Officers and Orders of Churches are to us as Laws still binding with those limitations as Positives onely which give way to greater 43. The ground of this Position is because it is inconsistent with the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God to send men to a work and promise to be with them and yet to forsake them and suffer them to err in the building of that House which must indure till the end of the world 44. Yet if any of these Commissioners do err in their own particular conversations or in matters without the extent of their Commission this may consist with the faithfulness of God God hath not promised them infallibility and perfection the disgrace is their own but if they should miscarry in that wherein they are sent to be a rule to others the Church would then have an imperfect Rule and the dishonor would redound to God 45. Yet I finde not that ever God authorized any meere man to be a Lawgiver to the Church in Substantials but onely to deliver the Laws which he had given to Interpret them and to determine Circumstantials not by him determined 46. Where God owneth mens Doctrines and Examples by Miracles they are to be taken as infallibly Divine much more when Commission Promise and Miracles do concur which confirmeth the Apostles Examples for currant 47. So that if any of the â—ings or Prophets had given Laws and formed the Church as Moses they had not been binding because without the said Commission or if any other Minister of the Gospel shall by Word or Action arrogate an Apostolical priviledg 48. There is no verity about God or the chief happiness of man written in Nature but it is to be found written in Scriptures 49. So that the same thing may in these several respects be the object both of Knowledg and of Faith 50. The Scripture being so perfect a Transcript of the law of Nature or Reason is much more to be credited in its supernatural Revelations 51. The probability of most things and the possibility of all things contained in the Scriptures may well be discerned by Reason it self which makes their Existence or Futurity the more easie to be believed 52. Yet before this Existence or Futurity of any thing beyond the reach of Reason can be soundly believed the Testimony must be known to be truly Divine 53. Yet a belief of Scripture Doctrine as probable doth usually go before a belief of certainty and is a good preparative thereto 54. The direct express sense must be believed directly and absolutely as infallible and the consequences where they may be clearly and certainly raised but where there is danger of erring in raising consequences the assent can be but weak and conditional 55. A Consequence raised from Scripture being no part of the immediate sense cannot be called any part of Scripture 56. Where one of the premises is in Nature and the other onely in Scripture there the Conclusion is mixt partly known and partly believed That it is the Consequence of those premises is known but that it is a Truth is as I said apprehended by a mixt Act. Such is a Christians concluding himself to be justified and sanctified c. 57. Where through weakness we are unable to discern the Consequences there is enough in the express direct sense for salvation 58. Where the sense is not unstood there the belief can be but implicit 59. Where the sense is partly understood but with some doubting the Belief can be but conditionally explicit that is we believe it if it be the sense of the Word 60. Fundamentals must be believed Explicitly and Absolutely CHAP. IIII. The first Argument to prove Scripture to be the Word of God SECT IIII. HAving thus shewed you in what sense the Scriptures are the word of God and how far to be believed and what is the excellency necessity and authority of them I shall now adde three or four Arguments to help your Faith which I hope will not onely prove them to be Divine Testimony to the substance of Doctrine though that be a usefull work against our unbelief but also that they are the very written Laws of God and a perfect Rule of Faith and duty My Arguments shall be but few because I handle it but on the by and those such as I finde little of in others writings least I should wast time in doing what is done to my hands 1. Those writings and that Doctrine which were confirmed by many real Miracles must needs be of God and consequently of undoubted Truth But the books and Doctrine of Canonicall Scripture were so confirmed Therefore c. Against the major proposition nothing of any moment can be said For it s a Truth apparent enough to nature that none but God can work real Miracles or at least none but those whom he doth especially enable thereto And it is as manifest that the Righteous and Faithfull God will not give this power for a seal to any falshood or deceit The usuall Objections are these First Antichrist shall come with lying wonders Answ. They are no true Miracles As they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 2.9 lying in sealing to a lying doctrine so also in being but seeming and counterfeit Miracles The like may be said to those of Pharaohs Magicians and all other Sorcerers and Witches and those that may be wrought by Satan himself They may be wonders but not Miracles Object 2. God may enable false Prophets to work Miracles to try the world without any derogation to his Faithfulness Answ. No for Divine power being properly the attendant of Divine Revelation if it should be annexed to Diabolicall delusions it would be a sufficient excuse to the world for their believing those delusions And if Miracles should not be a sufficient seal to prove the Authority of the witness to be Divine then is there nothing in the world sufficient and so our Faith will be quite overthrown Object But however Miracles will no more prove Christ to be the Son of God then they will prove Moses Elias or Elisha to be the Son of God for they wrought Miracles as well as Christ. Answ. Miracles are Gods seal not to extoll the person that is instrumentall nor for his glory but to extoll God and for his own Glory God doth not entrust any creature with this seal so absolutely as that they may use it when and in what case they please If Moses or Elias had affirmed themselves to be the sons of God they could never have confirmed that affirmation with a Miracle for God would not have sealed to a lye Christs power of working Miracles did not immediatly prove him to be the Christ. But it immediately proved his Testimony to be Divine and that Testimony spoke his nature and office So that the power of Miracles in the Prophets and Apostles was not to aâ—â—est to their own greatness but to the truth of their Testimony conâ—â—rning Christ.
Whatsoever any man affirmes to me and works a real Miracle to confirme it I must needs take my self bound 〈◊〉 believe him Object But what if some one should work miracles to confirme a Doctrine contrary to Scripture Would you believe it Doth not Paul say if an Angel from Heaven teach any other Gospel let him be accursed Answ. I am sure God will never give any false teacher the power of confirming his Doctrine by Miracles else God should subscribe his name to contradictions The appearance of an Angel is no Miracle though a wonder Secondly But the maine assault I know will be made against the Minor proposition of the Argument and so the question will be de facto whether ever such Miracles were wrought or no I shall grant that we must not here argue circularly to prove the Doctrine to be of God by the miracles and then the miracles to have been wrought by the Divine Testimony of the Doctrine and so round But yet to use the Testimony of the History of Scripture as a humane Testimony of the matter of fact is no circular arguing SECT II. TOward the confirmation of the Minor therefore I shall first lay these grounds That there is so much certainty in some Humane Testimony that may exclude all doubting or cause of doubting or there is some Testimony immediately Humane which yet may truly be said to be Divine That such Testimony we have of the Miracles mentioned in Scripture If these two be cleared the Minor will stand firme and the maine work here will be done First I will therefore shew you that there is such a certainty in some Humane Testimony Both experience and Reason will confirme this First I would desire any rationall man to tell me Whether he that never was at London at Paris or at Rome may not be certaine by a Humane faith that there are such Cities For my own part I think it as certaine to me nay more certaine then that which I see and I should sooner question my own sight alone then the eyes and credit of so many thousands in such a case And I thinke the Scepticks Arguments against the certainty of sense to be as strong as any that can be brought against the certainty of such a Testimony Is it not somewhat more then probable think you to the multitudes that never saw either Parliament or King that yet there is such an Assembly and such a person May we not be fully certaine that there was such a person as King James as Queen Elizabeth as Queen Mary c. here in England Yea that there was such a man as William the Conqueror May we not be certaine also that he conquered England With many other of his actions The like may be said of Julius Caesar of Alexander the Great c. Sure those that charge all humane Testimony with uncertainty do hold their lands then upon an uncertaine tenure Secondly It may be proved also by reason For if 1. the first testifiers may infallibly know it and 2. also by an infallible means transmit it to posterity and 3. have no intent to deceive then their Testimony may be an infallible Testimony But all these three may be easily proved I had thought to have laid down here the Rules by which a certaine Humane Testimony may be discerned from an uncertaine but you may easily gather them from what I shall lay down for the confirmation of these three Positions For the first I suppose none will question whether the first testifiers might infalliby know the truth of what they testifie If they should let them consider First If it be not matter of Doctrine much lesse abstruse and difficult points but only matter of fact then it s beyond doubt it may be certainly known Secondly If it be those also who did see and hear and handle who do testifie it Thirdly If their senses were sound and perfect within reach of the object and having no deceiving medium Fourthly Which may be discerned 1. If the witnesses be a multitude for then it may be known they are not blind or deaf except they had been culled out of some Hospitalls especially when all present do both see and hear them 2. When the thing is done openly in the day-light 3. When it is done frequently and neer at hand for then there would be full opportunity to discover any deceit So that in these cases it is doubtless sense is infallible and consequently those that see and hear are most certaine witnesses 2. Next let us see whether we may be certaine that any Testimony is sincere without a purpose to deceive us And I take that for undoubted in the following cases 1. Where the party is of ingenuity and honesty 2. And it is apparent he drives on no designe of his own nor cannot expect any advantage in the world 3. Nay of his Testimony will certainly undo him in the world and prove the overthrow of his ease honour estate and life 5. And if it be a multitude that do thus testifie How can they do it with an intent to deceive 6. And if their severall Testimonies do agree 7. And if the very enemies deny not this matter of fact but only refer it to other causes then there is no possibility of deceit as I shall further anon evince when I apply it to the Question Thirdly VVe are to prove that there are infallible means of transmitting such Testimony down to posterity without depraving any thing substantiall And then it well remaine an undoubted truth that there is a full certainty in some humane Testimony and that to posterity at a remote distance Now this tradition is infallible in these cases 1. If it be as beforesaid in matter of fact only which the meanest understandings are capable of apprehending 2. If it be also about the substance of actions and not every small circumstance 3. And also if those Actions were famous in their times and of great note and wonder in the world and such as were the cause of publike and eminent alterations 4. If it be delivered down in writing and not only by word of mouth where the change of speech might alter the sense of the matter 5. If the Records be publike where the very enemies may see them yea published of purpose by Heralds and Ambassadors that the world may take notice of them 6. If they are men of greatest honesty in all Ages who have both kept and divulged these Records 7 And if there have been also a multitude of these 8. And this multitude of severall countries where they could never so much as meet to agree upon any deceiving councells much lesse all accord in such a design and lest of all be able to manage it with secrecy 9. If also the after preservers and divulgers of these records could have no more self-advancing ends then the first testifiers 10. Nay if their divulging and attesting these records did utterly ruinate in the
