necessarily retain a gradual Imperfection throughout And they will be sure to pitch on that Degree that is most for their own ease and the satisfaction of their own Lusts. Sophr. This is a very searching Doctrine indeed Philotheus But what do you drive at an absolute perfection quoad partes quoad gradus as the Schools phrase it Philoth. I drive at an absolute Sincerity by this Doctrine O Sophron that a man should not allow himself in any known Wickedness whatsoever but keep an upright Conscience before God and before men Forasmuch as his own Conscience tells him by virtue of this Doctrine that if he be not wanting to himself God is both able and willing by the Assistence of his Spirit to free him from all his Corruptions And the Scripture plainly declares that this is the end of Christ's coming namely Tit. 2.12 That denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world Ver. 13. looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity according to that exhortation of S t. Peter Wherefore gird up the loins of your minde 1 Pet. 1.13 c. be sober and of a perfect hope in the grace that is brought to you through the Revelation of Iesus Christ As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to former Lusts in your ignorance But as he that has called you is holy so be ye holy in your whole Conversation in every thing you doe Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy And our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Matt. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect And S t. Paul to the Ephesians witnesses for our Saviour that this was the end of his giving himself as a Ransome or of dying for his Church Eph. 5.26 27. namely That he might sanctifie it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish like the Lamb's Wife in the Revelation which is the new Ierusalem Sophr. I must confess Philotheus these places sound at an high pitch of Sanctity which Christians are called to and yet fall so infinitely short of Philoth. That is for want of this Faith I plead for a Faith in the Power of God and in the Spirit of the Lord Iesus for the purging away all our Corruptions For the New Birth is the Son of the Promise and is that Isaac the Joy of the whole Earth But he is conceived by Faith in the omnipotent Spirit of God who from the four winds blew upon the slain in the Valley of dead mens bones Ezek. 37.9 and made them stand up a numerous Armie who gave the promised Seed to Abraham Rom 4.18 c. who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many Nations For he considered not his own body now dead nor the deadness of Sarah's wombe he staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform This Faith therefore in the Promise of the Assistence of the Spirit of Christ in the new Birth is that which must renew the World into the living Image of God and make all the Nations of the Earth blessed which must bring the new Ierusalem from Heaven and will call down God himself to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men Phil. 4.13 I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Euist. Even wonders of wonders I think But this Faith Philotheus in the Power of God and in the Assistence of his Spirit to enable us to extirpate and mortifie all our Corruptions to an happy Resurrection to Life and Righteousness was not the Faith that our first Reformers were so zealous in How was it then I pray you that they should miss of so useful a Truth Philoth. They did not wholly miss of it XXXII The Doctrine of Faith in the Power of God's Spirit for the ridding us of Sin why not so much insisted on at the beginning of the Reformation Euistor in that they did zealously call to men to relinquish humane Tradition and to betake themselves to the pure Word and to the Belief and faith of the Gospel according to that more infallible Rule Wherefore that Faith which they preached having for its Object the pure Gospel of Christ the Doctrines according to Scripture this Doctrine of Faith in the omnipotent Spirit for the vanquishing of Sin being also contained in Scripture must be part of the Object of the Faith which they preached Euist. That is I acknowledge O Philotheus in some sense true But their zeal ran mainly out in declaring and crying up that part of Faith which respects onely Iustification in the bloud of Christ and free Remission of our sins Philoth. And it was very seasonably cry'd up as being a very plain Gospel Truth and such as was trode down under foot in the Church of Rome for the more absolutely enslaving the people of God and holding them under an hard Bondage in that Mysticall Babylon or Land of Egypt they laying many heavy burthens of Superstition upon them onely to advance the King of Egypt's Interest and so to extinguish the Light and Comfort of the Gospel Wherefore that Truth of Iustification by Faith being so accommodated to shake off the Roman Yoke it is no wonder it was so zealously insisted upon and so generally inculcated by the first Reformers Sophr. But this was not all Philotheus For severall things passed from some of them who were otherwise very successful Instruments in the Reformation that seem not onely to favour humane Infirmities and to dishearten men from attempting any such Conquests over our Lusts and Corruptions as your Doctrine animates us to but also on the contrary to savour much of rank Antinomianism as ill a disease as can seise on the Church of Christ. Philoth. I acknowledge O Sophron that Divine Providence might permit such misinterpretable Expressions in some of the first Reformers But you know Luther himself who is most suspected yet wrote against the Antinomians and the Harmonie of Confessions of all the Protestant Churches adjoyns the Doctrine of Sanctification or a Good life to that of Justification by Faith But that such a pitch of Holiness as we now treat of should have been exacted so zealously by the first Reformers from their Followers seems not congruous nor seasonable for those Times The over-severe Inculcation of such Doctrine in opposition to the false Righteousness of Romanism would have drawn away but few Auditours from that Church whose Sanctity was onely carnal They would have thought they had been
to think what is false or else that they never had any opportunity of falsifying in the Points they propound to our Belief Certainty of Sense is also required For if the Sense be not certain there could be no infallible Testimony of matter of Fact and Moses's conversing with God in the Mount may be but a Dream nor could there be any certain Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection and Ascension if God will delude our Senses Wherefore to take away the Certainty of Sense rightly circumstantiated is to take away all Certainty of Belief in the main Points of our Religion Secondly Sense and Reason are rightly circumstantiated the one when the Organ is sound the Medium fitly qualified and the distance of the Object duely proportionated and the like the other when it is accompanied with Moral Prudence rightly so called such as it is defined in the above-said Enchiridion Lib. 2. c. 2. that is to say That this Reason be lodged either in a perfectly-unprejudiced Mind or at least unprejudiced touching the Point propounded For there are some Truths so clear that Immorality it self provided it do not besot a man or make him quite mad puts no bar to the assenting to them that is puts no bar to their appearing to be true no more then it does to the Eye unhurt to the discerning of Colours which the Wicked and Godly do alike upon this Supposition Wherefore The third Conclusion shall be That there be Natural Truths whether Logicall Physicall or Mathematicall that are so palpably true that they constantly and perpetually appear so as well to the Wicked as the Good if they be Compotes mentis and do not manifest violence to their Faculties The fourth That these Natural Truths whether Common Notions or Scientificall Conclusions that are so palpably true that they perpetually appear so as well to the evil as the good are at least as certain and indubitable as any thing that the Reason and Understanding of a man can give assent to that is to say There is at least as great a Certainty of these Axiomes that they are true as there can be of any And therefore because there is acknowledged a Certainty in some Points that our Understanding and Reason closeth with let us set down for The fifth Conclusion That these Natural Truths that constantly appear such as well to the evil as the good if they be not crack'd-brained nor do violence to their Faculties are in themselves most certainly true The sixth That what is a Contradiction to a certain Truth is not onely uncertain but necessarily false forasmuch as both the parts of a Contradiction cannot be true The seventh That no Revelation which either it self or the Revealing thereof or its manner of Revealing is repugnant to the Divine Attributes can be from God The eighth That no Tradition of any such Revelation can be true forasmuch as the Revelation it self is impossible The ninth That no Revelation is from God that is repugnant to Sense rightly circumstantiated This is manifest from the first Ground That Certainty of Faith presupposeth