of living smels exceeding rank of Prophanenesse Atheisme and Infidelity and the railing at them and calling them Mercenary because they have a just maintenance allowed them is assuredly the voice of that envious Accuser of the brethren who by those villainous reproaches and calumnies would undermine and pull down the Kingdom of Christ in the world by striking at the necessary props and supporters of it the Ministry of the Gospel whose subsistence ought to be independent of the People that may reprove the more freely and that there may be no temptation to either unworthy connivances or to the sophisticating the doctrine of Christ by sweet poison to inveigle the rich and to untie their purse-strings what they thus pay being the price of their own Souls betraied into the hands of such canting Mountebanks 7. Fifthly The Christian Magistrate ought also to continue and erect where there wants publick Schools of Learning For the more knowing his Subjects are the more certainly will they keep to Christianity and the more easily will others come off to the same Faith Nothing comparable to this for the preventing all delusions and impostures in Religion Mahometisme could never have been set on foot but in a rude and illiterate Nation But Christianity got its first foot-hold in the most civilized parts of the world though persecuted and opposed Besides that it is a piece of unspeakable madness to think that any man can be a fit Interpreter of Scripture without that which some in contempt call Humane Learning as Logick or the known Principles of Reasoning I will adde Mathematicks and Philosophy and skill in Tongues and History no man without the knowledge of these can make good the Truth of those holy Oracles to knowing and understanding men And therefore they that decry these helps are either very ignorant or out of their wits or have a treacherous plot against the flourishing of Christianity and would bring in some Fanatick Religion or else are enemies to all Religion whatsoever 8. For tell me O ye high-flown Perfectionists and ye great boasters of the Light within you could the highest Perfection of your inward Light ever shew to you the Histories of past Ages the universal state of the World at present the knowledge of Arts and Tongues without some external helps of either Books or Teachers How then can you
understand the Providence of God the purpose of Prophecies and the Authority of that Religion which God has peculiarly appointed us to walk in without external assistances How can you make a due judgement of the Truth of Christianity without a rational explication of the Prophecies that foretold the coming of Christ without weighing what may be said concerning the authentickness and uncorruptedness of his History in the Gospels and without considering the Reasonableness of all those Miraculous matters there recorded concerning him and of what is behinde for him to perform at his visible return to judge the quick and the dead No light within you unassisted of helps without and of the knowledge of History Tongues and Sciences and carefull exercise of Reason that excellent gift of God to mankinde can ever make you competent Judges of this matter 9. And as you do thus forfeit the knowledge of the Truth by this sullen Self-sufficiency of yours within so do you also endanger your eternal Salvation For you cannot justly excuse your selves by the close following the light within you if you do it in such a contemptuous manner that you will listen to nothing offered you from without though never so accommodate and agreeable to those rational Faculties God has given you Wherefore it being no necessitated ignorance but your own wilfulness that has made you Apostates from the Law of Christ your unbelief is no abrogation of that Law to you but stop your ears as hard against it as you can yet you shall be judged by it at the last day when you having not served God as he would be served he will assuredly reward you as you would not be rewarded For there is no other Name under Heaven whereby we must be saved but that of Iesus Christ of Nazareth whom the Iews crucified and God raised from the dead Wherefore you who make it the chiefest point of your Religion to crucifie him again by celebrating that execrable Pascha or Phase which is your detestable killing of Christ according to the flesh that it to say according to the Letter or History which is to put Christ out of all his Offices assigned to him by his Father and to turn mere Pagans and Infidels think as smoothly and favourably of your selves as you will that doom must pass upon you at last not according to your self-flattering Mysteries but according to the truth of the Letter which shall adjudge all the wicked to that everlasting fire which is prepared for the Devil and his Angles CHAP. XIII 1. The Authours application to the better-minded Quakers 2. He desires them of that Sect to search the grounds and compute the gains of their Revolt from Christ. 