THEO-POLITICA OR A Body of Divinity CONTAINING The Rules of the special Government OF GOD According to which He orders the immortal and intellectual Creatures Angels and Men to their final and Eternal Estate Being a Method of those saving Truths which are contained in the Canon of the Holy Scripture and abridged in those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ Go and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Which were the Ground and Foundation of those Apostolical Creeds and Forms of Confessions related by the Ancients and in particular by Irenaeus and Tertullian BY GEORGE LAWSON Rector of More in the County of Salop. LONDON Printed by J. Streater for Francis Tyton and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Three Daggers in Fleet-street MDCLIX THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Christian Reader I Will not trouble thee with any tedious Preface or Epistle Dedicatory but onely in a few words acquaint thee 1. With the subject of this Treatise 2. The manner how it s handled 3. The use that be made of it I. The Subject is noble and excellent it is that glorious Kingdom and special Governmentt of the Supream Universal and Eternal King which is the principal if not the adoquate subject of the Holy Scriptures which were revealed from Heaven and without which neither Men nor Angels could have known much of it For as it is the Kingdom of God so the Word of God must inform us of it Angels Prophets Apostles and Christ himself spake of it and it was the principal matter of the Doctrine This Government was contrived before the World was and after time began it was one of his principal Works wherein once made known by Revelation we may read more of God of his deepest Counsels and of his perfections then in the vast Volume of Heaven and Earth The Doctrine thereof doth so much concern sinful Man that upon the knowledge thereof depends his Eternal Salvation This Kingdom should be the chiefest subject not onely of our most serious and retired Thoughts but of our Discourse that it might be made known to the following Generations till time shall be no more and it will be the matter of that Heavenly Musick and Melody which Saints and Angels shall make in the Temple of Eternal Glory For all thy Works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bles thee They shall speak of the Glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power To make known unto the sons of men His mighty Acts and the glorious Majesty of thy Kingdom Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all Generations Psal. 145. 10 11 12 13. This Kingdom did commence upon the Creation of Angels and of Men whom both He governed according to different Rules especially after the Fall and Promise of a Redeemer for then He new-modelled the Government of Mankind and of that new Model there were three degrees The first continued from the times of Adam till the exaltation of Christ at His Fathers right hand The second which is more excellent began to be administred by Christ glorified and shall not determine till all Enemies even Death the last shall be destroyed The third which is most glorious shall commence upon the final Judgment and shall be of endless date This is the subject II. For the manner of handling of it the Language is plain and rather rude then polite and more Grammatical then Rhetorical for my desire was to be understood I had no design to please the curious but by plain Doctrine to inform the Vnderstanding by clear Method to help the Memory and by the divine and excellent matter rather than by excellency of words to work upon the affection and wind into the heart The very Subject being a Kingdom did dictate the Method and the Scripture furnished me with suitable Expressions I do not proceed by way of Dialogue or of Catechisms or of Probleme or of Systems or of Sermons I thought good and took the liberty to deliver positive Doctrine in a continued Discourse yet in a certain method and so to draw on the Reader from one head to another and from one part of this Government to another till he come to the beginning of that perfect and most glorious degree wherein God shall be all in all In some particulars I deliver my opinion yet with submission to the judgment of the more Learned and Judicious I desire no man to believe any thing delivered in this Treatise which shall not be found agreeable to the Holy Scriptures To seduce and mislead the meanest Christian would trouble me much If the more understanding discover my imperfections I desire him to pardon them if any passages be amiss to correct the mistakes and not too rigidly censure the Author We all have much of Man in us we are yet in the flesh and many are our imperfections and mine more then those of others And if every Reader shall remember himself to be a man as yet in the flesh I shall do well enough Let none impute to me the Errata of the Press though some few may be gross for I was for the time of Printing at a great distance Some things in this work I onely touch intending a more distinct discussion in another Book which is an Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews This for the manner of handling III. The use of it may be the same with that of other Systems and larger Catechisms What it may adde I leave to others for to judge It may serve to acquaint us more particularly with the nature of that Kingdom whereof many speak and which few do understand It may help to improve our Knowledge of the Principles to understand the Scriptures more clearly to direct younger Students who intend the Ministery to bring some Controversies to an Issue It may give occasion to men of more excellent gifts out of Scriptures to improve the Body of saving Doctrine And for the present it may testifie that notwithstanding all our Divisions and Alterations the substance of the Ancient and Apostolical Doctrine remains amongst us I desired to do some good unto this poor Church and if any good be done it is not I but the Grace of God in me who desired to serve in this as in other things the great and glorious Monarch of this Kingdom To whom be glory everlasting Amen Thine to serve in the Lord GEO LAWSON THE ARGUMENT AND CONTENTS OF The several Chapters LIB I. CHAP. I. THe Subject and Rule of the whole Treatise both in the First and Second Book CHAP. II. The Mind of God concerning His special Kingdom 1. Known unto Himself 2. Revealed 1. To Man immediately by inspiration 2. Communicated by Man to Man by Word and Writing and both Infallibly As written in Hebrew Chaldee Greek it makes up the Canon of the Scripture which is the most excellent Monument in the World and
Heaven will serve the turn God must give it and this he hath done The Rule is at hand even the Holy Scriptures The Method therefore to be observed is 1. To man fest that these Holy Writings are a certain and perfect Rule And 2. To proceed to speak of this Blessed and Glorious Kingdom according to the same And the Lord of all Wisdom Truth and Mercy in Christ direct and assist me and incline mine Heart with all care and humility to follow his Directions AMEN CHAP. II. Concerning the Holy Scriptures THE Holy Scriptures are the Mind of God concerning his special Kingdom expressed in Writing To understand this more fully we must observe 1. The Mind of God concerning this Kingdom 2. The Expression of his Mind 3. The several Ways and Degrees of this Expression First § 1 The Mind of God are his Thoughts and Counsels concerning this Kingdom as known unto himself For the Wisdome of God contrived and model'd this Kingdom before the World was and his Will decreed it For God ordained these things before the World to our glory 1 Cor. 2. 7. These his Thoughts and Counsels at first were known onely to himself and to none other For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of Man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. Therefore before there can be any knowledge of them God must express himself and communicate his Mind unto Angels or Men who alone are capable and fit to receive the knowledge of his Minde made known to them This Expression and Revelation of himself out of himself is called The Word of God The Word of God is § 2 1. A Word 2. The Word of God The nature of a word is to express or represent the mind of the Speaker The end of it is to make it known to another to whom it is spoken For the end of my speech and so of speech in general is to communicate my mind unto others who know it not So the Word of God declares the Mind of God to Angels or Men who know it not God is the Speaker his Mind the thing spoken his speech is that whereby he expresseth and maketh known his Mind By Word I do not understand that Word which was in the Beginning and was with God and was God and by which the World was made Joh. 1. 1 2. For that Word was a clear and full expression of God himself to himself the brightness of his glory and the express Image of his Person This was the Word in himself But this Word is an expression of some part of his Mind out of himself There be § 3 First several ways Secondly divers degrees of God's Expressions 1. Several ways for he may and doth express himself by his Works and make his Works his Word For the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work Psal. 19. 1. Not onely the Works of Creation but of Providence speak much of Gods glorious perfections as of his Wisdome his Power his Goodness his Justice his Mercy He may express himself by Representations by Angels by an audible Voyce to the outward Senses or by Impression upon the inward and common Sense or by inspiration immediatly unto the immortal Souls of Men. For as God at sundry times so he spake divers ways to the Fathers by the Prophets Heb. 1. 1 How he spake to Angels and Man at the first Creation we know not The Expression by Inspiration and immediate Vision is the most perfect and excellent For by that the persons inspired know not onely what the things spoken are but that it is God that speaketh He expresseth himself by Writing as he wrote the Ten Words or Commandements of the Moral Law in two Tables of Stone and at length in process of time caused the whole Body of his Doctrine concerning his Kingdom to be written And hence that Book with all the parts thereof concerning this Kingdom is called the Holy Scriptures which both in regard of the Author the Matter and the Contexture is the most excellent Book and Writing in the World But before I come to speak of them I must observe the several degrees of Gods expression and signification of his Mind to Man The several degrees of God's expression of his Mind § 4 in the matters of this Kingdom are reducible to Two 1. He spake Immediatly unto man 2. Mediatly by man unto Man For God spake unto the Prophets and Apostles before he spake unto others by them The Word of the Lord came to the Prophets before they could signifie and declare it to the people And the Matter and Doctrine of the Scripture was first communicated by Inspiration and Revelation before it could be infallibly communicated unto others either by Word or Writing The holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. For they must first be moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost before that they spake unto any man that which they received immediatly from God Paul received not the Gospel of man neither was he taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ Gal. 1. 12. And the mystery of Christ was revealed unto the Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit Ephes. 3. 5. In this respect it is said that all Scripture that is all the Doctrine of Scripture is given by inspiration of God 1 Tim. 3. 16. Thus God speaks immediatly to man § 5 and secondly mediatly by man to man And this he doth two ways 1. By infallible and extraordinary Teachers 2. By ordinary men not immediatly inspired yet both of these agree in two things 1. That God speaks by both to Man and both speak from God 2. That the matter spoken by both is the same For if the latter and ordinary Teachers do not speak the same things which the former did God did not speak by them And the Doctrine of the former ought to be the Rule of the Doctrine of the latter First he speaks by extraordinary men and these are Prophets and Apostles to whom he did reveal his wisdome not that they should conceal it but that they should declare it to others And these expressed the mind of God two ways 1. By Word 2. By Writing And they were infallibly directed in both to a Word to a Letter For the holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost as before And so did write otherwise their Doctrine had not been infallibly true It 's said not onely that the Word but the Scripture all Scripture was given by inspiration of God And now § 6 at length we are come to the Scriptures That the Doctrine and Word of God should be written was no ways necessary in respect of God yet in respect of the frailty and corruption of man the Divine Wisdome thought it expedient if not necessary to express himself by Writing God could have supplyed all