guilty of all the sin that he committeth in his drunkenness VVill you resolve therefore to set upon this duty and neglect it no longer Remember Eli your children are like Moses in the basket in the water ready to perish if they have not help As ever you would not be charged before God for murderers of their souls and as ever you would not have them cry out against you in everlasting fire see that you teach them how to escape it and bring them up in holiness and the fear of God You have heard that the God of heaven doth flatly command it you I charge every one of you therefore upon your allegiance to him and as you will very shortly answer the contrary at your peril that you neither refuse nor neglect this most necessary work If you are not willing now you know it to be so plain and so great a duty you are flat Rebels and no true subjects of Christ. If you are willing to do it but know not how I will adde a few words of direction to help you 1. Teach them by your own example as well as by your words Be your selves such as you would have them be practice is the most effectual teaching of children who are addicted to imitation especially of their parents Lead them the way to prayer and reading and other duties Be not like base Commanders that will put on their Soldiers but not go on themselves Can you expect your children should be wiser or better then you Let them not hear those words out of your mouths nor see those practices in your lives which you reprove in them No man shall be saved because his children are godly if he be ungodly himself Who should lead the way in holiness but the father and master of the family It is a sad time when he must be accounted a good master or father that will not hinder his family from serving God but will give them leave to go to heaven without him I will but name the rest for your direct dutie for your Family 1. You must help to inform their understandings 2. To store their memories 3. To rectifie their wills 4. To quicken their affections 5. To keep tender their consciences 6. To restrain their tongues and help them to skill in gracious Speech 7. And to reform and watch over their outward conversation To these ends First Be sure to keep them at least so long at School till they can read English It is a thousand pities that a reasonable Creature should look upon a Bible as upon a Stone or a piece of Wood. Secondly Get them Bibles and good Books and see that they read them Thirdly Examine them often what they learn Fourthly Especially bestow the Lords day in this work and see that they spend it not in sports or idleness Fiftly Shew them the meaning of what they read and learn Josh. 4 6 21 22. Psal. 78.4 5 6 34.11 Sixthly Acquaint them with the godly and keep them in good company where they may learn good and keep them out of that company that would teach them evil Seventhly Be sure to cause them to learn some Catechism containing the chief Heads of Divinity as those made by the Assembly of Divines or Master Balls SECT XVII THe Heads of Divinity which you must teach them first are these 1. That there is one onely God who is a Spirit invisible infinite eternal Almighty good merciful true just holy c. 2. That this God is one in three Father Son and holy Ghost 3. That he is the Maker Maintainer and Lord of all 4. That mans happiness consisteth in the enjoying of this God and not in fleshly pleasure profits or honors 5. That God made the first man upright and happy and gave him a Law to keep with Conditions that if he kept it perfectly he should live happy for ever but if he broke it he should die 6. That man broke this Law and so forfeited his welfare and became guilty of death as to himself and all his Posterity 7 That Christ the Son of God did here interpose and prevent the full execution undertaking to die in stead of man and so to Redeem him whereupon all things were delivered into his hands as the Redeemer and he is under that relation the Lord of all 8. That Christ hereupon did make with man a better Covenant or Law which proclaimed pardon of sin to all that did but repent and believe obey sincerely 9. That he revealed this Covenant and Mercy to the world by degrees first in darker Promises Prophecies and Sacrifices then in many Ceremonious Types and then by more plain foretellings by the Prophetâ— 10. That in the fulness of time Christ came and took our Nature into Union with his Godhead being conceived by the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary 11. That while he was on earth he lived a life of sorrows was crowned with Thorns and bore the pains that our sins deserved at last being Crucified to death and buried and so satisfied the Justice of God 12. That he also Preached himself to the Jews and by constant Miracles did prove the truth of his Doctrine and Mediatorship before thousands of Witnesses That he revealed more fully his New Law or Covenant That whosoever will believe in him and accept him for Saviour and Lord shall be pardoned and saved and have a far greater glory then they lost and they that will not shall lye under the curse and guilt and be condemned to the everlasting fire of hell 13. That he rose again from the dead having conquered death and took fuller possession of his Dominion over all and so ascended up into heaven and there reigneth in glory 14. That before his Ascention he gave charge to his Apostles to go Preach the foresaid Gospel to all Nations and persons and to offer Christ and Mercy and Life to every one without exception and to intreat and perswade them to receive him and that he gave them authority to send forth others on the same Message and to Baptise and to gather Churches and confirm and order them and to settle a course for a succeâ—â—â—on of Ministers and Ordinances to the end of the world 15. That he also gave them power to work frequent and evident Miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine and the convincing of the world and to annex their writings to the rest of the Scriptures and so to finish and seal them up and deliver them to the world as his infallible Word and Laws which none must dare to alter and which all must observe 16. That for all this free Grace is offered to the world yet the heart is by Nature so desperately wicked that no man will believe and entertain Christ sincerely except by an Almighty power he be changed and born again and therefore doth Christ send forth his Spirâ—t with his Word which secretly and effectually worketh holiness in the hearts of the Elect drawing
for thy disobedience Wretched unbelieving heart Tell a fool or tell a Tyrant or tell some false and flattering man of drawing their subjects by false promises and procuring obedience by deceitful means But do thou not dare to charge the Wise Almighty Faithful God with this Above all men it beseems not thee to doubt either of this Scripture being his infallible Word or of the performance of this Word to thy self Hath not Argument convinced thee may not thy own experience utterly silence thee How oft hath this Scripture been verified for thy good how many of the promises have been performed to thee hath it not quickened thee and converted thee hast not thou felt in it something more then humane would God perform anothers promise or would he so powerfully concur with a feigned word If thou hadst seen the miracles that Christ and his Apostles wrought thou wouldst never sure have questioned the truth of their doctrine why they delivered it down by such undoubted testimony that it may be called Divine as well as Humane Nay hast thou not seen its Prophecies fulfilled hast thou not lived in an age wherein such wonders have been wrought that thou hast now no cloak for thy unbelief hast thou not seen the course of Nature changed and works beyond the power of nature wrought and all this in the fulfilling of this Scripture hast thou so soon forgotten since nature failed me and strength failed me and blood and spirits and flesh and friends and all means did utterly fail and how Art and Reason had sentenced me for dead and yet how God revoked the sentence and at the request of praying believing Saints did turn thee to the Promise which he verified to thee And canst thou yet question the truth of this Scripture hast thou seen so much to confirm thy faith in the great actions of seven yeers past and canst thou yet doubt Thou hast seen signes and wonders and art thou yet so unbelieving O wretched heart Hath God made thee a promise of Rest and wilt thou come short of it and shut out thy self through unbelief Thine eyes may fail thee thy ears deceive thee and all thy senses prove delusions sooner then a promise of God can delude thee Thou maist be surer of that which is written in the Word then if thou see it with thine eyes or feel it with thy hands Art thou sure thou livest or sure that this is Earth which thou standest on art thou sure thine eyes do see the Sun As sure is all this glory to the Saints as sure shall I be higher then yonder stars and live for ever in the Holy City and joyfully sound forth the praise of my Redeemer if I be not shut out by this evil heart of unbelief causing me to depart from the living God And is this Rest so sweet and so sure O then what means the careless world Do they know what it is they so neglect did they ever hear of it or are they yet asleep or are they dead Do they know for certain that the Crown 's before them while they thus sit still or follow trifles undoubtedly they are quite beside themselves to minde so much their provision in the way and strive and care and labor for trifles when they are hasting so fast to another world and their eternal happiness lies at stake Were there left one spark of VVit or Reason they would never sell their Rest for toil nor sell their Glory for worldly vanities nor venture Heaven for the pleasure of a sin Ah poor men That you would once consider what you hazard and then you would scorn these tempting baits O blessed for ever be that love that hath rescued me from this mad bewitching darkness Draw neerer yet then O my soul bring forth thy strongest burning Love here 's matter for it to work upon here 's something truly worth thy loving O see what beauty presents it self Is it not exceeding lovely is not all the beauty in the world contracted here is not all other beauty deformity to it Dost thou need to be perswaded now to love Here 's a feast for thine eyes a feast for all the powers of thy soul dost thou need to be intreated to feed upon it Canst thou love a little shining Earth canst thou love a walking piece of clay and canst thou not love that God that Christ that Glory which is so truly and unmeasurably lovely Thou canst love thy friend because he loves thee And is the love of thy friend like the love of Christ Their weeping or bleeding for thee doth not ease thee nor stay the course of thy tears or blood But the tears and blood that fell from thy Lord have all a soveraign healing vertue and are waters of Life and Balsam to thy faintings and thy sores O my soul If love deserve and should procure love what incomprehensible love is here before thee Pour out all the store of thy affections here and all is too little O that it were more O that it were many thousand times more Let him be first served that served thee first let him have the first born and strength of thy love who parted with strength and life in love to thee If thou hast any to spare when he hath his part let it be imparted then to standers-by See what a Sea of love is here before thee cast thy self in and swim with the arms of thy love in this Ocean of his love Fear not least thou shouldst be drowned or confirmed in it Though it seem as the scalding furnace of lead yet thou will finde it but mollifying oyle Though it seeme a furnace of fire and the hottest that ever was kindled upon earth yet is it the fire of love and not of wrath a fire most effectual to extinguish fire never intended to consume but to glorifie thee venture into it then in thy believing meditations and walk in these flames with the Son of God when thou art once in thou wilt be sorry to come forth again O my soul what wantest thou here to provoke thy love Dost thou love for excellency why thou seest nothing below but baseness except as they relate to thy enjoyments above Yonder is the Goshen the region of light this is a Land of palpable darkness Yonder twinkling Stars that shining moon the radiant Sun are all but as the Lanthorns hanged out at thy fathers house to light thee while thou walkest in the dark streets of the earth But little dost thou know ah little indeed the glory and blessed mirth that is within Dost thou love for suitableness why what person more suitable then Christ his Godhead his manhood his fulness his freeness his willingness his constancy do all proclaime him thy most suitable friend What state more suitable to thy misery then that of mercy or to thy sinfulness and baseness then that of honor and perfection What place more suitable to thee then heaven Thou hast had a sufficient
