Doctrinal Historical and Prophetical part thereof and in that manner accommodated as the meanest within the Church might have such a help still at their hand and thus with the least expence of time be provided of such Arguments and Reasons as should tend through the Blessing of God not only to the furthest rational Assent and Certainty of the Truth of their Profession but to give a most special support of Mind against that inward Tryal of Satans Temptations and Fiery Darts this way yea is such a mean that in the serious Improvement hereof by having such Evidences once brought in on Mens Judgment and Conscience so as to see with their own Eyes the Truth of the same I must humbly judge there is nothing next to the internal work of the Spirit of this kind might tend more to promote the Kingdom of Christ in this day Posit VII That as there are some more signal Periods of time to which a greater brightness and increase of Light hath respect under the New Testament so doth there now seem to be some remarkable Call and Excitement to such a Confirming Work in this day about the Christian Faith when we may hope that a more solemn and restoring time of Religion in the World is on a near approach though all sensible evidence would seem to controul this and may be now more looked after and prepared for under a suitable Impression of these Grounds for the same I. That the promised time of the Conversion of the Jews doth assuredly draw near and whatever be judged by some of the Lords immediate Appearance herein by a Miracle yet is it unquestionable that nothing in the way of means could be more promising and hopeful to promote this great end than by promoting so great a Service as this for the Christian Church II. That a greater extent also of the Profession of Christ amongst the Gentiles and rending of the Vail that is now over many dark Nations seemeth clearly insured therewith and what a hopeful Evidence should this be if such a Publick and Catholick Spirit were more seen how to advance the highest Ends of Religion on such an account without respect to any partial or divided Interest Yea that this blest Zeal of God might in that manner appear to have the dark World get a more clear and convincing prospect of the highest rational Demonstrations of Christianity as might through the Lords Gracious Concurrence bring men once to an Inquisitive and Serious Spirit about the same Oh that such may be raised up in this dismal hour with something of that ancient Spirit to travel with desire for the Salvation of Mankind and of whom it may be said as of blest Nehemiah these are indeed come to seek the welfare of their People in their greatest Interest III. And this farther excitement we are now under for this end in a time when Popery seems to be upon one of its last and greatest Assaults against the Church since it 's so clear that what ever tends to Confirm Men in Christianity from their own Tryal and Inquiry upon the Confirming Evidences thereof must have the same Native result to make such Confirmed Protestants yea nothing is more demonstrable than that the Method and Grounds that are taken both to ingage and fix men in the Popish Profession have the same rational Tendency to promote Atheism and to give Infidels the greatest Advantage to reject the Profession of Christ He that hath Ears to hear let him hear Amen CHAP. II. The Confirming Work of Religion reduced to Practical Use in some clear view of those Primary Grounds and Demonstrations of our Faith which none should pretend Ignorance of who enter the Profession of Christ upon choice and Certainty of Evidence SECTION I. Qu. I. VVHat Reasons and Demonstrations can you give for so great a Faith as that of the Glorious Being of God who is invisible to humane Sense since this is the Foundation of all Religion Ans Though this is Principally founded on the Sacred Truth and Authority of his own Word yet I am with the furthest Infallible Evidence confirmed herein I. That it can be no more sure that this marvellous frame of the Heavens and Earth hath a being and is the Object of our Sense than that a Supream Infinite Wisdom and Power must be the first cause hereof and it were simply impossible it could ever otherwise have been II. That he hath thus made himself Visible to our Eyes by such a visible World and in so exquisite an Order and Correspondence to support the same as nothing stands alone by it self but in a line of mutual respect which runs through the whole Creation We may as clearly thus see that God is as that there is an invisible Soul in a living Body III. That this Harmony is amongst things in their own Nature so Contrary and Destructive to other for to hold this wonderful frame as all must abandon Reason or see an infinitely wise Conduct herein and no need of Extraordinary Miracles to Confirm what the whole Constitutions of Nature do Witness IV. That this rare frame of man could never have come in being but by him who could Unite such different Substances as a Material Body and an Immaterial Soul in so near and marvellous an Union V. That there is such an universal Consent of Mankind in all Ages thereto as shews Religion to be founded in the very Nature of Man and as Essential to his Being as his Reason is yea that the ultimate difference of Man from the Beast and most essential Property of humane Nature lies here VI. That though every one be an Enemy to what torments him yet it was never possible for an Atheist to free himself from that unavoidable Sense and Fâ—ar of a Deity nor in a World so much lost in Wickedness could he ever extinguish the awe of Religion or make any rational Opposition to this greatest Article of the common Faith of Mankind VII That the Reason of the whole Constitution of Nature and vicissitude of things here is so great as without shutting out the use of Reason we cannot but see how nothing possibly could have been better and that any want hereof in the whole frame of the Universe would be as the Dislocation of a joynt of the Body and were not conceivable to be otherwise than it is by Infinite Wisdom appointed VIII That it 's simply impossible that God Blessed for ever should not exist or that this Universe which is a work so highly becoming the greatness of its Maker could possibly subsist for one hour or minute of time without a Supream Independent Power and Being on which all Visible Beings have their Dependance since they cannot depend upon nothing IX That such is the absolute necessity of the Faith also of a God-Head as without this the state of Mankind could not morally subsist or any possible Order Subjection Piety and Justice be to support Human Society but as Bradwardine saith O
the World might see did walk in the Light and Power of Christianity as sure as men walk under the Power and Vertue of a living Soul III. That we now see what a length the Course of the Gospel and of the Church Militant is come and how far thus the Times of the Gentiles are fulfilled which once was so contrary to all human Appearance IV. That so sure and exact a Performance of the Scripture is now undeniable in the event and of such great and marvellous things which were foretold under the New Testament that in an ordinary way none could have believed what we see with our Eyes and now have these things which were in former Ages the Object of the Churches Faith been made the Object of our Sense and it 's sure this is such a Seal and Confirmation to our Faith in these last times as doth much exceed the greatest Miracles which were in the first Planting of the Gospel V. Though we may not resolve our Faith on any Extraordinary Providences or lay the least weight hereon to support the Authority of the Doctrine we profess since this only is founded on that Sacred Revelation of Divine Truth in the Scripture which is the infallible Rule to discern true Miracles and what is Gods Seal herein under the undoubted Signature and Stamp of his own Power and working in the same yet hath there been such incontroulable evidence of extraordinary Signs and Confirmations to confirm the Truth of the Reformed Religion since the Reformation as in no Ages past was ever known but with the first planting of the Gospel among the Gentiles SECTION IV. Qu. I. IS it clear and demonstrable that the Doctrine of Christ is a Soul-Quickning and Experimental Religion and the Trial thereof in its most Supernatural Truths of such rational Certainty and Evidence that the World can no more deny or question the same than those Experiments of Nature that are of most universal Use Ans Though men looked but at a distance here or were come from Heathenism so far as to make a Serious Trial of Christianity it 's sure they could not but see and be fully perswaded in their Judgment hereof on these grounds I. That a discovery is undoubted and clear in the Scripture of so great things as that there is a Holy Ghost and there be his workings on Mens Souls of Peace with God and the Joy of his Presence which all who receive the Gospel are called to know and prove on their own Trial. II. That this witness of Christian Experience hath as discernable a Consent and Harmony therewith as Face answereth to Face in the Glass and is clear to be no Casual Thing but every step in this way of Trial is by Scripture Light and what Christians did before read there they know it now by Feelings on their own Souls III. That this in all Ages of the Church and where-ever such as served God in the Spirit were found in the most remote parts from others hath still been the same and like a great Roll is sent down from one Generation to another with their Confirmatory Seal that God is faithful and true in those Truths of his Word which seem most incredible to the World and now come to our hand to require the same Attestation and Witness IV. That they who know and testifie these things sometimes found it not easie to believe the same and did no less judge of such great Experiments of Religion as a Dream or imaginary thing than most now do until they knew them by Experience on their Soul V. That such also have been the most Burning and Shining Lights that ever were in the Church and these innumerable in all Ages declare the same and that in the Mouth of the Grave and entrance to an Eternal State when no outward Interest could sway them hereto VI. That it must be a matter of greatest Assurance which hath then pressed the most tender Parents with their last and dying Breath to commend the same Trial to their Children and to charge their being earnest herein as the greatest Interest they could leave them VII That whatever Differences be oft among these in some matters of Truth Yet in the Certainty of this great Trial of the Life Power and Comforts of Religion there is an Harmonious Oneness in the same Testimony in all Times of the Church VIII That if any question this because so remote from Mens Senses and the Judgment of Carnal Reason the reality of its Effects doth unanswerably prove both the Reality and Excellency of the Cause Qu. II. What clear and Rational Conviction can you offer of so great a thing as Conversion of men from a State of Nature to a new state by Grace which doth raise them as far above the residue of Mankind as Reason doth above the state of the Beasts Ans Though I should strive against the Conviction of such a Miracle and Demonstration of the Gospel as Conversion is yet were it not possible to deny such demonstrative Evidences as the World hath hereof I. That it is sure such a Change is made essentially requisite to the Being and Constitution of a Christian by the whole Consent of the Scripture II. That there was never yet an Argument in Nature for ones being a Christian in the Life and Power thereof what ever may be for a naked form or show III. That they are not a few but innumerable Instances in all times and of all Ranks and Conditions of Men on whom so great a Change and difference hath been made thus evident both from themselves what once they were and from the residue of the World IV. That this hath been not only upon such as have been signally Impious in their Practice but who in their Judgment were wont to deride Holiness as a Fancy so as Atheists must grant that there have been as profest Atheists sometimes as themselves who have been made such Conspicuous Monuments of the Power of the Gospel V. That none can Object here as once the Jews did Do any of the Rulers or such as the World counts most wise and knowing stand witnesses to the same when it is so known that there have not been more Wise Learned and Judicious in the Things of Reason upon the Earth than such as have been eminent Examples of the Power of Conversion VI. That its marvellous Effects in subduing men from what once was their Predominant Interest and Idol and to part from what had been as their right Eye or Hand could only be from an Immediate Divine Power VII That such as were greatest Adversaries to the Truth have been made no less eminent Instruments in the Service of Christ and choice Vessels of Honour than once they were in their Enmity and Opposition VIII That this Change hath been discernable in times of most Visible Persecutions and Hazard when no outward Advantage or Gain could have the least influence thereon Now as these are demonstrably clear so can
there be no possible ground to question this I. That the Scripture is faithful and true in so great a discovery II. That there is a Divine Spirit and a Power above nature which accompanies the same in such a change III. That there are surely contrary states in another World when they are so undeniably manifest here Qu. III. But can so great an experiment of Religion as that of Communion betwixt God and Men here upon Earth be made rationally convincing to such as are themselves strangers thereto and for a further confirming of the Christian Faith Answ Though this be an experiment of Divine Truth of a more transcendent interest and value than all that ever were in Nature yet it is no less evident and there can be no possible delusion herein if I. It 's that to which so innumerable a Company bears Testimony and hath sent down the same as that which not once or twice they have approved but in the continued trial of their Life II. That it 's known to the World that such as testifie what they do and have so oft found in the retirement of their Souls with God are of as discerning Spirits to know the true value of things as any else yea such whose testimony in other things the worst of men could not refuse nor deny III. That it's undeniably evident such must have another acquaintance and society than that of men which not only makes these hidden exercises of godliness so desireable where all may see they more flee than follow any humane Witness but also makes so visible a change both in their case and countenance after most sad anguish and down-castings of Spirit IV. That it is so evident also how such as are most serious this way have been visibly oft raised above their ordinary case and frame in Prayer and other duties of Religion yea in that manner as they who never knew there is a Holy Ghost but by report could not withstand so clear conviction of the reality hereof that can beget such liberty humble tenderness and melting of Heart yea such discernable joy and confidence V. That no delusion or false shew can be here when it 's ever seen that such as are most serious and frequent in Prayer and these hid retirements with God are the most flourishing also in the vitals of Christianity and have the most honourable lustre and appearance of any in their profession VI. That it 's such only whose joy and comfort is most specially discernable beyond others when these lower springs of outward help and encouragement are most visibly shut up Qu. IV. Is that great and experimental part of Religion in the Power of the Conscience over man such as may be as demonstrable to the World as the truth of a rational Being Answ It may be matter of wonder that men are not struck with deeper convictions hereon when they cannot but see I. That though this be the greatest tormentor and troubler of the World yet is there no possible retreat from its power tho' men should flee to the uttermost parts of the Earth but doth it enforce the Soul to a reflexion on its self even when it trembleth at that sight II. That it causeth great fear and horrour upon the commitment of secret sins when no dread of Humane Witness or of visible hazard this way could occasion it III. That it admits no violence in any to out-dare the same but is a power that the greatest Monarchs find to be stronger than they and is such that these oft are enforced for present ease and relief either to divert or bribe the same by some false grounds of peace IV. That it constrains men to Justifie God and Judge themselves when his hand doth pursue them and to find out their sin and guilt which was before hid V. That it makes men also afraid to be alone with themselves and to tremble at the Word of Truth because its light doth torment them by that unavoidable application which Conscience makes hereof VI. Yea it makes mens guilt so legible oft in their countenance even when they study most to conceal it that all may see there is an accuser within whose Authority and Power cannot possibly be declined VII That with so remarkable a confidence and security it doth support Mens Spirit and makes it easie to sustain its greatest infirmities from without when it is a Friend yea and upholds the opprest with unspeakable Peace and Comfort when it doth oft cause the oppressour to tremble Qu. V. But what doth most necessarily result from so clear a demonstration as the Conscience is for confirming of our Faith Answ I. That it 's infallibly thus clear that there is a Higher Power and Judgment to which all mankind is subjected and gives the World an unavoidable demonstration both of the being of God and of the Truth of his Word in the great and supernatural discovery which it makes hereof II. That there is a Supream and Infallible Law also and Invisible Judge above us under whose power and authority this Court of Justice doth without respect of Persons both Summon Arrest bring in Witness and Sentence great and small III. That the Internal Government of our Blessed Lord this way both in the severity of his rebukes and most sensible enlargements of Peace and Comfort is unavoidably demonstrated IV. That it bears so clear evidence to unknown and undoubted relief and none else could be ever found for these Wounds and Stings of the Conscience but in the Light and Power of Christianity V. That it is simply impossible for men to delight freely in a course of sin when no Humane Power can disarm the Conscience of that so intolerable a sting by which it begins so early a Hell within the Soul VI. That such is the Power and Peace of a good Conscience as can make it stand unbroken amidst the greatest ruins and terrours of the World when under such a guard as that of its own innocency SECTION V. Qu. I. IS the evidence of a Kingdom of Darkness in a direct opposition and contrariety to that Kingdom of Light which Christ hath set up by the Gospel such as the certainty thereof may be a matter of Sense as well as of Faith Answ This is of such special use both to confirm the Christian Faith and awake such to deeper reflexion on the same with whom there seems no hope to prevail but by proofs from palpable experience and it is not possible to deny I. That there is such a power as the Devil and those wicked Spirits incompassing the Earth yea that they have an ordinary and familiar converse with many therein II. That these Spirits though once originally excellent have fallen into such an Apostacy as all may see their aim and only pleasure is to dishonour God and destroy his Image in Man III. That it is impossible to deny the marks of that Power and Conquest which the Prince of this World hath every where amongst