shall not ever be totally in Act. For he doth not effect all things which he can but those things which he will He is said to be pure Act in respect of his Essence and eternall acting upon himself And this power as an Attribute is pure act and in that respect is properly actual strength not power physically taken It extends to all things possible and is able to produce them But we must not think that they are possible or producible in themselves but in respect of this power And it 's to be conceived first as able to effect before it actually effect any thing as it actually effecteth all things that are effected It 's the root and originall of all created active Power and all Created causes are effects of it and act as acted and moved by him How it acts and concurrs with free Agents when they sin the Wit of Man cannot clearly understand and satisfie it self But this is certain that as the Decree so the Power is alwayes regulated by the Wisdom and Juctice of God It 's great and irresistible For though men and Angels may disobey his Lawes yet they cannot resist or hinder his power For he is in the Heavens and hath done whatsoever he pleased Psal. 115. 3. And whatsoever the Lord pleased that did He in Heaven and in Earth in the Seas and all deep places Psal. 135. 6. Therefore if God promise great things and such as to man may seem impossible we may safely rely upon Him What is said shall certainly be done Thus â—art the Works of God have been considered in respect of the Essence § VIII It remaines that we observe them with respect unto the Father Son and Holy Ghost In this later respect the Authours of Theologicall Systems inform us of two things Their Co-operation Distinct manner of Working The Co-operation is that whereby the Father Son and Holy Ghost concur as one Individual efficient cause of every Work and effect out of themselves In this respect that 's true that Opera Trinitatis ad Extra sunt indivisa What one is said to do all are to be understood to do The Father doth not create without the Word nor was the Word made flesh nor did redeem without the Father nor the Holy Ghost sanctifie without the Father and the Word neither do the Father and the Son any thing without the Holy Ghost For all the Works of God ad extra do necessarily presuppose the immanent necessary acts of the Deity upon it self Yet we must not conceive them as any wayes unequal either in themselves or in their working nor as three distinct agents uniting their forces joyntly to produce one and the same effect For one Individuall Essence must needs if it act be one Individuall Agent in the production of all Creatures and effecting all his works Therefore we find the Creation and other Works of God ascribed as well unto the Word and Spirit as to the Father and for the most part to them all as to one God The manner of their concurrence is that § IX whereby the Father worketh by the Word and Spirit the Son from the Father by the Spirit and the Spirit from them both This doth imply that the manner of their Work is distinct yet it 's very difficult to conceive the distinction or difference We read that the Father doth many things by the Word and Spirit but never that the Word or Spirit did any thing by the Father All things were made by the Word and without him was not any thing made that was made John 1. 3 And by him were all things created and by him all things consist Col. 1. 16 17. And God the Father is said to have made the Worlds by him Heb. 1 2. The Father will quicken our bodyes by his Spirit dwelling in us Rom. 8. 11. And he revealed the deep things of his Gospel by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2. 10. And God elected the Thessalonian Christians to Salvation through the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes. 2. 13. We have some resemblance hereof in the soul of man which being one individuall essence is one individuall agent It conâ—riveth all its works by the counsell of the understanding determines them by his will and is ready to effect them by his active power When it actually produceth any thing the Will commands the understanding directs and the power executeth The Will is first and begins the understanding is the second and goes on the power is the last and finisheth the Work And these three inseparably and individually concur efficiently to produce the effect as one efficient And the Will directs by the understanding and executes by understanding directing the power and by the Power Acting according to the Understanding How Redemption is appropriated to the â—on and Sanctification to the Holy Ghost must be considered hereafter In these things We must be sober and not Curious We must neither confidently affirm any thing as a Divine Truth which is not evident unto us out of the Scripture nor Peremptorily deny any thing because We do not clearly see it in the Scriptures For so the Sadduces deny'd the Resurrection because they could not see it in the Book of God Though it was in that book as our Saviour made it evident These things premised concerning the Works of God in general § X I will proceed to say something of them in particular Though they be many yet may they all be reduced to three heads For they all are either works of Creation of Preservation or of Ordination Some bring these under two heads the first of Creation the second of Providence And by Providence they understand both Preservation and Government But this is but difference in Words The first work whereby the Eternall King did first acquire his power is Creation Which is a Work of God whereby in the beginning he created Heaven and Earth and all things therein This work must be considered Absolutely in it self Respectively as aground of absolute power And in it self Generally Specially in respect of man In it self generally it 's A Work or Act of God yet this Act is not immanent but emanant and transient yet farr different from the Acts of any Creature and from many other Acts of God It had an objâ—ct logically considered no subject existent For the Creature as existent was an effect and not the subject of it As Cameracensis doth distinguish of Predestination That Praedestinatio Activa est Deus Praedestinans Passiva est Res Praedestinata So Creatio activa est Dâ—uâ— creans Passiva Res creata So that in Creation we have God and his Creativity as Occam and Bacon expresse it and the thing created It is a proper Act of God and can be truly affirmed of nothing else if it were not so God by this work could not be distinguished from all other things as by this act we read in Scripture he is The first part of the Creation presupposed no matter
defects of man 's Vnderstanding Memory Vtterance by immediate inspiration and direction as he did at first and will do in Heaven yet he thought good to make use of Writing which was a more certain and ordinary permanent way of continuing and propagating his Truth to many Generations for Writing is a lasting Monument and Record Whether the Word was written or any part of it upon Record before the time of Israels deliverance out of Aegypt we do not certainly know Yet this is certain that God spake unto man from the Beginning For Abel offered a better Sacrifice then Cain by Faith Heb. 11. 4. But where there is no Word there is no Faith And Enoch by Faith pleased God but this could not have been if he had not believed that God is and that he is a Rewarder of such as diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. yet this he could not believe without the Word of God If any should say that he knew all this by the Light of Nature The answer is 1. The Light of Nature is the Light of God 2. That God should reward sinful guilty man with eternal glory could not be known by Reason looking upon the Works of Creation but by Revelation from God himself or the instruction of man according to that Revelation The first Books and Writings of God's Kingdom now extant are those of Moses as the last is the Revelation of John the Divine And this Canon of the Scripture was finished within the space of Two Thousand Years or thereabout and the Authors and Pen-men of them were all the Posterity of Jacob if Luke the Evangelist be not excepted The several parts thereof were written as they were revealed at several times They are the most ancient Writings in the World known unto us They are either Historical or Doctrinal or Prophetical The Historical reacheth the Creation The Prophetical the dissolution of the World and toucheth upon Eternity to succeed They were written in Hebrew and Greek two Languages used in the midst and Center of the then known World That Moses and Malachy and all the rest of the Books should be written in the same Hebrew seems strange For that any Nation should continue their Language the same without alteration at least in the Dialect for so many Generations is not probable though possible Yet it may be God did so order it that it should be published in the Learned not the Vulgar Language of that People For the Learned Greek which is now in use amongst Schollers is the same which was used near Two Thousand Years ago Or it may be that Ezra or some inspired Prophet after the Captivity might gather them into one Body and Volum and turn them into the same Hebrew wherein we enjoy them The Old Testament which is the former part of this Canon was translated into Greek before the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour and made way for the New Testament the second part and for the Gospel to be preached in all Nations The Original Copies are properly and primarily authentical Divines and infallible Transcripts and Translations secondarily and so far as they agree with the Originals and no further That is true of the whole body of the Scripture § 7 which the Divine Apostle affirmed of his Doctrine 1 John 1. 2 3 4. That it was most excellent 1. For the Subject 2. For the certain truth 3. For the end thereof and the great good it tended unto 1. For the subject it was most excellent even the Word of Life and that Eternal Life which was with the Father which was the life and light of men which was made flesh and now is glorified at the right-hand of the Father 2. The truth of it was certain and infallible For 1. It was manifested and manifested unto them the Apostles of that Eternal Word 2. Their apprehension was clear and certain For they had heard that which was manifested They had seen it with their eyes looked upon it and handled it with their hands 3. Their Declaration of it was agreeable to the Manifestation and their knowledge of it For that which they had seen and heard they did declare 〈◊〉 write and nothing else 3. The end was Fellowship with the Apostles themselves and their Fellowship was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And they wrote these things that the joy of their Disciples might be full In like manner The subject of the Scriptures is the Kingdom of God and that Eternal Word which was with the Father The truth thereof is most certain and infallible in respect of God's Revelation the knowledge of the Prophets and Apostles and their Declaration of it in Word and Writing The end and ultimate effect thereof believed and obeyed is Full Communion with God and Jesus Christ and thereupon Full joy and everlasting glory These Scriptures are sufficient for all ends and purposes God intended them § 8 have their Divine Characters though no man should know or acknowledge them of Divine Authority and unquestionable perspicuous and intelligible in themselves as they came from God and were delivered by men inspired especially in all things generally necessary to salvation For their sufficiency in their times as a Rule of Faith and Life it cannot be doubted of by such as are intelligent and impartial For the Scriptures of the Old Testament in their time were able to save such as believed and obeyed them And aâ—ter the Canon of the New Testament was finished it was able to make men of those times Wise unto Salvation through Faith in Jesus Christ. Yet after the Gospel was revealed the Doctrine of the Old Testament was insufficient to this end The whole body is not onely sufficient but super-abundant For some part or parts of the New Testament though all the other were lost will sufficiently direct us to Eternal Glory For the Divine Character thereof something shall be said hereafter For the Authority and Credit of them that is true of all the whole which the Apostle affirmeth of one principal part concerning the coming of Christ into the World to save sinners That it was a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation For the perspicuity the entrance of his worâ—s give light and giveth understanding to the simple Psal 119. 130. And Timothy of a Child learned them In this extraordinary Communication of God's mind to Man by man § 10 I will pass by his manner of expression at sundry times and in divers manners by the Prophets to the Fathers and take special notice of his speaking to man by man in the fulness of time and in the latter days And I will consider 1. The persons by whom he spake 2. The matter spoken as it was strange and new 3. The confirmation of the Doctrine taught so far as it was new 1. The principal persons were Christ and his Apostles For in these last days saith the Apostle he hath spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath made Heir of all