3. That there are no peculiar Effects of the Spirit of God in the Sect of the Quakers but rather of Pythonisme 4. That their Inspirations are not divine but diabolicall 5. The vanity of their boasting of the knowledge of their mysterious Allegories 6. The grounds of their insufferable bitterness against the Ministers of Christ. 7. That he was urged by the light within him to give witnesse to the Truth of the History of the Gospel and to admonish the Quakers His caution to the simple-minded among them how they turn in to Familisme 8. His ease and satisfaction of minde from disburdening himself of this duty 9. The compassionablenesse of their condition 10. And hope of their return to Christ. 1. KNowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we were earnestly moved in minde to forewarn you and exhort you I mean as many of you are curable and reducible to the Truth For some have celebrated that accursed Pascha so fully and obdurately that they are become past feeling having not any sense nor hope left of the concerns of another life God having justly given them up to a reprobate sense for the denying of the Lord that bought them But for you whose defection is not compleated nor your eyes sealed up to perfect infidelity let me desire you to make a stand awhile to lay your hands upon your own hearts and impartially examine your selves what you would have where you would be and what good thing you would seek that is not plainly exposed to your view in the Gospel of Christ. You had begun well Who has hindred you What has tempted you out of the way Do you now sincerely seek the kingdom of Heaven or gape after a booty upon Earth Examine your own Consciences and answer to your selves I desire not to broach your shame But I hope you will not account me injurious if I take notice of such things as you conceal from none 2. Search therefore your own hearts and try your selves what manner of Spirit has taken hold upon you since you have been so imbittered against the School of Christ. There is no Vertue you can pretend to that is not comprehended in his Life and Doctrine in the highest perfection and clearnesse How can you then take a new guide unless it be to be led into some pleasing errour And truly it is no small pleasure to the proud to have something separate and peculiar of their own to seem wiser and holier then other men And I desire you to appeal to your own Conscience how great a stroke this Vice has had in furthering on your Apostasy and beseech you to compute if you be still serious in Religion what you have gained by your revolt Is your Reason any thing more improved nay certainly that ye have cut off and cast from you as carnal and unholy Are you more humble and more charitable If you be you do ill to conceal your Vertues who would have the World believe so highly of you You affect indeed to be very homely and sordid in your habits but you do not perceive how sowr your affected sordidness smels of the leven of the Pharisees who loved to be seen of men and how you have but licked up what Diogenes that Pagan Sophist left in his Tub and have chosen rather to be proud Cynicks then civil Christians And if your Humility have so strong a sent of Pride how noisomely does your Pride it self stink in the nostrils of all men your disrespect to your betters your sawciness your censoriousness quite contrary to the precepts and practice of all holy men in all Ages Your Humility therefore being so little your Charity certainly cannot be great For indeed you count all besides your selves a rude unsanctified mass the Weeds of the World fit for nothing but the fire of your Fanatick wrath to burn up I but you will say though you have forgone your Reason and good manners yet you have the Spirit of God amongst you which is worth all If you have shew me the fruit thereof For Pharisaical sowrnesse Contest with the Magistrate affronting the Minister in his publick Function these are no fruits of the Spirit of God but these alone with certain clownish forms of calling Thou for You and keeping on the Hat
when others in civil respect put it off are the main Effects of that Spirit that distinguisheth you from others of the Nation 3. Is this therefore the great purchase you have obtained by turning your back on Christ and contemning of his Person to grow rude and clownish to all the World beside But methinks I hear you answer again As for this man we know not what is become of him but behold the Spirit is sensibly present amongst us even at this day But I demand by what Signs O we shiver and quake every joynt of us But that is no certain signe of the Spirit of God Was not the winde suddenly turned into the North or had you not an Ephemera or was not your over-excited Choler entangled or turned out of the way by Phlegme or Melancholy What miraculous power is there in all this O but there are also amongst us that have fallen down into a trance that have foamed and swelled till their buttons break off Wherefore of a truth these men could not but be full of the Spirit and this be a Miracle indeed If your Religion oweth not its growth to the tricks of