each in each Aug. de Trin. Christ is in the Father and the Father in him and the holy Spirit in both so they be all in each For the Son is in the bosome of the Father and the Father in the Image of the Son the holy Spirit in the breath of each and they both in his operations 3. All in each for one is possessed of the other 4. All in all the whole essence being in every person And yet 5. But one in all because all three are but one God And take heed of thinking therefore 1. That there is no God 2. That there be no persons in the God but only relations Socin Patrisp offices or dispensations For so we may count the Father to suffer not the Son for our redemption 3. That they be only like one another in substance Arri. Eunom Tritheit but not of the same substance or of an unlike substance but of one and the same substance And take heed of thinking they be three gods for there is but one God in essence though three persons in subsistence one God in being though three persons in the manner of that being Nor may you like the Mahometans acknowledge one God without persons or like the Indians denie the Son of God Mahom. Indians because then they say God must have a wife These people only understand carnall generation not spirituall and in what they know naturally therein they abuse themselves Jude ver 10. and speak evill of what they know not For they perceive not how the soule begets children namely the thoughts and words without female conjunction This high knowledge of God should teach us to admire him whom we cannot comprehend and therefore to serve him in faith fear and reverence Psal 2.11 especially in his Temple and service Psal 138. and so say with Job O Lord what I know not do thou teach me so that in thy knowledge I may find felicity We must not think this knowledge to be superfluous since it is life eternall to have it John 17.3 Mat. 16.18 and that Christ so much approved St Peter for acknowledging it I know all men cannot apprehend this alike yet if we desire that Christ would shew us the Father John 14.8 and that we may have his Spirit he will not denie it to him that asketh him especially if we lament for the losse of the excellent knowledge no doubt he will reveal so much of it to us as shall acquire eternall life Mathe. What means hath God given us to know him by Phila. Two means his Works and his Words His Works Natura naturans natuâ— rata and the book of Nature naturated by the power of God His Word is the book of Nature naturating i. of God himselfe without which revelation man cannot apprehend God at all or very darkly The reason whereof is 1. Because Adam seeking curious knowledge beyond the light which God gave him in nature he lost that light of God which by nature he had and despoiled himselfe of that image and character of God which God had impressed upon him and so fell into false conceptions of God in his generations and by himselfe into a more obscure apprehension of him in his time 2. This dark knowledge of God in man ariseth from the depravation of his affections which desires to know God sensibly as men behold Princes which cannot be in this world 1 Cor. 15. no more then flesh and blood can inherit heaven till it be mortified by death and fermented in the grave and refined at the resurrection Moses desire was exuberant to see Gods glory in visible appearance For though God was pleased to be represented by Angels in shapes of men in the Old Testament yet he hath no shape For to what will ye liken me saith God 3. Men being not read in Scriptures are oftentimes driven by some accidents in the world and change of times and strange events above or beside reason to think that either there is no God or else that God is not just Psal 37.36 Psal 73.1 2 3. Wisd 1.1 2. 4. Because we find all things fall alike to all and a naturall succession of things to be as they were alwaies so they think we are all born at adventure and all things come by nature or fortune 5. It comes by the devils craft deluding men with vanity and making them not to think of God and so bold to perpetrate horrible sins through blindnesse and hardnesse of heart whereas if they did but consider Gods waies and footsteps in Scripture in making all things and in disposing them to their severall ends and orders the rare knowledge given to man above other creatures the peace of his mind when he doth well the terrors of his conscience in doing ill the impression and stamp of Elohim upon his Magistrates whom he calleth Gods the strange vengeance following wicked men to them whom temporall Judges either do not or cannot punish Besides prodigious signs in heaven of future calamities So to see monstrous births terrible earthquakes which though they have naturall and second causes yet why they are not alwaies or oftner or not at all or in this place more then that must needs be the rule of some superiour power But yet nothing of all these leads us to the knowledge of God like the Scripture Mathe. Why so Phila. Because the Scriptures are the word of the true God of whom nothing can testifie better then his own word and truth therefore Christ saith Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me Secondly because they clearly set forth God in his nature attributes and works Mathe. How prove you the Scripture to be the Word of the true God Phila. Because it alone doth treat primarily of that God who is Trinity in Unity three persons in one Godhead and of their relations one towards another and their operations in and towards man 2. Because it is the most ancient truth as the true God is the ancient of daies Now what is most ancient and first is