Testimony of the Church First § 11 Concerning the thing testified 1. Every Christian born and continuing in the Church by his Birth Baptism Education in the Church is bound to believe that the Doctrine of the Scriptures concerning Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and Obedience is Divine and from God 2. That none such having the use of Reason ought to rest upon mere tradition but ought to seek a better and higher Reason 3. None is bound to believe by a divine and infallible Faith necessary to Salvation that all and every Book and part of the Scripture is immediatly and infallibly divine further then he hath some certain reason so to do 4. That the Original Transcripts and Translations of the Scriptures agree in the principal Doctrine necessary to Salvation though in other respects they may differ For the most wise and merciful Providence hath so ordered it that there is found no Transcript or Translation wherein there is not so much as would direct a man unto Salvation though there be many mistakes and errours in them 5. That many have been converted by the bare instruction of one single Teacher without the Scriptures Yet the matter of that instruction was in the Scriptures No man can believe without the Word of God taught yet many may believe without the Word of God written 6. That the Doctrine of the Old Testament was sufficient to save such as lived before the Incarnation but not after the Revelation and Preaching of the Gospel Secondly § 12 Concerning Tradition and the testimony of the Church 1. That the testimony of the Church as a Testimony can satisfie no man If the Church indeed were infallible and I knew it to be so then I were bound to believe it 2. The testimony of the Church Universal since the Apostles times is but humane and fallible and inferiour to the testimony of any one man immediatly inspired 3. No man living since the Gospel was preached to all Nations and the Church extended to the ends of the Earth can resolve his Faith into the testimony of the Universal Church The reason is because the Church as universal never gave nor he immediatly receive any such testimony Much less is it possible in these present times for any one man or particular Church to have any distinct knowledge of any unanimous testimony of the Universal Church continued up to the Apostles times For if there were any such testimony it must be known either by Histories of Credit decrees of Councels Writings of particular men or Bibles translated into the Languages of those Nations where the Gospel hath been preached and Churches planted Yet all the Histories Canons Writings of Christians except very few now extant have no Authors but such as lived within the bounds of the Roman Empire Though we must confess that within those Bounds the Redeemer and Canonical Writers were born the work of Redemption accomplished the Gospel revealed and the Canon of the New Testament finished 4. It being granted that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God and of Divine Authority it follows that the Testimony of the New Testament confirming the Old and the predictions of the Old Testament related in the New to be exactly fulfilled are of greater Authority and Credit then the Testimony of the Universall Church 5. The Testimony of the Universall Church including Christ and his Apostles with the Prophets is infallible but not as the Testimony of the Church distinct from Christ and his Apostles 6. The Testimony of the Universall Church if we knew it could not be a sufficient ground of a Divine but onely an human morall fallible faith which Devils and wicked men may have and that by nature without Supernaturall grace 7. The Testimony of the Church so far as it may be had is a good introduction and also a rational motive to receive the Scriptures as the Word of God Yet this is not as a Testimony nor merely as Universall in some respect nor as ancient and consisting with it self for Antiquity Universality and Consent may agree to a false tradition of Idolatry yet it 's more worthy of credit then other Testimonies First In respect of the Persons testifying The best qualified men in the World and such as did manifest by their profession Practice Sufferings that they had much of God in them Secondly and principally in respect of the matter of the Scriptures testified to be Divine For 1. It 's excellent and such as cannot be found in any other Writings in the World There is nothing rational or good which tends to make a man better or more happy to be found in any Heathen or Mahumetan Books which is not found in It and far more excellent then can be read in theirs and the same pure without mixture of any such Errours Absurdities Abominations as their writings are polluted with 2. The eternall rules of Wisdom and Justice according to which the World is and ever hath bin governed by a Supreme Providence are recorded in these Volums 3. In this book we read more Truths and the same more clear concerning the Eternall Deity the nature and imployment of Angels the nature operations and qualities of the immortall Soul than in any book in the World 4. The Doctrine therein contained hath had and still hath such excellent effects upon the souls of men both to convert and comfort them as never any other had And this is the more wonderfull if we consider the Successe of the Gospel For the Doctine thereof though contrary to flesh and blood to the errours of the Jews the Religion of all Nations yet was diffused and that by a few mean and contemptible men in the eye of the World into all Nations and this in the midst of cruel and bloody persecutions against all the opposition which the Devils of Hell the greatest Schollers the profoundest States-Men the most Cunning Priests the greatest and most Powerfull Rulers both of Jewes and Gentiles could make 5. The most certain clear particular praedictions of future Contingents fulfilled so exactly many years after they were publiquely declared by word and writing do much and very much argue these Divine Writings to be from Heaven 6. There is an admirable Harmony and Consent of all parts though the Authors thereof lived in several times and at so great a distance that there passed near 2000 years between Moses and John the Divine and Evangelist and near 1500 between Moses and Malachy They all agree in the Principall Subject the Principal Scope and the meanes conducing thereunto 7. I never did Seriously meditate upon and digest any part of it so as to understand the Scope and Method but I did admire the excellency of it and the more I understood it the more I admired it And I am perswaded that if we clearly understood the parts thereof we might easiâ—y discoâ—er the Divine Characters and plainly distinguish them from all other writings Yet none
of these are of any great force to such as are ignorant of them and know them onely upon the Tradition of others Neither is Universall Tradition the ordinary way whereby men are Converted For most who do believe to salvation hear onely one or a few teachers and the same not immediatly infallible and inspired and by their Doctrine contained in these Scriptures and the power of the Spirit attain to a Divine and saving faith For faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God preached immediatly unto them For so the place is to be understood Rom. 10. 17. And no man can prove that the immediate Proposer of saving truth should be infallible but that the Doctrine taught be infallibly true No rationall man can rationally reject any Doctrine much lesse this except he have some reason for it but there can be no reason of any moment ever alleaged against this Doctrine or any particular thereof rightly understood It seemes strange to me that any Christians especially such as do confesse the holy Scriptures in themselves to be Divine should make a question whether they can be believed to be the word of God any other wayes but by the Tradition of the Church It is indeed some advantage to the Bishop of Rome and his Associates and Vassals to make men believe that their faith and belief of the Divinity of the Scriptures depends upon the Tradition of the Church in their Sense For when all is well examined they understand by Church themselves and their own present Church Yet they cannot well agree amongst themselves what this present Church should be Whether the Pope in his Chair alone as the Visible head or he with a general Council Yet this Church is no wayes universall except so far as she professeth the universall faith as some of their Cardinalls have observed Neither is she any more infallible then other Churches be Yet men will believe that she is the Universall Church infallible and the onely infallible expounder and proposer of the Scriptures and can detain them and Seal them up in an unknown Language so as that the Vulgar shall neither read them nor hear them in a Language understood by them she will have some advantage For by this meanes the people are kept in ignorance and unity and so their unwritten Traditions Doctrines and Practises so directly contrary to expresse Scripture shall not be question'd but received by an implicit Faith This argument of Tradition well examined cannot advantage them of Rome nay it 's a Plain Disadvantage For their Tradition doth prove a Chimera and Some Protestant writers ascribe too much unto it and also speak too loosly and at random of it in this point especially But to return unto those ordinary teachers § XIII and especially the Ministers of the New-Testament Let us examine 1. How they acquire their knowledge 2. How they Communicate it to others 3. How the People must receive it Communicated 4. What God hath promised to do if both Minister and People perform their duty 1. They acquire their knowledge by such meanes which God hath given and ordained for that end They do not receive it by immediate inspiration as the holy Prophets and Apostles did God gives them naturall parts and endowments in the giving of them being and some of them from their Mothers womb are designed for this work But let their naturall parts and endowments be never so excellent yet they must at first be taught and instructed both in the Arts and Languages especially the originalls and after some foundation is layd they may much improve themselves by the Learned works of others their own industry Prayer and Gods blessing Lexicons Concordances Translations are great helps for the attayning the knowledge of the Originall tongues Expositions Commentaries Systems Treatises do conduce much for the understanding the matter of the Scriptures God hath done much for us in this kind but our neglect is great and many have not the benefit of good education and direction at the first And there is a great disparity between Ministers of the higher and lower forms yet no man is fit for this calling who is not furnished with so much knowledge and such a measure of utterance as to be able to declare to others the whole Counsell of God and â—each them all things necessary to Salvation Yet many will take upon them to teach before they have well Learned and will be Masters before they have bin Scollers And the most insufficient will pretend the Spirit to cloak their ignorance After these ordinary teachers have once stored up a treasure they consecrate themselves to Christ and engage to make it their work to do him service in this kind Being rightly qualified § XIV sent and called they begin to teach others and take the charge upon them yet so as that they may be probationers and assistants at the first They instruct others either by Learned Books or treatises of piety or by word of mouth and that severall wayes as by Catechisms Expositions Sermons and other ways The first work is to Catechize the Ignorant and teach them the first principles of the Gospel To this purpose they have our Saviours Creed of faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Commandements of the Moral Law contracted into the Love of God and our Neighbour The Lord's Prayer as we use to call it and the Doctrine of the Sacraments And these few understand yet the ignorant and unlearned and Children should know and that not onely the words but the true and Genuine sense according to their Capacity This though the foundation is too much neglected By Expositions they acquaint the people with the occasion Scope Method and Meaning of severall parts and portions of the Scripture By Sermons they explain and apply some Text of Scripture proposing out of the same some Divine axiom which once unâ—olded and made plain they apply by way of Instruction in the truth Confutation of errour Reproof of the guilty Consolation of the dejected stirring up to duty by exhortation restrayning from sin by Dehortation Their Doctrine should be the Pure word of God made plain dispensed wisely delivered out of an heart sincerely desiring and intending the Salvation of the People and ought to be confirmed by the Teacher's example and the Principall matter must be the Mysteries of Gods Kingdom § XV This is the duty of Teachers which performed by them God exâ—pects also certain Performances from the Persons taught which neglected the word of God cannot enter into the immortal-soul so as to work effectually and be manifested to be the Word of God indeed For 1. The heart of man must be prepared and that 1. With an high conceit of the Doctrine of the Scriptures taught that it is the word of God revealed from Heaven out of great love and mercy to man that it highly and very much concerns him upon the knowledge and observance whereof depends his eternal estate in the
