Judgements shall not be blinded by beholding the frequent and accustomary practice of authentick wickedness Philop. And what I pray you is meant by the Raiment of Camel's hair and leathern girdle about John the Baptist's loyns Matt. 3.4 And the very body of Elias is so described 2 King 1.8 that he was an hairy man Philoth. That 's very obvious O Philopolis to spell out It signifies how rough and unpolish'd how rude and sylvatick the spirit of Elias will appear to the World because it will so freely and impartially reprehend the World To declare truth in all plainness and simplicity of heart though otherwise with all civility imaginable assure your self Philopolis will appear to the World a great piece of roughness rudeness and uncourtliness So tender and so rotten is the heart of the wicked But there are also in the Story other Characters of the Spirit of Elias that are less symbolicall As an holy boldness and undauntedness of courage to witness to the Truth though to the utmost perill of one's person Which was conspicuous both in the Baptist and in Elias The instructing every one in their Duty as Iohn did the People Luk. 3.10 the Publicans and the Souldiers The raising men out of a false Security from external or carnal respects as he did the Sadducees and Pharisees Matt. 3.8 9. Bring forth fruits meet for Repentance And say not within your selves We have Abraham to our Father or that we are the Successours of Peter and the rest of the Apostles For God is able of these Stones you tread upon to raise up Successours unto Peter This also is a notable Character of the Spirit of Elias 1 King 19.10 a vehement Iealousie in the behalf of the purity of God's Worship against all Polytheism and Idolatry Philop. Yes that was very conspicuous indeed in Elias the Thisbite But what is meant by his bringing down fire from Heaven upon the Captains and their Fifties 2 King 1.10 Philoth. That indeed is again symbolicall Philopolis and signifies that the Elias to come will use onely the power of the Spirit from on high to oppose all weapons of any carnal warfare against him Philop. There is but one passage more Philotheus and I think we shall then have Characters enough of the Eliah to come viz. The Thisbite's Contest with the Priests of Baal where he seems to try the Truth of Religion by this Touchstone The God that answers by fire 1 King 18.24 let him be God Philoth. The Elias to come will make the same appeal to the people Ye worship you know not what John 4.22 as our Saviour said of the Samaritans that did not worship God in spirit and in truth The God that answers by fire let him be God Philop. I but what 's the meaning of that Philotheus Philoth. Does God care for the oblation of a Bullock Philopolis The Beast which we are to offer to be consumed in a Burnt-sacrifice are the Beastly Affections in us The God that answers by fire that is to say by his Spirit to the consumption of these let him be God But he that worships not this living God that by the working of his Spirit cleanses us from our Corruptions let him be deemed as the worshipper of an Idol Philop. This is a good useful sense Philotheus Nor have you I think omitted any Character of the Elias to come unless it be that Severeness and Austerity observable in the Baptist and the sharpness and tartness of his Reprehensions Philoth. That was partly glanced at before in the roughness and hairiness of their Persons and Garbs I mean of both the Thisbite and the Baptist. Which Dispensation though it may seem harsh yet it will stand in a seasonable opposition to the Vanity and Levity to the Prophaneness and Frivolousness of the Age it appears in Cuph. I think both Philopolis and Philotheus are so sadly and severely set on it that they have on purpose declined the mentioning of as notorious an Example of Elias his carriage of himself as any occurrs in his whole Story Philop. I pray you Cuphophron what 's that Cuph. The deriding the Priests of Baal so sarcastically Philoth. That was left for Cuphophron to glean up it fits his humour so well Hyl. And I dare say he catched at it with great greediness Philotheus hoping for his other-day's tart jears and satyrical Derisions of the known miscarriages of the civilized World under pretence of playing Advocate-General for the Paynim that he may deserve if computation of time will permit to be deemed no small limb of that great Elias that is spoken of Cuph. Who I Hylobares I would not for all the world be so much as the little finger of so hairy rough and hispid a body Nay I thank my God I am of a more smooth civil and compleasant temper then so Philop. And let him be so XXII The time of Elias his coming if he will Hylobares In the mean time Philotheus since I am pretty well satisfied touching the Characters I beseech you tell me when the time of the coming of Elias is Philoth. Within the first Thunder Philop. That I knew before Philotheus for you told me it would be before the effusion of the last Vial. But under what Vial will it be Philoth. About