to a further establishing of the Reformed Churches there as though such had Intentionally acted for the same when if second Causes had brought forth their Ordinary effects it might have been judged impossible to fail XIII We have seen that issue of all the Councels Expence and Cruelty of Philip the II. of Spain to bear down the Truth of the Gospel in the Netherlands which was to the furthest setling of this Illustrious State and the Church of Christ there yea how their Conspicuous Rise and Flourishing even in the Externals and their resolute adherence to the Truth of Christ did most visibly keep together XIV We know that deluge of Blood which so quickly followed the French Massacre and the most dismal time which ever that Nation knew did then visibly Contemporate with such a time of their greatest Rage and Persecution against the Truth and that Event of the Third Vial most clearly fulfilled herein Rev. 16.5 6. Thou art Righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus for they have shed the Blood of thy Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them Blood to drink in great measure XV. Yea have we not seen how four Kings of France Successively were in less than thirty years taken away in the same continued pursuit how to destroy the Church there in whom that whole race of the Valois was thus extinct yea in the manner of their Death were most remarkable Monuments of Divine Judgment as the most famous Writers of that time do attest XVI We have seen what marvellous effects did follow those Bloody Years of Queen Mary's Reign in England to promote and commend the Protestant Doctrine to Mens Consciences there with so great a Triumph as it had in the Sufferings of such choice and excellent witnesses for Christ and hath brought in more Rent to the Praise and Glory of their Blessed Head than may to the furthest compense all that Blood of the Saints there though highly Precious in the Eyes of the Lord. XVII We have seen likewise the Blood and Cruelty of late against the Protestants in Bohemia in a short time most Visibly returned on the Authors thereof and how the immediate Finger of God might be seen in calling forth the Swedes to avenge the same and in that desolating stroak which followed in Germany XVIII We have seen in these late Times the Issue of that horrid Massacre on the Protestants in Ireland to the utter ruine in a very few years after of that Barbarous Party who had thus acted herein XIX We have seen what wonderful Providences did attend the actings of that poor handful of Protestants in the Valleys of Piedmont since the Reformation upon the account of that Bloody Massacre which was set on foot there against them which was so astonishing as all might see an extraordinary Appearance of the Lord herein as is clearly attested by the most Faithful Histories of that time XX. And can it be forgot unto this day how visibly a Divine Hand did appear in breaking that great Spanish Armado in the Year 1588. which had been for some years in Contriving against England XXI Astonishing and specially Demonstrative of the immediate Power and Presence of God and matter of Wonder and Praise also for after Ages was that solemn time of the Reformation of the Church in Scotland for planting the Reformed Religion there with that zeal and oneness of Spirit as did then appear in all ranks to imbrace and adhere to the Profession thereof amidst the greatest threatnings of their Adversaries so as a few Years did bring forth that which would have seemed strange for an Age to accomplish yea that we find betwixt the last Martyr for the Truth there who was burnt at St. Andrews 1558. and the establishment of the Protestant Religion and full abolishment of Popery with the full Concurrence of Civil Authority herein in July 1560. was but little above two Years to shew what great things the Lord can do above all Humane Council or Confidence XXII It 's sure we have seen in what remarkable degrees these last Vials of the Holy Judgment of God have taken place on the Kingdom of Antichrist and how Conspicuous the Event hath been of that Prophecy 2 Thes 2.8 in these great Effects and Consumption thereof by the Ministry of the Gospel as an assured Pledge of the full Accomplishment of what remains herein XXIII And as every step of the Churches Rise hath been still advanced in a continued Conflict betwixt the Truth and Antichrist so have we still seen when the Assault and Opposition hath been greatest it s most remarkable tendency to a greater Victory which were it rightly considered upon clear and solid grounds from the Scripture the most formidable appearances of Trouble from this Adversary would with more Comfort than Fear this day be looked on so that whatever be the nearest and most immediate events yet is it sure as the Lord is true whose Word is passed hereon that whosoever gives their Power and Strength to support that Interest of Antichrist shall lose the day and find their Cause desperate for the party with whom they contend herein is the Son of God against whom no humane Power shall ever be able to stand These are but a few which are here mentioned of the great Acts of our God in behalf of his Truth to be still as present in our sight in a time when the Spirits of many are ready to Stagger and Faint and here mentioned to lay no stress or weight of the Authority of the Truth and Doctrine of our Profession thereon but on the alone Revelation of the Scripture but they are such an undeniable Seal for Confirming our Faith and of so known Publick and famous Evidence as should be no less considered and taken to Heart now than in the time when the Lord thus appeared herein SECTION III. Qu. VVHat present Judgment are we called to have of this Time upon clear and assured grounds from the Scripture that we may know under what aspect thereof the present State of Religion and of the Reformed Churches is under when so great a Crisis is this day as would seem to be in the very Height of its Conflict whether as to Life or Death Ans It is no present Appearance of the time that must Direct our Faith nor should we either stretch our Fears or Expectations of Things and Events beyond what the God of Truth doth warrand in his Word but it 's clear if we credit the same and admit the Divinity of the New Testament there is no just Cause of Hesitation or Darkness as to what the Lord is bringing forth for his Church now in these latter days nor can there be any pretence to seek another Light either from the Stars above or the Diviners of this Time when so woful a Trade hath got up in the World that men wtll thus go to the God of Ekron as though there were not a
the most full Enjoyments of the Promise and proper way to attain rest and tranquillity of Spirit must be ever by taking on the yoke of Christ 8. Yea to Confirm this entire Union and Harmony more fully he now sees that exact and marvellous Correspondence which is betwixt that first Fundamental Promise of the Messias and the Event betwixt all the Ancient Figures and Types of the Levitical Service and the Revelation of Christ himself in which all these did meet as in their proper Centre and now have their full End and Accomplishment 9. His Confirmation thus grows to see that wonderful Consent of Christianity and Native result hereof to put fallen man in a due posture towards God towards his Neighbours and towards himself so as he may know by Faith and Adoration how to enjoy God and his Brother by Love and thus by Patience Meekness and Humility to possess his own Soul and enjoy himself 10. Yea it is in this rare and wonderful frame he is made to see and no sight can be like this that exact correspondence which is betwixt the Foundation and Superstructure how the whole Tract of the Gospel is but one Entire and Compleat means to Glorifie God and restore fallen Man to the highest Blessedness How that excellent Stream of Sanctification does flow from that Fountain Head of an Eternal Decree which does still run under the Ground until it break up at last in the Heart of each Christian by the Effectual Call of the Gospel and thus runs down through time until it lose its self in that unconceivable deep of Perfection and Glory Thus is it that each Christian might attain some higher Degrees of Confirmation in his Faith than most seem either to know or look after if he understood more how to improve this rare comparing work of Religion by setting the great Truths and Principles thereof in their Order and Dependance so as each may be seen in its necessâ—ry Coherence with other and under its proper aspect But the more deep Reflection and Enquiry he hath herein he is the more made to wonder and finds this one of the great Assaults to his Faith that the Revelation of Christ and Redemption by his Blood should have no greater effects this day amongst men and that the Christian World is not in some other manner awakned with the Glory of this Light and prest after a larger spreading and Diffusion of this highest and universal good to poor mankind Yea the more he considers this it doth heigthen his Amazement to think how mens designs in the matter of Duty and Service for the Kingdom of Christ can be so low within time whose Designs and Hopes in the close thereof are so high in the matter of Enjoyment or take so little to heart that the whole Day of the dispensation of the Gospel amidst the most dismal Tryals that may fall in therewith is a continued time wherein we are called to keep the Feast and from one Age to another celebrate the same as a perpetual Jubilee of Joy and Exultation since Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us but oh how rare a thing seems this to be and how little of that flame and fervency of Love to our Blessed Redeemer is now kindled on his Altar Such as might be expected on such wonderful incitements thereto and which once were in the Church CHARACT III. Though a Confirmed Christian must be specially stated as such one who knows the Internal part of Religion and Sealing work of the Holy Ghost on his own Soul which is not by words but things of the highest Truth Substance and Reality yet is he not satisfied to know this by Spiritual Sense until he can see the same with the furthest Evidence of Light also to his mind and have no less a clear and judicious Tryal of this great Mystery of Experimental Religion for confirmation of his Faith than to be sensibly affected with the felt power thereof And in the first place why this is necessarily requisite and called for with respect to the Confirmed State of a Christian may be thus considered on some few grounds 1. That the things of Religion which must be experienced within time are such sublime and wonderful Mysteries as may be just matter of astonishment and make men a wonder â—o themselves to think that these present Pledges of so greaâ— a hope which is to come are no shadows no appearances of things but most sure and undoubted realities and that such there are this day in the Earth who know so near a converse with an Invisible God and the supernatural Truths of his Word with the sensible feeling of the inestimable Love of Christ by this demonstration of Experience yea who in such dismal Times do assuredly know what the Joy of his Presence and an immediate Fellowship with their blessed â—â—ead is upon the greatest certainty of Tryal since these are so high and marvelous things which exceed all Natural Understanding as the felt Sweetness of their enjoyment should not more deeply take men up than to see the Truth and Sureness of these Principles whereon they build 2. Because this Testimony of the Truth of Experimental Religion should be understood not only as it 's of highest use for Christians Personal Comfort and Establishment but with respect to the Publick Intâ—rest of the Church a special duty it is to have the Credit of this greatest Testimony and Seal demonstrably cleared with the furthest strength of harmonious and argumentative Reason for such who look but at a distance yet thereon which may not only awaken them to some deeper sense and impression hereof but constrain them to see how no Natural Science hath more clear and firm demonstrations than the Experimental part of Christianity which is the very Life and Soul thereof may have to mens Reason and Judgment tho' they never knew it within themselves Yea for this end should such as have experienced the Truth and Vertue of the Gospel reckon themselves as Witnesses who are judicially obliged to put their Seal thereunto and is now more called for in an Age when no particular Truth seems more strongly impugned than the Reality of Experimental Godliness is and become as a Publick Theam of Derision tho' men must either quit the whole Revelation of the Scripture or see this to be as Essential to the Constitution of a Christian as Vital Principles are to a Living Man 3. Yea it 's sure herein that such as take Religion to heart must needs look to be put to the greatest Tryal of its Certainty and should â—ost nearly concern themselves to know if they can abide as firmly by their Spiritual Sense as by that which is Natural and do know as surely in themselves the Operations and Motions of a Spiritual Life as that they have being by Nature and that here be no doubtful or abstract Notions but which have had deep Tryal and Reflexion on them that they who dare to venture their
such an Erection of the Gospel Church in her Militant State here as the Papacy in its complex frame is united in such an Head as the Pope who as the sole Vicegerent of Christ in the Earth is at once invested with a Civil Monarchy and Universal Empire over the Church to impose and judge in the highest Transactions which relate to the Eternal State and Immortal Souls of Men is a thing that as to Matter of Right is as Forreign to the Scripture and inconsistent therewith as Mahumetanism can be And as to Matter of Fact is a Trust that no created Being could ever Exercise 11. He sees and is sure that he must either lose sight both of the Rule and Spirit of the Gospel or have a just abhorrence of that way wherein he should be inevitably Involved in a Virtual Consent and Accessoriness to all that Cruelty and Blood which for so many Ages hath been shed therein when it 's so clear that this was no Exorbitance only of Practice but a Native result of their Tenets and Principles and not only dispensed with but counted an highly Meritorious Service yea when it is sure that under no Secular Government of the most Tyrannical State that ever was in the World hath such Arbitrary Violence and Oppression been exercised Or so much Innocent Blood been shed as by this party 12. And tho his Judgement stood indetermined and in an equal Ballance upon this great Controversie he could not exercise Reason and not see upon what Hand such a Decision is as was in Solomons time of the true Mother of the Child and who do most ruefully seek to interest themselves in the imminent Hazard of the Christian Faith and who under the least influence of any Temporal Motives do this day stand for the Truth and Substance of Christianity and plead that iâ— be not destroyed in envy and hatred to them or on what side it is likely that this manner of Conquest is most followed to gain men to the Profession of the Truth by a prevailing Evidence of their own Light and Judgment herein and to require their exactest personal Tryal and enquiry about the same In the third place tho he sees there can be no pretence of Doctrinal Wavering about the Reformed Religion and finds it not easie to comprehend how in one and the same Age wherein the Truth hath so brightly shined this way of Popery should have Prevalence or gain ground any more by Seduction with Arguments to the Reason or Conscience of any yet since it is an hour of Temptation and of Fainting above all that have been hitherto known and mens eyes are Arrested with such a Prospect of the times as is like to Stagger the Faith of the most established he is pressed as counting it one of the highest Duties of this day to know and search out what may afford greatest Assistance to his Faith from the Dispensations of Providence therein and to know the Evidence and Strength of such Reflections as these are for this End 1. That it 's sure as the smallest things which the Lord does afford to strengthen and support against such a Storm should be seriously improved and taken to Heart so does it lay us in the way of that Promise for having greater things given to our Observation yea that now is the time when such as have been most comforted by the Word of Promise may be put to the sorest Tryal in their Faith of any to keep off stumbling at the Work of Providence and be thus tryed according to the measure of these Confirmations 2. Tho the Churches Declinings under greatest measures of Light may be too visible and that Religion gains not by Persecution as formerly with such an amazing change as is now in her External Condition yet he sees it to be no strange thing when most signal warnings have gone before of such a Tryal with too evident Dispositions towards the same and discovery of its approach in all the Causes thereof yea might be forseen by all that the Holy God would not still bear with an Impure and unenlivened Profession of the Pure and Glorious Truth of Christianity which hath now long been one of the most sad and mortal signs in the publick state of Religion nor can it be found that ever any Church did decline and fall from the Purity of the Truth and lose ground herein by External Persecution where a judicial departure of its Life and Power did not remarkably go before so as it is not of late this hath been clearly presaged that some dark and unusual measure of tryal from Antchrist and the last Havock of the Reformed Churches was drawing near which would be sore ere it had done its work 3. He sees also how this present hour is not more searching and dark than it may be clear herewith 1. That now after the issue of that Opposition which was betwixt the Christian Faith in the first Entry of the Gospel and that dying Apostate Church of the Jews and next with the Pagan Empire after that new Erection of the Gospel Church among the Gentiles which is now over so is the greatest Tryal of the latter days fixed on the Decision of that long depending Controversie betwixt Christ and Antichrist 2. That according to the Scripture we must believe that as after the manner of Egypt that glorious Triumph and Delivery of the Church from Antichrist will be surely carried on so the more near it comes to the last assault and when this falls in to have its proper room in the Frame and Administration of Providence the greater Extremity Terrour and Darkness may be expected also such as hath not been in any former time Yea with that united and formidable Conjunction of Strength and growing Success of this Adversary for a time that the most established Christians may be in hazard to stagger 3. That now is the day wherein the Lord will have men know what it is to have the Bible as the alone Security of the Protestant Religion on which they must entirely rest no less than as it is the sole Rule and Standard thereof which is a Tryal worthy of all that expence of the Pain Anguish and Wrestlings that can now possibly attend the same 4. Whilst the great Standard of Antichrists Kingdom is visibly set up and brought to the open field as it 's this day in the Church of France and all humane help taken out of sight yet does he see herewith 1. How this now is concluded as the most infallible Remedy to recover Popery And that Argument to which they trust more than to Peters Keys to wit these Sanguinary Laws by the Sword and Rack which they have again betaken themselves to tho such an Argument the Scripture never knew and sober Heathens would abhor and which gives up the Credit of all Religion to Atheism 2. That there can be no more evidence of a desperate and sinking Cause than is here and nothing else can
