it is repletive in the whole house at once as in one room and that a stately Palace which would be much disgraced and lose of its splendor by being cut into offices and accordingly this royal Grace is an entire absolute Prince of a whole Nation not as a Tetrarch of Galilee a sharer of a Saxon Heptarchy and described to us as one single act though of great command and defined to be an assent and adherence to the goodness of the object which object is the whole word of God and specially the promises of the Gospel So then to believe is not to acknowledge the truth of Scripture and Articles of the Creed as vulgarly we use knowledg but to be affected with the goodness and Excellency of them as the most precious objects which the whole world could present to our choice to embrace them as the only desireable thing upon the earth and to be resolutely and uniformly inclined to express this affection of ours in our practice whensoever there shall be any competition betwixt them and our dearest delights For the object of our Faith is not meerly speculative somewhat to be understood only and assented to as true but chiefly moral a truth to be prosecuted with my desires through my whole Conversation to be valued above my life and set up in my heart as the only Shrines I worship So that he that is never so resolutely sworn to the Scriptures believes all the Commands Prohibitions and Promises never so firmly if he doth not adhere to them in his practice and by particular application of them as a rule to guide him in all his actions express that he sets a true value on them if he do not this he is yet an Infidel all his Religion is but like the Beads-mans who whines over his Creed and Commandments over a threshold so many times a Week only as his task to deserve his Quarterage or to keep correspondence with his Patron Unless I see his belief exprest by uniform obedience I shall never imagine that he minded what he said The sincerity of his faith is always proportionable to the integrity of his life and so far is he to be accounted a Christian as he performs the obligation of it the promise of his Baptism Will any man say that Eve believed God's inhibition when she ate the forbidden fruit If she did she was of a strange intrepid resolution to run into the jaws of Hell and never boggle 'T is plain by the story that she heard God but believed the Serpent as may appear by her obedience the only evidence and measure of her Faith Yet can it not be thought that she that was so lately a Work of God's Omnipotence should now so soon distrust it and believe that he could not make good his threatnings The truth is this she saw clearly enough in her brain but had not sunk it down into her heart or perhaps she assented to it in the general but not as appliable to her present case This assent was like a Bird fluttering in the Chamber not yet confined to a Cage ready to escape at the first opening of the door or window As soon as she opens either ears or eyes to hearken to the Serpent or behold the Apple her former assent to God is vanish'd all her faith bestowed upon the Devil It will not be Pelagianism to proceed and observe how the condition of every sin since this time hath been an imitation of that The same method in sin hath ever since been taken first to revolt from God and then to disobey first to become Infidels and then Sinners Every murmuring of the Israelites was a defection from the Faith of Israel and turning back to Egypt in their hearts Infidelity as it is the fountain from whence all Rebellion springs Faith being an adherence and every departure from the living God arising from an evil heart of unbelief Heb. iii. 12. so it is also the channel where it runs Not any beginning or progress in sin without a concomitant degree of either weakness or want of Faith So that Heathens or Hereticks are not the main enemies of Christ as the question de oppositis fidei is stated by the Romanists but the Hypocrite and Libertine he is the Heathen in grain an Heretick of Lucifer's own sect one that the Devil is better pleased with than all the Catalogue in Epiphanius or the Romish Calendar For this is it that Satan drives at an engine by which he hath framed us most like himself not when we doubt of the Doctrine of Christ for himself believes it fully no man can be more firmly resolved of it but when we heed it not in our lives when we cleave not to it in our hearts when instead of living by Faith Heb. 10. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we draw back and cowardly subduce our selves and forsake our Colours refusing to be martialled in his ranks or fight under his Banner Arian the Stoick Philosopher hath an excellent discourse concerning the double Infidelity of the brain and heart very appliable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There are two sorts of this senselessness and stupidity whereby Men are hardned into stones the first of the Understanding part the second of the Practical He that will not assent to things manifest his brain is frozen into a stone or mineral there is no more reasoning with him than with a pillar The Academicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never to believe or comprehend any thing was a stupid Philosophy like to have no Disciples but Posts or Statues and therefore long ago laught out of the Schools as an art of being Brutes or Metamorphosis not to instruct but transform them he could not remain a Man that was thus incredulous But the second Stupidity that of the Practical Not to abstain from things that are hurtful to embrace that which would be their death the vice though not doctrine of the Epicures though this were an argument both in his and Scripture-phrase of a stony heart yet was it such an one as the lustiest sprightfullest men in the World carried about with them Nay 't was an evidence saith he of their strength and valour of a heart of metal and proof to have all modesty and fear of ill cold as a stone frozen and dead within it And thus holds it in Christianity as it did then in reason Not to believe the truth of Scripture to deny that the Lord liveth would argue a brain as impenetrable as Marble and eyes as Crystal We sooner suspect that he is not a man that he is out of his senses then such an Infidel Some affected Atheists I have heard of that hope to be admired for eminent wits by it But I doubt whether any ever thought of it in earnest and if I may so say conscientiously denied a Deity But to deny him in our lives to have a heart of Marble or Adamant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Arrian A