Juglers and Tumblers or to artificial Epilepsies I do confesse it is a Miracle from these Symptomes if Satan himself drives not on the designe For these are plainly the passions of Pythonicks such a kinde of possession as seized the Pagan-Prophets and Priests of old who were no better then the worshippers of Devils whose Oracles Christ has silenced long since Wherefore examine your selves if you glory not in your shame See how you tread look behinde you or rather search within you who is the Prompter or first Mover in this new Scene of things 4. For tell me I beseech you what did your foaming Prophets when they vented themselves discharge into your ears whereby they may be deemed more Divine then those Fanatick Pagans Was not their continual song so soon as they got upon their feet the burning up of all Ordinances From whence therefore could this voice come but out of the flames of hell or what could swell the bodies of your Inspired but the venome and poison of the Devil which at last working up to their mouths he spit out enviously against the worship of Christs Person and all his holy Offices Which is another evidence against you that your pretended Inspirations are not divine but diabolical and that the mystery of Satan worketh amongst you who would fain pull down Him whom of a truth God hath set up to be a King and Priest to the Nations for ever 5. But the sweetest satisfaction of all is that you are so extraordinarily illuminated that you understand all the Mysteries of Christs kingdom better then any one else and can in a supercilious pity bemoan the ignorance of the World or with an imperious bitterness fly in their faces and reproach them for it especially the Teachers of the people that they have not taken up your Allegorical knacks nor know how to give a mystical meaning of the Gospel from the preaching of Iohn the Baptist to the coming of Christ to Judgement But you are indeed so unilluminated as not to understand that such devices as these are merely Allusions of humane Wit and help very little to the enforcing of that they are made to signifie namely Repentance and Mortification of every evil lust and concupiscence and a renovation of our mindes into the perfect image of Christ that his spirit may rule in us and that the works of death and darknesse may be utterly destroied For this Truth is plainly and literally contained in the Scripture so that if your mindes were not more set upon fancies then savoury instruction you need not run a gadding after any new Guide for the attainment of this light And God be thanked many honest plain-hearted Christians that do not swagger and make such a noise with Mystical phrases as you both hear and live according to these Gospel-Precepts using a secret and silent severity upon themselves not acting the rough and hairy Baptist upon others as you do who love to oâ—tentate your self-chosen austerities to the eyes of the world like the Pharisees who made sowr faces for fear the people should not take notice that they afflicted their bodies with fasting What purchase therefore have you got by your Allegorical Mysteries unlesse you have been emboldned thereby to let go the Historical truth of the Gospel and have found your selves much at ease that your belief is not charged with such miraculous things as are written of Christ partly done already and partly to be done at the end of the World For hereby you do proclaim your selves Infidels and that for all your boasting your spirits are so foul and impure that they are no fit receptacles of the holy Christian Faith but that you have levelled your selves as low as Epicures and Atheists who are no more capable of the belief of these things then the Beasts of the Field 6. If it be thus with you I dare appeal unto you whether you keep so precisely to the light within you but that you have consulted with that blinde Guide H. Nicolas and tasted of the treacherous sops of his abhorred Passover whose Fanatick boldness has led the dance to this mad Apostasy Have you not celebrated his detestable Phase who has gone about to perswade the World that the greatest and truest Arcanum of the Lords Supper is Iudas-like to betray their Master to kill Christ according to the flesh that is to lay aside and misbelieve the Truth of his History Ask your own hearts if the warmth of this sop has not so encouraged you nay inflamed you with insufferable bitternesse against the Ministers of Christ as teaching nothing but lies because they have not ceased to believe the Truth Has not this with him that entred in with it so intoxicated you with rage that you have trampled the holy Bible under your feet Is it not this that hath made you so often roar against and revile the Preacher in the Pulpit and disturb the publick Assemblies by your rude and frantick interpellations Which Extravagancies demonstrate by what Spirit you are led and that you are plainly Rebels against Christ and are revolted to the Powers of the dark Kingdom 7. These things I could not forbear to write as being very much pressed in Spirit thereunto For the Light within me that is my Reason and Conscience does assure me that the ancient and Apostolick Faith according to the Historical meaning thereof is very solid and true and that the Offices of Christ are never to be antiquated till his visible return to Judgement according to the literal sense of the Creed and that Familisme is a mere Flam of the Devil a smooth tale to seduce the simple from their Allegeance to Christ. And therefore I beseech every man in these daies of Liberty to take heed how they turn in thither especially those that are of an