which are more extraordinary and remote Assistances thereto 2. That these are given as such a great help to his Joy and Excitement of his Affections to follow the Lord fully as may make him wonder how the greatness of these things which men are called to believe can come near their thoughts and yet no more take them up about this Confirming Work 3. That the too visible neglect hereof both with respect to the Youth and Community of Professours in the Church seems one of the sad and fundamental defects of this day The Reasons hâ—reof with some clear view of these means whicâ—â—ight most answer such an end are briefly offered in this preceding Work CHARACT VII A truly Confirmed Christian may in the last place be herein also considered as such whose Faith being oft tryed through all these Stages of Christianity he hath been taken hath some proper Record of the most choice and signal Confirmations of his Life to improve the same not only for his own support in that last warfare of death but for strengthning the Faith of others wherein he does thus judge 1. That there could be no true support or relief from Religion here in the Earth if it cannot bear out then And that Death is the great Toâ—chstone and Trial when the true value and difference betwixt things of an Eternal Truth and substance and the things of this World will be best seen 2. He reckons each real Christian by his Profession then engaged and accountable even by some explicite personal Testimony to put to his Seal that God is True and bear the same witness with his last and dying breath to the Truth of Christianity which he gave in the whole course of his Life and of that joy complacence and assurance of Mind which he hath found and now hath in the way of Truth So as to press the same on his dearest Relations as their alone true Interest 3. He sees also how honourable it is for the Lord that such whose Faith hath been oft tried and when thus with Joy and Admiration he can look back on the most pressing and conspicuous Conflicts of time should have it their last work to pay in some Tribute of Praise unto him whose Word and Promise unto them did yet never fail 4. He accounts the more weighty Tryals he hath been carried thorow in his Christian warfare do both add more to this Service and impart more to the value of such a Testimony 5. He judgeth this one special way and advantage whereby one Generation might declare the Truth and Faithfulness of God unto another in a Family Line and Relation to shew forth thus that the Lord is upright that he is their Rock and with him is no Unrighteousness Yea which should be matter of unspeakable Joy when now in his turn he can say that such hath the Lord been to him what were Davids dying Words 1 Kings 1.14 Who hath delivered my Soul out of all distress how that in no trouble or exigence of his Life he was ever left without a door of Hope and thus also with Caleb Josh 14.10 To give in some such witness for God I am now near the close of time and do testifie that the Word of his Truth and Promise he hath surely accomplished which hath brought me safe and honourably through when such as did distrust the same by misbelief and sought after another refuge found all their Confidences fail 6. And knowing likewise how great a suprizal Death may be and that such as have shined in their day may yet set under a cloud and go silent off the Stage he judgeth it the more needful to have such a piece of his dying work prepared as one of the choicest Legacies he can bequeath to his Surviving Friends in a season when it hath usually the greatest advantage of weight and acceptance it being still qualified with Christian Prudence and Humble Sobriety so as all may see its whole intent is to commend to mens Conscience the way of Truth and Godliness and not themselves and thus direct it for the proper use and improvement of their nearest Relations I know it may be strange to some what is spoke upon this Head but as it 's sure the present day hath its Duty and each time of out Life hath some proper work so I humbly judge that this seems to fall in as the last Service of a dying Christian to his Generation to deliver off his hand the Truth which he had received and hath oft proved with his Confirmatory Seal and Testimonâ— thereto And now is it in some more than ordinary way called for in this hour of great darkness when if the Security of the Absolute Promises stood not good to the Church we might fear Religion might quickly wear out and Truth perish from the Earth and as so solemn and weighty a thing should it be managed with much humble Prudence so that it may be judged that there is no serious and observing Christian but hath some peculiar ingagements under which they find themselves held even beyond others yea some such Singular Confirmations in the Journal of their Life that should not be easie to hide under the ground where the strengthning of others hereby is concerned and that such should not then leave the Cross of Jesus Christ at a loss or part therewith without their Testimony which hath left them at so grâ—at an Advantage And though this is not to offer particular Rules in such a Duty but that Christian Wisdom must direct herein as the present Case is circumstantiated yet might it be hoped were this more taken to Heart it should be a singular means to make more deep Impressions of mens dying Work on their Spirits Even whilst they are in health to excite their surviving Friends and to keep Religion thus alive in a Family state and Relation and gain a more venerable respect to the same on mens Consciences yea to fix also stronger ingagements on the succeeding offspring Thus is presented here a short Idea of the solid and judicious Work of Christian Confirmation in the Truth under these foregoing Characters to shew how rare an attainment of Religion this is yea to present herein a special Series and Scale of the greatest steps in this Confirmatory work by which it should be followed And none of these may be parted from other though some be of an higher and more absolute use for such an end And if it should be objected here What needs any such expense of time or pains in this Case when it 's sure the Essential Truths of the Gospel are not questioned and that without internal evidence of the Spirit no external means of this kind can be of use I know that it 's the alone work of the Holy Ghost to beget a Divine and supernatural Faith without which the furthest Light and Objective Evidence though backed with a continued Dispensation of External Miracles could never bear Christians out either as to
Duty or Comfort in their passage thorow time yea nothing is in the least here to subject the Credit of our Faith to mens Rational Comprehension but rather tends to enervate wholly the strâ—ngth of any such Tenet and take off all pretence for the same But it 's sure also I must quit all solid Security in the way of Religion and any clear founding in the Light and Certainty of the Scripture or admit these things as undeniable 1. That supernatural Faith is the most highly rational Light that 's within time And that none who profess the Name of Christ can be of so low a size as should not be pressed and excited to be much about this Ground-work of knowing the Truth and Principles of their Profession upon its own Evidence yea are thus called as new born Babes to drink in the sincere Milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2. Which as it 's clearly in the Original is the rational Milk of the Word to be thus received no less on Conviction and Certainty of the Judgment than with the out going of their affections 2. That as it 's not conceiveable how a true and firm Assent can be to Divine Truth but on its known Certainty so here is no resolving of the Christians Faith on the strongest rational Evidences hereof which must still be resolved on the Testimony of God made clear and evident to them to be such 3. It is sure also the Lord hath not given so large a measure of these Grounds and Demonstrations of his Truth with such redoubled Arguments of that kind to be of so small regard as is with most But for some great and universal use hereof to the whole Church and knew how needful such Assistances to the Faith of his People would be whilst they are on the Earth 4. That these means which tend most convincingly to found a rational Assurance in the Judgment are the proper Vehicle of the Spirit of God by which his sealing Work should be both sought and expected nor can I judge how the Credit and use hereof should be so small and not on the same Ground quit any External Ordinance of the Gospel which without the Spirit of the Lord can never profit nor how we should expect and suit his Confirming Work on the Soul when these greatest Confirming Means which he hath given to the Church have no just weight But oh how wonderful a Teacher is the Holy Ghost when such ordinary means fail and are inaccessible by furnishing his People then with these strongest Arguments of Love and Power who having had but small Measures of Light yet were not unfaithful to improve the smallest degree of such a Talent 5. Yea so great a thing is it to attain a solid Faith of Things wholly remote from our Sense and so far above the reach and Apprehension of Nature or to have an absolute reliance on an invisible Refuge for our present and Eternal State as no common Assent can answer when the very rest and quiet of the Soul must needs lie in the sure and firm Perswasion hereof 6. It is too visible also how little the Practical Vse of such a mean hath yet been essaied in the Church thaâ— all who are members thereof might no less know the Strength and Firmness of the Foundation of their Faith by its own Evidence than the General Articles of Religion The most usual instructing work lies almost wholly about the Noetick part of Divinity there seems not that serious regard to press the Dianoetick part hereof on Mens Conscience as if this were to be restrained to a few who are more Knowing Learned and of an Inquisitive Spirit about the rational Certainty of the Truth and for whom these choice and abundant helps of this kind which are in this Age seem more peculiarly directed It 's sure that the Christian Faith in the first-times did remarkably then spread and prevail by these clear Evidences hereof to the Judgment made Effectual by the Spirit of God more than by extraordinary Miracles Nor knew they otherwise whaâ— lt was to be Christians but by imbracing the Truth with a full Assurance of Vnderstanding no less than of Delight and Affection But if it be objected it is not the Case now where Religion is planted in a Nation and hath an uncontrollable Publick Profession under the support of Humane Laws I know no admitted weight this can have except that it should be granted that Christians now be Born and not new-created 7. Yea is it not sure tho it seem little understood that the primary Grounds and Evidences of our Faith are not only as to their End demonstrative of the Truth and Divinity of the Scripture but are upon the Matter such Demonstrations also which most natively result from the same by infallible Consequence and are thus to be accounted not as Humane but Divine Arguments given us by the Spirit of God 8. I shall but further add how such as do seriously ponder things will find this Demonstration to be no more important than clear that to be a Confirmed Christian and a Confirmed Protestant are Convertible Terms and that if they that are under that Deplorable Bondage and Darkness of Popery were but once awaked to see the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Faith by its Intrinsick and Objective Evidence and taken off that brutish Credulity and Dependance on the alone Credit of others herein it might be said the strongest Engine to hold up that Profession were then broke and we should see the Doctrine and Rule of Faith to be of such full and perspicuous Evidence from the Scripture as without Blasphemy they could not seek from the Lord to give them a plainer Rule than what he hath there given READER IT 'S like thou mayest think strange how these few Sheets in the close fall in here after the foregoing part was finished but the they meet in one Design and Interest yet was not this then intended until the former was done and if it might tend to a solid use and Fruit unto any I shall forbear a further Apology herein I may truly say the weight of the Subject hath carried it some further length than was designed when I so much sought to be short as I aim at in any thing of this kind that through my desire to avoid any unnecessary multiplying of Words I fear lest it may make some things â—â—em a little dark at the first view Tho I hope not upon any serious perusal of the same Two things I must further crave leave to add 1. That when some Succinct View of the great Assistances and Confirmations of our Faith is here offered which these of the lowest Capacity of the Church might with that advantage improve as in a few hours by reading it some times over may be so far impressed on their Mind and Judgment that they could give some clear and judicious account thereof it may be by such but seriously weighed and taken to Heart of what concern the use hereof is 2. That I humbly judge also it were a most special Service for the Truth in this day to have some short Directory and remembrancer of the great Acts of the Lord and Monuments of his Providence now under the New Testament in that manner held forth as might most tend to some Universal Use of all within the Church I Confess my desire pressed me to some small Essay herein with intent to have joyned it to this Work but having with much Convictâ—on laid this wholly aside as to any further appearance that way so is it with an Earnest Desire that some more qualified might take to Heart and under their Hand so great a Service both for their Generation and Posterity It is sure the Lord hath designed his People to be taught the greatness of his Works as well as the precepts of his Word and as no Duty is more pressed than this under the Old Testament both as to Publick and Family Instruction so are we no less accountable in these last times for this Improvement of such as are of known publick and uncontrolable Evidence and should be the care of each Age to have that Solemn Remembrance kepâ— up hereof so as not a few but the very Multitude within the Church might be as a publick Library and Repository of the same FINIS
many that do competently know what it is to be a Christian for every single man that can render a Reason why he ought to be so Storms do make men look to their Anchors and we do not know but aweful Judgments are hastning on us being Remote ones do not awaken us to beat us out of our inconsiderately chosen Refuges Our Precarious and Unexamined Confidences which in very Propriety are but Fancy and not Faith built upon any solid Grounds However we must all needs Die and it is more than probable that a near Prospect of the Future State may convincingly show the most obstinate that the King of Terrours is not to be conquered and no Miracles are to be wrought by an Implicit Faith Pecudum ritu euntes non qà eundum est sed qà itur Sen. Or by a way of Religion that is taken up and walk'd in meerly for Company Wherefore we give our great Thanks to the Author of every good Gift who hath drawn this his richly furnished Scribe to supply us with so very needful a Treatise as is here offered Some of us do Profess that in reading it we were surprized with Joy and with Wonder that a Topick so little Written Discoursed or Thought of should be treated on with such depth of Judgment and with such Experience as is rarely found in the most laudable Writers Thro' the Divine Blessing which we implore we hope that we and our Brethren throughout these Nations shall find good success of our Peoples use of this most instructive Work For which with the excellent Author who did but Consent to this Edition of it we are indebted unto the Reverend and Worthy Publisher by whose means we receive it We joyn with both of them in Prayer to the most High that this Rich Seed of the Sower may be made Bread of Life to the Eater William Bates Mathew Mead. Thomas Cole John Howe Mathew Sylvester Daniel Williams John Showers The Author's PREFACE THis small Treatise here offered is on the greatest Subjects that can fall under the Consideration of Mankind and is a Study which was never more pressingly called for than in these days for making Peace with God and gaining such an Assurance of his Truth as may fully quiet and support the Soul though all sensible Props should be broken and fail Great changes do surely hasten on this Generation and the Life of Faith is in another manner like to be put to Tryal than since the Churches Rise and Recovery from Antichristian Bondage The storm now visibly grows upon the Churches of Christ though nothing ought to Faint or Shake the Spirits of any who know their Anchor is sure and cast within the Vail but the strongest Difficulties in following the Lord when overcome yeild the greatest Victory and will be not only matter of Joy here but to all Eternity in having with Patience and Hope indured and got well through a Throng of Temptations and Assaults in a resolute adherence to the Truth If men think it their Wisdom to secure their Private Interest by dividing it in such a time from the Publick Cause of the Reformed Church and make Light of the greatest Truths of God now assaulted of the Blood of the Martyrs yea of their own Eternal State by any coolness or shrinking from the same they will find no Temporal Motives can ever compensate that loss and ruine which inevitably will meet such in the Issue Yea that these Words of Mordecai to Esther Esth 4.13 14. Have the same Voice and weight in this day What is held forth in the following work I may with humble Confidence say was under some pressure to have such clear Evidence and Quieting Persuasion of Divine Truth as made it less easie to have my own Spirit satisfied herein than possibly it may be to others for if it were not from that blessed Assurance of the Lords being God of the Revelation of Christ and of the Glory to come I should not know what could be comforting or make a rational Being desireable Some singular Ingagements I judge my self also to stand under for putting to my Seal to the Truth and Faithfulness of God in his Word from many signal Confirmations hereof in the course of my Pilgrimage if such a poor Testimony might be of any weight Let the Blessed Lord graciously accept this small offering to him for the Interest of his Truth by so mean an Instrument and give some Fruit hereof that may abide and be found in the day of Christ I hope the Reader may find by a Perusal of the I. Chapter of what Serious Use and Intent the II. is yea that in this day it was not Unseasonable or Incongruous to the foregoing Subject what is held forth in the III. Chapter But Oh! it is sad and amazing to think how few are under that weight of Religion as once to have a Serious Inquiry on the Grounds and Reasons thereof and to account the most special Assistances to their Faith to be the greatest Helpers of their Joy within time THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The Primitive Confirmation held forth and cleared in seven Positions POSIT I. Sad is the aspect which the implicit and traditional profession of this day hath upon the present state of Religion page 1. POSIT II. It is a great service for the Church to have a clear founding of the faith of assent upon known and solid grounds herein more universally promoted page 3 POSIT III. The true primitive confirmation as it was in the times of the Apostles is held forth and cleared from the Scripture page 5 POSIT IV. The continued necessity thereof is no less convincing now for the Churches use than in those Primitive times page 7 POSIT V. Such a confirmatory work respects not only the more knowing and inquisitive part of Men but the meanest within the Church page 9 POSIT VI. What is specially called for in the practical use of this primitive confirmation is held forth in some serious proposals for this end page 11 POSIT VII Special excitement we are under for promoting the same in so remarkable a period of time as this and from the hope of a greater reviving yet of such a Catholick Spirit to advance the highest ends of Religion amongst men page 15 CHAPTER II. For giving some clear view of these primary evidences and demonstrations of our Faith that the meanest Christian should know and with the least expence of time may improve for their daily use on these greatest Principles SECTION I. I. OF the glorious Being of God which is the first Foundation of all Religion page 17 II. Of the original of the world and it s not being eternal page 19 III. Of a supreme Providence in the conservation and government of the world page 20 IV. Of that special providence which in its continued administration of human affairs doth unchangeably difference betwixt the righteous and the wicked page 22 V. How such a wonderful record as that of an
