Heads whilst it hath been cried in their Ears that here is Truth and there is Truth they have grown Perplexed and Distracted and know not how to behave themselves and What Part to take They hear that the Claim to Truth is Universal but then they know This that All the Pretences to it cannot be True and How say they if None of them should be so Hereupon they renounce Religion as a Faction and in plain terms a Cheat and consequently they Live and Act in the World as they Please If Truth be claimed by All the Professors of Religion and those Professors Contradict one another Where shall we find an Answer to This Interrogatory What is Truth In way of Reply it is enough to say at present for I shall answer a great part of these Cavils afterwards in the sequel of this Discourse 1. These Several Divisions and Parties evidently prove a True Religion For it is certain that Rational Men would not Contend for Nothing Unless there were some Reality at the bottom we cannot imagine that Persons of unprejudic'd Minds and sincere Intentions as we must allow a great Part of them to be would thus seriously busie themselves and be so mightily concern'd 2. Some Mens fond and groundless Pretences ought not to be equalled with the Iust Claims of others As long as the World continues in this degenerate posture where it is there will ever be a great number of men who will be pretending to Truth even whilst they are maintaining those Doctrines which are directly opposite to it Therefore we are not to concern our selves for these Pretenders only so far as to slight them as Persons govern'd by Interest or Passion or to pity them as those who are misled by Ignorance or Prejudice 3. As for the generality of Disputes which are at this day on foot Religion and particularly the Christian Religion I mean the Essentials and Vitals of it which give it its denomination are little or not at all concern'd in those Quarrels as will appear from what I shall suggest anon and therefore I shall say no more here But notwithstanding what hath been objected I will go on with my present design which is an Inquest after Truth and I hope the attempt will not prove vain and succesless That we may certainly find it out those Two known but too much neglected Rules or Standards are to be made use of by us viz. Reason and Scripture By Reason I mean the free and impartial use of our Understandings and Judgments which God hath naturally endued us with and which we are obliged to improve and cultivate by the aid of our Bodily Senses by the Testimony of others by serious and steady Observation and well-grounded Experience for these must be assisting to Humane Reason to render it perfect and compleat If thuâ— we would apply our selves to a serious search after Truth we should soon make our selves Masters of it For the Candle of the Lord as Solomon very significantly calls the Reason of Man was set up in our Breasts by God on purpose to discover Truth to us But it must be acknowledged that this Light hath been much impair'd by Man's Degeneracy so that it can scarcely be said to Shine out i.e. perfectly to display it self It hath been Clouded ever since the First Apostacy and obscured daily by the actual Prevalency of Vice An undeniable Evidence whereof were those swarms of monsterous Opinions among the Pagans that gross Superstition and Idolatry of the Gentile World those prodigious Shapes and Models of Religion which were invented by them Oftentimes it happened that the Creature made and framed his Creator they shaped out Deities and the way of Worshipping them according to their own Fancies and Imaginations and a God was even what they thought good to make him Or suppose Natures Light did shine out to the full yet it would not be Clear and Bright enough to give us a Prospect of those Divine and Supernatural Truths which are to bring us to Everlasting Happiness For Nature and Reason cannot Dictate those things which depend wholly on God's Free Grace and Pleasure And such are the Doctrine of a Saviour and Redeemer the Method of Man's Salvation and all the Mysteries of the Christian and Evangelical Dispensation How was Nicodemus a Noted Master in Israel and no mean Possessor of Reason baffled with the Doctrin of Regeneration He might truly be said to go to Iesus by Night who made his Visit only by the dusky and obscure Light of Nature Therefore tho' Reason or rather the Understanding using its reasoning Faculty be a laudable Guide in Religion yet it will not be a safe Conduct to Truth if it be alone There must of necessity be another Guide besides this to lead us to the Discovery of Heavenly Verities and Propositions of Faith There must be Divine Illumination to assist us to find out Divine and Spiritual Truths The Second Standard then of Truth is the Infallible Word of God Divine Truths must be sought for not from Man but from God not from Human Writings but an Unerring Word not from those who are Finite and Ignorant but from Him who is Infinite and knoweth all Things not from the Sons of Men but from Him who is the only-begotten Son of God the Revealer of his Father's Will For No man hath seen God at any time the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him as the beloved Disciple beareth witness Iohn 1. 18. None is able to discover the Divine and Supernatural Mysteries which our Religion is fraught with but the Founder of them We could never have arrived to those Transcendent Notions unless we had been taught them from Heaven We were not skilled to appoint the Manner of Appeasing the incensed Majesty of Heaven and to prescribe the Way of Worship suitable to that Oeconomy This would have been as if it should be left to some silly Country Peasant to assign the Way and Manner of Treating a Mighty King and Monarch Who would not expect in such a case a strange and uncouth a rude and ridiculous Way of Address and Courtship and below the Greatness and Majesty of a Prince But it was requisite there should be a particular Divine Discovery a clearer Light a surer Guide than that of Nature For though God at sundry times and in divers manners had Revealed himself to the past Generations of Men yet to make that Revelation compleat he spoke in the last days by his Son and by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost in the inspired Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists Christ therefore saith and that Emphatically I am the Truth Iohn 14. 6. The Gospel was the last and most corrected Edition of the Doctrin of Truth and we must never look for any other to come forth to the End of the World This is Truth more eminently so called The Truth which came by Iesus Christ as the Blessed Evangelist speaketh
hear Persons of different Judgments cite the same Passages of Holy Writ should not give Offence to any Because that Trumpet gives an uncertain Sound I see no reason why the Parties should prepare themselves for Battle and Dispute with so much Fierceness and Rage as generally they do I cannot sufficiently Admire and Commend the excellent Candor and Moderation of the first Pious Reformers of Our Church who in such Articles as are Dubious and Disputable have not shewed themselves Stiff and Peremptory Rigid and Magisterial have not wound up the Strings too high lest they should marr the Harmony and Peace of the Church But where the Arguments are deemed to be Equal on both Sides they have allowed us an ingenuous Freedom and permit us to make use of our own Judgments and yet at the same time severely and indispensably urge upon us all Articles that are of the Foundation and which are certainly known to be True And this brings me to the Fifth and Last Rank of Principles in our Holy Religion and they are Fundamental and Necessary and of the very Essence of Christianity Of which sort are the Doctrines of Man's Corruption and Degeneracy of the Reparation made by Christ the Redeemer of Forgiveness and Justification by his Blood c. with all those substantial Articles of Faith comprised in the Creed which goes under the Name of the Apostles These are the Christian Verities and these are clear and manifest in God's Word and have plain Evidence of Scripture and are agreed upon by all Sober and Considerate Persons who have not renounced the Christian Profession Here it is that we have the greatest Use and Guidance of Scripture and for that plain Direction which it gives us in these we are to Prize and Value it as the Richest Treasure nay as the Only Treasure in the World For from this Inspired Book alone we have these Heavenly and Divine Doctrines they were originally in no other Writings in the World but these Wherefore let us look upon these grand Truths as the main and necessary Contents of the Bible and as the Matters which we are indispensably concerned in As for those Texts which are Obscure and Difficult or which relate not to Faith or Manners and consequently are not necessary to be known let us not be displeased that we cannot reach the meaning of them Let it not seem strange that Interpreters vary here and cannot agree about the Sense of these Places St. Ierom upon the Place saith thus St. Augustin otherwise and St. Chrisostom varies from both and it may be a fourth differs from these and a fifth comes and diffents from them all This doth not offend me in the least for where the Scripture speaks of things that are Abstruse or speaks in an obscure and dark manner it is not strange that we have not a clear and plain discovery of those Passages and consequently that those Writers who have treated of them differ in their Expositions Let not this trouble us for it was God's Will there should be these Difficulties in Scripture and he hath not made it necessary for us to have the certain sense and meaning of these Places But this should satisfy us that whatever is necessary to Salvation is plainly revealed declared and written in the Old and New Testament and that the Knowledge of this alone is absolutely necessary This then is that which I say that if Christian Men would read the Bible to learn thence these undoubted Principles and their indispensable Duty and not to furnish themselves with Matter of Dispute they would be the happiest People under Heaven and be no longer Scandalous to the greater which is the Unbelieving Part of the World by their Dissentions and Disagreements O when will that Blessed Day come when Rectified and Unbiassed Reason and the plain Arbitrement of Scripture shall decide the Controversies in Christendom If these were once admitted as Impartial Umpires they would make short Work of all the Quarrels about Religion namely by pronouncing Many of them to be vain Janglings and Most of them Unreasonable and Absurd by assuring the Christian World That if they would lay aside Prejudice and Interest and Vile-Affections nothing would appear so Clear and Evident and Undisputable as the Fundamental Doctrines above-named and that all who name the Name of Christ are obliged to Embrace and Profess these necessary and unquestionable Maxims and that they ought to be Wary and Modest in their Determinations concerning other Propositions which are uncertain and that in Matters which are Indifferent and Circumstantial it is Reasonable that they should either conform themselves to the Practice of the Church they live in or mutually agree to bear with one another Where then is there any place left for Uncharitable Disputes and Unchristian Animosities No where certainly but where meer Wilfulness and Perversness reign For are not the Rules and Standards of Truth Easy and Intelligible Have we not the Eternal Laws of Reason the immediate Directions of Nature and the Convictions of our own Minds and moreover have we not the Infallible Oracles and Inspired Writings to rectify our Mistakes Have we not Heavenly and Divine Knowledge to Exalt our Natural Notions Hath not the Divine Goodness blessed us with abundant Discoveries both from the Law of Nature and the Positive Laws of Christ Jesus but more especially from the Latter that compleat Body of Divine Laws that Authentick Volume of Religion that Inestimable Treasury of true Wisdom and Knowlege So that if we will sincerely make use of these Helps which God hath given us we shall have no occasion to renew this Demand What is Truth Now to the God of Truth and Father of Lights and to his Son Christ Iesus who is the Way and the Truth and to the Holy Spirit of Truth and Grace be ascribed everlasting Honour and Glory Amen Why Rulers and Iudges are called Gods A Sermon Preach'd before the Iudges at the Assizes held at Cambridge PSALM LXXXII 6 7. I have said Ye are Gods and all of you are the Children of the most High But ye shall die like Men and fall like one of the Princes THIS Psalm may not unfitly be stiled the Iudges or Magistrates Psalm for of them it speaks and for them it was Penn'd that they might understand their Duty and not be ignorant of their Dignity that they might know how to discharge their Office which is briefly summed up in the third and fourth Verses and that they might be assured likewise that Heaven it self hath vouched their Function and authorized their Profession that they might be Ascertained that those of their Eminent Rank and Quality are under the peculiar Influence of Providence that they are God's Charge and that they are themselves Gods I have said Ye are Gods In which Words and the following ones which I have read to you we may take notice of these Two General Parts viz. a Concession and a Correction 1st An honourable Concession of
was excellently said by another Brave Man of a true primitive temper This question How can have no place in the things of God whose only Will is sufficient and is to be greatly admired of all And with these Ancient Writers agrees the Great Modern Reformer This word Why saith he hath misled and destroy'd many souls it is too high for us to search into When we come to insist too busily on these demands Why or How God saith or doth this or that we shew that we are loth to submit our Reason to Faith and to give assent to God's Word though we cannot clearly conceive it Which argues a very Unchristian temper for the Gospel hath propounded many things to us which are Mystical which neither our thoughts can fully apprehend nor our words express But this should not hinder us from believing and embracing them for though they are Mysterious yet it is plain and manifest that they are asserted in the Sacred Writings It was prudently and Christianly advised and determin'd by St. Augustine in such Points as these which I have been of speaking and especially the Trinity which that Pious Father particularly mentions Let us saith he by that previous Faith which helps the eye-sight of the mind clearly imbrace what we understand and firmly believe what we understand not The Reason of which Advice and Resolution is this that some things that are above the reach of our Understandings may be and ought to be the matter of our Belief Which is founded on this that the object of Faith is of a much larger Extent than that of Reason and therefore we may give assent to some Propositions which we cannot explain and clear up by the light of Reason And besides every Thinking Man ought to revolve this in his mind that Faith is of an higher nature than Reason and accordingly was designed to bear Sway over it and to controul it To this purpose it is to be consider'd that there are these Three Faculties or Operations in Men Sense and Reason and Faith and they gradually rise one higher than the other Sense is common to us with Brutes and takes notice only of Corporeal and External Objects but Reason is proper to us as we are Men and is bestow'd upon us to correct the mistakes of Sense thus by Sense we can't perceive the Motion of the Sun and Stars they so couzen our sight that we can't apprehend when they move yea they seem to stand immoveable wherefore we must consult with something else than Sense and that is Reason which tells us that either those Heavenly Bodies or the Ground we stand upon move very swiftly our Reason not our Eyes must give us an account of this Thus it is plain that Reason controuls Sense and consequently is a higher and superior faculty But then comes Faith and claims a Superiority over them both for as Reason was given by God to correct Sense so this Function was added to give a check to Reason as being Higher and Nobler than that This is the Order of these Operations in Man and it is by Divine appointment and therefore no man of sober thoughts can find fault with it If we are free to acknowledge that Reason is a Curb to Sense and we cannot deny it then we should be as forward to own that Faith is the same to Reason and that we ought to make use of the one to check and bridle the other when Sacred and Supernatural things are under our consideration Here then as is fitting let us strenuously exert our Faith and not judge of the Divine Being and the Truths revealed by him according to humane measures according to what we find and perceive in one another still remembring that they are Mysteries As for the Contrary Sentiment there are these three Great things that disparage it 1. It argues Pride and Arrogant Stiffness 2. It is an undeniable proof of gross Prejudice and Partiality 3. It unavoidably introduces Indifferency in Religion I will distinctly insist upon this Triple Charge and then leave the Judicious to judge of my performance First It is a great argument of a Proud and Haughty Spirit For it must needs proceed from this Principle that the men of that perswasion will by no means acknowledge their Short-sightedness and the Shallowness of their Intellectuals They cannot brook such Condescention as this and therefore they scorn to own any Mysteries If any Difficult Truths are propounded to them they have learnt of a Great Conqueror to cut the knot instead of untying it they violently null the proposition and so make it no Mystery as we see they do in the Articles of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God and the like For they pretend to manage all by meer force of Reason and reject all propositions and doctrines which they think come not up to this heighth They take it very ill if you allow them not a Catholick and Unbounded Knowledge of every thing whether finite or infinite and of the particular Manner and minutest Circumstances that appertain to them They disdain that there should be any thing in nature which they are not able to comprehend they deem it an unsufferable disgrace to their understandings that any thing should be above the reach of them that there should be any Point of Speculation so deep and abstruse that they cannot penetrate to the very bottom of it they scorn to have it said that there are any Mysteries and Darknesses in Religion when their minds are so bright and their intellects are so shining What is this but Pride What is this but being over-conceited of their natural Faculties and having too great an opinion of their own Rational Capacities what is this but an immodest and extravagant magnifying of these Powers Yea what is it but a kind of aspiring to Divinity and attributing to themselves an Infinite and Immense nature an extraordinary and more than humane Wisdom Zophar gives us the true Character and Pedigree of this sort of persons Iob 11. 12. Vain man would be wise this Empty Hollow Creature would fain be thought to be full of Knowledge though he be born like a wild asses colt though he be by nature ignorant and rude he hath such an opinion and esteem of his Parts and Acquirements he is of such Arrogancy and Elation of Mind that he thinks it below him to acknowledge any Abstrusities in Religion He takes part with the Conceited Sect of the Stoicks among whom it was a Maxim That it became not a Wise man to wonder at any of those things which to others seem to be Paradoxes Nay he is so much of this Vaunting humour that he will not be perswaded that there is any thing Wonderful and Amazing even in Religion it self St. Paul stiles Christianity a Mystery but he being intoxicated with Pride and Self-conceit directly contradicts him and saith it is not mysterious But those who attend to the Apostle's Advice Not