the fourth or fifth nor may I define more precisely About that time is the appearance of Elias in the Spirit Philop. Is that then the beginning of that Regnum Spiritûs the Cabbalists speak of Philoth. No Philopolis not properly the Beginning of it but rather a Preparation to it according as it is written Mal. 3.1 Behold I send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me And then the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple Philop. What Temple 's that Philotheus Philoth. Ezekiel's Temple in the new Ierusalem I above told you of That is the Temple meant in this second Completion of the Prophecy And you know there are several Periods of their Completion as in Ezekiel's Vision there was a wheel in a wheel Ezek. 1.16 Philop. But it is said of that new Ierusalem Apoc. 21.22 that there is no Temple there Philoth. There is and there is not There is no material Temple but yet there is a Mysticall one For God Almighty and the Lamb is the Temple thereof God Almighty is the Object of our Worship and the Lamb that is stylo Prophetico the Body of Christ his Church for * 1 Cor. 12.12 Gal. 3.16 Christ sometimes signifies so in Scripture in which he rules and dwells by his Spirit is the Temple according to that of the Apostle For the Temple of God is holy 1 Cor. 3.17 which Temple ye are This is the Temple which the Lord Christ is in a more peculiar manner to come into after the Ministry of Elias the Messenger of the Covenant who is to be as a Refiner's fire and as Fuller's soap
particular or universal as infallibly inspired that is deprehended to be actually deceived in any Points she proposes to be believed as necessary Articles of Faith This is so plain that it wants no farther proof The sixteenth That the Moral and Humane Certainty of Faith is grounded upon the Certainty of Vniversal Tradition Prophecy History and the Nature of the things delivered Reason and Sense assisting the Minde in her Disquisitions touching these matters That Certainty of Faith I call Moral or Humane that is competible even to a carnal man or a man unregenerate as it is said of the Devils that they believe and tremble By Vniversal Tradition I understand such a Tradition as has been from the Apostles that is to say has been always since the completion of their Apostleships as well as in every place of the Church For since there was to be so general and so early a Degeneracy of the Church as is witnessed of in the Holy Scriptures the generality of the Votes of the Church was not alwaies a sufficient warrant of the truth of Tradition But those Truths that have been constantly held and unalterably from the Apostles times til now it is a sign that they were very Sacred unquestionable and assured Truths and so vulgarly and universally known and acknowledged that it was not in man's power to alter them By Prophecy I understand as well those Divine Predictions of the coming of Christ as those touching the Church after he had come By History I mean not onely that of the Bible and particularly the New Testament but other History as well Ecclesiastick as Prophane And what I mean by the Nature of the things delivered is best to be understood out of such Treatises as write of the Reasonableness of Christianity such as Dr. Hammond's and Mr. Baxter's late Book See also Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness where the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith is more fully represented and plainly demonstrated * Book 7. chap. 9 10 11. that it has not been in the power of the Church to deceive us as touching the main Points of our Belief though they would The seventeenth That no Tradition is more universal and certain then the Tradition of the Authentickness of such Books of the Bible as all Churches are agreed upon to be Canonicall There can be no more certain nor universal Tradition then this in that it has the Testimony of the whole Church and all the parts thereof with one Consent though in other things they do so vehemently disagree Wherefore no Tradition can be of any comparable Autority to this And therefore we may set down for Conclusion The eighteenth That the Bible is the truest Ground of the Certainty of Faith that can be offered to our Understanding to rest in The Reason is because it is the most universal both for time and place the most unexceptionable and universally-acknowledged Tradition that is The nineteenth That the Bible or Holy Writ dictated by the Spirit of God that is written by Holy and Inspired men is sufficiently plain to an unprejudiced Capacity in all Points necessary to Salvation This must of necessity be true by Conclusion the seventh Otherwise the manner of Gods's revealing his Truth in the Holy Scriptures would be repugnant to the Divine Attributes and which were Blasphemy to utter he would seem unskilfully to have inspired the Holy Pen-men that is to say in such a way as were not at all accommodate to the end of the Scriptures which is the Salvation of mens Souls nor to have provided for the