Dispensation are we well approved of by God and being justified thus by faith we have peace with him through our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that this Iustification is not a mere belief that Christ died for us in particular or that he was raised from the dead whereby anothers Righteousness is imputed to us but a believing in God that he has accepted the bloud of Christ as a Sacrifice for sin and that he is able through the power of the Spirit to raise us up to newness of life whereby we are encouraged to breath and aspire after this more inward and perfect righteousnesse Which advantages God propounds to all the hearers of the Gospel without any respect of works or former demurenesse of life if so be they will but now come in and close with this high and rich dispensation and be carried on with couragious resolutions to fight against and pull down the man of sin within themselves that this living and new way of real Divine righteousnesse may be set up and rule in their hearts I say if they be encouraged to this holy enterprise by Faith in Christ for the remission of sins and for the power of his Spirit to utterly eradicate and extirpate all inward corruption and wickednesse this Faith is presently imputed to them for Righteousnesse that is they are and are approved by God as dear children of his and as good men and are of the seed of the Promise For they are born now not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of the will of God and their will is wholly set upon righteousnesse and true holinesse which they hunger and thirst after as sincerely and eagerly as ever they did after their natural meat and drink and God who feeds the young Ravens is not so cruell as to deny them this celestial food which food they reach at and as it were wrest out of his hands by Faith in the power of his Spirit whereby they account themselves able to doe all things 9. And this is the only warrantable notion that I can finde of being justified by faith Nor do those places above recited prove any other then this For that which seems to make most of all for another viz. Rom. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness may very well be interpreted according to that tenour of sense I have already declared For that is the great and comfortable priviledge of the Gospel that without any respect of former works if so be we do but now believe remission of sins in Christ and believe in his power that justifies the ungodly i. e. that makes just the ungodly and purifies and purges them from all sin and iniquity from which by their own naturall power they could not purged and restores them to inward reall righteousnesse by the working of his Spirit this Faith is imputed for Righteousnesse For they that do thus believe are good and righteous men for matter of sincerity so that they have peace with God through the bloud of Christ and by the power of that Spirit that is now working in them are renewed daily more and more into that glorious image and desirable liberty which arises in the further conquest of the Divine life in them and makes them righteous even as Christ was righteous And now the hardest is satisfied the other places alledged will easily fall of themselves by the application of what has been said concerning this nature of Faith and Iustification 10. As for those places of Scripture that seem to attribute the Righteousness of Christ to us as where he is said to be made unto us wisedom righteousness sanctification and redemption the sense is only this that he works in us wisedom righteousness c. Otherwise it might be inferred that we shall have only an imputative Redemption and that we shall not be really saved and redeemed As for that other As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one man many shall be made righteous I say it is a place against themselves For by Adam we became really sinners and sinful contracting original corruption from his loins therefore by Christ we are to be made really righteous And this was the end of his obedience that was obedient even to the death of the crosse that we being buried with him by baptisme into death like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. Wherefore there really being no ground in Scripture for this childish mistake and it being as unreasonable that one Soul should be righteous for another as that one Body should be in health for another if I shew that the Scripture it self does expresly require of us that we be righteous and holy in our own persons there is then nothing wanting to the full discovery of this childish and ungrounded conceit of being righteous without any Righteousness residing in us 11. And in my apprehension this very Text of S. Iohn is a clear eviction of this Truth it plainly declaring that they are mistaken who ever conceit themselves righteous without doing righteousnesse or without being righteous in such a sense as Christ himself was righteous There are also several other Testimonies of the Apostles to the same purpose some whereof I have noted already as where he saith That Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that he came to destroy the works of the Devil and that he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God abideth in him that is a permanent Principle of Divine life and sense whereby he seeth and abhorreth whatsoever is wicked and unholy And again 1 Ioh. â— Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him but whose keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected Hereby know we that we are in him He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Like that 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity CHAP. VI. 1. Their alledgement of Gal. 2.16 as also of the whole drift of that Epistle 2. What the Righteousnesse of faith is according to the Apostle 3. In what sense those that are in Christ are said not to be under the Law 4. That the Righteousness of faith is no figment but a reality in us 5. That this Righteousnesse is the New Creature and what this new Creature is according to Scripture 6. That the new Creature consists in Wisedom Righteousness and true Holiness 7. The Righteousnesse of the new Creature 8. His Wisedom and Holinesse 9. That the Righteousness of faith excludes not good Works The wicked treachery of those
above described does plainly implie Repentance which comprehends in it a rejection of such apprehensions as we now have discovered to be false and an abhorrence from and sorrow for all our misdeeds with a willingness to make satisfaction where we have done wrong if it lie in our power and a proneness to take revenge of our selves in curbing our selves and cutting our selves short of the ordinary enjoiment of such things as are in themselves lawfull they being for the present not so expedient for us but rather hurtfull and dangerous 3. He that is thus affected as we have described and can thus willingly and sincerely close with Christ and receive him as King as well as Priest and Prophet and holds himself bound in duty to live in the World as he lived following his Example in all things and has as I have already said a love and liking of those Graces he has recommended to the World is a fit New-Covenanter For flesh and bloud has not revealed these things unto him but the Spirit of God that remains in him he being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible the word of God that lives and abides for ever Of this state may be understood that of S. John Whosoever confesses that Iesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and chap. 5. Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God And this is that new birth without which there is no entrance into the Kingdome of Heaven namely unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit that is to say born of the Spirit which is figured out in Baptismal water which is the outward sign of this inward Regeneration whereby a man is a capacity of thus Covenanting with God obteins remission of sins in Christ and becomes a real and visible member of his Church 4. And when he is thus born into the Church he is not then taken into the armes of absolute Omnipotency to support him defend him and nourish him but there is much-what the same reason that there is of a young plant newly sprung out of the earth or a young child newly born into the world unless they meet the one with a carefull and skilfull Gardener the other with good Nurses they are both in hazard of being spoiled with one sad accident or other their growth may be hindered if not life extinguished by neglect or untoward handling For the influence of Grace is not always irresistible nor the purpose of it undefeatable but is much-what as the power of Nature and her offerings and attempts towards the perfection of those Species of things she produces as I have also above noted She works alwaies towards the best but may be checked or stopped and the Spirit the Apostle saies may be quenched as well as natural Fire And though Nature freely offers that comfortable principle of life the fresh Aire yet the Lungs of the child may be so stuffed by the unwholsome milk of a wretched and unfaithful Nurse that he cannot receive it to continue life and health but the poor Infant must be forc'd to yield to the importunity of the disease and to dy by their hands who professed to administer life and nourishment to him 5. There is the same reason in those that are as yet Infants in Christianity that have really a life and sense and desire to what is truly good but are not yet come to that growth but that they are to suck from others If they that pretend to nurse them up impart poison in stead of the sincere milk of the Word there is no question but they are in very great danger of losing that life they are newly begotten into and of falling from this New Covenant That there were of old such Nurses or rather Witches that in stead of feeding these Infants suck'd the very bloud and life of Religion out of them several passages in the Epistles of the Apostles do intimate as I have already taken notice namely That they were little Children whom those Impostours would make believe that they might be righteous though they were not righteous as Christ was righteous Which is to squeeze cold poison into their mouths not to suckle them with the saving milk of the Word St. Paul was a more faithfull Nurse and taught Titus to be so too Chap. 3. where after the mention of the entrance into this new Covenant by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost he presently addes This is a faithfull saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works CHAP. X. 1. The First Principle the new-Covenanter is closely to keep to 2. The Second Principle to be kept to 3. The Third and last Principle 1. WHerefore that there be no Recidivation nor standing still but that there may be a due advance and growth in the Christian life the First Principle that the new-Covenanter is to adhere to stedfast and unshaken is this That there is an indispensable obligation in this new Covenant of living up so near as we possibly can to those Precepts of the Gospel that are delivered either by the mouth of our Saviour himself or the holy Apostles and that we are not to allow our selves in any thing that our own consciences tell us is a Sin nor be discouraged as men out of hope if we finde our selves against our own meaning and purpose at any time mistaken but with chearfulness and confidence in the mediation of our Saviour to adde more resolute endeavours and the greater circumspection for the future making even an advantage of our lapses that sudden surprisal or any errour or frailty brought us into for an higher and more speedy advance in the Divine life These two considerations of our indispensable obligation to duty and Christs Intercession and propitiation for us S. Iohn has prudently bound up together 1. Epist. 