the Old though not as named Apostolical Constitutions the manner was first one Presbyter preached then another and last of all the Bishop At this time there was good store of Preaching Damasus the First Bishop of Rome in his Epistle de Chorepiscopis shews how unlike Christ they are who preach not Ipse enim docuit ipse ovem perditam quaesivit ipse propriis humeris reportavit Christ did all himself St. Austin and St. Chrysostom preached every day ye heard yesterday ye shall hear to morrow is common in their Homilies Many of the Writings of Ambrose Nazianzen Basil and Cyril were only their Sermons to the People and therefore in Concilio Vasensi held about the Year of our Lord 440 it was ordered That if the Presbyter were sick and unable to Preach Sanctorum Patrum Homiliae à Diaconis recitentur The Deacons should read the Homilies of the holy Fathers Gregory the Great in his Pastoral saith Qui verbum praedicationis subtrabunt animabus morientibus vitae remedia abscondunt The unpreaching Minister hides the Bread of Life from dying souls The fourth Toletan Council which was a little after Gregory saith Omne opus Sacerdotum in praedicatione consistit Preaching is a Ministers All. In the Council of Mentz under Charles the Great It was Ordered Can. 25. Nunquam desit diebus Dominicis qui Verbum Dei Praedicet On Sabbath days a Preacher must not be wanting No though the Bisliop be sick it must not as that Can. saith In the Oxford Constitutions made by Archbishop Stephen Preaching is enjoined ne canes muti merito judicentur Nay the very Council of Trent saith that Preaching is praecipuum munus Episcopi the chief work of a Bishop Such an Ordinance is this and so highly esteemed in all Ages no wonder if Bishop Morton said The custom of not-Preaching is but a Babe in Christianity and the defence thereof a new point of Learning in Christs School But to return to the Point in hand after this long digression the Believer may experience this Ordinance to be of God That it is so is in part expermented before Conversion Whilest St. Paul but a Prisoner preached of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix though a Judg trembled feeling moral bonds cast on his Conscience by the Power of that Word which is never bound It is yet more fully experimented in Conversion in which there is a wonderful change wrought the dead being raised new Creatures formed Lyons turned into Lambs and hearts of Stone into Flesh all proclaiming that the Finger of God is in it of a Truth Johannes Speicerus as Scultetus relates Preached so powerfully That the very Strumpets leaving their lewdness returned home unto God After Conversion the Experiment is yet more compleat the Word works effectually in them that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The glory of the Divine Attributes break forth in this Ordinance out of the seeming weakness a Majesty appears in some sort much as Christs Deity sparkled out of his Humane Flesh It is not the meer Voice of Man but of God coming with an Authority more than Humane and setting the heart made like Josiah's tender by Faith into an holy trembling at it as a signal proof that the Lord is the Speaker One who hath the Keys of Heaven and Hell in his own hand and upon Obedience or Rebellion is able to save or destroy The Believer by the command and reverential awe put upon his Conscience finds That there is a Divine Presence and Grandeur in it which to oppose is to strive and make War with God himself Again out of the seeming foolishness wisdom discovers it self Whilest but a man is teaching outwardly to the ear there is an inward Teacher in the heart The Spirit of Revelation uncovers the holy things and brings forth this or that sacred Mystery to the View Intus datur intus coruscat intus revelatur as St. Austin expresses it The Father of Lights shews himself there in sacred Revelations Christ seals up the Ordinance by the dropping of the holy Unction A Believer meets with such illuminations as are far more precious than all the Lights in Nature Hence St. Chrysostom's Auditors when he was like to be silenced cried out Satius est ut Sol non luceat quam ut Chrysostomus non doceat It were better to lose the Sun than such a burning shining light as he was The entrance or opening of thy words giveth Light saith the Psalmist Psal 119.130 When the Word preached is admitted into the heart by Faith and there opened by the Holy Spirit a celestial Light rises up and bears Witness to the Ordinance Again in the midst of plainness Divine Omniscience shews forth it self the Minister stands without but the Word enters in and anatomizes the heart Elisha proved himself a Prophet in telling what the King of Syria spake in his Bed-chamber Our Saviour manifested his Deity in answering to the thoughts of Men. When the Word preached penetrates into the retiring-rooms and inmost chambers of the heart and there rifles the very thoughts and unriddles the purposes and inclinations It is an infallible Sign that the Great Searcher