Doctrinals as Justin Martyr Irenaeus Origen against Celsus Tertullians Apolog. c. As Also Philo Josephus Eusebius and others for History Me thinks it is preposterous to see men study so long the meaning of Gods Word before they know whether it be Gods Word or not As the Italians Melancthon mentioneth That would prove Christ was in the Bread before they believed well that he was in Heaven It is no questioning the Truth of Scripture to perswade men to the rightest course to be assured of its Truth I confess my self much offended at some mens doctrine who cry down Reason and Tradition here as if they were enemies to God and his Word and cry up nothing but Scripture and the Spirit Just like the Antinomians in the doctrine of Certainty of Salvation who cry up the Witness of the Spirit and cry down the trying by Signes and Evidences of Sanctification As if these were contrary which are co-ordinate If I had wanted either Reason Tradition or the help of the Spirit I should never have beleeved the Truth of the Scripture I confess for my part I cannot boast of any such Testimony or Light of the Spirit nor Reason neither which without Tradition would have made me beleeve that the Book of Canticles is Canonical and writ by Solomon and the Book of Wisdom Apocryphal and writ by Philo as some think or that Saint Pauls Epistle to the Loadiceans which is in the end of Bruno and others were not Canonical as well as Johns second and third Some men as soon as they hear talk of Reason and Tradition here they zealously cry out It is Socinianism and Popery Scripture is Gods written infallible Law Reason is the Eye by which I must read it The Spirit is the Physitian to cure the blindness of this Eye and in a common sense The very Life and Spirits The Church is the chief but not the onely House where these Records are kept Tradition hath chiefly three Offices It is to the unlearned where Scripture is The Proclaimer of it It is to the learned the Hand that delivereth it to them It is to some that never heard of Scripture a Herauld to proclaim the doctrine which it containeth And why must these needs be set together by the ears May they not yea must they not stand together and further each other The name of Antichrist Socinianism Arminianism for the things I renounce my self hath almost affrighted some men out of their Faith and others out of their Wits Is it any derogation from the Law to say A man must receive it from the hand that bringeth it and read it with his eyes c. A learned godly Divine is offended with Canterbury for these words Reason and ordinary Grace superadded by the help of Tradition do sufficiently enlighten the Soul to discern That Scriptures are the Oracles of God and he saith Here is the Socinians sound or right Reason before the Illumination of the Spirit and to please the Arminians ordinary or universal Grace comes in and the name of Tradition to please the Popish party And what all these are like to do without the special Grace of the Holy Spirit I leave it to any Protestant to judg But what will any Christian deny that there is such a thing as ordinary Grace or that Tradition is necessary to deliver us the Scriptures or hath every man special Grace who beleeveth Scripture to be Gods Word Is it not possible for an unregenerate man to beleeve that What kinde of Preaching would such a man use to Indians Turks or Infidels Are not men sanctified by the Word and must they be sanctified by a Word which they beleeve not that so they may beleeve it Indeed he that saith we may not onely know but know perfectly or know to Salvation without special Grace is mistaken But usually a common Grace and common Knowledg go before Special The same godly Divine against these words of Master Chillingworth The Scripture is not to be beleeved finally for it self but for the matter contained in it So that if men did beleeve the Doctrine contained in the Scripture it should no way hinder their Salvation not to know whether there were any Scripture or no saith I thought it had been necessary to have received those material Objects or Articles of our Faith upon the Authority of God speaking in the Scriptures I thought it had been Anabaptistical to have expected any Revelation but in the Word of God c. I should rather for my part think thus That the immediate Revelation of Scripture from God was not to me but to the first Witnesses and Penmen The way of Conveyance to us is another thing and is a Revelation too The best way is by Scripture which without Tradition no man would ever see or hear of Where this is not to be had there meer Tradition may save and is a Revelation sufficient to Salvation and not Anabaptistical Though Traditional unwritten doctrines to make up the defects of Scripture I abhor And I should ask the Dissenter first Whether men were not saved before Moses without Scripture And as Doctor Usher well observeth One reason why they might then be without it was the facility and certainty of Tradition For Methuselah lived many hundred yeers with Adam and Sem lived long with Methuselah and Isaac lived fiftie yeers with Sem So that three men saw all from the Beginning of the World till Isaacs fiftieth yeer Secondly And were not many saved by the Apostles doctrine many yeers before the New Testament was written And Jews before while the old was almost lost Thirdly What if some Ethiopians Armenians or Papists should by meer Tradition beleeve in Christ and who dare say That they may not should they not be saved He that saith No contradicteth Christ who saith That whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish which way soover he came by it Will you hear Irenaeus in this who lived before Popery was born Lib. 3. cap. 4. Quid enim siquib de aliqua modica quaestione disceptatio esset Nonne oporteret in antiquissimas recurrere Ecclesias Mark he saith not Ad Romanam Ecclesiam vel ad unam principem in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt ab eis de praesenti quaestione sumere quod certum re liquidum est Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat ordinem sequi Traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias Cui Ordinationi assentiunt multae gentes barbarorum eorum qui in Christum credunt sine charactere vel atramento Scriptam habentes per spiritum in cordibus suis salutem veterem Traditionem diligenter custodientes c. Hanc fidem qui sine literis crediderunt quantum ad Sermonem nostrum barbari sunt quantum autem ad sententiam consuetudinem conversationem propter fidem perquam sapientissimi sunt placent Deo c. Sic per illam
Officers and Orders of Churches are to us as Laws still binding with those limitations as Positives onely which give way to greater 43. The ground of this Position is because it is inconsistent with the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God to send men to a work and promise to be with them and yet to forsake them and suffer them to err in the building of that House which must indure till the end of the world 44. Yet if any of these Commissioners do err in their own particular conversations or in matters without the extent of their Commission this may consist with the faithfulness of God God hath not promised them infallibility and perfection the disgrace is their own but if they should miscarry in that wherein they are sent to be a rule to others the Church would then have an imperfect Rule and the dishonor would redound to God 45. Yet I finde not that ever God authorized any meere man to be a Lawgiver to the Church in Substantials but onely to deliver the Laws which he had given to Interpret them and to determine Circumstantials not by him determined 46. Where God owneth mens Doctrines and Examples by Miracles they are to be taken as infallibly Divine much more when Commission Promise and Miracles do concur which confirmeth the Apostles Examples for currant 47. So that if any of the â—ings or Prophets had given Laws and formed the Church as Moses they had not been binding because without the said Commission or if any other Minister of the Gospel shall by Word or Action arrogate an Apostolical priviledg 48. There is no verity about God or the chief happiness of man written in Nature but it is to be found written in Scriptures 49. So that the same thing may in these several respects be the object both of Knowledg and of Faith 50. The Scripture being so perfect a Transcript of the law of Nature or Reason is much more to be credited in its supernatural Revelations 51. The probability of most things and the possibility of all things contained in the Scriptures may well be discerned by Reason it self which makes their Existence or Futurity the more easie to be believed 52. Yet before this Existence or Futurity of any thing beyond the reach of Reason can be soundly believed the Testimony must be known to be truly Divine 53. Yet a belief of Scripture Doctrine as probable doth usually go before a belief of certainty and is a good preparative thereto 54. The direct express sense must be believed directly and absolutely as infallible and the consequences where they may be clearly and certainly raised but where there is danger of erring in raising consequences the assent can be but weak and conditional 55. A Consequence raised from Scripture being no part of the immediate sense cannot be called any part of Scripture 56. Where one of the premises is in Nature and the other onely in Scripture there the Conclusion is mixt partly known and partly believed That it is the Consequence of those premises is known but that it is a Truth is as I said apprehended by a mixt Act. Such is a Christians concluding himself to be justified and sanctified c. 57. Where through weakness we are unable to discern the Consequences there is enough in the express direct