2. My little children these things I write unto you that you sin not But if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is a propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours onely but for the sinnes of the whole world Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandements is a liar and the truth is not in him But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected As this point is exceeding clear as I have more largely proved elswhere so is is most necessary to be believed and to be remembred perpetually that we may keep our selves safe from tasting touching or coming any thing near the sight or sent of that lushious poison of Libertinisme let it be coloured sugared over or perfumed with the most gracious termes or glorious expressions that the deceivable Eloquence of man can put upon it and that we may
highly and most truly magnified and glorified and not in the dark and unintelligible exercise of an irresistible Power By which no other acts of Devotion can be stirred up in us then Fear and Stupour such as seizes upon poor astonished cattel in stormes and lightnings or mighty land-flouds that carry them they know not whether I have styled it also A true and faithful Representation of the Everlasting Gospel c. True as intermingling no humane inventions no◠deductions therewith but contenting my self with what is expresly declared in the Scripture The Truth of which things I think I have demonstrated beyond all exception in the Third part of my Discourse I add also Faithful I having wrote impartially setting down nothing out of any Passion Interest or Side-taking nor out of the spirit of opposition or vain-glory but speaking the Truth freely without any respect to persons or factions not minding either to sooth the one or displease the other but delivering my message so as one that is sensible he must give account thereof within a small space of time before them in the other World And as I profess my self that I have done all things herein with a faithful heart so I doubt not but the Effect will witness for me that what I profess is true For whereas some in an Hypocritical flattery of the External Person of Christ shuffle out all obligation to the Divine Life that Mystical Christ within us and pervert the grace of God in the Gospel to loosness and Libertinisme and others on the contrary whether out of the power of Melancholy that calls the thoughts inward or the scandal they take from abuse of the personal Offices of our Blessed Saviour they seeing the generality of Christians make the external frame of Religion but a palliation for sin or whether from the obscurity of some Articles of the Christian Faith have become plainly Infidels and misbelievers of the whole History of Christ and will have nothing to do with his Person but look upon the Mystery of Christianity as a thing wholy within us and that has no other object then what is either acting or acted in our selves I have with all earnestness of endeavour and with undeniable clearness of Testimony from Reason and Scripture demonstrated the Truth and Necessity of both Christ within and Christ without and have plainly set out the wonderful Wisdome and Goodness of God in contriving so powerful a means as the very exteriour Oeconomy of Christianity is for the renewing of our natures into the glorious image of his Son who is the Life of God and the Soul 's sure pledge of an happy Immortality Besides that there is no Article of the Christian Faith nor any particular Miracle hapning to or done by our Saviour or to be done by him mentioned in the Gospels or any where else in the New Testament but I have given so solid and rational an account thereof that I am confident that no man that has the use of his Understanding shall be able ever to pretend any Reason against Christian Religion such as it is exhibited in the Holy Writings themselves And what is if this be not to set out a Faithful Representation of the Gospel Which I have not rashly termed The Everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour c. being warranted thereto by that of Daniel who styles Christian Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Everlasting Righteousness or The Everlasting Religion as Grotius has well interpreted it Which Religion is denoted by the suffering of the Messias and began from thence and is to remain till he return again visibly in the Clouds of Heaven and put a period to this Stage of things I was also thereunto provoked in way of express opposition to that bold Enthusiast of whom I have spoken so much in the ensuing Treatise who seems to endeavour to superannuate Christianity as it is founded upon the Person of our ever-Blessed Saviour the crucified Jesus and to introduce another Evangelie as he calls it which he pretends to be the Everlasting Gospel and fancies himself that flying Angel in the midst of heaven that is the preacher of it to every nation and kindred and tongue and people 10. As for my Discourse it self I having adventured there to determine none of the more nice and intricate Opinions of Theology but kept my self within the bounds of the confessed Truth of our Religion I hope very few things will occurre that shall not be found inoffensive and perspicuously consonant to Scripture That which I imagine most lyable to censure is that in some matters I may seem over-copious in others too scant As for example my Description of the Animal Life my Display of Paganisme and my Parallelisme betwixt our Saviour and Apollonius may haply seem to some set down over-largely and luxuriantly But truly I thought I could not be too punctuall in describing the Animal life it being so serviceable for our better understanding the Divine whose nature and properties by how much more clearly and distinctly any one conceives and withall has a savoury and experimental rellish thereof with the greater satisfaction shall he peruse what I have writ and understand the Reasonableness and be assured of the Truth and Solidity of the Christian Religion For the Divine Life is in a manner the deepest bottome of this whole Mystery of Godliness we treat of Moreover The more perfect understanding of the nature of the Animal life makes us the abler to judge of the sundry Superstitions of Paganisme wherein though by their subtil Apologies they could clear themselves from Atheisme and the worser sort of Idolatry and could make it good that it was One Eternal Deity be he never so Philosophically defined that was the Chief and Ultimate Object of their Worship yet it is hereby apparent that the best of them exceeds not the Animal bounds forasmuch as they worshipped God in these rude Religions onely out of the sense of the gratifications of the Animal life And if I have more copiously set down how foully and sordidly they have done it my pains therein I hope may be interpreted to very good purpose it being manifest thereby how just a victory Christianity had over Paganisme 11. And for that continued Parallel I have made betwixt the Life of Christ and Apollonius besides the pleasure the Peruser may take in receiving an account of the character and actions of so noble a person as that Pagan was whom his fellow-Heathens did either equalize to or else prefer before our ever-Blessed Saviour and who was not a mere Enthusiastick whifler with a raised style and a canting eloquence but was exemplarily just chaste and generous and did such Miracles as nothing but Magick and the assistance of some of the invisible Powers he was in league with could bring to pass I say beside the pleasure there will accrue to him also the advantage of a more clear and distinct knowledge of the right