the form of an Art or Science as some use to speak They determine the Subject of it to be Man Quatenus Beatificabilis as capable of Spiritual and Eternal Happiness The Object of it must be Deus quatenus Beatificans God as the Fountain and Cause of Eternal Bliss And the end is to direct the Spiritual Acts and Operations of the Immortal Soul so that by them well regulated and fixed upon their due Object man may tend unto and in the end attain the full fruition of that Eternal Being in whom he shall be for ever blessed According to this determination some reduce the Doctrine of the Scriptures to Truths Promises Duties yet this is imperfect Others make three Heads of this Doctrine 1. The first is the Being and Perfection of God in himself 2. The second the Works of God 3. The third His Commands Yet this as the former proves defective and no ways exact Others tell us that the Scriptures represent God to us 1. As to be known And 2. As to be worshipped And so make the Parts of this Divine Doctrine to be 1. Knowledge 2. The Worship of God And this hath much affinity with that Distribution of Theologie into Faith and Obedience that is the Rule of Faith and Obedience These conceive all things in the Scripture especially conducing to Salvation to be credenda or agenda The things to be believed the Object of Faith the things to be done and performed the Object of Obedience For this they think that they have a sufficient ground in the Mandate and Commission of our Blessed Saviour Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Math. 28. 19 20. And that of the Apostle seems to confirm this Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love 2 Tim. 1. 13. I will not examine these distinctions now but onely say this much That Faith and Obedience or Observancy as some call it according to the intended sense of these two places are onely Duties to be performed by sinful man Redeemed and Called according to the Commands of their God-Redeemer and so do not reach the utmost bounds of this Heavenly Doctrine And even in this respect they refer to Government and belong onely to that One Head and part thereof The Commands and Laws of God Redeemer requiring obedience And Faith it self is but one part of this obedience as it is a Duty So that these things may be some ways true but no ways accurate and perfect And if they may be allowed mine intended method I hope may pass without any harsh censure For I know no reason to the contrary seeing it's evident that the Principal if not the adaequat subject of the Holy Scriptures is the Kingdom and Government of God The Doctrine whereof is methodically contracted in ancient Creeds and Confessions which take in the Agenda or things to be practised as well as the Credenda things to be believed Of these ancient Confessions it may be observed that 1. Though they differ in words and expressions § II as may appear by the several forms thereof some more brief some more large especially in Irenaeus and Tertullian yet they agree in the matter and the principal method 2. That divers of the Ancients inform us that the first Planted Churches received the Forms of Confession though different in some words and expressions yet the same for matter and the general and principal method from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God Thus amongst others Tertullian 3. They were received from Christ 1. In that Mandate and Commission to the Apostles Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2. By Inspiration of the Holy Ghost 4. In those Words we have 1. God the Father Almighty making Heaven and Earth by his Word 2. This Word and Son made flesh redeeming sinful man 3. The Holy Ghost by whom Christ was conceived and anointed the Prophets inspired the Church sanctified unto Eternal Glory For so the Ancients understood it being directed by the Apostles 5. This Form thus understood was 1. A Tradition unwritten and of Divine Authority as taught by Christ and his Apostles before it was written But 2. Being written and more fully explained in the Canon of the New Testament it can be no longer an unwritten Tradition And whosoever reading the New Testament doth not find and that in several places both the matter and method of the ancient Confessions understands little 6. No particular form of Confession considered as a Tradition of the Church since the time of the Apostles can be of equal authority with the Scriptures 7. That which we call the Apostles Creed which we find in the Works of Cyprian and Russinus with an Exposition is no more nor so much the Apostles Creed as some ancient Creeds in form differing from it 8. Those words of our Saviour and his Rule of Doctrine concerning the Father Son and Holy Ghost with the three glorious Works of Creation Redemption Sanctification is a divine and wonderful Abridgment of all the Doctrine of the Scripture especially of that which is necessary to Salvation The Confession and Creed of the Patriarchs § III in particular of Enoch was thus God is and he is a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. For they believed That there was one God most glorious and blessed in Himself who by his Wisdome and Power made preserved and governed the World and especially Mankind For to Reward is an act of judgment Judgment presupposeth Laws Laws a Governour a Governour Subjects made and to be governed So that in their ancient Creed we have God considered 1. In Himself 2. As a Governour of the World made by him and especially of Men and Angels and that by Laws and Judgments The obedience to these Laws is to seek God diligently according to the direction of those Laws and the reward of this Obeâ—ience is Eternal Life as the punishment of Disobedience is Eternal Death And after the Fall of Man no man in himself was capable of this Eternal Liâ—â— because all were guilty Therefore they sought this glorious Reward by Châ—iâ—â— to come whom all their Ilastical Sacrifices did typifie as they sought their God by Him The ordinary Analysis of that which we call § IV The Apostles Creed as delivered by more understanding Catechists and Authors of Theological Systems is this God being the Subject of that Confession is considered 1. In himself as God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 2. As in his Works 1. Of Creation 2. Of Providence Providence preserves and governs all things created especially Man Man made righteous holy happy 1. Falls 2. Is restored He is restored by Redemption and the Application of it The Redeemer for Person is the
and secured in his blessed estate as the holy Angels are and the Saints shall be in glory What his happinesse should have been and when consummate if he had Persevered we do not certainly and distinctly know The hour of Temptation seems to have been the hour of Triall and it 's very Probable that if in that conflict he had proved stedfast and Victorious he and his might have been blessed for ever But Man being in honor abode not § III and being tempted sin'd and aspiring higher and seeking by doing that which God had forbidden to attain the higher pitch of glory was devesâ—ed of his Honour and depriv'd of his happy estate And here Divines take occasion to speak of sin in generall And though I might have entered upon this subject when I spake of the fall and condemnation of many of the Angels yet because the Scripture speaks most of the sin of man therefore I will follow their example and practise and 1. Speak of sin in generall 2. Of the particular Sin of Adam The generall nature of sin is disobedience to the just command of a Superiour and because disobedience is opposed to obedience therefore it will not be amisse to enquire a little into the nature of obedience Obedience is not of Physicall but morall and politicall consideration For it presupposeth an intelligent and free agent and the same subject to the Power and bound by the Laws of a Superiour for where there is no Superiour Power there can be no Law and where there is no Law there can be no obedience or disobedience Whether the immediate subject of obedience be acts or habits was formerly determined in some manner but here you must observe that intelligent and free acts inclinations habits especially Acts are the subject immediat and proper of obedience and the proper and first subject of it is the will and heart the acts whereof are intelligent and free and no other acts else This is the reason why God so much requires the heart and will not accept any the greatest offerings and services if performed without the heart To this obedience 't is necessarily required that the will freely subject it self to the power of the superiour and exactly conforme unto his will and command in all inclinations and motions so far as it is bound in which respect the will must be no will in it self In this particular whereof we speak the subject is man who is an intelligent and free agent The superiour is God according to the power acquired in Creation The rule of obedience is the Law both Positive and morall and his obedience is a conformity both in subjection and acting according to the will and command of God The Principal subject of this obedience as an adjunct and cause of it as an effect is the Will and heart of man which is the proper seat of Integrity and Perversnesse For other Acts are so far good or bad as they depend on the Will and are so called extrinseca dominatione and by Participating their qualification from the Will As it is in this particular obedience required of Adam at the first so it is in all the other acts of obedience performed to God Sin in generall is opposed to this obedience § IV and is a disobedience to the Laws of God not of Man or any other superiour in strict sense Otherwise in a large sense the Laws of men may be the lawes of God and their power his Power and it 's Gods law and will that they should obey their Laws and submit to their Power For as the Wisdome of God is the first rule so the will of God expressed in his law is the first binding law That sin is a disobedience unto a Law and the Law of God the Apostle informs us in these words Sin is the transgression or rather disobedience to the Law of God 1 John 3. 4. For so the Apostle is to be understood as appeares by the context This Sin is so unbeseeming that nature and place of men and Angels wherein God created them as nothing more and so staines them that when they see themselves they loath and abhor themselves so as they cannot endure to look upon themselves It 's the basest thing in the world and most pernicious unto him that is once guilty of it It 's a Deviation from the best rule of divine Wisdom and a disagreement with the most just and holy God It 's a contempt or at least a neglect of the eternall power of this glorious King It makes our own imaginations and the suggestions of the Devil our rules and our own lusts our Masters as though we were not subject unto God It deprives us of eternall light and is the perpetuall fuel of Hell-fire and the desert thereof is very dreadfull For these reasons God hates it forbids it threatens it gave both men and Angels at the first power against it and for it not repented of pardoned he casts both men and Angels out of his presence into utter darknesse and torments them with eternall fire Yet all Sinnes are not equall § V as the punishments deserved are some lesse some greater And here I might enlarge and discover the severall sorts the aggravations the Consequents of Sin in generall 1. For the kinds and distinctions they are many For we hold that some sins are against the Law some against the Gospel some against God some against man Some of omission some of Commission c. And these distinctions may be tolerable in some sense 2. The degrees and aggravations are very many and might be observed out of Scripture and reduced into method as is done by the Learned and most judicious Doctor Chappel in his Method of Preaching The Crucifying of Christ the Lord of glory was an heynous crime yet some who had an hand in it were ignorant For so our Saviour prayes Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23. 34. Yet others did it maliciously and contrary to the clear light of their Conscience and concerning these the supreme Judge is sollicited and desired to add iniquity unto their iniquity Psal. 69. 27. And there is a sin against the Holy-Ghost which according to the rules of Gods eternall justice renders the partyes sinning incapable of remission Such is the Blaspemy against the Holy-Ghost Math. 12. 31. and the Apostacy of Christians having once received the knowledge of the truth Heb. 10. 26 27. Paul was a Blasphemer a Persecutour and injurious yet he sinned ignorantly and in unbelief and upon his repentance obtayned mercy 1 Tim. 1. 13 16. The knowing Servant neglects to do his Masters will so doth the ignorant Servant too yet the sin of the former is greater then the sin of the latter and their punishment must be commensurable to their sin Luke 12. 47 48. These places I observe to let you understand and put you in mind 1. That sin is not in the outward act properly and immediately for
for an Act of Divine Power as it is a cause of subjection which must â—o before admission To understand this we must consider the Subject of it and that is Man as sub alienâ potestate under the power of Sin and Sathan and so out of God's Kingâ—om and as an Alien to this Heavenly Common-wealth and such is every one by Nature as he is out of Jesus Christ. Yet there are degrees of this distance some are further off some nearer to this Kingdom This is evident from the condition of Jews and Gentiles in former times and always especially since the times of the Gospel Because all men are either in the visible Church or out of it And men may be out of the Church two ways 1. As never admitted into the same Or 2. Such as being in the Church prove Apostates The Gentiles once were not Gentiles For their first Apostate Fathers were in the Church and the Jews in former times were God's people but for their unbelief are cast out and continue LO-AMMI none of God's people and this shall be their condition till such time as the fulness of the Gentiles be come in And we must distinguish of such as are in the visible Church for some are sincerely subjected unto God-Redeemer according to their Allegiance Some are Subjects onely by Name and Profession and by their ignorance unbelief disobedience are little better then Heathens and Aliens Some are subject in some measure but come short of that degree which is required to admission All these excepting one sort are out of this Kingdome as it consists of reall Saints and living members of Christ. Apostates shall never be called much lesse admitted if they be personally and wilfully such For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins Heb. 10. 26. and if no more Sacrifice then calling is in vain and to no purpose Yet the posterity of Apostates may be and have been called And if once God vouchsafe the meanes of conversion to Idolators who have forsaken not only God as their Redeemer but as Creatour and Preserver he requires of them to renounce the Devil and turn from their Idols to the living God first and then unto him as Redeemer by Jesus Christ. They which have forsaken Jesus Christ or deny him as their Saviour and yet acknowledge and worship God alone as the Creatour of Heaven and Earth the Preserver and Governour of the World as Turks all Mahumetans and the unbelieving Jews do at this day are bound to acknowledge Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer and sure his incarnation and glorification as already come into the World The case of the Jew in the times of Christ and the Apostles was singular For the sincere Proselyte and Jew had onely this to do to believe in Christ already come as before they believed in him to come and so they became compleat members of the Church Christian and perfectly subjects of the Kingdome of Christ glorified The Ignorant and Prophane as also the Hypocrits must forsake their wicked wayes and sincerely submit themselves Yet none of these things can be done without a power from Heaven and a Vocation which is a gracious work of God Redeemer wherein he by his Word and Spirit reduceth man to subjection so that he is fitted to be a subject of his Blessed Kingdome For by Calling we are delivered from the power of darknesse and translated into the Kingdome of His Dear Son Col. 1. 