brethren what they can claim by that grand Character love of Friends those of the same perswasion those that have obliged them they have natures leave and so are resolved to have Christs to hate pursue to death whom they can phancy their Enemies And I wish some were but thus of Agrippa's Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so near being Christians as nature it self would advance them that gratitude honour to Parents natural affection were not become malignant qualities disclaim'd as conscientiously as obedience and justice and honouring of betters Others again so devoted to Moses's Law the Old Testament Spirit that whatever they find practised there they have sufficient authority to transcribe And 't is observable that they which think themselves little concerned in Old Testament Duties which have a long time past for unregenerate morality that faith hath perfectly out-dated are yet zealous Assertors of the Old Testament Spirit all their pleas for the present resistance fetch'd from them yea and confest by some that this liberty was hidden by God in the first ages of the Christian Church but now revealed we cannot hear where yet but in the Old Testament and from thence a whole CIX Psalm full of Curses against God's Enemies and theirs and generally those pass for synonymous terms the special devotion they are exercised in and if ever they come within their reach no more mercy for them than for so many of the seven nations in rooting out of which a great part of their Religion consists I wish there were not another Prodigy also abroad under the name of the Old Testament Spirit the opinion of the necessity of Sacrifice real bloody Sacrifice even such as was but seldom heard of among Indians and Scythians themselves such sacrifices of which the Cannibal Cyclops Feasts may seem to have been but attendants furnished with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that come from such savage Altars sacrificing of Men of Christians of Protestants as good as any in the World to expiate for the bloud shed by Papists in Queen Mary's days and some Prophets ready to avow that without such Sacrifice there is no remission no averting of judgments from the Land What is this but like the Pharisees To build and garnish the Sepulchres of the Prophets and say That if they had lived in their Fathers days they would never have partaken of the blood of the Prophets and yet go on to fill up the measure of their Fathers the very men to whom Christ directs thee O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest in the present tense a happy turn if but the Progeny of those Murtherers and what can then remain but the Behold your house is left unto you desolate irreversible destruction upon the Land A third sort there is again that have so confined the Gospel to Promises and a fourth so perswaded that the Unum necessarium is to be of right perswasions in Religion i. e. of those that every such Man is of for he that did not think his own the truest would sure be of them no longer that betwixt those two popular deceits that of the Fiduciary and this of the Solifidian the Gospel spirit is not conceived to consist in doing any thing and so still those practical Graces Humility Meekness Mercifulness Peaceableness and Christian Patience are very handsomly superseded that one Moses's Rod called Faith is turned Serpent and hath devoured all these for rods of the Magicians and so still you see Men sufficiently armed and fortified against the Gospel-Spirit All that is now left us is not to exhort but weep in secret not to dispute but pray for it that God will at last give us eyes to discern this treasure put into our hands by Christ which would yet like a whole Navy and Fleet of Plate be able to recover the fortune and reputation of this bankrupt Island fix this floting Delos to restore this broken shipwrackt Vessel to harbour and safety this whole Kingdom to peace again Peace seasonable instant peace the only remedy on earth to keep this whole Land from being perfect Vastation perfect Africk of nothing but wild and Monster and the Gospel-Spirit that Christ came to Preach and exemplifie and plant among men the only way imaginable to restore that peace Lord that it might at length break forth among as the want of it is certainly the Author of all the miseries we suffer under and that brings me to the third and last particular That this ignorance of the Gospel-Spirit is apt to betray Christians to unsafe unjustifiable enterprizes You that would have fire from Heaven do it upon this one ignorance You know not c. It were too sad and too long a task to trace every of our evils home to the original every of the fiends amongst us to the mansion in the place of darkness peculiar to it If I should it would be found too true what Du Plesse is affirmed to have said to Languet as the reason why he would not write the story of the Civil Wars of France That if he were careful to observe the causes and honest to report them 〈◊〉 must hound the Fox to a Kennel which it was not willing to acknowledge drive such an action to the Brothel-house