sense for salvation 58. Where the sense is not unstood there the belief can be but implicit 59. Where the sense is partly understood but with some doubting the Belief can be but conditionally explicit that is we believe it if it be the sense of the Word 60. Fundamentals must be believed Explicitly and Absolutely CHAP. IIII. The first Argument to prove Scripture to be the Word of God SECT IIII. HAving thus shewed you in what sense the Scriptures are the word of God and how far to be believed and what is the excellency necessity and authority of them I shall now adde three or four Arguments to help your Faith which I hope will not onely prove them to be Divine Testimony to the substance of Doctrine though that be a usefull work against our unbelief but also that they are the very written Laws of God and a perfect Rule of Faith and duty My Arguments shall be but few because I handle it but on the by and those such as I finde little of in others writings least I should wast time in doing what is done to my hands 1. Those writings and that Doctrine which were confirmed by many real Miracles must needs be of God and consequently of undoubted Truth But the books and Doctrine of Canonicall Scripture were so confirmed Therefore c. Against the major proposition nothing of any moment can be said For it s a Truth apparent enough to nature that none but God can work real Miracles or at least none but those whom he doth especially enable thereto And it is as manifest that the Righteous and Faithfull God will not give this power for a seal to any falshood or deceit The usuall Objections are these First Antichrist shall come with lying wonders Answ. They are no true Miracles As they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 2.9 lying in sealing to a lying doctrine so also in being but seeming and counterfeit Miracles The like may be said to those of Pharaohs Magicians and all other Sorcerers and Witches and those that may be wrought by Satan himself They may be wonders but not Miracles Object 2. God may enable false Prophets to work Miracles to try the world without any derogation to his Faithfulness Answ. No for Divine power being properly the attendant of Divine Revelation if it should be annexed to Diabolicall delusions it would be a sufficient excuse to the world for their believing those delusions And if Miracles should not be a sufficient seal to prove the Authority of the witness to be Divine then is there nothing in the world sufficient and so our Faith will be quite overthrown Object But however Miracles will no more prove Christ to be the Son of God then they will prove Moses Elias or Elisha to be the Son of God for they wrought Miracles as well as Christ. Answ. Miracles are Gods seal not to extoll the person that is instrumentall nor for his glory but to extoll God and for his own Glory God doth not entrust any creature with this seal so absolutely as that they may use it when and in what case they please If Moses or Elias had affirmed themselves to be the sons of God they could never have confirmed that affirmation with a Miracle for God would not have sealed to a lye Christs power of working Miracles did not immediatly prove him to be the Christ. But it immediately proved his Testimony to be Divine and that Testimony spoke his nature and office So that the power of Miracles in the Prophets and Apostles was not to aâ—â—est to their own greatness but to the truth of their Testimony conâ—â—rning Christ.
children and servants the knowledg and fear of God do it early and late in season and out of season Pray with them daily and fervently remember Daniels example Dan. 6. and the command 1 Thes. 5.17 Read the Scripture and good Books to them restrain them from sin keep not a servant that will not learn and be ruled Neighbors I charge you as you will shortly answer the contrary before the Lord your Judg That there be never a family among you that shall neglect these great Duties If you cannot do what you should yet do what you can especially see that the Lords day be wholly spent in these exercises To spend it in idleness or sports is to consecrate it to your flesh and not to God and far worse then to spend it in your Trades 5. Beware of extreams in the controverted points of Religion When you avoid one Error take heed you run not into another specially if you be in heat of disputation or passion As I have shewed you I think the true mean in the doctrine of Justification and Redemption so I had intended to have writ a peculiar Treatise with three Columns shewing both extreams and the truth in the middle through the body of Divinitie but God takes me off Especially beware of the Errors of these times Antinomianism comes from gross ignorance and leads to gross wickedness Socinians are scarce Christians Arminianism is quite above your reach and therefore not fit for your study in most points The middle way which Camero Ludov. Crocius Amâ—raldus Davenant c. go I think is neerest the Truth Separation comes from Pride and Ignorance and directly leads to the dissolution of all Churches That Independency which gives the people to govern by vote is the same thing in another name Anabaptists play the Divels part in accusing their own children and disputing them out of the Church and Covenant of Christ and affirming them to be no Disciples no Servants of God nor holy as separated to him when God saith the contrary Levit. 25.41 42. Deut. 29.10 11 12 c. Acts 15.10 1 Cor. 7.14 I cannot digress to fortifie you against these Sects You have seen God speak against them by Judgments from Heaven What were the two Monsters in New England but miracles Christ hath told you By their fruits ye shall know them We mis-interpret when we say he means by fruit their false doctrine that were but idem per idem Heretikes may seem holy for a little while but at last all false doctrines likely end in wicked lives Where hath there been known a society of Anabaptists since the world first knew them that proved not wicked How many of these or Antinomists c. have you known who have not proved palpably guiltie of lying perfidiousness covetousness malice contempt of their godly Brethren licenciousness or seared Consciences They have confident expressions to shake poor ignorant souls whom God will have discovered in the day of trial But when they meet with any that can search out their fallacies how little have they to say You know I have had as much opportunitie to try their strength as most And I never yet met with any in Garison or Army that could say any thing which might stagger a solid man You heard in my late publike dispute at Bewdley January 1. with Mr. Tombs who is taken to be the ablest of them in the Land and one of the most moderate how little they can say even in the hardest point of Baptism what gross absurdities they are driven to and how little tender Consciencious fear of erring is left among the best 6. Above all see that you be followers of Peace and Vnitie both in the Church and among your selves Remember what I taught you on Heb. 12.14 He that is not a son of Peace is not a son of God All other sins destroy the Church consequentially but Division and Separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joyning of the materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Many Doctrinal differences must be tolerated in a Church And why but for Vnitie and Peace Therefore Disunion and Separation is utterly intolerable Beleeve not those to be the Churches Friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Those that say No Truth must be concealed for Peace have usually as little of the one as the other Study Gal. 2.2 Rom. 14.1 c. Acts 21.24 26. 1 Tim 1.4 and 6.4 Tit. 3.8 9. I hope sad experience speaks this lesson to your very hearts if I should say nothing Do not your hearts bleed to look upon the state of England and to think how few Towns or Cities there be where is any forwardness in Religion that are not cut into shreds and crumbled as to dust by Separations and Divisions To think what a wound we have hereby given to the very Christian name How we have hardened the ignorant Confirmed the Papists And are our selves become the scorn of our enemies and the grief of our friends And how many of our dearest best esteemed Friends are faln to notorious Pride or Impietie yea some to be worse then open Infidels These are Pillars of Salt see that you remember them You are yet eminent for your Vnitie Stedfastness and Godliness hold fast that you have that no man take your Crown from you Temptations are now come neer your doors yet many of you have gone through greater and therefore I hope will scape through these Yet least your temptations should grow stronger let me warn you That though of your own selves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Acts 20.30 yea though an Angel from Heaven should draw you to divisions see that you follow him not If there be erronious practises in the Church keep your selves innocent with moderation and peace Do your best to reform them and rather remove your dwellings if you cannot live innocently then rend the Church It must be no small Error that must force a Separation Justin a holy learned Martyr In Dialog cum Tryphone who was converted within thirtie one yeers of Johns death and wrote his first Apologie within fiftie one and therefore it is like saw Johns days professeth That if a Jew should keep the Ceremonial Law so he did not perswade the Gentiles to it as necessary yet if he acknowledg Christ he judgeth that he may be saved and he would embrace him and have communion with him as a Brother And Paul would have him received that is weak in the faith and not unchurch whole Parishes of those that we know not nor were ever brought to a just trial You know I never conformed to the use of Mystical Symbolical Rites my self but onely to the determination of Circumstantials necessary in genere and yet I ever loved a godly peaceable Conformist better then a turbulent Non-Conformist I yet differ from many in several Doctrines of greater moment then Baptism c. As