true Moses writings are most ancient upon which the rest of the Bible is a comment and the New Testament is a perfect complement and is therefore called grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ John 1.17 because he brought to man by the Gospell the love and favour of God and brought the truth prophesied into fact and performance But this Moses is the ancientest writer Eupolem Masius whom some call Musaeus some Trismegistus as some have thought the Aegyptian Serapis to be a monument of Joseph Sure enough he was the oldest writer of divine Revelation if not of any other He lived in the time of Cecrops King of Athens Aug. The oldest writing the Greeks have is the wars of Troy which fell out in the time of Israels Judges which was three hundred years after Meses Acts 7.27 It is true the Scripture saith he was learned in all the
sanctified from sin without the blood of the covenant Heb. 9.22 and Ephe. 1.7 and so there must have been another Mediator beside himselfe which St Paul denieth 1 Tim. 2.5 there is but one Mediator even the Man Christ Jesus the High Priest who is in himselfe holy innocent and undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. Mathe. But if Christs humane nature came from the blessed Virgin and from Adam he could not avoid the taint of sin no more then he could death Phila. We are to consider as I said before that sin cleaving not to substance alone but to persons and considering that he took no person of the Virgin but her substance which was immediately united to his Godhead in subsistence and only so made a person it will follow that though his substance yet his person was never in Adam and so never sinned in Adam and so never tainted with originall sin For as it could not be propagated by his manner of conception so neither could it be justly imputed to his person which was both God and man And for his death it was voluntary Death did not by his own power prevaile over him but he laid it down John 10.17 18. Nor did death fall upon him as a sinner but as the surety for sin Mathe. What effect worketh this conception for us Phila. 1. It hides the impurity of our conceptions from Gods anger because this satisfieth Gods justice for originall sin for the righteousnesse hereof is imputed to us and by it is constituted holinesse of nature for in this he was qualified with all habits of grace and vertue which by his spirit he powreth also upon us For this purpose he took an humane body because sacrifice and offerings would not satisfie Psal 40. and Heb. 10.5 2. This conception worketh a spirituall life and conception in us For our nature in him being conceived and quickned by the holy Ghost in the womb from thence proceeds the power of our regeneration from him that is the originall of spirituall life in our nature for the spirit that formed him in the womb doth beget us again to live in him and so doth justifie us before God from the evils that cleave to our nature Mathe. He is oftentimes called in the Gospell even by himselfe too the Son of man how then shall I conceive his conception to be more then humane Phila. His Conception and Birth are full of wonder yet may be discerned with distinction for it seems a new creation For as he was the Son of God no woman was his mother and as he was man he had no father He is called the Son of man because he took our nature of the blessed Virgins substance Yet he is called the Son of the most High Mat. 1. because he is the second person in the holy Trinity Which title is given to the nature assumed because it had no subsistence but in his person that was the naturall Son of God In which regard the blessed Virgin is called the mother of God not of his deity but of this union of God and man yet his person was not circumscribed in her womb though the humane nature was But as his body is heaven locally and is in the Word substantially and in the Sacrament mystically and in the heart of a beleever spiritually so it was in her body naturally Mathe. How am I to conceive of the birth of Christ Phila. He was born three waies of his Father of his Mother and in the mind of man Of his Father eternally of his Mother temporally and in mans mind spiritually For three things have relation to his birth Deity Flesh and Spirit Of his Father he is born God for ever of his Mother flesh once and in mans mind he is born Spirit figuratively often In respect of his divine nature he had a Father without a Mother in regard of the humane nature he had a Mother without a Father in respect of his spirituall nativity he hath both Father and Mother i. they that do his will Paul saith God was manifested in flesh 1. From the bosome of his Father in whom he was concealed 2. From the shadowes of the Law in which he was prefigured 3. From the womb of his Mother in which he was covered This was the greatest and the most gracious work considered in all the consequences of it as his death and resurrection which without this could not have been that ever God wrought who for these humiliations gave him a name above all names Jesus the Saviour Phil. 2.9 Which name although others had as well as he in the Old Testament yet they were but figures of him yea the name Jehovah signifieth but essence i. God as he is the author of being but Jesus signifieth God our well being a Saviour then which there is no other name of salvation given Act. It was the name of the eternall Word incarnate it contains in it the whole oeconomy of the work of redemption wherein the attributes of God are united wisedome justice peace Psal 85. mercy and truth This was well called his great work of a woman compassing