of hearts hath sent a Beam of Omniscience along with it The Believer who above all other men studies himself most desires much to know two things viz. What of secret sin there is in him and what of truth of Grace And under this searching Ordinance he comes to see many a mote or black spot in his heart such as he never dream't of and withal some marks and characters which to his comfort shew him his uprightness and in such Discoveries he sees the Great Revealer of Secrets co-operating with the Word Moreover whilest the Minister is unfolding the Gospel such are the ravishing savours of Christ and Grace as if a box of Heavenly Spikenard were broken in the Believers Heart Pardon and Peace smell out of the odours of Christs Merits and Heaven it self out of his pure Righteousness Through this lattice how contemptible soever it be to carnal Men Christ shews his all-desirable self and full treasures Free-Grace communicates pardons and love-tokens the Divine Spirit breaths life and power into Believers quickning and awakening to answer the pure Commands with Obedience and this and that Promise le ts out its sweetness and flows as a Conduit of Coelestial Wine with admirable Suavities and Consolations In such things as these Faith hath sweet Communion with God and a sure seal set to this Ordinance In the Preaching of the Gospel the Kingdom of Heaven comes nigh even to rejecters Luk. 10.11 Much more doth it do so unto Believers who take the holy Mysteries and Promises into the bosom and complex of Faith and thereby inflame their Hearts with the Love of Christ and Grace as a sure witness that this Ordinance which carries so much of Heaven in it is from thence Next to the Preaching of the Word I shall set the Ordinance of Prayer This is the ascent of
God in Christ and that must needs in flame the Heart towards him Tamum amamus quantum credimus Hence Aquinas himself confesses That though Faith and Hope may be without Charity yet without Charity they are not properly Virtues And Durandus saith Credere in Deum non est praecise actus fidei sid actus fidei charitatis simul To believe in God is not precisely an act of Faith but of Faith and Charity together So Inseparable are these two Graces But leaving the Schoolmen I shall proceed Faith connects all Graces together in a triple way it connects them in the fontal cause the boly Spirit which it receives all Graces are from the Spirit and the Spirit is received by Faith hence rivers of living water flow in the Believers heart Joh. 7.38 that is All Graces flow there as waters from a fountain it connects them in the Rule the Command of God which it universally respects It is observed by Divines That the five last Commands in Deut. 5. run thus Thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not commit Adultery and thou shalt not Steal and thou shalt not bear false Witness and thou shalt not Govet The word And points out to us that all the Commands are coupled together by God like the Curtains of the Tabernacle all are as it were one body and Faith hath a respect to every one of them and in every one owns the same stamp of Divine Authority He that said Love thy God said also Love thy Neighbour He that said Be Zealous said also Be Meek and Patient and Obedient and abundant in all Grace It connects them also in the end the Glory of God which it looks at in all things all Graces tend to that Glory and Faith is the single eye which guides them all thither Bonum opus intentio facit Enarr in Psal 31. in Pras intentionem sides dirigis saith St. Austin Faith knows what that is wherein God would be glorisied All Graces being thus connected in Faith which is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or firmament as the word is Col. 2.5 to them all it comes to pass that Faith in actuating any one Grace gives a strength and further growth to every other Grace Thus it is in Graces respecting distinct Tables the more we act our Love to God the more will be our Love to our Neighbour this though belonging to the second Table flows ex fonte pietatis out of that fountain of Piety which respects the first Thus it is in those Graces which are seemingly contrary as in Zeal and Meekness the more we act our Zeal for God the more will be our Meekness towards Men. Hence in the Primitive Christians who were so hot for Christianity was found a very meek Spirit and the reason is because a Man cannot truly actuate one Grace but he will have more of that Spirit which is fontally all Grace and graciously multiplies Talents in the use of them Neither can he truly obey one Command but it will render his Heart more Obediential and ready to obey others also as being enjoined by the same Authority nor can he in one thing look at Gods Glory but it will in some measure encline him to seek it in other things also and so the New Creature grows in every part and his Path shines more and more to the perfect day in Heaven CHAP. XI Precious Faith considered in the Crowns and Statures thereof The Divine Experiences