my Aphorisms of Justification shew which I wrote to cut the unobserved Sinews of Antinomianism and open the true Scripture Mean in that point and which I am more confirmed in the truth of now then ever by the weakness of all that I can yet hear against it and yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others and seek to make a partie for it and disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren I should fear lest I should prove a fire-brand in Hell for being a fire-brand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I here charge you That if God should give me up to any factious Church-rending course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step And for Peace with one another follow it with all your might If it be possible as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 mark this When you feel any sparks of discontent in your brest take them as kindled by the Divel from Hell and take heed you cherish them not If the flames begin to break forth in Censoriousness Reproaches and hard Speeches of others be as speedy and busie in quenching it as if it were fire in the Thatch of your houses For why should your houses be dearer to you then the Church which is the house of God or then your souls which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost If any heart-burnings arise do not keep strange but go together and lovingly debate it or pray together that God would reconcile you or refer the matter to your Minister or others and let not the Sun go down on your wrath Hath God spoke more against any sin then unpeaceableness If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you which made Endovicus Crocius say That this is the measure and essential propertie of the lest degree of true Faith Syntag. lib. 4. cap. 16. If you love not each other you are no Disciples of Christ nay if you love not your enemies and bless not them that curse you and pray not for them that hurt and persecute you you are no Children of God The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated c. Jam. 3.17 O remember that piercing example of Christ who washed his Disciples feet to teach us that we must stoop as low to one another Sure God doth not jest with you in all these plain Scriptures I charge you in the Name of Christ if you cannot have peace otherwise That you suffer wrongs and reproaches that you go and beg peace of those that should beg it of you yea that you beg it on your knees of the poorest beggar rather then lose it And remember Rom. 16.17 18. 7. Above all be sure you get down the pride of your hearts Forget not all the Sermons I preached to you against this sin No sin more natural more common or more deadly A proud man is his own Idol onely from pride cometh contention There is no Lâ—ving in peace with a proud person Every disrespect will cast them into a Feaver of discontent If once you grow wise in your own eyes and love to be valued and preferred and love those best that think highliest of you and have secret heart-risings against any that disregard you or have a low esteem of you and cannot endure to be flighted or spoke evil of never take your selves for Christians if this be your case To be a true Christian without Humilitie is as hard as to be a man without a Soul O poor England How low art thou brought by the Pride of Ignorant Zealots Dear Friends I can foretel you without the gift of prophecy That if any among you do fall from the Truth mark which are the proudest that cannot endure to be contradicted and that vilifie others and those will likely be they And if ever you be broke in pieces and ruined Pride will be the cause 8. Be sure you keep the mastery over your flesh and senses Few ever fall from God but flesh-pleasing is the cause Many think that by flesh the Scripture means onely our in-dwelling sin when alas it is this sensitive appetite that it chargeth us to subdue Nothing in the world damneth so many as flesh-pleasing while men generally chuse it as their Happiness in stead of God O remember who hath said If ye live after the flesh ye shall die and Make no provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires Rom 8.5 6 7. and 13.14 Think of this when you are tempted to drunkenness and gluttony and lustfulness and worldliness and when you would fain have your dwellings and states more delightful You little think what a sin it is even to please your flesh further then it tends to help you in the service of God 9. Make conscience of the great duty of reproving and exhorting those about you Make not your souls guilty of the oaths ignorance and ungodliness of others by your silence Admonish them lovingly and modestly but be sure you do it and that seriously This is the first step in Discipline Expect not that your Minister should put any from the Sacrament whom you have not thus admonished once and again Punish not before due process 10. Lastly Be sure to maintain a constant delight in God and a seriousness and spirituality in all his Worship Think it not enough to delight in Duties if you delight not in God Judg not of your duties by the bulk and number but by this sweetness You are never stable Christians till you reach this Never forget all those Sermons I preached to you on Psal 37.4 Give not way to a customary dulness in duty Do every duty with all thy might especially be not slight in secret Prayer and Meditation Lay not out the chief of your zeal upon externals and opinions and the smaller things of Religion Let must of your daily work be upon your hearts Be still suspicious of them understand their mortal wickedness and deceitfulness and trust them not too far Practise that great duty of daily watching pray earnestly That you be not lead into temptation Fear the beginings and appearances of sin Beware lest Conscience once lose its tenderness Make up every breach between God and your consciences betime Learn how to live the life of Faith and keep fresh the sense of the love of Christ and of your continual need of his Blood Spirit and Intercession And how much you are beholden and engaged to him Live in a constant readiness and expectation of death and be sure to get acquainted with this Heavenly Conversation which this Book is written to direct you in which I commend to your use hoping you will be at the pains to read it as for your sakes I have been to write it And I shall beg for you of the Lord while I live on this Earth That he will perswade
darken our Delights as the Frosts do nip the tender Buds Cares do consume us and feed upon our Spirits as the scorching Sun doth wither the delicate Flowers Or if any Saint or Stoick have fortified his inwards against these yet is he naked still without and if he be wiser then to create his own sorrows yet shall he be sure to feel his share he shall produce them as the meritorious if not as the efficient cause What tender pieces are these dusty bodies what brittle Glasses do we bear about us and how many thousand dangers are they hurried through and how hardly cured if once crackt O the multitudes of slender Veins of tender Membranes Nerves Fibres Muscles Arteries and all subject to Obstructions Exesions Tensions Contractions Resolutions Ruptures or one thing or other to cause their Grief Every one a fit subject for pain and fit to communicate that pain to the whole What noble part is there that suffereth its pain or ruine alone whatever it is to the sound and healthful methinks to such as my self this Rest should be acceptable who in ten or twelve yeers time have scarce had a whole day free from some dolor O the weary nights and days O the unserviceable languishing weakness O the restless working vapors O the tedious nauseous medicines besides the daily expectations of worse and will it not be desireable to Rest from all these There will then be no crying out O my Head O my Stomack or O my Sides or O my Bowels No no sin and flesh and dust and pain will be all left behinde together O what would we not give now for a little ease much more for a perfect cure how then should we value that perfect freedom If we have some mixed comforts here they are scarce enough to sweeten our crosses or if we have some short and smiling intermissions it is scarce time enough to breathe us in and to prepare our tacklings for the next storm If one wave pass by another succeeds And if the night be over and the day come yet will it soon be night again Some mens Feavers are continual and some intermittent some have Tertians and some Quartans but more or less all have their fits O the blessed tranquillity of that Region where there is nothing but sweet continued Peace No succession of Joy there because no intermission Our lives will be but one Joy as our time will be changed into one Eternity O healthful place where none are sick O fortunate Land where all are Kings O place most holy where 〈◊〉 are Priests How free a State where none are servants save to their supream Monarch For it shall come to pass that in that day 〈◊〉 Lord shall give us Rest from our sorrow and our fear and 〈◊〉 the haâ—d bondage wherein we served Isai. 14.3 The poor man shall no more be tired with his incessant labors No more use of Plough or Flail or Sythe or Sicle No stooping of the Servant to the Master or the Tenant to the Landlord No hunger or thirst or cold or nakedness No pinching Frosts nor scorching Heats Our very Beasts who suffered with us shall also be freed from their bondage our selves therefore much more Our faces shall