that came speciously and pretendedly out of a Church Find that to be in truth the animosity of a rival that took upon it to be the quarrel for Religion or as in Polybius oft the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a thing very distant from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the colour from the cause In the mean it will not be a peculiar mark of odium on the embroylers of this present State and Church to lay it at their doors which I am confident never failed to own the like effects in all other Christian States the Ignorance i. e. in the Scripture phrase Not Practising of those Christian Rules which the Gospel-spirit presents us with I might tire you but with the names of those effects that flow constantly from this Ignorance such are usurping the Power that belongs not to us which Humility would certainly disclaim such resisting the Powers under which we are placed by God to which Meekness would never be provoked such the judging and censuring mens thoughts and intentions any further than their actions enforce most unreconcileable with the forgiving part of mercifulness such the doing any kind of evil that the greatest or publickest good may come designing of Rapine or Blood to the sanctifiedst end which S. Paul and Peaceableness would never endure such Impatience of the Cross shaking a Kingdom to get it off from our own shoulders and put it on other men diametrally opposite to the suffering and patience of a Christian To retire from this Common to the Inclosure and to go no farther than the Text suggests to me To call fire from Heaven upon Samaritans is here acknowledged the effect of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the want of knowledge or consideration of
and junctures to keep all together into one proposition Secondly the Pronoun They in each place is in the letter the Jews in application present Christians and being indefinite might seem to be of the same extent in both places did not the matter alter it and make it universal in the former and particular in the latter For Artists say that an indefinite sign where the matter is necessary is equivalent to an Universal where but contingent to a particular Now to say the Lord liveth was and is necessary though not by any Logical yet by a Political necessity the Government and humane Laws under which then the Jews and now we Christians live require this profession necessarily at our hands But to swear falsly not to perform what before they profest is materia contingens a matter of no necessity but free will and choice that no humane Law can see into and therefore we must not interpret by the rules of Art or Charity that all were perjur'd but some only though 't is probable a major part and as we may guess by the first verse of this Chapter well nigh all of them Thirdly to say is openly to make profession and that very resolutely and boldly that none may dare to distrust it nay with an Oath to confirm it to jealous opinions as appears by the latter words They swear falsly while they do but say and Jer. 14. 2. Thou shalt swear The Lord liveth c. Fourthly the Lord i. e. both in Christianity and Orthodox Judaism the whole Trinity Fifthly Liveth i. e. by way of Excellency hath a life of his own independent and eternal and in respect of us is the Fountain of all Life and Being that we have and not only of Life but Motion and Perfection and Happiness and Salvation and all that belongs to it In brief to say The Lord liveth is to acknowledg him in his Essence and all his Attributes conteined together under that one Principle on that of life to believe whatever Moses and the Prophets then or now our Christian Faith hath made known to us of him Sixthly to falsifie and swerve from Truth becomes a farther aggravation especially in the present instance though they make mention of that God who is Yea and Amen and loves a plain veracious speech yet they swear though by loud and dreadful imprecations they bespeak him a Witness and a Judge unto the Criminal pray as devoutly for destruction for their Sin as the most sober Penitent can do for its Pardon yet are they perjur'd they swear falsly More than all this they openly renounce the Deity when they call upon him their hearts go not along with their words and professions though it be the surest truth in the World that they swear when they assert that the Lord liveth yet they are perjur'd in speaking of it though they make a fair shew of believing in the brain and from the teeth outward they never lay the truth that they are so violent for at all to their hearts or as the Original hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vanum to no purpose 't is that they swear no man that sees how they live will give any heed to their words will imagine that they believe any such matter So now having paced over and as it were spell'd every word single there will be no difficulty for the rawest understanding to put it together and read it currently enough in this proposition Amongst the multitude of Professors of Christianity there is very little real piety very little true belief In the verse next before my Text there is an O Yes made a Proclamation nay a Hew and Cry and a hurrying about the streets if it were possible to find out but a man that were a sincere Believer and here in my Text is brought in a Non est inventus Though they say the Lord liveth a multitude of Professors indeed every where yet surely they swear falsly there is no credit to be given to their words infidelity and hypocrisie is in their hearts for all their fair believing professions they had an unfaithful rebellious heart V. 23. and the event manifested it they are departed and gone arrant Apostates in their lives by which they were to be tryed Neither say they in their hearts Let us fear the Lord V. 24. whatsoever they flourished