a right choice of the Object of this Church-discipline which is to comprehend nothing but what is sound and purely Apostolicall that is the indisputable Truths of our Religion such as we are sure to be the mind of Christ and his Apostles namely the generally-acknowledged Articles of the Christian Faith and plain and indispensable Duties of Life For these are such as deserve to be held up with all possible care and strictness other things so gently recommended that no consciencious man may be pinched thereby That nothing can conciliate more authority to the Church nor more assured peace and tranquillity then to deal bonâ fide with the People and not to make them more foolish and superstitious then they would naturally be and then to pride and please our selves in the sweet rellish of that false satisfaction we find in feeling our power over them and in fansying our selves such marvellous Church-polititians that we can by crafty delusions lead about those whom we should make it our business to undeceive and free from all vain mistakes and set before them the naked Truth and pure light of the Gospel whereby they may become really good and therewith bear a more unfeigned respect to the Ministery and shew more sincere obedience to the Church then they can by being kept to that blind way of admiring outward Formalities and useless Opinions and Ceremonies out of which cannot arise so natural a tie of love and honour to the Priest as by his discovering his faithfulness to his Charge in shewing them the very truth and substance of the Religion he ministers to them and by being instrumental in deriving of the same Christian spirit upon them which he ought to have in an higher measure himself That they may well hazard goodly Structures of Truth by building them upon doubtful and controvertible Foundations such is the setting such a kind of Episcopacy or Presbytery upon the Basis of a Divine right besides their making themselves thereby obnoxious to the suspicion of a design of unmerciful riding and galling the people when they have once by this device so safely lockt themselves into the saddle As if that were not true which I noted before That the exactest platforme of Church-Government by directing or using of it to other Ends then it was instituted by Christ did become thereby the more perfectly Antichristian That Episcopacy simply in it self is not Antichristian as appears even out of that Book which Fanatick Hot-spurres so much abuse to the disturbance of the Church I mean the Apocalypse compared with the acknowledged Church-history concerning this ancient Government which was in use when the Church was most exactly Symmetrall And therefore if this or that Forme of Government were essential to the purity of a Church Episcopacy would not have obtained in that State when she was most pure if it had been Antichristian From whence it also necessarily followes That Presbytery is not jure Divino That if any Mode or Platforme of Church-government be jure Divino I should sooner venture upon Mr. Thorndike's way then any which in my apprehension he has made out with much solidity and freedome of judgement and is not onely truely serviceable to the design of Church-government in generall but also very accommodate to the present constitution of things it being such a mixture of Episcopacy and Presbytery together as may justly if they would be modest and ingenuous satisfie the expectation of both parties That upon an account of Reason and of the nature of the Thing it self Episcopacy joined with Presbytery is better then Presbytery alone forasmuch as it is easier to find one man fitted for so sacred an office then many And there is more ingenuous shame and sense of honour in a single person then in a multitude whose number makes them more bold and daring to pass any thing such as if it were in the power of one single person to stop he could not in point of reputation and self-security fail to use his Negative voice But where the power is in a Multitude without any restraint there cannot but be the hazard of very gross transactions they bolstering up one another by reflexion upon their numerosity and every man in shuffling off the odiousness of the miscarriage to the rest of the lump conceits himself to bear a very inconsiderable share of either the shame or danger of whatever is voted Wherefore there must be a great deal of either Ignorance or Malice to style that Function Antichristian that is thus recommended to us both from the practice of the Primitive Church and the light of Reason 22. Nor can I understand why an ample and honourable Revenue should be accounted Antichristian especially by those whose ordinary ambition and endeavours are to grow rich And for Honour it self it seems to me a symptome of secret Atheisme and Prophaneness in the minds of men while they are so prone to think a man less honourable by being in a more special and nearer manner the Servant of God and of his Son Iesus Christ who is Lord over all Wherefore whosoever has not a very venerable esteem of these peculiar Servants of Christ ought to suspect himself that he is also guilty of some latitant averseness or enmity to Religion it self unless that he can clearly deprehend that his disrespect or disgust arises from the over-long continued fraud and Histrionical imposture of such Functions in the Apostatized Church the gayest Idol being more odious and contemptible then the rudest and most unpolished piece of Timber that pretends to be nothing but what it is Which yet will not excuse him from doing his outward respect to such personages much less encourage him to personall revilements a disorder that S. Paul to an high Priest in a Religion superannuated could not allow himself in Otherwise where they are not Idols but fill out their titles I think no man unless it be out of envy or want of judgement will conceive their Dignities and Revenues ill placed For supernatural Miracles having ceased there is but this one moral Miracle left that I know to awaken the world into a serious belief of the Truth of Christian Religion namely a Bishop refulgent with honour and overflowing with wealth and yet exemplarily humble meek and temperate not thinking himself over-great for the personal discharge of his Office he is intrusted with nor so lull'd asleep in ease and affluency as to let fall the Scepter of Christ out of his hands to be taken up by such as cannot wield it with that paternall affection and judgement that a true Bishop and carefull Watcher over the Souls of men would be sure to do Wherefore to speak out plainly and at once if I had said any thing of Ecclesiastick Policy I should not have forborn to pronounce That such a Bishop as I have hitherto described and that rules his own family well not allowing any scandalous servants to attend him but being a pattern in
God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the First Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years There was never any Book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down which is manifest out of other places as well as this In which I conceive a double design is aimed at a prediction of a proper Resurrection of the Witnesses to the Truth by their deaths and of a Political Resurrection to the true and Apostolical Church that does survive upon Earth The former are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter those that worshipped not the Beast c. which if they were not distinct from the other it had been better to have omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore this is the first intimation that there are two Orders of men there set down The one that suffered death for the cause of the Gospel The other that are still alive but resolute Opposers of the Beast But there is also a second hint in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned The Spirit of God seems on set purpose to make choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not bear too hard toward the sense of a literal Resurrection and so urge the Reader too forcibly to understand both these Orders above distinguished to be Candidates of a real and literal Resurrection at this time And therefore he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will naturally implie a literal Resurrection and in reference to the other no literal Resurrection they being not supposed naturally dead but merely a living upon Earth and reigning there with Christ which is their Moral and Political Life and Resurrection The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall reign with Christ in Heaven and those other with Christ on Earth he being universal Prince over both Churches and therefore neither Heaven nor Earth is here mentioned that the sense may be accommodated to either the reigning with Christ in Heaven or in Earth according to the distinct capacities of the persons And the like caution is used in the prefiguration of the time of which there is no necessity to conceit that it signifies just a thousand years literally but that it signifies at least a thousand years and certainly not more then there are daies in that thousand nor in likelihood near so many But the signification is rather Symbolical as the ten daies are chap. 2. v. 10. And ye shall have the tribulation of ten daies that is the utmost extent of tribulation beyond which there is nothing further as there is no number beyond Ten by which therefore must be meant death And that is the reason why presently is added Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life So this thousand years upon earth is a symbol of the Churches stable duration to the end of the world that there shall no Politie flourish beyond it it being a Cube whose root is Ten. And the application of it to the reigning of the children of the Resurrection with Christ in heaven discovers the unshaken stability and endless duration of that celestial Kingdome also beyond which absolutely there is nothing at all But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again The using of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has plainly respect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intimates that their Resurrection was real and literal to which others should not attain till after the Thousand years upon earth After which it is plainly said that there is a general Resurrection and that all the dead do rise ver 12 13 14. Wherefore this general Resurrection being literal and real it is too too harsh and violent to understand this First Resurrection mentioned in this fifth verse to be only Figurative and Mystical But understanding it literally that which follows has a wonderfull natural and easie sense Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection which he speaks thus in the singular number one would think on purpose to keep men off from conceiting he means it of the successive body of the Church during the thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these the second death has no power namely The lake of fire ver 14. into which Hades or the whole region of mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But blessed are those that have part in the First Resurrection for they are sped already safe having obtained those celestial bodies that do certainly exempt them from this Fate For these and all such as God shall afterward make partakers of this blessed kind of Resurrection are naturally free from the reach of the second death But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for sureness and for distinction sake simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They shall be holy sacred and divine persons and live with Christ in his immutable and everlasting Kingdome in Heaven for ever and ever This I conceive to be the most easie and natural sense of this place and that the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and of his holy Martyrs is a very rash and groundless and unsafe conceit fit for nothing but heat and tumult both of phansie and action Nor do I think it necessary that the Sons of this first Resurrection should at all appear to us their celestial bodies into which they are vivificated being naturally invisible and therefore a kind of miracle for us to see them and no more necessary then the exhibiting those Souls to view which Christ carried to Heaven in triumph after his Resurrection which yet he did not exhibit to the sight of the world And if he doe here I can imagine no better end then that of Mr. Mede's that it may be for a sign or beckening to the Jews to help on their Conversion but I can affirm nothing of these things Only I am well assured that if Christendome were once well purged of all her Idolatries foolish and contradictious opinions and wicked practices it would be a very great Miracle if the Jews could be kept off from being converted 7. Wherefore in brief to conclude seeing the truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms as far as respects this present subject is