immediate revelation of God unto men is so demonstrably extant in the world page 24 VI. Of the special evidences of the Scriptures Divinity which men must needs see to be infallible page 25 VII Of the secure conveyance of the Scripture though all the changes of times past page 27 VIII Of the fall of man and entry of sin into the World as it is fully demonstrable to reason as well as by the certainty of Faith page 28 SECTION II. I. HOlding forth those great assistances to the Christian faith and of the Messias being surely promised to the Church before his coming page 29 II. Of the truth and accomplishment of this great promise of the Messias and how it is now as sure in the event as it 's clear he was promised page 30 III. Of the special advantage for confirmation of our faith herein that for 4000 years the promised coming of the Messias was deferred page 32 IV. Of the nature and internal excellency of Christianity to bear furthest evidence to the truth thereof page 33 V. That this is the same Gospel we now receive and enjoy which from the first promulgation thereof hath had so great effects on the world page 34 VI. That the sufferings of the Saints in times past was so demonstrably above the assistance of Nature page 36 SECTION III. I. FOR holding forth on what grounds the faith of a Deity must determine men to be Christians page 37 II. What confirmation the Christian Religion hath from that visible State of the Jews page 38 III. The way and manner of its prevailing on the world which no profession else could ever pretend to page 39 IV. The nature of that great evidence which Christ hath himself given to the world of his divine mission in the love and unity of his people Joh 17.21 page 40 V. How the strength of such a demonstration stands still clear and evident in these dividing times of the Church page 42 VI. What in these last times is under our hand to compensate such a confirmation by miracles which was in the first times of the Gospel page 43 SECTION IV. I. FOR holding forth with the furthest rational certainty and evidence the truth and doctrine of Christ to be a soul-quickning and experimental Religion page 44 II. The truth also of conversion of men from a state of nature to a new state of grace page 46 III. Of so great an experiment of Religion as Communion betwixt God and men here on Earth page 48 IV. Of so great a demonstration of Religion in the power and workings of the Conscience page 49 V. Of that special confirmation to our faith which doth result from such a demonstration of this power of the Conscience over men page 50 SECTION V. I. FOR holding forth the Truth of a Kingdom of Darkness in the World in opposition to the Kingdom of Christ page 51 II. What confirmation to our Faith the certainty hereof and of these Powers of Darkness doth clearly afford page 52 III. That great truth of the immortality of the Soul with the clearest evidence to reason as well as by the certainty of Faith page 54 IV. How confirming a Seal to the Scripture that great change which passeth on all men by death is and how it 's no natural accident page 55 V. Some special assistances to the Christians Faith of an eternal Glory in Heaven and to serve an unavoidable conviction on the greatest Atheists page 57 VI. Something of a visible Hell in some near approach hereof even to mens senses held forth to awake and convince the World of such a state of horrour and torment in another World page 59 VII Some assistances to our Faith of that great truth of the Resurrection of the Body page 61 CHAPTER III. The Confirming work of Religion further improved with respect to this dismal and amazing time we are now fallen in SECTION I. TO hold forth what may be both for light and confirmation upon this great distress the Churches of Christ are now under page 63 SECTION II. HOW great a talent we stand accountable for in this day of such immediate and extraordinary appearances of the Lord for confirming the same publick cause of the Reformed Church since the Reformation which we are now called to adhere to page 65 SECTION III. WHat manner of time is the present lot of the Church now fallen in and what judgment we ought to have hereof from the Scripture for our furthest confirming in such a day page 73 SECTION IV. SOme special service that we are now called to and accountable for in behalf of the truth and for sanctifying the Lord in the eyes of others who are under so great a talent of Light and confirmation in the same page 77 The True and Infallible WAY For attaining a confirmed State in Religion c. CHAP. I. The Primitive Confirmation in the truth of Christianity held forth and cleared in its continued necessity and use to this day in seven Positions Posit I. THAT nothing can be of a more sad and threatning aspect on the present state of Religion in all the Churches of Christ than that utter estrangement most are under to the true grounds of Faith and to those fundamental differences betwixt Christianity and every false way which no pretended Religion can lay claim to The reasons of the Position are these I. That it is too visibly manifest how no men in the world know so little of their own profession of any human art or science as such who bear the Name of Christians Or are so generally strangers to the Truth and firmness of the Principles thereof for maintaining either a due Valuation or powerful sence of the same on their Soul so that an implicit and Traditional Profession is the only part and propriety which most can claim in the Truth and Doctrine they profess II. That very rarely also is any Serious Personal Inquiry and Tryal if there be indeed such a thing as an Experimental and Soul-quickning Religion in the Earth That can bear the expence of the most dismal and afflicting times and hath so great a temporal Revenue as Peace with God an Immediate Communion with him the Joy and Comforts of the Holy Ghost when we are under such pressures of trouble as are above the support of Nature III. That the furthest account why most go under the name of Christians rather than of any other form can rise no higher than Custom and Education that it did bespeak them from their Birth and was the Religion of their Ancestors yea become in that manner natural to them as the Customs and Language of their Country Which are grounds that would determine to the very opposite Profession if they were stated under the same circumstances and had the same motives to be Mahumetans since it is sure these can found no other Assent than is suitable to the Nature and Strength thereof IV. That thus it is plain the most numerous part of
Visible Professours are destitute of any defence from internal motives and solid conviction of the truth they profess upon its own evidence and there was never more cause to fear some unusual apostacy from the very visible profession of Christ upon any violent tryal and assault this way When such find it more easy to render up their Religion than to adhere to the same under strong temptations who yet never knew that substance advantage or certainty herein as could preponderate with the want of all external motives for such a profession Posit II. That thus one of the highest services of these times for the publick good of the Church does convincingly lye here to have the faith of assent to the truth and doctrine of Christ in a clear and firm certainty of the judgment on its own evidence more vigorously promoted and the proper means and assistances which the Lord hath given for this end in some other manner yet improved than seems to be at this day for a more universal use The grounds to inforce the necessity hereof are these I. That it 's sure wherever the Gospel is revealed to men it comes with so full an assurance of understanding and sufficiency of objective evidence as can admit of no possible doubtfulness herein Which is the credit and glory of our religion that in no other way it doth require acceptance but with the furthest conviction of evidence II. Because the express design and tendency of this blessed revelation is no less to found such a rational assurance in the judgment of its truth than to ingage the will and consent for imbracing thereof and though such great demonstrations for this end can only in suo genere have a convincing influence to perswade the understanding yet are they of such weight here as next to the demonstration of the Spirit of God they are the greatest means to bring up mens assent to a full and quieting rest on that security to which they must trust themselves for ever and to let them see that this even here by the way is assuredly full though not yet their enjoyment III. Because this faith of assent should be first followed in the order of nature as being the very first principle of conversion to know and be sure that God hath sent his son into the world to save sinners wherein as the Holy Ghost is not the Objâ—ctive but the Efficient Cause of our Faith so is not the internal work and Testimony he gives on the Soul the first Testimony but must still have respect to the revelation of the Word without and such demonstrative evidences thereof wherewith it is revealed to the world Nor may any ever separate that which God hath himself so indissolubly joyned IV. That there is so convincing a necessity and use hereof to the Church and in a special way with respect to the youth for a more firm laying of the groundwork of their Christian profession and for the seed-plot of a blessed and desirable growth amongst such in this day that they might thus know early something of these primary grounds and demonstrations of their faith so also is it a study of that high importance as I humbly judge should be of notable use for a Manuduction in the first place to Students of Divinity before they launch forth in that vast and immense Ocean of the speculative part thereof and for being at some greater advantage thus for carrying on such a confirming work in the Church in their future service V. Yea of what use might this be with respect to many who may be sore haunted with hidden and dreadful temptations to infidelity and to weaken them in the very foundations of their faith who are wholly unfurnished of any such grounds and arguments in their judgment to repel the same and it is certain that to believe firmly the History of the Gospel that God was manifested in our nature to save man is with respect to the object a much higher act of faith than to believe that he will save us since as the one doth unspeakably more transcend all human reason than the other so doth the Apostle thus argue from the greater to the less Rom. 8.32 that he who gave his own son to the death will he not also with him give us all things Posit III. That such a Confirming Work was most specially followed in the Practice of the Primitive Times and one of the great Ends of the Ministry of the Apostles and Evangelists to have this Faith of Assent and Doctrinal Certainty thereof on its proper Grounds and Evidences deeply founded in Mens Judgment is so clear as cannot come under Debate I. That this way did the great Author of our Profession himself take not only by the Authority of his Word and the Power and Energy of Grace but with that Convincing Evidence and Demonstration of his Truth to Mens Understanding as might found also a firm and rational Assurance hereof II. That for this End he did pray the Father Joh. 17.21 and was so much pressed herein that so great an external Demonstration of the Truth of the Gospel in the Concord and Unity of his People might be kept clear that the World might thus believe that he was sent of God and have a deeper Conviction hereof wrought in them by such an Evidence III. That one special Intent of the Gospel of Luke was for this end Luke 1.4 That men might know not only the things themselves by a naked Relation but the Certainty of these things wherein they had been formerly Instructed IV. That herein did the Ministry of Apollos so brightly shine forth Act. 18.28 And was then of most singular use to the Church by that clearness of rational Conviction and demonstrative Arguments for the Truth of Christ as the greatest gainsayers could not withstand V. That it 's sure it was then without Exception expresly required of the meanest within the Church to be always ready to render the Reasons of their Hope to all who asked and not only to know what they did Believe but why they did so as is clear 1 Pet. 3.15 This could not be by bringing forth of internal Evidences for Conviction of others but by giving them an account of the most cogent grounds and demonstrations of the Gospel as might be most prevalent and confirming to the weak and leave others inexcusable and seems to have been then specially pressed in these Primitive Times as a proper Test of their Christian Profession VI. And we see herein also how much these excellent Bereans were taken up and were so highly commended of the Holy Ghost Act. 17.11 To know the demonstrative part of Christianity and by its own evidence with that intire harmony and consent of the Scripture therein and their being thus diligently intent in that comparing-work of Religion to see the truth thereof not singly and apart by themselves alone but in that joynt-union coherence wherein they stand each in their own room for
the Gospel with so clear and strong a conveyance thereof is yet so little operative on most the same might be said also of the whole letter of the Scripture but tho this tends not in the least to resolve our Religion into any meer exercise of reason and leaves the whole work of the Spirit in its energy and operation therewith on mens souls intire yet doth it fully evince such a sufficiency of evidence with the Christian faith as makes any doubtfulness herein simply impossible through want of the greatest advantage of means yea such as are of another kind than to induce only a probable perswasion of the same VI. Because it is one of the saddest Symptoms of the present State of Religion that so few almost in whole Congregations can give any clear Assent to the Truth and Certainty thereof but to Amazement both live and die Strangers to the same yea how many of these who are otherwise Serious in Religion yet have their Faith starved this way and are destitute of any such support but as it is not the numerousness of Professours but the Strength and solidity of their Faith wherein the Churches Strength most lies and hath more flourished in a few such to beget a greater Awe and Veneration of Religion amongst Men than at other times in the greatest Multitude so is it the Glory of Divine Truth that it can subsist by its own proper Evidence and preserve its Station in the worst of times when all External Arguments do most visibly cease Posit VI. That it 's fully demonstrable and clear how no simple instructing of men in the general Principles of Religion can be the proper and adequate means for such a Faith of Assent to the Truth thereof on its own Evidence or answer that Apostolick Pattern of laying the Foundation Heb. 6.2 But that some special Duties else are called for to so high an end such wherein not only that true Primitive Confirmation in the Christian Faith might have some Practical use but we might also Hope therewith for a more remarkable out-letting of Confirming Influences of the Spirit of God What is to be understood herein I shall humbly offer in a few particulars I. That it is one of the greatest concerns of the Ministerial Work and of the Key of Doctrine to have all who hear the Gospel in the first place pressed to take Religion so far to Heart as to make a serious inquiry into the Grounds and Reasons hereof and thus to know their being on sure ground herein not because they know not another way but because they know this is the alone way of Truth to which they dare trust their Immortal Souls II. That for this End the Supream Truths of Relion be represented with that certainty of Evidence and Demonstration as both such great and marvellous things do require and the temper of such a gain-saying Age now calls for and to have this pressed more on mens Judgment and Conscience that the things of God which are of the highest Consequence Reality and Substance can have no possible Reception by any implicite or probable belief thereof nor can admit any pretence for the same when the Lord hath given such kind of Proofs and Evidence as leaves mens darkness herein without any shaddow of excuse II. That it peculiarly belongs to the Catechetical Work of Religion to take some account of the meanest Professours thereof and with a special respect to the Youth of their Faith of Assent to the Doctrine of Christ on what grounds and certainty of evidence this is founded and for their instructing therein as well as in the general Principles of Religion when one of the most ruining things to the Church lies here that the Profession of most is laid in so deep an Ignorance as they have almost nothing to say for the same but a naked Affirmation I know the difficulty hereof for the weak may be objected but without just cause since as the Prime Truths of Religion are few easie and plain for the meanest Capacity so also are the Primary Evidences and Demonstrations of our Faith if such once with that desire did search after the same as for a hidden and invaluable Treasure wherein this respect should be still had to difference betwixt what is Initial and of a more fundamental concern for the weak and what may tend to an higher growth and increase of others III. It should be of greatest use and advantage also for the same end that the young growth now coming up in the Church were put to give some explicit Evidence of their Consent and Choice of the Profession of Christ so far as may witness a Ratification of the Baptismal Covenant now as their own proper Deed wherein they were implicitely ingaged in their Infancy Some special Grounds and Reasons for this are I. Because God will have his Service freely entred in and upon choice as that way which is most agreeable to his Honour for as the Covenant binds mutually so do the Seals thereof also and therefore upon our part is Baptism a Sacramental Oath of Allegiance to God II. Because it tends to a more resolute and firm adherence to the Service of God that this business should be personally brought home to Mens Conscience especially before their first admittance to the Sacrament of the Lord's supper and thus to ingage them as Joshua did Chap. 24.22 Ye are witnesses against your selves herein and they said We are witnesses III. Because this is expresly held forth 1 Pet. 3.21 where Baptism is called the answer of a good conscience toward God upon this ground that such then who were come to years of knowledge were personally brought to confirm by their own consent that solemn Ingagement and Dedication by Baptism to be the Lords and therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is vox juris and signifies sponsio stipulatio publica inter Christianum Dominum Christum as the most Judicious Commentators on that Scripture do clearly render it and so this was a special part of the Primitive Practice not only with respect to such who were Converted from Heathenism but were born within the Church and Partakers of that Seal of Baptism in their Infancy to bring them to answer to that great Demand of the Covenant Do you now Consent upon Evidence and Choice to be the Lords and to be a Subject of his Kingdom and embrace the Laws thereof and do you thus in Sincerity and Truth declare the same wherein you have a good Conscience before God And of what blessed Fruit and Advantage should this be both for the Increase and Honour of the Gospel if this were more deeply taken to Heart for some Practical use according to the Rule and Primitive Pattern in the Churches of Christ IV. It were specially desirable also that there be some clear view and summary by it self of the most cogent Grounds and Demonstrations of the Christian Faith with respect both to the