enjoyn'd us but we are to satisfie our selves with this that God's Will ought to be the Standard of ours and therefore we ought to resign our selves to the Divine Conduct And these men allow of this as just and rational and advise that our Natural desires and propensions should give way to our Saviour's Commands he being our Great Law-giver and Master And why then do they shew themselves Partial in denying it reasonable to submit the Intellectual part of the Mind to the doctrines and dictates of the Gospel Is there not as much reason to take care of this Faculty to look to the management of it to keep it within its due bounds as there is to deal thus with the Elective Power of the Soul If they are content to surrender this to the Divine Will why are they against subjecting the other to the Divine Lighâ— and Discoveries If it be commendâ—ble to curb and moderate the Concupiscible or â—rascible part why not also to regulate and govern the Perceptive If the Will must be check'd why must the Intellect be left uncontroulable If they measure the Goodness of the former Power in them by the Laws and Rules of Christ what is the reason that they measure not the Rectitude of the latter by the discoveries of Divine Truth made by the same Author in the Writings of the New Testament Seeing they deem it proper and necessary for humane minds to vail the first to the express Injunctions of the Gospel why do they not think it as requisite to submit the second to the infallible dictates of the Holy Spirit in Scripture why do they not abandon their own weak sentiments about the highest Concerns of Christianity why do they not renounce their private surmises their shallow arguings their sophistical ratiocinations and give them up to be corrected by the light of Divine Revelation why are they not sensible of the deficiency and indigence of their Minds of the narrowness and contractedness of their understandings and why do they not at the same time adore the Divine Perfection why do they not inure their understandings to the dictates of Inspiration and believe what is Unintelligible Particularly in the doctrine of the Trinity why do they lean to their own understandings why do they prescribe to Heaven and set up their own weak Conceptions as the Standard of Divine Truth In a word why do they not make their meer Natural Notions and Principles truckle to Reveal'd Truth and bring their Reason into subjection to the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they come here with their old cry and cavils that the Article of the Trinity and some others that appertain to it are contrary to Reason and are a perfect Contradiction and are Impossibilities as their language is we may for ever silence them with this that they can't with any shew of Reason talk after this rate because they can't pronounce that to be Contrary to Reason the Nature of which they are ignorant of what they can't reach with their Reason they can't say is Repugnant to it Nor can they doom this or that to be Contradictory when they know nothing of the Manner of it And so for the Impossibility of a thing it is rash folly to determine it cannot be when they are unacquainted with the Transcendent Nature of it when the Mode of its existence is hid from them This I think is very plain and it is as pertinent to the matter in hand I having proved that the doctrine of the Trinity and such like Articles of Christianity are hidden Mysteries Therefore let not these men think to amuse and banter us as they would needs do with â—alking of Contradictions Impossibilities c. which are Terms that are nothing to the purpose But this I request of them that they would be Serious and vouchsafe to reflect on what I have suggested under this Head for the Article of the Trinity would be a very clear and bright Truth to them if they would but entertain this one thing in their thoughts that they are oblig'd as much to keep a discipline over their Understandings as over their Wills that the Intellectual Powers as well as the other Faculties of the mind are to be in subjection It is mention'd as part of Man's Depravity and alienation from his first Make that he seeks out many Inventions i. e. as the Hebrew word signifies curious Excogitations quaint Arguings fanciful Reasonings These especially in matters of Religion are greedily sought out and pursued by Vain men but where the true force and vertue of Religion prevail there they cast down imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasonings and every high thing every proud Conceit that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought i. e. every corrupt notion and conception which usurps upon Faith This is the Conduct of our Minds which the Apostles teaches us we must quit our false Argumentations and Debates about the the Great Mysteries of our Religion we must not dare to be wise above what is written above or beyond what Divine Revelation hath taught us but we must resolve all our doubts and scruples by appealing to Divine Authority and the Veracity of God It may be the Sagacious Gentlemen we have to do with at present will grant that some Vulgar heads among whom perhaps they will reckon the foresaid Apostle have favour'd the restraining and limiting of the Intellectual Powers as well as the other Faculties of the mind but will this pass current they may say with those that are voted for Men of Sense and Wit will it be admitted by Men of Keen Apprehensions men of Judgment and Philosophy Yes most surely if they will be pleas'd to take the Learned Lord Verulam and the Great Des Cartes into that number The former of whom hath left these remarkable words Gods Sovereignty reaches to the whole man extending it self no less to his Reason than his Will so that it well becomes man to deny himself universally and yield up all to God Wherefore as we are bound to obey the Law of God notwithstanding the reluctancy of our Will so are we also to believe his Word though against the reluctancy of our Reason The latter expresses himself thus and though some may think it is spoken in Politick Compliance yet it is more than they can prove and it is certain that they are in themselves words of truth and soberness and worthy of so Great a Man We must saith he always and chiefly remember this that God the Author of things is Infinite and we altogether finite so that when God reveals any thing concerning himself or other things which surpasses the natural strength of our wit such as the Mysteries of the Incarnation or Trinity we are not to refuse to give our Assent to them though we do not clearly understand them And again in the Close of this First Part of his Philosophical Principles he hath left
to defame libel and blaspheme Christianity and all the Mysteries of it and they make use of their Reason to make void their Faith But now all this may be prevented and hindred by a humble and Christian submission to the Sacred Oracles by a free resigning our selves to the Faith of the Gospel and by giving credit to it Articles because they are deliver'd and attested by God himself in the Infallible Writings which even Reason it self dictates to be the best Method we can take to establish and confirm us in our Religion and to assure us of the Truth of all its doctrines be they never so perplexed and mysterious Nor doth this introduce a Blind Credulity and such an Implicit Faith as some of the Romanists defend for when we resign up our judgments to Divine Revelation we are not debarr'd from examining and searching into and satisfying our selves about the Truth of the things we speak of but only of the Mode of them Which makes it a quite different thing from the practice of the Roman Proselytes who are bid to swallow down whatever is dictated to them and that upon the bare Authority and Warrant of the Church But here is no such crude Method prescribed we are to search the Scriptures whether these things be so and we are to make use of Reason to shew and convince us how fitting it is that we should believe what is reveal'd by the Spirit of God For seeing since the Revolt and Original Depravation of Man we stand in need of Revelation to direct us right Reason tells us that it is unsafe to rely on the bare suggestions of our own minds in the great matters of Religion This acquaints us that though we are not capable of answering all difficulties in those Points yet we are oblig'd to give credit to the doctrines themselves because they are founded on Scripture which was divinely inspired This Principle in us assures us that though we can't fully explain these things by Reason yet we have reason to believe the Holy Writ which is the Rule and Measure of our Faith yea notwithstanding those Points seem to thwart the natural principles of Reason Thus far we have Reason on our side And then for Scripture that is wholly and entirely ours Those Grand Articles which our Antagonists renounce are found there Particularly to instance in that Great and Celebrated Doctrine which I have so often mention'd one would think it might suffice that this is so directly so plainly so frequently asserted in the New Testament where we find Three expresly named Father Son and Holy Ghost to whom the Divinity is ascribed and therefore we believe these Three to be One God But how these three distinct Hypostases are one Entire Indivisible Essence is an ineffable and incomprehensible Mystery Yet though we can't conceive the Manner of this yet the Thing it self is clearly and plainly reveal'd in Scripture and consequently the Socinians have no cause to brag that theirs is an Accountable and Reasonable Faith when it absolutely opposes and contradicts the Holy Oracles of the Bible This is the true state of the matter and so it was thought to be by that Learned Writer whom I before quoted who hath the repute even among these men of a Person of Great Reason and Sense speaking of them he thus expresses himself Their Opinion I look upon as fundamentally repugnant to Christianity it self if the New Testament be the foundation of Christianity for I know nothing more express than That viz. the Trinity in those Writings And therefore the denying of the Trinity is the denying of the Authority of the New Testament Or if they will pretend they can interpret things there so as to evade this doctrine by the same reason I think they may evade any and so still the Sacred Writ shall stand for a Cypher and signifie nothing which tends mainly to the enervating of our Faith These are very Weighty words and the more to be consider'd by our Adversaries because they come from One of a Large Compass of Mind and a great Asserter of Reason in Religion which is a thing that these Gentlemen pretend much to The sum of what he saith is this that if the Scripture be true the doctrine of the Trinity is so too if Divine Revelation in the books of the New Testament is to be believ'd then this also must be embraced And on this very account it hath been embraced by all religious and pious minds that have had a reverence for the Holy Scriptures As it was the Faith once delivered to the Saints so it hath ever since been the steady belief of all the Martyrs and Confessors of Iesus and all the True Professors of Christianity and it hath with invincible force in all ages of the Church born down all opposition that hath been made against it And I question not but those violent Efforts and Insults which have been and are made against it in this present Age will prove vain and successless Though we have seen the rain descend and the flouds come and the winds blow and beat upon it yet it shall never fall because it is founded upon a rock the same Rock on which the Church of Christ is built viz. the Confession and Testimony of the Inspired Apostles the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures the Veracity of God and the Certainty of Divine Revelation And all the other Sacred Mysteries of our Religion have the very same stable foundation and therefore are Impregnable Let this then satisfie us that these Doctrines are sufficiently reveal'd though they are not fully known I say they are sufficiently revealed because the Book of God assure us that these things are so but they are not fully known because we are not able to discover the Arguments on which they are founded we discern not the foot on which they stand God hath been pleas'd to hide this from us But then this is to be said It is not reasonable to renounce our belief of that which is plain and evident because it is mix'd with something which is dark and intricate It was an Excellent Caution and Rule of the Great St. Augustine Nunquid ideo negandum quod apertum est quia comprehendi non potest quod occultum est The Truth of a Doctrine may be evident and perspicuous and that is sufficient to command our Assent tho' the Nature of it is not The Modes and Circumstances appertaining to Divine things are not to be accounted for at least if we cannot clear them up we have no reason to quit the Grand Truths themselves These are not to be abandon'd because they are not according to our ordinary level because we are not able to render a punctual account of them because we cannot perfectly Gauge them and sound them to the very bottom in a word because they are not subject to the Tribunal of Reason But if we have any regard to the Sacred and Infallible Volume
and Rule are to be made use of in the searches and enquiries about Divine Truths This Discourse lays the Foundation for those which follow for even the Sacred Verities and Principles of our Religion have a tendency to Practise The second is of the Divine Authority of Rulers and Judges wherein I have endeavonr'd to Establish the Right and Iurisdiction of Civil Governours upon the sure basis of Reason and Scripture and thereon have grounded our Obedience to them which is an indispensable Law and Duty of the Christian Institution But as we are to obey Magistrates so they are to do Homage to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to give proof of this Reverence and Submission by their Religious and Holy Demeanour Wherefore in the third place I have shew'd the absolute Necessity of their being Exemplary in their lives and of their surpassing others in all Moral and Religious Actions Next I undertake to display thâ— Office of the Guides and Rulers of the Church the Ministers of the Gospel the Publick Instructors of Souls and to shew what Excellencies and Perfections they ought to be Masters of in order to their Edifying the Church of Christ. Then I descend to the more Particular Cases and Conditions of persons and shew how necessary Religion and Vertue are to men of Traffick and Business in the world and that the Decay of Riches and Plenty in a Nation is to be attributed to their Vicious Practices Afterwards I represent to the Reader that Extravagant Pride and Vanity of Apparel which are so conspicuous in this Age and with that Freedom which becomes a Dispenser of the Divine Oracles I set before the offenders the Sinfulness and Mischief of this Excess Again I took occasion from the commencing of the late War to satisfie the Scrupulous about the Lawfulness yea and Necessity in some cases of going to War And soon after there was ground for another Discourse viz. concerning the Causes of Ill Success in Martial Affairs And because it was requisite that whilst we were engaging the Enemy abroad there should be Peace at home I impartially represented the Mischievous and Pernicious Consequences of Intestine Broils and Divisions in a Kingdom and warmly Exhorted to Vnity and Concord This is a brief View of Ten of the Sermons in this Volume which are so mixed that there is no Degree or Quality of persons but will find themselves concern'd in the Subjects here treated of Princes and Monarchs Inferiour Rulers and Magistrates Ecclesiaâ—tical persons and all others whether publick or private Civil or Military Wealthy or Indigent of the Manly or of the Softer Sex have their share in these Papers As for the two last Sermons they had their birth from the two much prevailing Opinion of those men who deny that there are Mysteries in the Christian Religion I strike only at that General Doctrine and wave all Set Reflections on Particular Persons or their Attempts The sum of my Vndertaking here is this I give a particular account of the word Mystery as it is mention'd and understood in the New Testament more especially I settle the true notion of that Term as it peculiarly respects the present Case and hath reference to Christianity I shew upon what Reasons and Grounds this doctrine of Mysteries is founded I represent the notorious Blemishes of the Contrary Opinion and lastly I intersperse such proper Inferences as are the natural result of the respective Particulars Thus though others have handled this Subject I make it a Peculiar Province by the particular way of my undertaking and managing it which whether it be done aright and to the satisfaction of the Learned and Pious I leave to the Reader to judge But this only I am able to say and that most sincerely that I design'd what I have here written for the Vindication of the Cause of Christianity and for the Glory and Honour of its Divine Author And this is the Design of all my Writings of what Subject soever I have already treated or shall hereafter treat Some perhaps may think I pour them in too fast upon the Reader and don 't keep a due distance such as they would have between one book and another I am so Vncivil a Writer that I will scarcely give the Reader time to breath And besides it is a blemish to my Reputation that I hereby give occasion to some to censure me for being too Forward a man and one that affects to appear often in publick view and therefore they prudently advise to observe a Moderation and according to the Rule of Husbandry to lie Fallow some time I thank these Gentlemen for the care they pretend to have of the Reader and me but I must tell them this good Advice of theirs belongs to those Novices who want Materials for a Scrible though it be but a four-penny Cut or those poor starv'd souls that write for Bread and clap all their Book and sometimes more than is in it into the Title Page Here the Counsel would be seasonable especially for the Readers Good to be Temperate Writers But if they will be so Civil as not to rank me in the number of those fore-mention'd persons I think I have enough to plead in behalf of the Frequency of my Writing I could support my self herein by very Good and Vnexceptionable Examples half a douzen of the Best Penmen we have at this day among us two of the Learnedest Prelates of our Church who fail not every year to present the Learned with an Offering and their Teeming Thoughts are still designing to oblige the world in the same manner But waving Precedents especially those which are too High for me I will justifie my practise from the Reason and Equity of the Thing it self I hold it proper to offer sâ—meâ— Truths to the world now whilst I am able to defend them against the Objections which some may think fit to make against them as I have in some part found it necessary to be done already and I know not why Truth may not be as Sharp as Error Besides some things are proper for this Peculiar Age and if they should be deferr'd would prove Vnseasonable I conceive our Sceptical Times require some such sort of Writings as I have had occasion to publish more than any that were before or perhaps ever will be Again what I do is pursuant to my Character and Function which exact a Publick Appearance and an Open doing of good to mankind For a Clergyman should give an account of his Time to the World as well as to God Wherefore being not engaged at present in the Employment of the Pulpit I think my self obliged in Conscience to â—â—eak to the world from the Press and to let my Pen do the Office of my Tongue And truly why one should be a Crime and not the other is unaccountable Or rather it is not much to be doubted that those men whom I have to do with at present look upon both equally