Certainty of Sense duly circumstantiated For if our Senses may be mistaken when they act in due Circumstances we cannot be assured that they are at any time true Which necessarily destroys the Certainty of all Revelation ab extra and of all Tradition and consequently of our Christian Religion Wherefore God cannot be the Authour of any such Revelation by Conclusion the seventh For it were repugnant to his Wisedom and Goodness The tenth That no Revelation is from God that contradicts plain Natural Truths such as were above described This is abundantly clear from Conclusion the 1 2 3 4 6 7. For if Reason where it is clearest is false we have no assurance it is ever true and therefore no Certainty of Faith which presupposes Reason by Conclusion the first Besides by Conclusion the sixth That which is contradictory to a certain Truth is certainly false But Divine Revelation is true Therefore there can be no Revelation from God that bears with it such a Contradiction Nay we may adde That if there were any Divine Truth that would constantly appear to Reason rightly circumstantiated contradictory to any constant Natural Truth God would not communicate any such Truth to men by Conclusion the seventh For the revealing of such a Truth were repugnant to his Attribute of Wisedome it making thereby true Religion as obnoxious to suspicion and exception as false For there is no greater exception against the Truth of any Religion then that it proposes Articles that are repugnant to Common Notions or indubitable Science Besides that one such pretense of true Revelation would enable a false Priesthood to fill the World with Figments and Lies Wherefore God will never be the Authour of so much mischief to mankind And lastly since the first Revelation must be handed down by Tradition and Tradition being but humane Testimony and infinitely more lubricous and fallible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural Science how will it be possible for any but Sots or Fools to believe Tradition against solid Science or a Common Notion So that the Result must needs be either blinde Superstition gross Irreligion or universal Scepticism The eleventh That no Revelation that enforces countenances or abetts Immorality or Dishonesty can be from God This is manifested from the seventh Conclusion For it is repugnant to God's Attributes his Justice Fidelity Goodness and Purity or Sanctity The Image of God is Righteousness and true Holiness Wherefore no Doctrine that tends to Injustice Unrighteousness and Impurity can be a Revelation from God The twelfth That no Interpretation of any Divine Revelation that is repugnant to Sense or Reason rightly circumstantiated or to plain and indubitable Morality whether it be made by a private or publick hand can be any Inspiration from God There needs no new Confirmation of this Conclusion For the same Arguments that prove that no Divine Revelation can be in this sort repugnant do prove also that no Interpretation of any Revelation in this sort repugnant to Sense Reason or sound Morality can be Divine The thirteenth That no Interpretation of Divine Writ that justifies Sedition Rebellion or Tyranny can be any Inspiration from God This is easily evinced from the foregoing Conclusion For Sedition and Rebellion are gross and ponderous Species of Injustice against the Magistrate as Tyranny is also against the People both such high strains of Immorality that no Interpretation of Scripture that justifies these can be true much less Divinely inspired The fourteenth No Church that propounds as Articles of Belief such things as are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason or sound Morality can rightly be deemed Infallible The reason is plain For it appears out of what has hitherto been said that they are already actually deceived or at least intend to deceive others The fifteenth That the Certainty of Faith cannot be grounded upon the Infallibility of any Church
for a fuller and a more general understanding the obscurest Passages in the Divine Oracles The truth of this Assertion is so clear that it seems little better then Blasphemie to contradict it For to say the Holy Writ is in it self unintelligible is equivalent to the pronouncing it Non-sense or to averre that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not onely play with the children of men but even fool with them This is but a Subterfuge of that conscious Church that is afraid of the fulgour of that Light that shines against her out of such places of Scripture as have for a long time seemed obscure The twenty sixth That there are innumerable Passages of Scripture as well Preceptive as Historicall that are as plainly to be understood as the very Articles of the common Faith and which therefore may be very usefull for the clearing those that may seem more obscure This wants no proof but Appeal to Experience and the twentieth Conclusion The twenty seventh That no Miracle though done by such as may seem of an unexceptionable Life and of more singular Sanctity can in reason ratifie any Doctrine or Practice that is repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or Natural Truths or Science or the common Christian Faith or any plain Doctrine or Assertion in Scripture The Truth of this is manifest from hence That no man can be so certain that such a man is not a crafty and cautious Hypocrite and his Miracle either a Juggle or Delusion of the Devil or if he was not an eye-witness of it a false report of a Miracle as he is certain of the truth of rightly-circumstantiated Sense of Common Notions and Natural Science of the Articles of the Apostolick Faith or of any plain Assertion in the Scripture And therefore that which is most certain in this case ought in all reason to be our Guide The twenty eighth That it is not onely the Right but the Duty of private men to converse with the Scriptures being once but precautioned not to presume to interpret any thing against rightly-circumstantiated Sense Natural Truth common Honesty the Analogie of the Catholick Faith or against other plain Testimonies of Holy Writ The truth of this appears from the Conclusion immediately preceding For why should they be kept from having recourse to so many and so profitable and powerful Instructions from an infallible Spirit when they are so well fore-armed against all Mistake and are so laid-at by so many not onely fallible but fallacious and deceitful persons to seduce them And why is there not more danger of being led into Errour by such as are not onely fallible but false and deceitfull then by those Inspired men that wrote the Scripture who were neither fallible in what they wrote nor had any design to deceive any man Wherefore there being no such safe Guide as the Scripture it self which speaks without any Passion Fraud or Interest it is not onely the Right but the Duty of every one to consult with the Scripture and observe his times of conversing with it as he tenders the Salvation of his own Soul The twenty ninth That even a private man assisted by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and rightly-circumstantiated Reason being also sufficiently furnish'd with the knowledge of Tongues Historie and Antiquity and sound Philosophy may by the help of these and the Blessing of God upon his industry clear up some of the more obscure Places of Scripture to full satisfaction and certainty both to himself and any unprejudiced Peruser of his Interpretations That this Assertion is true may be proved by manifold Experience there having been sundry persons that have cleared such Places of Scripture as had for a time seemed obscure and intricate with abundant satisfaction and conviction But it is to be evinced also à priori viz. from the seventeenth and eighteenth Conclusions which avouch the Scripture to be the most Authentick Tradition that is as also from the twenty fifth that concludes it not unintelligible in it self nor to mankinde and lastly out of the first that asserts that Certainty of Faith presupposes Certainty of Reason For thus the Object of our Understanding being here certain and we not spending our labour upon a Fiction or Mockery and our Reason rightly-circumstantiated not blinded by Prejudice nor precipitated into Assent before due deliberation and clear comprehension of the matter if after so cautious a Disquisition she be fully satisfied she is certainly satisfied or else there is no certainty in rightly-circumstantiated Reason which yet is presupposed in the Certainty of Faith by the first Conclusion So that the Certainty of Faith it self seems ruinous if no private man have any Certainty of any Interpretation of Scripture that has once been reputed obscure Not to add that all the Scripture that has been once obscure and the Interpretation thereof not yet declared by the Church universal has been hitherto and will be God knows how long utterly useless Which is a very wilde Supposition and such as none would willingly admit unless those that would rather admit any thing then that Light of the Scripture that discovers who they are and what unworthy Impostures they use in their dealings with the children of men The thirtieth That no Tradition can be true that is repugnant to any plain Text of