Recovering of the Church out of those gross Errours he both foresaw and foretold she would fall into The twentieth That the true and primarie Sense of Holy Scripture is Literal or Historicall unless in such Parts or Passages thereof as are intimated to be Parables or Visions writ in the Prophetick style or the literal Meaning be repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science c. For then it is a sign that the Place is to be understood Figuratively or Parabolically not Literally The truth of this appears out of the immediately-foregoing Conclusion For else the Scripture would not be sufficiently plain in all Points necessary to Salvation Indeed in no Points at all but all the Articles of our Faith that respect the History of Christ might be most frivolously and whifflingly allegorized into a mere Romance or Fable But that the History of Christ is literally to be understood is manifest both from the Text it self and from perpetuall and universal Tradition Which if it were not the right Sense it were a sign that it is writ exceedingly obscure even in the chief Points which is contrary to the foregoing Conclusion But that those Places or Passages that are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science are to be interpreted figuratively is plain from the general Consent of all men in that they universally agree when Christ says I am the Door I am the true Vine c. That these things cannot be literally true And there is the same reason of Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body The twenty first That no Point of Faith professed from the Apostles time to this very day and acknowledged by all Churches in Christendome but is plainly revealed in the Scripture This may be partly argued out of the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions and also farther proved by comparing these Points of Faith with Texts of Scripture touching the same matter The twenty second That the Comprehension of these Points of Faith always and every-where held by all Christian Churches from the Apostles time till now and so plain by Testimony of Scripture is most rightfully termed the Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith The twenty third That there is a Divine Certainty of Faith which besides the Grounds that the Moral or Humane Certainty hath is supported and corroborated by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and by illuminated Reason This is not to be argued but to be felt In the mean time no more is asserted then this That this Divine Certainty has an higher Degree of Firmness and Assurance of the truth of the Holy Scriptures as having partaken of the same Spirit with our Saviour and the Apostles but does not vary in the Truths held in the common Faith The twenty fourth What-ever pretended Inspiration or Interpretation of the Divine Oracles is repugnant to the above-described Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith is Imposture or Falshood be it from a private hand or publick The Reason is apparent because the Articles of this Common Faith were the Doctrines of men truely inspired from above and the Spirit of God cannot contradict it self The twenty fifth None of the Holy Writ is of it self unintelligible but accordingly as mens spirits shall be prepared and the time sutable as God has already so he may as Seasons shall require still impart farther and farther Light to the Souls of the Faithfull
the Spirit This is surely the Vnity of the Spirit which all good Christians are exhorted to But how shall we attain to it Philotheus Philoth. This I conceive would confer much thereto if all Opinions and Practices in Religion that either hinder or do not promote the Life of God in the world were universally undervalued by the Church of God For in this Life of God is his Spirit And by this means all opportunity and pretense of any one's shewing himself to be religious but wherein true Religion doth consist being quite cut off men that would be thought at all religious must endeavour the imitation of that Life we speak of to approve themselves such Which they will do very lamely without the presence of the Spirit And all occasions of squabbling and contention about the Shadows and Coverings of Opinions and Forms being thus removed and taken out of the way it will be far easier to perform what the Apostle exhorts to Ephes. 