here of no value it is generally despised and rejected You must think of some Other way for This will not do Alas What is TRUTH worth and what are you like to get by abetting it But I rather think that Pilate ask'd This Question in Contempt and Derision I pray Sir What is the Right Definition of Truth Do you pretend to understand the Exact Notion of it I must tell you This Friend Men are as much Mistaken about This as Any thing in the World and I believe You are One of that number You talk of Truth but do you know What it is And as soon as he had started this Query he went off the Bench. By which it appears that his Enquiry was not Serious and that he Cared not for a Reply to it Otherwise if he had been in Good Earnest without doubt our Saviour would not have failed to return an Answer For he was a Person extremely Communicative and used to satisfy all Material Questions to the Full yea above what was demanded As when a Lawyer ask'd him What was the First Commandment he told him moreover what was the Second which was like unto it So when it was asked him Is it lawful to give Tribute to Cesar or no His Answer was more than Satisfactory for he not only acquaints them that they ought to pay Cesar his Tribute but he adds also that God's as well as Cesar's Dues are to be discharged It is not to be doubted that He who was so Ready at all times to Satisfy Mens Demands would have returned an Answer to This of Pilate if this Great Man would have Stayed for it But though Pilate went away in Haste I hope it will be worth our Time to Stay and Satisfy our selves about This Question of so unspeakable Use and Value a Question which is every ways Necessary in order to the Resolving of the Scruples of the Conscientious and Silencing the Cavils of the Atheistical and Prophane a Question whereon the whole Frame and Constitution of Religion depends a Question of the Greatest Importance next to That What shall we do to be Saved Or rather it is of the Same rank with it for as the Apostle hath joyned them together God would have all Men to be Saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth But an Other Question then will arise How shall we come to the Knowledg of the Truth Are we not on every side beset with Mistakes and False Notions Was not Error very Early in the World and doth it not bear Date from Adam I have not Examined whether that be True which One saith That there is but One Speech deliver'd before the Flood by Man wherein there is not an Erroneous Conception But this is certain that Mistake and Falshood enter'd into the World betimes and that ever since a Night of Ignorance hath over-spread our Minds and our Judgments are involved in a Cloud of Obscurity and Imperfection In Cebes's Table which represents Man's Life Imposture gives her Cup to all that come into the World Error and Ignorance are the Potion and every one Drinks of it but some more and some less Hence it is that Pretences and Appearances of Reason cozen us Imperfect Argumentations and Superficial Discourses easily determine us A Petty Inducement a Weak Likelihood a Plausible Harangue are enough to Turn the Scales with us and Weigh heavier sometimes than a Demonstration Hence it is that Truth is so Rare a thing in the World We may justly complain as He of old It is Difficult to find out True Reason Or we may cry out as Hermias the Old Christian Philosopher did Truth hath abandon'd and taken its farewell of the World How then shall we hope to have this Question assoil'd and to know What is Truth Nay We are in as bad Circumstances as before and Pilate's Demand is as far from being Answer'd as it was for as the Sceptick doubteth of all Truth yea indeed denies it so on the other hand we see that All Parties of Religion in the World pretend that they are Masters and Possessors of it Before there was No Truth and now All is Truth If you ask what it Truth you shall not want whole Herds of Men who will come and offer their Service to you and with all Officiousness will tell you that they are able to Resolve you in such an Easy Question as That is Truth takes up its Residence with Vs say the Pagaâ— Worshipers Our Numerous Deities and their Idols have been vouched by Oracles and Divinations and all the ways that are requisite to make a Religion Authentick We are the Parents of Orthodox Faith say the Iews and all the rest of the World are Bewilder'd and Lost being destitute of a Pillar of Light to lead them Alas they are inveloped in Egyptian Darkness and must continue to be so till they take Moses for their Only Guide to bring them out of it But then again Neither Gentiles nor Iews are in the right say the Followers of Mahomet who yet was the Son of a Pagan Father and a Iewish Mother The Alcoran is the True Charter of our Religion and who can suspect it since our Prophet received it from the Angel Gabriel We are the True Musselmen i.e. Believers and all Others are downright Infidels and Miscreants Nay even among Those who profess Christianity for out of the Best and Purest Religion will arise the Worst of Corruptions and Heresies the Parties and Divisions the Disputes and Claims are not a few Truth is but One and yet they All think they Monopolize it Every Sect is Eager and Violent and some of them Confine All Religion and Salvation to their Own Way Nay they are for Persecuting all Parties but their Own like the Ottoman Princes they must Strangle all their Brethren otherwise they think they cannot Reign safely Ask the Different Parties even from the Highest to the Lowest from the Old Gentleman that sits in the Porphyry Chair to the meanest Quaker or Muggletonian and they will all tell you they are in possession of the Truth Every Perswasion hath this of Popery in it that the Professors of it think themselves Infallible and say they have an Unerring Guide and therefore they take the Chair and Determine Peremptorily on their Own Sides Even whilst some cry This is False and others That if you ask them singly they all say they are in the Right and every one confidently vouches that he is Proprietor of Truth It seems by This that Truth is Equally divided among All Men or rather indeed that the Opinion of it is so And hence it is probable that Scepticism and Indifferency in Religion have had their Rise for too Lavish Pretences to Truth have made some question whether there be Any The Divers Claims and Quarrels in Christianity have wonderfully fostered Atheism For whilst it hath been observed that Divinity hath every where become Polemical and that Men have thrown Bibles at one anothers
This is the Christian Truth Our singular Glory whereby We are distinguished from all those who profess any other Religions whatsoever whether of the Unbelieving Iews or the Idolatrous Gentiles or the Deluded Saracens and Turks or downright Atheists and others of a like Perverse Perswasion These all Err especially the three first Ranks of Men by not knowing or not imbracing the Scriptures which are deservedly stiled The Word of Truth and are the only supreme Rule of Faith and Doctrin We then who imbrace this Christian Rule are Blessed with that Institution which is Pure and Undefiled which is grounded on undoubted Revelation which is backed by a more sure Word of Prophecy which hath a divine Impress stamped upon it So that Our Religion as far surmounts all Others as the Gold which hath passed the Refiners Fire and hath the Royal Stamp upon it outbids the common Ore and shames its Dross and meaner Alloy You see then which are the unalterable Standards of Truth viz. Reason and Revelation the Light of Nature and of Scripture And I dare confidently aver that if our Enquiries and Determinations in Religion were faithfully managed by these two it were impossible to fail of Truth If we would but act thus as Men and Christians and that is as we ought to do we cannot miss of it For it is certainly the Purchase of all those who make a right Use of their Rational Powers and also help and direct those Powers by the Revelation of the Sacred Spirit in the Holy Scriptures By these two we may examine the Truth of the Whole Christian Religion and we shall find that it will abide the Test. By these Standards of Truth we may examine the Doctrins of all Seducers that are abroad in the World and we shall find them to be False and Adulterate If we would sincerely follow these Rules the great Diversity of Opinions and Sentiments amongst us would soon be reconciled If we would faithfully take these Measures i.e. always be Ruled and Conducted by Reason and Scripture we should easily agree upon what is to be believed and asserted in Religion and all our Disputes and Controversies would vanish Now from what hath been hitherto Discoursed we may in some good measure be able not only to return an Answer to Pilates Question What is Truth but to another near a kin to it viz. What is Error and Falshood All Propositions which contradict the common Notices and first Principles in our Minds and which affront right Reason and the plain Deductions made from it are to be looked upon as False And on the same account those Assertions which overthrow the Verdict of our Senses and much more those that imply Contradictions in them and consequently Impossibilities cannot be True And on These Grounds I might shew that the Divinity of some High-flown Enthusiasts and the Doctrin of the Roman Catholicks concerning Transubstantiation are justly to be impeached of Falshood Again whatsoever Assertions in any Religion are repugnant to Divine Revelation to God's Will declared by some Positive Law to such Discoveries as are known to be immediately from Heaven these must necessarily be False And on this Ground the Religion of the Pagans Iews and Mahometans must be voted to be such because they oppose an Infallible Revelation and That confirmed by unparallelled Miracles And semblably in Christianity all those Tenents of several Sects which bid defiance to any part of the Sacred Scripture which is left us by the Holy Ghost as the generality of the Roman Opinions the Doctrins of Pelagians Socinians Anabaptists Antinomians Libertines Quakers Hobbians c. are False and Erroneous Thus far then by vertue of the Premises we have advanced that when there are several Claims and Pretences to Truth and it is enquired What Judge shall decide the Controversy the Answer must be That Right Reason and Inspired Scripture are the only Judges they being the fixed Standards and Measures of Truth But then here will lie the main Difficulty of all that in the Questions and Debates of Religion Scripture is quoted with equal Vigor and Confidence on all Sides as if what the Iewish Rabbies say of Scripture That it hath Seventy-two Faces were the received Opinion of Christians Nay some of these seem to acknowledge by their strange way of Interpreting it That it hath not only different but contrary Aspects When therefore there are Disputes about Scripture-Interpretation What must we do How can we discern what is Truth by Consulting of Scripture when as that is Dubious and Uncertain If contrary Sects and Parties quote it and plead it how can it be a fixed Standard of Truth How is it an unerring Guide It might suffice to say in General That it is no wonder that all Opinionists even the Wildest of them make use of Scripture yea a great Part of the Turks Alcoran is express Words of the Bible It is no wonder I say since Scripture was quoted by Satan himself who when he Tempted our Saviour misapplied it to the vilest Purpose But particularly to satisfie this Great and Affrighting Difficulty we may inform our selves that in Religion there are Five Sorts of Enquiries and Doctrines Now I will briefly shew how Scripture is to be made use of and when it is fit to Apply it to any of these Particulars I. Some Points of our Religion are in themselves Mystical and Profound and the Sacred Writings having not Explained them it cannot be expected that we should ever do it Such Difficult and Sublime Doctrines as the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity i.e. a Trinity of Divine Persons in the Unity of the Godhead the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in One Person the Manner of the Resurrection and the like are not to be throughly known by us as long as we sojourn on Earth These are like the Book in the Revelation which none is able to open in Heaven or in Earth but the Lamb. And seeing he is not pleased to Unfold them to us we must Admire and Adore them but not be sollicitous to Comprehend them We are to remember this that some Things must be believed on the mere Authority of the Speaker and it argues Infidelity to question the Truth of them or so much as to be Inquisitive about them The Things are spoken by God therefore we ought to give Credit to them The Manner and Circumstances of them are not discovered therefore I 'm obliged not to pry into them This was the Sense and Practice of the Primitive Christians as we may learn from Origen who tells us That the believing some Articles of Faith on the bare Authority of the Scriptures was objected to the Christians by the Heathens Their Complaint against them was That they would neither give nor receive a Reason of their Faith but were wont to cry out Examine not but believe Here likewise I may rank some Insuperable Problems concerning the Divine Decrees and Predestination the Abstruseness of which forbids
Reason Hence it appears that what is said by Right Reason is said by God for that is the Voice of God I have said Ye are Gods Secondly The Sacred Scripture saith it whereof God the Holy Ghost is the Inditer The Law strictly charges Men not to Revile the Gods nor speak Evil of the Ruler of the People Exod. xxii 28. Besides that the Judges or Rulers of the Sanedrim are call'd Gods by the Psalmist in the Person of God the Divine Approbation is farther evidenced from the first Verse of this Psalm where we are told That God standeth in the Congregation of the Gods the Great God presides over them and Authorizes their Office and Employment so far as they discharge it lawfully This Divine Authority of our Superiors is for ever Established by that Royal Patent Prov. viii 15 16. By me i.e. by the Eternal and Essential Wisdom Kings reign and Princes decree Iustice By me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Iudges of earth This unexceptionably makes them to be the Ordinance and Institution of God himself And the New Testament abets and confirms the Old for in Iohn x. 34. our Saviour refers to the very Words of the Psalmist saying Is it not written in your Law I have said Ye are Gods The known Practice of Christ and his exemplary Subjection to the Powers then in being may be concluded to be Authentick in this case and to prove the Divine Commission both of Superior and Subordinate Magistrates But to wave that at present if you peruse the Epistles of those Great Apostles St. Paul and St. Peter you will find the Regal and Magistratical Office fully Asserted and set up to its utmost heighth Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God The Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. xiii 1. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto those that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well 1 Pet. ii 13. Thus whether they be Dii Majorum or Minorum Gentium the Gods of an higher or an inferior Rank whether they be those that have the Supreme Authority or whether they be Deputed Officers and Rulers they are All to be Reverenced Honoured and Obey'd and there is the Command of God for it But a severe Enquirer into these forementioned Texts will arrest me it may be with with this Objection The Apostles seem to Clash and to Contradict one another for the former asserts That the Powers which be are Ordained of God but the latter tells us plainly That they are the Ordinance of Man These are two different Things yea Repugnant to be the Ordinance of God and to be the Ordinance of Man I have no time now to offer to you the several Glosses of the Learned on that Passage of St. Peter nor am I at leisure to acquaint you with the sundry Criticisms upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to tell you how variously it is rendred But adhering at present to our own Translation I will in few words dispatch the Difficulty and shew you that Magistracy may be the Ordinance of Men as well as of God and these are not Repugnant to one another It is not unfitly stiled an Humane Ordinance 1. In respect of the Object and Matter about which it is conversant viz. Humane Society the Affairs of Mankind The Higher Powers are set over Men and Transact those things which are Civil and Humane 2. In regard of the Subject in which it is seated it may have this Denomination These Gods are really of the same Nature and Make with our selves 3. In respect of the End it is justly called an Humane Ordinance for it is appointed for the Good and Preservation of Mankind for the well ordering and governing the Societies of Men in the World Now all this is consistent with what St. Paul saith viz. That Magistracy is the Ordinance of God for though the Particular Form and Manner of Government be not fixed by God or Nature by a Divine or Natural Law but by a Positive One otherwise there would be but One Lawful Form of Government yet this is certain that Government in the General is the Direct and Express Appointment of God himself Thus it is evident that the Powers are the Ordinance of Man and yet it is as true that they are Ordained of God they are Constituted and Authorized by Him and they are ratified by his Written and Revealed Will. Thence we are assured that Divinity is Incircled in the compass of a Crown and that Rulers are Invested with their Authority from the Supreme Sovereign of the World Among Pythagoras's Scholars if their Master said it it was enough it was Authentick and Unquestionable Much more surely with the Disciples of Christ Iesus must that be held Indisputable which God hath said in his Holy Word I have said Ye are Gods We have not only the Suffrage of Reason of which I spoke before but the Infallible Dictates of the Heavenly Oracles The Reason of the Thing it self and the Will of the Supreme Majesty of Heaven concur here And what Proof more Convincing can be desired and expected than Divine Testimony superadded to Natural Light But Thirdly As these so likewise the Strange Events and Occurrences in the World whereof God is the Cause and Procurer proclaim aloud this Truth That Magistrates and Governors are God's Ordinance There have not been wanting Wonderful Signs to confirm this Government and Order have had a Blessing entail'd upon them by Providence When Magistrates have faithfully discharged their Duties some signal and open Manifestations of God's Favour have acquinted us that he is pleased with them When Phineas whom we must look upon as a Publick Minister of Justice stood up and Executed Judgment upon that Pair of Infamous Sinners whose Contagion else might have spread it self through the whole Land the Plague presently ceased and the Divine Vengeance was appeased But when bold and hardned Sinners have openly affronted Magistracy and Mutinied against their Governors they have but ill succeeded in such Expeditions Thus when those three Notorious Conspirators opened their Mouths against Moses and Aaron the Earth in a resembling sort open'd its mouth and swallowed them up and all that appertain'd to them Num. xvi 30 32. These Rebels found their Punishment in their Sin and their Destruction in their Disobedience Opposing of Government as it is a Curse in it self so Judicially it is followed with one from Heaven Not only Reason and Nature detest it but the Divine Nemesis It is the Inscription on the Scottish Coin as the Emblem I suppose of their Thistle Nemo me impune lacesset None shall provoke me and be unpunished It may justly indeed be the Magistrates Motto for none ever Affronted them but received the Reward of their Folly for the King of