a man And wonderfull great it was in effect For in the Creation God made man in his image and so earth was honoured but in Christs birth God made himselfe in our image and so heaven was debased In creation God made all without resistance he spake but the word and they were made Heb. 12. But in redemption he suffered contradictions of sinners against himselfe In this work he did both speak work and suffer speak graciously work wonderfully suffer unworthily In creation the Word made flesh but in Jesus our Redeemer John 1.3 the Word was made flesh John 1.14 In the creation God took man out of the earth and placed him in Paradise In the redemption he took man out of hell and placed him in heaven through Jesus the Saviour Mathe. What were the effects of his birth Phila. Many For among the heathen voices were heard saying that the great God was about to be born At Rome a woman was seen about the Sun having a child in her arms And the Sybil told Augustus the Emperour that that same child was greater then he and bade him to adore him He would never after be called Lord. The Temple of peace fell down at his birth because he brought better peace to the world The Oracles were all struck dumb by the birth of this eternall Word Jupiters Oak in Dodona was shaken the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter The Tripode in Delphis Nazi in Julian annotat Nomi the Laurell and fountain of Daphne and the ramfaced image of Jupiter Ammon could utter nothing so that one effect of Christs birth was Gods glory and Satans confusion But further another effect was the good mans peace and salvation For he was born to bring both to passe 1. His salvation being he was born to be a King a Priest and a
Church but at last they beleeve it for God the Fathers sake whose voice they find speak in Scripture which is the foundation of true faith being the last principle into which faith can be resolved Mathe. Are there any other reasons to prove God beside Scriptures Phila. None better then Scripture to them that beleeve it but because many beleeve not the Scriptures as the Heathen denie the whole Bible and the Jewes halfe of it namely the N. T. therefore reason must be found to convince such The heathen know not the true God and the Jews know not God in Christ and so one worships a false God and the other the true God but in a false manner And we need not scruple at reason in this point because God gave reason before Scriptures and holy Reason before holy Writ to divers men which lead them to Religion and therefore though it be well proved to us out of the Old Testament that there is a God of the Jewes whom the very Heathen feared 1 Sam. 4.7 8. And also out of the New Testament that to us there is but one true God of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 8.6 by whom are all things and we by him And beside we know that nothing can testifie better of the truth of Gods being then the truth of Gods writing yet for other mens sakes who beleeve not the Scriptures and yet by reason may be induced to beleeve them it is good to urge reasons Now the first reason to perswade men that there is a God is Because it seems written in the minds of all nations by a naturall impression or mentall presumption which forceth rather to worship any thing for a god then no god at all Rom. 2. Cic. de Nat. De. lib. 1. p. 198. Cic. lib. 1. Tusc pa. 112. Rom. 1.2 which sheweth the first Commandement written in their hearts that they shall acknowledge a god though what god it is they know not and so they worship divers things for gods which are not so From hence it is that some have worshipped Sun and Moon some worshipped Beasts Serpents some the Images of Men some Crocodiles some Devils under strange shapes of Satyrs whose upper part was manlike and the under part like a Goat the Aegyptians worship * Shor-apis an Oxe head the Bramenes of India worship the first thing they meet in the morning as the god of the day Orteli Cosm So in Baida they worship a piece of a red clout tied to a crosse-stick like a banner some worship a Crosse as the god of raine This may be some old traditions of the Crosse antiquated I would they that understand their language would bring that God to them whom they ignorantly worship as Paul did to the Athenians it would prove a happy voiage I know the Papists use some endeavours among them to little purpose till they have convinced their understanding and so they do but draw them from one superstition to another and can give as little reason for one as the other yea I beleeve the subtill Indian observing the Idolatry of the Papists think their own Religion to be as good as the Papists Mathe. How comes men to be so sottish Phila. Through ignorance and immoderate passions of love and fear For as through ignorance some worshipped Fortune and Vices as contumely and impudence as did the Athenians Clem. Rom. l. 5. Recog others Flora and Priapus as did the Romans some worshipped Nymphae and Hymen and Mons Veneris which words signifie the secret parts of womens bodies fo which they made gods and goddesses as some inamoured Gallants do of their mistresses And thus the Devill hath taught men to debase themselves even unto hell Isa 57.9 So by fear men worshipped Serpents and Crocodiles and other hurtfull creatures as the Indians do the Devill for fear he should harm them others worshipped the Images of both under certain shapes called Telesmes which were made to defend them from something they feared So Love erected strange Idols As those that passionately desired to preserve the memory of their friends did after their death set up an Image