as fundamental a Constitution in the course of Providence as the most firm Establishment of Nature IV. That in no time since man was formed in the Earth doth true Joy and Serenity of Mind cease to be the Native result of welldoing or the Fruit of Righteousness to be Peace and Assurance of Mind nor hath it ever wanted a Witness even before any Word given of the Lords taking Pleasure herein V. That it 's so evident in the most dismal times what a publick Blessing such are who by more extraordinary Tryals have been put to the highest Exercise of their Grace and Patience yea how Visibly such have been promoted to the most honourable Service for God and to advance the Credit of Religion before Men who on the first sight and view have been accounted the most miserable of any VI. Whilst on the other hand it may be ever seen how with the greatest Prosperity of the wicked here there are Punishments of another kind Dispensed and more dreadful than any outward Affliction such as judicial Obstinacy and Blindness of Mind in Opposition to God even when their own ruine is made Visible to them herein VII How oft men are thus evidently condemned to be happy in this World by some strange measure of Temporal Success and Prosperity before some great Fall and Ruine as the Issue hereof in the last scene of Providence doth fully attest VIII That it 's seen also how Sin doth ever bring its own Punishment with it in some begun Degree both of Shame and Torment and as Seneca an Heathen could say That Wickedness was the most exquisite Contriver of human Misery so the World likewise may see how a present immunity from Judgment is no release but when its Sentence is not speedily Executed yet is it at last surely executed IX And how evident is it that the greatest haters of Godliness are yet inforced to justifie the same and the Christians choice herein as the greatest Wisdom upon any surprizing State and Extremity yea how such would be glad to joyn Interests then with such in their Death whom they most contemned in their Life Qu. V. How is it Convincing and Demonstrable that God hath given any clear and express Revelation of his Will and Counsel unto Men and that such a wonderful Record is undoubtedly extant in the World Ans That I. It is not possible to believe the Being of God and not also the Truth of an established Law and Rule of Commerce betwixt him and man here so as to know both what we should do and what we should Expect and Hope from him II. That this also must be known and display its Power and Efficacy to the World in that manner and by such infallible Evidence of its Truth as may render all inexcusable who give not intire Credit thereto III. I can be no more clear and assured that there is but one Sun in the Firmament than that there is but one Fountain and Repository of Sacred Light about Religion which is the Scripture and its being the alone publick Standard of truth to the whole World IV. That no way was ever made known to recover mankind from a state of Bondage Darkness and Misery consistent with the very use of reason but by this blessed light which shineth there V. Yea that there is as visible a difference betwixt the same and any pretended Religion which ever was besides in the World as there is betwixt day and night which is founded in the immutable nature of these things in themselves VI. That there is one proper Sphere where this glorious Light of Divine Truth is fixed and wherein it shines forth from one Age to another which is the Christian Church Qu. VI. But what more peculiar evidences can you shew of the Divinity of the Scriptures that all may see them to be of infallible truth Ans I. That it 's sure such a book is this day in the Earth which no created wisdom could ever have made and contains such things of highest concern to mankind as does infinitely exceed the bounds of human ability and invention and could never have been discovered but by God himself II. That it gives forth such exquisite laws and constitutions of our religion as men must needs see the holy nature purity and perfection of God most brightly shining forth therein III. Which doth discover so great and proper a relief for all those evils and miseries that do attend this fallen estate of man as none but an all-sufficient God could work IV. That he alone must be the author of this blessed record who rules the World and hath determined the changes and revolutions thereof when it is not more evident that these visible Heavens are stretched forth over the Earth than that this Line of the Scripture is stretched over the whole Work and Frame of Providence and doth most clearly and brightly illuminate the same V. That surely this was the product of Infinite Wisdom that so great a variety of matter should meet with so visible a concent and harmony in one perfect and intire frame yea knit in so close a bond of union together as makes the whole Bible to be intirely one piece though in the writing of each distinct part thereof it could never have possibly been contrived or foreseen by human wisdom as we see here of so admirable an agreement and correspondence as is in all the parts thereof VI. That none else could have spoke to the World in so Majestick a way and so becoming the greatness and soveraignty of God to assume such a supremacy and give forth Laws for absolute obedience from all Mankind thereto and on such a penalty of eternal destruction or that any impostors either possibly could or durst have in such a manner personated the same VII That it must needs be his word who perfectly knows what is in man and hath an absolute authority over the Soul and is a discerner of the thoughts thereof who thus not only gives law to the Conscience and our inward parts but doth establish an internal Religion there no less absolutely than what respects our external work and actions VIII Yea where all may see the Penmen thereof under so intire a subjection to the doctrine which they taught and that it is no contrivance of their own as they did record their own failings and imperfections in behalf of the truth and did thus also require all just respect and obedience to Magistrates when through the whole Earth they were then greatest Enemies to the Truth of the Gospel IX That this must be his Word who alone can derive principles of life to his own institutions and animate the same with a quickening Spirit and is a work above the contrivance of Angels or Men when directed to each new trial of the Church and personal case of Christians as though it had been alone written for that time so that I can be no more persuaded in reason that there is such a
opposition that ever the World made to any interest while the weapons of its Warfare were Spiritual and not Carnal and with that success that made the time of the Churches hottest Persecution from Heathens the time also of its most remarkable spreading in the World IV. That the same Gospel is revealed this day which hath had such discernible triumphs and success when no external assistance could be had for it and there was no visible power by which it gained the most savage and dark parts of the Earth to take on the Yoak of Christ and prefer the objects of Faith to the most desireable objects of Sense V. Yea the Gospel hath not only had such vital influence on Mens Heart and practice to change it into the same Image but that herein the doctrine of the Cross of Christ in the greatest simplicity hath still been the most effectual way of its conquest and the greatest attractive on Mens Souls to receive the same Qu. VI. How is it demonstrable that such remarkable sufferings of times past for the truth of Christ were both founded on the alone certainty thereof and carried out by a Divine Spirit above any assistance of Nature Answ That it is sure I. Here was no Comedy Play or Personated sufferings which the Primitive Christians then and in after times did endure for Christ or that these unexpressible torments and pains were any Dream and Delusion either to themselves or the World and that their adversaries did thus conflict and wrestle with their own shadow in so continued and cruel an opposition II. That the Joy and Exultation of Spirit these Witnesses had amidst their Torments who otherwise wanted no sense or feeling of their Pains and Sufferings could have no rise but what was supernatural III. That this could be no possible dissimulation or counterfeit when they were stepping into Eternity nor the product of a distempered judgment whilst all might see what seriousness of Spirit Tenderness and Bowels of Compassion to their Adversaries they did then evidence IV. That those greatest sufferings were upon choice and Christians hastned to endure them rather than to be safe at the rate of receding and departing in any thing from the Truth V. Yea no natural Reason can comprehend how such mean and feeble persons as many of these were should endure what would have made the greatest natural Courage to faint as if they had foregone all Humane Passions which Flesh and Blood must needs have herein so that I am constrain'd to see something no less marvellous and supernatural in the Faith of Martyrs than in the Faith of Miracles SECTION III. Qu. I. IS it fully demonstrable that the Faith of a Deity and of such an establishment as a religious worship must necessarily determine Men and constrain them to be Christians on this ground that they cannot but see how Religion hath not another Being in the Earth but in the Truth of Christianity Answ It is simply impossible to make a rational trial herein and not see the certainty of this demonstration to be thus clear I. That there needs no more for any of a serious spirit but to come and see what the whole frame of Heathenism was and if it be possible to deny even under any sense of the law and dictates of Nature its being the highest reproach of Mankind and that the very mysteries of that Heathenish worship were so horrid and impure as they needed a Vail from the common view of the World II. Nor can there be a rational reflection this day on that strange Monster of Mahumetanism but as of a visible Prodigy of the Judgment of God on these parts of the Earth upon their Apostacy from the Christian Faith by giving men up to such an Imposture as exposeth the very name and form of Religion to derision and can never claim a reception either from the purity of its rule or internal evidence of the truth thereof or of its having any possible consistence with it self III. That it's sure also that the Jewish Religion had never another Being but in the Truth and Faith of Christianity and where this Foundation is divided from it hath none at all yea that that People unto this day are such a Confirming Witness to the Christian Religion as it 's strange this doth not beget deeper Impressions on Mens Spirits So that there is an absolute necessity we must either forego the use of Reason or see if there be not such a Rule given and Revealed for Commerce betwixt God and Man as the Scripture where the Laws and Constitutions of the Christian Faith are for this end held forth that it 's then sure there is no such thing as any Religion in the Earth but what were so highly irrational and absurd as should rather justifie Atheism Q. II. What special Confirmation to Christianity can this Visible State of the Jews bear who are in so express an Opposition to the Gospel of Christ Ans If this were brought near our thoughts we should find it one of the great Assistances to our Faith I. That it 's sure there is such a People and Race as a Living and Visible Evidence to our Sense of the Truth of that renowned Nation and Church of Israel to which the Oracles of God were committed and thus is still as some part of the evident ruines of that once flourishing State II. That the World may see such a People kept by themselves and not mixed with the Nations whose Fathers from one Generation to another did still own the Dâ—vinity of the Old Testament and doth attest that Doctrine in which the Truth and Substance of Christianity lies even whilst with greatest malice they oppose the Christian Faith to witness that there can be no possible Collusion and Deceit here III. Their being under a stroak of that Judicial Induration and Blindness of Mind as no Reason could possibly comprehend such a thing how they should not see the Light in the very Noon-day of the Gospel if we were not expresly foretold that they should be concluded under such an Arrest of Judgment until the Fulness of the Gentiles be brought in IV. That so immediate an appearance of God is in the Judgement of that People both in the manner and continuance thereof as no instance could ever be found to resemble the same since man was formed in the Earth and is as a Conspicuous Monument of Divine Wrath set up for every Age and Time of the Church to turn aside and consider this great sight and inquire what means so strange and amazing a thing as the State of the scattered Jews is now under the Times of the Gospel V. That this Desolation on them and stroak had such special concurring circumstances for giving Light thereto as being not above forty eight years after the Death of Christ with their hands as it were hot and reaking with that Blood which they had wished on them and their Children that it should be at that time
Death as a Penalty which keeps the fear and dread thereof so much on all living it being in that last period that the eternal state of Men is decided III. That the sting and bitterness of sin is so manifest in innumerable diseases and stroaks of Death which many feel an 100. times ere they dye once beyond any other of the Creatures IV. Though the Sentence of dying is on all yet so great a difference is betwixt the Saints and residue of Men here that its penal execution on the ungodly is such as nature can give no support under it V. That supernatural presages and warnings hereof ere it come are in all times known and sure yea such extraordinary evidences are sometimes of the precise time as could have no possible rise from any natural cause VI. That its immediate commission from a supream and Invisible Power is so evident in such executions oft of this Sentence by Sword Famine and Pestilence as the visible Finger of God in a just retribution unto men for sin may be no less seen and a supernatural causality than the effects have been undoubted and clear to shew that such is the state of Man that this great revolution by Death doth each moment depend on a call from Heaven VII That the certainty of something supernatural in this King of Terrours is so known that as no relief can possibly be found but in the truth and power of Christianity to set men both above the fear of Death and an after State when once it comes near VIII Yea that it is surely above the possibility of Nature which can bear out in this great adventure and trial of Mens Faith both in the truth and strength thereof at Death for which end the Lord hath thus chosen that by so strange an entry and at so dark a Port they should first pass to the full enjoyment of that glorious state above Qu. V. What evidence and demonstration can you shew to confirm so great a Faith of an Eternal Glory prepared for the Saints in Heaven and of its earnest and first fruits here as may strike an undeniable conviction hereof on the World Answ I. The visible ripening and resemblance to such a state in all the degrees of a Christians growth to a more full stature of the man in Christ may be no less evident than the natural growth of our Body II. Though the opening of these Gates of the Second World be hid so as no humane sense can discern the Spirit in its ascent through those higher Regions to that unconceivable Paradise and Glory in the Third Heaven yet is the triumphant entry and passage of innumerable Christians at death such as hath oft been a matter of sense and clearest evidence to the World III. Such also were both humble tender and sincere in their Life and then in so great a composure of judgement that all might see they knew what made them glad and could swallow up both the fears and bitterness of Death yea and this was not given for their own support only but for a more publick use for the Conviction and Confirmation of others IV. The state of glory is demonstrable and hath been oft brought down to Mens sense by these ravishing joys of the Martyrs of Christ and exultation of Spirit even in the Flames V. Supernatural comforts attend the Life of Christianity and can have no possible rise from the flesh and outward causes with that Joy and Peace which by so natural a result follows well-doing and any service of love for Christ which all may see to be the first fruits of that harvest which is above VI. Rare and marvellous a frame of the new man set up in this lower Region of Grace in so discernable a conformity to the blessed God and resemblance to another state than here to which the World is but as a place of Pilgrimage trial and a preparatory state only VII Visible returns of joy and comfort Christians have after saddest conflicts and down-castings and such day-break of vital quickening beams of Divine Light that have often been no less evident than that of the Martyrs at the Stake who cried out Now he is come he is come VIII Their breathings of Love after an unseen Christ and visible effects of its power on men might shew some begun translation of the Soul so far herein as to be more where it loves than where it lives IX Though we cannot see here that ineffable glory which is above but should have our Faith instead of Eyes yet such is the truth of holiness as doth not only evidence but in its own nature partake of a future glory so as every degree and act thereof doth enter in a begun state of fruition and blessedness and makes it simply impossible for a good man in any true exercise of Godliness not to be happy also and thus in a more near capacity to know that joy unspeakable and full of glory which is above X. By so sure known and tryed a passage betwixt Heaven and Mens Souls in Prayer with so setled a Trade of commerce this way and certain returns as with assurance such can say though they must change their place yet not their company XI The whole dispensations of Providence in Israels passage through the Wilderness and to so excellent a Country as Canaan is no less sure in its self than that it was given for an Embleme and Type of the journying and militant state of the Saints here and to be a solemn pledge of that Canaan above XII Such is the Magnificence Harmony and Order of these visible Heavens and Celestial Bodies there with their different degrees of glory though all illuminated from the same Fountain of Light the Sun as we may judge by a Divine Ordination to have some peculiar respect to that end to awake and raise our thoughts to these higher Regions of Glory which are above all these by what is thus visible to our Eyes where the redeemed of the Lord shall be ever fixed and shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Qu. VI. What visible and awakening evidences are there of the truth of an Hell and that state of horrour and torment in another World which even to mens senses here might present the certainty thereof Answ I. That it can be no more sure that there is such a power and party as that of the Devils than the reality of some such a horrid Region and place also to which they belong and are adjudged to II. From so innumerable a company of human race as are not in the visible service of these Infernal Spirits but partakers of the same nature and enmity against the Holy God and his Image which doth clearly witness their respect and tendency to the same state and place and Confederacy in their judgment as here in their sin III. Such visible impressions of vindictive justice are on mens Souls with such horrour of Conscience and unsufferable torments
this way as in all Ages have been known by most remarkable instances when not in the least distemper of their natural reason that may present to mens Senses something of a visible Hell as convincingly as if one had risen from the Dead for the same IV. A trembling sense and terror of Divine Vengeance oft follows upon horrid acts of wickedness and so eminently breaks forth upon a surprising sight of Death that all may see something more dreadful herein than in the dissolution of Nature and the Power and present Arrest of a future judgment is made visible in the same V. There are begun degrees of blaspheming and rage against God because of his plagues and such prodigies of cruelty exercised by Men here in the Earth as may be evident to all to be more than humane and rather the effects of infernal spirits acting in a humane shape VI. So clear a prelude and beginning of Hell is in that judicial obduration and blindness which many are given up to under the greatest discoveries of light that all may see their being thus bound over in Chains and shut up in Prison until Death bring them forth to the Execution and that no relief or application of the means of Grace hath then any success VII Such a Map and Shadow of Eternal Vengeance is in these terrible acts of Divine Judgment inflicted here on Apostates and Persecutors of the Truth and other flagitious persons which with the very first view might present an awful and immediate appearance of God in the same some strange and supernatural punishment is oft so visible on the workers of Iniquity VIII And whatever be of natural causes in such visible representations here in the Earth as that sulphureous Lake where once Sodom was and those burning Mountains of Haecla Aetna and Vesuvius yet we may truly judge that they are thus set before the World as visible memorials of the Infernal Flames and as it were so many Chimny's or Vent-holes thereof for such who will not believe the same because they do not yet see or feel such a thing Qu. VII What assistances hath our Faith of that great and wonderful truth of the Resurrection of the Body after its dissolution in the Grave unto Dust Answ I. It hath great assistance from that visible and stupendious frame of the Heavens and the Earth when it 's sure that the same Infinite Power that hath not only made Man but the whole Creation can as easily collect and reunite the dispersed ashes of the Body as form the same II. From that greatest pledge hereof in the Resurrection of the Body of Christ III. From that tribulation and sore pain that the Saints here in their outward man are exposed to since it is sure that in the holy justice of God he did not give such Bodies for labour and for toil and to his Martyrs to endure unexpressible torments for Christ at last to perish for ever IV. From these visible resemblances and pâ—efigurations of the Resurrection which the Lord hath given to confirm our Faith herein in the ordinary course and productions of nature so as all may see how every night is as the Grave of the day light and each morning a new resurrection of the same and how visible an image of Death is in each season of the Winter with so marvellous and beautiful a Resurrection of the Earth on every return of the Spring in the Herbs Flowers and Plants taking life and rising