Good and there stints and determines all our Passions and Desires We at once become Lovers of God and of his Church the one absolutely Influencing upon the other the Glory of the Almighty and the Good of Souls being so twisted together that it will be found a thing wholly impossible to divide them For the Church being that Society of Holy Men wherein God is more peculiarly acknowledged and glorified it must needs be that whilst we tender the Welfare of that Society we likewise more signally advance God's Glory Our Love if it be true and real will reflect from God to his Church and through the Church it will ascend to God again The Edifying or Building of the Church which is the thing here design'd principally belongs to Christ Iesus himself It looks like a Paradox but is certainly true that the Foundation and Chief Corner-stone in the Building are the Chief Architect also On this Rock saith he to St. Peter I will build my Church This Glorious Fabrick is rais'd by Christ's own hand Yet this Work in some measure belongs to all Holy and Exemplary Christians they are useful and necessary for the promoting of this Structure But more especially the Guides and Rulers of the Church the Ministers of the Gospel the Dispensers of God's Holy Word are employ'd in this Work they are in a peculiar manner appointed and set apart on purpose to be Artificers and Builders in the Erecting of the Christian Church they are particularly design'd for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ i.e. his Church Eph. iv 12. First Our great Care must be to lay the Foundation and what that is our Apostle tells us 1. Cor. iii. 11. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Iesus Christ i.e. the Meritorious Undertaking of the Son of God Christ Jesus the Blessed There is no Salvation but by a lively and effectual Faith in the Blood of this Lamb of God This is the same with the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. ii 20. which St. Paul tells the Ephesians they are built upon viz. the Doctrin of the Redemption and Salvation by Christ delivered by these Inspired Men and which they received from Christ himself who in the same place is called the Chief Corner-stone This is the Great Fundamental Point of the Christian Institution this is the main Truth on which all Christianity is founded and therefore we must be very Faithful in the Asserting and Vindicating of this The whole Fabrick of our Religion sinks and that irrecoverably without this firm and steady Basis. And all the other Principles and Rudiments of Christianity which are also justly stiled the Foundation Heb. vi 1. are our proper Concern We are indispensably obliged to instruct our Charge in all those Divine Truths of the Gospel which the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles furnish us with And having laid the Foundation with singular Care and Skill as knowing that it is this which Supports the Fabrick we must proceed to erect our Superstructure to build upwards as well as downwards And accordingly all the Holy Doctrines and Rules conducing to Christian Knowledge and Practice are to be produced and made use of We must remember the Apostle's Advice to build upon the Foundation nothing but Gold Silver and precious Stones 1 Cor. iii. 12. Such Sound and Orthodox Conclusions as are of real Worth and Value and not Wood Hay and Stubble i.e. unnecessary and useless Doctrins or Inferences muchless such as apparently Confront the Faith of the Gospel and Foster Lewd and Wicked Practices The Pope as Luther expresses it is for Building up the Church ex Accidentibus of Outward things of little value but we saith he Build it ex Substantia we urge those Doctrines which are Substantial we press those Practices which are of Moment which are Essential to Religion and have real Worth and Excellency in them Thus we should behave our selves remembring that the Superstructure ought to be suitable to the Foundation this being Solid and Substantial that must be so too Briefly this Excellent Metaphor of Edifying or Building which our Apostle seems much to delight in as we may gather from his frequent using of it imports no less than an Impartial delivering and teaching the whole Mystery of Godliness whether it consists in Fundamentals or in such Important and Necessary Matters as are to be grounded on them all that our Hearers are to know and all that they are to do the Whole Will of God and the Whole Duty of Man In a word to enlighten Mens Minds to reform their Lives to convert Sinners from the Errors of their Ways to confirm and strengthen Converts in the ways of Truth and Righteousness by any Holy Arts and Methods to further the real Good of Christ's Flock by any good Means to promote the Churches Welfare is to Build it up This is the Divine Architecture this is the Art of Spiritual Building So that if we hearken to this Proposal we shall assuredly advance the Good of the World and at the same time promote our own Bliss and Happiness In seeking the Churches Good we shall not fail of a Blessing and that Charity which raiseth our Hearts to endeavour the Welfare of the Church Militant will at last Exalt us to the Glories and Consummation of the Church Triumphant when they that be wise shall shine as the Brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever I proceed now to the next thing propounded viz. the Means in order to this Noble End which I have been speaking of and that is expressed in those words Seek that ye may excel Take care to fit your selves for this Grand Employment of building up the Church which is the House of God 1 Tim. iii. 15. 1 Pet. iv 17. Passionately desire and endeavour that you may be eminently and abundantly Capacitated for this mighty Work This is the Import of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used which signifies both to Excel and to Abound Be ambitious of the Choicest Gifts and strive to possess them in the highest degree We of the Sacred Function are not to content our selves with mean and low Attainments in Religion but to aspire to the Greatest and Noblest Improvements to a great Plenty and Abundance of Gifts and Graces as a Learned and Pious Father Paraphrases on this Place We must strive to be Masters of all those Excellent Qualifications which tend to Edification and to arrive to what Perfection we can in them In short seeing the Edifying of the Church is the proper Office of an Evangelical Minister he must make it his great Business to pursue this effectually and to Excel in it by such Means and Methods as these First Prayer Which seems to be here suggested in the word Seek This Excelling and this Edifying
properly Studying And certainly this is of singular Use we cannot more effectually fit our selves for our Great and Important Work that we are call'd to than by serious and sober Reflections on our Minds by Sifting and Examining our Notions and observing what Conformity they bear to our Unprejudiced Faculties by being intimately acquainted with our Thoughts and exercising our selves to a familiarity with Rational and Solid Principles and by causing them to bring their utmost Aids to Support and Maintain the Articles of Christianity Our Reading will be of little use without this for it is by Pondering on the things that we have Read and by Comparing them among themselves that we are able to digest our Notions and to arrive to the true Understanding of Matters propounded to us The Royal Psalmist's Experiment concerning himself is worthy of our Observation I have more understanding saith he than all my Teachers for thy Testimonies are my Meditation Psal. cxix 99. I find a mighty Increase and advance in Divine Knowledge because I use my self to a serious Contemplation on those Heavenly and Sublime Truths and thereby I am capable of penetrating into the profound Nature of them and to discern those wonderful things in them which are hid from others We may take notice that after many seasonable Instructions and Precepts given by St. Paul to Timothy his Faithful Assistant in the Work of the Gospel he adjoins this which is of as great use as any of the rest Meditate upon these things 1 Tim. iv 15. And so again after several Pious Admonitions and Exhortations he adds Consider what I say 2 Tim. ii 7. Which Advice reaches all of Timothy's Character and is as much as if he had said Revolve these things often in your Minds and let this Charge which I leave with you be continually in your Thoughts Accustom your selves to Thinking and know that it is the part of a Christian as well as of a Man but especially it is an indispensable Qualification in a Publick Instructer in one that is to Amend and Rectifie the Sentiments of Mankind If therefore we are desirous to attain to any Improvement and Excellency in our Ministry we must not herd with the Crowd but retire from it and hold converse with our own Minds and thereby Teach and Instruct our selves and so we shall be fit to do the same to others Which is the next thing I shall treat of Fourthly Another way whereby we are to Edify the Church and Excel in it is the Office of Preaching or as the Apostle stiles it Prophesying He gives this the Precedence to all the other Gifts which he mentions either in this or the Twelfth Chapter of this Epistle Covet earnestly spiritual Gifts but rather that ye may Prophesy This is that Endowment which according to him makes most for the perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministry and for the Edifying of the Body of Christ. which Character shews it to be this Gift which I'm now to speak of This is a Complicate Office and contains many Excellent things in it as first the Informing of Mens Judgments and setting them into Right Apprehensions concerning things in Religion The Leading Requisite as I conceive in a Preacher is Orthodoxy He is to be one that owns those Principles and Articles of Faith which have been always profess'd by the Universal Church Let us not assume the Title of Protestants and yet reject some of the Great Heads of Divinity which are acknowledg'd by all Sober Persons of the Reformation Let us not say we are of the Church of England and yet deny some of the Chief Doctrines contain'd in her Articles Let us not profess our selves to be Ministers of the Word and yet renounce those Truths which are formally contain'd in it or are according to it For either Express words of Scripture or Natural and Plain Consequences from it are to be the Standards of that Doctrin which we deliver It is required of us not only to Establish Truth but to Detect and Confute Falshood and Heresy therein following the Example of those Great Men Irenaeus Epiphanius Augustin Theodoret. And truly this is become necessary in this Extravagant Age where so many Wild Notions are entertain'd and so many Old Errors revived The Christian Structure cannot but be expos'd to great Hazards and Dangers when its Foundations are Undermined by some and its Superstructure hath continual Batteries made against it by others In such Circumstances how Careful and Watchful should we be How Vigorously and Concernedly should we act Like those Builders at the Restauration of the Iews with a Trowel in one hand and a Sword in the other We must be in a Defensive and Offensive Posture at once securing and maintaining the Apostolical Faith and grappling with the Opposers of it at the same time But yet I must insert this Caution That we ought carefully to avoid all Unnecessary Disputes for nothing is more unbecoming a Preacher of the Gospel and nothing doth more hinder the Success of his Ministry Accordingly we may observe That the Doctrines which minister questions are opposed to Godly edifying â— Tim. l. 4. We shall effect but little in our Employment if we indulge Controversies and delight in Quarrels and promote Intricacies and Perplexities in Religion Our task is to avoid these with all care and to entertain our Hearers with the Necessary Doctrines of Christianity such as depend not on the fallible Deductions of Men but are fixed and unmoveable founded on the Holy Oracles and deliver'd by Christ Jesus and his Apostles Again a Minister and Guide of Souls is not only to rectifie Mens Judgments and to settle them in the Necessary Articles of Religion but further it is required of him that he take care of their Lives and Manners For though True Notions of Religion and Godliness are to lead the way yet to make a Man Absolute and Complete there must be Uprightness of Life Nay indeed unless this latter be look'd after the former will soon decay By Unholiness and Wickedness we see oftentimes that Men Hazard their Principles If the Practice be Debauch'd if the Life be Impure if the Manners be depraved there will be a Corruption in the Judgment Therefore we that are Dispensers of the Word ought to be as concern'd for Practical Religion as for Truth of Doctrin We ought not only to Instruct our Hearers in Right Principles but with all freedom to reprove their Sins and Vices and pathetically to Exhort and Perswade them to all Vertue and Goodness remembring always that a Holy and Exemplary Conversation is the True Edifying of the Church yea 't is the very Top-stone of the Building It is not meer Speculation or bare Discourse that will atchieve this great Work This is as if a Man should undertake to Build a House by Contriving it in his Head or by Talking of it It is the utmost Perfection of a Christian to Live according to his Excellent
other just and honest acts which are necessary to be done But their Expensive Pride is much more an hindrance to Relieving the poor for they can't afford to be Lavish on themselves and Liberal to the necessitous And if some of them cannot or will not pay for their Bravery how can it be expected that those who are in Want should partake of their Alms If they refuse to be Just what hope is there that they will be Charitable Here we might lament how the Extravagancy of some persons Finery is a hindrance to their acts of Beneficence What they superfluously and vainly lay out on their Attire might serve to supply some necessitous people's Nakedness How many a poor Orphan or Widow might be cloathed how many a poor Creature in the Hospitals might be reliev'd if the superfluous bravery of some persons did not make them uncapable of doing such a generous act In a word how many good deeds of Charity and Hospitality which are so acceptable to God and man and for which some amongst you are so Eminent and Renowned I say how many of these noble acts are daily lost in this Great City upon this very account viz. because they expend that on their Vain Decking which would afford necessary Covering for the poor But to proceed 〈◊〉 and lastly Let me disswade you from this Vice by the consideration of the Fatal Consequences of it In the third Chapter of Isaiah where the Superfluous Attire of the Sex and those Ornaments that were abused by Pride and Wantonness are particularly enumerated there is also added the Punishment which shall be inflicted on those proud daughters of Sion such a Punishment as answers to their Sin And it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink and instead of a Girdle a rent and instead of well-set hair baldness and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth and burning instead of beauty V. 24. And because this Pride of Apparel was Epidemical it was to be avenged by a General Plague and Deâ—olation v. 17. and afterwards v. 25 26. It is observable that Ierusalem's approaching Misery was set forth by a Girdle hid in the ground and marred Ier. 13. 6 7. which fore-signified the decay of their Finery for the Girdle was a Signal part of it and therefore you find it mention'd in the fore-nam'd Chapter of Isaiah where the whole Wardrobe of the Sex is reckon'd up I say it fore-signified the utter decay of their Affected and Vain Bravery viz. by the Captivity which was drawing near Among the Judgments denounc'd against Iudah in Zeph. 1. this is one that God will punish all such as are cloathed with strange apparel v. 8. He will severely animadvert on those vain persons who out of their greedy desire of new modes of Attire seek after those that are brought from foreign Countries And we find it not only thus in general but there are Particular Judgments inflicted on individual persons for this Sin which I have been disswading you from Immediately before the mentioning of the singular vengeance of God upon Iezebel viz. how Iehu's horses trod her under foot and how the dogs devour'd her carkase it is taken notice of that she painted her face and tired her head 2 Kings 9. 