Scripture The Reason is because the Scripture is the most true and the most Authentick Tradition that is and such as the universal Church is agreed in The thirty first That if any one Point grounded upon the Autority of Tradition that has been held by the Church time out of minde prove false there is no Certainty that any Tradition is true unless such as it has not been in the power of the Church to forge corrupt deprave or else their Interest not at all concerned so to doe The Reason is because the Certainty of Tradition as Tradition is placed in this by those that contend so much for it that nothing can be brought into the Church as an Apostolick Practice or Doctrine but what ever was so from the Apostles Wherefore if once a Point be brought into the Church and profest and practised as Apostolicall that may be clearly proved not to be so this Ground for Tradition as Tradition is utterly ruined and considering the Falseness and Imposture that has been so long practised in Christendome can be held no Ground of Certainty at all As not Reason quà Reason nor Sense quà Sense but quatenus rightly-circumstantiated can be any Ground of Certainty of Knowledge so not Tradition quà Tradition can be the Ground of the Certainty of Faith but onely such a Tradition as it was not in the power of the degenerate Church to either forge or adulterate And such were the Records of the Holy Bible onely The thirty second That rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason and Holy Writ are
the truest Grounds of the Certainty of Faith This is the common Protestant Doctrine and a great and undeniable Truth and will amount to the greatest Certainty desirable if the Spirit of Life and of God assist For that will seal all firm and close and shut out all Doubts and Waverings In the mean time even in mere Moral men but yet such as use their Sense and Reason rightly-circumstantiated in their Dijudications touching the truth of Holy Writ and Religion it is plain they are upon the truest Grounds of Faith they can goe or apply themselves to forasmuch as the Holy Writ is the truest and most certain Tradition and no Tradition to be discerned true but upon the Certainty of rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason as appears by the first Conclusion These Advertisements though something numerous are yet brief enough but very effectual I hope if strictly followed to make thee so wise as neither to impose upon thy self nor be imposed upon by others in matters of Religion and so Orthodox as to become neither Enthusiast nor Romanist but a true Catholick and Primitive Apostolick Christian THE END DIVINE HYMNS DIVINE HYMNS An HYMN Upon the Nativity of CHRIST THe Holy Son of God most High The Historicall Narration For love of Adam's lapsed Race Quit the sweet Pleasures of the Sky To bring us to that happy Place His Robes of Light he laid aside Which did his Majesty adorn And the frail state of Mortals tri'de In Humane Flesh and Figure born Down from above this Day-Star slid Himself in living Earth t' entomb And all his Heav'nly Glory hid In a pure lowly Virgin 's Womb. Whole Quires of Angels loudly sing The Mystery of his Sacred Birth And the blest News to Shepherds bring Filling their watchfull Souls with Mirth The Application to the Emprovement of Life The Son of God thus Man became That Men the sons of God might be And by their second Birth regain A likeness to His Deity Lord give us humble and pure mindes And fill us with thy Heav'nly Love That Christ thus in our Hearts enshrin'd We all may be born from above And being thus Regenerate Into a Life and Sense Divine We all Ungodliness may hate And to thy living Word encline That nourish'd by that Heav'nly Food To manly Stature we may grow And stedfastly pursue what 's good That all our high Descent may know Grant we thy Seed may never yield Our Souls to soil with any Blot But still stand Conquerours in the field To shew his Power who us begot That after this our Warfare's done And travails of a toilsome Stage We may in Heav'n with Christ thy Son Enjoy our promis'd Heritage Amen An HYMN Upon the Passion of CHRIST THe faithfull Shepherd from on high The Historicall Narration Came down to seek his strayed Sheep Which in this Earthly Dale did lie Of Grief and Death the Region deep Those Glories and those Ioys above 'T was much to quit for Sinners sake But yet behold far greater Love Such pains and toils to undertake An abject Life which all despise The Lord of Glory underwent And with the Wicked's worldly guize His righteous Soul for grief was rent His Innocence Contempt attends His Wisedome and his Wonders great Envy on these her poison spends And Pharisaick Rage their Threats At last their Malice boil'd so high As Witnesses false to suborn The Lord of Life to cause to die His Body first with Scourges torn With royal Robes in scorn th' him dight And with a wreath of Thorns him crown A Scepter-Reed in farther spight They adde unto his Purple Gown Then scoffingly they bend the knee And spit upon his Sacred Face And after hang him on a Tree Betwixt two Thieves for more Disgrace With Nails they pierc'd his Hands and Feet The Bloud thence trickled to the ground The Pangs of Death his Countenance sweet And lovely Eyes with Night confound Thus laden with our weight of Sin This spotless Lamb himself bemoans And while for us he Life doth win Quits his own Breath with deep-fetch'd Groans Affrighted Nature shrinketh back To see so direfull dismall sight The Earth doth quake the Mountains crack Th' abashed Sun withdraws his Light The Application to the Emprovement of Life Then can we Men so senseless be As not to melt in flowing Tears Who cause were of his Agonie Who suffer'd thus to cease our Fears To reconcile us to our God By this his precious Sacrifice And shield us from his wrathfull Rod Wherewith he Sinners doth chastise O wicked Sin to be abhorr'd That God's own Son thus forc'd to die O Love profound to be ador'd That found so potent Remedie O Love more strong then Pain and Death To be repaid by nought but Love Whereby we vow our Life and Breath Entire to serve our God above For who for shame durst now complain Of dolorous dying unto Sin While he recounts the hideous Pain His Saviour felt our Souls to win Or who can harbour Anger fell Envy revengefull Spight or Hate If he but once consider well Our Saviour lov'd at such a rate Wherefore Lord since thy Son most just His natural Life for us did spill Grant we our sinful Lives and Lusts May sacrifice unto his Will That to our selves we being dead Henceforth to him may wholly live Who us to free from Dangers dread Himself a Sacrifice did give Grant that the sense of so great Love Our Souls to him may firmly tie And forcibly us all may move To live in mutuall Amity That no pretence to Hate or Strife May rise from any Injurie Since thy dear Son the Lord of Life For love of us when Foes did die An HYMN Upon the Resurrection of CHRIST The Historicall Narration WHo 's this we see from Edom come With bloudy robes from Bosrah Town He whom false Jews to death did doom And Heav'n's fierce Anger had cast down His righteous Soul alone was fain Isa. 63.3 The Wine-press of God's Wrath to tread And all his Garments to distain And sprinkled Cloaths to die bloud-red 'Gainst Hell and Death he stoutly fought Who Captive held him for three days But straight he his own Freedome wrought And from the dead himself did raise The brazen Gates of Death he brake Triumphing over Sin and Hell And made th' Infernall Kingdomes quake With all that in those Shades do dwell His murthered Body he resum'd Maugre the Grave's close grasp and strife And all these Regions thence perfum'd With the sweet hopes of lasting Life O mighty Son of God most High The Application to the Emprovement of Life That conqueredst thus Hell Death and Sin Give us a glorious Victory Over our deadly Sins to win Go on and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. Iud. Flesh and bloud in the moral sense Edom still subdue And quite cut off his wicked Race And raise in us thine Image true Which sinfull * The old Adam Rom. 6.6 Edom doth