is utterly taken away This is not such a Come as we were wont to hear Come take up your Cross and follow me though that was sweet yet this much more Ye Blessed Blessed indeed when that mouth shall so pronounce us for though the world hath accounted us accursed and we have been ready to account our selves so yet certainly those that he blesseth are blessed and those whom he curseth onely are cursed and his Blessing shall not be Revoked But he hath Blessed us and we shall be Blessed Of my Father Blessed in the Fathers Love as well as the Sons for they are one The Father hath testified his Love in their Election Donation to Christ sending of Christ accepting his Ransom c. as the Son hath also testified his inherit No longer bond-men nor servants onely nor children under age who differ not in possession but onely in title from servants But now we are heirs of the Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Coheirs with Christ. The Kingdom No less then the Kingdom Indeed to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords is our Lords own proper title But to be Kings and reign with him is ours The fruition of this Kingdom is as the fruition of the light of the Sun each have the whole and the rest never the less Prepared for you God is the Alpha as well as the Omega of our Blessedness Eternal Love hath layd the foundation He prepared the Kingdom for us and then prepared us for the Kingdom This is the preparation of his Counsel and Decree for the execution whereof Christ was yet to make a further preparation For you Not for Beleevers onely in general who without individual persons are no body Nor onely for you upon condition of your beleeving But for you personally and determinately for all the Conditions were also prepared for you From the foundation of the world Not onely from the Promise after Adams fall as some but as the phrase usually signifieth though not always from Eternity These were the eternal thoughts of Gods love towards us and this is it he purposed for us But a great difficulty riseth in our way In what sence is our Improvement of our Talent our well doing our overcoming our harboring visiting feeding c. Christ in his little ones alledged as a Reason of our Coronation and Glory Is not it the purchased possession and meet fruit of Christs blood If every man must be judged according to his works and receive according to what they have done in the flesh whether good or evil and God will render to every man according to his Deeds and give eternal life to men if they patiently continue in well doing and give right to the tree of Life and entrance into the City to the doers of his Commandments and if this last Absolving Sentence be the compleating of our Justification and so the doers of the Law be justified Why then what 's become of Free Grace of Justification by Faith onely of the sole Righteousness of Christ to make us accepted Then the Papists say rightly That we are Righteous by our personal Righteousness and Good Works concur to Justification I did not think to have said so much upon Controversie But because the difficulty is very great and the matter very weighty as being neer the foundation I shall in another Book add to what is said before certain brief Positions containing my thoughts on this Subject which may tend to the clearing of these and many other difficulties hereabouts But that the plain constant language of Scripture may not be perverted or disregarded I onely premise these Advertisements by way of caution till thou come to read the full Answer 1. Let not the names of men draw thee one way or other nor make thee partial in Searching for Truth Dislike the men for their unsound doctrine but call not doctrine unsound because it is theirs nor sound because of the repute of the Writer 2. Know this That as an unhumbled Soul is far apter to give too much to Duty and personal Righteousness then to Christ So a humble self-denying Christian is as likely to err on the other hand in giving less to duty then Christ hath given and laying all the work from himself on Christ for fear of robbing Christ of the honor and so much to look at Christ without him and think he should look at nothing in himself that he forgets Christ within him As Luther said of Melancthons self-denying humility Soli Deo omaia deberi tam obstinaté asserit ut mihi plané vidcatur saltem in hoc errare quòd Christum ipse fingat longiùs abesse cordi suo quam sit reverâ Certé nimis nullus in hoc est Philippus He so constantly ascribes all to God that to me he seems directly to err at least in this that he feigneth or imagineth Christ to be further off from his own heart then indeed he is Certainly he is too much Nothing in this 3. Our giving to Christ more of the work then Scripture doth or rather our ascribing it to him out of the Scripture way and sence doth but dishonor and not honor him and depress but not exalt his Free Grace While we deny the inward sanctifying work of his Spirit and extol his free Justification which are equal fruits of his merit we make him an imperfect Saviour And thus we have by the line and plummet of Scripture fathomed this four-fold stream and seen the Christian safely landed in Paradise and in this four-wheeled fiery Charet conveyed honorably to his Rest. Now let us a little further view those Mansions consider his priviledges and see whether there be any Glory like unto his Glory Read and judg but not by outward appearance but judg Righteous Judgment CHAP. VI. This Rest most Excellent discovered by Reason SECT I. THe next thing to be handled is The excellent properties of this Rest and admirable Attributes which as so many Jewels shall adorn the Crown of the Saints And first before we speak of them particularly let us try this Happiness by the Rules of the Philosopher and see whether they will not approve it the more transcendently Good Not as if they were a sufficient Touchstone but that both the Worldling and the Saint may see when any thing stands up in competition with this Glory for the preheminence Reason it self will conclude against it Now in order of good the Philosopher will tell you that by these Rules you may know which is Best SECT I. 1. THat which is desired and sought for it self is better then that which is desired for something else or the End as such is better then all the Means This concludeth for Heavens preheminence All things are but means to that end If any thing here be excellent it is because it is a step to that and the more conducible thereto the more excellent The Salvation of our Souls is the end of our Faith of our
rising of the Sun excludes the darkness yet is not the negative part to be slighted even our freedom from so many and great Calamities Let us therefore look over these more punctually and see what it is that we shall there Rest from In general It is from all evil Particularly First from the evil of Sin secondly and of suffering First It excludeth nothing more directly then sin whether original and of Nature or actual and of Conversation For there entereth nothing that defileth nor that worketh abomination nor that maketh a lie when they are there the Saints are Saints indeed He that will wash them with his heart blood rather then suffer them to enter unclean will now perfectly see to that he who hath undertaken to present them to his Father not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but perfectly holy and without blemish will now most certainly perform his undertaking What need Christ at all to have died if Heaven could have contained imperfect souls For to this end came he into the world that he might put away the works of the divel His Blood and Spirit have not done all this to leave us after all defiled For what communion hath light with darkness and what fellowship hath Christ with Belial He that hath prepared for sin the torments of Hell will never admit it into the Blessedness of Heaven Therefore Christian never fear this if thou be once in Heaven thou shalt sin no more Is not this glad news to thee who hast prayed and watched and labored against it so long I know if it were offered to thy choice thou wouldst rather chuse to be freed from sin then to be made heir of all the world VVhy wait till then and thou shalt have thy desire That hard heart those vile thoughts which did lie down and rise with thee which did accompany thee to every duty which thou couldst no more leave behinde thee then leave thy self behinde thee shall now be left behinde for ever They might accompany thee to death but they cannot proceed a step further Thy understanding shall never more be troubled with darkness Ignorance and Error are inconsistent with this Light Now thou walkest like a man in the twilight ever afraid of being out of the way Thou seest so many Religions in the VVorld that thou fearest thy one cannot be onely the right among all these Thou seest the Scripture so exceeding difficult and every one pleading it for his own cause and bringing such specious Arguments for so contrary Opinions that it intangleth thee in a Labarinth of perplexities Thou seest so many godly men on this side and so many on that and each zealous for his own way that thou art amazed not knowing which way to take And thus do doubtings and fears accompany darkness and we are ready to stumble at every thing in our way But then will all this darkness be dispelled and our blinde understandings fully opened and we shall have no more doubts of our way VVe shall know which was the right side and which the wrong which was the Truth and which the Error O what would we give to know cleerly all the profound Mysteries in the Doctrine of Decree of Redemption of Justification of the nature of Grace of the Covenants of the Divine Attributes c. VVhat would we not give to see all dark Scriptures made plain to see all seeming contradictions reconciled Why when Glory hath taken the vail from our eyes all this will be known in a moment we shall then see clearly into all the controversies about Doctrine or Discipline that now perplex us The poorest Christian is presently there a more perfect Divine then any is here We are now through our Ignorance subject to such mutability that in points not fundamental we change as the Moon that it is cast as a just reproach upon us that we profess our Religion with Reserves and resolvedly settle upon almost nothing that we are to day of one opinion and within this week or moneth or yeer of another and yet alas we cannot help it The reproach may fall upon all mankinde as long as we have need of daily growth Would they have us beleeve before we understand or say we beleeve when indeed we do not shall we profess our selves resolved before we ever throughly studied or say we are certain when we are conscious that we are not But when once our