again in the leaves blossoms and fruits yea this in such a variety as may no less convincingly evidence an Infinite Divine Power herein than that the same body of man should be raised at the last day V. From that continued miracle of the Harvest after the Seed-time with so amazing a production of the Grain sowen in the Earth and its first dying there before it be quickned so as to be at last brought to 30 60 yea sometimes an hundred fold out of the very same grain which to these who had never before known the same would seem incredible and above all reason to conceive or give credit thereto CHAP. III. The Confirming Work of Religion improved with respect to the Times to clear the way of the Lord herein before this Generation and let us see how nothing is so strange in the Events of this day which should not more strengthen then shake and that the God of the Reformed Church doth still own the same Interest according to his Faithfulness Which is here briefly Pointed at upon some special inquiry proposed about the same SECTION I. Qu. I. VVHat can afford both Light and Confirmation to our Faith in such a time when we see the Work of the Lord about his Church to be most remarkably now a work of Judgment with such dark and searching Tryals therewith as former times have not known Ans It is sure we have seen nothing but what might have been too evidently looked for and that we can pretend no want of Light herein upon these Grounds I. That the Trials of a Church should be suited to the measure of their Talent of Light and when this hath been in some more than ordinary way dispensed that some remarkably searching Times might be expected to follow nor can it be now strange to us that such things fall in with this day which did not meet the Churches of Christ at the first entry of the Reformation who then had not so clear Discoveries of the Truth and that measure of Confirmation therein which hath been since II. That some unusual Tryals and Conflicts in the Lords Method of Providence should be suited also to the greatness of that Work which he is bringing forth may be no strange thing and to see a time of such sore wrestlings as this when all things seem to cry and be in Pain as Micah 4.20 Yea when some great event of the Scripture is to be revealed to the World and near to its full height and Period of Accomplishment as we have safe ground for Assurance of this day III. Nor hath this sad and dismal hour on the Church been more obvious than the provoking Cause hereof in which the Holy Righteousness of God may be no less clear than the Cloud now is dark when there has been such a Visible falling off from that Love Tenderness and Power of Religion that did formerly attend its Profession for these many years past we might have seen that some sore and remarkable Judgment was coming and that if we had not been in such a manner undone we were under some sadder stroak of Spiritual Judgment ready to be utterly undone IV. Yea it hath been too Visible that such Evils followed the Reformed Churches as in no time it was ever known that the Holy God did pass by without some signal Evidence of his Wrath against the same before the World V. We know that Carnal Confidence hath a Curse ever waiting upon it in the Scripture and none can take it
off or make that thrive which God hath himself cursed and it is too visible how far we have gone thus out of the way of our Strength by such eager seeking Humane Props and support that we have forgot the Guide of our Youth and Covenant of our God and what great things he hath formerly done in the greatest straits of his Church when there was much humble trusting that the Spirit of the Lord would do more to recover his Truth than all Humane Might or Power could do SECTION II. Qu. VVHat Talent are we still accountable for to support our Faith against the greatest Fears of this time from these immediate Appearances of God and of the Glory of his Power for the same Truth and Cause of the Reformed Church we are now called to contend for which hath been since the Reformation when so strong and unusual a Tide now is against the same Ans If men shut not their eyes and hide this great Talent of the Works of God under the Ground it 's sure none can Question such a Seal which before the Sun to the Amazement and Conviction of the World hath been put to the Truth of the Reformed Religion that we are now brought under such a Call as the Church of Israel was Deut. 4.34 To ask of the Times that are past since Israels coming out of Egypt and since the first planting of the Gentile Church by the Gospel whether there hath been so great a thing as this in the Earth that God hath essayed to take to himself a People from the midst of other Nations by Temptations by Signs and by Wonders and by War and by a Mighty Hand and by an out-stretched Arm and by great Terrours according to all that the Lord our God hath done for the rescue of his People in these last Times from Antichristian Bondage and Darkness and settling them in a Church-state but unto us was this shewed that we might know that the Lord he is God and there is none else beside him Ye are still called to see and be as Eye Witnesses to these things I. How Bright a Day of the Gospel of Christ did go before this great Darkness on the Church and what a solemn Triumph in these late Ages the Truth hath had over Antichrist so as the full stroak and ruine of his Kingdom which is sure and established in the Promise of God seems not now more marvellous and above humane appearance than what we have seen in the begun degrees of its accomplishment II. In how few years also there was as a new Christian World brought forth in that swift Course and Progress which the ingathering of the Reformed Churches had so as between the Year 1560 and 1621. such famous Plantations of the Gospel were setled in a Church-state which all may see was the immediate Work and Power of God to shew that none should fear or stagger at his Promise though the waters yet swell and come to the flowings of Jordan and difficulties appear unsuperable to humane Sence after these great things which the Lord hath done III. How extraordinary a Calling and excitement of Instruments was then evident for the Service of that time and Reapers thus eminently prepared for so great an Harvest of the Gospel as might put the World to inquire whence these were in so numerous a Concurrence when a few of such a Spirit were so rarely to be found in many Ages before IV. Yea such an Accession also of Spiritual Gifts and Endowments was then for Building of the Church â—s had not been formerly known since the first coming of the Gospel to the Gentiles wherein it may be said the Glory of these last Times hath even in some degree exceeded that of the first V. And can the most dismal things of this time countervail the Confirmations of our Faith who have so clearly seen with the first breaking up of the Purer Doctrine of Christ the Power and Life of Christianity came therewith to the World as a Seal and Attestation thereto beyond any Miracles yea how innumerable a Company in these last Ages of different Tongues and Languages and these so remote from one another did not only receive the same Truth but with such Resolution Adventure their Souls thereon as might fully witness they had another prospect of Christianity and to be in some other manner ravished with the Glory and Beauty of the same than is now in these times VI. Such high Spring tides of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel might be evident to all after so sad a restraint had been for so many Ages before under Antichristian darkness for whatever was then as a Private Seal on the Spirit of Christians whilst the Witnesses did Prophesie in Sack-cloth yet was there no such Evidence and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost or a Publick Confirmatory Seal to the Truth as was after the Reformation VII Yea was it not the most Sober Serious and Inquisitive Part of Men upon a sure Trial of the Grounds of their Faith who did most firmly imbrace the same and how many of these also were of the greatest Parts and Abilities whom none could Judge to Adventure so far herein without the highest Assurances that this was their undoubted interest and Salvation VIII We have seen not only men of mean and low Estate but such of the Highest Place and Quality most chearfully adventuring whatever Interest could be dearest to them in the Earth for the Truths sake yea it was ever found that such as were most acquainted with the Reformed Religion in its Power and lived up in their Practice to what they professed thereof were those who with the greatest Assurance most resolutely still adhered thereto IX We have seen also it s most remarkable spreading in the World when there could be no possible pretence of a Worldly Interest or External Motives for the same X We have seen something not only extraordinary but even Miraculous in the Joy and Resolution of innumerable Martyrs since the Reformation who did bear out with a more than humane strength against a cruelty so visibly Inhumane and Savage yea which did in some degrees exceed that measure of the Heathens in the Primitive Times as being against a greater Light than theirs XI And have we not seen of what Spirit such still have been since the Reformation who were the most notorious Instruments in the Churches Persecution and how visibly such did act herein under so impetuous an incitement of the Devil that as Tertullian in his Apology speaks of Nero the Truth might boast in having such Adversaries XII It is sure we have seen that no humane Power could yet ever undo this blessed Inteterest of the Reformed Religion tho' no way or change of Weapons hath been left untried but we have thus seen whither so strong and united a Confederacy as the Catholick League in France did at last resolve and not only in the ruine of the greatest Actors and Contrivers therein but
God in Israel or such a thing as his written Oracles to inquire at when it 's sure these lie open and with a clear and distinct sound speak to all who have a Serious and Unprejudged Spirit I. That the Church under the New Testament hath now passed and gone through that most dismal and continued Tryal herein which was to go over her Head under Antichrists Reign and Height and whatever appearance he now hath in great Wrath yet is it sure and evident that the Winter is past and the Churches Spring begun and a few steps further off that Judgment which is now hastning on will at length end the quarrel so that by a near converse with the Word we may clearly see from what point the Churches course and motion this day lies and how exactly it keeps in the Certainty thereof by the clear Conduct of the Scriptures of Truth where a full Map of her whole Course and Passage through Time is clearly shewed II. That we may now with some clear Evidence Judge and have our Faith perswaded hereof that the Churches Interest is upon the rising Hand and on a present Advance though nothing would seem more Contradictory than all visible grounds now are since this cannot fail John 3.30 That Jesus Christ in his Kingdom in the Earth must Increase yea that the Scripture so clearly Points forth Antichrists Ruine and Progress of his fall and downcasting with resemblance to that great Judgment on Pharaoh as an evident Type hereof in the same judicial stroakâ— of Induration on both and gradual Progress herein by one Plague after another until the last and greatest Assault as was then at the Red Sea hath the same effect for a more glorious appearance of God in the greatest step of Judgment and Victory over this Adversary when not only the Song of Moses but of the Lamb also shall be then sung Rev. 15.3 as importing something more glorious and a greater brightness to be put on this Illustrious Act of Divine Judgment reserved to these last times when a more immediate Appearance of the Lord will be seen than in any former deliverances of his Church III. It is no Conjâ—ctural thing but what by a clear Scripture Conduct we may see that this time of the Church now under so notable a Crisis in her Case is evidently falling under that Remarkable Assault and Conflict with that Adversary before the accomplishing of that Vial on his Seat and Throne as we may see Rev. 17.13 14. That when so Conspicuous a step of the Churches Victory is near the Opposition thereto also will be in some higher degree proportionable to the same when the great men of the Earth and such who shall receive Power as Kings one hour with the Beast shall have one Mind and give their Power and Strength thereto and shall make War with the Lamb but the Lamb shall overcome them for he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords c. Nor is it found through the Scripture where the Lord hath done any great thing for his Church but some unusual darkness and sore-wrestlings have still gone before and should be no matter of staggering to our Faith whatever it be of present Fears to see so dismal a Time of Tryal as now is and amazing heighth of trouble beyond what former times have known when one of the greatest events of Providence in behalf of the Church since the revealing of Christ to the World until his second coming is assuredly near in the fall and overthrow of the man of Sin IV. We have clear ground also to judge that so great an Eclipse as seems almost Universally over the State of the Reformed Churches is no going down of the Sun thereon whatever did befal the most famous Eastern Churches to an utter dissipation thereof if these different Periods of time be justly considered how their Sun-set did then fall in with the Entry of that great Apostacy of the Christian Church and with that long and dismal Night of Antichrists Reign whilst now this hour of Trial on the Churches doth meet in that blessed Period of Antichrists begun fall and of a growing Light of the Gospel and when the Scripture so clearly warrants our Faith herein that the Work of Providence is to Plant and not cut off but to bring forward that Interest of the Reformed Churches in the founding of which the Mediator hath so eminently appeared in the Glory of his Power in these last times V. It is sure we now live in the Evening and Extremity of time when the motions of Providence may be expected to be more quick and speedy as being so near the Centre and to the last Epocha and Period of all Prophetick Chronology wherein the Glory of God in his Truth and Faithfulness shall most eminently shine forth and these Scripture Truths which were formerly dark and abstruse with that Evidence shine forth in the event as shall cause men to wonder at their former thoughts and stumblings thereat And here I must say that there is such a sight now in the Earth as the Romish Church in its Complex frame and state in so different a mold cast from any Power or Jurisdiction else and such a Compound of a Civil and Spiritual Monarchy in one and the same Person is so solemn and undeniable a Seal to the Christian Faith and Divinity of the New Testament that it 's strange why this is not improved more against the Atheism of this time that such a visible event of the Scripture is now in being which was so clearly foretold by the Holy Ghost 1500. years ago with its proper Circumstances as to the manner of that Antichristian state with its Rise Growth and Duration as is to Admiration still evident to the World when not the least shaddow or appearance of so strange Future Emergencies was to be seen or could have entred mens Thoughts to shew it only could be revealed to the Church by him to whom all his Works are known from the Beginning This I have looked on as such a Confirmation to the Truth of Christianity that no Miracles in the first times of the Church could have more evidence for the same yea if such a party were not in being both what it now is and in former Ages hath been it might in another manner stagger the Faith of the Saints to a questioning the Truth of the Scripture than its most formidable appearance this day can do VI. I shall but add here that we know and are sure the Lord hath reserved his greatest works to these latter days wherein his Judgments shall be manifest and that one of the most eminent Manifestations of his Glory before the close of time shall be Conspicuous in the fall of Antichrist on whose ruines that Glorious House which Christ is yet to have for himself both of Jews and Gentiles shall be prepared and built up and though this great Eclipse of Antichristian Darkness should yet more prevail even
concern the Vitals of Religion and an Inward Life of Communion with God V. Which Pleads an Impartial Tryal of all its Adversaries whether the Principles of our Profession or of Popery give the greatest Security to Civil Government and founds the strongest Obligations to Magistracy and to all Civil and Moral Duties by which the awe and venerable esteem of Religion is kept up in a Nation It is high time that men should cease to be implicite and become express upon this greatest Interest they have within time which is the Truth of their Profession in the matter of Religion when a Deceit or Mistake here is of an Eternal Concern Upon which account without respect to Interest Party or Education I have this day sought to know the Truth and what Adversaries could possibly pretend to Reproach or Prejudge any for the Reformed Religion All they can do is but to charge mens Corruption and Offences in their Practice upon the Rule and Principles of their Profession that can never give the least Latitude or Connivance thereto but is clear as the Sun when on the other hand I could know no other way to imbrace such a Profession as Popery but by turning Atheist in the first Place and then quitting both Religion and Reason at once But I can say in a resolute Adherence to the Doctrine of the Reformed Church I fear not to adventure my Soul and enter into an Eternal State FINIS AN IDEA Of the Confirmed State of a Christian in Dismal and Shaking Times THo' the Measure of all Christians Establishment in the Truth be not alike but must have respect to their different Trials Talents and Improvements for this end yet may it cause Astonishment to see how rare any Study of this kind is now to be found When it 's not only one of the highest concerns of Christianity but in a more than ordinary way called for as the Work of this day yea being this is a part of Religion which seems least improved of any for the more general State of Professours within the Church under some Conviction hereof was this Essay designed wherein with humble Confidence I may say the Truth hath been sought with that Serious Enquiry into the Nature of these things held forth as I judged needful for such who have so great an Interest and Adventure not only through Time but for all Eternity to support themselves upon the alone Certainty hereof and ere these days of Trial which we now see pass over this Generation it may be found this was not unseasonable or without cause directed to such a time if the Lord graciously bless the same nor will it I hope be found unnecessary to present yet further some clear prospect of a Confirmed State in Religion and what those ought to be who with Light and Assurance of Mind are like to follow the Lord fully in such a day which is here offered in a seven fold Character under which a truly Confirmed Christian in the Truth of his Profession may be Stated CHARACTER I. He is one who hath another Sence and Impression of this great Study for attaining to a Confirmed State in Religion and is on higher grounds pressed to follow the same than most of the Visible Church do apprehend and should be thus Considered 1. As one to whom the Glory of the Christian Profession is in the highest Degree dear and who would have the World see that such as imbrace the same and do most fully Adventure on the Testimony of God in his Word are those who walk on the highest Principles of true and enlightned Reason yea who take deeply to Heart that Obligation which is on all who desire to advance the Repute and Honour of the Truth to be in such Terms therewith upon its own Evidence that they may know how to Confute and Shame Atheists and Infidels if called thereunto 2. Who see also that such is the State of fallen Man as stands in need of all the Contributions that can be not only to strengthen the Christians Faith to bear our against the strong Assaults of Infidelity but to gain also more Credit and Veneration to the Truth with those who are not easily dealt with but by such means as bear some Congruity to their Natural Light and Reason for which end the Lord hath afforded his Ministerial helps to render the Unbelief of the World and all pretence of Hesitation about his Truth more inexcusable 3. He also sees that the most important and Fundamental Truths of Christianity need the greatest Confirmation in his Faith and those who enter into so high and discriminating a Profession from the residue of the World need to know in what manner they embrace the same He sees that the natural Order of things does absolutely require to have the Foundation sure laid on which so great a superstructure must rest so as he judgeth it a Work by it self and to need some peculiar retiring his Soul in the most serious recess and Composure thereof to attain a stedfastness in the Truth and to know the strong and firm Conveyances of that greatest Mystery of the Gospel in such a manner as needs not a new Miracle to Confirm the same But he knows that no sharpness of mens Natural Understanding about the Truth can ever attain a true Rest and Settlement of Mind therein without an humble and serious Spirit stooping down before the Wisdom of God and entring as a little Child into his School and by that humble Practice and Obedience of the Gospel there is an undoubted coming up to the greatest Assurance and clearest Demonstrations of the same as Joh. 7.17 4 He knows that as nothing tends more to shake Mens Spirits and stagger them about the Truth than a Light and Transient View hereof so does the greatest Establishment follow on the nearest approach by a deep and serious Enquiry about the same and he clearly sees that if such who look but at a distance on the way of Religion did but once come to have their Spirits exceed in a more serious Reflection thereon the first view they should have could not but be matter of Wonder and Amazement to think what can support a Soul in so marvellous a way as the Life and Practice of Christianity Which is so visibly above Nature and that wherein they must do violence to the same wherein they must part with the Multitude and oppose themselves to the strongâ—st Tide of Example and must endure also in Hope and believe for things not seen which were never the Object of Humane Sence to any in this Earth and are oft called to part with the most desirable things of Sence upon the alone Credit of their Faith yea wherein they must enter that Profession on no other Terms than to be Martyrs for the same and Seal it with their Blood so that he must needs see a Christian according to the Rule and Institution of the Gospel to be the greatest Riddle and Wonder of