the Divine Wisdome that does not act according to absolute Power but according to the Congruity of the nature of things is to wind off Mankind from the slavery of the Devil and reclaim them from the irregularities of the Animal life to the embracement of the Divine by such a way as is most accommodate to the humane Faculties and Capacities 12. And what do we think could work more kindly upon the Nature of man to disenslave him from the bondage of Satan and to make him close with the Divine life which he had forsaken then to exhibit a very visible Example thereof in some venerable Person who should earnestly exhort mankind to follow his steps and practices and whose Doctrine should be confirmed with sensible Testimonies from Heaven in approbation and exaltation of his person shewing that he is the only Beloved the Darling and Delight of the Eternal God with some such Expression as this from the very clouds This is my beloved Son hear him In brief That his Birth Life and Death should be adorned with such miraculous and supernatural Circumstances that it may be visible to all men that are not willingly blinde that this man was a true and infallible Messenger sent from God Which would be a very forcible battery laid against their outward senses 13. But being that this had been the sadder message by how much more they had been ascertain'd it had been true That they must forsake the exorbitant pleasures of the Animal Life and keep close up to the Divine it was also requisite that they might be assured of a proportionable Reward for so great an Agony as they were to undergoe in mortifying castigating their natural or habitual desires and betaking themselves to the streighter way And therefore it is fit that that Truth that is so obscure and incredible to the generality of men should be made grosly manifest to the meanest capacities I mean the Reward of a blessed Immortality after this Life and the regaining of Heaven or Paradise which lapsed Mankind had lost The Certainty whereof I cannot tell how it may be better assured to them then by the witness of one whom we are sure is infallible and who saies expressly that he came from thence and after Death is to go thither again and does not only tell the World so but proves it to outward sight he being raise out of his Grave after he was perfectly dead and ascending into the Heavens where flesh and bloud cannot inhabit Which is a visible Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality and as feelingly accommodate to the slowest apprehension as if some man of whose honesty the people were indubitably assured should descend from some high Hill where none of the Country had had the hap to have been as yet and should tell them what pleasant Woods and Groves there were there full of all manner of delicious Fruit a true terrestrial Paradise and that it was not so steep or inaccessible as they imagined and therewith should return thither in the very sight of those that questioned the Matter This consideration would reach their very inward Reason and indispensable Interest For they that are the lowest lapsed are not fallen from the sense of their own good and from a desire of everlasting happiness if they find it possible 14. This were enough to make mankinde weary of the Devil 's Tyrannical yoke But in all revolts there ought to be some Head and no person is so fit for such a purpose as he who is able to reward his followers whose Vertues are eminently opposite to the Vices of the Tyrant and whose Rule when he is installed will as little thwart the usual or natural and innocent propensions of the People as may be Wherefore whereas the Devil's Government is notorious for unspeakable Pride Insolency and Cruelty to Mankind as has been at large discovered in those bloudy sacrificings and despightfully misusings of men in a way of Superstition which no man can doubt to have any better Author then Satan himself the Head of this warrantable Revolt must be singularly kind and tenderly and affectionately loving and compassionate to the Generations of men as also very humble and lowly and be so far from requiring such abominable and bloudy homages as the sacrificing of men to him that he would willingly lay down his life for their sake Which must needs prove an unspeakable endearment of the affections of his followers to him and raise in them a more vehement detestation of the Devil's Tyranny But because Love is ineffectual that has no power of doing good this Head becomes the more perfectly compleat if he be found not only so Kind as to be willing to lay down his life for his Subjects but also to be able to save them from all the inconveniences that opposite Power intangled them in whose wages were no better then Eternal death and therefore it was fitting that he should have a power from God of giving Everlasting Life and crowning them with a blessed Immortality at the last day and of saving them from that general Destruction that will in time seize as well on the rebellious Angels as the unreclaimed Souls of men 15. Lastly Those natural innocent Propensions of Mankind are gratified in this Head we speak of if there be such Properties in him as are sutable to their Opinions Practices and Desires in matters of Religion And we know by History that the Heathen were very prone to suspect those that were their eminent Benefactors to have been born of more then humane Race and that they had so high sense of Gratitude toward them that they Deified them after their Deaths and did them divine Honour Adde to this their conceit of the necessity of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the appeasing the Wrath of the Gods and of the convenience of their Dii Medioxumi Wherefore if Divine Providence add these Gratifications also in the choice of the Head she shall appoint for the opposing and beating down the Kingdome of Satan the matter is still more completely fitted and accommodated to the humane Faculties which having been long abused by idle mistakes cannot but be highly transported with joy upon the discovering their true and warrantable Object and so the Nations will finde such a Prince and Leader as the more they behold him and eye him the more they must become enravished by him Divine Wisdome condescending by this contrivance to the utmost curiosity of Courtship to win off poor lapsed Mankind from the Tyranny of Satan to the Kingdome of God 16. This is a short Review of the more Intelligible part of Christianity the Reasonableness whereof I take to be such that I dare appeal to the judgment of any if it be not so worthy of the Divine Wisdome and Goodness and so fitly suited unto the nature and condition of things and the state of men upon earth that it is indispensable but that Providence
though the Will appear as authentick as any can do should pretend that they had burnt the true Will and forged this to his damage whenas yet he cannot prove the least tittle of this Imputation Nay I may say it is far more foolish then this For this may be feasable to burn a single Writing and then make a new one in the stead But it is altogether impossible for the Enemies of the Church ever to have suppressed or made away with those First true Copies of the Gospel which doubtlesse were in the custody of many thousand persons in severall parts of the world For the Writings being so very little in bulk and of so great concernment what Christian would not have a copy of them that was but able to reade Besides that there is not the least hint in History of any such thing Nor indeed can any Historian witnesse of matters of this kinde For who could assure him if there had been any attempt of burning them that they were all burnt and if any were but left they would multiply again in a moment and that but few would be delivered up we may be very well assured when they bore such love to that Truth they conteined that they preferred it before their own lives 3. It is therefore undoubtedly true that the Copies that we have this day of the Evangelists are Transcripts from their first Originals without any Interruption The only scruple that remains now is concerning our third and last Conclusion whether they may not be altered and depraved in some measure in so long succession of time either by chance or the pious frauds of the Church To which I answer in the first place That it is incredible but that the Gospels should escape as well as the Writings of Plato Aristotle or Tully if we look at only such alterations as may proceed from the heedlesnesse of the Transcribers and yet no man doubteth but that their Writings do now fully communicate their mindes to the World concerning those things they do declare as fully and perfectly as they themselves writ them And as for any pious frauds of the Church I answer That the Church was more simple and honest in the Apostolical times and some Ages after within which compasse so many Copies of the Gospel were extant and so dispersed throughout the World that they could not adulterate those Writings if they would For as I have said already those Writings