no more be pale or sad our groans and sighes will be done away and God will wipe away all tears from our eyes Revel 7.15 16 17. No more parting of friends asunder nor voyce of Lamentation heard in our dwellings No more breaches nor disproportion in our friendship nor any trouble accompanying our relations No more care of Master for Servants of Parents for Children of Magistrates over Subjects of Ministers over people No more sadness for our Study lost our Preaching lost our Intreaties lost the Tenders of Christs blood lost and our dear Peoples Souls lost No more marrying nor giving in marriage but we shall be as the Angels of God O what room can there be for any evil where the whole is perfectly filled with God Then shall the ransomed of the Lord return and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flie away Isai. 35.10 Hold out then a little longer O my soul bear with the infirmities of thine earthly Tabernacle endure that share of sorrows that the love of thy Father shall impose submit to his indignation also because thou had sinned against him it will be thus but a little while the sound of thy Redeemers feet are even at the door and thine own deliverance neerer then many others And thou who hast often cried in the language of the Divine Poet Sorrow was all my soul I scarce beleeved till Grief did tell me roundly that I lived shalt then feel That God and Joy is all thy Soul the fruition of whom with thy freedom from all these sorrows will more sweetly and more feelingly make thee know and to his eternal praise acknowledg That thou livest And thus we shall Rest from all Afflictions SECT XVII 9. WE shall Rest also from all the trouble and pain of Duty The Conscientious Magistrate now ctyes out O the burden that lieth upon me The conscientious parents that know the preciousness of their childrens souls and the constant pains required to their godly education cry out O the burden The conscientious Minister above all when he reads his charge 2 Tim 4.1 and views his patterne Mark 3.20.21 c. Act. 20.18 31. When he hath tryed a while what it is to study and pray and preach according to the weight and Excellency of the work to go from house to house and from neighbor to neighbor and to beseech them night and day with tears and after all to be hated and persecuted for so doing no wonder if he cry out O the burden and be ready 〈◊〉 to run away with Jonas and with Jeremy to say I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his Name For his word is a reproach to us and a derision daily But that he hath made his word as a fire shut up in our bones and heart that we are weary of forbearing and cannot stay Jer. 20.8 9. How long may we study and labor before one soul is brought clear over to Christ And when it is done how soon do the snares of sensuality or error entangle them How many receive the doctrine of delusion before they have time to be built up in the Truth And when Heresies must of necessity arise how few of them do appear approved The first new strange apparation of light doth so amaze them that they think they are in the third Heavens when they are but newly passed from the suburbs of Hell and are presently as confident as if they knew all things when they have not yet half light enough to acquaint them with their ignorance But after 10 or 20 years study they become usually of the same judgment with those they despised
what we believe Both these are again Divine or humane 3. It is one thing to believe as Probable another thing to believe it as certain 4. It s one thing to believe it to be true conditionally another to believe it absolutely 5. We must distinguish betwixt the bare assent of the understanding to the truth of an Axiome when it is only silenced by force of Argument which will be stronger or weaker as the Argument seemeth more or lesse demonstrative and secondly that deep apprehension and firme assent which proceedeth from a well stablished confirmed Faith backed by experience 6. It s one thing to assent to the truth of the Axiome another to taste and chuse the good contained in it which is the work of the Will SECT II. THe Use I shall make of these distinctions is to open the way to these following Positions which will resolve the great Questions on foot How far the belief of the Written Word is of necessity to salvation and Whether it be the foundation of our faith And whether this foundation have been always the same Pos. 1. The Object of belief Is the will of God revealed or a Divine Testimony where two things are absolutely necessary first The Matter secondly The Revelation 2. All this Revealed Will is necessary to the compleating of our faith and it is our duty to believe it But it s onely the substance and tenor of the Covenants and the things necessarily supposed to the knowing and keeping of the Covenant of Grace which are of absolute necessity to the beeing of Faith and to Salvation A man may be saved though he should not believe many things which yet he is bound by God to believe 3. Yet this must be onely through ignorance of the Divineness of the Testimony For a flat unbelief of the smallest truth when we know the Testimony to be of God will not stand with the beeing of true Faith nor with Salvation For Reason layes this ground That God can speak nothing but Truth and Faith proceeds upon that supposition 4. This Doctrine so absolutely necessary hath not been ever from the beginning the same but hath differed according to the different Covenants and Administrations That Doctrine which is now so necessary was not so before the Fall And that which is so necessary since the coming of Christ was not so before his coming Then they might be saved in believing in the Messiah to come of the seed of David but now it s of necessity to believe that this Jesus the Son of Mary is He and that we look not for another I prove it thus That which is not revealed can be no object for Faith much less so necessary But Christ was not Revealed before the Fall nor this Jesus Revealed to be He before his coming therefore these were not of necessity to be believed or as some Metaphorically speak they were then to fundamentall Doctrines Perhaps also some things will be found of absolute necessity to us which are not so to Indians and Turks 5. God hath made this substance of Scripture-Doctrine to be thus necessary primarily and for it self 6. That it be revealed is also of absolute necessity but secondarily and for the Doctrines sake as a means without which Believing is neither possible nor a duty And though where there is no Revelation Faith is not necessary as a duty yet it may be necessary I think as a means that is our natural misery may be such as can no other way be cured but this concerns not us that have heard of Christ 7. Nature Creatures and Providence are no sufficient Revelation of this tenor of the Covenants 8. It is necessary not onely that this Doctrine be Revealed but also that it be Revealed with Grounds or Arguments rationally sufficient to evince the verity of the Doctrine or the Divineness of the Testimony that from it we may conclude the former 9. The Revelation of Truth is to be considered in respect of the first immediate delivery from God or secondly in respect of the way of its coming down to us It is delivered by God immediatly either by writing as the two Tables or by informing Angels who may be his Messengers or by inspiring some choise particular men So that few in the world have received it from God at the first hand 10. The only ways of Revelation that for ought I know are now left are Scripture and Tradition For though God hath not tied himself from Revelations by the Spirit yet he hath ceased them and perfected his Scripture Revelations so that the Spirit onely Reveales what is Revealed already in the Word by illuminating us to understand it 11. The more immediate the Revelation caeteris paribus the more sure and the more succession of hands it passeth through the more uncertain especially in matter of Doctrine 12. When we receive from men by Tradition the Doctrine of God as in the Words of God there is less danger of corruption then when they deliver us that Doctrine in their own words because here taking liberty to vary the expressions it will represent the Truth more uncertainly and in more various shapes 13. Therefore hath God been pleased when he ceased immediate Revelation to leave his Will written in a form of words which should be his standing Law and a Rule to try all other mens expressions by 14. In all the forementioned respects therefore the written Word doth excell the unwritten Tradition of the same Doctrine 15. Yet unwritten Tradition or any sure way of Revealing this Doctrine may suffice to save him who thereby is brought to believe As if there be any among the Abaâ—sines of Ethiopia the Coplies in Egypt or elsewhere that have the substance of the Covenants delivered them by unwritten Tradition or by other Writings if hereby they come to believe they shall be saved For so the Promise of the Gospel runs giving salvation to all that believe by what means soever they were brought to it The like may be said of true Believers in those parts of the Church of Rome where the Scripture is wholly hid from the vulgar if there be any such parts 16. Yet where the written Word is wanting salvation must needs be more difficult and more rare and Faith more feeble and mens conversations worse ordered because they want that clearer Revelation that surer Rule of Faith and Life which might make the way of salvation more easie 17. When Tradition ariseth no higher or cometh originally but from this written Word and not from the verbal Testimonies of the Apostles before the Word was written there that Tradition is but the preaching of the Word and not a distinct way of Revealing 18. Such is most of the Tradition for ought I can learn that is now afoot in the world for matter of Doctrine but not for matter of fact 17. Therefore the Scriptures are not onely necessary to the well-beeing of the Church and to the