this childish condition Whence the World is full of wrangling and vexation even about the pettiest Points of Religion that are Whereby mens minds must needs be exulcerated and the Government disturbed and the Safety of the Church hazarded Which would not at all be if this wholesome searching Doctrine had but place in the hearts of men For it would so ripen their growth in Christianity that all their Harshness and Sourness would soon mellow into Christian Love and Sweetness For believe it there is nothing more civil nothing more humane nothing more gentle and governable then a mature and well-grown Christian. Again in the Description of the Character of the Elias to come a main Note of him is that he is a Reconciler of the Magistrate to the People and of the People to the Magistrate that he is for Peace and Vnion in the Church of God and a declarer against Rents and Schisms And lastly that great Point of all That the Pope with his Clergie is that Antichrist and the Roman Church that City out of which God's People are bid to depart as it is most certainly true in it self and of huge Consequence to be known upon the account of a Spiritual Interest so does it most manifestly also consolidate the Secular Interest of all Protestant Princes and People against the Pretensions of the Pope and is a safe Cynosura to steer their Counsels by For I dare appeal even to the Pontificians themselves upon supposition that the Pope and his Clergie be Antichrist and the Church of Rome that Babylon out of which God's people are bid to depart whether any thing in counsell that makes towards the reduction of God's people nearer to that City and the ensnaring them again in their former Captivity can be adviseable for any Protestant Magistrate either upon point of Piety or Policy or supposing a God in Heaven can promise any prosperous Success Wherefore for any Protestant Subject so persuaded to conceal so important a Truth would be the greatest Perfidiousness even to his Terrestriall Sovereign as any man can stand guilty of These I think were sufficient Motives for the publishing these Dialogues But for the preposterous Order in publishing them the plainest account is the will of the Authour of which no worse Construction ought to be made then that as it seems he has a greater Concern for the Interest of Christianity then for the Curiosities of Philosophy For such is the Subject of the three first Dialogues Which had he had as great a propension to gratifie the Curious as to edifie the Church of Christ he would not have failed to have published at least as soon as these the matter of them being both Philosophicall as I said and that concerning the most enticing Points in Philosophy and also intermixt with much Pleasantry and Humour which by reason of the extraordinary Gravity of this present Subject it was thought fit I suppose the more strictly to abstain from But though I have no commission to publish the three first Dialogues themselves yet I thought fit for the more punctually understanding these two last to publish the Arguments of those they being sufficient for the understanding any References or Reflexions on them occurring in these And lastly Reader I have added for thy farther Entertainment by way of Appendage though not altogether so necessary I confess yet sutable enough to some Points in these Dialogues if not to the whole Design A brief Discourse of the true Grounds of the Certainty of Faith in Points of Religion as also some few plain Songs or Divine Hymns on the chiefest Holy-days in the Christian Kalendar agreeable enough with these Divine Dialogues both in Purpose and Title Wherein the Writer of them has observed always this Method to adde to the Historicall Narration an Application to the Emprovement of Life Which whether in Verse or Prose if it were diligently observed in the handling of the Historicall Articles of our Christian Faith would be of so great force for the making men good that I doubt not but Philotheus had he thought of it would have added this as a ninth Instruction tending to the Acceleration of those happy Times of the Church which he presages These Reader if thou pleasest candidly to accept for the present it will be the greater Obligation to the Authour to let what still remains in his hands in due time see the Light and be as willing to condescend to gratifie the Philosophicall Genius in those three first Dialogues as he has been in these ambitious to edifie the Religious G. C. The proper Characters of the Persons in the ensuing Dialogues with some Allusion to their Names Philotheus A zealous and sincere Lover of God and Christ and of the whole Creation Bathynous The Deeply-thoughtful or profoundly-thinking man Sophron The Sober and wary man Philopolis The pious and loyal Politician Euistor A man of Criticism Philologie and History Hylobares A young witty and well-moralized Materialist Cuphophron A zealous but Airy-minded Platonist and Cartesian or Mechanist Ocymo Cuphophron's Boy so called from his Nimbleness DIVINE DIALOGVES CONTAINING Several Disquisitions and Instructions touching the ATTRIBUTES of GOD AND HIS PROVIDENCE In the WORLD THE FOURTH DIALOGUE Philotheus Bathynous Sophron Philopolis Euistor Hylobares Cuphophron Philoth. OUr Conference hitherto I A brief Recapitulation of what has hitherto passed in their discourse O Philopolis has been spent either in proving briefly the Existence of God or in clearing of his Attributes or in defending of his Providence which was but a necessary preparation to them that doubt of these things for the due understanding of the Mysteries of his Kingdome For if there be no God nor any Divine Providence there can be no Kingdome of God upon Earth as Hylobares well noted at first And indeed if the Providence of God be not every-where it is a very suspicable business that it is in truth no-where Whence appears the necessity of admitting such Hypotheses as will make sense of all occurrences and appearances of things which we meet withall in what-ever Nations of the Earth or parts of the Universe And such I conceive were those that were suggested in our two last days Conferences With which if Hylobares who seemed to be the onely man dissettled touching these Points be fully satisfied I am now ready to serve you Philopolis according to the best of my skill touching your demands concerning the Kingdome of God Philop. I humbly thank you Philotheus and my eager desire to hear you discourse of so important a Theme and my jealousie that we shall be much streightned in time makes me beg of you that without any farther delay you would be pleased to fall upon the matter Hyl. Which Philotheus will doe the more couragiously II The great force of a firm belief of a God and his Providence for the fixing a man's Faith in the truth of Christianity O Philopolis after I have briefly acknowledged my thanks for
Empire in Constantine's time became the Kingdome of God but were no particular members of the Church at that time in any thing reprehensible Whether the Reformation cease to be the Kingdome of God for the wickedness of some of that denomination let our Adversaries be judges who never spared to style themselves Holy Church for all the abhorred ungodliness of the Heads their Holinesses at Rome and universal pollution of the members and that because they took themselves to be the true Christian Church and to hold the right Faith and to retain the Rites and Religious Practices as to the externall Worship of God though they were indeed an Antichristian Church and all overrun with abominable Doctrines and Idolatrous Practices and Diabolical Cruelties against the true Worshippers of God Of how much more right therefore ought the Reformation to be held the holy people of God and his peculiar Kingdome who profess the Apostolick Faith entire without any Idolatrous superadditions who murther no man for his Conscience and make the infallible Word of God it self the Object of their Profession and the platform of their Religion Cuph. The truth is the disparity is infinitely great if the Roman and Reformed Church stood in competition which of them two should be the Kingdome of God Bath But it being so plain that the Reformed Church is the true Externall Kingdome of God forasmuch as they make pure profession of the Gospel of the Kingdome cleared from all the gross Corruptions of men and teach Christ merely according to the Word of Christ and that also in this regard the Church of Rome by their Antichristian Doctrines is really a contrary Kingdome thereunto that is the Kingdome of Antichrist how abominably nauseous O Cuphophron must Indifferency in Religion be amongst Pretenders to Protestantism whenas the Romanists themselves scarce in the worst of times would have laid down their zeal in the behalf of that Christianity against Turcism though Turcism ought not to be more abominable to them then their Antichristianism ought to be to us XVII The Charge of Antinomianism against th Reformation For what can be more contrary then the Kingdome of Christ and of Antichrist Cuph. This would bear more weight with it Bathynous if there were no gross flaws in the externall Profession of the Protestants and that they were right in their declared Opinions For in my judgement Antinomianism and Calvinism I mean that dark Dogma about Predestination are such horrid Errours that they seem the badges of the Kingdome of Darkness rather then of the Kingdome of God Bath What you mean by Antinomianism O Cuphophron I know not But so far as I know there are but these two meanings thereof either a conceit that we are exempted by the liberty of the Gospel from all moral Duties a thing exploded by all the Protestant Churches as you may understand by the Harmony of their Confessions or else it signifies a disclaim of being justified by the doing our Duties and an entire relying on the Satisfaction or Atonement of Christ which rightly understood has no evil at all in it but is an excellent Antidote against Pride For those that profess such an Antinomianism as this and declare they look to be saved by Faith onely without the Works of the Law will not deny but that they are to live as strictly and holily as if they were to be saved by the integrity of their conversations and yet when they have lived as precisely as they can that they are wholly to relie upon the mercy of God in Christ. How lovely how