of Faith as it Experiments the Divinity of Scripture in the Precepts Promises Threatnings and Supernatural Truths thereof Concerning the Blessed Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence Jesus Christ the Mcdiator and the Efficacy of Grace HAVing treated of Justification Adoption and Sanctification which are Fruits of Faith and are more or less in all Believers I now proceed to some other which are The Crowns and Statures of Faith and to be found not in all Believers at least not at first but in such as have made a good progress in Grace Faith have made a good progress in Grace Faith having obtained the Holy Spirit with all its Graces doth now go on like The Baptized Eunuch rejoycing in the ways of God glorying in Free Grace triumphing in Jesus Christ warring against Corruptions actuating Holy Graces bowing down under the Commands of Heaven sucking the Sweet-Breasts of the Promises and waiting for the Heavenly Dews and Distillations of the Spirit and in this holy Progress gathers up many choice Experiments more worth than a World All learned Men are for Experiments and every one would cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it the Sages of the Law are for tried Cases which have been sub judice the Physitian sets a probatum est on approved Medicines the Anatomists hunts after the arcana of Nature by Dissection of Bodies and the Chymist by Dissolution thereof Experience is procreatrix Artium the very Parent of Arts whose universal Precepts are collected by an induction of particulars but there are no Experiments like those of Faith Dr. Dees Spirits made as if they would reveal great Mysteries to him such as they called the Cabbala of Nature the Numbers of the World the linea Spiritus Sancti the Mirabilia Dei and the Nova terra bringing forth without Tillage but all these were but Dreams and Impostures and so I suppose are many things in Chymistry like Helmonts Alkahest wonderful if true But the Experiments of Faith are great Realities and withal Divine as much above those in the Sphear of Nature as Souls are above Bodies and Heaven is above Earth God in the Prophet calls on his People to baing in the Tythes for his House and so by their Obedience to prove him If he would not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3.10 When Faith goes on in a Tract of Obedience proving of God Heaven opens in wonderful Experiences of him the Manna of holy Truth is then tasted the Hony-combs of Free-Grace drop upon the Heart Promises are realized exemplified in Providences Divine Helps and Salvations come down and call for Eben-Ezers to be set up for them and Discoveries of heavenly things in their certainty and excellency are in a manner made as if a Man could look into the Holy of Holies and see God Face to Face Some such Experiences I suppose the learned Rivet had in his last Sickness in which he said of himself In these ten days I have made a greater progress in Divinity than in all my Life but leaving Generals I shall come to Particulars One great Experiment of Faith is touching the Truths of God a Believer in his holy Progress comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding as the Apostle speaks Cal. 2.2 At the first he hath a Stock of Divine Knowledg but after Experience Riches and all Riches of it at the first
vivimus si totum Deo damus Gotteschalcus preaching up the Doctrine of Grace according to St. Austin and Prosper suffered a close Imprisonment for above twenty years together for that Truth and no question he experimented the power of Grace whilest he suffered for it Bonaventura hath a notable passage Hoc piarum mentium est ut nihil sibi tribuant sed totum Dei gratiae It is the true genius of Believers to attribute nothing to themselves but all to Grace And in the same place he saith That holy Men know the influences of Grace Potius experiendo quam ratiocinando rather by experience than argument The profound Bradwardine confesses That at first Pelagius seemed to be in the right it was more grateful to him to hear of Mans power in the Schools of Philosophers than of Gods Grace in the Church But afterwards Gratiae radio visitatus being visited by a beam of Grace from Heaven What a second Austin and Champion for Grace did he prove His Book de Causâ Dei against Pelagius is a sufficient witness thereof After all the great Luther saith in plain terms That Liberum arbitrium est merum mendacium Mans Free-will is but a lie And if any of the Fathers have predicated it certè ex carne ut fuerunt homines non ex Spiritu Dei sunt locuti they spoke according to the flesh as Men not from the Spirit of God and saith of himself That he would not have any thing of Salvation left in his own hand and glories in this Deus salutem meam extra meum arbitrium tollens in suum receperit All is in the hand of Free-grace And a little after concludes Hec est gloriatio omnium Sanctorum in Deo suo After this manner do all the Saints glory in their God crying out over every good thing in themselves Grace