with their tongues Now for a more distinct survey of this horrible wretched Truth this Heathenism of Christians and Infidelity of Believers the true ground of all false swearing and indeed of every other sin we will first examine wherein it consists secondly whence it springs The first will give you a view of its nature the second its root and growth that you may prevent it The first will serve for an ocular or Mathematical demonstration called by Artists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so the second a rational or Physical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how it comes about The first to convince of the truth of it the second to instruct you in its causes And first of the first wherein this Infidelity and to speak more plainly Perjury of formal Believers consists Though they say c. Since that rather phancy than Divinity of the Romanists Schoolmen and Casuists generally defining Faith to be a bare assent to the truth of God Word seated only in the understanding was by the Protestant Divines banished out of the Schools as a faith for a Chamaelion to be nourished with which can feed on air as a direct piece of Sorcery and Conjuring which will help you to remove Mountains only by thinking you are able briefly as a Chimaera or phantastical nothing fit to be sent to Limbo for a present Since I say this Magical Divinity which still possesses the Romanist and also a sort of men who would be thought most distant from them hath been exercised and silenced and cast out of our Schools would I could say out of our hearts by the Reformation the nature of Faith hath been most admirably explained yet the seat or subject of it never clearly set down some confining it to the Understanding others to the Will till at last it pitched upon the whole Soul the intellective nature For the Soul of Man should it be partitioned into faculties as the grounds of our ordinary Philosophy would perswade us it would not be stately enough for so royal a guest either room would be too pent and narrow to entertain at once so many graces as attend it Faith therefore that it may be received in state that it may have more freedom to exercise its Soveraignty hath required all partitions to be taken down that sitting in the whole Soul it may command and order the whole Man is not in the brain sometimes as its gallery to recreate and contemplate at another in the heart as its parlour to feed or a closet to dispatch business but if it be truly that royal Personage which we take it for
it and come to application but that I am stayed and thwarted by a contrary proposition maintained by a sort of our popular preachers with more violence than discretion which I conceive to be of dangerous consequence and therefore worth opening to you In setting down the pitch that an unregenerate man may attain to and yet be damned some of our preaching writers are wont duly to conclude with this peremptory doctrine that of a mere moral man though never so severe a censor of his own ways never so rigid an exactor of all the precepts of nature and morality in himself yet of this man there is less hope either that he shall be converted or saved than the most debauched ruffian under Heaven The charity and purity of this Doctrine you shall judge of if you will accompany me a while and first observe that they go so far with the meer moral man and drive him so high that at his depression again many a regenerate man falls with him under that title and in issue I fear all will prove meer moralists in their doom which do fall short of that degree of zeal which their either faction or violent heats pretend to and so as Tertullian objects to the Heathen expostulating with them why they did not deifie Themistocles and Cato as well as Jove and Hercules Quot potiores viros apud inferos reliquistis They leave many an honester man in Hell than some of those whom their favour or faction hath besainted Secondly observe to what end or use this doctrine may serve but as an allay to civil honesty in a Commonwealth and fair just dealing which forsooth of late is grown so luxuriant the world is like to languish and sink 't is so overburthened with it and on the other side an encouragement to the sinner in his course an engagement in the pursuit of vice to the height and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the pitch and cue which God expects and waits for as they conclude on these grounds because he lookt upon Peter not till the third denial and then called Paul when he was most mad against the Christians as if the nearest way to Heaven were by Hell-gates and Devils most likely to become saints as if there were merit in abominations and none in the right way to Christianity but whom Atheism would be ashamed of as if because the natural man understands not c. all reliques of natural purity were solemnly and pro formâ to be abandoned to make us capable of spiritual 'T is confessed that some have been and are thus converted and by an ecstasie of the spirit snatched and caught like firebrands out of the fire and though some must needs find their spiritual joys infinitely encreased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that gall of bitterness from which they were delivered and are therefore more abundantly engaged to God as being not the objects only but the miracle of his mercy But yet for all this shall one or two variations from the ordinary course from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be turned into a ruled case Shall the rarer examples of Mary Magdalen or a Saul prescribe and set up Shall we sin to the purpose as if we meant to threaten God that 't were his best and safest course to call us Shall we abound in rebellions that grace may superabound God pardon and forbid Thirdly consider the reason of their proposition and you shall judge of the