Ignorance is perfectly healed then shall we be setled resolved men then shall our reproach be taken from us and we shall never change our judgment more then shall we be clear and certain in all and cease to be Scepticks any more Our Ignorance now doth lead us into Error to the grief of our more knowing Brethren to the disturbing of the Churches quiet and interrupting her desireable harmonious consent to the scandalizing of others and weakning of our selves How many an humble faithful Soul is seduced into Error and little knows it Loath they are to erre God knows and therefore read and pray and confer and yet erre still and confirmed in it more and more And in lesser and more difficult points how should it be otherwise He that is acquainted amongst men and knows the quality of Professors in England must needs know the generality of them are no great Scholars nor have much read or studied Controversies nor are men of profoundest natural parts nor have the Ministers of England much preached Controversies to them but were glad if their hearers were brought to Christ and got so much knowledg as might help to Salvation as knowing that to be their great work And can it be expected That men voyd of Learning and strength of parts unstudied and untaught should at the first on set know those Truths which they are almost uncapable of knowing at all when the greatest Divines of clearest Judgment acknowledg so much difficulty That they could almost finde in their hearts sometimes to profess them quite beyond their reach Except we will allow them to lay aside their divine Faith and take up an humane and see with other mens eyes the weight and weakness of Arguments and not with their own It cannot be thought That the most of Christians no nor the most Divines should be free from erring in those difficult points where we know they have not Head-peeces able to reach Indeed if it were the way of the Spirit to teach us miraculously as the Apostles were taught the knowledg of Tongues without the intervening use of Reason or if the Spirit infused the acts of Knowledg as he doth the immediate knowing Power then he that had most of the Spirit would not onely know best but also know most but we have enough to convince us of the contrary to this But O that happy approaching day when Error shall vanish away for ever VVhen our understandings shall be filled with God himself whose light will leave no darkness in
Doctrinals as Justin Martyr Irenaeus Origen against Celsus Tertullians Apolog. c. As Also Philo Josephus Eusebius and others for History Me thinks it is preposterous to see men study so long the meaning of Gods Word before they know whether it be Gods Word or not As the Italians Melancthon mentioneth That would prove Christ was in the Bread before they believed well that he was in Heaven It is no questioning the Truth of Scripture to perswade men to the rightest course to be assured of its Truth I confess my self much offended at some mens doctrine who cry down Reason and Tradition here as if they were enemies to God and his Word and cry up nothing but Scripture and the Spirit Just like the Antinomians in the doctrine of Certainty of Salvation who cry up the Witness of the Spirit and cry down the trying by Signes and Evidences of Sanctification As if these were contrary which are co-ordinate If I had wanted either Reason Tradition or the help of the Spirit I should never have beleeved the Truth of the Scripture I confess for my part I cannot boast of any such Testimony or Light of the Spirit nor Reason neither which without Tradition would have made me beleeve that the Book of Canticles is Canonical and writ by Solomon and the Book of Wisdom Apocryphal and writ by Philo as some think or that Saint Pauls Epistle to the Loadiceans which is in the end of Bruno and others were not Canonical as well as Johns second and third Some men as soon as they hear talk of Reason and Tradition here they zealously cry out It is Socinianism and Popery Scripture is Gods written infallible Law Reason is the Eye by which I must read it The Spirit is the Physitian to cure the blindness of this Eye and in a common sense The very Life and Spirits The Church is the chief but not the onely House where these Records are kept Tradition hath chiefly three Offices It is to the unlearned where Scripture is The Proclaimer of it It is to the learned the Hand that delivereth it to them It is to some that never heard of Scripture a Herauld to proclaim the doctrine which it containeth And why must these needs be set together by the ears May they not yea must they not stand together and further each other The name of Antichrist Socinianism Arminianism for the things I renounce my self hath almost affrighted some men out of their Faith and others out of their Wits Is it any derogation from the Law to say A man must receive it from the hand that bringeth it and read it with his eyes c. A learned godly Divine is offended with Canterbury for these words Reason and ordinary Grace superadded by the help of Tradition do sufficiently enlighten the Soul to discern That Scriptures are the Oracles of God and he saith Here is the Socinians sound or right Reason before the Illumination of the Spirit and to please the Arminians ordinary or universal Grace comes in and the name of Tradition to please the Popish party And what all these are like to do without the special Grace of the Holy Spirit I leave it to any Protestant to judg But what will any Christian deny that there is such a thing as ordinary Grace or that Tradition is necessary to deliver us the Scriptures or hath every man special Grace who beleeveth Scripture to be Gods Word Is it not possible for an unregenerate man to beleeve that What kinde of Preaching would such a man use to Indians Turks or Infidels Are not men sanctified by the Word and must they be sanctified by a Word which they beleeve not that so they may beleeve it Indeed he that saith we may not onely know but know perfectly or know to Salvation without special Grace is mistaken But usually a common Grace and common Knowledg go before Special The same godly Divine against these words of Master Chillingworth The Scripture is not to be beleeved finally for it self but for the matter contained in it So that if men did beleeve the Doctrine contained in the Scripture it should no way hinder their Salvation not to know whether there were any Scripture or no saith I thought it had been necessary to have received those material Objects or Articles of our Faith upon the Authority of God speaking in the Scriptures I thought it had been Anabaptistical to have expected any Revelation but in the Word of God c. I should rather for my part think thus That the immediate Revelation of Scripture from God was not to me but to the first Witnesses and Penmen The way of Conveyance to us is another thing and is a Revelation too The best way is by Scripture which without Tradition no man would ever see or hear of Where this is not to be had there meer Tradition may save and is a Revelation sufficient to Salvation and not Anabaptistical Though Traditional unwritten doctrines to make up the defects of Scripture I abhor And I should ask the Dissenter first Whether men were not saved before Moses without Scripture And as Doctor Usher well observeth One reason why they might then be without it was the facility and certainty of Tradition For Methuselah lived many hundred yeers with Adam and Sem lived long with Methuselah and Isaac lived fiftie yeers with Sem So that three men saw all from the Beginning of the World till Isaacs fiftieth yeer Secondly And were not many saved by the Apostles doctrine many yeers before the New Testament was written And Jews before while the old was almost lost Thirdly What if some Ethiopians Armenians or Papists should by meer Tradition beleeve in Christ and who dare say That they may not should they not be saved He that saith No contradicteth Christ who saith That whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish which way soover he came by it Will you hear Irenaeus in this who lived before Popery was born Lib. 3. cap. 4. Quid enim siquib de aliqua modica quaestione disceptatio esset Nonne oporteret in antiquissimas recurrere Ecclesias Mark he saith not Ad Romanam Ecclesiam vel ad unam principem in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt ab eis de praesenti quaestione sumere quod certum re liquidum est Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat ordinem sequi Traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias Cui Ordinationi assentiunt multae gentes barbarorum eorum qui in Christum credunt sine charactere vel atramento Scriptam habentes per spiritum in cordibus suis salutem veterem Traditionem diligenter custodientes c. Hanc fidem qui sine literis crediderunt quantum ad Sermonem nostrum barbari sunt quantum autem ad sententiam consuetudinem conversationem propter fidem perquam sapientissimi sunt placent Deo c. Sic per illam
but to resolve our faith into some humane Testimony even to lay our foundation upon the sand where all will fall at the next assault It s strange to consider how we all abhor that piece of Popery as most injurious to God of all the rest which resolves our faith into the Authority of the Church And yet that we do for the generality of professors content our selves with the same kinde of faith Onely with this difference The Papists believe Scripture to be the Word of God because their Church saith so and we because our Church or our Leaders say so Yea and many Mininisters never yet gave their people better grounds but tell them which is true that it is damnable to deny it but help them not to the necessary Antecedents of Faith If any think that these words tend to the shaking of mens faith I answer First Onely of that which will fall of it self Secondly And that it may in time be built again more strongly Thirdly Or at least that the sound may be surer setled It s to be understood that many a thousand do profess Christianity and zealously hate the enemies thereof upon the same grounds to the same ends and from the same inward corrupt principles as the Jews did hate and kill Christ It is the Religion of the Countrey where every man is reproached that believes otherwise they were born and brought up in this belief and it hath increased in them upon the like occasions Had they been born and bred in the Religion of Mahomet they would have beeen as zealous for him The difference betwixt him and a Mahometan is more that he lives where better Laws and Religion dwell then that he hath more knowledg or soundness of apprehension Yet would I not drive into causless doubtings the soul of any true Believer or make them believe their faith is unsound because it is not so strong as some others Therefore I add some may perhaps have ground for their beliefe though they are not able to expresse it by argumentation and may have Arguments in their hearts to perswade themselves though they have none in their mouths to perswade another yea and those Arguments in themselves may be solid and convincing Some may be strengthened by some one sound Argument and yet be ignorant of all the rest without overthrowing the truth of their Faith Some also may have weaker apprehensions of the Divine authority of Scripture then others and as weaker grounds for their Faith so a lesse degree of assent And yet that assent may be sincere and saving so it have these two qualifications First If the Arguments which we have for believing the Scripture be in themselves more sufficient to convince of its truth then any Arguments of the enemies of Scripture can be to perswade a man of the contrary And do accordingly discover to us a high degree at least of probability Secondly And if being thus far convinced it prevailes with us to chuse this as the onely way of life and to adventure our souls upon this way denying all other and adhering though to the losse of estate and life to the Truth of Christ thus weakly apprehended This I think God will accept as a true Beliefe But though such a faith may serve to salvation yet when the Christian should use it for his consolation he will finde it much faile him even as leggs or arms of the weak or lame which when a man should use them do faile him according to the degrees of their weakness or lameness so much