amiable is such a disposition of a Soul as this who taking no notice of her own innocency or righteousness casts her self wholly on the Goodness and Merits of her Saviour and so like an un-self-reflecting and an un-self-valuing childe enters securely and peaceably into the Kingdome of God and into the choicest mansions of his heavenly Paradise Cuph. Nay if that be the worst of it Bathynous I am easily reconciled to Protestantism for all this Bath This is the worst of it O Cuphophron so far as I can understand And you know the orthodox Protestants universally adde their Doctrine of Sanctification or a good life to that of Justification by Faith onely so that I dare say they dealt bonâ fide but by a secret Providence directed so their style and phrase as was most effectual to oppose or undermine the gainful traffick of that City of Merchandises where the good works they ordinarily cry'd up so were nothing else but the good and rich wares those cunning Merchants purchased at cheap rates from abused souls the increase of whose sins were the advance of the Revenues of the Church and their externall good works as they are called an excuse for their want of inward Sanctification and real Regeneration the main things the Protestants stand upon which can be no more without Good works in the best sense so called then the Sun without Light Cuph. But are there then Bathynous no Antinomians in the ill sense amongst the Protestant Bath No otherwise Cuphophron then there were Gnosticks and Carpocratians in the Apostolick times There are but disallowed by general suffrage Cuph. Let that then suffice XVIII The Charge of Calvinism against the Reformation But this dark Opinion of Predestination how dismall does it look Bathynous black as the smoak of the bottomless pit out of which the Locusts came Bath What do you allude to the Turks and Saracens Cuphophron The Turks indeed are held great Fatalists whence some in reproch call this Point of Calvin Calvino-Turcism Who would have thought Cuphophron so Apocalyptical That you take so great offence at Predestination in that rude and crude sense that some hold it I do not at all wonder for it has ever seemed to me an Opinion perfectly repugnant to the nature of God that he should Predestinate any Souls to endless and unspeakable misery for such sins as it was ever impossible for them to avoid This is a great reproch in my apprehension to the Divine Majesty But that there is an effectual Election or Predestination of some to eternall life I must confess I think it not onely an Opinion inoffensive but true which seems to me probably to be intimated from such passages as these Apoc. 13.8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And again in another place of the Apocalypse And they that are with him are called Apoc. 17.14 and chosen and faithfull And also in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 8.28 29. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and whom he did predestinate them he also called c. These places considered together want not their force
to purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may become an holy Temple and Priesthood the new Ierusalem that City of God whose Wall is of Jasper and the City of pure Gold like to transparent Glass The Spirit of Elias is the spirit of Burning and of Anguish the spirit of sharp Reproof and bitter Repentance the spirit of travail and pain in Sion's new Birth But the Regnum Spiritûs is the actual Renovation of the World into perfect Righteousness Peace and Joy Philop. XXIII Certain Principles tending to the acceleration of the glorious Times of the Church You speak of most excellent Things and Times O Philotheus and with such a confident career that you hurry a man away not onely into a belief that they will be but into an impatience that they are not already Which therefore makes me eagerly desire to hear you discourse of the Means of accelerating these good Times Philoth. And that I shall Philopolis but with all possible brevity for fear I should keep you up again too late of the night But I shall impose upon you in nothing but appeal to your own judgement if what I propound be not right As in the first place That Reformed Christendome is the true visible Kingdome of God The First Principle and that therefore all men are bound in Conscience by all lawfull means to promote the Interest thereof Philop. That Reformed Christendome is the Kingdome of God Philotheus I am fully persuaded and of the duty thereupon depending Cuph. But we of the more Philosophicall Genius O Philopolis are not of so easie a belief but make longer pauses in so weighty Points before we close with them Philop. Why XXIV Of Luther's Conference with the Devil touching the abrogating of the Mass together with his Night-Visions of flying Firebrands what 's the scruple now with you Cuphophron Cuph. Why do you think that that can be the Kingdome of God whose foundation is laid by the Activity of the Devil For my part I am no great Historian but what I reade I reade impartially and those that you call the Kingdome of Antichrist do with great noise and confidence averre that Luther abolish'd the Mass upon Conference with and Instructions from the Devil Bath O Cuphophron light of belief Does your Philosophicall Considerateness permit you to give any credence to such things As if either Luther had any real Conference with the Devil about the Mass or if the Devil did dispute against it that it was in the behalf of the Reformation It is true Luther himself a person of great plainness of heart and no great Naturalist saies that at midnight he awakening was presently in a Dispute with the Devil whom he describes speaking with a strong and deep voice to him But thus has many a man awakened into the perception of a struggling with the Night-mare or Ephialtes as with some real person which when they have been more perfectly awaked they have found to be nothing else but a Colluctation with their own phancy the more knowing especially But the more ignorant and superstitious and you know Luther had been a long time a very devout Monk whose Cells are full of the stories and phancies of Apparitions and Devils do ordinarily take such passages for externall Realities Which I must confess I conceive to be Luther's case For he had a body and complexion obnoxious to such Illusions But suppose it was not an Illusion of phancy It does not presently follow that that invisible Disputant was a bad Angel or a Devil That may be imputed onely to the modesty of Luther that he thought so who professes himself no affecter of Dreams nor Visions of Angels And therefore the good man in an humble ignorance took this Dispute to be an Exagitation of the Devil but was so sincere a lover of the Truth that when he was convinced thereof he would not disown it or refuse it though it had been blown upon by the breath of Beelzebub Acts 16.16 As the Pythonissa's witnessing to the truth of the Gospel in the Acts does not put Paul and the rest of Christ's followers out of conceit with the Christian Faith Nor did the Devil's confessing Iesus to be the Messiah Mark 3.11 the Son of God make the Doctrine of Christ less passable with the Apostles or any other Disciples And therefore lastly admit that it was not a good Angel but a Devil it does not follow that the Truth is less Truth or that it is any Argument against the Reformation or that the Devil began this Dispute with Luther in favour of it but rather of Papism For he foreseeing how obvious and usefull those Arguments were for the abrogating of the Mass and that Luther could not but hit on them in the conclusion he like a cunning Sophister to prevent the ruine of his own Kingdome suggests these Reasonings to Luther betime that they being thus disparaged by the first Inventour of them might doe the less execution against the Mass and therewithall against the whole Lurry of Popish Idolatry and Superstition For this was a device worthy that old Serpent Cuph. And you Bathynous I think have a fetch beyond the Devil himself My Philosophy had not considered the thing so throughly But now I am more awakened to consider of it why may it not be some crafty fellow got into Luther's Bed-chamber that thus abused him there are such Stories of men speaking through Trunks and with the same design the Devil is supposed to have had in it this crafty Knave personating the Devil Bath Any of these waies in my judgement are sufficient to take off that odium that some would cast upon the Reformation from this passage of Luther And I look upon the first as not inferiour to any of them as corresponding with the conceit which I have also of his nocturnall visions of the flying Fire-brands Which appearance I believe was onely in his phancy because alwaies after this appearance he was tormented with a grievous distemper of the Head and had usually the oil of Almonds put into his ears for a cure or mitigation Philoth. I can never think of these nocturnall visions of the Fire-brands Bathynous but with a reflexion on the fieriness of Luther's spirit whose invincible zeal so far emboldened him as publickly and solemnly to cast the Pope's Bull and Canon-Law into the fire and in conclusion by the fiery Activity of his indefatigable spirit to burn down a great part of the Papal Monarchy as a * Dr. Heylia in his Geography late Historian phrases it with allusion to Luther's fire Bath That so it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Ezekiel against the King of Tyre Ezek. 28.18 Thou hast defiled thy Sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities by the iniquity of thy Traffick therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee it shall devour thee and I