truth of it and besides their own fancies and resolution to maintain them they have none but this The meer moral man trusts in his own rigteousness and this confidence in the arm of flesh is the greatest enemy to sanctifying grace which works by spiritual humility To which we answer distinctly that the foresaid pride trust or confidence is neither effect nor necessary adjunct of morality but an absolute defection from the rules thereof and therefore whatsoever proceeds either as an effect or consequent from pride or confidence cannot yet be imputed to morality at all or to the moral men per se no more than the thundring or lightning is to be imputed to my walking because it thunders whilst I walk or preaching to my standing still because whilst I stand still I preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle in the first Post c. 4. It doth not lighten because I walk but that is an accident proceeding from some other cause To strive against the motions of the spirit and so to render conversion more difficult is an effect perhaps of pride or trust but yet is not to be imputed to morality though the moral man be proud or self-trusting because this pride or self-trusting is not an effect but an accident of morality and therefore their judgment should be able to distinguish and direct their zeal against the accidental vice not the essential innocent vertue against pride not morality Besides this pride is also as incident to him who is morally evil nay either supposes or makes its subject so being formally a breach of morality For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belonging to the understanding which is not to think more highly on ones own worth than he ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. xii 3. Do we not find it commended and dilated on by Aristotle 4. Eth. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not to overprize his own worth or to expect an higher reward than it in proportion deserves So that he that trusts in his morality for Heaven doth eo nomine offend against morality according to that of Salvian Hoc ipsum genus maximae injustitiae est si quis se justum praesumat and indeed Aristotle and Seneca could say as much and so then the accusation is unjust and contumelious for to a moral man if he be truly so this pride or confidence is incompatible for do we not find that treble humility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the actions Ephes iv 2. handled also and prescribed by the Philosophers In sum that which in all moral precepts comes nearest pride or highmindedness is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. 4. 3. part of which is setting value on ones self But if you observe this goes no farther than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour or worldly pomp as for the immortal blessedness of the soul 't was a thing infinitely above the pitch of their hope or confidence the most perfect among them never pretended any jus meriti to it and if they did they had by so much the less hopes to attain to it Now if it be supposed as I fear is too true that our moral men fall far short of the ancient Philosophers if they be now adays confident and trust in their works for salvation then they do not make good their name they are only so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusively and notionally And yet even these equivocal
to Countenance them And 't is much to be feared they are otherwise possessed and rather than this shall not be followed Christ shall be left alone rather than they shall speak in vain the Word it self shall be put to silence and if they which were appointed to take and bring him to judgment shall be caught by him they came to apprehend and turn their accusations into reverence the Pharisees will not be without their reply they are doctors in the Law and therefore for a need can be their own Advocates Then answered the Pharisees are ye also deceived have any of the rulers and Pharisees believed on him Concerning the infidelity of the rulers in my Text as being not so directly appliable to my audience I shall forbear to speak My discourse shall retire it self to the Pharisee as being a professor of learning brought up at the University in Jerusalem and God grant his vices and infidelity be not also Academical The words we shall divide not into several parts but considerations and read them either as spoken by the Pharisee or recorded by the Evangelist In the first we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rational force of them as they are part of an argument that they which believed in Christ were deceived sub hâc formâ he that would judge of the truth of his life is to look which way the greatest scholars are affected and then though in that case it concluded fallaciously yet the argument was probable and the point worth our discussion that the judgment of learning and learned men is much to be heeded in matters of Religion In the second we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rational sense of the words being resolved as affirmative interrogations are wont into a negative Proposition Have any c. The Pharisees did not believe on him i. e. the greatest Scholars are not always the best Christians And first of the first the authority of learning and learned men in matters of Religion noted from the logical force of the words Have any c. Amongst other acts of Gods Providence and wise Oeconomy of all things there is not one more observable than the succession of his Church and dispensation of his most precious gifts attending it you shall not in any age find the flourishing of learning sever'd from the profession of Religion and the proposition shall be granted without exception Gods people were always the learnedst part of the world Before the flood we are not so confident as to define and set down