13. Therefore said to be called out of darknesse into his marveylous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. And upon this they who were not a people are made the people of God verse 10. For God will put his lawes into their mind and write them in their hearts and thereupon He will be their God and they shall be to him a People Heb. 8. 10. In all these Passages and many more it 's evident 1. That by nature and as born of sinfull Adam we are in darknesse out of Gods Kingdome none of Gods People 2. That we passe out of darknesse into light and into Christs Kingdom 3. This is not a work of our own merit or power For it 's God that delivers us translates us writes his lawes in our hearts and this of his free mercy and by his great and wonderfull power 4. By this we become Gods people and subjects of Christ's Kingdom And all this is said to be by calling For he called us out of darknesse into his marvaylous light All these particulars are expressed or implyed in those words of the Apostle who signifies that God would send him to the Gentiles to open their eves and to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Sathan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and as inheritance among them which are sanctifyed by saith in Christ Act. 26. 17 18. This Vocation § VII as it is an act of power and great mercy and free grace for by grace we are saved so it s a work which is effected by the Word and Spirit For as we are regenerate so we are called and we are regenerate 1. By the Word 2. By the Spirit By the Word For of his own will he begat us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By the Spirit For except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 5. In the Word God commands and promiseth The command binds man to submit The promise is a motive to enforce the performance of the precept This we maâ— understand and observe in the Call of Abraham For 1. He is commanded to get him out of his Countrey and from his kindred and from his Fathers house unto a land that God would shew him and to perswade him God promiseth to make him a great nation and to blesse him c. But the principall promise was that in him all the familyes of the earth should be blessed Gen. 12. 1. 2 3. This precept implyes that man is under the domiâ—ion of sin and Sathan and therefore commands him to forsake his sin and Sathan and turn from Satan unto God In this God makes use of the Doctrine of the fall of Adam and the Morall Law as given unto him and binding him to perfect and perpetual obedience and upon disobedience threatning Death And by the precept is discovered mans sin and by threatning his misery to humble him break his heart make him weary of sin and desirous of deliverance and willing upon any termes to accept a Saviour Yet this gives him no Comfort nor any Power to do that which is his duty though God make use of it to prepare mans heart The first dutyes commanded are 1. A sight of sin as sin in our selves whereby we are miserable The 2. Is saith whereby we believe that God being satisfyed and attoned by the blood of Christ will be mercifull and pardon sin This faith
presupposeth knowledge of the promise and a serious consideration 1. That it's God who promiseth 2. That the thing promised is everlasting life and all things necessarily conducing thereunto 3. The termes upon which it is to be obtayned and enjoyed And the principal is sincerely to submit under the Power and wholly rely upon the mercy of God Redeemer by Christ for remission of sin and eternall Salvation which Christ hath merited and God will give This Remission and eternall life are promised for Christs sake and the Promise it self is made for and in the consideration of his death and these things as promised are a mighty motive and powerfully work upon the heart of man to incline it to submission and if ever they prevayle this submission will follow The promise binds God gives hope moves mans heart and presents unto the soul the unspeakable benefit to follow upon the Performance of the duty and that certainly without any doubt This submission presupposeth certain dutyes antecedent and includes virtually all Particular dutyes following This word as written in a book § VIII or uttered outwardly by man or Angel may represent unto sinfull man both what he must do and what God upon his performance will give and by the senses be conveyed to the soul of man and cause him to understand and approve of the justice of the duty and excellency of the benefit promised and may incline man to some moral submission Yet such is the blindnesse of mans understanding in respect of these heavenly mysteryes and perversenesse and depravation of the will that without some power to pâ—riâ—ie and rectifie the soul this word of calling will prove insufficient Both this blindnesse and depravation are the greater to such as are at age by reason of false notions and errours and the habits of sin Therefore with the word is required the Spirit and divine power not onely to convey the word close unto the soul but also to prepare qualifie and fit it for the reception and entertainment of the Word This is evident by the experience of all times For the very words of our Saviour Christ who spake as never man spake and confirmed his Doctrin not only by his holy life but by such works as never man did or could do proved not effectuall upon the greatest part of his hearers Therefore said he No man can come unto me except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. To draw us is a work of power not a meere outward Word or Writing In the new Covenant God doth promise to put his lawes in our minds and write them in our hearts And this is said to be done by putting his Spirit within us and so causing us to walk in his Statutes and keep his judgments to do them Ezek. 36. 27. And before this can be effected he must take away our stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh One effect of this Spirit is generally granted to be illumination another to be sanctification of the heart This illumination may not be onely a restoring of a spirituall sight and viâ—ve power but also a more clear representation of the things spoken in the Word and the same more immediate and in an higher light This cannot be done except it free the soul from false notions and errours in matters of Religion This sanctification of the heart doth certainly subdue if not wholly take away predominant lusts and elevate and perfect the rationall appetite by giving and imparting a divine sense and Vigour whereby it more effectually doth relish heavenly things but reject and abhorr evil and sin I will not here dispute whether this Spirit be a distinct thing or power different from the Word of God as spoken immediately by himself to the soul of man or it be the very same No doubt the Word of God as the word of God is power For as it is said of Thunder naturally so its true of this Word spiritually The voyce of the Lord is powerfull the Voyce of the Lord is full of Majesty and it breaketh the Cedars and shaketh the Wildernesse So this word as his is powerfull and full of Majesty able to break the most stony and senslesse stubborn heart and shake it in pieces If it come close unto the soul it cleares the understanding dispels the mists and foggs of errour pierceth the inward parts and makes most lively and lasting impressions upon the same As I will not diâ—pute this point of difference between the word and this power so I will not perplex thâ— Reader nor amaze him with the controversie concerning the manner of conversion the resistibility or irresistibility of grace and the necessitation of the Will of man The manner of conversion is to us unsearchable both because we are ignorant of the nature of the immortall Soul and because much more are we ignorant of the manner of Gods working upon that immortall Spirit As for the resistibility or irresistibility of grace we know that the power of God is Almighty and cannot be resisted by any created strength if he please to exercise it to the full or in some high measure But if God give power to the creature or work by that created power given it may be resisted by a contrary created power And so grace or the power of conversion as a created thing in man may be so given as to be resisted by the Will of man And both the understanding of man will and doth either deny or doubt of divine truths represented to the soul and the Will will wrangle oppose and reject or not sincerely affect and submit unto the divine commands and promises And hence the many conflicts not onely in conversion but after we are converted As for necessitation of the will in this work of divine calling its certaine and granted of all that the illumination of the understanding may be necessary so farr as the soul in respect of the same is onely passive though in the apprehension and judgement concerning the truths represented by the Word it be active Besides God may give an active power to the Will and it may be passive in receiving of it and also necessitated to an act of complacency in generall so that it necessarily may approve by a generall approbation of the justice and equity of the command and the excellency of the good promised For even a wicked Medaea may truly say Video Meliora Proboque And a simple apprehension of a thing as good much morâ— an act of judgement may produce an act of approbation complacency and volition in generall and the good represented may be not onely approved as good in respect of the contrary evill but as better in respect of that good which is apprehended as lesse For it 's not possible to apprehend good as good and not approve it because as Bradwardine saith well in that respect it is not Objectum nolubile Yet notwithstanding this necessary and naturall act of complacency that act of the Will which Buridan
the person swearing is such is the Oath If God swear we have infallible truth because His Word much more His Oath is infallible Because He may both deceive and be deceived Yet the better the man is the more credible is his Oath And in matters which cannot be made evident by other proof an Oath is the highest degree of confirmation and more we cannot expect when more cannot be done Therefore upon an Oath taken we rest For an Oath for confirmation is unto men an end of all strife Heb. 6. 16. In the Oath of man we have a two-fold Testimony one of man another of God and the Testimony of God is used to confirm the Testimony of Man In this respect an Oath is said to be a producing of God as Witness of the thing sworn and the word of Man Divers Schoolmen Casuists and Civilians and Theological Writers both Papists and Protestants agree in the Definition of an Oath That it is a Calling of God to witness for the confirmation of a matter that is doubtful This Definition implyes that the general nature of an Oath is Divine Worship For to call upon God is a part of Divine Worship according to the first and second Commandement The matter of it is something doubtful or which may be doubted of a matter of Controversie or contradiction For an Oath is needless in any thing which may be evidently proved any other ways The Form of it is to produce God as a Witness of that which is or may be doubted of and He cannot be produced as a Witness but by Invocation The end is to confirm that which is doubtful by the infallible Testimony of God Yet certainly there is a more general nature of an Oath for it should be so defined as to comprehend all Oaths not onely the Oaths of Men or Angels as this definition onely doth but the Oath of God also For the Scriptures expresly testifie that God did swear yet He cannot worship Himself nor call upon Himself though He did swear by Himself Therefore an Oath in general seems to be the confirmation of that which may be doubted of by that which is most certainly and infallibly true and granted by the Parties to be assured for to be such 1. The matter of an Oath is that which may be doubted of yet is certain in it self and ought to be certainly known to him that sweareth 2. Ordinarily it 's such a Proposition as cannot be cleared by demonstration or any other way 3. The end of it is confirmation to him that knows it not certainly 4. This confirmation must be made by an higher and an infallible truth and such is the Eternal Being of the Deity which yet can be no proof or confirmation but to him that grants that God is as all should grant Yet in this definition I humbly submit to better judgments Here it 's to be noted that this Proposition God is is higher and more certain to man then this that God is so or so affected â—o His Creâ—ture or this That God will do so or so as He promiseth or threatneth And as all Proofs are Per Notlus so an Oath is After this consideration of the nature of an Oath § IV follows the distinction of Oaths For there is an Oath of God and an Oath by God An Oath by God is taken by Angels or Men. The Oaths intended in the Commandement are such as are taken by Men For the Commandement was given to Man Of these are many Distinctions For some are judiciâ—l some extrajudicial some 〈◊〉 some implicite which besides others I pass by The principal and most usual is that of Assertory and Promissory Assertory is of that which is past or present A Promissory of something to come and this latter is often used to confirm Leagues or Contracts publique or private And the thing doubted of and confirmed is the sincere intention of the Party promising for the present and the performance of the thing promised for the time to come The confirmation in both these kind of Oaths is the same and that is by calling God to Witness These and all other Oaths used by men whether they be publique or private presuppose the infallible clear Oâ—niscience of the Deity and His most perfect Justice and the Party swearing by that very act pretends to acknowledge both And upon this credit is given because he can bring no higher proof and also it 's supposed that no man will forfeit his interest in God as all perjured persons do By this Act of Swearing we submit and put our selves into the hands of the great Judge to punish or reward condemn or justifie us as we shall in this particular prove innocent or guilty For there is no Oath but in some respect is execratory Therefore it ought not to be taken but upon due deliberation and with that Reverence which shall be suitable unto the Majesty of this â—upream Lord whom we call to Witness And seeing no Oath but By God can be in many things a sufficient confirmation therefore all Oaths ought to be By God at least by consequence and taken in such a manner as is agreeable to His Majesty We are commanded â—o swear by His Name in the first Commandement and with all due Reverence and fear in this And to give this honour and high respeâ—t unto any other is Idolatry This is a Reason why we may take an Oath from Idolaters swearing by their Idols and â—alse gods whom they believe to be true godâ— yet We must not swear by them As for the Rites used in this Act as Putting the hand under the Thigh of him to whom the Oath is taken as Abraham's Servant did Gen. 24. 