doubting as there remaines of the Truth of the word or so much weakness as there is in our believing or so much darkness or uncertainty as there is in the evidence which perswades us to believe so much will be wanting to our Love Desires Labors Adventures and especially to our joyes Therefore I think it necessary to speak a little and but a little to fortifie the believer against temptations and to confirme his faith in the certain Truth of that Scripture which containes the promises of his Rest. CHAP. III. SECT I. ANd here it is necessary that we first distinguish betwixt 1. The subject matter of Scripture or the doctrine which it contains 2. And the words or writings containing or expressing this doctrine The one is as the blood the other as the veins in which it runs Secondly We must distinguish betwixt 1. the substantiall and fundamentall part of Scriptureâ— doctrine without which there is no salvation and 2. the circumstantiall and less necessary part as Genealogies Successions Chronology c. Thirdly Of the substantiall fundamentall part 1. Some may be known and proved even without Scripture as being written in nature it self 2. some can be known onely by the assent of Faith to Divine Revelation Fourthly Of this last sort 1. some things are above Reason as it is without Divine Revelation both in respect of their Probability existence and futurity 2. others may be known by meer Reason without Divine Testimony in regard of their Possibility and Probability but not in regard of their existence or futurity Fifthly Again matter of Doctrine must be distinguished from matter of fact Sixthly Matter of fact is either 1. such as God produceth in an ordinary way or 2. extrordinary and miraculous Seventhly History and Phophesie must be distinguished Eighthly We must distinguish also the books and writings themselves 1. between the maine scope and those parts which express the chief contents and 2. particular words and phrases not expressing any substantialls Ninthly Also it s one question 1. whether there be a certain number of books which are Canonicall or of Divine Authority and 2. another question what number there is of these and which particular books they are Tenthly The direct expresse sense must be distinguished from that which is only implyed or consequentiall Eleventhly We must distinguish Revelation unwriten from that which is writen Twelfthly and Lastly We must distinguish that Scripture which was spoke or written by God immediatly from that which was spoke or writ immediatly by man and but mediatly by God And of this last sort 1. Some of the instruments or penmen are known 2. Some not known Of those known 1. Some that spoke much in Scripture were bad men 3. others were godly And of these some were 1. More eminent and extraordinary as Prophets and Apostles 2. Others were persons more inferiour and ordinary Again as we must distinguish of Scripture and Divine Testimony so must we also distinguish the apprehension or Faith by which we do receive it 1. There is a Divine Faith when we take the Testimony to be Gods own and so believe the thing testified as upon Gods word Secondly There is a Human Faith when we believe it meerly upon the credit of man 2. Faith is either first implicit when we believe the thing is true though we understand not what it is or secondly explicit when we believe and understand
what we believe Both these are again Divine or humane 3. It is one thing to believe as Probable another thing to believe it as certain 4. It s one thing to believe it to be true conditionally another to believe it absolutely 5. We must distinguish betwixt the bare assent of the understanding to the truth of an Axiome when it is only silenced by force of Argument which will be stronger or weaker as the Argument seemeth more or lesse demonstrative and secondly that deep apprehension and firme assent which proceedeth from a well stablished confirmed Faith backed by experience 6. It s one thing to assent to the truth of the Axiome another to taste and chuse the good contained in it which is the work of the Will SECT II. THe Use I shall make of these distinctions is to open the way to these following Positions which will resolve the great Questions on foot How far the belief of the Written Word is of necessity to salvation and Whether it be the foundation of our faith And whether this foundation have been always the same Pos. 1. The Object of belief Is the will of God revealed or a Divine Testimony where two things are absolutely necessary first The Matter secondly The Revelation 2. All this Revealed Will is necessary to the compleating of our faith and it is our duty to believe it But it s onely the substance and tenor of the Covenants and the things necessarily supposed to the knowing and keeping of the Covenant of Grace which are of absolute necessity to the beeing of Faith and to Salvation A man may be saved though he should not believe many things which yet he is bound by God to believe 3. Yet this must be onely through ignorance of the Divineness of the Testimony For a flat unbelief of the smallest truth when we know the Testimony to be of God will not stand with the beeing of true Faith nor with Salvation For Reason layes this ground That God can speak nothing but Truth and Faith proceeds upon that supposition 4. This Doctrine so absolutely necessary hath not been ever from the beginning the same but hath differed according to the different Covenants and Administrations That Doctrine which is now so necessary was not so before the Fall And that which is so necessary since the coming of Christ was not so before his coming Then they might be saved in believing in the Messiah to come of the seed of David but now it s of necessity to believe that this Jesus the Son of Mary is He and that we look not for another I prove it thus That which is not revealed can be no object for Faith much less so necessary But Christ was not Revealed before the Fall nor this Jesus Revealed to be He before his coming therefore these were not of necessity to be believed or as some Metaphorically speak they were then to fundamentall Doctrines Perhaps also some things will be found of absolute necessity to us which are not so to Indians and Turks 5. God hath made this substance of Scripture-Doctrine to be thus necessary primarily and for it self 6. That it be revealed is also of absolute necessity but secondarily and for the Doctrines sake as a means without which Believing is neither possible nor a duty And though where there is no Revelation Faith is not necessary as a duty yet it may be necessary I think as a means that is our natural misery may be such as can no other way be cured but this concerns not us that have heard of Christ 7. Nature Creatures and Providence are no sufficient Revelation of this tenor of the Covenants 8. It is necessary not onely that this Doctrine be Revealed but also that it be Revealed with Grounds or Arguments rationally sufficient to evince the verity of the Doctrine or the Divineness of the Testimony that from it we may conclude the former 9. The Revelation of Truth is to be considered in respect of the first immediate delivery from God or secondly in respect of the way of its coming down to us It is delivered by God immediatly either by writing as the two Tables or by informing Angels who may be his Messengers or by inspiring some choise particular men So that few in the world have received it from God at the first hand 10. The only ways of Revelation that for ought I know are now left are Scripture and Tradition For though God hath not tied himself from Revelations by the Spirit yet he hath ceased them and perfected his Scripture Revelations so that the Spirit onely Reveales what is Revealed already in the Word by illuminating us to understand it 11. The more immediate the Revelation caeteris paribus the more sure and the more succession of hands it passeth through the more uncertain especially in matter of Doctrine 12. When we receive from men by Tradition the Doctrine of God as in the Words of God there is less danger of corruption then when they deliver us that Doctrine in their own words because here taking liberty to vary the expressions it will represent the Truth more uncertainly and in more various shapes 13. Therefore hath God been pleased when he ceased immediate Revelation to leave his Will written in a form of words which should be his standing Law and a Rule to try all other mens expressions by 14. In all the forementioned respects therefore the written Word doth excell the unwritten Tradition of the same Doctrine 15. Yet unwritten Tradition or any sure way of Revealing this Doctrine may suffice to save him who thereby is brought to believe As if there be any among the Abaâ—sines of Ethiopia the Coplies in Egypt or elsewhere that have the substance of the Covenants delivered them by unwritten Tradition or by other Writings if hereby they come to believe they shall be saved For so the Promise of the Gospel runs giving salvation to all that believe by what means soever they were brought to it The like may be said of true Believers in those parts of the Church of Rome where the Scripture is wholly hid from the vulgar if there be any such parts 16. Yet where the written Word is wanting salvation must needs be more difficult and more rare and Faith more feeble and mens conversations worse ordered because they want that clearer Revelation that surer Rule of Faith and Life which might make the way of salvation more easie 17. When Tradition ariseth no higher or cometh originally but from this written Word and not from the verbal Testimonies of the Apostles before the Word was written there that Tradition is but the preaching of the Word and not a distinct way of Revealing 18. Such is most of the Tradition for ought I can learn that is now afoot in the world for matter of Doctrine but not for matter of fact 17. Therefore the Scriptures are not onely necessary to the well-beeing of the Church and to the
strength of Faith but ordinarily to the very beeing of Faith and Churches 20. Not that the present Possession of Scripture is of absolute necessity to the present beeing of a Church not that it is so absolute necessary to every mans salvation that he read or knew this Scripture himself But that it either be at present or have been formerly in the Church that some knowing it may teach it to others is of absolute necessity to most persons and Churches and necessary to the well-beeing of all 21. Though negative unbelief of the authority of Scripture may stand with salvation yet positive and universal I think cannot Or though Tradition may save where Scripture is not known yet he that reads or hears the Scripture and will not believe it to be the Testimony of God I think cannot be saved because this is now the clearest and surest Revelation And he that will not believe it will muchless believe a Revelation more uncertain and obscure 22. Though all Scripture be of Divine Authority yet he that believeth but some one Book which containeth the substance of the Doctrine of salvation may be saved much more they that have doubted but of some particular Books 23. They that take the Scripture to be but the Writings of godly honest men and so to be only a means of making known Christ having a gradual precedency to the Writings of other godly men and do believe in Christ upon those strong grounds which are drawn from his Doctrine Miracles c. rather then upon the Testimony of the Writing as being purely infallible and Divine may yet have a Divine and saving faith 24. Much more those that believe the whole Writing to be of Divine inspiration where it handleth the substance but doubt whether God infallibly guided them in every circumstance 25. And yet more those that believe that the Spirit did guide the Writers to Truth both in Substance and Circumstance but doubt whether he guided them in Orthography or whether their Pens were as perfectly guided as their minds 26. And yet more may those have saving Faith who onely doubt whether Providence infallibly guided any Transcribers or Printers as to retain any Copy that perfectly agreeth with the Autograph 27. Yet do all these in my judgment cast away a singular prop to their faith and lay it open to dangerous assaults and doubt of that which is a certain truth 28. As the Translations