Whatsoever any man affirmes to me and works a real Miracle to confirme it I must needs take my self bound 〈◊〉 believe him Object But what if some one should work miracles to confirme a Doctrine contrary to Scripture Would you believe it Doth not Paul say if an Angel from Heaven teach any other Gospel let him be accursed Answ. I am sure God will never give any false teacher the power of confirming his Doctrine by Miracles else God should subscribe his name to contradictions The appearance of an Angel is no Miracle though a wonder Secondly But the maine assault I know will be made against the Minor proposition of the Argument and so the question will be de facto whether ever such Miracles were wrought or no I shall grant that we must not here argue circularly to prove the Doctrine to be of God by the miracles and then the miracles to have been wrought by the Divine Testimony of the Doctrine and so round But yet to use the Testimony of the History of Scripture as a humane Testimony of the matter of fact is no circular arguing SECT II. TOward the confirmation of the Minor therefore I shall first lay these grounds That there is so much certainty in some Humane Testimony that may exclude all doubting or cause of doubting or there is some Testimony immediately Humane which yet may truly be said to be Divine That such Testimony we have of the Miracles mentioned in Scripture If these two be cleared the Minor will stand firme and the maine work here will be done First I will therefore shew you that there is such a certainty in some Humane Testimony Both experience and Reason will confirme this First I would desire any rationall man to tell me Whether he that never was at London at Paris or at Rome may not be certaine by a Humane faith that there are such Cities For my own part I think it as certaine to me nay more certaine then that which I see and I should sooner question my own sight alone then the eyes and credit of so many thousands in such a case And I thinke the Scepticks Arguments against the certainty of sense to be as strong as any that can be brought against the certainty of such a Testimony Is it not somewhat more then probable think you to the multitudes that never saw either Parliament or King that yet there is such an Assembly and such a person May we not be fully certaine that there was such a person as King James as Queen Elizabeth as Queen Mary c. here in England Yea that there was such a man as William the Conqueror May we not be certaine also that he conquered England With many other of his actions The like may be said of Julius Caesar of Alexander the Great c. Sure those that charge all humane Testimony with uncertainty do hold their lands then upon an uncertaine tenure Secondly It may be proved also by reason For if 1. the first testifiers may infallibly know it and 2. also by an infallible means transmit it to posterity and 3. have no intent to deceive then their Testimony may be an infallible Testimony But all these three may be easily proved I had thought to have laid down here the Rules by which a certaine Humane Testimony may be discerned from an uncertaine but you may easily gather them from what I shall lay down for the confirmation of these three Positions For the first I suppose none will question whether the first testifiers might infalliby know the truth of what they testifie If they should let them consider First If it be not matter of Doctrine much lesse abstruse and difficult points but only matter of fact then it s beyond doubt it may be certainly known Secondly If it be those also who did see and hear and handle who do testifie it Thirdly If their senses were sound and perfect within reach of the object and having no deceiving medium Fourthly Which may be discerned 1. If the witnesses be a multitude for then it may be known they are not blind or deaf except they had been culled out of some Hospitalls especially when all present do both see and hear them 2. When the thing is done openly in the day-light 3. When it is done frequently and neer at hand for then there would be full opportunity to discover any deceit So that in these cases it is doubtless sense is infallible and consequently those that see and hear are most certaine witnesses 2. Next let us see whether we may be certaine that any Testimony is sincere without a purpose to deceive us And I take that for undoubted in the following cases 1. Where the party is of ingenuity and honesty 2. And it is apparent he drives on no designe of his own nor cannot expect any advantage in the world 3. Nay of his Testimony will certainly undo him in the world and prove the overthrow of his ease honour estate and life 5. And if it be a multitude that do thus testifie How can they do it with an intent to deceive 6. And if their severall Testimonies do agree 7. And if the very enemies deny not this matter of fact but only refer it to other causes then there is no possibility of deceit as I shall further anon evince when I apply it to the Question Thirdly VVe are to prove that there are infallible means of transmitting such Testimony down to posterity without depraving any thing substantiall And then it well remaine an undoubted truth that there is a full certainty in some humane Testimony and that to posterity at a remote distance Now this tradition is infallible in these cases 1. If it be as beforesaid in matter of fact only which the meanest understandings are capable of apprehending 2. If it be also about the substance of actions and not every small circumstance 3. And also if those Actions were famous in their times and of great note and wonder in the world and such as were the cause of publike and eminent alterations 4. If it be delivered down in writing and not only by word of mouth where the change of speech might alter the sense of the matter 5. If the Records be publike where the very enemies may see them yea published of purpose by Heralds and Ambassadors that the world may take notice of them 6. If they are men of greatest honesty in all Ages who have both kept and divulged these Records 7 And if there have been also a multitude of these 8. And this multitude of severall countries where they could never so much as meet to agree upon any deceiving councells much lesse all accord in such a design and lest of all be able to manage it with secrecy 9. If also the after preservers and divulgers of these records could have no more self-advancing ends then the first testifiers 10. Nay if their divulging and attesting these records did utterly ruinate in the
world their states and lives as well as it did the first testifiers 11. If there be such a dispersing of the copies of these records all over the world that the cancelling and abolishing them is a thing impossible 12. If the very histories of the enemies do never affirme any universall abolishing and consuming of them 13. If all these dispersed copies through the world do perfectly agree in every thing materiall 14. If it were a matter of such moment in the judgement of the preservers neither to add nor diminish that they thought their eternall Salvation did lye upon it 15. If the histories of their enemies do generally mention their attesting these records to the losse of their lives and that successively in every age 16. If these records and attestations are yet visible to the world and that in such a form as none could counterfeit 17. If the enemies that lived neer or in those times when the things were done do 1. write nothing against them of any moment 2. but oppose them with fire and sword in stead of Argument 3. nay if they acknowledge the fact but deny the cause only 18. And if all the enemies were incompetent witnesses 1. witnessing to the Negative of which they could have no certainty 2. and carryed on with apparent malice and prejudice 3. and having all worldly advantages attending their cause 4 and being generally men unconscionable and impious 19. If all these enemies having all these worldly advantages could neither by Arguments nor Violence hinder people from believing these famous and palpable matters of fact in the very age wherein they were done when the truth or falshood might most easily be discovered but that the generality of beholders were forced to assent 20. If multitudes of the most ingenuous and violent enemies have in every age from the very acting of these things to this day been forced to yield and turned as zealous defenders of these records and their doctrine as ever they were opposers of them before 21. If all these Converts do confesse upon their coming in that it was ignorance or prejudice or worldly respects that made them oppose so much before 22. If all the powers of the world that can burn the bodies of the witnesses that can overthrow Kingdoms and change their Laws could never yet reverse or abolish these Records 23. Nay if some notable judgement in all ages have befallen the most eminent opposers thereof 24. And Lastly if successions of wonders though not Miracles as the first have in all ages accompanied the attestation of these records I say if all these twenty four particulars do concurre or most of these I leave it to the judgement of any man of understanding Whether there be not an infallible way of transmitting matter of Fact to posterity And consequently whether there be not more then a probability even a fall certainty in such a humane Testimony SECT III. 2. THe second thing now which I am to manifest is That we have such a Testimony of the Miracles which confirmed