to be led out of a lesser Bondage or Captivity into a greater and so that small distinct Number of the immaculate Lambs of Christ had been a more certain as well as a more delicious Morsell for that devouring Wolf of Rome Bath I understand perfectly whereabout Philotheus would be namely That Divine Providence made choice of such Instruments by an externall Instigation as who left to themselves in many things to cut out their own way would fall into such Opinions and Expressions as would be most effectual for the rending or tearing of huge massie pieces from the Church of Rome that in these great Lumps the Gold might be safe amongst the Dross and that in his mixt Numerosity there might be a more safe Protection of the Godly against the bloudy Persecutions and barbarous Tyrannies of the Papal Power Philoth. XXXIII The true means of unity in the Church again glanced at You understand me aright Bathynous But now I say after the Stone was thus cut off again from the great Mountain and safely disjoyned therefrom it was not still to have ly'n unpolished or Moss-begrown for want of Art or Industry in the Master-builders but all of us ought to have become by this time living stones pure and well-polished and through the Unity of the Spirit to have been joyn'd together into one holy Temple of God Which Unity of Spirit Bathynous can never be without Unity of Life For in the Life is the Spirit as I suggested before Nor can this Unity of Life ever be without a through Purification of the Church from Sin and Corruption nor can this Purification be without Faith in the Power of God and the Assistence of Iesus Christ to refine us from all our Dross For he that believes no possibility of any such thing will neither pray for it nor attempt it nor any way go about it Wherefore this general Indulgence to our Corruptions keeping us from the Unity of Spirit and sameness of Judgement in matters of Religion and making us destitute of that healing Vertue of brotherly Love and Charity we are left like so many wilde Beasts and grizly Monsters to grin and spit fire at one another but can never attain to Peace before we attain to a due measure of Righteousness For Christ in the Church must first be Melchizedek Hebr. 7.2 and introduce his Righteousness amongst us before he can be King of Salem in this sense Isa. 9.6 a Prince of Peace Nor can we have this Spirit of Righteousness communicated to us before we be embued with that Faith in the Power of Christ for the vanquishing of Sin as has been said over and over again Bath Wherefore Philotheus so far as I see this Faith in the Power of Christ for the vanquishing of Sin especially accompanied with Charity may stand in balance against the Romish implicit Faith that they would urge for the suppressing of Schism as if nothing would so well assure the Peace of the Church as for men to have either a perfect upright Conscience or else no Conscience at all But this latter being so hideously detestable we see the greater necessity of exhorting all men with all diligence to make after the former Philoth. Which without this Faith in the Power of Christ for the conquering our Corruptions they will never endeavour after much less successfully attain thereunto Bath So I have said already Philotheus I think or at least intended to say so Philoth. But being full of Faith XXXIV The marvellous Efficacy of Faith in the Power of the Spirit of Christ for the vanquishing of Sin and perfectly persuaded that Christ by his Spirit both can and will assist to the utter vanquishing of all manner of Sin and Corruption in us such I mean as Pride and Covetousness and Uncleanness and all Hypocrisie and Selfishness and the like what is there of all that that disturbs the World and distracts humane affairs that will not flie before so invincible a force If this Faith were once implanted in the hearts of men and they read in the Prophets the lively and lovely descriptions of that excellent state of the Church which is to come what quick approches were they able to make in virtue hereof while they look upon that glorious Pattern and through Faith and holy Imitation be daily changed by the Spirit of the Lord from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.17 18. Philop. The more I consider it Philotheus the more I am satisfied of what infinite importance this Doctrine of Faith in the omnipotent Spirit of Christ is both for the present welfare of the Church and also for the bringing on that future Happiness predicted by the Prophets what searching Physick it is to cleanse the Soul and what a mighty Cordial to revive her So far as I see this kinde of Faith is the Primum mobile or the first Spring of all Motion that can tend effectually towards the Renovation of the World in Righteousness and the bringing on those glorious Times of the Church which you did so graphically describe out of the Visions of the Prophets Sophr. XXXV An Answer to an Objection touching this Doctrine of Faith And I can scarce forbear to cast in my suffrage too Philopolis were it not for this one Scruple That this so high Doctrine of Faith in the omnipotent Spirit for the utter Extirpation of Sin might as well scare people out of the Reformed Churches as have hindred them at first from coming in to the Reformation The truth of the Doctrine rightly understood I do not much question but onely the discretion of professing it Philoth. This is a material Consideration of yours O Sophron. But you are to understand that this Doctrine rightly interpreted does not at all clash with any of those due Comforts that accrue to us from that other of Justification by Faith and of free Remission of sin in the bloud of Christ. These things I write 1 Joh. 2â— 2. saith S t. Iohn that ye sin not But if any one sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is a propitiation for our sins All that is aimed at is a chearfull and sincere endeavour of not sinning at all as we pray in our Liturgy every Morning Which constant endeavour if it be used no man ought to be dejected for his Failings till God give more strength but chearfully to rouse himself with a greater indignation and resolution against Sin not at all despairing of forgiveness having so potent an Advocate with him whom he has offended But if any one is content to sin without any endeavour of Resistence or belief of ever being able to overcome and subdue his Corruptions and would forsake the Communion of the Reformed Church for the rubbing up his Conscience with a more wholesome and searching Doctrine and so seek Teachers elsewhere after his own heart's lusts all that I can say is this 2 Thess. 2.11 12. That for
most delicious and Seraphick Lives that I could ever imagine any to doe upon this Earth The Prelibation of those future Joys and Glories that you in a manner make present to you by so firm a Faith and clear Prospect of things is an Anticipation of the Happiness of Heaven at least of that Heaven that is to be upon Earth when the new Ierusalem shall descend from above I am so infinitely transported with your excellent Converse that I am almost out of conceit with my own condition of Life and could wish I had never been engaged in the care of a Wife and a Family or any other Secular Occasions that I might joyn my self for ever to your blessed Society Of such unspeakable pleasure has this five days entertainment been to my minde Philoth. God forbid Philopolis that the Sweet of Contemplation should ever put your mouth out of tast with the savoury Usefulness of Secular Negotiations To doe good to men to assist the injured to relieve the necessitous to advise the ignorant in his necessary affairs to bring up a Family in the fear of God and a chearful hope of everlasting Happiness after this Life does as much transcend our manner of living if it ended in a mere pleasing our selves in the delicacy of select Notions as solid Goodness does empty Phantastry or sincere Charity the most childish Sophistry that is The exercise of Love and Goodness of Humanity and Brotherly-kindness of Prudence and Discretion of Faithfulness and Neighbourliness of unfeigned Devotion and Religion in the plain and undoubted Duties thereof is to the truly regenerate Soul a far greater pleasure then all the fine Speculations imaginable Philop. You 'll pardon this sudden surprise Philotheus for your wholesome Instruction has reduced me again to the right sense of things I am fully convinced that all Speculation is vain that tends not to the Duty of Practice nor inables a man the better to perform what he owes to God to his Prince and Countrey to his Family Neighbours and Friends Which is the onely consideration that makes my parting with this excellent Society any thing tolerable to me at this time being so fully instructed by you that