30. i.e. she was addicted to that Vain Excess which I have been reproving and you hear what was the End of her you read what was the recompence of her Pride as well as of her other notorious enormities In the New Testament we have Herod a remarkable Example of God's Judgment in the like kind He was proud of his Bright Apparel and his Gay Oration both which caus'd him to be ador'd by the Vulgar who saw and heard him and for this his prophane Insolence he was struck by an Angel from heaven and died miserably Though there are no Instances of this sort in these our days we being under another Oeconomy of Divine Providence yet still the Justice of God is the same and though it be not visibly and presently executed on the Sons and Daughters of Pride yet it is always due to them and it now conveys a real Curse along with it and shall be consummated in Eternal Vengeance Their Immodest Habit with all the Vices that are retainers to it of which I have particularly spoken will procure them a very severe Punishment They like the Beasts of old crowned with Garlands are gay and trim but it is in order to their being Sacrificed They are Aray'd and Bedeck'd that they may fall a Splendid Victim to the Divine Justice I request you to ponder this in your thoughts that you may not be convinc'd of the Truth of it by an Experiment in your selves Whatever apprehensions you have had of this matter heretofore I wish you may for the future conceive aright of it And this you cannot do unless you be really perswaded of the intrinsick Evil of the thing and likewise of the Certainty of that Judgment which will follow it It is a commonly receiv'd notion among the generality of persons that the Variety of Fashions and the Excess of Vain Apparel which are now so usual in this Nation contribute much toward the advantage and welfare of it For hereby say they the poor are set on work many families are maintain'd thousands daily get their livelihood and consequently this Vanity of Attire is for the good of the Common-wealth If this be good Arguing then it is equally for the Publick Good to be Drunk and to be arrant Gluttons and to indulge all manner of Debauchery For hereby the Wine-Merchants and Vintners all that sell or dress the choicest Vineyards are enrich'd and under these a great many poor and indigent Folks are maintain'd and provided for and therefore we may conclude that Intemperance and Sottishness are Publick Benefits to the World as well as the Inordinacy of Apparel But how can we with any Reason defend this latter when it hath been proved and all that have their Eyes open cannot but see it that this Excess brings with it Idleness Luxury Lewdness and is an Enemy to Justice and Charity the two great Props of a Nation and therefore must needs be disadvantageous to the Commonwealth Hence it will follow notwithstanding these Mens false Reasonings that this Pride of Apparel is the nurse of Poverty And there are abundant Instances to prove this Too rich and gorgeous an Habit hath brought many a one to a Mourning Dress Their Costly Aray hath reduced them to Rags to want and penury And let me tell you this will be the Publick Fate if you do not speedily prevent it Our Expensive Vanity in Attire with the Pride and Wantonness and other disorders which are its constant retinue will be our Ruine This may seem to be an Harsh way of treating you from the Pulpit but I assure you it is such as your Condition calls for and therefore think not these Reproofs and Menaces to be unseasonable Though I
Certainty of all the doctrines of the Gospel may be discover'd yea and demonstrated to the minds of those who are fitted and prepared for it but still the Efficacy of sundry Evangelical Truths is kept secret from some persons for a time and some of them are of that quality that they will ever surmount and baffle the utmost efforrs of our Intellectual Powers In another place Col. 2. 2. the Apostle mentions the mystery of God and of the Father or rather it should be rendred even of the Father and of Christ that is the Gospel or the Christian Religion wherein God the First Person in the Glorious Trinity is declar'd to be the Father of Christ and Christ the Second Person is declared to be the Eternal Son of God and God himself These and the like Fundamental Principles of Christianity are Dark and Mysterious and because of these Sublime Truths Christianity it self hath the name of Mystery given to it If there were no other place in the New Testament but this where the word mystery is found it could not create wonder that the Socinians even for the sake of this alone contend that Christianity is not simply and absolutely call'd a Mystery in Scripture for here the Godhead of Christ as well as of the Father is asserted for the word God is attributed to both Persons God even the Father and Christ being the same with God who is both Father and Christ and consequently if they deny Christ to be very God as they do they must deny the Father to be so too I proceed to another Text in the same Epistle Col. 4. 3. whence it is manifest that in the stile and idiom of the New Testament the Gospel or Christianity hath the name of a Mystery for the Apostle expresly calls it the mystery of Christ the same with the mystery of the Gospel in the place before mention'd and he requests the Prayers of the Colossians for him that God would open unto him a door of utterance to speak this Mystery of Christ i.e. freely and openly to preach the Gospel as appears further from what follows next for which I am in bonds that is a Sufferer a Prisoner for my preaching the Truâ—hs of the Gospel So that it is impoâ—sible whatever is suggested to the contrary to understand the word here any otherwise than of the doâ—trine of the Gospel as it was then preach'd by this Apostle this is Mysterious and Hidden and in many things Inexplicable So again in 1 Tim. 3. 9. by the mystery of the faith which the Ministers and Officers of the Church are exhorted to hold i.e. to defend and maintain must needs be meant the Evangelical Truths and Doctrines The holding the mystery of the faith is the same here with holding fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. that is the Articles of the Christian Faith the doctrines of the Gospel And lastly in that Text on which I found the present Discourse Religion is call'd the Mystery of Godliness for immediately after the Apostle had made mention of the Truth which is held forth as on a Pillar in the Christian Church he assigns some of the greatest and fairest branches of it and in order to that acquaints us that we may the better know the true nature of them that they are a Mystery and that not with relation to the ages and generations before the Gospel but to the present Mysteriousness of this Sacred Institution for by consulting the Context you will find that the words are spoken Absolutely and Entirely without any respect to the past times of the world under Iudaism or Gentilism They represent to us the condition of Christianity as it is at this day and as it is in it self consider'd And so this and all the other Texts that I last mention'd are a baffle to what some late Advocates of Socinianism pretend to prove viz. that in the New Testament the word Mystery is always used to signifie something that is intelligible and clear in it self and in its own nature but clouded with figurative and mystical words but never to denote a thing that is dark and unconceivable in it self The contrary is plain and evident from the fore-cited Texts and every unprejudiced man that duly scans them must needs acknowledge that Christianity is there call'd a Mystery not in regard of what it was but what it is It is true there are some other Texts in the New Testament where the word Mystery is mention'd but it hath there no relation at all to the present Matter viz. the Gospel or Christianity in it self consider'd Thus in Rom. 11. 25. the General and Final Conversion of the Iews in the last ages of the world is call'd a Mystery In 1 Cor. 13. 2. mysteries is a general word for all matters of knowledge that are abstruse and dark and it refers more particularly to the knowledge of future things for to know all mysteries seems to be explicatory of the foregoing phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have a gift of Prophesying that is foretelling and declaring things to come as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken in the preceding chapter v. 10. In 1 Cor. 14. 2. mysteries is a large and extensive term and used by the Apostle to signifie those divine doctrines which are mysterious and difficult but it is not particularly applied by him and therefore I have not made use of it In 1 Cor. 15. 51. it is restrain'd to a particular Truth which was unknown to the Corinthians at that time but St. Paul reveals it to them behold saith he I shew you a mystery viz. this that we shall not all sleep those that are alive at at Christ's Coming shall not die after the manner of all other men but we shall all be changed they shall undergo such an alteration that their corruptible state shall be chang'd into that which is incorruptible and immortal The Conjugal State is said to be a mystery â—ph 5. 32. because it shadows forth the Union of Christ and the Church as the Sacraments were stiled Mysteries by the Ancient Writers of the Church because they were a Representation of so great a thing as Christ's Body Mystery is applied in the Revelation chap. 1. v. 20. and chap. 17. v. 7. to particular Visions and Revelations which had a mystical and spiritual meaning in them In Rev. 10. 7. the mystery of God is said to be finish'd or fulfilled for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is meant of the Glorious and Flourishing state of the Christian Church in the last times of the world which hath been kept as a Mystery from the generality of men but when the Seventh Angel sounds his Trumpet then as we are there assur'd that Mystery shall actually be accomplish'd and fulfill'd But none of these Texts refer to our present Matter as any Understanding Reader may perceive only I thought fit to produce them that they might
not be misinterpreted And now I have produced every individual place of Scripture where the word Mystery occurs and I have faithfully and impartially set them before the Considerate in their true and proper light that they may have a view of the right and genuine meaning of them and not misunderstand and misapply the word as some have done to the great prejudice of Truth but that more especially they may be convinc'd of this that Mystery as it is applied in the Sacred Writ to the Christian Doctrines expresses the Nature of them and lets us know that Christianity hath this Title given it because it is a Real Mystery in it self Wherefore after I have thus clear'd the way I will offer this Proposition and make it good that the Sublime Truths of the Christian Religion still retain and ever shall the nature of a Mystery This in general is evident from that idea and notion which we have of a Mystery which we learn from the Original denotation of the word whether we borrow it from the Hebrew or Greek viz. that it is some Hidden Secret thing some thing Shut up for such are the Chief Doctrines and Truths of the Gospel they are in a great measure hid and as it were lock'd up from us Many of the Articles of our Christian Faith are cover'd with great Darkness a Veil is cast over them and we are not able to penetrate into them Thus Christianity is a Mystery But particularly and distinctly to demonstrate this I will insist upon these two Heads 1 Christianity is an incomprehensible Mystery in a special manner to some 2. In a more extensive way of speaking it is so to all I begin with the first Christianity is in a special and singular way a Mystery to some persons and ever will be Those whom I here mean are all such as according to the Apostle's Emphatick stile lie in their wickedness continue in their state of Degeneracy and Corruption and have felt nothing of the Divine Birth and Renovation which are the sole gift of the Holy Spirit These as long as they remain in this wretched state are in darkness as the same Inspired Writer speaks that is they have no Effectual and Saving Knowledge of the divine Truths of the Gospel they understand nothing of them to any purpose for these cannot be thus known but by Divine Illumination by a Supernatural discovery from above which they wilfully debar themselves of Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast reveal'd them unto babes saith our Blessed Lord Mat. 11. 33. Therefore to the former of these the Fundamental doctrines of the Gospel concerning the Redemption of mankind by the Blood of Iesus and much more the doctrines of Regeneration Faith Self-denial Mortification c. are no other than Mysteries yea insignificant Iargon to them We hear the same Infallible Master speaking at another time thus It is given it is a Particular Donation a Special Grant unto you my Disciples to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven but to them i.e. the whole Multitude who are not Enlightned it is not given Mat. 13. 11. There are such representations of those Heavenly and Divine things made by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the Regenerate as are not to be found in others Which is according to those other Sayings of our Saviour The Spirit of Truth the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him i.e. in a Saving way but ye know him Joh. 14. 17. O righteous Father the world hath not known thee Joh. 17. 25. They are in the dark and all thy Sacred Truths are Riddles to them And this is the Apostolical doctrine The Natural man receives not discerns not entertains not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. The Natural or Animal man here meant saith an Ancient Father of the Church is he that lives according to the flesh and hath not his mind yet enlightned by the Spirit But he adds this to the Character That he is one that hath only that inbred and humane knowledge which the Creator furnishes all mens minds with And so other Ancient Writers interpret the words as we shall hear afterwards According to the Learned Grotius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not one that is govern'd by the affections of his fleshly part but he that is lead only by the light of Humane Reason he that hath no other light but that of Nature This Interpretation of this Learned Writer is the more considerable because the persons I 'm concern'd with at present have so great an esteem and veneration and that not unjustly for him and boast that he is theirs It appears they are mistaken for now he is ours whilst he directly and expresly avows the Apostle's Natural or Animal Man to be one that is wholly conducted by the light of Natural Reason and Humane Wisdom Such a one having no Supernatural guidance and direction cannot as long as he is such attain to a Right Knowledge of the things of God because they are foolishness unto him as the Apostle here subjoyns Nay he adds further he cannot know them there is no Possibility of the thing That the Natural man should rightly perceive the things of the Spirit of God implies as evident a Contradiction as to say a Blind man should be able to see things visible So a Judicious Divine of our Church expresses himself concerning this matter The ground of the Apostle's Assertion follows which is very remarkable These things saith he of the Spirit of God can't be known by a Natural man because they are Spiritually discerned Spiritual things are discover'd and known in a peculiar way and such as is proper to Good and Holy men only These persons have an inward sense and conviction of the Reality of the things and they know the true Value and Worth of them They know them so as to make them their own proper Concern they know them so as to feel an influence from them on their hearts affections and lives Thus a Religious person knows and discovers these things in an other manner than Natural and Vnregenerate men do It is true the knowledge of both these is alike as to some sort of discoveries relating to Holy things Thus not only the Grammatical Critical Rhetorical Historical and Philosophical part of the Bible may be understood by the one as well as the other for the Worst men may have as great an insight into these as the Best but even the Theological part of this Inspired Book so far as is meant by it the meer Speculative and Notional discovery of Divine Truths may be equally known by both But to know the Truths contain'd in this Sacred Volume so as to be better'd by them is from Supernatural Light alone and this is it which distinguishes the Spiritual from the Natural man This latter falls