the Doctrine and Writings of the Bible And here I must run over the three foregoing Particulars again and shew you first That the witnesses of Scripture-Miracles could and did infallibly know the Truth which they testified secondly That they had no intent to deceive the world and thirdly That it hath been brought down to Posterity by a way so infallible that there remains no doubt whether our Records are Authentick For the first of these I think will be most easily acknowledged Men are naturally so confident of the infallibility of their own senses that sure they will not suspect the senses of others But if they should let them apply here what is said before to put them out of doubt First It was matter of Fact which might be easily discerned Secondly The Apostles and others who bear witness to it were present yea continuall companions of Christ and the multitude of Christians were eye-witnesses of the Miracles of the Apostles Thirdly These were men neither blinde nor deaf but of as sound and perfect senses as we Fourthly This is apparent first Because they were great multitudes even that were present and therefore could not all be blinde if they had how did they walk about Fifthly These Miracles were not done by night nor in a corner but in the open light in the midst of the people Sixthly They were not once or twice onely performed but very oft of several kindes by several persons even Prophets and Christ himself and his Apostles in many Generations so that if there had been any deceit it might have been easily discovered Seventhly and lastly It was in the midst of vigilant and subtil enemies who were able and ready enough to have evinced the deceit So that it remains certain That the first Eye witnesses themselves were not deceived 2. Let us next consider whether it be not also as certain that they never intended the deceiving of the world First It is evident that they were neither fools nor knaves 〈◊〉 but men of ingenuity and extraordinary Honesty There needs no more to prove this then their own Writings so full of enmity against all kinde of vitiousness so full of conscientious zeal and heavenly affections Yet is this their Honesty also attested by their enemies sure the very remnants of Natural Honesty are a Divine off-spring and do produce also certain effects according to their strength and nature God hath planted and continued them in man for the use of societies and common converse for if all Honesty were gone one man could not believe another and so could not converse together But now supernatural extraordinary Honesty will produce its effect more certainly If three hundred or three thousand honest godly men should say they saw such things with their eyes he is very incredulous that would not believe it 2. It is apparent that neither Prophets Apostles nor Disciples in Attesting these things could drive on any designs of their own Did they seek either Honor or Ease or Profits or worldly Delights Did their Master give them any hopes of these or did they see any probability of their attaining it or did they see any of their fellows attain it before them 3. Nay was it not a certain way to their ruine in the world Did not their Master tell them when he sent them out That they should be persecuted of all for his sake and the Gospels Did they not finde it true and therefore expect the like themselves Paul knew that in every City Bonds and Afflictions did abide him and they lay it down as a granted Rule That he that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution Now I would fain know whether a mans Self his State his Liberty his Life be not naturally so neer and dear to all that they would be loath to throw it away meerly to deceive and cosen the world All that I know can be objected is That they
eternity They were gray with age and study before they could come to know that which a childe of seven year old may now know by the benefit of â—cripture But all men live not to such an age therefore this is no sufficient means Secondly Observe also how uncertain they were when all was done what they speak rightly concerning God or the life to come in one breath they are ready to unsay it again in another as if their speeches had faln from them against their wils or as Caiphas his confession of Christ. They raise their Conclusions from such uncertain Premises that the Conclusions also must needs be uncertain Thirdly Observe also how rare that Knowledg was among them It may be in all the world there may be a few hundreds of learned Philosophers and among those there is one part Epicures another Peripateticks c. that acknowledg not a future Happiness or Misery And of those few that do acknowledg it none knows it truly nor the way that leads to it How few of them could tell what was mans chief good And those few how imperfectly with what mixtures of falshood we have no certainty of any of them that did know so much as that there was but one God For though Socrates dyed for deriding the multitude of gods yet there is no certain Record of his right belief of the Unity of the Godhead Besides what Plato and Plotinus did write of this that was found there is far greater probability that they had it from Scripture then meerly from Nature and Creatures For that Plato had read the VVritings of Moses is proved already by divers Authors The like may be said of Seneca and many others So that if this means had contained any sufficiency in it for salvation yet it would have extended but to some few of all the learned Philosophers And what is this to an universal sufficiency to all mankinde Nay there is not one of all their exactest Moralists that have not mistaken Vice for Vertue yea most of them give the names of Vertue to the foulest Villanies such as Self-murder in several cases Revenge a proud and vainglorious affectation of Honor and Applause with other the like so far have these few learned Philosophers been from the true Knowledg of things Spiritual and Divine that they could never reach to know the principles of common honesty Varro saith That there were in his days two hundred eighty eight Sects or Opinions among Philosophers concerning the chief good VVhat then should the multitudes of the vulgar do who have neither strength of wit to know nor time and books and means to study that they might attain to the height of these learned men So that I conclude with Aquinas that if possibly Nature and Creatures might teach some few enough to salvation yet were the Scriptures of flat necessity for first the more commonness secondly and more easiness and speediness thirdly and the more certainty of Knowledg and Salvation SECT VII BUt here are some Objections to be Answered First VVere not the Fathers till Moses without Scripture Answer First Yet they had a Revelation of Gods VVill beside what Nature or Creatures taught them Adam had the Doctrine of the Tree of Knowledg and the Tree of Life and the Tenor of the Covenant made with him by such Revelation and not by Nature So had the Fathers the Doctrine of Sacrificing for Nature could teach them nothing of that therefore even the Heathens had it from the Church Secondly All other Revelations are now ceased therefore this way is more necessary Thirdly And there are many Truths necessary now to be known which then were not revealed and so not necessary Object 2. Doth not the Apostle say that which may be known of God was manifest in them c. Answ. This with many other Objections are fully scanned by many Divines to whom I refer you particularly Dr. Willet on Rom. 1.14.20 c. Onely in general I Answer There is much difference between knowing that there is a God of eternal power which may make the sinner unexcusable for his open sin against Nature which the Apostle there speaks of and knowing sufficient to salvation How God deals then with the multitudes that have not the Scripture concerning their eternal state I leave as a thing beyond us and so nothing to us But if a possibility of the salvation of some of them be acknowledged yet in the three respects above mentioned there remains still a necessity of some further Revelation then Nature or Creatureâ— do contain And thus I have manifested a necessity for the welfare of man Now it would follow that I shew it necessary for the Honor of God but this follows so evidently as a Consectary of the former that I think I may spare that labour Object But what if there be such a necessity Doth it follow that God must needs supply it Answ. Yes to some part of the world For first It cannot be conceived how it can stand with his exceeding Goodness Bounty and Mercy to make a world and not to save some Secondly Nor with his VVisdom to make so many capable of salvation and not reveal it to them or bestow it on them Thirdly Or to prepare so many other helps to mans Happiness and to lose them all for want of such a sufficient Revelation Fourthly Or to be the Governor of the world and yet to give them no perfect Law to acquaint men with their duty and the reward of obedience and penalty of disobedience SECT VIII HAving thus proved that there is certainly some written Word of God in the world The last thing that I have to prove is That there is no other writing in the world but this can be it And first There is no other Book in the world that ever I heard of that doth so much as claim this Prerogative and Dignity Mahomet calleth himself but a Prophet he acknowledgeth the truth of most of the Scripture and his Alcoran contradicteth the very light of Nature Aristotle Plato and other Philosophers acknowledg their Writings to be meerly of their own study and invention What book saith Thus saith the Lord and This is the word of the Lord but this So that if it have no Competitor there needs not much to be said Secondly What other book doth reveal the Mysteries of God of the Trinity of God and man in one person of Creation of the Fall the Covenants their Conditions Heaven Hell Angels Devils Temptations Regeneration VVorship c. Besides this one book and those that profess to receive it from this and profess their end to be but the confirming and explaining the Doctrine of this Indeed upon those subjects which are below the Scripture as Logick Arithmetick c. other books may be more excellent then it as a Taylor may teach you how to make a Cloak better then all the Statute-Books or Records of Parliament But