the studies and proficiency in all kinds of knowledge amongst those long-liv'd ancients how far soever they went belongs little to us The Deluge made a great chasm betwixt us and 't would be hard for the liveliest eyes to pierce at such distance through so much water let those who fancy the two Pillars in which all learning was engraven the one of brick the other of marble to prevent the malice either of fire or water please themselves with the fable and seem to have deduc'd all arts from Adam Thus far 't is agreed on that in those times every Father being both a Priest and a King in his own Family bestowed on his son all knowledge both secular and sacred which himself had attained to Adam by tradition instructing Seth and Seth Enoch in all knowledge as well as righteousness For 't is Josephus his observation that whilest Cain and his progeny employed themselves about wicked and illiberal inventions groveling upon the earth Seth and his bore up their thoughts as well as eyes towards heaven and observed the course and discipline of the stars wherein it was easy to be exquisite every mans age shewing him the several conjunctions and oppositions and other appearances of the luminaries and so needing no successors to perfect his observations Hence Philo calls Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and says his knowledge in Astronomy led him to the notice of a Deity and that his sublime speculation gave him the name of Abram a high exalted Father before his Faith had given the better Compellation of Abraham Father of many Nations hence from him 1 Chaldaea 2 Aegypt 3 Greece came all to the skill they brag of so that Proclus made a good conjecture that the Wisdom of the Chaldaeans was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift of some of the gods it coming from Abraham who was both a friend and in a manner an acquaintance of the true God and far ancienter and wiser than any of their false In sum all learning as well as religion was pure and classical only among the Hebrews as may appear by Moses in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only true natural Philosophy that ever came into the World so that even Longinus which took the story of the Creation to be a fable yet commends Moses his expression of it Let there be light and there was light for a speech admirably suited to a God for the greatest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sublimity that any Rhetorician could strain for And Demetrius Phalareus commends the Pentateuch to Ptolomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as the most Philosophical accurate discourse he had ever heard of And if by chance any scraps or shreds of knowledge were ever scattered among the Gentiles they certainly fell from the Chaldaeans table from whence in time the poor beggarly world gathered such baskets-ful that they began to feed full and be in good likeing and take upon them to be richer than their Benefactors and Athens at last begins to set up as the only University in the World But 't is Austins observation that 't was in respect of Christ and for the propagation of the Church that learning was ever suffered to travel out of Jewry Christ was to be preached and received among the Gentiles and therefore they must be civiliz'd before-hand lest such holy things being cast abruptly before swine should only have been trampled on or as Moses his books falling among the â—oets have been only distorted into fables turned also into prodigies Metamorphoses and Mythical divinity Cum enim prophetae c. Under Abraham and Moses whilest the learning and the sermons of the Prophets were for Israels use the Heathen world was as ignorant as irreligious but about Romulus his time when the Prophecies of Christ which belonged also to the Gentiles were no longer whispered but proclaimed by the mouth of Hosea Amos Isaiah Micah and Jonas from the reign of Uzziah to Hezekiah Kings of Judah then also began learning to flourish abroad among the Nations to dilate it self over the World Greece began to hearken after wisdom and brag of its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thales and the like ut fontes divinae humanae sapientiae pariter erupisse videantur That then secular knowledge might dare to shed it self among the nations when Christ began to be revealed the expectation of the Gentiles 'T were
alive to the end saith he that thereby he might make the dissensions of Carthage and Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not possibly to be composed but to be prosecuted with a perpetual hostility This was the effect of Achitophel's counsel to Absalom that he should lye with his fathers concubines and this also was the Devils plot upon the Gentiles who as if they were not enough enemies unto God for the space of 2000 years Idolatry at last resolved to fill up the measure of their rebellions to make themselves if it were possible sinful beyond capability of mercy and to provoke God to an eternal revenge they must needs joyn in crucifying Christ and partake of the shedding of that blood which hath ever since so dyed the souls and cursed the successions of the Jews For it is plain 1. by the kind of his death which was Roman 2. by his Judge who was Caesaris rationalis by whom Judaea was then governed or as Tacitus saith in the 15. of his Annals Caesar's Procurator all capital judgments being taken from the Jews Sanhedrim as they confess Joh. xviii 21. it is not lawful for us to put any one to death 3. by the Prophecy Mat. xx 19. They shall deliver him to the Gentiles by these I say and many other arguments 't is plain that the Gentiles had their part and guilt in the crucifying of Christ and so by slaying of the Son as it is in the parable provoked and deserved the implacable revenge of the Father And yet for all this God enters league and truce and