being of so little a bulk and consequently the Transcription of them so easie the Copies would be multiplied almost equally to the number of Christians I mean of those that could reade and being so holy a Writ the Transcription be made with all possible care and circumspection For certainly Christians were very serious in their Religion in those dayes Besides it is very reasonable to believe that a special Providence would keep off both chance and fraud from wronging so Sacred Writings in any thing materiall and if not materiall what are they the worse Not to mention how Awe and Reverence to such holy Writings would naturally hold them off from mingling any thing by way of fraud or intermedling with them and the Effect makes good this presage For in perusing of them we plainly discover that Harmony and agreement of one thing with another that we may be well assured that there is nothing spurious or adulterate foisted into the Text. The multitude of various Lections also further confirms our Conclusion which is an argument of the multitudes of Copies I spoke of and the collection of these various readings a Testimony even of the faithfulnesse of these later Ages oft he Church and of the high reverence they had to these Records in that they would not so much as embesell the various Readings of them but keep them still on foot for the prudent to judge of And lastly upon perusall of those various Readings the clear discovery that nothing at all is lost of the Truth of Christian Religion by any of them and consequently no detriment or prejudice done to any but such as are more for factions and opinions then the real power of Godliness this also ratifies the Truth we drive at namely That those Copies of the Gospel which we daily peruse are incorrupted and that therefore those things contained in them are certainly true as being writ by the pens of those who had sufficient knowledge of what they declare being either Eye-witnesses of the same or conferring with them that were and both of that unsuspected Integrity that the like is not to be found in any Witnesses else in the World CHAP. XII 1. More particular Characters of the Person of the Messiah in the Prophecyes 2. His being born at Bethlehem 3. And that of a Virgin 4. His curing the lame and the blinde 5. The piercing of his hands and feet 1. THus have we undeniably demonstrated the Truth of the Gospel and the things therein contained and consequently the Certainty and Reality of the Christian Religion which being done we can now more seasonably adde some few Characters more of the Person of the Messiah so particular and expresse that it may justly ravish us with the admiration of so punctuall a Providence as is discoverable therefrom in Predictions and Prophecies I will not instance in many because we have already finished our designe and those that love to abound more in matters of this nature may consult others that have handled them more fully and copiously We shall only resume what we above mentioned of his being born at Bethlehem of the Family of David and that of a Virgin his making the blinde to see and the lame to walk the piercing of his hands and feet and their casting lots for his vesture That these things were true of him the Gospel plainly testifies and that they were prophesied of him is as plain out of the Prophecies of the Old Testament which we shall here recite 2. And first that of Micah But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from old from the dayes of Eternity This is a very particular description of the Person of the Messiah from the place of his birth And it was the confessed glosse of the chief Priests and Scribes upon this Text as appears Matt. 2.4 5. To which Episcopius addes the suffrage of the Chaldee Paraphrast and R. Solomon Iarchi But that which makes this prediction and the divine Providence more admirable are the Circumstances of its completion For Bethlehem was not the Town of abode of either Ioseph or Mary nor went they thither at that time of their own accord nor upon an ordinary occasion but Augustus surely not without some special incitation from above made a Decree that all the World that is all under the Romane Empire should have their names enrolled in publick Records Wherefore all
the power of his might Put you on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world even against the wicked Spirits of the air Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day and having vanquished all to stand Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breast-plate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Above all taking the shield of faith whereby you shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God We shall add only a short speech to the Christian souldier thus harnessed from the Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ Revel 3. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne Which things thus put together and carefully considered cannot but awaken us out of that drouzy and lazy dream of unoperative Faith and sluggish sordid slavery to sin under pretence of invincible infirmity into a full belief of the mighty power of Christ and of his Armature and Ammunition whereby we are able to overcome all our domestick lusts though abetted and incensed by the fiery Stratagems of the Devil 6. To him that overcomes When I beseech you is this overcoming Is not Victory wone in the same field the battel is fought and is not our warfare here upon this earth wherefore it is plain our Victory must be here also It is in this life we are commanded to kill and slay the old man in us with all his deceiveable lusts who while he is alive will be alwaies plotting and inventing some evil device or other to undermine and root the Kingdome of Christ out of our hearts And therefore we must be wholy the one or wholy the other We cannot serve Christ and Belial Light and Darkness cannot abide together And verily the Apostle has furnished us with so compleat an armature that we cannot but confess our selves stronger then the strong man that has hitherto kept the house so that if he be not dispossessed it is long of us For the faithfull Christian Souldier is so well appointed being girt with Truth his Heart fortified with Uprightness and Sincerity his Mind with representations of Eternal life his feet with readiness unwearied resolution of walking as becomes the Gospel of Christ his Memory with the choicest and most useful encouraging Precepts of the Scripture his whole Soul bearing it self strong in the Faith of the power of God against all assaults and temptations of the enemies of our Salvation that he cannot but get the day and stand Conquerour in the field though his own domestick lusts be assisted by the powers of the Prince of the Air that rules in the Children of disobedience For this shield of Faith is able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil This is that Faith whereby the ancients have subdued kingdomes and wrought righteousness And this is that whereby every Christian shall advance his conquests against the Kingdome of Darkness and Unrighteousness as much as he pleases For according to a mans Faith so shall it be unto him 7. Wherefore those that plead for a lazy Slackness and Remisness in these attempts are not faithfull Christians but false brethren got amongst us He that puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdome of God Again He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more then me is not worthy of me Nay he that loveth his own life more then Christ is not worthy of him nor can he be his disciple as our Saviour himself has declared How can then any be Christ's disciple that loves any lust whatsoever though never so pleasant though never so profitable more then the Son of God that redeemed him with his own bloud Wherefore all true Christians have been in this point in good earnest in both practice profession and praiers in breathing and contending after all exquisiteness of purity and integrity both of flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God as the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians According to which also S. Iames in his Epistle general chap. 1. v. 4. Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire being defective in nothing Like that praier of Epaphras for the Colossians chap. 4.12 who is said there to labour fervently for them in praier that they may stand perfect and complete in the whole will of God Which is the same with S. Peter's 1 Epist. the last chapter The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Iesus after that you have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you To which we will add that of the Author to the Hebrews and so conclude Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus the great shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to doe his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII 1. That the Christians assistance is at least equal to his task 2. The two Gospel-powers that comprehend his duty 3. The first Gospel-aid The Promise of the Spirit with Prophecies thereof out of Ezekiel and Esay 4. Some hints of the mystical meaning of the last 5. Another excellent prediction thereof 1. WE have made it very evident That that degree of Righteousness that the Christian is called unto is no lazy sluggish inclination to holiness no maimed halting Hypocritical following after Christ but a sound and chearfull endeavour and at last a joifull acquisition of such a degree of Sanctity and Righteousness as far surmounts the pretensions of all other Religions whatsoever and is indeed so exquisite and perfect that nothing better can be desired or imagined So holy and Heavenly a calling is the calling of a Christian. And indeed the expectation is so great that if our aids and assistances were not proportionable we could never arrive to the End of our calling But our helps are in my apprehension far greater then our task if we were not wanting to our selves 2. We have hitherto seen how necessary inward Sanctification is to a Christian as also to how ample a measure he is called Both these he is indispensably obliged to endeavour and breath after perpetually as is manifestly declared by Christ his Apostles and the Prophets before them Wherefore these two I