short of the other in this that he hath not attain'd to that Spiritual discerning of Evangelical truths which the Apostle speaks of and without which it is utterly impossible to have such a knowledge of them as will be effectual to Salvation and Happiness I will add only one Text more 2 Cor. 4. 3. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world i.e. Satan hath blinded the minds of them who believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them Here it is implied that the Gospel is hid from some persons yea and we are told from whom viz. such as according to the foregoing stile of the Apostle are Natural men those that live in their sins and suffer their minds to be blinded and perverted to be corrupted and debauch'd by the Diabolick Spirit the Prince and Ruler of this lower world To such the Gospel and the Truths of it are meer Darkness Thus it abundantly appears from the Sacred Writ whence we are to fetch our discoveries concerning these things that the Proposition which I laid down is an impregnable and unshaken Truth viz. that Christianity retains still the nature of a Mystery and that more especially as so some persons The Reason is plain because Natural Strength is not sufficient of it self to discover these Divine Truths Unless the Soul be illuminated by the Holy Spirit these remain unintelligible and wholly ineffectual and useless as to any Saving vertue and efficacy This I take to be the meaning of our Saviour's words Iohn 3. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Unless as the Apostle speaks he be renewed in the spirit of his mind and that by the power of the Holy Ghost he cannot understand aright the Truths of the Gospel which is call'd frequently the kingdom of God and of heaven he cannot see he cannot enter into as 't is express'd in v. 5. those divine things This is that which our Saviour avers Mat. 11. 27. Neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whosoever the Son will reveal him viz. by an Inward and Effectual Discovery for they had the Outward Revelation then When the Apostle St. Peter acknowledged Christ to be the Son of the living God our Saviour told him that flesh and blood had not reveal'd this to him but his Father who is in heaven Mat. 16. 17. It was not the work of Nature but of the Spirit of God the Father that had effectually wrought this Knowledge in him This sort of Light is peculiarly from the Father of lights this Singular Wisdom is from above and accordingly as some interpret that place Iohn 3. 13. the knowledge of these Heavenly and Spiritual things is call'd ascending up to heaven From thence is deriv'd that Insight into the things of God which no Natural man hath attain'd to For in this Degenerate State of mankind the Great Points of our Religion are under a Seal and lock'd up from us and are never to be disclosed till a Divine Light opens our eyes We must of necessity remain Blind till that Eye-Salve Rev. 3. 18. be effectually applied And it can be applied only by the Holy Spirit whose proper work it is to dispel that spiritual darkness whereby the mind is indisposed to understand and discern divine matters aright This is variously express'd in the Holy Writings viz. by such terms as these shining in our hearts to give the light of knowledge 2 Cor. 4. 6. giving us an understanding to know 1 John 5. 20. enlightning the eyes of our understanding Eph. 1. 18. an Vnction from the Holy One 1 John 2. 20. Which cannot be better paraphras'd and explain'd than in the words of an Eminent Prelate of our Church The same Spirit which revealeth the Object of Faith generally to the Universal Church doth also illuminate the understanding of such as believe that they may receive the Truth For Faith is the gift of God not only in the Object but also in the Act. And afterwards in the Close he hath these words We affirm not only the Revelation of the Will of God but also the Illumination of the Soul of Man to be part of the office of the Holy Spirit of God against the Old and New Palagians So that Judicious Writer It is this Holy Instructor that disposes the mind to receive the light of Divine Truth by curing it of its Natural Darkness and Ignorance and by preparing the heart to receive its Rays There is required a Special Grace of the Holy Ghost to enlighten the Soul and to make due impressions upon it The â—aculty of the Understanding must be puriâ—ied and so made fit to apprehend Spiritual objects This is part of the Renewed Nature and Regenerate Principle and consequently where this is not the Great Doctrines of Christianity are Hidden Secrets and Unknown Mysteries From what hath been said I will only draw these Two Corollaries 1. It is no wonder that the Followers of Socinus will not acknowledge Christianity to be a Mystery for they hold there is no necessity of â— Supernatural Light no need of Illumination from the Spirit in order to the due apprehending and understanding of the Divine Truths of the Gospel There is they say in all men that natural ability whereby they are capable of discerning all Spiritual and Heavenly matters in a spiritual way They are enabled by virtue of an Inbred Power in their minds abstract from what is Supernatural to perceive and believe as they ought all the Evangelical doctrines propounded to them Wolzogen ridicules the Internal and Supernatural Illumination I have been speaking of Velthusius an Author that is much applauded by some of Socinus's follwers tells us plainly That the knowledge of a regenerate and unregenerate man concerning the things and mysteries of faith differs not from the light of Reason I appeal to the Intelligent whether this be not an approach to an Heresie long since condemned in the Christian Church It is well known that it was the Pelagian Error to assert that men can attain to a perfect knowledge of their duty and an ability to perform it by meer Natural Reason by the bare help of that light which Nature gives them And in this as well as some other Points the Socinians symbolize with those Ancient Hereticks They cry up Reason as the Only thing in Religion this with them like the Archaeus among the Chymists doth all feats produces all operations Though these men seem to be great Abhorrers of those who talk of the Light within them yet it is evident that they allow of the very same Principle and Practise they equal the Light of Reason to the Holy Scripture and say it will serve instead of this and that it is as good as Scripture because all men may be Saved by it Therefore this they urge
as the One thing Necessary in Religion and assure their Proselytes that this alone is sufficient to conduct them to Eternal Happiness Which is not unlike the Attempt of those late Iesuites who would teach the people of China and Siam the way to Heaven by the Mathematicks These men whom I am speaking of pretend to effect every thing in Christianity and to climb Heaven it self by meer Natural Strength and Humane Accomplishments as appears from the express words of the Racovian Catechism That there is no need of the inward gift of the Holy Spirit that we may believe the Gospel no not at all They have another way of Believing viz. by a strength of their own by the natural conduct and improvement of their Faculties And if True Faith then such a Knowledge as accompanies Salvation is to be acquir'd after the same manner and no other for a man need not be beholding to the Holy Spirit for it It is no wonder that those who talk thus find no Mysteries in Christianity 2. This gives an account of that Scarcity of true Divine Knowledge and Religion which is observable in the world There are Secrets in the Christian Faith which are known but by a few and therefore True Christians must needs be Rare There is indeed an Equivocal sort of Christians in the world who boldly assume the Name but are strangers to the Thing it self they boast of that Honourable Title but are regardless of the True Import of it and to use the Apostle's words though they think they know something they know nothing as they ought to know 1 Cor. 8. 2. These are very Numerous and every place swarms with them but the number of those who have a Practical Knowledge and Sense of Gospel-Truths is very mean and low The Multitude of those who derive their denomination from Christ have not attain'd to this Accomplishment and the reason is because it is by their own default hidden from them they are unwilling to receive the Divine Supernatural Light into their minds Let us implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit the Great and Heavenly Mystagogue the Effectual Interpreter of Divine Secrets and who alone can discover them to us that he would vouchsafe to enlighten and irradiate our souls in such a manner as shall be really beneficial to us Let us beg the aid of the Spirit of Truth to lead us into the Advantageous Knowledge of all Evangelical Truths and to enable us to feel them as well as know them Thus much of the First Branch of the Proposition founded on the words Christianity Mysterious A Sermon shewing that there are Mysteries properly so call'd in the Christian Religion With the True Reasons of it and the Natural Consequences from it Preached before the Vniversity at St. Mary's in Cambridge Iune 29. 1697. And since much Enlarged 1 TIM III. 16. And without controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness HAving in a former Discourse shew'd that Christianity is a Mystery to some more especially now I will pass to the Second thing I undertook viz. to prove that it is such even in a general way unto every one There are several Great Truths in the Gospel which the Spiritual Man can no more arrive to a full knowledge of than the Natural man can With relation and respect even to All persons whomsoever the sublime Truths of the Christian Religion still retain and ever shall the nature of a Mystery And I choose the rather to treat on this Subject because I verily believe it is of that nature and influence that if it were duly entertain'd it would be serviceable to put an end to all the Disputes and Cavils against the Doctrine of the Trinity and other Important Points that relate to it There would be no farther Contest about these if the abovesaid Proposition did but take place in mens minds This must needs be so at least in the nature of the thing it self because when it shall appear that there are Fathomless Secrets in Christianity and that they were design'd to be so yea and to be so to all as well as to some this cannot but supersede all Controversies about 〈◊〉 This with ingenuous and rational Spirits solves all Difficulties this with religious and pious minds answers all Doubts and fully satisfies all Scruples This thereâ—ore is the thing which I will evince that â—here are such Secrets as these in our Reliâ—â—on that there are many things in this Holy Institution which we have but a Dark and Imperfect notice of and it is impossible for us to attain to any other and these are properly stiled Mysteries That one Text alone 1 Cor. 13. 9 12. is sufficient to prove this We know in part saith the Apostle which refers to the knowledge mention'd in the foregoing verse by which as it is agreed by all is to be understood the knowledge of Divine and Evangelical matters and then it follows by way of natural consequence We prophesie in part for our instructing of others must be answerable to our own knowledge which is but in part He superadds Now we see through a glass that is either as men looking through a Perspective on an Object a great way off and therefore made Obscure by its great Distance from the eye or as persons beholding themselves in a Glass or Mirror which manner of expression St. Iames uses to signifie a Slight View 1 Iam. 23. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But this Apostle thinks not this sufficient to set forth the Meanness and Deficiency of our Knowledge of Sacred matters but he adds another Emphatick expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a riddle i.e. in a very Obscure dark and intricate manner and therefore our Translators render it darkly The sum of what the Apostle saith is this that we have but a Partial discovery of some Divine Truths our Sight of them is very Imperfect there are certain Points of Christianity which are not within the sphere of our Capacities but are in themselves Aenigmatical and Abstruse And these passages are the more considerable if we call to mind the peculiar quality of the Person who writes thus It was that Apostle who was famous for his Knowledge he who among all the Apostles was the only man that was brought up a Scholar for we read that he was educated in the School of Gamaliel a Celebrated Hebrew Doctor and Professor and thence was stock'd with all the Iewish Literature And he that was well skill'd in the Heathen Poets as his Quotations in the New Testament let us know was questionless not defective in other parts of Humane Learning which he had the advantage of furnishing himself within his own Native City that of Tarsus which was at that time a famous Vniversity And these Excellencies joyn'd with his own Natural Parts and Endowments which as we may gather from his Acute Reasonings and Arguings on all occasions were of the highest
pitch could not but render him a very Accomplish'd Person such as was able to discern and judge of things in the best manner and to know and comprehend whatever was to be known and comprehended of them But we are to remember this further that his knowledge in Divine and Sacred things was as eminent for even as to these he had those Helps which other Christians had not yea which the rest of the Apostles were not honoured with for he tells Gal. 1. 11 12. That the Gospel which was preached of him was not after man for he neither received it of man neither was he taught it but by the revelation of Iesus Christ. He was in an Extraordinary and unparalell'd manner call'd to the Office by Christ himself then in heaven he had Immedâ—ate declarations of God's will by Visions and Revelations 2 Cor. 12. 1. yea by abundance of Revelations v. 7. for he had the matchless dignity and priviledge to be caught up to the third heaven into paradice as he otherwise expresses it the Seat of the Divine Majesty and the place of the Blessed and there he heard those unspeakable words those Doctrines and Truths which it is not possible for a man to utter i. e. fully v. 4. Then were display'd before him those Mysteries and Profound Doctrines which his Writings every where abound with several of which are not so much as mention'd in the Writings of the other Apostles which plainly shews that he far excell'd them in Spiritual Knowledge and in the understanding of some of the Main Heads of the Christian Religion And yet behold this Apostle who was thus bless'd with all manner of Intellectual Accomplishments and was possessor of all the Knowledge that Nature or Art and his own happy Genius could furnish him with and which is unspeakably much more all that Knowledge that God himself vouchsafed to infuse into him and inspire him with Behold this very Apostle is the man who uses here this humble and mean language We know in part we see through a glass darkly When he saith we he means himself as well as other Christians nay it appears that he chiefly and principally intends himself for he changes the plural into the singular v. 12. Now I know in part as much as to say notwithstanding all my advantages of Knowing much more than others I acknowledge my self to be but a Smatterer a Novice I own my self to have but a mean and imperfect insight into the High and Mystical Points of the Gospel and if they were not such I should not have so short and partial a knowledge of them This is an unanswerable place of Scripture to prove that there are Mysteries in Christianity such Divine Truths which no quickness of thoughts no sharpness and sagacity of mind can wholly reach And therefore if St. Paul be in the right we know who have taken the wrong part If Plato could say of the Rites of Sacrificing and Divine Worship It is impossible for our mortal nature to have any knowledge of these things surely then our conceptions concerning the Sublime Points of Christianity which is the Noblest and Highest Dispensation of Religion must needs be weak and shallow Divine matters are not clear and manifest of themselves to men said one of the Greek Sages quoted by Iustin Martyr To the same purpose Clement of Alexandria cites that eminent passage of Plato in his Timaeus The only way to learn Truth is to be taught it of God himself or of those that are from God Those are notable words of Iamblicus a Platonick Philosopher It is not easie to know what things God is pleas'd with unless we have convers'd with those who have heard them from God or we have heard God himself or we have attain'd to that knowledge by some Divine Art These are the apprehensions of Improved Heathens concerning Religious matters and shall not those who have attain'd to clearer notions believe the same with a more special relation to the doctrines of the Gospel As these things were not at first found out by Man so they cannot be comprehended by him As they were not discover'd by humane skill and art so they can never be fully known and explain'd by them Thus they are universally a Mystery It is true and I am very forward to grant it that the Christian Religion is stock'd even with Natural Principles such as are in themselves manifest Even that Model of Religion which is made up wholly of the Law of Nature and therefore is call'd Natural Religion is here entirely receiv'd All Rational and Moral dictates are incorporated into this Institution Here are Admirable Notions which carry with them an Intrinsick Evidence as an undeniable demonstration of their Worth and Excellency here are Reason and Morality at their Heighth It was excellently said of an Ancient Writer of the Church Far â—e it that God should hate in us that very thing wherein he hath created us more excellent than other creatures So we may say Far be it that Christianity should disallow that very thing in us which distinguishes our nature from that of Brutes and gives us a Preference to them Some of the Mahometans have a conceit that Idiots and Mad-men are Inspired persons that those who have so little of Man have the more of God But this is an idle fancy and unworthy of our Humane Nature as well as of the Supreame Being it self who was the Author of it The Best Brains are fittest for Religion and even for the Best Religion Christianity It is admirably shew'd by a Worthy Person that the Christian Religion suits even with a Philosophick Genius I question not but it may be made evident from Strict Reason that the Main System of the Christian Theology is uniform and harmonious in it self and conformable to all the Divine Attributes and Perfections that the Coming of Christ in the flesh was requisite in order to the Redemption of lost Man that his Undertatakings were the most Rational Expedient for the restoring of mankind that they were the most Proper and Suitable Method to reduce lapsed creatures and raise them up again after their fall and that Christ's Divinity was no more impair'd by being joyned to the Humane Nature than the Soul of Man is by its Union with the Body These and several things of this kind I could make clear and evident and thereby shew that Christianity is consonant to the most sober Reflections we can make on things that it is agreeable to the most solid and natural Reasonings we can form For we are not to imagine as some Enthusiastick Spirits do that Divine Revelation contradicts the principles of Reason this being a certain Truth that it is impossible to know that any Revelation i. e. any Reveal'd doctrine is from God unless we be first Reasonably satisfied that it is from him Besides Reason is from God as well as Revelation and therefore if we receive the latter we must