peace with them thinks them worthy to hear and obey his laws nay above the estate of servants takes them into the liberty and free estate of the Gospel and by binding them to ordinances as Citizens expresseth them to be civitate donates caelesti within the pale of the Church and covenant of salvation They which are overcome and taken captives in war may by law be possest by the victor for all manner of servitude and slavery and therefore ought to esteem any the hardest conditions of peace and liberty as favours and mercies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Marcus in Polybius they which are conquered must acknowledg themselves beholding to the victor if he will upon any terms allow them quarter or truce Thus was it above all other sinners with the Gentiles of that time after 2000 years war with the one God they were now fallen into his hands ready to receive the forest strokes to bear the shrewdest burdens he could lay on them had it not been then a favour above hope to be received even as hired servants which was the highest of the Prodigals ambition Luke xv 19. Had it not been a very hospitable carriage towards the dogs as they are called Mat. xv 26. to suffer them to lick up those crums which fell from the childrens table Yet so much are Gods mercies above the pitch of our expectation or deserts above what we are able or confident enough to ask or hope that he hath assumed and adopted these captives into sons And as once by the councel of God Jacob supplanted Esau and thrust him out of his birth-right so now by the mercy of God Esau hath supplanted Jacob and taken his room in Gods Church and Favour and instead of that one language of the Jews of which the Church so long consisted now is come in the confusion of the Gentiles Parthians Medes Elamites and the Babel of tongues Act. ii 9. And as once at the dispersion of the Gentiles by the miracle of a punishment they which were all of one tongue could not understand one another Gen. xi 9. so now at the gathering of the Gentiles by a miracle of mercy they which were of several tongues understood one another and every Nation heard the Apostles speak in their own language Acts xi 6. noting thereby saith Austin that the Catholick Church should be dispersed over all Nations and speak in as many languages as the world hath tongues Concerning the business of receiving the Gentiles into covenant St. Austin is plentiful in his 18. Book de Civit. Dei where he interprets the symbolical writings and reads the riddles of the Prophets to this purpose how they are called the children of Israel Hos I. 11. Hos i. 11. as if Esau had robbed Jacob of his name as well as inheritance that they are declared by the title of barren and desolate Esa LIV. 1. Esa liv 1. whose fruitfulness should break forth surpass the number of the children of the married wife To this purpose doth he enlarge himself to expound many other places of the Prophets and among them the Prophecy of Obadiah from which Edom by a pars pro toto signifying the Gentiles he expresly concludes their calling and salvation but how that can hold in that place seeing the whole Prophecy is a denunciation of judgments against Edom and ver 10. 't is expresly read For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut out for ever How I say from that place amongst others this truth may be deduced I leave to the revealers of Revelations and that undertaking sort of people the peremptory expounders of depths and Prophecies In the mean time we have places enough of plain prediction beyond the uncertainty of a guess which distinctly foretold this blessed Catholick Truth and though Peter had not mark't or remembred them so exactly as to understand that by them the Gentiles were to be preach't to and no longer to be accounted prophane and unclean Acts x. yet 't is more then probable that the devil a great contemplator and well seen in Prophecies observ'd so much and therefore knowing Christs coming to be the season for fulfilling it about that time drooped and sensibly decayed lost much of his courage and was not so active amongst the Genti'es as he had been his oracles began to grow speechless and to slink away before hand lest tarrying still they should have been turned out with shame Which one thing the ceasing of Oracles though it be by Plutarch and some other of the devils champions refer'd plausibly to the change of the soyl and failing of Enthusiastical vapours and exhalations yet was it an evident argument that at Christs coming Satan saw the Gentiles were no longer fit for his turn they were to be received into a more honourable service under the living God necessarily to be impatient of the weight and slavery of his superstitions and therefore it concern'd him to prevent violence with a voluntary flight lest otherwise he should with all his train of oracles have been forced out of their coasts for Lucifer was to vanish like lightning when the light to lighten the Gentiles did but begin to appear and his laws were outdated when God would once be pleased to command Now that in a word we may more clearly see what calling what entring into covenant with the