are no further Scripture then they agree with the Copies in the Original Tongues so neither are those Copies further then they agree with the Autographs or Original Copies or with some Copies perused and approved by the Apostles 29. Yet is there not the like necessity of having the Autographs to try the Transcripts by as there is of having the Original Transcripts to try the Translations by For there is an impossibility that any Translation should perfectly express the sense of the Original But there is a possibility probability and facility of true Transcribing and grounds to prove it true de facto as we shall touch anon 30. That part which was written by the Finger of God as also the substance of Doctrine through the whole Scriptures are so purely Divine that they have not in them any thing humane 31. The next to these are the words that were spoken by the mouth of Christ and then those that were spoken by Angels 32. The Circumstantials are many of them so Divine as yet they have in them something Humane as the bringing of Pauls Cloak and Parchments and as it seems his counsel about Marriage c. 33. Much more is there something Humane in the Method and Phrase which is not so immediatly Divine as the Doctrine 34. Yet is there nothing sinfully Humane and therefore nothing false in all 35. But an innocent imperfection there is in the Method and Phrase which if we deny we must renounce most of our Logick and Rhetorick 36. Yet was this imperfect way at that time all things considered the fittest way to divulge the Gospel That is the best Language which is best suited to the Hearers and not that which is best simply in it self and supposeth that understanding in the Hearers which they have not Therefore it was Wisdom and Mercy to fit the Scripture to the capacity of all Yet will it not therefore follow that all Preachers at all times should as much neglect Definition Distinction Syllogisme c. as Scripture doth 37. Some Doctrinal passages in Scripture are onely Historically related and therefore the relating them is no asserting them for truth and therefore those sentences may be false and yet not the Scripture false yea some falshoods are written by way of reproving them as Gehezies Lye Sauls Excuse c. 38. Every Doctrine that is thus related onely Historically is therefore of doubtful credit because it is not a Divine assertion except Christ himself were the Speaker and therefore it is to be tried by the rest of the Scripture 39. Where ordinary men were the Speakers the credit of such Doctrines is the more doubtful and yet much more when the Speakers were wicked of the former sort are the Speeches of Jobs friends and divers others of the later sort are the Speeches of the Pharisees c. and perhaps Gamaliels counsel Act. 5.34 40. Yet where God doth testifie his Inspiration or Approbation the Doctrine is of Divine Authority though the Speaker be wicked As in Balaams Prophesie 41. The like may be said of matter of Fact for it is not either necessary or lawful to speak such words or do such actions meerly because men in Scripture did so speak or do no not though they were the best Saints for their own speeches or actions are to be judged by the Law and therefore are no part of the Law themselves And as they are evil where they cross the Law as Josephs swearing the Ancients Polygamy c. so are they doubtful where their congruence with the Law is doubtful 42. But here is one most observable exception conducing much to resolve the great doubt whether Examples binde Where men are designed by God to such an Office and act by Commission and with a promise of Direction their Doctrines are of Divine Authority though we finde not where God did dictate and their Actions done by that Commission are currant and Exemplary so far as they are intended or performed for Example and so Example may be equivalent to a Law and the Argument a facto ad jus may hold So Moses being appointed to the forming of the old Church and Commonwealth of the Jews to the building of the Tabernacle c. his Precepts and Examples in these works though we could not finde his particular direction are to be taken as Divine So also the Apostles having Commission to Form and Order the Gospel Churches their Doctrine and Examples therein are by their general Commission warranted and their practice in stablishing the Lords Day in setling the
enough before they have it in Gods ordinary way of conveyance God worketh upon Men as Men as Reasonable Creatures The Joy of the Promises and the Joy of the Holy Ghost are one Joy And those Seducers who in their Ignorance mis-guide poor Souls in this point do exceedingly wrong them while they perswade them so to expect their comforts from the Spirit as not to be any authors of them themselves nor to raise up their own hearts by Argumentative means telling them that such Comforts are but hammered by themselves and not the genuine Comforts of the Spirit How contrary is this to the doctrine of Christ SECT XIV 5. ANother Cause of the trouble of their Souls is Their expecting a greater measure of Assurance then God doth usually bestow upon his people Most think as long as they have any doubting they have no Assurance They consider not that there are many degrees of Infallible Certainty below a perfect or an undoubting Certainty They must know that while they are here they shall Know but in part They shall be imperfect in their Knowledg of Scripture which is their Rule in Trying and imperfect in the Knowledg of their own obscure deceitful hearts Some strangeness to God and themselves there will still remain Some darkness will over-spread the face of their Souls Some Unbelief will be making head against their Faith And some of their grievings of the Spirit will be Grieving themselves and making a breach in their Peace and Joy Yet as long as their Faith is prevailing and their Assurance doth tread down and subdue their Doubtings though not quite expel them they may walk in Comfort and maintain their Peace But as long as they are resolved to lie down in sorrow till their Assurance be perfect their days on Earth must then be days of sorrow SECT XV. 6. AGain many a Soul lies long in trouble by taking up their Comforts in the beginning upon unsound or uncertain grounds This may be the case of a gracious Soul who hath better grounds and doth not see them And then when they grow to more ripeness of Understanding and come to find out the insufficiency of their former grounds of Comfort they cast away their Comfort wholy when they should only cast away their rotten props of it and search for better to support it with As if their Comfort and their Safety were both of a nature and both built on the same Foundation they conclude against their Safety because they have discovered the mistake of their former Comforts And there are many much applauded Books and Teachers of late who further the delusion of poor Souls in this point and make them believe that because their former Comforts were too Legal and their perswasions of their good estate were ill grounded therefore themselves were under the Covenant of Works only and their spiritual condition as unsound as their Comforts These men observe not That while they deny us the use of Marks to know our own state yet they make use of them themselves to know the states of others Yea and of false and insufficient Marks too For to argue from the Motive of our perswasion of a good estate to the goodness or badness of that estate is no sound arguing It followeth not that a man is unregenerate because he judged himself regenerate upon wrong grounds For perhaps he might have better grounds and not know it or else not know which were good and which bad Safety and Comfort stand not always on the same bottom Bad grounds do prove the Assurance bad which was built upon them but not always the Estate bad These Teachers do but toss poor Souls up and down as the waves of the Sea making them believe that their Estate is altered as oft as their conceits of it alter Alas few Christians do come to know either what are solid grounds of Comfort or whether they have any such grounds themselves in the infancy of Christianity But as an Infant hath life before he knoweth it and as he hath misapprehensions of himself and most other things for certain years together and yet it will not follow that therefore he hath no life or reason So is it in the case in hand Yet this should perswade both Ministers and Believers themselves to lay right grounds for their Comfort in the beginning as far as may be For else usually when they find the flaw in their Comforts and Assurance they will judg it to be a flaw in their Safety and Real Estates Just as I observe most persons do who turn to Errors or Heresies They took up the Truth in the beginning upon either false or doubtful grounds and then when their grounds are overthrown or shaken they think the doctrine is also overthrown and so they let go both together as if None had solid Arguments because They had not or none could manage them better then They. Even so when they perceive that their Arguments for their good estate were unsound they think that their Estate must needs be as unsound SECT XVI 7. MOreover many a Soul lyeth long under doubting Through the great Imperfection of their very Reason and exceeding weakness of their natural parts Grace doth usually rather turn our parts to their most necessary use and imploy our faculties on better Objects then add to the degree of their natural strength Many honest hearts have such weak heads that they know not how to perform the work of Self-Tryal They are not able rationally to argue the Case They will acknowledg the Premises and yet deny the apparent Conclusion Or if they be brought to acknowledg the Conclusion yet they do but fluctuate and stagger in their concession and hold it so weakly that every assault may take it from them If God do not some other way supply to these men the defect of their Reason I see not how they should have clear and setled Peace SECT XVII 8. ANother great and too common Cause of Doubting and Discomfort is The secret maintaining of some known sin When a man liveth in some unwarrantantable practise and God hath oft touched him for it and Conscience is galled and yet he continueth it It is no wonder if this person want both Assurance and Comfort One would think that a Soul that lieth under the fears of Wrath and is so tender as to tremble and complain should be as tender of sinning and scarcely adventure upon the appearance of evil And yet sad experience telleth us that it is frequently otherwise I have known too many such that would complain and yet sin and accuse themselves and yet sin still yea and despair and yet proceed in sinning and all Arguments and means could not keep them from the wilful committing of that sin again and again which yet they did think themselves would prove their destruction Yea some will be carryed away with those sins which seem most contrary to their dejected temper I have known them that