not look then like a piece of irreligious rudeness which is truly a kinde of Prophaneness to expect that Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ should give us the meeting in squalid and sordid places even then when we pretend most to shew our Reverence and Devotion to him For though we may make bold one with another to meet where we please yet we making our approaches to God in those places and he thereby making his special approaches to us for in a Philosophical sense he is every where alike questionless it cannot but be an expression of our Reverence unto him to have the Structure of the place proportionably capacious well and fairly built and handsomely adorned and as properly and significantly of our Religion and devotional homages we owe to our crucified Saviour as can be without suspicion of Idolatry or any scandalous Superstition For it is true from the very light of Nature which the knowledge of Christ does not extinguish but direct and perfect That Houses of Publick worship ought to have some Stateliness and Splendour in them expressive of the Reverence we bear to the Godhead we do adore And therefore the Christian Magistrate for the honour of his Saviour who suffered so much shame for him as also for making Christian Religion more recommendable to them that are without for Religion will not seem Religion to any without Publick worship nor a desirable Religion unless this Publick worship be performed with inoffensive Splendour and Decency ought to assist and abett such good practices as these 3. It is beyond the limits of my present Discourse to make any curious inquisition or determination concerning the particularities of this Publick Worship though I cannot abstain from giving some general hints concerning the due managements of the chief matters thereof such as are most obvious to think of and most useful to consider And such are the Enquiries into the nature of the Place of this Publick worship and the Holiness thereof and our Demeanour therein and especially of those chief performances of Preaching Praying Receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme also and of Holy-days To which we may adde those accessory helps of Devotion as some account them Musick and Pictures Concerning which I shall rather simply declare my sense of things then solicitously endeavour to demonstrate my Conclusions by over-operose Reasonings which will but raise a dust and provoke the Polemical Rabble 4. Concerning therefore this House of Publick Worship the Christians meet in I conceive there is no need to phansie it a Temple nay rather it seems fit to look upon it as no Temple the use of that Ceremony being antiquated by the excellency and supereminency of our Religion For the famed Iehovah is not now a Topical Deity nor Christ confined to this or that City or People but is the declared Worship of the whole Earth and is not contained within the wals of any Temple but has his personal Residence in Heaven whither our Devotions are to be directed and our Mindes suspended and lifted up thitherward not debased nor defixed to the corners of any earthly Edifice into which when a man looks he findes nothing worthy of adoration To which Truth both Stephen and Paul give their suffrage the one declaring to the Iews the other to the Areopagites That the most High who is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And our Saviour himself to the Samaritan woman who was solicitous which of those Temples that of Samaria or that of Ierusalem was the right place of Worship he tels her plainly that such Topical or Figurative worshipping of God was shortly to cease That the hour was coming and then was when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth that is by the inward Sanctity of their Souls and with the true service of Prayers and Praises and Alms-deeds of which Incense and Sacrifices were but the figures and shadows Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And lastly S. Iohn in his Apocalyps describing the condition of the New Ierusalem which is the Church of Christ in her best state I saw saith he no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it That is their worship is directed immediatly towards God and Christ not to any place as the Jews ever worshipped toward the Temple of Ierusalem 5. But though the nature and name of a Temple does not belong to this House of Publick worship according to the sense of Scripture which made also the Primitive