4.3 namely To keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace For no man then shall be able to bustle with any credit unless it be in the behalf of what tends to the good of the people of God and of all mankinde But of those externall Coverings hear what the Prophet Isay denounceth Wo to the rebellious children Isa. 30.1 saith the Lord that take counsell but not of me and that cover with a Covering but not of my Spirit that they may add sin to sin This is the false Covering of Opinions and Formalities heaped together by the Ignorance or Hypocrisie of men whereby they would hide themselves as Adam from the eyes of their Maker But God has foretold that those of Mount Sion the Souldiers of the Lamb Isa. 25.7 shall destroy the face of the Covering cast over all people and the Veil that is spread over all Nations And then they must either be cloathed with the Covering of the Spirit Apoc. 16.15 or be found stark naked to their open shame as they are forewarned in the last Vial. Thus should we approch nearer to that Type of the best state of the Church figured out in the form of the Cherubims or the four Beasts where the Eagle is conceived to have the foot of an Oxe Isa. 55.2 none of them labour for that which is not bread Wherefore the number of Formalities and Opinions being lessened according to their uselesness and consequently being but few and profitable all the Church will easily understand their importance and truth As all the four Beasts are said to be full of eyes in opposition to that blinde Obedience cried up in the Roman Church and so throughly discerning the same Object and therewithall passing the same judgement upon it are also carried with one joint motion and affection For even their wings are full of eyes as denoting they move not out of any blinde Principle but from a Principle of certain Knowledge Which therefore Philopolis I would in opposition to the Church of Rome who cry up Ignorance as the mother of Devotion make the Seventh Document of holy Policy The Seventh Principle viz. To instruct the People throughly and convincingly of all the Fundamental mysteries of Truth and Interest appertaining to the Kingdome of God They that obtrude Falshood for their own advantage upon the People it is their Interest to keep them in Ignorance But they that are the Assertours of the Truth it is their Interest to have it as fully and fundamentally understood as may be and made clear out of Reason or Scripture And I conceive all Truth that is needfull to Life and Godliness may be in such manner cleared to the unprejudiced Whence it will be a very hard tug to seduce any from the Church to Romanism Infidelity or Atheism Philop. XXXI How the mind of man may arrive to a state of Unprejudicateness I am clearly of your minde Philotheus but all the difficulty is to get to that state of Vnprejudicateness Philoth. If the Son make you free then are you free indeed Sophr. That is not spoken Philotheus of freedome from Prejudice but of freedome from Sin so far as humane Nature can be free * John 8.34 35. Whosoever committeth sin saith our Saviour is the servant of sin And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth ever Then follows Ver. 36. If the Son therefore make you free then are you free indeed Philoth. And a little before he saith If ye continue in my word Ver. 31 32. then are ye my Disciples indeed that is to say If ye keep my Commandments And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free Whereupon the Iews expostulate with our Saviour We be Abraham's seed Ver. 33. say they and were never in bondage to any how saiest thou then Ye shall be made free Whereupon in that passage O Sophron which you cited he charges them with being servants to sin implying that that was the Prejudice and impediment to their attaining to the Truth in that they lived in sin So that freedome from sin I think in our Saviour's own judgement does infer also freedome from Prejudice that hinders the knowledge of the Truth Wherefore O Philopolis in the Eighth and last place for I will not discourse so now as if I despaired of ever having the opportunity of conferring with you again I shall propose this one Document more not onely very serviceable for the Unity of the Church but the most effectual I know and the most necessary for the bringing on those excellent Times your desire is so carried after Philop. I long to hear it Philotheus Philoth. It is Faith in the Power of God and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ The Eighth and last Principle which he has promised to all Believers that by this assistence we may get the conquest over all our Sins and Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the fear of God This Doctrine That we are not onely obliged to an higher pitch of Morality then either Paganism or Judaism did pretend to or could boast of but also that through the Spirit of Christ inhabiting in us we are able to be reduced to that Rectitude of Life and Spirit which our Saviour sets out in his Sermon upon the Mount and elsewhere in his Discourses in the Gospels It is this Doctrine I say that must renew the world in righteousness and bring on those glorious Times that so many good men believe and desire This Philopolis is a necessary preparation thereto For what Doctrine but this can reach the Hypocrisie of mens hearts who under colour of not being able to be rid of all their Sins will set themselves against none or but the least considerable or will be sure to spare their darling-sins and perpetually decline that Self-resignation which is indispensably required of every true Christian Nay they will quit none of them under pretence we must