9. Or â—ifting up the hand towards Heaven as the Angel did Dan. 12. 7. Or laying the hand upon the Altar according to the Custome of some places or upon the Bible as it is with us they are indifferent and not of the essence of an Oath They seem to be added to signifie what a serious solemn and weighty thing it is to swear The Sin forbidden is not to swear but to swear falsly for we must not take the Name of the Lord our God in vain which as you heard is to swear falsly A man swears falsly in an Assertory Oath when he either swears that which he doth not certainly know to be true or that which he knows to be false For the thing confirmed by such an Oath ought to be certainly known unto the Person swearing In a Promissory Oath he is guilty who when he swears either hath no intention or no sincere and constant resolution to perform the thing promised He also who after he hath sworn either forgets or neglects the performance or upon indifferent and unjust grounds altereth his mind and seeks unwarrantable evasions and takes advantage upon imperfect expressions and so doth manifest that he doth not truly fear the Majesty of that great and glorious Lord whose Name he used that
the Heart Yet many Blasphemyes are against the first precept And there is blasphemy against God Christ the Holy Ghost against the works and words of God against the 〈◊〉 against his institutions Rabshakeh's blasphemous words seem to be Atheisticall as denying the very being or at least the universal providence government and power of God It was a speciall kind of Blasphemy of the Phaâ—â—ses when they ascribed that miracle which Christ did by the finger of God and power of the Holy Ghost to the Prince of Devils Mat. 12. 24. There was in iâ— a complication of sins to be referred to severall heads All false Teachers all â—sapnâ— wresâ— or falsly translate Scriptures have great affinity with swearers For as Peâ—jured persons make God so far as in them lyes a false witnesse so do these and do not â—ear to make God the authour of their abominable errours and deny the truths contained in his Word They will not receive that for the Word of God which he hath testified from Heaven and they will make that his word which is false or was never testified by him Whatsoever hath affiniâ—y with a false or vain Oath so far and in that respect it 's here prohibited And because swearing being one part of Gods Worship and sometimes by a 〈◊〉 is taken for the Worship of God in general as Esay 45. 23. 65. 16. Psal. 63. 11. Jer. 5. 7. 12. 16. Therefore all undue performance of any part of Gods worship is here prohibited Upon this ground to read the Scriptures preach hear discourse oâ— the Word of God and not with respect which is due to the Word of God must needs be guilty To Pray sing Psalmes give thanks or praise God to administer or receive the Sacraments unworthily and in such a manner as shall not be agreeable to the excellency of these â—ivine institutions wherein we draw near to God and God to us must needs be an offence And many do offend often in this particular by ignorance negâ—igence want of due consideration and the prophane and irreveâ—ent dispoâ—â—tion of the heart either before we enter upon these divine services or in the time of performance or immediately when they are finished Theâ—e are the causes why these blessed ordinances make very light impressions or none at all upon our Souls or if these impressions are lively they be soone razed out again We should remember that in these acts of worship we have to deal with God and converse with him as he with us and we approach his Eternal Throne And how much wil it dishonour him and derogate from his glory to be so prophane irreverent heedlesse in his very presence And if we duly consider we shall easily perceive how heynous the offence will be in these performances to suffer our minds to rove and wander and to leave our hearts behind us or come before him and approach his Throne onely with our lips or worship him with base prophane and indisposed Souls There be some who by the outward carriage posâ—ures and gesâ—ures oâ— their body pretend an high degreee of â—everence zeale devotion humility in the service of God and yet their 〈◊〉 are prophane corrupt and unholy and this is a kind of grosse hypocrisie contrary to this Commandement It 's a matter of Lamentation to all Gods Children that when they sincerely intend and seriously endeavour to performe their Religious service to their God in a due and holy manner yet cannot so fix their thoughts continue their heavenly disposition and raise and increase their devotion but find their minds ready to wander and be distracted and their devotion to be interrupted or abated and in that respect acknowleâ—ge their desects in their best performances and sue for pardon earnestly desiring that state of glory wherein they shall be free from all distractions and worship their God with greater perfections When we look upon the greatest part of Christians and take notice of their carriage in the Worship of God not onely in private but in pâ—blique their outward Prophanenesse and irreverence speak aloud the inward prophane irreverent and base disposition of their Souls Yet though hereby God is dishonour'd and his worship polluted they are senslesse of any such sin even when the Judgments of God lye heavy upon them for this sin We have an evident example hereof in the Corinthians who for their unworthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Eucharist were so severely punisht 1 Cor. 11. 30. Thus you have heard what sins are here prohibited expresly or implicitly § XI The dutyes commanded are easily understood by the law of contrariety And for the better knowledge of them we must consider that God doth require and command us not onely to worship him alone and with that kind of worship he hath instituted but to perform his instituted worship in an holy and reverent manner And this due manner of Worship is the thing here commanded So that as God is the object so his Worship is the subject of this Reverence devotion holinesse here required And the first thing commanded is swearing truly and in such a manner as that God may be honoured and that the partyes swearing may be innocent And God in these words doth not command us to swear for that belongs unto the first precept but to swear truâ—y justly and in an holy manner For God foreseeing that the condition of man would be such as that many times an Oath would be not onely convenient but in some respect necessary he thought it fit to regulate the same And therefore did command us 1. To swear by his name not by creatures or false Gods 2. Because in judgments leagues and contracts it was to be solemnly used with some Rite and ceremony he therefore appoints to be a part of his Worship and that not onely to men but Angels 3. Because it would not prove to be of no force and effect if not taken in due manner in this Commandement he therefore prescribes the manner and binds to observe it Not to repeat the Dictinction of Oaths § XII into publick private judicial extrajudicial voluntary imposed I will onely resume that of Assertory and promissory whether negative or affirmative In an Assertory Oath it 's required 1. That the matter confirmed by it be certain in it self and certainly known to the party swearing For if truth and certain knowledge be required in our ordinary speech and conference with others when we affirm or deny any thing much more is it required in an Oath 2. The matter must be of that weight and importance as to be worthy of so high and divine confirmation For God is not to be solemnly invoked and attested in triâ—les and matters of small moment 3. It must be such as may be juâ—â—ly doubted of and that there is a kind of necessity of an Oath for confirmation both because it is of special concernment to determin it and take away the doubt and also there is no
unto our Neighbours as our selves or any degree thereof is here prohibited From all this it 's evident that the principal thing commanded and required in this Commandement is the love of our Neighbours as our selves So to do as we would be done unto For the more full understanding of this we must observe and consider some things concerning 1. Love in general 2. Our Neighbour as the Object of this Love here required 3. The measure and quality of it 4. The end whereat it aims 1. Love is of persons or of things This is a love of persons And it presupposeth a Knowledge antecedent to direct it The act of it is to wish well desire intend the good of the person beloved and therefore is called Amor Benevolentiae the love of good-will There is indeed a love of others for our own ends advantage interest but this is either Lust and not Love or love of our selves not of our Neighbours As this Love wisheth and desireth the good of another so the good is either Temporal or Spiritual and Eternal For the good desired by this Love here commanded is any kind of good whereof he is capable which may conduce unto his happiness Therefore the principal thing desired is Eternal Life as it is an Estate of perfect Holiness and Happiness And it 's such a love and so vigorous as it will stir us up effectually to use all means to procure this good 2. As the Object of the highest degree of our love is God § VI so the Object of this love required in this last Commandement is our Neighbour This our Neighbour is 1. All Mankind so far as capable of our love 2. Some part of Mankind and so our Neighbour is either publike or private Publike is either Civil or Ecclesiastical the State or Church whereof we are members and in both first the Superiours and publike and most eminent persons Our private Neighbours are not onely Father and Mother Wife Children Friends Servants Benefactors but also strangers yea and Enemies as God in his Divine Providence shall make them immediate Subjects in particular of our love 3. The quality and measure of our love § VII is implyed in these words As thy self It 's not said as God for that 's too high Nor before or more than our selves for that 's too much So that in these words we have both the quality and the quantity or measure of this love determined For the quality it must be real hearty and sincere for so we love our selves It must be real for in some Cases we must hazard yea lay down our lives and give our goods for to save relieve and help our Brethren in their miseries wants extremities We must lay down the lives of our Bodies for the Salvation of their Souls and with the Widow cast in all that we have into the Treasury This love must be without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9. And we must not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3. 18. Yet this love of our selves cannot be a Rule of the love of our Neighbours except it be regular For it may be fond foolish vain irregular and inordinate Therefore it must be regulated by the Word of God issue from Faith in Christ and our love of God in Christ and we must love in obedience to his Commandement and aym at His Glory and seek the true especially the spirituall and eternall good of our brethren And if we thus love our selves then we may make this love of our selves the measure of our love to others The measure and quantity of this love is also here implied in the foresaid words For we must love God more then any thing more then any person more then our selves and the more wee love God the more we love our selves in God Therefore because we must love our selves lesse then God we must love our Neighbours lesse then him otherwise our love will prove inordinate In loving others we may love our selves first and in that respect more then our neighbours And in this love of our neighbours there be degrees to be observed For we must love our Country under what form of Government so ever it be before any particular person the Whole more then the Part the publick more then the private and because we our selves are but private Persons and a part therefore we must love the whole State in some cases more then our selves And in the State we must love and seek the good of such persons upon whom the safety and peace publique much depends more then others We must also love the Church more then the State and our brethren in Christ more then any particular persons in the world In the fourth place § VIII the End of this love is that we may do as we would be done unto For as we love or hate others so we do unto them so we deal with them well or ill If we love our selves aright and love others as our selves we will neither think nor devise nor intend nor endeavou◠to do him any evill but we will desire devise intend endeavour his reall good And as we would have others to do all things so as that they may tend unto our Temporall peace and spirituall Welfare so we must do all things so as to design their perfect happinesse so well as our own And as we desire that others may do nothing prejudiciall to our joy comfort happinesse so we must do nothing that may tend unto or end in our neighbours hurt so as to make them either sinfull or miserable All obedience without this love is but a carkeise Therefore though the heathens did the things conteined in this Law yet because they were devoid of the Love of God and this love of our Neighbours issuing from the love of God and faith in Christ their obedience was not sincere and such as this Law required To give all our goods unto the poor and our bodies to be burned and not out of love is nothing This love will think well wish well do well speak well It will be patient and long-suffering yea it will be kind unto enemies and such as hate us and if they thirst will give them drink if they hunger feed them and in their miseries relieve them It will blesse them that curse us and pray for them that hate us and despightfully abuse us It will return blessing for cursing do good for evill and seek to overcome evill with good It 's an evidence of a sincere faith a confirmation of our union with and interest in Christ it 's the character of a reall Christian and a proof that we are passed from death to life By it we resemble God who is love by it we imitate Christ by it we are cemented together amongst our selves by it we rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourn with them that mourn it makes all men one and every man part of ourselves it 's the union of Souls the