Grace Many Books have been wrote touching Will and Grace But were the experiences of Saints written and visible there would appear such Magnalia or wonderful works of Grace that every unbyassed person would say Conclusum est contra Pelagianos There is no doubt but the efficacy of Grace is very great and glorious in the Hearts of men Thus much for a taste may sussice touching the experience of Scriptural Truths Supernatural Truths may be experimented much more such as fall in with the Light of Nature CHAP. XII The Divine Experiments of Faith in Scripture-Ordinances Baptism Preaching of the Word Prayer and the Lords Supper and lastly in the great Works of Power recorded in Scripture IN the next place I proceed to the Divine Ordinances in Scripture These the Believer may experience to be Divine God bare such a Testimony to the Typical Ordinances under the Law that his People experimentally knew that they were from him In Circumcision God set his Seal and Love-mark on his ancient People and at the doing of it they blessed him that a Child was brought into Covenant In their Burnt-offerings fire from Heaven consumed them as a witness of their acceptation Hence the Psalmist prays The Lord accept thy Burnt-sacrisice Psal 20.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cinerem vertat let him turn it to ashes thereby testifying his acceptance thereof In their first Temple they had many Symbols of Gods Presence as the Ark with the Tables in it and Propitiatory or Mercy-seat by the Vrim and Thummin they could ask Counsel of God the Shechinab the Glory or Majesty of God dwelt between the Cherubims and acceptance in their Services and Sacrifices offered unto God But pretermitting these as being but Shadows and by Christians experimented in Jesus Christ the substance of them I shall instance in the four great standing Ordinances in the Christian Church and shew how the Believer may experience them to be from God and in that experience prove the Scripture which appoints them to be from him also The first Ordinance I shall instance in is that of Baptism This by the Ancients was stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illumination as ushering in the Evangelical light St. Basil calls it Vestimentum candidum signaculum sancium the white garment and holy sign It is by St. Austin named Porta Gratiae the door of Grace and first entrance into the Church And by St. Bernard Christianismi investitura the first putting on Christianity In Luther it is Aqua non Creatoris sed Dei salvatoris the water not of the Creator but of God the Saviour Among the Jews the Proselyte of the Gates was only tyed to the seven Precepts of Noah but the Proselyte of Righteousness was bound to all the Mosaical Ordinances and was initiated into Judaisin by Circumcision and Baptism and the blood of Oblation The Jewish Rabbins built this Baptism of Proselytes on that Command of God Exod. 19.10 That the people should sanctifie themselves and wash their clothes in order to the reception of the Law Such as were Baptized they called Renati new-born or regenerate and reputed them to be Subalis Divinae Majestatis under the wings of the Divine Majesty But as yet Baptism was no Divine Ordinance but only a Jewish custom Afterwards this custom was turned into a sacred Ordinance in John's Baptism which was not of Men but from Heaven He saith of himself That he was sent to Baptize Joh. 1.33 And by whom St. Luke tells us The word of the Lord came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon John Luk. 3.2 as a Divine Warrant for the Work His Baptism is called The Counsel of God Luk. 7.30 And was sealed from Heaven by a wonderful Theophany the whole Sacred Trinity manifesting themselves at Christs Baptism by him Afterwards Christ gave a solemn charge about it Go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 and adds a sweet Promise thereunto Lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world ver 20. Thus Baptism is firmly established in Scripture and the Believer may experience it to be of God He though Baptized an Infant wanting the use of Reason and uncapable in himself to make any formal Vow or Covenant yet finds a secret bond or obligation lying upon his Conscience which remembers him of his Baptism in some such words as those of an Ancient Abrenunciasti Diabolo operibus suis abrenunciasti seculo voluptatibus ejus Thou hast renounced the Devil and his works the World and its pleasures forget not thy Baptism And the reason of this bond is because Baptism is an Ordinance of Stipulation called by St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stipulation or interrogation of a good Conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 It is an entry into Covenant with God and binds the Conscience Were it no Ordinance of God there would be no Stipulation and so no Obligation upon Conscience But when the Believer finds his Baptismal Vow pressing there he knows that Baptism is of God Again he knows it by the inward strength