said Does this offend you What if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That will be a very strange and stupendious spectacle to you and such as will assure you of my Divinity but withall remove my body so far from you that you cannot then if you would mistake so grosly as to think I speak of this body and bloud I carry now about with me It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life that is to say They are touching the spiritual body which is the inmost Temple of the holy Ghost and which you are in some measure to partake of here and which shall have its compleat refinement when I shall crown you with the perfection of Life Eternal at the last day Or They are simply concerning the Spirit and that Life which I my self am according to my Divinity viz. The Eternal Word in whom is the Life and that Life is the light of men This is that which you are to feed on and to drink into your Souls when you have not my particular bodily presence with you For this Word and Spirit is every where to be taken in by them that breath and thirst after this Heavenly sustenance of their Souls and so is that fulfilled which he declares v. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him For the eating of the flesh is in some measure partaking of the spiritual body and the drinking of the bloud the imbibing that life therewith that rayes out from the Eternal Word into all purged and purified hearts whereby Christ dwelleth in them and they in him and God in all 3. Again Iohn 7.37 In the last day that great day of the Feast Iesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believes on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Which he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive as the Text it self expounds it And therefore is a good ratification of the Mystical sense of those Prophecies we rehersed out of Esay But these things are spoken more plainly and without a Metaphor Ioh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Which Precept and Promise is like that of Esay chap. 58. which is that if we seriously compose our mindes to do due acts of obedience to God he will pour out his Spirit upon us Then shall thy light break forth like the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward He shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not That is as any spiritual Christian would be apt to interpret the place If thou thirst after Righteousnesse and in the mean time to thy utmost power do the outward functions thereof in thy duties to God and man at length this Spirit of truth will break forth like the morning light within thee and the emanations of the holy Ghost will so throughly refresh thee and strengthen thee that with ease and pleasure thou shalt walk in all the wayes of God which shall be like the flowry Alleys of a Paradise to thee both to thine inward and outward man 4. Not that our endeavours or desires are any obligation to God by way of merit on our part but it is his mercy to the Soul that does in good earnest pant after him For till he has compleated his work in us all our works are worth nothing and whenever they are worth any thing they are not ours but his And to this sense speaks Paul to Titus chap. 3. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us or poured out upon us as the Original has it abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Like that of the Prophet Thou shalt be like a watered garden 5. Adde to these Ioh. 3.5 Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit And Rom. 8.9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his And vers 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered And also 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And lastly Ephes. 3.14 For it were infinite to reckon up all places of Scripture that tend to this purpose For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inward man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us To him therefore be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulnesse of the Gospel and the Necessity of undeceiving the world in those points that so nearly concern Christian Life 2. The ill condition of those that content themselves with Imaginary Righteousnesse figured out in the Fighters against Ariel and Mount Sion 3. A further demonstration of their fond conceit 4. That a true Christian cannot sin without pain and torture to himself 1. VVE have now abundantly proved out of places of Scripture The necessity of inward Sanctification and reall in-dwelling Righteousness
of God Be not deceived neither Fornicatours nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God And Hebr. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And thus we see that all the Happiness of man and his real good is utterly subverted and destroyed by this mischievous imagination of being righteous otherwise then by true and living Righteousness 10. And it is as plain that this imposture will rob God of his Glory as well as defeat man of his Happiness For whether we understand by the Glory of God the Image of God communicable to men as the Image that is the light of the Sun is the glory of the Sun or whether we understand the acknowledgment of that Excellency and Perfection that is in God first deeply conceived in our hearts and then fully and freely professed by our mouths both these are assuredly taken away by this false conceit And of the former there is no doubt being that the Spirit of Righteousness is that very Glory of God or Image of Christ. Wherefore whatever does intercept this does really eclipse the Glory of God And it is as true also of the other For seeing that the most rich and precious Excellencies of the Divine Nature cannot be discovered by the Soul as they ought to be but by becoming Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou beest it thou seest it as Plotinus speaks it must needs be that they cannot be worthily admired and extolled by any Soul but such as is Divine that is such a Soul as God has poured the Spirit of Righteousness and true Holiness on without which it is impossible to see God To all which Particulars that concern every private man you may add that great summe of an incomputable damage that respects the Publick For what Peace or Faithfulness can there be amongst men where the professed Mysterie of their Religion is the Explosion of real Righteousness Or what can possibly take place in stead thereof but Fraud and Falshood foul Lusts phrantick Factions rude Tumults and bloudy Rebellions To which you may cast in the loss of our very hopes that the World should ever grow better or that the holy Promises of God should take effect For there is not a more cruel or butcherly weapon for the slaying of the Witnesses nor a more impregnable Fort against the approaching Kingdome of Christ and that millennial Happiness which many good and faithfull Christians expect then this hell-hatch'd doctrine of Antinomianisme CHAP. XII 1. Of the attending to the Light within us of which some Spiritualists so much boast 2. That they must mean the Light of Reason and Conscience thereby if they be not Fanaticks Mad-men or Cheats And that this Conscience necessarily takes information from without 3. And particularly from the Holy Scriptures 4. That these Spiritualists acknowledge the fondness of their opinion by their contrary practice 5. An appeal to the Light within them if the Christian Religion according to the literal sense be not true 6. That the Operation of the Divine Spirit is not absolute but restrained to certain laws and conditions as it is in the Spirit of Nature 7. The fourth Gospel-Power The Example of Christ. 8. His purpose of vindicating the Example of Christ from aspersions with the reasons thereof 1. WE have now gone through the Three first Powers of the Gospel of which Three the last namely The Promise of the Spirit may seem so sufficient of it self to some without any thing further and I am sure does so to others that professedly they take up here and exclude or at least neglect all that advantage that accrues from the History of Christ and hereby do antiquate the Christian Religion These are those great Spiritualists that talk so much of The Light within them and the Power within them and boast that they want nothing without to be their Guide and Support but that they can goe of themselves without any external help For keeping to the Light within them the Power of God and the Spirit of God will assist them and will lead them into all truth And truly I cannot but say Amen to what they declare For I know assuredly that it is most true if they would leave off their canting language and say in down-right terms That keeping sincerely to the dictates of Reason and Conscience and the perpetually denying themselves in such things as they know or suspect to be evil with devout addresses to the Throne of Grace for the assistance and illumination of the Holy Spirit to discover and overcome all Errour Falseness Pride and Hypocrisie that may lurk in their hearts I say I am well assured that this Dispensation faithfully kept to will in due time lead unto all Saving Truth and that such a one at the last cannot fail to become a Christian in the soundest and the fullest sense such as firmly adhered to Christ in the first and most unspotted Ages of the Church But if they will call any hot wild Imagination or forcible and unaccountable Suggestion the Light within them and follow that this is not to keep to Reason and Conscience but to be delivered up to a reprobate sense and to expose a mans self to all the temptations that either the Devil or a mans own Lust or a sordid Melancholy can entangle him in 2. Wherefore by the Light within them they must understand an accountable and rational Conscience within them unless they be perfect Fanaticks or Mad-men or what is worse mere Impostors and Cheats who would pretend to a Conscience but yet irrational and unaccountable to any one and hereby have the liberty of doing what they please being given up at length to nothing but Fury and Lust. And then lastly This Conscience within them is not a thing so absolutely within them that it can take no information from what is without For it is manifest that this Lamp of God that burneth in us is fed and nourished from external Objects For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by things that are made for by these from without are we advertised of his Eternal power and Godhead And as we are thus taught by the outward Book of Nature concerning the Existence of God and his general Providence in the world as to the necessities of life both of Men and Beasts so may we also by external VVritings or Records be more fully informed of a more special Providence of his to the Sons of men concerning the State in the other world and of that Eternal life manifested by Christ. But I grant that it is still this Light within us that judges and concludes after the perusal of either the Volumes of Nature or of Divine Revelation 3. But as he that gives his Mind to Mathematicks Architecture Husbandry