possessions that thou art willing to have them tryed and fearfull of being deceived that they stir up they desires of enjoying what thou hopest for and the deferring thereof is the trouble of thy heart Prov. 13.12 If thou be sure that thy hopes be such as these God forbid that I should speak a word against them or discourage thee from proceeding to hope thus to the end No I rather perswade thee to go on in the strength of the Lord and what ever men or devils or thy own unbelieving heart shall say against it go on and hold fast thy hope and be sure it shall never make thee ashamed But if thy hope be not of this spiritual nature and if thou art able to give no better reason why thou hopest then the worst in the world may give That God is mercifull and thou must speed as well as thou canst or the like and hast not one sound evidence of a saving work of grace upon thy soul to shew for thy hopes but only hopest that thou shalt be saved because thou wouldest have it so and because it is a terrible thing to despaire If this be thy case delay not an hour but presently cast away those hopes that thou mayest get into a capacity of having better in their stead But it may be thou wilt think this strange doctrine and say VVhat would you perswade me directly to despaire Answ. Sinner I would be loath to have thy soul destroyed by wilful self-delusion The truth is There is a hope such as I have before shewed thee of which is a singular grace and duty and there is a hope which is a notorious dangerous sin So consequentely there is a despaire which is a grievous sin and there is a despaire which is absolutely necessary to thy salvation I would not have thee despaire of the suffiâ—ciency of the blood of Christ to save thee if thou believe and heartily obey him Nor of the willingness of God to pardon and save thee if thou be such a one Nor yet absolutely of thy own salvation because while there is life and time there is some hope of thy conversion and so of thy salvation Nor would I draw thee to despaire of finding Christ if thou do but heartily seek him Or of Gods acceptance of any sincere endeavors nor of thy successe against Satan or any corruption which thou shalt heartily oppose nor of any thing whatsoever God hath promised to do either to all men in generall or to such as thou art I would not have thee doubt of any of these in the least measure much less despaire But this is the despaire that I would perswade thee to as thou lovest thy soul That thou despaire of ever being saved except thou be born again or of seeing God without Holiness or of escaping perishing except thou soundly Repent Or of ever having part in Christ or salvation by him or ever being one of his true Disciples except thou love him above Father mother or thy own life Or of ever having a Treasure in Heaven except thy very heart be there Or of ever scaping eternal death if thou walk after the flesh and dost not by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh or of ever truly loving God or being his servant while thou lovest the world and servest it These things I would have thee despair of and what ever else God hath told thee shall never come to passe And when thou hast sadly searched into thy own heart and findest thy self in any of these cases I would have thee despair thy self of ever being saved in that state thou art in Never stick at the sadness of the conclusion man but acknowledg plainly If I die before I get out of this estate I am lost for ever It is as good deal truly with thy self as not God will not flatter thee he will deal plainly whether thou do or not The very truth is This kinde of despair is one of the first steps to Heaven Consider if a man be quite out of his way what must be the first means to bring him in again Why a despair of ever coming to his journies end in the way that he is in If his home be Eastward and he be going Westward as long as he hopes he is the right he will go on and as long as he so goes on hoping he goes further amiss Therefore when he meets with some body who assures him that he is clean out of his way and brings him to despair of coming home except he turn back again then he will return and then he may hope and spare not Why sinner Just so it is with thy soul Thou art born out of the way to Heaven and in that way thou hast proceeded many a yeer Yet thou goest on quietly and hopest to be saved because thou art not so bad as many others Why I tell thee except thou be brought to throw away those hopes and see that thou hast all this while been quite out of the way to Heaven and hast been a childe of wrath and a servant of Satan unpardoned unsanctified and if thou hadst dyed in this state hadst been certainly damned I say till thou be brought to this thou wilt never return and be saved Who will turn out of his way while he hopes he is right And let me once again tell thee that if ever God mean good to thy soul and intend to save thee this is one of the first things he will work upon thee Remember what I say till thou feel God convincing thee that the way which thou hast lived in will not serve the turn and so breaking down thy former hopes there is yet no saving work wrought upon thee how well soever thou mayest hope of thy self Yea this much more If any thing keep thy soul out of Heaven which God forbid there is nothing in the world liker to do it then thy false hopes of being saved while thou art out of the way to salvation Why else is it that God cryes down such hopes in his word Why is it that every faithful skilful Minister doth bend all his strength against the false faith and hope of sinners as if he were to fight against neither small nor great but this prince of iniquity Why alas they know that these are the main pillars of Satans Kingdom Bring down but them two and the house will fall They know also the deceit and vanity of such hopes that they are directly contrary to the Truth of God and what a sad case that soul is in who hath no other hope but that Gods word will prove false when the truth of God is the only ground of true hope Alas it is no pleasure to a Minister to speak to people on such an unwelcome subject no more then it is to a pitifull Physitian to tell his patient I do despair of your life except you let blood or there is no hope of the cure except the gangren'd
old Hiltenius said of Rome Est proprium Romane potestatis ut sit ferreum licet digiti minorentur ad parvitatem acus tamen manent ferrei It is proper to the Romane power to be of iron and though the fingers of it be diminished to the smalness of a needle yet they are iron still The like may I say of our earthly cares It is their property to be hard and troublous and so they will be when they are the least Verily if we had no higher hopes then what 's on earth I should take man for a most silly creature and his work and wages all his travel and his felicity to be no better then dreams and vanity and scarce worth the minding or mentioning especially to thee a Christian should it seem so whose eyes are opened by the Word and Spirit to see the emptiness of all these things and the pretious worth of the things above O then be not detained by these silly things but if Satan present them to thee in a temptation send them away from whence they came as Pellicanus did send back the silver bowl which the Bishop had sent him for a token with this answer Astricti sunt quotquot Tyguri cives inquilini bis singulis annis solenni juramento ne quis eorum ullum munus ab ullo principe accipiat All that are Citizens and Inhabitants of Tigurum are solemnly sworn twice a yeer not to receive any gift from any Prince abroad so say thou we the Citizens and Inhabitants of heaven are bound by solemn and frequent Covenants not to have our hearts enticed or entangled with any forraign honors or delights but only with those of our own Countrey If thy thoughts should like the laborious Bee go over the world from flower to flower from creature to creature they would bring thee no Honey or sweetness home save what they gathered from their relations to Eternity Object But you will say perhaps Divinity is of larger extent then onely to treat of the life to come or the way thereto there are many controversies of great difficulty which therefore require much of our thoughts and so they must not be all of heaven Answ. For the smaller controversies which have vexed our Times and caused the doleful divisions among us I express my minde as that of Graserus Cum in visitatione aegrotorum ad emigrationem ex hac vita beatam praeparatione daeprehendisset controversias illas Theologicas quae scientiam quidem inflantem pariunt conscientias vero fluctuantes non sedant quaeque hodie magna animorum contentione agitantur magnos tumultus in rebuspub excitant nullum prorsus usum habere quinimo conscientias simpliciorum non aliter ac olim in Papatu humana figmenta intricare Caepit ab eis toto animo abhorrere in publicis concionibus tantum ca proponere quae ad fidem salvificam in Christum accendendam ad pietatem veram juxta verbum Dei exercendam veramque consolationem in vita morte praestandam faciebant When he had found in his visiting the sick and in his own preparations for well dying