let us be as well learned in the Art of Suffering as Zenophon as they are in the Art of Reproaching I had rather hear from the mouth of Balack God hath kept thee from honor or from Ahab Feed him with the bread and water of affliction or from Amaziah Art thou made of the Kings Counsel forbear why shouldest thou be smitten then to hear Conscience say Thou hast betraied souls to damnation by thy cowardize and Silence or to hear God say Their blood will I require at thy hands or to hear from Christ the Judg Cast the unprofitable Servant into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Yea or to hear these Sinners cry out against me in eternal fire and with implacable rage to charge me with their undoing And as you must be plain and serious so labor to be skilful and discreet that the maner may somewhat answer the excellency of the matter How ought have I heard a stammering tongue with rediculous expressions vain repetitions tedious circumlocations and unseemly pronunciation to spoil most pretious spiritual Doctrine and make the Hearers either loath it or laugh at it How common are these extreams in the Ministers of England That while one spoils the food of Life by Affectation and new-fashioned mincing and pedantick toys either setting forth a little and mean matter with a great deal of froth and gaudy dressing so that ther 's more of the shell or paring then of the meat or like childrens Babies that when you have taken away the dressing you have taken away all or else hiding excellent Truths in a heap of vain Rhetorick and deforming its naked beauty with their paintings so that no more seriousness can be perceived in their Sermons then in a School-Boys Declamations and our people are brought to hear Sermons as they do Stageplays because Ministers behave themselves but as the Actors On the other side how many by their slovenly dressing and the uncleanness of the dish that it is served up in do make men loath and nauseate the food of Life and even despise and cast up that which should nourish them Such Novices are admitted into the Sacred Function to the hardning of the wicked the sadning of the godly and the disgrace and wrong of the Work of the Lord and those that are not able to speak Sense or Reason are made the Ambassadors of the most High God I know our stile must not be the same with different Auditories Our language must not only be suited to our matter but also to our hearers or else the best Sermon may be worst we must not read the highest Books to the lowest Form Therefore was Luther wont to say That Quipuerilitèr popularitèr trivialitèr simplicissimè docent optimi ad vulgus sunt concionatores but yet it is a poor Sermon that hath nothing but words and noise Every Reasonable soul hath both Judgment and Affection and every Rational Spiritual Sermon must have both A Discourse that hath Judgment without Affection is dead and uneffectual and that which hath Affection without Judgment is mad and transporting Remember the Proverb Non omnes qui habent citharam sunt citharaedi Every man is not a Musitian that hath an Instrument or that can jangle it and make an noise on it And that other Proverb Multi sunt qui Boves stimulant pauci aratores Many can prick the Oxen but few can Plow so many Preachers can talk loud and earnestly but few can guide their Flock aright or open to them solidly the mysteries of the Gospel and shew the true mean betwixt the extreams of contrary errors I know both must be done Holding the Plow without driving the Oxen doth nothing and driving without holding maketh mad work and is worse then nothing But yet remember that every Plow-boy can drive but to guide is more difficult and therefore belongeth to the Master Workman The violence of the Natural motion of the Windes can drive on the Ship but there is necessary a Rational motion to guide and govern it or else it will quickly be on the Rocks or Shelves either broke or sunk and had better lye still in the Harbor or at Anchor The horses that have no Reason can set the Coach or Cart a going but if there be not some that have reason to guide them it were better stand still O therefore let me bespeak you my brethren in the Name of the Lord especially those that are more young and weak that you tremble at the greatness of this holy Imployment and run not up into a Pulpit as boldly as into the Market place Study and Pray and Pray and Study till you are become Workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth that your people may not be ashamed or aweary to hear you But that besides your clear unfolding of the Doctrine of the Gospel you may also be Masters of your peoples Affections and may be as potent in your divine Rhetorick as Cicero in his Humane who as it is is said while he pleaded for Ligarius Arma de imperatoris quantumvis irati manu excusserit misero supplici veniam impetrarit Or as it said of excellent Bucholcer that he never went up into the Pulpit but he raised in men almost what affections he pleased so raising the dejected and comforting the afflicted and strengthening the tempted that though it were two hours before he had done yet not any even of the common people were weary of hearing him Set before your eyes such patterns as these and labor with unwearied diligence to be like them To this end take Demosthenes counsel plus olei quam vini absumere It is a work that requireth your most serious searching thoughts Running hasty easie studies bring forth blinde births VVhen you are the most renowned Doctors in the Church of God alas how little is it that you know in comparison of all that which you are ignorant of Content not your selves to know what is the Judgment of others as if that were to know the truth in its evidence Give not over your studies when you know what the Orthodox hold and what is the opinion of the most esteemed Divines Though I think while you are Novices and learners your selves you may do well to take much upon trust from the more judicious yet stop not there but know that such faith is more borrowed then your own An implicit faith in matters not fundamental and of great difficulty is oâ—t times commendable yea necessary in your people who are but Scholars but in you that are Masters and Teachers it is a reproach SECT IX 4. BE sure that your conversation be teaching as well as your doctrine Do not contradict and confute your own doctrine by your practice Be as forward in a Holy and Heavenly life as you are in pressing on others to it Let your discourse be as edifying and spiritual as you teach
carriage what exclaiming against pride what moanful self-accusing may stand with this divelish sin of pride O Christian if thou wouldest live continually in the presence of thy Lord lie in the dust and he will thence take thee up descend first with him into the grave and thence thou maist ascend with him to glory Learn of him to be meek and lowly and then thou maist taste of this Rest to thy soul. Thy soul else will be as the troubled Sea still casting out mire and dirt which cannot rest And in stead of these sweet delights in God thy pride will fill thee with perpetual disquietness It is the humble soul that forgets not God and God will not forget the humble Psal. 10.12 and 9.12 As he that humbleth himself as a little childe shall hereafter be greatest in the Kingdom of God Matth. 18.4 So shall he now be greatest in the forecastes of the Kingdom For as whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased so he that humbleth himself shall be in both these respects exalted Matth. 23.12 God therefore dwelleth with him that is humble and contrite to revive the Spirit of such with his presence Isai. 57.15 I conclude with that counsel of James and Peter Humble your selves therefore in the sight of the Lord and he shall now in the Spirit lift you up Jam. 4 10. and in due time shall perfectly exalt you 1 Pet. 5.6 And when others are cast down then shalt thou say There is lifting up and he shall save the humble person Job 22.29 SECT VI. 6. ANother impediment to this Heavenly Life is Wilful laziness and slothfulness of Spirit And I verily think for knowing men there is nothing hinders more then this O if it were onely the exercise of the Body the moving of the Lips the bending of the Knee then it were an easie work indeed and men would as commonly step to Heaven as they go a few miles to visit a friend yea if it were to spend most of our days in numbering Beads and repeating certain words and Prayers in voluntary humility and neglecting the body after the commandments and doctrines of men Col. 2.21 22 23. yea or in the outward part of duties commanded by God yet it were comparatively easie Further if it were onely in the exercise of parts and gifts though we made such performance our daily trade yet it were easie to be heavenly-minded But it is a work more difficult then all this To separate thoughts and affections from the world to force them to a work of so high a nature to draw forth all our graces in their order and exercise each on its proper object to hold them to this till they perceive success and till the work doth thrive and prosper in their hands This this is the difficult task Reader Heaven is above thee the way is upwards Dost thou think who art a feeble short-winded sinner to travel daily this steep ascent without a great deal of labor and resolution Canst thou get that earthly heart to Heaven and bring that backward minde to God while thou liest still and takest thine ease If lying down at the foot of the Hill and looking toward the top and wishing we were there would serve the turn then we should have daily travellers for Heaven But the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force There must be violence used to get these first fruits as well as to get the full possession Dost thou not feel it so though I should not tell thee Will thy heart get upwards except thou drive it Is it not like a dull and jadish horse that will go no longer then he feels the spur Dost thou finde it easie to dwell in the delights above It s true the work is exceeding sweet and no condition on Earth so desireable but therefore it is that our hearts are so backward especially in the beginning till we are acquainted with it O how many hundred Professors of Religion who can easily bring their hearts to ordinary duties as Reading Hearing Praying Conferring could never yet in all their lives bring them and keep them to a heavenly contemplation one half hour together Consider here Reader as before the Lord whether this be not thine own case Thou hast known that Heaven is all thy hopes thou knowest thou must shortly be turned hence and that nothing below can yield thee rest thou knowest also that a strange heart a seldom and careless thinking of Heaven can fetch but little comfort thence and dost thou not yet for all this let slip thy opportunities and lie below in dust or meer duties when thou shouldst walk above and live with God Dost thou not commend the sweetness of heavenly life and judg those the excellentest Christians that use it and yet didst never once try it thy self But as the sluggard that stretched himself on his bed and cryed O that this were working So dost thou talk and trifle and live at thy ease and say O that I could get my heart to Heaven This is to lie a bed and wish when thou shouldst be up and doing How many a hundred do read Books and hear Sermons in expectation to hear of some easie course or to meet with a shorter cut to comforts then ever they are like to finde in the Word And if they can hear of none from the Preachers of Truth they will snatch it with rejoycing from the Teachers of Falshood and presently applaud the excellency of the doctrine because it hath fitted their lazy temper and think there is no other doctrine will comfort the soul because it will not comfort it with hearing and looking on They think their Venison is best though accompanied with a lie because it is the easiest catched and next at hand and they think will procure the chiefest blessing and so it may if God be as subject to mistake as blinde Isaac And while they pretend enmity onely to the impossibilities of the Law they oppose the easier conditions of the Gospel and cast off the burden that is light also and which all must bear that will finde rest to their souls and in my judgment may as fitly be stiled enemies to the Gospel as enemies to the Law from whence they receive their common title The Lord of light and Spirit of comfort shew these men in time a surer way for lasting comfort The delusions of many of them are strong and ungrounded comforts they seem to have store I can judg it to be of no better a kinde because it comes not in the Scripture way They will some of them profess That when they meditate and labor for comfort themselves they either have none or at least but humane and of a lower kinde but all the comforts that they own and value are immediatly injected without their pains So do I expect my comforts to come in in Heaven but till then I am glad if they will come with labor