them and haling them to such actions as they are perswaded God has severely forbid them Verily if this be not unjustly to command him who is under the power of another I cannot imagine what is nor what can be deemed a sin against God if urging others to sin against him be not So that again even upon our Adversaries own terms it is plain that the Soveraign power of God sets the sincere Religionist free in matters of Religion from any external force or power whatsoever 9. Now as this Position recommends it self sufficiently from its own native concinnity and solidity so will it also appear still more solid and more consonous to Reason if we consider the absurdity of the contrary Position namely That liberty of Conscience is by no means to be granted in Religion For from hence it follows that every Religion may nay ought to keep out all other Religions with all care possible For every mans Conscience tels him His is the best or else he would not be of it nay that there is none true and saving but his own For if they will say they may be saved in others then is our former argument a perfect demonstration against them that they are not only injurious to men but absolute rebels against God indeed in treating those ill that are his liege people and whom he loves so well that he intends to save them and in persecuting them even for those very actions wherein they do most seriously express their obedience to him But if there be but one true and saving Religion at once in the world this is the greatest disinterest to it that can be imagined For upon this Position it will be as carefully kept out and as forcibly as any of the rest which in my apprehension is very foul play and therefore this is another evidence of the truth of our Thesis viz. That the contrary is the greatest injury and disinterest to the True Religion that can be supposed which nothing but external force hinders from spreading over all For Magna est veritas praevalebit I mean in the Mindes and Consciences of those men where she may have free audience not in the noise and terrour of tyrannical impositions and obtrusions Besides the frequent misery and calamity this Position brings upon Nations and Kingdoms viz. Wars bloud-shed subversion of Families deposing stabbing or poisoning of Princes perpetual enmity and hatred and all the works and actions of the kingdom of Darkness Of so mischievous consequence is this Opinion we do oppose Whenas if it were acknowledged universally That Liberty of Religion is the natural right of mankinde all these mischiefs would be prevented The Prince could not pretend any quarrel against the People nor the People against the Prince or against one another but in Civil Rights that are more plain and intelligible CHAP. XI 1. That there is a Right in every Nation and Person to examine their Religion to hear the Religion of Strangers and to change their own if they be convinced 2. That those Nations that acknowledge this Right and act accordingly have naturally a Right to send out Agents into other Nations Their demeanour there and the right of revenging their injuries And how this Method had justified the Spaniards Invasion of the Indians 3. The unpracticablenesse of the present Theory by reason of the general perverseness of the World The advantageousnesse of it to Christendome and suitablenesse of it to the Spirit of a Christian. 4. That Religion corruptive of manners is coercible by the Magistrate 5. And that which would plainly destroy the defence of the Countrey 6. As also whatever Religion is inseparably interwoven with Principles of Persecution 7. An Answer to that Objection That all Sects are persecutive and that therefore there can be no Liberty of Conscience given 1. IT is manifest therefore That Liberty of Religion is the common and natural Right of all Nations and Persons that is to say That they have a power as they are Rational men and believe that there is a God and a Life to come to examine what is the best way to serve him for their future advantage and not to be tied up so to that Religion is first proposed to them but that they have a Right to suspect especially if they do not like it that there is some better and therefore that they may confer with those of other Religions send for them out of one Nation into another and entertain them when they are arrived hear them diligently and if they be convinced openly profess it Or if they come of their own accord they are to be entertained with the same security that an Agent of State is and may freely converse with them of the Nation that have a minde to hear them For this is a piece of their Right of Liberty to speak as well as the others to hear Which Transactions would breed no disturbance at all if this Right of Liberty of Religion was universally understood and acknowledged by all the Nations of the World as certainly it is their Right 2. And it being so it seems plainly to follow That any Nation or People that do heartily ackowledge the Reasonableness of this Right and their practice is accordingly that there accrues to them this part of the Right also that they may send of those of the Religion themselves are into their neighbouring Nations to communicate their Religion to them and to try if they can convince them of that which they are perswaded is true and to shew them the errours of their own but at seasonable times and without reproach or tumult or any way confronting them in the exercise of their Religion a thing very barbarous and insufferable at home much more abroad in Countreys where they are Strangers For the avoiding of which wilde enormities it seems reasonable in it self and a thing to be agreed upon that there shall be no security to any stranger that takes upon him to gather the people together under pretence of instructing them in a more perfect Religion unless he be an Agent from his own Nation for that purpose Nor is he to begin with the rude people but to act above-board and to make his applications to the Governours of the places where he arrives and not to pretend to the Juglings of Inspirations and the irresistible blusters and impetuosities of an unaccountable Conscience but first with a discreet candour to allow and commend what is good and praise-worthy in the Religion of the place and then after an unaffected profession of the love and kindeness of them that sent him towards the Nation with all prudent insinuations possible to lay before them the groundlesness or gross falsities which are in their Religion and after that to shew the most demonstrative Reasons he has for the recommending of his own namely such as are agreed upon by the mature deliberation and counsel of them that sent him upon this errand to which it should be
you will see at length it will come to nothing 2. First therefore let us set down the like Accidents to this that have fallen out and been as conspicuous to all the World As that Sensible obscurity and languor of the Sun in Iulius Caesar's time as also in Iustinian's time and lastly that Bloudy dulness in the face of that Luminary for four daies together in the times of Carolus Quintus things as remarkable in themselves as this Eclipse at the Passion of Christ and all it 's likely proceeding from like Causes But the moderating of these Causes so as that the Effect should take place just at the time of our Saviour's suffering this was miraculous and by special Providence Now I demand for that First observation of the Sun that indured a whole year together was a concomitant of Iulius Caesar's death when there were so many Historians in the after-Age till Suetonius his time viz. Livy Strabo Valerius Maximus Velleius Paterculus Philo Mela Plinius Iosephus Plutarchus Tacitus how many of these recorded so great a Prodigie I doe not find any Historian alledged but Pliny who likely had it from Ovid and Virgil who after the manner of Poets pleasing themselves to record strange things and to magnifie great men recite this Accident in Nature in honour to Iulius Caesar. Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam Cum caput obscurâ nitidum ferrugine texit Impiáque aeternam timuerunt secula noctem At Caesar's death he Rome compassioned In rusty hue hiding his shining head And put the guilty world into a fright They were surpriz'd with an eternal Night As Virgil has it in his Georgicks And Ovid in his Metamorphoses to the same purpose Solis quoque tristis imago Lurida sollicitis praebebat lumina terris The Sun 's sad image Caesar's fate to moan With lurid light to anxious Mortals shone Which condition of the Sun Pliny writes lasted for a whole year The like Cedrenus reports to have happened in Iustinian's time But there were nigh twenty considerable Writers from Iustinian's time till Georgius Cedrenus I would therefore remit the Caviller to peruse these Historians and observe in how few of them this Prodigie in Iustinian's daies is recorded The same may be said of what happened under Carolus Quintus And then if he deprehend that so remarkable Accidents be taken no notice of by many Writers that had a capacity of recording them I would have him also to consider that such like Reasons that might cause them to omit the writing of those Prodigies might also fit those that omitted the setting that down that happened at our Saviour's Passion and to rest contented that he finds it recorded by them that are most concerned in it that is Three of his faithfull followers Matthew Mark Luke who bearing a truer respect to Christ's person then those flatterers of Princes Virgil and Ovid to the deceased Iulius recorded this Miraculous Eclipse to his Honour as they did that long obscuration of the Sun to the honour of their adored Caesar. 