Christians carefully abstain from that nomination yet I do not see any ground at all why some of our phanciful Sects should take offence at the name of Church applied thereto For the Church being an house wherein we meet to serve the Lord whether God the Father or Christ his Son both which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this house is naturally there from denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek whence is our English word Church as every trivial Grammarian can tell them 6. But now it being thus plain that it is an house for Divine worship and therefore has a special relation to God though it be not dedicated in such a solemn manner as Solomon's Temple yet it does necessarily contract a kinde of Holiness hereby and by this Holiness some measure of respect namely that it should be kept in handsome repair and be carefully defended from all foulness and nastiness both within and without And because Custome has appropriated it to the service of God unless very great necessity urge it is not to be made use of to any other purposes Those that are otherwise affected in this matter may justly seem guilty of a kinde of Incivility against God as I may so call it and hazard the being accounted Clowns in the sight of the Court of Heaven and all the holy Angels As that also might be reputed a piece of unskilfulness and obsolete Courtship to complement any one part of this House as if there were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and the Ark of the Covenant For this would be to turn the Church of Christ into a Temple Wherefore those that at their entrance into the Congregation either kneel down or standing do their private devotion and continue bare-headed before Divine Service begin they mean not this Devotion to the Edifice but testifie only with what fear and reverence they make their approaches to God and their Hearts being in preparation to a nearer approach shew their sense of his coming nearer to them by this reverential observance For Veneration is done at the coming of great
Celestial Vehicle 4. The activity of the separate Soul upon the Vehicle argued from her moving of the Spirits in the Body and that no advantage accrews therefrom to the wicked after death 141 CHAP. IV. 1. Christ's Session at the Right hand of God interpreted either figuratively or properly 2. That the proper sense implies no humane shape in the Deity 3. That though God be Infinite and every where yet there may be a Special presence of him in Heaven 4. And that Christ may be conceived to sit at the Right hand of that Presence or Divine Shechina 143 CHAP. V. 1. The Apotheosis of Christ or his Receiving of Divine Honour freed from all suspicion of Idolatry forasmuch as Christ is God properly so called by his Real and Physicall union with God 2. The Real and Physical union of the Soul of Christ with God being possible sundry Reasons alledged to prove that God did actually bring it to pass 3. The vain Evasions of superficial Allegorists noted 4. Their ignorance evinced and the Apotheosis of Christ confirmed from the Immortality of the Soul and the political Government of the other World 5. That he that equalizes himself to Christ is ipso facto discovered an Impostour and Lier 144 CHAP. VI. 1. An Objection against Christ's Soveraignty over Men and Angels from the meanness of the rank of Humane Spirits in comparison of the Angelical Orders 2. An Answer to the Objection so far as it concerns the fallen Angels 3. A further inforcement of the Objection concerning the unfallen Angels with an Answer thereto 4. A further Answer from the incapacitie of an Angels being a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World 5. And of being a fit Example of life to men in the flesh 6. That the capacities of Christ were so universal that he was the fittest to be made the Head or Soveraign over all the Intellectuall Orders 7. Christ's Intercession his fitness for that Office 8. What things in the Pagan Religion are rectified and compleated in the Birth Passion Ascension and Inercession of Christ. 146 CHAP. VII 1. That there is nothing in the History of Apollonius that can properly answer to Christs Resurrection from the dead 2. And that his passage out of this life must go for his Ascension concerning which reports are various but in general that it was likely he died not in his bed 3. His reception at the Temple of Diana Dictynna in Crete and of his being called up into Heaven by a Quire of Virgins singing in the Aire 4. The uncertainty of the manner of Apollonius his leaving the World argued out of Philostratus his own Confession 5. That if that at the Temple of Diana Dictynna was true yet it is no demonstration of any great worth in his Person 6. That the Secrecy of his departure out of this world might beget a suspicion in his admirers that he went Body and Soul into Heaven 7. Of a Statue of Apollonius that spake and of his dictating verses to a young Philosopher at Tyana concerning the Immortality of the Soul 8. Of his Ghost appearing to Aurelian