said to be the confirmation of Prayer CHAP. XIX Concerning the Laws of God as a Rule of Judgment in the Promises and Comminations HItherto of the Law of God Redeemer § I both Moral and Positive as it 's a Rule of Obedience in Precepts and Prohibitions It remains that we speak of it and consider it as a Rule of God's Judgment in Promises and Threatnings By Precepts God binds Man by Promises He binds Himself Before I proceed one thing formerly omitted is to be added That some Precepts of this Law are mixt and are partly Moral partly positive as Faith and Repentance considered in their general Nature as Duties to be performed to God are Moral For Faith whether it be assent unto the Truth of God's Word or a reliance upon Him promising any Reward or Benefit Repentance as it includes materially in it subjection to God as Supream Lord and Obedience unto His Commands are Duties of the Moral Law as Moral But as Faith assents unto the Truths of the Word concerning Jesus Christ and relies upon God's Promises in Christ and Repentance as it 's a Return unto God-Redeemer in Christ as atoned by his Bloud and so made propitious may be said to be positive as the Objects of both are positive and above the Law of Nature as those positives which are Ceremonial are below it But to return to the Law as a Rule of Judgment we must enquire into 1. The Nature of Promises and Threats in general 2. The Order of this part of Divine Laws 3. The particular Nature of these Promises and Threats in the Laws God-Redeemer 1. For the Nature of Promises and then of Threats The Object of the Promises is Bonum suturum For we cannot promise evil but good at least that which is conceived to be good neither can we properly be said to promise good past or present The act of a promise is a voluntary Obligation whereby the party promising doth bind himself unto another for to do or give some good unto the foresaid party All promises are voluntary otherwise they are not promises The effect of them in respect of the party promising is Obligation in respect of the party to whom the promise is made some kind of right unto the thing promised To threaten is to signifie to another that we intend to do him some hurt or evil The Object is 1. Evil For we cannot properly threaten good 2. It 's evil to come otherwise it 's actual hurt or punishment 3. It presupposeth some intention or resolution to do hurt or inflict evil 4. It signifies by words or other signs this intention as Promises 1. Presuppose some intention to do good 2. A signification of this intention or purpose I will not here spend time in the enumeration of the Accidents or Adjuncts of these Promises to shew how they are private or publike annexed to the Precepts of the Law or not absolute or conditional made by Superiours Inferiours Equals feigned or unfeigned the Promises of such as have power to make them and also strength to perform them or of such as have nor I also pass by the accidental distinctions of Threats which word some think comes of Terreo to terrifie There are Promises and Threats of Man and of God These are of God annexed to His Precepts and Prohibitions as a Rule of Man's Obedience And in this respect they differ from other Promises and Threats The Order of these § II in this Government of God-Redeemer is very evident For 1. They are referred to that part of Government which is concerning Laws 2. In Laws they follow that part which in Precepts and Prohibitions is a Rule of Obedience For as the Law considered as a Rule of Judgment presupposeth something before in it as a Rule of Obedience So these Promises relate unto the Precepts observed as the Threats consider them as violated This is the Order determined by God to manifest His Justice in His Retribution of Rewards and punishments and hereby He signifies that though He be much inclined to reward and do good yet He will judge onely the Obedient a fit Subject of His Bounty and Rewards They that are just and obey His Laws and they onely shall live and enjoy His Mercies And he never threatens as He never inflicts punishments but upon demerit of the Disobedient For He never punished any but such as violated just Laws neither did ever intend it or signifie His intention otherwise The particular and distinct Nature of these Promises § III and Threats is the third thing to be considered They agree with the Promises and Comminations of the Law of Works in Creation with the Law also given to Israel from God by Moses both in that they are Promises and Threats of God and also because they are annexed to the Precepts as a Rule of Obedience These likewise as well as those may be called Sanctions as added to the Precepts for to enforce the Obedience For the Promises are mighty Motives and powerfully perswade to the Observation as Threatnings restrain from the violation of the Precepts And both these were so much the more effectual because there is â—n inward principle in man whereby he naturally desires his own preservation â—nd happiness and abhors to think of his own destruction or misery But these are distinguished from other Promises and Threats even of God 1. Because the Author of them is God-Redeemer as Redeemer 2. The things promised are merited by Christ and so promised and given and to be expected of Free-grace 3. The tearms upon which the Promises are made is Faith in Christ and sincere obedience to God Redeemer 4. The parties who must receive the mercies promised are in themselves 1. Unjust and unworthy 2. Derive their power to perform the Conditions and Precepts of the Law from the Redeemer upon the merit of Christ having satisfied God's Justice whereas the Promises of the Law of Works presupposed man to have power to keep it given in Creation and required perfect and perpetual obedience by that power And if man once lost that power there was no promise in that Law of restoring it again or giving new power It 's said Do this and live Sin in the least and die And so it bound to perfect and perpetual performance or unto death as unavoidable by that Law for there was no promiâ—e of pardon The Law of Moses did strictly command universal and constant obedience for Cursed is he that continueth not saith the Law in all things written in that Book it promised no Spiritual Blessing no Spiritual power nor Spiritual pardon As for the Threats of this Law they make Offenders liable punishment yet they determine Eternal Death as unavoidable to none offending but to final Impenitents and Unbelievers And this was the Imperabundant goodness of 〈◊〉 â—hat whereas He had given Man his Being his Laws his power to keep the 〈…〉 and by his absolute power might have required man's Service without any reward
impetuous stream did carry all before them This was the judgment of the Eastern and Southern Christians invaded by the Saracens and possessed by them from beyond Babylon and Arabia unto Barbary and Spain where they met the Northern Barbarians In these latter days How many Churches Christian are swallowed up by the Turkish Empire These were not meerly temporall judgments but spirituall Because the enemies did not onely invade and possesse their Countryes but in many places deprive them of their Teachers and the Gospel the glorious light whereof is mightily darkened as in â—ormer times so in these latter dayes by that Smoak and mist of Hell the doctrine of the Alcoran and that in many places of the World This is a just judgment of God which Christ avert from us because they walked not in the light of the Gospel when it so clearly shined upon them And its one of the most feafull punishments of Christians to be delivered up to believe lyes and false doctrine in matters of Salvation Yet Turks and other Mahumetans do not professe themselves Christians as we in this Western Corner of the World do But amongst us there be such as professe their faith in Christ who yet are in the just judgment of God delivered up to superstition Idolatry and most dangerous doctrines which have formerly been and now are dispersed into severall Nations We read That because men received not the Love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a Lie 2 Thes. 2. 10 11. Where we may observe 1. The sin which is Not to receive the love of the truth that they might be saved 2. The Punishment God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye For when God doth take away his Spirit from such as enjoy the word of God which they will not believe and practise it 's an easy thing for the Devil to delude the wisest and most learned in matters of Religion and then there is no Doctrine so false and absurd which man so deluded will not believe This hath been confirmed by experience of former times especially in that Temple or Church wherein the Son of Perdition shall exalt himself above all Civil and Ecclesiasticall powers The seat of this Wicked one must be some eminent City so the Scripture tells us and this City shall be called Babylon in a mystery and stand built upon seven hills Some say that Constantinople which was called New-Rome is so Yet that cannot be it Because it must be that City which did Reign over the Kings of the Earth when John received the Revelation from Heaven and that was not Constantinople which was obscure at that time The Character of this Whore was 1. That She made the Nations of the Earth drunk with her cup of fornication And 2. She Her self was drunk with the blood of the Saints and the Martyrs of Jesus Fornication is Superstition Image-worship and Idolatry The drinking of the blood of the Saints is the persecution and murder of all such Christians as shall refuse to acknowledge Her power and to receive Her abominable and Idolatrous worship Lest any therefore should be ignorant what City this is The spirit informs us 1. That it 's a City which professeth Christ. 2. It 's the seat of the Son of Perdition arrogating Supreme power not only in temporals but spirituals 3. It 's Idolatrous and Superstitious worshiping of Images 4. It sheds the blood of such Christians as will not acknowledge Her power and drink of Her cup of fornication 5. It 's a City that was built and once stood upon seven hills 6. It Reigned over the Kings of the Earth in the times of John the Divine 7. It 's a City that boasts of many lying signs and wonders and believes lies receives false Doctrine That this City and the man of sin therein should continue so long have so great power delude so many Nations inâ—atuate them seem to be holy profess her self the Mother of all Christian Churches the Temple of God infallible and that society out of which there is no salvation is a spirituall judgment from Heaven and far greater then the Iâ—vasion of the Saracens and Barbarous Nations yea then the damned Doctrine of the Alcoran For that in many things is grosse ridiculous and absurd In this Mysticall Babylon the grossest errours put on the Vizard of saving and infallible truth the most abominable superstition of zealous devotion the greatest pride of deepest humility and he that beareth the title of Servant of Servants will be the Lord of Lords Besides all the transcended perogatives of this Church as of Supremacy Infallibility Authority above Scripture are maintainâ—d by the choisest wits of greatest Schollars And their Sophisms are so effectuall that not only the ignorant sort of people and silly women but persons of greatest power the Princes and Potentates of the Earth men of most excellent parts profoundest Learning and Policy are enchanted and bewitched by this great City This is one of the greatest trialls of Christians and the Church of God that ever came upon the World And if we Seriously consider we may easily understand that it 's God alone who preserves us in the truth And all such as love the truth and endeavour to practise it according to the plainnesse and simplicity of the Gospel may expect this blessing from Heaven even in the midst of these most dangerous times This is a fair warning to us all who enjoy the Scriptures and therein the word of God to take heed least we live unprofitably through our own neglect under the means of salvation For if we do not seriously attend unto the saving doctrine of the truth and give all diligence to practise it so far as we know it it will be just with God to suffer Sathan to delude us be a lying spirit in the mouths of our Prophets and to give us over to believe lyes errours heresies as we see it come to passe with many amongst us at this day By the former sins and neglect of our duty we do not only lose all the benefits and comforts which God hath promised and we might enjoy in a well constituted Church reformed in Doctrine Worship Discipline according to the word of God but also make our selves liable to the former punishments and all others which God hath threatned against us in his Book It 's the great and unspeakable mercy of God § XII which signifies his tender care oâ— our poor souls that he will make known unto us what glorious rewards we upon obedience to his Laws may expect from him and what fearfull punishments will follow upon our disobedience and impenitency The Law-givers and Rulers of the World think it sufficient to publish their Laws once enacted and to leave every man to take notice of them or neglect to do so at their perill But our gracious and most mercifull Lord sends his