our Wills and so to be more horrible Atheists then ever the Heathen had in their Understandings Now that we may the more distinctly discover the Christian Atheist who is very orthodox in his opinion very heretical in his practice we will observe how every part of his life every piece of his conversation doth directly contradict his doctrine and pluck down and deface the very fabrick of godliness expunge those very notions of piety which Reason and Scripture hath erected in the soul And first He is in his knowledge sufficiently Catechiz'd in the knowledge of Scripture and is confident that all its dictates are to be believ'd and commands practis'd But if you look to find this assent confirmed by his practice and exprest in his carriage you are much mistaken in the business Is he such a fool as to order his life according to the rigour of them No no doubt 't is not one mans work to believe the Scripture and obey it Suppose I should tell you that there are but a few of you that read Scripture to that purpose that observe any edict of piety or virtue only because the Scripture hath commanded it There be many restraints that keep unregenerate men from sinning a good disposition religious education common custom of the place or times where we live human laws and the like and each or all of these may curb our forwardness and keep us in some order But who is there amongst us that being tempted with a fair lovely amiable vice which he may commit without any regret of his good nature scandal to his former carriages fear or danger of punishment either future or present or any other inconvenience Who is there I say that from the meer awe and respect that he bears to Scripture retires and calls himself off from that sin which he had otherwise faln into If I should see all manner of conveniences to sin in one scale and the bare authority of the Scriptures in the other quite out-weighing all them with its heaviness I should then hope that our hearts were catechiz'd as well as our brains in the acknowledgment of this truth that Scripture is to be believed and obeyed But I much fear me if I should make an enquiry in every one of our hearts here single the greatest part of the Jury would bring in an evidence of guilt that in any our most entire obediences some other respect casts the scales and this is one piece of direct Atheism that though our Understandings affirm yet our Will and affections deny that Scripture is for its own sake to be obeyed Secondly Our brains are well enough advised in the truth of the doctrine of Gods Essence and Attributes our Understandings have a distinct conceit of awe and reverence to answer every notion we have of God and yet here also our conversation hath its postures of defiance its scoffs and arts of reviling as it were to deface and scrape out every of these notions out of our Wills and to perswade both our selves and others that that knowledge doth only float in our brains but hath no manner of weight to sink it deep into our hearts to glance at one or two of these we believe or at least pretend to we do so the immensity i. e. the ubiquity and omnipresence of God that he indeed is every where to fill to see to survey to punish and yet our lives do plainly proclaim that in earnest we mean no such matter we shut up our hearts against God and either as the Gadarens did Christ being weary of his presence fairly entreat or else directly banish him out of our coasts because he hath been or is like to be the destruction of some Swine i. e. beastial affections in us And in sum those bodies of ours which he hath markt out for his Temples we will scarce allow him for his Inn to lodge with us one night Again can we expect to be credited when we say we believe the ubiquity and omnipresence of God and yet live and sin as confidently as if we were out of his sight or reach Do we behave our selves in our out-rages in our luxury nay even in our gravest devotions as if God were within ken Without all doubt in every minute almost of our lives we demonstrate that we doubt either of his omnipresence to see or else his justice to punish us for those very things which we dare not to venture on in the sight of an earthly Magistrate that may punish us nay of a spy that may complain of us nay of an enemy that will upbraid us nay of a friend that will check and admonish us we never doubt or demur or delay to practise in private or the dark where still God is present to oversee and punish And if this be not a scoffing a deluding a meer contemning of God to do that without any fear or regret in his sight which we never offer to attempt before a man nay a friend I know not what may be counted Atheism In like manner we acknowledge God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and if we should be examined in earnest we would confess that there is no ability in any creature to bestow or provide any good thing for us and yet our will here also hath its ways and arguments of contradiction Our whole life is one continued confutation of this piece of our faith our tremblings our jealousies our distrusts our carefulness our worldly providence and importunate carking our methods and stratagems of thrift and covetousness and the whole business of our lives in wooing and solliciting and importuning every power of nature every trade and art of the world to succour to assist and provide for us are most egregious evidences that we put no trust or confidence in Gods all-sufficiency but wholly depend and rely upon the arm of flesh both to raise and sustain us This very one fashion of ours in all our distresses to fly to and call upon all manner of second causes without any raising or elevating our eyes or thoughts toward God from whom cometh our help plainly shews that God still dwells abroad in tents we have seen or heard of him but have not yet brought him home into our hearts there to possess and rectifie and instruct our wills as well as our understandings Thirdly The whole mystery of Christ articulately set down in our Creed we as punctually believe and to make good our names that we are Christians in earnest we will challenge and defie the fire and fagot to perswade us out of it and these are good resolutions if our practices did not give our faith the lye and utterly renounce at the Church door whatsoever we profest in our pews This very one thing that he which is our Saviour shall be our Judge that he which was crucified dead and buried sits now at the right hand of God and from thence shall come to judge the world this main part