the Emperour 9. Of Christ's appearing to Stephen at his martyrdome and to Saul when he was going to Damascus 149 CHAP. VIII 1. The use of this parallel hitherto of Christ and Apollonius 2. Mahomet David George H. Nicolas high-pretending Prophets brought upon the stage and the Author's Apology for so doing 3. That a misbelief of the History of Christ and a dexterity in a moral Mythology thereof are the greatest excellencies in David George and H. Nicolas 4. That if they believed there were any Miracles ever in the world they ought to have given their reasons why they believe not those that are recorded of Christ and to have undeceiv'd the world by doing Miracles themselves to ratifie their doctrine 5. If they believed there never were nor ever will be any Miracles they do plainly betray themselves to be mere Atheists or Epicures 6. The wicked plot of Satan in this Sect in clothing their style with Scripture-language though they were worse Infidels then the very Heathen 7. That the gross Infidelity of these two Impostours would make a man suspect them rather to have been crafty prophane Cheats then honest through-crackt Enthusiasts 8. That where Faith is extinct all the rapturous Exhortations to Vertue are justly suspected to proceed rather from Complexion then any Divine principle 152 CHAP. IX 1. Mahomet far more orthodox in the main points of Religion then the above named Impostours 2. The high pitch this pretended Prophet sets himself at His journey to Heaven being waited upon by the Angel Gabriel His Beast Alborach and of his being called to by two Women by the way with the Angels interpretation thereof 3. His arrival at the Temple at Jerusalem and the reverence done to him there by all the Prophets and holy Messengers of God that ever had been in the world 4. The crafty political meaning of the Vision hitherto 5. Mahomet bearing himself upon the Angel Gabriel's hand climbes up to Heaven on a Ladder of Divine light His passing through seven Heavens and his commâ—nding of himself to Christ in the Seventh 6. His salutation of his Creatour with the stupendious circumstances thereof 7. Five special favours he received from God at that congress 8. Of the natural wilyness in Enthusiasts and of their subtile pride where they would seem most humble The strange advantage of Enthusiasme with the rude Multitude 9. And the wonderfull success thereof in Mahomet Other Enthusiasts as proud as Mohamet but not so successful and why 155 CHAP. X. 1. That Mahomet was no true Prophet discovered from his cruel and bloudy Precepts 2. From his insatiable Lust. 3. From his wildeness of Phansy and Ignorance in things What may possibly be the meaning of the black speck taken out of his Heart by the Angel Gabriel 4. His pretence to Miracles as his being overshadowed with a cloud when he drove his Masters Mules 5. A stock of a Tree cleaving it self to give way to the stumbling Prophet The cluttering of Trees together to keep off the Sun from him as also his dividing of the Moon 6. The matters hitherto recited concerning Mahomet taken out of Johannes Andreas the Son of Abdalla a Mahometane Priest a grave person and serious Christian. 158 CHAP. XI 1. Three main Consequences of Christ's Apotheosis 2. Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles power of doing Miracles 3. The manner of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them at the day of Pentecost 4. The substantial Reasonableness of the circumstances of this Miracle 5. The Symbolical meaning of them 6. What was meant by the rushing winde that filled the whole house 7. What by the fiery cloven tongues 8. A recital of several other Miracles done by or happening to the Apostles 9. The Congruity and Coherence of the whole History of the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles argued from the Success 161 CHAP. XII 1.
becoming the Spirit of a Christian to allow what is good and commendable in other Religions then so foully to reproach them 4. What are the due demonstrations of our Affection to the Gospel of Christ. 5. How small a part of the World is styled Christians and how few real Christians in that part that is so styled 6. That there has been some unskilfull or treacherous tampering with the powerfull Engine of the Gospel that it has done so little execution hitherto against the Kingdome of the Devil 7. The Author's purpose of bringing into view the main Impediments of the due Effects thereof 490 CHAP. II. 1. The most fundamental Mistake and Root of all the Corruptions in the Church of Christ. 