that the Controversies in Divinity which beget a swelling knowledg but do not quiet troubled consciences and which are at this day agitated with such contention of spirits and raise such tumults in Commonwealths are indeed utterly useless yea and moreover do intangle the consciences of the simple just as the humane inventions in Popery formerly did he begun with full bent of minde to shun or abhor them and in his publike Preaching to propound onely those things which tended to the kindling a true faith in Jesus Christ and to the exercise of true godliness according to the Word of God and to the procuring of true consolation both in life and at death I can scarce express my own minde more plainly then in this Historians expressions of the minde of Graserus While I had some competent measure of health and look't at death as at a greater distance there was no man more delighted in the study of controversie but when I saw dying men have no minde on 't and how unsavory and uncomfortable such conference was to them and when I had oft been neer to death my self and found no delight in them further then they confirmed or illustrated the Doctrine of eternal Glory I have minded them ever since the less Though every Truth of God is pretious and it is the sin and shame of Professors that are no more able to defend the Truth yet should all our study of controversie be still in relation to this perpetual Rest and consequently be kept within its bounds and with most Christians not have the twentieth part of our time or thoughts Who that hath tried both studies doth not cry out as Summerhard was wont to do of the Popish School Divinity Quis me miserum tandem liberabit ab ista rixosa Theologia Who will once deliver me wretch from this wrangling kinde of Divinity And as it s said of Bucholcer Cum eximiis a Deo dotibus esset decoratus in certamen tamen cum rabiosis illius seculi Theologis descendere noluit Desii inquit disputare caepi supputare quoniam illud dissipationem hoc collectionem significaet Vidit enim ab iis controversias moveri quas nulla unquam amoris Dei seintilla calefecerat vidit ex diuturnis Theologorum rixis utilitatis nihil detrimenti plurimum in ecclesias redundâsse i. e. Though he was adorned by God with excellent gifts yet would he never enter into contention with the furious Divines of that age I have ceased saith he my Disputations and now begin my Supputation for that signifieth Dissipation but this Collection For he saw that those men were the movers of Controversies who had never been warmed with one spark of the love of God he saw That from the continual brawls of Divines no benefit but much hurt did accrue to the Churches and it is worth the observing which the Historian addes Quapropter omnis ejus cura in hoc erat ut auditores fidei suae commissos doceret bene vivere beate Mori Et annotatum in adversariis amici ejus repererunt permultos in extremo agone constitutos gratias ipsi hoc nomine egisse quod ipsius ductu servatorem suum Jesum agnovissent cujus in cognitione pulchrum vivere mori vero longe pulcherrimum ducerent Atque haud scio annon hoc ipsum longe Bucholcero coram Deo sit gloriosius futurum quam si aliquet contentiosorum libellorum myriadas posteritatis memoriae consecrasset i. e. Therefore this was all his care That he might teach his hearers committed to his charge To live well and die happily And his friends found noted down in his Papers a great many of persons who in their last agony did give him thanks for this very reason That by his direction they had come to the knowledg of Jesus their Saviour in
my companions in this observation That they are usually men least acquainted with a Heavenly life who are the violent disputers about the circumstantials of Religion He whose Religion is all in his opinions will be most frequently and zealously speaking his opinions And he whose Religion lyes in the Knowledg and love of God in Christ will be most delightfully speaking of that time when he shall enjoy God and Christ. As the body doth languish in consuming fevers when the native heat abates within and an unnatural heat inflaming the external parts succeeds so when the zeal of a Christian doth leave the internals of Religion and fly to ceremonials externals or inferior things the soul must needs consume and languish Yea though you were sure your opinions were true yet when the chiefest of your zeal is turned thither and the chiefest of your conference there laid out the life of grace decays within your hearts are turned from this heavenly life Not that I would perswade you to undervalue the least truth of God nor that I do acknowledg the hot disputers of the times to have discovered the truth above their Brethren but in case we should grant them to have hit on the Truth yet let every Truth in our thoughts and speeches have their due proportion and I am confident the hundreth part of our time and our conference would not be spent upon the now common Theams For as there is an hundred truths of far greater consequence which do all challenge the precedencie before these so many of those Truths alone are of an hundred times neerer concernment to our souls and therefore should have an answerable proportion in our thoughts Neither is it any excuse for our casting by these great fundamental Truths because they are common and known already For the chief improvment is yet behind and the soul must be daily refreshed with the Truth of Scripture and the goodness of that which it offereth and promiseth as the body must be with its daily food or else the known Truths that lye Idle in your Heads will no more nourish or comfort or save you then the bread that lies still in your Cupboards will feed you Ah he is a rare and pretious Christian who is skilled in the improving of well known truths Therefore let me advise you that aspire after this Joyous Life spend not too much of your thoughts your time your zeal or your speeches upon quarrels that less concern your souls But when hypocrits are feeding on huskes or shels or on this heated food which will burn their lips far sooner then warm and strengthen their hearts then do you feed on the Joys above I could wish you were all understanding men able to defend every truth of God and to this end that you would read and study controversie more and your understanding and stability in these dayes of tryal is no small part of my comfort and encouragment But still I would have the chiefest to be chiefly studyed and none to shoulder out your thoughts of Eternity The least controverted points are usually most weighty and of most necessary frequent use to our souls For you my neighbors and friends in Christ I bless God that I have so little need to urge this hard upon you or to spend my time and speeches in the Pulpit on these quarrels as I have been necessitated to my discontent for to do elsewhere I rejoyce in the wisdome and goodness of our Lord who hath saved me much of this labor 1. Partly by his tempering of your spirits to sincerity 2. Partly by the doleful yet profitable example of those few that went out from us whose former and present condition of spirit makes them stand as the pillar of Salt for a continual terror and warning to you and so to be as useful as they were like to be hurtful 3. Partly by the confessions and bewailings of this sin that you have heard from the mouth of the Dying advising you to beware of changing your fruitful society for the company of deceivers I do unfeignedly rejoyce in these providences and bless the Lord who thus establisheth his Saints Study well those precepts of the Spirit Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtful disputations 2 Tim. 2.23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the servant of the Lord must not strive Tit. 3.9 But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railing evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness From such withdraw thy self SECT V. 5. AS you value the comforts of a heavenly Life take heed of a proud and lofty spirit There is such an Antipathy between this sin and God that thou wilt never get thy heart neer him nor get him neer thy heart as long as this prevaileth in it If it cast the Angels from heaven that were in it it must needs keep thy heart estranged from it If it cast our first parents out of Paradise and separated between the Lord and us and brought his curse on all the creatures here below it must needs then keep our hearts from Paradise and increase the cursed seperation from our God Believe it hearers a proud heart and a Heavenly heart are exceeding contrary Entercourse with God will keep men low and that lowliness will further their entercourse when a man is used to be much with God and taken up in the study of his glorious attributes he abhors himself in dust and ashes and that self-abhorrance is his best preparative to obtain admittance to God again Therefore after a soul-humbling day or in times of trouble when the soul is lowest it useth to have freest access to God and savour most of the life above He will bring them into the wilderness and there he will speak comfortably to them Hos. 2.14 The delight of God is in a humble soul even him that is contrite and trembleth at his word and the delight of a Humble soul is in God and sure where there is mutual delight there will be freest admittance and heartiest welcome and most frequent converse Heaven would not hold God and the proud Angels together but a humble soul he makes his dwelling and surely if our dwelling be with him and in him and his dwelling also be with us and in us there must needs be a most neer and sweet familiarity But the soul that is proud cannot plead this priviledg God is so far from dwelling in it that he will not admit it to any neer access