on the very same ground attend to the former because that is from God no less than this Wherefore those who oppose one to the other make â—od contradict himself because he is the Aâ—thor of both And here I cannot but take notice of the Injustice of some late Penmen who represent the Asserters of the Trinity and of such like Points of Faith as persons that are Enemies to Reason and such as will by no â—â—ans admit of a Rational Religion This they craftily urge and aggravate to blacken the Cause which they have set themselves against but there is nothing of Truth in the accusation but as they manage it a great deal of Falshood and Wrong For we give unto Reason the things that are Reason's we assert the use and necessity of it in Religion yea in the Christian Religion and we are able and ready to defend and maintain a considerable part of it by Rational Principles We most freely profess with Iustin the Philosopher and Martyr That whatever was well said by any of the Philosophers Poets and Historians is to be found in the Christian Writings of the Bible We declare that the Christian Institution commends and enforces all the Maxims of Morality and the Natural Religion of mankind and the Common Dictates of Reason Those therefore are very Injurious to us and to Truth itself who labour as we see they do to fill Mens heads with other apprehensions But though it be thus in the general yet there are Particular Doubts and Difficulties relating to this Holy Institution there are some certain Points which are in themselves Mysterious Incomprehensible and Inconceivable and will not submit to the nicer Scrutinies of Humane Reason The â—ery Deity it self which is the very foundation of all Christianity is a 〈◊〉 and the greatest of all Mysteries Whence it was the acknowledgment of 〈◊〉 a very Wise and Good Man God is Great and we know him not Job 36. 26. We cannot fully understand his Nature and Attributes yea we are capable of knowing but very little of them Which is fitly express'd by that of the Apostle He dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto 1 Tim. 6. 16. This inaccessible Splendor admits not of a full view The more we gaze upon this Glorious Sun the more we are dazzled and almost blinded In some case it is unsafe and perillous saith a Pious Father to speak what is True of God â—â—e is best known by a modest 〈◊〉 â—â—ith another We know not whâ—â— he is but only what he is not saith a Third And it is observable that Socinus himself in the first Chapter of his Praeâ—â—ctions stiâ—â—y contâ—nds though upon no solid grounds at all that the Existence of God is not discoverable by the light of Naâ—ure and Reason how then can he and his â—ollowers imagine â—hat the Divine Nature and Essence are to be comprehended by humaâ—e thoughts If we cannot according to him discover that God is how shall we understand what he is There are several unutterable Abstrusities and Difficulties in the notion of an Eternal Self-subsisting Being We cannot penetrate into the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God we have not adequate conceptions of his Immutability his Justice his Faithfulness and none of his Perfections and Excellencies are throughly understood by us So that according to the way of Arguing which some men use viz. that Nothing must be receiv'd in Religion but what is exactly according to plain Reason they may renounce the Deity it self for in the notions we have of the Nature and Attributes of God there are some things above our Reason The Manner how Three real Subsistencies are united in One Essence or Substance of the Godhead is not comprehensible but the Holy Scripture puts it beyond all doubt that it is so There are many Principles and Propositions in Christianity which are far above our weak capacities There are several things in the Conduct of our Redemption and Salvation the exact knowledge of which is hidden from us at least the Modes and Circumstances belonging to them are not to be comprehended though we are sure of the General Truth There are sundry Difficult things occur concerning the Incarnation of the Son of God but we have no reason to disbelieve the Doctrine it self I know saith St. Chrysostom that the Son was begotten of the Father but how I know not I know he was born of a Virgin but I can't tell the Manner of it for we acknowledge the production of Both Natures and yet the Manner of both we are not able to declare So as to the Vnion of the Divine and Humane Natures in Christ's Person we have not an accountable idea of it though the thing it self is agreeable to Reason We cannot answer all the doubts concerning Christ's Satisfaction but upon incontestable grounds we may be convinc'd of the Truth of it The Resurrection of the same Body at the last day is an unquestionable Article of the Christian Faith but if we be ask'd how a dead body crumbled into dust and perhaps dissipated by the winds into several quarters or how a body converted into the substance of other creatures after innumerable introductions of new shapes preserves its proper Identity â—nd Individuation if we be ask'd I say How this can be The Answer in brief can 〈◊〉 no other than this We cannot tell But it will be said This is an unbecoming Answer for any man that pretends to Knowledge and Understanding in the matters of Religion I reply This is no ways unbecoming but to pretend to give Reasons and Accounts when we are not able to do it is very unbecoming and absurd And many other Points of Christianity are hid from our Natural Reason and are Inscrutable Secrets Our Religion hath many Mazes and Labyrinths in it which we cannot extricate our selves out of The Gospel not only was but is a Mystery it is so now and will continue so to the end of the world If we enquire into the Reasons of this so far as we are able to judge there may be this Account given of it 1. That which Solomon suggests to us ought to have the preference to all other Reasons that can be assign'd It is the glory of God saith he to conceal a thing Prov. 25. 2. The Supreme Being is pleas'd to hide the knowledge of several things from men because this redounds to the Honour and Glory of the Divine Majesty Hereby the Sovereignty of the Great Disposer of all things is displayed to mankind hereby his Transcendent Nature which infinitely â—urpasses that of all Created beings is proclaim'd to the world This was the sense of another Wise and Holy man who speaking of the Almighty saith He giveth not account of any of his matters Job 33. 13. Though sometimes yea frequently he vouchsafes to render a Reason of what he saith as well as of what he doth yet in many cases he thinks fit to deal with us otherwise
and not to answer or account for all his matters as the Original hath it Though we demand a Reason he is not obliged to give because as it is rightly suggested by the same Pious Observer God is greater than man v. 12. He is infinitely exalted above the nature of mortal men and therefore it is unsufferable boldness to search into his Divine Secrets and to promise our selves a full comprehension of them For these things are conceal'd from us on purpose to give us an assurance of the Infinite Nature and Wisdom of our Maker We hence are effectually taught that God is not like one of us that his Essence and Properties are of an immense and unsearchable nature not to be comprehended by us Even concerning Visible and Natural things One of the Ancients â—peaks thus If any of them surpass your understanding and you can't find out the reason of them then for that very reason glorifie the Creator because his Transcendent Wisdom shew'd in these things exceeds your apprehension Much more then may we nay ought we to pronounce the same concerning Divine and Heavenly matters the Transcendent Nature of them discovers a Wisdom much more so This is a convictive proof to sober and thoughtful minds that God is Great and Wise above what humane intellects can conceive This then is a sufficient account if there were no other of the Unsearchableness of the Divine Nature and those things that immediately depend upon it and flow from it 2. It is God's pleasure to render Divine Truths more Venerable by their Obscurity We might say and that truly with a Learned Christian Philosopher That the Darkness of these Sacred things and our ignorance concerning them are useful to preserve and uphold the Reverence and Majesty of them If the sacred doctrines of the Gospel were to be prostituted to the capricious reasonings of vain men if we could exactly fathom all the depths of Divinity we should not have that superlative Admiration and Regard for them which they deserve and we plainly see that those who pretend to lay them open do in reality undervalue them and lower the Excellency of them We have reason therefoâ—e 〈◊〉 think that it was design'd by Heaven that the Abstruseness of Divine matters should inhanse our Esteem of them and render them in our apprehension what they are in themselves August Great and Venerable And consequently we must not reject the doctrines conveyed to us in the Holy Scripture because they are thus Obscure and exalted above our natural light but we are rather to admire and reverence them because they are so i. e. because they are of so high and transcendent a nature 3. This likewise might be added that it is the divine will and pleasure that not only our Estimation and Reverence but our Diligence and Sedulity should be excited by this means For though we cannot reach to a full knowledge of these Profound matters and though we are forbid a bold and saucy prying into them yet there is always something gain'd by a Humble and Modest Searching into them and by an industrious and careful Enquiry into the Holy Oracles where these infallible dictates are For as there are Plain and Obvious Truths in the Sacred Writings so there are others that are Abstruse and Perplexed to check our Negligence and Oscitancy our carelesness end unconcernedness and to rouze our Industry and encourage our pains and study for those portions of Scripture wherein these Truths are contain'd will abundantly employ these and recompence our labour Even on this account it was fitting that there should be some Mysteries in our Holy Religion 4. The Chief and Grand Reason to be assigned of this matter and which I will more amply insist upon is this that the very Nature of the things themselves which we are treating of renders them Mysterious and Difficult For things of an Infinite and Transcendent nature are above the reach of finite understandings Such is God such is the Sacred Trinity and such are those Doctrines which I mention'd before which immediately relate to the Godhead it self and its Attributes or the Divine Persons subsisting in the Godhead or more particularly Christ Iesus and his Blessed Undertakings for us which are the proper matter of the Gospel the knowledge of which depends wholly on the Will of God for no mortal man could have any notice of them unless God himself had been pleas'd to discover them And now when they are discover'd they are of that high and soaring nature that no humane creature can reach them they are of that towering pitch that they are above all finite intellect More especially the nature of the Sacred Trinity is such that it is above being described which we are not to be dissatisfied with for if the Holy Trinity were not abstruse and mysterious it would not be what it is and what it cannot otherwise be Therefore he that expects this doctrine should be Clear fancies an Impossibility both as to the Trinity it self and as to us For this Infinite and Perfect Trin-Vnity is in its own nature unsearchable and in respect of our finite and imperfect Understanding is much more so Wherefore those Propositions which belong to this Infinite Subject must needs be dark and intricate and cannot be otherwise How can we imagine we should be able to grasp these things which consider'd in themselves are of so elevated a nature It is certain we cannot with reason imagine or expect this And we may be convinc'd of it from this one Consideration which I will somewhat enlarge upon viz. that many things of a meaner and lower degree such as the Common Works of Nature and the Phaenomena of the Visible and Sensible World have rais'd great Disputes and after all the exactest enquiries into them remain still hidden and obscure How then can we expect that Divine and Supernatural things should be void of all Obscurity An Acute Naturalist speaking of things of the former sort tells us That he pretends not to Science but contents himself with bare guessing for God saith he hath not laid open all things to humane sight and perception there is a considerable part of this great Work which the Wise Maker of all things hath thought good to hide from our Eyes Thus this Great Philosopher ingenuously owns his Ignorance and at the same time the Wise Disposal of Heaven That Noted and Trite Problem of the Divisibility of Matter or Quality hath posed all the Learned heads in the world and yet upon this one Property of Matter depends the whole System of Geometry and all the Mathematick Arts and Sciences which above all others boast of their Certainty and Demonstration It is not to this very day unanimously agreed what the True Scheme of the world is and whether the Sun or the Earth be the Center of the Universe If we consider it well it is a manifest Argument of our shallow Understanding and Sense that we can't tell whereabouts
thing in nature yet it hath been long controverted where it is in what part of the body it is placed Though it be sufficiently demonstrated that there is such a being as the Rational Soul and that it is really distinct from Matter and that this latter is uncapable of Cogitation as was never more nervously proved than of late by a Great and Eminent Person of our Church against one that shews himself inclined to believe that Matter can Think though I say it is evident that there is such a Distinct Being as is the Sovereign Empress of all our Functions and actions yet it is not certainly known where her Throne is For some give her the whole body for her seat others believe she circulates in the Blood and others assign her the Heart as her particular Chair of State And though it is true the most Piercing Philosophers of late have confined her to the Brain yet they are not agreed in what part of it her Residence is Many other Instances indeed almost as many as there are Phaenomâ—na in the world of the Uncertainty of Natural Speculations might be produced A great part of that which passes for Knowledge is ingenious Guessing and Surmise And yet notwithstanding the Scruples and Difficulties which attend all these things which I have mention'd the Things themselves are readily own'd and assented to So that these several Particulars which I have named are clear demonstrations of these two things First That Propositions may be True and consequently that we may give our Assent to them though the matter of them surpasses our Reason yea tho' it is not only hard but impossible to explain it and to give an account of the Manner of it Secondly The foresaid Examples plainly shew that some things even in Nature may be above Reason and yet not â—ontrary to it for if they were the latter no man would yield assent to them but wholly reject them as inconsistent and impossible But even the very persons with whom our business is at present profess their ready assent to the truth and reality of all these things though they know not how to explain them and solve the right manner of them Hence it follows that we ought not to disbelieve a thing meerly because it surmounts our Reason and that we are not to infer from a thing 's being above Reason that it is contrary to it for after this rate we must discard all Natural Philosophy and believe nothing of the most ordinary Occurrences in Nature And what hinders now that we should not make the like Deductions with reference to those Higher matters which I before mention'd May we not on much better grounds make these two Inferences viz. that we ought not to disbelieve those things because they exceed our Reason and that though they do so yet it follows not thence that they are repugnant to Reason Such Inferences as these are very good and valid because of the difficult and recondite nature of these Spiritual and Divine matters which far outdoeth that of Bodily and Sensible things And we shall find that this is the way of Reasoning which one of the Ancientest and Learnedest of the Primitive Writers of the Christian Church made use of against the Hereticks and Seducers of his and the immediately foregoing times He argues from the Obscurity in matters of Sense to those that are Spiritual and of a Sublime Nature Thus then in imitation of that Great Man we may solidly argue with relation to the foregoing disquisitions in Philosophy If in things of an inferior nature there be such Obscurities and Difficulties which yet are no impediments to our Assent how much more then in Higher things may we expect there should be Great Difficulties and amazing Obscurities If Natural Knowledge be so Cloudy is there not reason to believe the Divine and Heavenly to be much more so If we are not able to find out the True System of the Material World how can we apprehend the unspeakable nature of the Spiritual one If there be Mysteries in Philosophy surely there are Greater ones in the Gospel If the nature of a Groveling Plant confounds us how shall we be able to solve all the difficult Problems in Christianity If a man can't attain all his life time to the knowledge of a single Mineral is it probable that he can in a much less time know fully the Secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven If he can't give an account of a sorry Insect how shall he be able to unravel the Mysteries of our Faith If we can't tell with all our reason and argumentation how the Soul is united to and acts upon the Body how is iâ— possible to tell the manner of the Son of God's being joyn'd to the Humane nature or how could it be expected we should give an account of the Unity of the Three Persons in the Godhead or of other the like surprizing doctrines in our Religion If we have so mean a discovery of what is within us and so near to us and is the Best part of us yea is Our selves it is no wonder that we can't arrive to a full knowledge of the things that are without us and are remote from us and which are not of the same Limited nature with Our selves but are Boundless and Infinite If it was the Opinion of a Great Philosophick Wit that the Material World is indefinitely extended that the Compass of the Universe is beyond all that we can imagine that it is impossible to frame a conception of the limits and bounds of it then may we not with more reason hold the Intellectual World to be a boundless Expanse such as we cannot possibly reach to the Extremity of an endless unlimited and as it were infinite System Especially if we speak of the Divine and Supernatural things belonging to it we must be forced to own this Truth and to confess that what we know of them is the least part of what is kept from our knowledge and that we cannot possibly with the greatest art and wit attain to a greater insight For if there be Apocrypha in Nature as hath been shew'd it is not strange that there are Mysteries in Divinity which it is impossible whatever some pretend to solve by reason of their Profound and Immense nature These will not admit of an accurate Inquisition and therefore all our knowledge concerning them is defective and must needs be so We are presently beyond our depth we are soon plung'd when we venture into this Fathomless Ocean The Reason is because the Mind of man can have no perfect knowledge of what is of so Transcendent a nature especially it can't attain to a compleat notion and perception of what is Infinite This alone were sufficient to decide the Dispute between the Anti-Trinitarians and us If they would put the whole Controversie upon this issue it would soon have a period I wish they would well consider of it and shew themselves what they so