the remaining Work is onely to direct you how to use your hands and mouth to feed your stomack I mean how to use your â—nderstandings for the warming of your Affections and to fire your Hearts by the help of your Heads And herein it will be necessary that I observe this Method First to shew you what instrument it is that you must work by Secondly VVhy and how this way of working is like to succeed and attain its end Thirdly VVhat powers of the soul should here be acted and what are the particular Affections to be excited and what objective Considerations are necessary thereto and in what order you should proceed Fourthly By what acts you must advance to the height of the work Fifthly VVhat advantages you must take and what helps you must use for the facilitating your success Sixthly In what particulars you must look narrowly to your hearts through the whole And I will be the briefer in all left you should loâ—e my meaning in a crowd of words or your thoughts be carried from the VVork it self by an over-long and tedious Explication of it SECT II. 1. THe great Instrument that this Work is done by is Ratiocination Reasoning the case with your selves Discourse of minde Cogitation or Thinking or if you will call it Consideration I here suppose you to know the things to be considered and therefore shall wholly pass over thaâ— Meditation of Students which tends onely to Speculation or Knowing They are known Truths that I perswade you to consider for the grossly ignorant that know not the Doctrine of everlasting Life are for the present uncapable of this duty Mans soul as it receives and retains the Idea's or Shapes of things so hath it a power to chuse out any of these deposited Idea's and draw them forth and act upon them again and again even as a Sheep can fetch up his meat for rumination otherwise nothing would affect us but while the sense is receiving it and so we should be somewhat below the Bruits This is the power that here you must use To this choice of Idea's or subjects for your Cogitation there must necessarily concur the act of the Will which indeed must go along in the whole Work for this must be a voluntary not a forced Cogitation Some men do consider whether they will or no and are not able to turn away their own thoughts so will God make the wicked consider of their sins when he shall set them all in order before them Psal. 50.21.22 And so shall the damned consider of Heaven and of the excellency of Christ whom they once despised and of the eternal joyes which they have foolishly lost But this forced Consideration is not that I mean but that which thou dost willingly and purposely chose but though they will be here requisite yet still Consideration is the instrument of the Work SECT III. 2. NExt let us see what force Consideration hath for the moving of the affections and for the powerful imprinting of things in the heart Why First Consideration doth as it were open the door between the Head and the Heart The Understanding having received Truths layes them up in the Memory now Consideration is the conveyer of them from thence to the Affections There 's few men of so weak Understanding or Memory but they know and can remember that which would strangely work upon them and make great alterations in their spirits if they were not locked up in their brain and if they could but convey them down to their hearts Now this is the great work of Consideration O what rare men would they be who have strong heads and much learning and knowledge if the obstructions between the Head and the Heart were but opened and their Affections did but correspond to their Understandings why if they would but bestow as much time and pains in studying the goodness and the evil of things as they bestow in studying the Truth and Falshood of Enunciations it were the readiest way to obtain this he is usually the best Scholar who hath the quick the clear and the tenacious apprehension but he is usually the best Christian who hath the deepest piercing and affecting Apprehension He is the best Scholar who hath the readiest passage from the Ear to the Brain but he is the best Christian who hath the readiest passage from the Brain to the Heart now Consideration is that on our parts that must open the passage though the Spirit open as the principal cause inconsiderate men are stupid and senseless SECT IV. 2. MAtter 's of great weight which do neerly concern us are aptest to work most effectually upon the Heart now Meditation draweth forth these working Objects and presents them to the Affections in their worth and weight The most delectable Object doth not please him that sees it not nor doth the joyfullest news affect him that never hears it now Consideration presents before us those Objects that were as absent and brings them to the Eye and the Ear of the soul Are not Christ and Glory think you affecting Objects would not they work wonders upon the soul if they were but clearly discovered and strangely transport us if our apprehensions were any wâ—it answerable to their worth why by Consideration it is that they are presented to us This is the Prospective Glass of the Christian by which he can see from Earth to Heaven SECT V. 3. AS Consideration draweth forth the weightiest Objects so it presenteth them in the most affecting way and presseth them home with enforcing Arguments Man is a Rational Creature and apt to be moved in a Reasoning way especially when Reasons are evident and strong Now Consideration is a reasoning the case with a mans own heart and what a multitude of Reasons both clear and weighty are always at hand for to work upon the heart VVhen a Believer would reason his heart to this heavenly work how many Arguments do offer themselves from God from the Redeemer from every one of the Divine Attributes from our former Estate from our present Estate from Promises from Seals from Earnest from the Evil we now suffer from the Good we partake of from Hell from Heaven every thing doth offer it self to promote our joy now Meditation is the Hand to draw forth all these as when you are weighing a thing in the Ballance you lay on a little more and a little more till it weigh down so if your Affections do hang in a dull indifferency why due Meditation will add Reason after Reason till the scales do turn Or as when you are buying any thing of necessity for your use you bid a little more and a little more till at last you come to the sellers price so when Meditation is perswading you to Joy it will first bring one Reason and then another till it have silenced all your distrust and sorrows and your cause to rejoyce lyes plain before you If another mans reasons will
attamen ex cis confirmari possumus credâ—re Pet. Martyr Loci Commun cap. 8 pag. 38. vid. plura ibidem f Non per alios dispositionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quam perâ— eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc preconiavêrunt postea verò per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futurum Irenaeus adver haeres l. 3. c. 1. * Aquin. summ 3. q. 55. 2. c. §. 5. What the sin against the Holy Ghost is * How Hunnius was assaulted with this temptation that he had sinned against the holy Ghost you may read in his life and death And it is stil a common temptation Matth. 12.24 c. Mar 3.28 Joh 5.39 33. 45 46 47. Joh. 15 22.24 a Act 3.17 b 1 Cor. 2.8 * Nunc non ut olim sunt necessaria miracula priusquam crederet mundus necessaria fuere ad hoc ut mundus crederet ut August de Civit. Dei lib. 22. c. 8. §. 6. * Yet do I believe that that of 2 Pet. 1.20 is generally mistaken as if the Apostle did deny private men the liberty of interpreting Scriptures even for themselves When it is in regard of the object and not of the interpreter that the Apostle calleth it Private As if he should say The Prophets are a sure Testimony of the Doctrine of Christianity but then you must understand that they are not to be interpreted of the Private men that spoke them for they were but types of Christ the Publique person so Psal. 2. 16. c. are to be interpreted of Christ and not of David only a private person and but a type of Christ in all so that Peter answereth the Question of the Eunuch in Acts 8. Of whom doth the Prophet speak of himself privately or some other more publike man This is I think the true meaning of Peter c The Vse of Church Governours and Teachers and how far they are to be obeyed d Oportet discentem credere Aristot. in Analytic post e Tit. 1.7 1 Cor. 4.1 1 Cor. 12.16.17.21 Luke 12.42 Heb. 13.3.17.24 1 Tim. 3.5 Act. 20.28 1 Tim. 3. â— 5. 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Cor. 4.15 d Haec duo dictat ipsa ratio Primò In mysteriis quae superant rationem non nitendum esse ratiocinantis Logicá sed Revelantis authoritate Secundò In consequentiis deducendis aut obscuris in Religione interpretandis magis fidendum esse caetui in nomine Domini legitimè congregatis quam privatis spiritibus seorsim sapientibus recalcitrantibus Doct. Prideaux Lect. 22. de Auth. Eccl. pag. 361. See Doctor Jackson Eternall truth of Scripture lib. 2. chap. 1.2 3 4 5 6. * I may say of many of them for doctrine as Fulbeck of Bracton Britton c. Direct p. 27. There be certaine ancient writers whom as it is not unprofitable to read so to relye on them is dangerous their books are Monumenta adorandae rubiginis of more reverence then authority Argument 2. § 1. I take it for granted that good Angels could not be guilty of forging the Scripture § 2. Not of man * Mahâ—mâ—â— was 〈…〉 by the Arabian soldiers for their commander In his Alcoâ—an he confesseth himself to be a sinner an Idolater an Adulterer given to Lechery His Laws run thus Avenge your selves of your enemies Take as many wives as you can keep and spare not Kill the Infidels he that fighteth lazily shall be damned and he that killeth most shall be in Paradise He saith that Christ had the Spirit and Power of God and the soul of God and that he is Christs servant See Alcoran Azoar 2.3.6 Also Azoar 18.4.11.13 He confesseth that Christ is the Spirit and word and messenger of God that his doctrine iâ— perfect that it enlighteneth the old Testament and that he came to confirm it yet denyeth him to be God Magnus fuit Sanctus magnus Dei amicus magnus propheta c. Vide Thom. Bradwardin de Causa Dei lib. 1. cap. 1. Corol. part 32. § 3. Vid. Wigandum in Method ante comment in mino prophetas Joh. 7 48.49 Acts 10. § 4. Argum. 3. §. 1. Object §. 2. * Cum Romani in victoriosae antiquitatis memoriam templum singulari schemate a facere decrevissent ab omni illâ deorum immo daemoniorum multitudinâ— quaesierunt usquequo durare pusset tam excellentis operis tam operosa constructio Responsum est Donec virgo pareret Illi ad impossibilitatem Oraculum retorquentes templum aeternum solennem illam machinam vocaverunt Nocte autem cum virginali thalamo virginius flos Mariae egressus est ita cecidit confractum est illud mirabile et columnarium opus ut vix appareant vestigia ruinarum Bernard in Natal Domini Serm. 23. 1 Sam. 7.12 * To speak my heart All that I fear is lest Master Herbert be a true Prophet and the Gospel be in its solar motion travelling for the West and American parts and qultting its present places of residence and unworthy professours and possessours And then farewell England But else not §. 3. * Not that Miracles are still necessary but speciall providences do much confirme Nec jam opus est Miraculus cum in omnem terram verbum sonuerit Doct. Humfredus Jesiutis part 1. pag. 114. §. 4. * About the time of the silencing of Ministers how many Churches in England were torne at once with terrible lightning and almost no place else but Churches were touched especially in the lower part of Devonshire where many were scorched maimed and some their brains struck out as they sat in Church And at the Church of Anthony in Cornwall neer Plimouth on Witsunday 1640. See the Relation in Print §. 5. * Was it not neer a Miracle that God wrought for Mistris Honywood when she threw the glass up to the wall saying if this glassbreak not I may be saved c. and yet took it up whole §. 6. Psal. 2.2 3 4 5. a Morneâ— Grotius Doct. Jaâ—â—son Parsons Resolut part 2. c. b Ask them in New England whether Mistris Hutchinsons and Mistris Dyers most hideous monstrous births were not convincing providences against their Antinomian Anti-scriptural heresies as if God from heaven had spoke against them and yet Old England will not take warning See Nicephor Eccl. hist. Tem. 1. li. 4. cap. 13. where Tertulli Jul. Capitolinus Orosius c. do mention c The Legion of Malta in the time of Mar. Aurelius who procured by prayer both Thunder on the enemies and raine for the Army See the Epist. of M. Aurelius in Justin Martyrs Apolo Xiphitin in Vita Aurelij Melch. Adam in vita Myconij Recorded by Sozom. and others Jam. 5.13 14 15 16. Psal. 73.26 August de Civitate Dei lib. 33. Argum. 4. §. 1. §. 2. Lege Epistolam Vâ—ssii de Samuele apparente Saulo in Joan Beverovitii Epistolis Et D. Prideaux Hypomnemata pag. 261 262