2. That there may be a Superstition also in opposing of Ceremonies and in long Prayers and Preachments 3. That self-chosen Religion extinguishes true Godliness every where 4. The unwholsome and windy food of affected Orthodoxality with the mischievous consequences thereof 5. That Hypocrisy of Professours fills the World with Atheists 6. That the Authoritative Obtrusion of gross falsities upon men begets a misbelief of the whole Mystery of Piety 7. That all the Churches of Christendome stand guilty of this mischievous miscarriage 8. The infinitie inconvenience of the Superlapsarian doctrine 492 CHAP. III. 1. The true measure of Opinions to be taken from the design of the Gospel which in general is The setting out the exceeding great Mercy and Goodness of God towards mankind 2. And then Secondly The Triumph of the Divine Life in the Person of Christ in the warrantableness of doing Divine Honour to him 3. Thirdly The advancement of the Divine Life in his members upon Earth 4. The Fourth and last Rule to try Opinions by The Recommendableness of our Religion to Strangers or those that are without 497 CHAP. IV. 1. The general use of the foregoing Rules 2. A special use of them in favour of one anothers persons in matters of opinion 3. The examination of Election and Reprobation according to these Rules And how well they agree with that Branch of the Divine Life which we call Humility 4. The disagreement of absolute Reprobation with the first Rule 5. As also with the third 6. And with the second and fourth 499 CHAP. V. 1. That Election and Reprobation conferrs something to Humility 2. That some men are saved irresistibly by virtue of Discriminative Grace 3. That the rest of Mankind have Grace sufficient and that several of them are saved 4. The excellent use of this middle way betwixt Calvinisme and Arminianisme 5 6. The exceeding great danger and mischief of the former Extremes 502 CHAP. VI. 1. The Scholastick Opinions concerning the Dâ—vinity of Christ applied to the foregoing Rules 2. As also concerning the Trinity 3. The Application of the Antitrinitarian Doctrine to the said Rules It s disagreement with the third 4. As also with the second 5. The Antitrinitarians plea. 6. An answer to their plea. 7. How grosly the denying the Divinity of Christ disagrees with the third Rule 504 CHAP. VII 1. Imputative Righteousness Invincible Infirmity and Solifidianism in what sense they seem to comply with the second and last Rule and how disagreeing with the third 2. The groundlesness of mens Zeal for Imputative Righteousness 3. And for Solifidianism 4. The conspiracy of Imputative Righteousness Solifidianism and Invincible Infirmity to exclude all Holiness out of the Conversation of Christians 5. That large confessions of Sins and Infirmities without any purpose of amending our lives is a mere mocking of God to his very face With the great danger of that Affront 507 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 abhor 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 510 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 Millennium in the more sober meaning thereof applied to the above-nam'd Rules 512 CHAP. X. 1. That in those that believe There is a God and a life to come there is an antecedent Right of Liberty of Conscience not to be invaded by the Civil Magistrate 2. Object That no false Religion is the command of God with the Answer thereto 3. That there is no incongruity to admit That God may command contrary Religions in the World 4 5. The utmost Difficulty in that Position with the Answer thereto 6. That God may introduce a false perswasion into the mind of man as well for probation as punishment 7. That simple falsities in Religion are no forfeiture of Liberty of Conscience 8. That though no falsities in Religion were the command of God yet upon other considerations it is demonstrated that the Religionist ought to be free 9. A further demonstration of this Truth from the gross absurdities that follow the contrary Position 515 CHAP. XI 1. That there is a Right in every Nation and Person to examine their Religion to hear the Religion of Strangers and to change their own if they be convinced 2. That those Nations that acknowledge this Right and act accordingly have naturally a Right to send out Agents into other Nations Their demeanour there and the right of revenging their injuries And how this Method had justified the Spaniards Invasion of the Indians 3. The unpracticableness of the present Theory by reason of the general perversness of the World The advantageousness of it to Christendome and suitableness of it to the Spirit of a Christian 4. That Religion corruptive of manners is coâ—rcible by the Magistrate 5. And that which would plainly destroy the defence of the Countrey 6. As also whatsoever Religion is inseparably interwoven with Principles of Persecution 7. An Answer to that Objection That all Sects are persecutive and that therefore there can be no Liberty of Conscience given 521 CHAP. XII 1. To what Persons and with what Circumstances the Christian Magistrate is to give Liberty of Conscience And the great advantage thereof to the Truth of Christianity 2. That those that are not Christians are not to be admitted into places of trust by the Christian Magistrate if he can supply himself with those that are 3. That the Christian Magistrate is to lay aside the fallible opinions of men and promote every one in Church and State according to his merit in the Christian life and his ability of promoting of the interest of the Church of Christ and the