vaunt themselves to be Masters of True Reason For then they would see how unreasonable it is that their thoughts and expressions concerning the Infinite God should be according to the nature of Finite beings They would see how absurd it is to undertake to measure the Creator by the Creature and to apply the Properties of Natural things to what is Supernatural as they deal in the doctrine about the Holy Trinity They would find that what is true of the former is not necessarily so of the latter and consequently that they ought not to â—rgue from the nature of a finite and created being to that of God They would be convinced That the Scripture to use the words of a Man of free Thoughts and of a very Philosophical and Rational Genius who professes that the Scripture declares nothing concerning the Divinity of Christ and the Holy Trinity that is impossible contradictious or more unintelligible than things that men ordinarily assent to who are free Philosophers and admit nothing upon force or superstition but upon Reason They would not pretend to such a penetration of mind as to dive into the exact nature of the Deity they would be sensible of the unmeasurable disproportion between their weak capacities and what is Infinite and Immense In sum they would confess that they have not right conceptions concerning the nature of those Sublime Verities which I have been speaking of whilst they contend that there is nothing Mysterious and Hidden in them nay they would acknowledge that they have very wrong and perverse notions of these things and such as are no ways agreeable to their nature And now to shut up this Head of my Discourse we are to remember that the Truth and Reality of Things are firm and unshaken and we can't think to dissettle them but our business is to adjust our notions to the Things He that finds fault with them for their Obscurity and Difficulty cavils at the nature of the Things themselves which is the most irrational act imaginable for the Nature of Beings is stable and settled and we cannot alter it and therefore to require that it should be altered is absurd and ridiculous Lastly I argue not only from the quality of the things themselves but from the present state we are in which is capable of no other than an Imperfect knowledge of these Divine Secrets This Accounr of the matter is suggested to us by the Apostle for he makes a plain distinction between knowing now in part and seeing then i. e. hereafter face to face and knowing even as we are known 1 Cor 13. 12. One he compares to the state of a Child who is of weak understanding and capacity and the other to that of a Man who is of ripe judgment and apprehension The former is our allotment in this world Evangelical and Divine Truths for of these the Apostle speaks in that place are known by us here only in part and no otherwise shall they or can they be known as long as we inhabit in these dark Vehicles of Earth I speak not this to disparage the Christian Knowledge for it must be granted that there are many Plain aud Clear Propositions both as to the matter and manner of the things contain'd in them which the Writings of the New Testament furnish us with and all the Practical Truths of Christianity are easie to be known and are represented to us by Christ and his Apostles in a very intelligible manner And as to the knowledge of those very Doctrines which I have been speaking of all True Christians have such a measure of it as makes them sufficiently capable of understanding their Religion and of discharging their Duty of knowing so much as concerns them to know so much as is requisite to Salvation But that which I assert and am proving is this that these last sort of Truths are mix'd in us whilst we take up our residence on this earthly stage with much Ignorance and Darkness We comprehend not the full meaning of them because this is not suitable to our present condition which we are now placed in Thence it is that there are some Secrets mention'd in the Holy Scriptures which our understandings tremble at and are afraid to approach unto Be the mind of man never so Ambitious and greedy of knowledge it cannot grasp them for they are too Big it cannot reach them they are too High it cannot fathom them they are too deep it cannot discern them they are too Remote in a word they surpass humane abilities at their highest pitch in this state of Mortality But it shall be otherwise afterwards as the Apostle informs us When that which is perfect is come when we shall be translated to Heaven a state of Perfection then that which is in part shall be done away v. 10. Then we shall no longer be in the dark then the imperfection of our understanding shall cease because our natures shall be exalted Then those Amazing Truths which pose us now shall be fully resolved i. e. so far as is fit for us for even in Heaven our Nature will still be but Finite and therefore our knowledge will be so too But by the change of our vile bodies for heavenly ones though still they are the same but otherwise qualified which will no ways impede but promote the operations of our Souls and by being taken into the more Immediate Presence of the Holy Trinity and stated in the Fruiâ—ion of perfect Glory we shall have our minds exalted and our understandings widened to such a degree that we shall exactly and fully know every thing that is to be known by us Though the intrinsick nature of the things that we shall know shall be the same that it is now for there can be no alteration as to that yet our faculties shall not be the same as to the degree of their capacity and the manner of their perception When this gross Veil of flesh shall be drawn aside when the Soul is rid of this Terrestrial Clog and is stript of these Deficient Organs we shall have a more clear and refined apprehension of all Truths and approaching nearer to the Great Objects themselves we shall attain to a more distinct view of them and a fuller insight into them than now at this distance from them we are capable of In that Separate state we shall by reason of an intimate Communion with the Supreme Being and a close Conjunction of the Soul with him be able to comprehend all the Hard Points of Religion to unravel all Difficulties to untie all Knots to assoil all Controversies Then and not before we shall be furnish'd with this ability Wherefore those men make not a due distinction between this life and that to come who talk against Mysteries in our Religion they are forgetful of the Present Scene of things and the Dispensation they are under they discourse as if they thought themselves advanced to the Coelestial Regions already But this very
to think of themselves more highly than they ought to think but to think soberly have other thoughts and apprehensions and are most willing to acknowledge the shallowness of their own Judgments and the depth of Divine Truth We have Instances on Record of those Humble Souls who though of singular sagacity and improvements proclaim'd the Unsearchableness of the Divine Wisdom and the Exalted Truths that belong to it The Ancient Inspired Arabian expresses it thus Man knoweth not the price of it i. e. as I apprehend he cannot come up fully to the Purchase or which is the same the Attainment of it for we purchase things by price neither is it found in the land of the living the depth saith it is not in me and the sea saith it is not in me Whence then cometh Wisdom and where is the place of Vnderstanding Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living and kept close from the fowls of the air i. e. those that are most quick-sighted for Naturalists observe that the eyes of Birds generally excel those of other Animals But he concludes God understands the ways thereof and he knoweth the place thereof that is he hath reserved the perfect knowledge of these Divine and Supernatural things to Himself This was the humble sense of another Great and Wise Man the Royal Psalmist concerning whom it is worth our observing that after he had asserted and maintain'd the doctrine of God's Omniscience and All-seeing Providence he adds Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it which is as much as if he had said though it is impossible for me to apprehend the infinite and boundless knowledge of the Eternal God the Sovereign Disposer of all things though I can't tell how he sees and foresees all things whatsoever yet I heartily own this Universal Sight and Prescience of his and I verily believe it to be a certain and unshaken Truth It is Humility which furnishes a man with such perswasion and language as this and it is this which causes him to believe and assert that there are Mysteries in his Holy Faith which far transcend his thoughts and conceptions This is that Wisdom which according to another Divine and Inspired Sage is far off and exceeding deep and therefore as it follows who can find it out To which irrefragable Testimonies permit me to adjoyn that of an Apocryphal Writer and the rather because I will take occasion thence to offer a Conjecture on that dark place Wisdom is according to her Name and she is not manifest unto many What is the meaning of that according to her Name What Title hath Wisdom that imports any such matter viz. that she is not manifest Some Criticks think it refers to the Hebrew word for Wisdom Chocmah others to the Arabick Algnalam but what they propound seems to be very much strain'd and doth not reach the purpose And how can it seeing they forget that this Book was writ in Greek and that the Title of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must therefore repair to the Greek for a solution but we must first confer with the Hebrew where we meet with the Verb Saphah or Tsaphah which signifies to hide or cover and thence it is probable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived and this it is likely is the Name that is here meant because though the language in which this book was originally drawn up was Hebrew as appears from the Prologue of it yet it was soon translated into Greek because the Iews at that time spoke Greek generally and had their Bible and Service in Greek and accordingly this place hath reference to the name of Wisdom in that tongue wherein there are many words deriv'd from the Hebrew and hence it is that the denomination of Wisdom imports something hid and mysterious and therefore she is according to her Name The Iewish Doctors had a sense of this as appears from their Proverbial Saying When Elias comes he will untie all knots i. e. solve all Difficult and Abstruse Points of which there are not a few in Religion There are sundry things hid from our understandings here which shall not be clear'd till the last day Now if the Wisest persons spoke thus concerning the things of Religion which is the Wisdom of God under those Dispensations of old is there not much more reason to say the like of the Divine Wisdom under the Oeconomy of the Gospel when doctrines of an higher nature are published to the world such as far surpass all humane comprehension But there is a generation of men among us that will not stoop to this they will not own themselves to be in a state of Weakness Childhood and Minority in this life though the Great Apostle as we have heard expresly did when he so far own'd the deficiency of his Understanding as to say he knew in part and spake and understood and thought as a Child And all the Great and all the Wise men in the world have been ready to say the same yea even with reference to matters of a lower nature The Learned in the Law confess they have their Perplexed and Knotty Cases Statesmen their Arcana Physicians their Opprobious Maladies Anatomists their Unknown Ductus's Astronomers their Eccentrical Motions which they can't reduce into regular and exact Order Mathematicians their Insoluble Problems And in brief most Professions and Sciences labour under some insuperable Difficulties and Intricacies and this is freely acknowledg'd by the most Skilful in those Arts. But here is a sort of men that will not own any such thing in Divinity although it be conversant about Objects that are infinitely Higher and Greater Notwithstanding this they think it is below a man of Parts to own any thing to be Inexplicable they profess that it becomes not a man of Sense and Reason to admit of this yea that it is an unsufferable affront to Humane Nature to believe such a thing They think it a sufficient ground to cashier a doctrine in Religion because it is attended with Obscurity In short they think it unreasonable to yield assent to a Proposition on the account of its being reveal'd in Scripture meerly because they are not able to conceive the Manner of it Thus their Pride makes them Infidels and they bid adieu to Modesty and the Faith together Secondly Another Great Disparagement and Inexcusable Blemish of these mens Perswasion is that it argues wilful Prejudice and Partiality I will make this evident from these two Considerations First Tho' they deny not that there are Mysteries in the Divine Providence yet they altogether renounce them in the Articles before mention'd Secondly Though they grant there may and ought to be a Government and Restraint on the Imaginations Will and Affections of men yet at the same time they perversly disapprove of the like restraint on the Vnderstanding and Reasoning Faculty Both these are Instances of their egregrious Prepossession
and Partiality 1. They profess themselves to be satisfied about the Divine Conduct in the Governing of the Vniverse though many Difficulties and those very Great and Insuperable accompany it They acquiesce in the unerring Wisdom of the Supreme Ruler of all things and they pretend not to judge of his actions but most willingly grant them to be just and wise and good notwithstanding they cannot give an Account of them notwithstanding they acknowledge them to be Unsearchable and Incomprehensible None of them have ever ventured to question God's Wisdom because there are some Events and Occurrences in the world which no man can possibly give a Reason of We do not hear them say that these are contrary to Reason and that they are Contradictory although at the same time they yield that they have no knowledge of them they are out of their sight and they can render no particular account of them Nor do we hear them cry out to have these Intricate Events made out by Reason they don't peremtorily demand to have the Causes of them laid open or else they will throw up the doctrine of Providence No they very patiently and contentedly resolve all into the Infinite and Unsearchable Wisdom of the Absolute Governour of the World and into the Ignorance and Weakness of humane understandings God hath not thought fit to reveal those Secrets and therefore they are content to be ignorant of them yea they submissively admire revere and adore that Infinite Wisdom which they vote to be Mysterious and Unaccountble And why then do they not act thus with with reference to the Mysterious Articles of the Christian Faith and the Great but Abstruse Verities of the Gospel Seeing they deny not the Providence of God because of some harsh and difficult passages in it why should they reject those Doctrines because there are some things in them hard to be understood Seeing they quarrel not with the Divine Government though many things in it are mysterious and dark and far above their understandings why do they find fault with those Points of the Christian Belief which were deliver'd to us by the same All-wise Governour of the world because there are certain Mysteries in them If the Infinite Wisdom and the Absolute Power and Sovereignty of the Supreme Being render his Actions unaccountable why should not these make his Words his Sayings his Dictates about divine things to be of the same nature If the methods of God's ruling the world be Inscrutable why should we undertake to fathom the depths and secrets of those Truths which he hath declared to the world If God doth great things past finding out why may not he be allow'd to speak such If the Iudgments of God are unsearchable and his ways past finding out is there not cause to believe that God's Nature and Essence are so too If the Socinians are not concern'd to answer the Difficulties about the former what is the reason that they startle at the latter If they acknowledge that God acts many things which are above their understandings why should they not own him to be what they cannot comprehend If they can't know what he doth why should they expect to know what he is Are the Works of God's Providence unsearchable and is not He himself so Are there several things done above their apprehensions and shall they deny the Author of them to be above them Is God to be trusted and relied upon beyond their knowledge and understanding and is he not barely to be believ'd though he delivers some things which are above their capacities Is the doctrine of Providence though in sundry things Unaccountable imbrac'd and profess'd by them and is not the doctrine of the Holy Trinity to be entertain'd though it contains in it such things of which we are not able to give an account Is it an unquestionable Truth that there is a Divine Management of all mundane affairs though the particular administrations of it are inexplicable and is it not as reasonable to assert that there are Three Persons in the Deity though we cannot explain and unfold the Manner of it I challenge those that make the boldest pretences to Reason and Good Sense to shew the Difference between these All unprejudiced and impartial minds must grant the Case to be the same for surely God's Essence is as infinite and incomprehensible as his Providence and therefore if it be a rational and sufficient Answer to all the Objections and Scruples against Providence to say that they believe God is Wise and Good and Just though they are not able to comprehend the secret methods of his Wisdom Justice and Goodness then it ought to be as good and satisfactory an Answer to all Difficulties of the Trinity to say they firmly assent to that doctrine though they cannot understand the Manner of it But the persons I am speaking of will not submit to this and therefore they demonstrate how Partial they are when they quarrel with the foresaid Article and other doctrines of the Gospel for no other reason but this that they are Mysterious and Vnaccountable they are rais'd above the reach of their understandings I appeal now to the severest Judges of Reason whether these men can justly lay claim to any such thing whilst they thus behave themselves whilst they declare that even in Religious and Divine Matters for such certainly is that of Providence it is reasonable to believe and embrace more than we can understand and comprehend and yet renounce the doctrine of the Trinity and some other substantial Points of Christianity for their being in some measure Incomprehensible What can this be but Perverseness and Crosness What is it but acting contrary to themselves And then who will give heed to men of this cross-grain'd temper Who will regard such vain people that are inconsistent with themselves and clash with their own Concessions They frankly subscribe to Divine Providence though it hath many Mysteries Obscurities Difficulties Intrigues in it which no mortal man can unfold and yet they discard some of the chief Evangelical Truths because they can't explain them by Reason Thus they run counter to their own Principles and Practice and are Self-condemned persons and proclaim to all mankind that they are corrupted with Prejudice and Partiality 2. They give open and undeniable proofs of this by granting that it is convenient yea necessary to regulate and limit the tendencies of the Will and Affections and yet with the same breath they pronounce it unfitting and unreasonable to use any restraint or set any bounds or prescribe any rules to the Intellectual faculty They own it to be the indispensable Character of a Good and Religious Man to exercise a discipline on his Imagination and his Passions they hold it to be a main part of Christian Philosophy to be severe and rigorous here For some things which seem reasonable and plausible are forbidden us by the Evangelical Laws and many harsh and difficult things are