I am not to live to please my self but to be serviceable to others And therefore I shall endeavour not so to leave you as not to carry away the better part of you along with me Cuph. XLIII His Complement to Cuphophron and his Friends with Cuphophron 's return thereof upon Philopolis You mean Euistor and Hylobares do you not Philopolis Philop. I mean not Persons but Things the endearing memorie of the sincere Zeal and sound Knowledge of Philotheus the free and profound Judgement of Bathynous the Prudence and Sobriety of Sophron and the Gaiety of Temper and singular Urbanity of my noble friend Cuphophron to whom I return many thanks for his repeated favours and civilities since my arrival hither as I do to Philotheus also and the rest of this excellent Companie for their great Obligations and shall impatiently expect an opportunity of making some requitall In the mean time I leave my thanks with you all and bid you farewell Cuph. Not the Memory O Philopolis but the Reality of all those Accomplishments you reckon up of right you carry away with you because you brought them along with you hither Nor will we take leave of so accomplished a person till needs must We will wait upon you to morrow morning to see you take horse and then wish you a good Journey In the mean time we onely bid you Good-night Philop. That will be too great a favour Philoth. That 's a Civility very well mentioned Cuphophron We will at least doe that if not carry them part on their way Hyl. And I will defer my manifold Acknowledgements to Philotheus till then THE END A brief DISCOURSE Of the true Grounds of The Certainty of FAITH IN Points of Religion FAith and Belief though they be usually appropriated to matters of Religion yet those words in themselves signifie nothing else but a Persuasion touching the Truth of a thing arising from some Ground or other Which Persuasion may be undoubted or certain to us that is to say We may be certainly persuaded without any staggering though the Grounds be false and the Thing it self false that we are thus firmly persuaded of So that the being firmly persuaded is no sure sign to others nor ought to be to ourselves that either the Grounds or the Belief it self is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well arise from an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peculiarity of Complexion or the Besottedness of Education may be so prevalent as very forcibly to urge Falshood upon our belief as well in things Natural as Religious either upon very weak and false Grounds or no other Grounds at all but that of Complexion and Education Passion or Interest or the like But the true Grounds of the Certainty of Faith are such as do not onely beget a certain and firm Faith but a true one and this in virtue of their own Truth and Solidity as being such as will appear true and solid to all impartial and unprejudiced Examiners that is to say to all such as neither Complexion nor Education nor Passion nor Interest does pervert their Judgement but have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clear as the Eye to discriminate Colours Whence it is plain that the first and most necessarie Preparation to the Discovery of the true Grounds of the Certainty of Faith is Moral Prudence in such a sense as the nature of it is described in a late Moral Discourse entitled Enchiridion Ethicum lib. 2. cap. 2. This ought to be antecedaneous to our judgement touching either Autority or Reason But for a man of a polluted spirit to take upon him to dissent from the Constitutions of the Church he is born under is a very rash and insolent Attempt As if God were more bound to assist a single Wicked man for the finding out of Truth then a multitude or as if a man could more safely or more creditably err alone then with a company that has the stamp of Autority upon them But if thy endeavour be to perfect Holiness in the fear of God and to walk in all Humility before him and before men thou mayest by such rational Grounds as these examine the Fidelity of thy Teachers and the truth of their Doctrines of Religion First then It is plain that Certainty of Faith presupposeth Certainty of both Reason and Sense rightly circumstantiated For forasmuch as Faith properly so called is nothing but an unwavering Assent to some Doctrine proposed upon the ground of infallible Testimonie there must be some Reason to persuade us that that Testimony is infallible that is to say that they that testifie are neither obnoxious to Errour in the things they witness of nor have a mind to make others to erre or
particular or universal as infallibly inspired that is deprehended to be actually deceived in any Points she proposes to be believed as necessary Articles of Faith This is so plain that it wants no farther proof The sixteenth That the Moral and Humane Certainty of Faith is grounded upon the Certainty of Vniversal Tradition Prophecy History and the Nature of the things delivered Reason and Sense assisting the Minde in her Disquisitions touching these matters That Certainty of Faith I call Moral or Humane that is competible even to a carnal man or a man unregenerate as it is said of the Devils that they believe and tremble By Vniversal Tradition I understand such a Tradition as has been from the Apostles that is to say has been always since the completion of their Apostleships as well as in every place of the Church For since there was to be so general and so early a Degeneracy of the Church as is witnessed of in the Holy Scriptures the generality of the Votes of the Church was not alwaies a sufficient warrant of the truth of Tradition But those Truths that have been constantly held and unalterably from the Apostles times til now it is a sign that they were very Sacred unquestionable and assured Truths and so vulgarly and universally known and acknowledged that it was not in man's power to alter them By Prophecy I understand as well those Divine Predictions of the coming of Christ as those touching the Church after he had come By History I mean not onely that of the Bible and particularly the New Testament but other History as well Ecclesiastick as Prophane And what I mean by the Nature of the things delivered is best to be understood out of such Treatises as write of the Reasonableness of Christianity such as Dr. Hammond's and Mr. Baxter's late Book See also Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness where the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith is more fully represented and plainly demonstrated * Book 7. chap. 9 10 11. that it has not been in the power of the Church to deceive us as touching the main Points of our Belief though they would The seventeenth That no Tradition is more universal and certain then the Tradition of the Authentickness of such Books of the Bible as all Churches are agreed upon to be Canonicall There can be no more certain nor universal Tradition then this in that it has the Testimony of the whole Church and all the parts thereof with one Consent though in other things they do so vehemently disagree Wherefore no Tradition can be of any comparable Autority to this And therefore we may set down for Conclusion The eighteenth That the Bible is the truest Ground of the Certainty of Faith that can be offered to our Understanding to rest in The Reason is because it is the most universal both for time and place the most unexceptionable and universally-acknowledged Tradition that is The nineteenth That the Bible or Holy Writ dictated by the Spirit of God that is written by Holy and Inspired men is sufficiently plain to an unprejudiced Capacity in all Points necessary to Salvation This must of necessity be true by Conclusion the seventh Otherwise the manner of Gods's revealing his Truth in the Holy Scriptures would be repugnant to the Divine Attributes and which were Blasphemy to utter he would seem unskilfully to have inspired the Holy Pen-men that is to say in such a way as were not at all accommodate to the end of the Scriptures which is the Salvation of mens Souls nor to have provided for the Recovering of the Church out of those gross Errours he both foresaw and foretold she would fall into The twentieth That the true and primarie Sense of Holy Scripture is Literal or Historicall unless in such Parts or Passages thereof as are intimated to be Parables or Visions writ in the Prophetick style or the literal Meaning be repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science c. For then it is a sign that the Place is to be understood Figuratively or Parabolically not Literally The truth of this appears out of the immediately-foregoing Conclusion For else the Scripture would not be sufficiently plain in all Points necessary to Salvation Indeed in no Points at all but all the Articles of our Faith that respect the History of Christ might be most frivolously and whifflingly allegorized into a mere Romance or Fable But that the History of Christ is literally to be understood is manifest both from the Text it self and from perpetuall and universal Tradition Which if it were not the right Sense it were a sign that it is writ exceedingly obscure even in the chief Points which is contrary to the foregoing Conclusion But that those Places or Passages