am â—ought of them that asked not for me and am found of them that sought me not Esay 65. 1. For no man by the light of nature especially so much darkned in man doth ask for God or seek him first God must first seek us before we can seek him As God loved us first and gave Christ for us when we thought of no such thing so he calls us first before we can do so much as call upon him for spirituall mercyes And it was a great mistake in Pelagius to think that if man did any good though but by the power of nature God was bound to reward him and that necessarily For this was his great errour as some tell us So it 's no lesse an errour to assert that there can be in any man meritum ex congruo to deserve the first spirituall rewards The one takes away grace and the freenesse of Gods spiritual mercyes the other preventing-grace Such men as these little know themselves and their condition by nature These meanes of conversion are the Word and the Spirit The word must inform the spirit must reform us For we are both blind impotent We have no spirituall knowledge of Jesus Christ by nature no active power to do so much as effectually desire him The word alone is not sufficient without the spirit the spirit without the word will not ordinarily do any thing The word concerning mans â—in Gods love Christs redemption mans duty as it is an outward revelation written or spoken cannot penetrate the heart of man Something it may teach and something it may move and work upon a man that attends unto it and by naturall reason considers it But this is nothing to purpose Whether God concurs with any measure of his preparing Spirit with the first publishing or making known his word by man to naturall man is hard to determine He may do so if he please and there can be no doubt thereof Yet if he do I think its a speciall if not an extraordinary gratuity But this is certain that man is bound to this duty of hearing and attention to the word first spoken unto him And besides if any man will neglect this duty at the first or to do any thing in this kind which by nature he can do God may justly both deny the Spirit and also take away his word for ever from such a person To alledge in this point that of our Saviour To him that hath it shall be given that is to him that useth that power which he hath God will give him more and reward him is to little purpose For our Blessed Saviour is not to be understood of that power which man hath by nature but of some stock or talent of grace which He his Lord and Master had given him And suppose it were true that to him that doth Quod in se est what he can do more shall be given him Yet 1. No man doth what he can do by nature 2. Nor can do any thing in spirituals without grace 3. Though he should ever answer man in this kind Where do we find that he hath bound himself by promise so to do Men may talk at randome this and that yet the Crosse of Christ was such a doctrin as neither Jew nor Gentile could by nature digest It was to the one a Stumbling block and to the other foolishnesse though some of them might be of exquisite and highly improved naturall parts This doctrin is Gods Wisdome in a mystery and so hidden that it poseth the great wits and profoundest learning of the World and if Paul himself had not preached it in demonstration of the Spirit and power it had taken little effect It 's far above nature God must give man so much of his Spirit as he may see the want of the Spirit before he can pray for the Spirit so as to obtaine it for conversion and consolation The first duty that man being instructed by the word can perform § IV is Hearing the Word Yet there be many kinds of hearing and many degrees thereof neither is any kind of hearing such as upon which faith doth follow For when the Apostle saith That faith is by hearing he intends some special hearing which requires a due preparation of the heart â—ntecedent For when a regenerate person heares the Word with an unprepared heart he shall find little effect neither can man hope for a benefit by the Word when he doth not hear it in due manner A man may heare the Word with attention and he may hear the Word without attention He may heare and forget heare and remember it He may heare and consider with application of it to himself He may heare and neither seriously consider it nor rightly apply it He may heare for knowledge or some other end onely He may hear for practise and reall practise He may hear it as the Word of God or not as the Word of God but of man He may heare it so as to obey the commands and to do the dutyes commanded to avoid the sins prohibited to trust in the mercyes promised to fear the punishments threatned He may hear it as casting away all filthinesse and superfluity of naughtinesse and with a meek heart and he may hear it another way Though notwithstanding the Word may be heard many and severall wayes yet these things are certain 1. That a man is to hear the Word of God according to the best power naturall God hath given him and to proceed so far as a naturall Morall Heathen may do 2. Whether there be any promise of further grace to be given upon this performance or no yet if he neglect to do what he can in this particular its just with God to deny any further grace then that which hath been granted the teaching of the Word 3. That the Word of God ought to be heard as the Word of God 4. That it 's never heard as the Word of God so as to assent to the truth and consent to the practise of it effectually without the power of the Spirit going along with it and carrying it close to the heart 5. One effect if not the first which by the Word God works upon the heart of him that useth the meanes of conversion aright is to make the heart sensible For by nature it 's senslesse stupid stony And this is one promise of God to put a new Spirit within us and to take away the stony heart out of our flesh and give us an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. This is not to give us a new soul but a new quality another disposition of the Soul different from that which we have by nature And even in this work as he maketh use of our senses so he doth of our naturall reason and wit He by illumination and inspiration takes away the blindnesse of the understanding which naturally cannot judge of spirituall things as spirituall represented by the Word and the stupidity of the Will
infinite but know him infinitely we cannot so we may know that this Reward is great but how great we cannot know as yet We believe it because God hath revealed it we hope for it because Christ hath merited it and God hath promised it We seek it because we hope for it and we shall attain it because the Spirit doth sanctifie us and prepare us for it Our Conceits and Notions of it in this Life are poor and very imperfect for we see but darkly as through a glass And if God had manifested it fully as it is so narrow is our capacity we could not have understood it The more we know it in this life the more effectually we are moved stirred up unto obedience For it 's a mighty motive thereunto For what would not an understanding and considerate man do or suffer to gain so glorious an estatâ— It 's an unspeakable mercy of God that he will give us some glimpses now and then even in this life of this Eternal Light and some taste of these sweetest pleasures For these refresh and revive us much in this Wilderness of our weary Pilgrimage and stir up in us a longing and vehement desire of a full fruition and cause us with greater diligence to press towards the enjoyment of this excellent Reward And though we may think the time long yet certainly he that shall come will come and will not tarry Surely says Christ I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus For till thy coming our hearts will never be at rest The punishment of the Unrighteous shall be contrary to this Blessed Reward § IV The very sight and presence of this Judge will appale them much the Summons appearance more the Sentence and Execution most of all For the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on all them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes. 1. 7 8. They shall not onely lose the comforts of this life but the Eternal joy and glory of Heaven which was promised in the Gospel and shall suffer the contrary evils and that for evermore Their bodies indeed shall be raised again and shall be immortal and they shall ever live that they may ever die and ever suffer Their Souls shall be stripped of all holiness and comfort and both Body and Soul shall be cast into utter Darkness and everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels where their Worm shall never die and their Torment shall be extream without any intermission without any abatement without any end The dismal place and cursed Company will add no little to their misery and there is nothing which man fears abhors and detests but they shall suffer there God § V by his Word and other ways hath made known these things to mortal men hath promised these glorious Rewards and threatned these horrid and external Punishments Yet though his Ministers and Messengers by Command from him â—et Eternal Life and Death before mens eyes yet these seem but Dreams Fancies unto Profane and Atheistical Wretches and are not seriously considered by many who profess the Truth Few do really believe these things fewer do effectually desire or seek the great Reward or fear the dreadful Punishment God's Blessed Word makes no lively Impression upon their Hearts Promise Heaven they are not much affected with it Threaten Hell they are not much afraid of it The Jews had Moses and the Prophets Christians have them with Christ and his Apostles yet men will hearken unto none of thâ—se and so sink into the place of Torment and are undone for ever God hath done much to save us but we do all to damn our selves and our destruction is of our selves God need not have promised Heaven but that He would stir us up to seek it neither need He have threatned Hell but with this intention that men might escape it Oh cursed Wretches who for a little Vanity lose the Eternity of Bliss Oh! that men would hearken unto God betimes and not delay their Repentance till it be too late when no Tears nor Prayers nor any other means that Men or Angels can use can do him any good And this will not be the least of the Torments of the Damned to remember that once they had an opportunity to have escaped these Eternal Punishments and yet they let it pass and must needs acknowledge they suffer justly who contemned the expence of Christ's most precious Blood the greatest love of God and would not obey the Precepts nor trust in the Promises of the Gospel Thus have I § VI according to my Talent declared out of the Scriptures that Special and Eternal Kingdom of God according to the Laws and Judgments whereof Man is ordered unto his final and Eternal estate The Rule of this Doctrine is the Word of God revealed from Heaven The King is God who is most perfect and glorious in Himself and by the Work of Creation acquired an absolute Dominion over all Creatures especially over Men and Angels and continued it by Preservation This Power acquired He did exercise in the Constitution of His Government over Men and Angels and in the Administration of the same by Laws and Judgments Many of the Angels obeyed and were confirmed Many of them disobeyed and were condemned to Eternal Punishments All men in the first man sinned and so became liable to Death Yet the Supream Judge in passing Judgment upon the Tempter promised Deliverance by a Redeemer This Redeemer is the Word made Flesh by whose Humiliation unto Death a new power over man is acquired and the same exercised first in the Constitution and New-Modelling of His Kingdom of Grace and Mercy and in the Administration by Laws and Judgments The Laws command Obedience forbid Impenitency and Unbelief promise Temporal and Eternal Rewards threaten Temporal and Eternal Punishments and as Men shall obey or disobey so they shall be rewarded or punished And these things are declared not onely that men may know them but do God's Commandements that so they may live for ever and not howl and curse and gnash their Teeth in Hell but serve their God in the Temple of Heaven and there sing an Eternal Hallelujah to Him who sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb To whom be Praise and Glory and Thanks for ever And let all Saints and Angels say AMEN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS †As quoreâ— Camer acensis †But the devils can make no application to themselves because they were not made to them but to Men. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— VI. â— IX a lib. 4. c. 41. b Conceptui humano â— X. †So some call it though it was neither a general or a lawful Councel â— XV. §. 〈…〉 b This word is used by the Syriack Translator