3. Neither is this all for I may further add That there are greater Reasons why all saving Christ's own Followers should omit the recording that Eclipse at his Passion then that those Writers we speak of should the continual obscurity of the Sun that was to be observed for a whole year together about the Exitus of Iulius Caesar's Reign For the noveltie of that in Caesar's time might make the greater impression upon mens Spirits whenas that obscuritie of the Sun at our Saviour's suffering though I doubt not but that it was so great as that the Stars appeared through the defect of the Sun 's light so as they may doe in a Summers night might well be neglected by the Nations of the World they having noted already that the Light of the Sun is obnoxious to such obfuscations and dulnesses and that for so long a time together So that although this lurid deadness of the Sun at the Passion was far greater then that at Caesar's death yet it being shorter by far as lasting not above three hours it might seem to them less considerable especially they not knowing what was the meaning of it And when they did they had the less encouragement to record it it making for a new Religion contrary to their own So that even that Consideration may seem a sufficient Reason why this notable Accident may be pretermitted by both Jewish and Heathenish Historians 4. But Grotius out of Phlegon a Pagan writer ventures to answer more point-blank namely That the said Author does affirm that in the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad which is the year wherein Christ suffered according to the usual opinion there was the greatest Eclipse that ever was known night surprizing men at the sixth hour of the day which is at noon and being so dark that the Stars were seen at that time of the day He mentions also therewith a mighty Earthquake in Bithynia and how the greatest part of Nicaea was ruined thereby To this purpose is there also recited out of another Pagan writer by Eusebius whom Grotius discovers to be one Thallus Which Testimonies will stand good till the Opposer of the Truth of the Narrations of the Evangelists shall either prove infallibly by Chronology That Christ did not suffer that year or else by Astronomical calculation That there was a natural Eclipse of the Sun in that year he suffered so horrid and dismal as Phlegon describes But Phlegon confining it to no place intimates it was Universal and therefore not Natural Tertullian also speaking to the Pagans concerning this matter appeals to their own Records concerning the Truth thereof And for my own part I make no question but that it is true in the very sense we speak of viz. that it was an Universal Eclipse whatever becomes of the testimonies of Thallus and Phlegon 5. But being the Text does not necessarily implie thus much we may with Calvin restrain it to Iudaea God miraculously intercepting the light of the Sun from those parts only by the interposition of some conspissated body or by raising a black caliginous mist such as he caused in the land of Aegypt For the Scripture will sute well enough with any of these senses so little of any just occasion is there left to the Caviller and Infidel So that the Credibilitie and Reasonableness of the chief Circumstances of our Saviour's Passion is sufficiently cleared 6. To which we have nothing to parallel in Apollonius his life except it be his Arraignment before Domitian Where Domitian quitting him from the charge that was laid against him yet he for ostentation sake to shew what an expert Magician he was vanishes in the midst of the Court to the great amazement of the Emperour and the rest of his Judges But in the mean time he having such a trick of Legerdemain as this to keep himself from peril it makes all his magnanimous Precepts
concerning the Contempt of Death that he so gravely imparts to Damis and Demetrius encouraging them to suffer any thing for the cause of Philosophy hypocritical and ridiculous So whifling and ludicrous is every thing of Apollonius if compared with that solid Truth and real Excellency that is discoverable in Christ. BOOK V. CHAP. I. 1. Of the Resurrection of Christ and how much his eye was fixed upon that Event 2. The chief Importance of Christ's Resurrection 3. The World excited by the Miracles of Christ the more narrowly to consider the Divine quality of his Person whom the more they looked upon the more they disliked 4. Whence they misinterpreted and eluded all the force and conviction of all his Miracles 5. Gods upbraiding of the World with their gross Ignorance by the raising him from the dead whom they thus vilified and contemned 6. Christ's Resurrection an assurance of man's Immortality 1. WE have done with the Passion of Christ we come now to his Resurrection and Ascension and First his Resurrection Concerning which it is observable That our Saviour's eye was fix'd upon nothing more then it He prophesying of it in his life-time under that Parable of destroying the Temple and then raising of it up within three daies meaning the Temple of his body as also in the application of that strange Accident that befell Ionas For as Jonas was three daies and three nights in the Whales belly so the son of man should be three daies and three nights in the belly of he Earth He deferred also the divulging of his Transfiguration in the mount till his Resurrection as not being of any such efficacy to beget Faith in the people till this also had happened unto him 2. Now the grand importance of this so wonderfull an Accident consists chiefly in these Three things First In that it is a very eminent Triumph of the Divine life in the Person of Christ. Secondly In that it is so plain an assurance of a blessed Immortality And Thirdly In that it is so sure a Seal and so clear a Conviction of the truth and warrantableness of all the Miracles Christ did in his life-time 3. That our Saviour Christ was the most illustrious Example of the Divine life that ever appeared in the world cannot be denied by any but such as are blinde and have no eyes to behold that kind of splendour But that the judgement of the world might be the more notoriously baffled God assisted this Divine worth with many strange Miracles that they might more fixedly and considerately contemplate this so holy and lovely a person But the more it seems they looked upon him the more they disliked him the whole World being so deeply lapsed into the Animal life the Jews themselves not excâ—pted that they had no knowledge nor relish of the Divine Nay they had an Antipathy against him as the wise man expresses it He is grievous unto us even to behold His life is not like unto other mens his waies are of another fashion He was made to reprove our thoughts 4. Wherefore they having so settled an hatred against him all the Miracles that he did or whatsoever happened miraculously unto him did but set a more venemous edge of their spleen against him From whence it was easie for them to misinterpret and elude every thing imputing his casting out Devils to a contract with Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils The Testimony from Heaven That he was the Son of God to the delusion of evil Spirits that would lapse them into Idolatry His feeding the multitudes in the Wilderness to Witchcraft and Sorcecery and his raising of men from the dead to the nature of some Lethargical or obstupifying disease that may seem to make a man devoid of life for four daies together The Eclipse of the Sun indeed was a very strange thing if the darkness was in the Sun it self but they might remember at least from the relations of others that it was strangely obscured for a whole year together about the death of Iulius Caesar and so interpret this at the Passion as a mere casual coincidence of things or that some delusive Spirits intercepted the light of the Sun in favour of the great Magician whom they thought just to crucifie betwixt those other two Malefactors 5. But he whom they numbred amongst the transgressours and took to be the vilest of men because he was not recommended by any thing that the Animal life likes and applauds as Nobleness of Birth the power of popular Eloquence Honour Wealth Authority high Education Beauty Courtship Pleasantness of Conversation and the like he is I say notwithstanding this general contempt from men very highly prized by him who is the infallible Judge whose waies are not as our waies nor his thoughts as our thoughts But that he might conform our apprehensions to his own raised Iesus Christ from the dead bringing that passive contemptible Divinity that lodged in him into a deserved victory and triumph exprobrating to the blind world the ignorance of that Life that is most dear and precious to himself making him alive whom they maliciously killed and preparing a way to an universal Homage for him who was universally scorned and became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the off-scouring of all though his Spirit Life and Nature was of more worth then all the things of the World beside 6. Nor is this Resurrection of Christ only a particular honour and high Testimony given to the person of Christ who was so splendid an Habitation of the Divine life but it is also an assurance of a blessed Immortality to all those that will adventure to follow his Example that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And therefore he is not said here to rise alone but in token of what a general concernment his Resurrection was the Monuments of some lately-deceased Souls flew open and themselves appeared to several in the Holy City Which things were a palpable Prohetical prefiguration of that blessed Immortality that Christ has purchased for all men that believe in him and obey him CHAP. II. 1. The last End of Christ's Resurrection the Confirmation of his whole Ministry 2. How it could be that those chief Priests and Rulers that hired the Souldiers to give out that the Disciples of Christ stole his body away were not rather converted to believe he was the Messias 3. How it can be evinced that Christ did really rise from the dead and that it was not the delusion of the some deceitfull Daemons 4. The first and second Answer 5. The third Answer 6. the fourth Answer 7. The fifth Answer 8. The sixth and last Answer 9. That his appearing and disappearing at pleasure after his Resurrection is no argument but that he was risen with the same Body that was laid in the grave 1. THE last End of Christ's Resurrection is the Confirmation of his whole Ministry For assuredly the Jews dealt with him as with some