any sight within time but when such come more close and near upon this Trial and have once understood the Nature and greatness of that Security which these have to adventure on and what is the Glory of their Hope and the sure Spring of their Supplies for their Work and Trials within time then will this second wonder unspeakably exceed the first how it 's possible that such are not of a more raised and enlarged Spirit in the service of the Gospel in that short season they have here for it on the Earth and how their difficulty should not be more to bear the Joy of so great a Prospect and Expectation than to bear any present Griefs and Troubles Yea how a mans Life who indeed sincerely makes the Christian Profession is not in some more continued transport of ravishment and wondering to know that they are surely made for their Eternal State in another World and are among those on whom the glorious God hath chosen to have the exceeding Riches of his Grace shewed forth in the Regions of Blessedness above for ever 5. He hath another sight and prospect of the Christian Creed than most who give an easie Assent thereunto and hath his Reason so dazled with the Revelation of the Gospel and of the Wonders thereof as hath put him to such an Exercise as that 2 Chron. 6.18 How to Credit his Eyes therewith the more deep Reflection he hath upon the same But will God in very deed dwell with men on the Earth He judgeth that they who after some fluctuating suspence are admitted to see the Truth of Christianity with that Certainty of its Evidence as the greatness of such a discovery does require may have some resemblance to that transport which the Angels had at the first Creation when the Morning Stars Sung together and the Sons of God shouted for Joy to see themselves thus who were brought out of pure nothing entred into that ineffable Light of seeing God and also their own blessedness in him in so high a degree So that he accounts it one of the highest Attainments of Religion for a Christian indeed to believe the Articles of his own Faith and have his Soul as fully perswaded hereof as of his being that such a time assuredly was and is now many Ages since past when the glorious Redeemer of the Church the second Person of the God-head came down from Heaven and was revealed in our Nature that on him as Surety to Divine Justice in the room of the Elect Church was the whole Guilt and Sin thereof transferred and in this marvellous way did the Holy God take Satisfaction to Himself by Himself that thus our Nature is exalted by the Incarnation of Christ above the Nature of Angels that the time is near when the meanest afflicted Christian shall take in no other Air than the Breathings of the higher Paradise above and now hath an Eternity of Joy and Blessedness before him that within a very little time he shall know this welcome of our blest Redeemer to his Followers here on the Earth Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom c. When he shall take off the Cross and put on the Crown whâ—n it shall be then no more a matter of Faith but of Sence to be Partaker of that Inheritance with the Saints in Light and know those Proper Mansions in that State of Glory and peculiar Assignment thereunto which all the Redeemed shall then have and be put in the same rank with the Elect Angels to be as those pure flames of Love and Joy yea know what it is to walk in the Streets of the New Jerusalem which are as Gold Transparent as Christal and what that meeting-will be of his Soul Perfected and in a Triumphant State with his Glorified Body raised incorruptible and never to part any more and to have his proper share of that blessed and greatest Solemnity that shall be celebrated in Heaven the Marriage Supper of the Lamb with the whole Triumphant Church and hear that honourable account which the great Judge will then make of these Trials of his Faith and sharp conflicts which he had gone through within time with that solemn Testimony of Approbation which will be given hereof And since it 's sure these great things must be a part of the Christian Faith can it be strange that such as would in that manner converse therewith tho they be not yet seen as no less undoubted Realities than any present Objects of Sense cannot be easily satisfied with a low degree of Evidence and Confirmation of their Judgment but would have their Joy perfected so far as this State of Mortality can bear and so find it easie to Rejoice and Glory in Tribulation and to weep now for a Season who are to rejoyce for ever yea to say in the Words of Mephibosheth Let them take it all and enjoy the same since he who is their Life and Exceeding Joy Lives and Reigns who is Infinitely better to them than all these things 6. He accounts the Strengthning of his Faith to be such a concern not only as it is his Souls Adventure for all Eternity but as the highest way of Glorifying God here That whatever tends to a more full Confirmation of the same he reckons also one of the greatest Additions to his Joy and Comfort within time and that these manifold Assistances with such Reduplication thereof which the Lord hath himself given for this end are such that no Fragments of so rich a Talent should be lost and tho he knows the greatest Demonstrations of our Faith can add nothing to the Certainty of Divine Truth in it self yet are they thus given in regard of the strong Trials of a Christians Life and of what their weaknesses stand in need of for support 7. It 's in this Study he sees and takes to Heart how not only the Condition of Man in the Earth but the Profession of Christ also calls for such a reckoning that he may have Trials in that manner dispensed that no visible refuge will be found in the least to stand by him but all humane Comfort and Assistance will fail him so that he must needs lay in Ballast now in its Season and be founded thereon with that Assurance of Judgment as is needful for that Day when he must either get through in the alone way of Believing against Sence or Perish And tho no such Attainments of Light can bear out then without present and immediate Influences from above and that it is sure according to the Day so must the Christians Strength be yet does he see also the want of an established Judgment and of some proper stock laid up of Aids and Assistances this way against a sharp Storm is like to make sad work among the Professours of this Age ere the Trials of such a time have done their work 8. He sees also how the greatest Contest which in this day in the World is betwixt God
and Man upon the Truth and Assurance of his Word and that the highest Trial and Probation of a Christian in which all the Trials of his Life do still meet may be resolved here if they receive the Testimony of God in his Word as an absolute Security to relie on yea or not And tho this is the peculiar Glory of the only true God to have an absolute Dependance of his whole Work on himself and to be the alone Centre of his Peoples rest yet may nothing be more evident than that with most he bears that Name of being their trust when the whole burden and weight thereof lies alone upon visible grounds so that those Bonds and Promises which he hath himself given unto men do bâ—ar no more Credit than they have some External Surety of in the Earth which they still look after to stand as it were good and responsible for the same which is the highest Indignity can be offered to the glorious Majesty of God 9. He does much take to Heart this present Period of time wherein the fluctuating suspence and halting of so many under a visible Profession of the Truth is now one of the most dismal Signs hereof and that it seems to be the time wherein the Lord will in an unusual way take this Generation off from any implicite Profession of the same and when that great Roll of Visible Professors in all the Reformed Churches may be ere long in that manner called as each must answer to his own Name and be put to stand to the Proof before the World when no Temporal Interest but Internal Motives and Certainty of the Truth upon its own Evidence must bear one out yea that the most establisht may ere long find it not easie to be kept from Staggering and a few days come in the Churches way more remarkable for Trial than have been in some Ages before CHARACT II. A truly confirmed Christian may be thus also stated as one who is in the first place most deeply taken up about that rare Plot of Mans Redemption and to see these great and wonderful Truths there not singly and apart but in that Harmony Order and Consent of all the parts thereof as they are linkt together in this marvellous frame so as to make the whole one entire piece And whereof no part does in the least interfere with another Which he finds to be one of the most Principal Demonstrations of this great Mystery of the Gospel which the Lord hath given for Confirming his Peoples Faith And thus in another manner than formerly can he now entertain his Soul herewith and have his Joy unspeakably heightened 1. To see at once the ruined State of fallen Man and what a Flood-gate of all Evil is let loose on Adams Race not only Morally in Sin but what is Penal in the Woe and Miseries thereof yea such a State where all Hope of relief is for ever cut off in the way of Nature or by any created help and where the Execution of a Righteous Sentence on men for the voluntary Violation of a Law Just Holy and Good can be no Impeachment in the least of the Righteousness of God But then therewith he does see such a relief brought to Light as can not only answer the whole extent of this ruin but the Glory of God more eminently displayed therein than if the Law had been obeyed or absolutely executed in its Penalty on the whole race of man Yea which makes this more wonderful to see a higher Dispensation of Grace unto man now under the Gospel than was to Adam in his Primitive State whereby innumerable Christians are made to endure and prevail over stronger Assaults than broke him even in his Integrity which is a thing so marvellous that the great and Infinite God only could find out and effect it 2. He does now see how clear a Consistence and Harmony is here that he who had no Sin by Inhesion but was Holy harmless and Undefiled should be under the greatest weight of Sin by Imputation and by the exactest Rule of Divine Justicâ— be made liable to answer both the whole Duty and full Penalty of the Law having as Surety betwixt the Creditor and Debtor put himself in his Peoples room to answer the full demands thereof both for Debt and Duty 3. It is here he does see that blest Consent and Harmony betwixt the spotless Justice of God and his marvellous Grace so as his Love is to the highest glorified in that marvellous way which secures the full and compleat Satisfaction of his Law and all the rights of Inviolable Justice 4. Whilst he is thus dazled with the greatness of such a Light and put to enquire what such a mystery can mean he is then further led on to see that rare Plot and Contrivance of the Covenant of Reconciliation between God and Man here within time to be the very Duplicate and Counterpart of that Eternal Transaction and Stipulation between the Father and the Son and thus sees whatever God hath declared and promised in the former to his Church was first promised and secured to our Blessed Head in the Covenant of Redemption wherein as with a Reverend and Awful Distance so with the greatest Evidence of Light he is made to see here these reciprocal Obligations betwixt them and mutual Trust for making good the whole Terms thereof in the appointed time 5. He does also clearly see that rare Order and Harmony of time in these signal Periods of the Revelation of this great Mystery of Christ which from its more dark Discovery and Dawning did still more gloriously open its self to the Church by a gradual Light and unvailing of the same as the Sun in its Course unto the perfect day yea he hath his Faith thus unspeakably confirmed to see herewith the Gospel Church being still the same whither of Jews or Gentiles and how that Series and Consent hath yet never been broken off since the beginning of a Church called forth from the Residue of Mankind set apart as a peculiar People for the Lord where none ever had Right and Priviledge to be Members of the same but by Faith in the Messias and Profession of their Obedience to his Laws 6. It is in this Union and Harmony he sees all the Branches and Parts of Gospel Obedience most exactly meer and terminate to advance both the greatest Excellency and Blessedness of Man and Assimilate him to the Blessed Image of God Yea how all the Rules and Precepts thereof do so entirely Conspire for this end as may constrain the Woâ—ld to see and admire the Glorious Nature and Perfections of him whose Laws these are wherein he does so brightly shine forth 7. Nor can he look seriously herein and not see that sweet concord as a part of this Harmony which is betwixt the Promissory and Mandatory part of the Gospel so as the Christians Comfort is most fully established and no Duty abolished but the very Path-road to
and New Nature with as discernible evidence as if one man should meet with another of the same kind in such a place of the Earth which were only inhabited with Beasts 6. By considering also with a deep and serious reflection hereon that sure and known Conjunction which is betwixt the most rare Experiences of a Christians Life and the most searching Tryals thereof with that uniform Consent that hath in all Ages of the Church been in such marvelous things as these 1. What solemn Tokens and Testimonies of the Love of God and his Acceptance are found usually to meet his People in the entry of some great Tryal or Service for him even in some unusual manner then in the sense whereof as it was with Elijah they have been made to go many days after in a Wilderness-state yea how this does not respect Persons only but Churches that the Word still useth to go before with some remarkable confirming work to secure the heart before the Cross and some special Tryal of Persecution comes 2. That as each day hath its proper burden and work so hath it its proper allowance provided for the same which should be no less sought after by a Christian than his daily Bread and when the pressure of such a day grows to some more singular height so also should the expence hereof be in Faith sought for and expected 3. How the choicest Mercies are reserved to the saddest Times of a Christians Lot and most usually cross to their own choice and they have had the greatest struglings with those Methods of Providence which in the issue tended most to their Advancements 4. Yea how the returns of a long deferred hope after much humble waiting have been to them as a Pisgah whence they have not only had a clear and comforting prospect of their by-past Tryals but have been more fully confirm'd for the time to come and can bear now that Testimony that the Lord hath cleared all past things to them and hath taken the Vail off his work which for long had been as a dark and strange Riddle 7. This likewise gives a most clear and confirming prospect of that great Seal of Experience when he can now see both in his own case and of others what the issue of believing in a singular Exigency and Tryal and upon some special act of trust and adventure herein does at last come to which the more deeply it 's considered he finds one of the most peculiar assistances to his Faith and one of the greatest attainments of Experimental Religion within time when he can thus see the same way of believing in some strong and extraordinary assaults which he hath found to crush and break him herein which hath carried so many thorow in their saddest Tryals bring him also in his turn to be an instance in the same kind to bear an honourable Testimony to this sure and excellent way of believing before the World that none may fear after him to hold by the promise of God and venture on that security tho' it then seem against hope whose Dispensations did yet never never give his Word the lye CHARACT IV. He is a truly confirmed Christian who in a dismal time is not staggered in his Faith from the present signs and appearances thereof but hath his Soul ballasted with such solid grounds of confirmation against the same that those Providences whereat others do most stumble tend to his further strengthening in the way of the Lord when he does now clearly see 1. How Tribulation and the Cross make one of the most illustrious and beautiful parts of the whole frame of Providence about the Church and in the Lot of each Christian so as there can be no possâ—ble stumbling to any for want of Light here that sore Tryals and Distress should most remarkably follow those in their Journey who have an Eternal Blessedness before them in the close hereof when so great a part of the Scripture is directed not only for comfort but for clear conduct of the Christians Faith through all the intricacies and labyrinths of such a dispensation He sâ—â—s how highly congruous it is to the Infinite Wisdom of God that so strait and narrow a way in such a sâ—ate of Tryal as is here should go beâ—ore the stâ—te of everlasting enjoyment that there should be sâ—â—h a Stage and Theatre also whereon the passive Graces of the Spirit may not only be exercised but displayed in their true lustre and glory before Angels and men Yea that thus the Redeemed of the Lord should be first trained in so sharp a Warfare as may not only put a due value and respect on the greatness of that Triumph and Reward which is to come but be matter of ineffable Joy and Exultation that ever they were admitted thus to evidence their Love and Adherence to their blessed Head and his Truth here on the Earth and accounted worthy to be put on some hotter service and to peculiar Tryals and Conflicts this way beyond others for some example and encouragement to the Church in their day and here also he can now see how the greatest enjoyments of Comfort are more owing to the most sharp and afflicting Tryals of their Life than to the greatest external Calm and that to endure patiently and suffer for the name Christ is such a Priviledge as the Elect Angels have not been admitted to Yea that the Lords chastning work and sorest smiting of his own is an Act also of saving so that thus the more deeply he searcheth here the more does he see admire and consent to that glorious piece of the administration of Providence about the Church and finds it to be one of the greatest Confirmations of his Faith within time 1. He does now clearly see how the Truth and Faithfulness of God is commensurate to his whole work of Providence and that all the Lines hereof as they do lead from his Revealed Counsel in the Scripture which is the adequate sign of his Eternal Counsel and Decrees so do they return thither again to make this great demonstration clear that if a full History were written of this World and what hath been conspicuous thorow the whole series of times past in all these Conjunctions of Inferiour Causes whether necessary free or contingent and of such Events that seem most casual it should be nothing else but an exâ—ct Transcript and History of the Bible to bear this witness That the World is nothing but God set forth in his own Scripture-Light But tho' a full discovery hereof be not attainable within time yet is it a sad and deplorable want that the great Acts of the Lord in each Age of the Church are not more searched and sought out of all them that take pleasure therein that they may be seen observed and admired by that part of the Creation Angels and Men who are only in a capacity to know the same Which is a Service for the Lord wherein his Praise and