that are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science are to be interpreted figuratively is plain from the general Consent of all men in that they universally agree when Christ says I am the Door I am the true Vine c. That these things cannot be literally true And there is the same reason of Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body The twenty first That no Point of Faith professed from the Apostles time to this very day and acknowledged by all Churches in Christendome but is plainly revealed in the Scripture This may be partly argued out of the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions and also farther proved by comparing these Points of Faith with Texts of Scripture touching the same matter The twenty second That the Comprehension of these Points of Faith always and every-where held by all Christian Churches from the Apostles time till now and so plain by Testimony of Scripture is most rightfully termed the Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith The twenty third That there is a Divine Certainty of Faith which besides the Grounds that the Moral or Humane Certainty hath is supported and corroborated by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and by illuminated Reason This is not to be argued but to be felt In the mean time no more is asserted then this That this Divine Certainty has an higher Degree of Firmness and Assurance of the truth of the Holy Scriptures as having partaken of the same Spirit with our Saviour and the Apostles but does not vary in the Truths held in the common Faith The twenty fourth What-ever pretended Inspiration or Interpretation of the Divine Oracles is repugnant to the above-described Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith is Imposture or Falshood be it from a private hand or publick The Reason is apparent because the Articles of this Common Faith were the Doctrines of men truely inspired from above and the Spirit of God cannot contradict it self The twenty fifth None of the Holy Writ is of it self unintelligible but accordingly as mens spirits shall be prepared and the time sutable as God has already so he may as Seasons shall require still impart farther and farther Light to the Souls of the Faithfull
and Customes V. Of the barbarous Custome of going naked VI. Of the ridiculous Deckings and Adornings of the Barbarians VII The Lawlessness of the Barbarians and their gross Extravagancies touching Wedlock apologized for by Cuphophron Advocate-General for the Paynims VIII Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the men of Arcladam that lie in Child-bed for their Wives IX Of the Pagans Cruelty to their Enemies and inhumane Humanity to their Friends X. Their killing men at Funerals to accompanie the dead XI The Caraiamites murthering good men to seise on their Vertues XII Of the Anthropophagi or Cannibals XIII Of the Atheism and the Polytheism of the Barbarians XIV Of their Men-Sacrifices XV. Of their worshipping the Devil XVI Of their sacrificing men to the Devil XVII Of Self-sacrificers XVIII The meaning of Providence in permitting such horrid usages in the world XIX The Madness of the Priests of the Pagans XX. Of their Religious Methods of living in order to future Happiness XXI Of their Opinions touching the other State XXII The Vnsuccessfulness of Cuphophron's Advocateship hitherto in reference to the ease of Hylobares his Perplexities XXIII Severall Considerations to make us hope that the state of the World may not be so bad as Melancholy or History may represent it The first Consideration The second Consideration The third Consideration The fourth Consideration The fifth Consideration The sixth Consideration The seventh Consideration The eighth Consideration XXIV Excellent Instances of Morality even in the most barbarous Nations The ninth Consideration The tenth Consideration The last Consideration XXV Cuphophron's rapturous Reasons why God does not dissolve the World notwithstanding the gross Miscarriages in it with Hylobares and Sophron's solid Animadversions thereon XXVI Hylobares as yet unsatisfied touching the Goodness of Providence by reason of the sad Scene of things in the World XXVII An Hypothesis that will secure the Goodness of Providence were the Scene of things on this Earth ten times worse then it is XXVIII Bathynous his Dream of the two Keys of Providence containing the above-mentioned Hypothesis XXIX His being so rudely and forcibly awaked out of so Divine a Dream how consistent with the accuracy of Providence XXX That that Divine Personage that appeared to Bathynous was rather a Favourer of Pythagorism then Cartesianism XXXI The Application of the Hypothesis in the Golden-Key-Paper for the clearing all Difficulties touching the Moral Evils in the World XXXII Severall Objections against Providence fetch'd from Defects answered partly out of the Golden partly out of the Silver-Key-Paper XXXIII Difficulties touching the Extent of the Universe XXXIV Difficulties touching the Habitableness or Unhabitableness of the Planets XXXV That though the World was created but about six thousand years ago yet for ought we know it was created as soon as it could be XXXVI Hylobares his excess of Ioy and high Satisfaction touching Providence from the Discourse of Philotheus XXXVII The Philosopher's Devotion XXXVIII The hazard and success of the foregoing Discourse XXXIX The Preference of intellectual Ioy before that which is sensual XL. That there is an ever-anticipative Eternity and inexterminable Amplitude that are proper to the Deity onely The Fourth Dialogue I. A brief Recapitulation of what has hitherto passed in their discourse page 1. II. The great force of a firm Belief of a a God and his Providence for the fixing a man's Faith in the truth of Christianity 3 III. The folly of Scepticism perstringed 5 IV. That there is a Divine Temper of Body requisite for the easilier receiving and more firmly retaining Divine Truth with the Method of obtaining it 7 V. Philopolis his Quere's touching the Kingdome of God 13 VI. What the Kingdome of God is in the general Notion thereof with a defence of the truth of the Notion 14 VII Of the absolute Sovereignty of God and whereon it is grounded 21 VIII The Kingdome of God withinus what it is 27 IX The means of acquiring it 31 X. The externall Kingdome of God properly so called what it is 39 XI When this Kingdome of God began 41 XII Of Christ's appearing in humane shape to the Patriarchs before his Incarnation 46 XIII Thy Kingdome come in what sense meant in our Saviour's time and afterwards 50 XIV The Easiness of the Prophetick style 57 XV. Where the Kingdome of God now is 59 XVI That smaller faults in Things or Persons hinder not but that a Church may still be the Kingdome of God 64 XVII The Charge of Antinomianism against the Reformation 67 XVIII The Charge of Calvinism against the Reformation 71 XIX The Charge of that horrid sin of Rebellion 78 XX. What Success the Kingdome of God has had hitherto in the World and how correspondent to Divine Predictions 93 XXI Historicall Types of what was to befall Christ and his Church as the Sufferings of Joseph and his Exaltation 99 XXII The Paschal Lamb and the Israelites passage through the Red Sea 102 XXIII The brazen Serpent the Tabernacle High-priest and whole Camp of Israel a Type of Christ and his Church 108 XXIV Vocal Prophecies touching the Kingdom of Christ and its Success in the World 113 XXV The Apostasie of the Church how consistent with the durableness of God's Kingdome in Daniel 120 XXVI The Kingdome of Antichrist how warrantably so called and whether the Pope be that Man of Sin spoken of by the Apostle 124 XXVII Emperours and Princes how frequently excommunicated by the Pope 148 XXVIII The Bishop of Rome how hugely guilty of the effusion of bloud in Christendome 160 XXIX Their murtherous Attempts in Poisoning and Stabbing of Princes 164 XXX Cuphophron's Apologie in the behalf of the Romish Idolatries 169 XXXI His Apologie in the behalf of their Impostures and Murthers 176 XXXII How the Man of sin can be said to sit in the Temple of God while his sitting there makes it the Synagogue of Satan 182 XXXIII Means to know that the Man of sin prophesied of is already come into the World 185 XXXIV Cuphophron's ridiculous Indifferency in the greatest Points of Religion 190 XXXV Some few Prophecies hinted at touching the Reformation 192 XXXVI In what part of the Revolution of Ages we now are with some Cautions for the right understanding of the style of the Apocalypse 195 XXXVII The Application of the three first Vials to externall Events 201 XXXVIII Philopolis his last Quere deferr'd till next day's meeting 212 XXXIX The Conclusion with the Song of Moses and the Lamb sung to the Theorbo by Bathynous 214 The Fifth Dialogue I. The Entrance into the Dialogue 217 II. Philopolis his last Quere touching the Success of the Kingdome of God till the end of all things 218 III. The Interpretation of the fourth Vial. 221 IV. The Interpretation of the fifth and sixth Vials 228 V. The Interpretation of the last Vial. 235 VI. The future Glory of the Church after the utter destruction of Babylon 258 VII The Extent thereof 263 VIII A more particular Description of the future