Declarative Glory is so highly concerned that a Christian should account the meanest Room herein one of the most desirable Attainments within time Yea it seems just matter of regret also that this comes not under a more publick Care and notice of Particular Churches and of the Christian Magistrate where Religion hath any true regard to have such solemn Providences as occur in that time and place which may be called most Instructive Providences to the Church and of a further reach and extent than any Private use both Search'd after and Recorded as becomes so high a Service to the Christian Cause and one of the highest concerns of Posterity in Order to have them not only possessed of a pure Religion but of that Seal also which the Lord hath in the great Acts of Providence appended thereto And thus to have that Increase which each Successive Age brings therewith to the publick Stock of the Church looked after as a piece of the greatest trust reposed thereon so that the Children rise not up and say we have not heard nor have our Fathers faithfully communicated to us the wondrous Works which the Lord hath wrought in their time 3. He is thus also taught to see the Demonstrative Causes of the most strange Judgments on the Church to be as clear in the Scripture as they are in the event And though the Holy God in the day of his Patience and Long-suffering is not alike quick in the Execution of the Sentences of his Word yet does he ever establish the Authority of his Laws by the works of his Providence in the most opportune season and as Judgment deferred is no acquittance so does it more threaten its being the greater when it comes than a quick and present dispatch yea though this tempest which now blows on the Churches of Christ come to a greater height and the darkness be such as no Moon or Stars may for many days yet appear of any Visible signs of Hope yet is his Soul thus at rest whilst he can see the Credit of the Truth cleared on which he hath more in trust than any Adventure within time and doth rejoyce whatever miscarrying there may be of Inferiour Ends that this great and ultimate End of the works of God is secured herein and the Glory of his Truth does shine forth in the most strange and amazing Acts of his Providence whereat many are ready to stagger when they do not wisely consider the same 4. He sees now likewise so high a value which the Lord puts on the Trial of his Peoples Faith and that the great dispensation whereby he deals with men is by trust and on the credit of his Word as it adds further to his Confirmation to see all humane and Visible Refuges oft taken out of his Churches sight Yea his greatest works in the Earth make the greatest delay ere they be brought forth and his Churches Case is put so far beyond help before a cure as the first quickning of her crushed and almost dead hope must be at the mouth of the Grave and he is thus herein more singularly strengthned that when the Lord speaks the same in the way of Providence which he hath spoke in his Word not by Might nor by Power that he doth with unspeakable Advantage supply and fill the room thereof by the next Word but by my Spirit saith the Lord. Which in this day should with a full Assurance of Faith be both sought and looked after 5. It is in this rare Study he attains also the greatest Confirmation to his Faith that could possibly be desired within time to see now when it 's so near the close thereof and after all the Revolutions of times past how the Truth and Faithfulness of God hath as the Sun in its Strength still kept its way straight and fixt amidst all those dark Clouds which have been to darken the same and is now gone its course until it draws near to the full and perfect day yea thus to see how signally this present Age is held upon that same appeal andd solemn Testimony which Joshua gave Josh 23.14 That not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass to you and not one thing hath failed thereof and Solomon did bear also at the Dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8.56 Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his People Israel according to all that he promised there hath not failed one Word of all his good Promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his Servant so is this now that great Testimony of the latter days and the highest Tribute of Praise to the Glory of God in his Truth which can be given by men that this present Generation stands accountable to make the same yea much greater appeal to the World if they can instance one Promise or Prediction of that sacred record of the Scripture which hath ever failed or fallen to the ground but may be this day read in the Event and under those proper circumstances wherein it was to take place in its proper Season as evidently as it was foretold And must still bear the same witness Psal 18.30 That the way of the Lord is perfect and his Word tryed on all the Adventures of Faith and Trials which to this moment of time have been made hereof and of his being still a Buckler to such as trust in him and are called to send this glorious Testimony to the succeeding Ages that it may never cease to shine or want a publick witness thereto before Angels and Men until the whole mystery of God in his Word be finished in that magnificent close which shall be thereof at the second Coming of the Lord. CHARACT V. A Confirmed Christian in this day should be thus also stated as one who hath not only attained a solid rest and settlement of Mind upon the Certainty of the Christian Faith but does know the pure genuine Truth of Christianity amidst such high Oppositions betwixt the Romish and Reformed Church herein And in the first place hath in this manner held himself upon such a trial 1. As one who knows there is but one true and saving Religion in the Earth to which God hath annexed the Promise of Eternal Life which can never be divided against it self 2. Who knows that within a little while his Religion will be tried in the Truth thereof at the Tribunal of Christ where every man must give account of himself unto God 3. Who sees there can be no possible indifference in the Exteriour Profession of either way but that so high a contrariety of Principles is in this Opposition that if the Doctrine of Christ be on the one hand it is sure Antichristianism must be on the other hand 4. Yea who hath in that abstract manner sought to state the Case herein with his own Soul as if he were just come out of Paganism to give a serious
assent to the Divinity of the Scripture and were now pressâ—d to joyn in with that Profession of the Christian Faith which is most exactly conform to the same in the genuine and perspicuous sence thereof In the second place he hath sought to know how he could imbrace the Popish Creed and adventure his Eternal state thereon or how he could extinguish his Reason and Conscience so far as to believe that the Holy God would ever impose such a Faith upon men as this is 1. Where he must abandon these Principles of natural Reason in the most necessary use thereof which God hath himself planted in mans Soul so as not to trust his own Eyes but others in that great Interest of his Eternal State and with his own consent be shut out from all proper knowledge of the rule of his Religion yea account a blind and unlimited Obedience to men amongst the highest Excellencies of Faith 2. Where he must at once believe the Fulness and Perfection of the Scripture which is not only fitted for that great end of bringing Mankind to God but for such an universal use herein as to make the Simple wise and cause the Poor to receive the Gospel and yet believe also that it is a Mass of dead and unsensed Characters until the Romish Clergy put a just Sense thereon tho its Sense and meaning is the very Soul thereof Yea thus pass from the Letter of the same and all Certainty of its Truth from Intrinsick Evidences and these Marks and Characters of its Divinity whereby the Christian Cause could be maintain'd against Pagans 3. Where he must believe also that these are the Words of Christ Joh. 7.17 If any man do my will he shall know my Doctrine whether it be of God or not and that men err through not knowing the Scripture Mat. 22. And yet believe all the while that these sacred Fountains of Light should be shut up to keep men from Errors and that the sole right of understanding the same belongs to a few not to the Multitude who yet can pretend no extraordinary Assistance or Revelation herein nor will themselves come to these waters of Jealousie to be tried 4. Where he must needs believe that the Scriptures are the Oracles of God committed to the Church to give answer in every dark Case Rom. 3.2 The Type and Form of sound Doctrine Rom. 6.17 Unto whose Sentence in all matters both of Faith and Practice we are expresly referred Isa 8.20 And yet believe also that it hath no Authority or Decisive Voice but what is Precarious and dependant on the Romish Church And thus Consent to have the whole Christian Faith Visibly unhinged of the Foundation of the Scripture and subjected to a Supream Visible and pretended Infallible Judge here in the Earth with such a claim of Dominion over the Faith of the Saints as the Apostles of Christ durst never own but did fully disclaim 2 Cor. 1.24 5. Where he must believe that Jesus Christ came for this end to save lost man and by one Offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.18 And yet joyn with the same a Faith of a human Satisfaction for Sin so as men may both Merit Mediate and Supertrogate go above what is needful for themselves And so be saved in the same way of Life which was by the Covenant of Works ascribing no more to Christ than the giving Salvation to mens own Merits which their own Intrinsick Value and Condignity doth require as a Debt 6. He finds not how in the same Creed he could possibly hold by one Mediator betwixt God and Man where a Plurality for this end is admitted and by the reality of Christs human Nature and his having a true and finite Body which is subjected to have a new created Being each time in the Consecrated Host or beliâ—ve the Truth of his Sufferings as now fully accomplished and to be repeated no more when it is in that daily Sacrifice of the Mass still offered as a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead So on the most severe and impartial inquiry he cannot find how one holding these Principles should go a further length than Morality or claim another standing than by a Covenant of Works 7. Nor knows he how to believe at once the Truth of the Gospel to be a Doctrine of Holiness and Infinite Purity and yet joyn in the same Faith such an Indulgence for men to Sin that Money may stand for Merit and the Rich may have the most easie and large Entry into Heaven Conceit that it is a Priviledge for men to destroy themselves and by External Severities and Penance to the Flesh like to the Lancing and Gashing of Baals Priests supply the room of Christian Mortification 8. Yea he finds it not possible to believe that Sin can only be expiated by the Blood of Christ and is his alone Work who hath purged our Sin himself Heb. 1.3 Or that there are more than two ways that lead to a twofold State of men a Strait way which leads to a Life and a Broad unto Destruction Mat. 7.14 and yet believe that there is a Purgatory after this life wherein men must be tormented and suffer extream Pains to expiate such Venial Sins as their Prayers and Penances here could not do yea he is made to wonder how any who believes such a thing can ever have true Peace or Comfort in the World concluding that Papists do either take it as a Fiction or forget themselves when they are chearful For the fear of such a place the Uncertainty of Release and how long a term it may be ere this Purging Work be compleat when their own Writers Assign no less time than 10000 Years as needful to satisfie for some Sins and fear lest it prove a real Hell must still be a piercing terrour nor can he believe that such should Credit themselves herein who assume this Power to Change the Condition of the Dead Since were it really believed that the Keys of such a Prison were here in mens hands and Folk could by the largest Bribes to the Romish Church get a safe Deliverance thence it were not strange to see the Temporal State of Christendom in a short time made over to these We should Judge they were in a strange manner indeed priviledged above the whole residue of men who by such a Power over the World to come could make so easie a Purchase of this also which is present 9. He finds and is sure he could never get his Reason and Conscience brought to such a Faith even tho he made a feigned Profession herein of that pretended Supremacy of Peter as Bishop of Rome on which the whole frame and structure of the Papacy leans and the Vertue of all the Pardons and Absolutions founded thereon on which so many have adventured into an other World except he would build on the Sand only and not on the Rock 10. He finds also how
support it but these weapons which are not against the Conscience or by any terrour of the second Death but of the first 3. That this is such an Argument if they have not in a strange manner forgot which hath within these 100 Years been so fully Answered and by such an immediate Appearance of God in the Kingdom of France that according to these measures of Cruelty against the Protestants there so was it returned in a deluge of their own Blood yea so both the publick state of the Church and Faith of the Saints in the Truth was more deeply rooted and tho we yet see not the end of these wonders but the Dark-side only of the Dispensations of such a day yet do we know this sore Rod on the Church is but as the Saw and Ax in the Carpenters hand who shall never undo that glorious Work which Christ hath done and is still further perfecting on the ruins of Antichrists Kingdom 5. Tho some unusual deeps and Methods of Subtilty be now on foot also against the Truth yet he cannot but see how nothing could more effectually tend to confirm the Protestant Cause and take the Credit of Popery off the Consciences of those in their own Profession who are considerate and in the least serious herein when the World must thus see 1. How easie it is for such to take any Measure and Latitude in the Doctrinals of their Profession when this can most serve the juncture of such a time and heighten or narrow the Controversie betwixt them and the Reformed Church at their Pleasure so as to Sacrifice the Church of Rome unto the Court of Rome if no less can secure that end 2. That the most horrid Turkish Slavery over mens Bodies comes no such length as that strange claim that these now make of an absolute Empire over mens Consciences by the Sword and to put them to such a Tribute of their Obedience that they shall then be secure if they but come the length to Sin against their Light and adventure on so small a thing as to go to Hell and perish Eternally since it 's an external and feigned Profession of such away that they do thus force from those who they see cannot in Faith be perswaded hereof 3. Yea it hath been too visible how much that Master-plot and Engine hath in these times been working to take men first off from all Sense of Religion and destroy them in the Morals of Christianity to make this Conquest more easie that such may have no Inward Defence and support against the terrour of humane Violence Yea in this way when they have sought how to divide Protestants among themselves and betwixt Rulers and them this seems the last and greatest Engine of all how to divide betwixt them and their God Acting the same Plot which was laid betwixt Balak and Balaam as knowing that it 's no naked shew or Profession of the Reformed Religion they need fear so much as that Old Protestant Spirit in the Power and Life thereof before which their Interest could never stand and dread nothing so much as the reviving hereof which as the hand-writing upon the wall did ever more threaten the fatal ruine of that Kingdom than any Humane Power or Strength 6. Here also he finds just cause of Astonishment how Kings or great Men in the Earth should give their Power to support the Romish Interest which hath been so visibly destructive to theirs When it s not possible to deny how it's first advance and progress to that Supream height which it once attained and the declining of the Civil Empire did by the same steps go together until Magistracy was turned unto a dead Image and Shadow except its being enlivened by their breath and Authority as it was during the whole height of that Antichristian Power Nor will it be denyed that in these late times the French Monarchy was never more near its Dissolution in its right Line than by the Catholick League there and it would seem not easie to be forgot how Henry the third who had most sought to crush the Protestants in pursuance of that league was at last constrained to flee to such for help or by whom he was killed and that Heroick Prince Henry the Fourth who was first stabbed in the Mouth and then in the Heart yea that the publick Records of that Nation cannot possibly deny but the House of Bourbon owes its Power and Preservation more to the Protestants without whom it had been fully extinct than Ahashuerus did to Mordecai the Jew for what he found written in the Chronicles of Persia when the Decree was then past to destroy all the seed of the Jews 7. As in no times past was ever a greater Expectation than is now which way the Scale will turn and what will be the end of these wonders when the nearest events of Providence are so dark and amazing so does he find this in some extraordinary way called for to be still and see what God will do for his Church and with humble Confidence look for some such Dispensation as hath not hitherto been in this extream Exigence And tho he do not appear in that way and manner as in former times that it shall be in a way more signally glorious beyond what hath formerly been yea he does in Faith thus judge that then is the Churches day broke and hath found the sure way of her Strength and right Line of Duty when her Hope and Confidence is taken off from all visible refuges and entirely setled on her invisible Head and his Promise put to suit by Prayer without fainting herein It is sure the Truth and Faithfulness of God stands ingaged for Antichrists fall as well as for Salvation by Christ and since he hath said this Adversary shall be broke and brought down it must surely be tho the dust of the ground should rise for this end and now is the Faith of the Saints called for becoming the greatness of such an Assurance on which are the Eyes of men of their own Consciences of the Elect Angels yea of the glorious God to see who does indeed Credit him in this day when there is no sensible support herein and tho it now threatens sorely the departure of many from the Faith who had some visible Profession thereof yet may it be hoped for that the turn of the next Tide shall bring in more with a Solid and true Increase to the Church than these sad days do now take off CHARACT VI. It is thus a Confirmed Christian should be specially considered as one who is not only at rest on the known certainty of his Faith but is ready to render some account of the solid rational grounds and demonstrations hereof unto all who ask after the same and doth thus judge 1. That these are the proper and appointed means which the Lord hath afforded for the greatest Confirmation of mens Faith within time yea preferable to any external Miracles