of them which in processe became a sanctuary for offenders Dioph. Laced in Antiq. as did the Image of Synophanes son which he set up in love of his memory to which Image his servants offered incense and did fly to it for pardon of their offended master and upon reliefe would offer it gifts of thankfulnesse From hence came superstition the end whereof was Cicero that their friends might be superstites or survivors when they were dead that is kept in memory after death So Ninus set up the Image of Belus his father in his new built City Niniveh which became a sanctuary to all kind of offenders and in processe of time came to be religious worship Sophocles which even some heathen Poets confuted From Belus came Baal so often named in Scripture signifying Lord as Baal-Sephon Exod. 14.1 the Lord of the watch Tower and Baal Berith the Lord of the Covenant Judg. 8.33 and Baal-zebub the Lord of flies Dan. 3.1 And it is very likely that Nebuchadnezzars golden Image Dan. 2.38 was to be a memoriall of himselfe because Daniel had told him that he was the head of Gold but God crossed his purpose by the delivering of the three children from the fiery furnace However his Babylonians set up their god Bel which is very likely that they had brought from the Assyrians by conquest Mathe. But in what times did this false worship arise Phila. Certainly it arose first in Cain's posterity of whom it is said Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call on the name of the Lord where the Hebrew word huchar signifieth to prophane as Num. 30.2 And Jewish Rabbies so take it R. D. Kimchi though the Chaldee Paraphrase doth not for they say that then they began to call men by the name of gods and lords and placed the souls of their famous men in the stars and called the images here on earth by the name of god and began to give them divine worship This being a prophaning of that true Religion which was held in the family of Sheth you find in the fifth of Genesis men are ranked into two sorts sons of God and sons or daughters of men but when these sons of God of the line of Sheth married with the daughters of men which were of Cain and became infected with their Idolatry god drowned the world Yet this Idolatry ceased not but after the flood it began again in the race of Nimrod Belus and Ninus who were all Idolized by their followers placing their souls among the stars and erecting their Images here upon earth to which when they did sacrifice they beleeved that thereby the souls departed Elat in Symp. were called to their Images and took cognisance of their cases and then like patrons sollicited them before
Mathe. Whether do we Christians worship this one true God Phila. Yes we do For we worship him that made the world by his word and doth govern it by his wisedome and preserves it by his providence whose glorious presence is far above all heavens yet hath his influence upon all things here below by his Vicegerent Nature whose power he inlargeth and restraineth at his pleasure but a more rare in influx upon mans soule by qualifying of it with rare gifts of Art and Science but most divinely upon souls refined from the drossie world by the operation of his holy spirit informing the mind with divine light inspiring with good desires incouraging in good actions preventing our doing evill furthering us in doing good convincing us of sin affrighting us for it Now this God we know to be a true God because he is the same who hath been worshipped from the beginning by the wisest holiest and best knowing men yea by the Jewish Nation who had the greatest evidences to shew of this true God by his miracles oracles prophecies and promises by which the very heathen have been convinced and became their proselytes 2. Because the heathen gods have been forced to confesse him the greatest As when King Thulis of Aegypt asked Shor-apis their Oracle Suidas who was the greatest it answered God Word and Spirit This is that Trinity whom all true Christians worship in unity 3. Because we find all other gods but counterfeits of this our true God and imperfect representations of his attributes or divine properties As their Baal a lord a counterfeit of this Lord of lords Baal-Zephon of our watching Lord that neither slumbers nor sleeps So their Baal-peor a counterfeit of him who gives the power of generation Baal-zebub a representation of him that is God of Hosts and Armies of all manner of flies which for sin he sendeth to infest the nations and at his word are driven away So Baal-berith a counterfeit of our God who keepeth Covenant with his people For the Devill is but Gods ape God had sacrifice and altar so had he God had a Temple at Jerusalem he had another at Delos God would have his Altar-fire alwaies burning and Satan would have alwaies his Vestall fire glowing God had his mercy Seat so the Devill his Tripodas So Apollo counterfeits Gods wisedome mans his power in battell Diana his purity Mercury his declarative word Jupiter his thundring voice Saturn his peaceable providence Venus his love Ceres and Bacchus his plentifull provision Proserpine the spirit of Nature in the earth Neptune Gods power in the Ocean Plato Gods power even in hell All which are but lame expressions of Gods properties by some seeming shew whereof the Devill hath drawn men from the true God so that the heathens worship they know not what but we know what we worship and that salvation is from our God who is infinite almighty invisible inscrutable the only wise and good God in whom from whom and by whom are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Mathe. Some are content to acknowledge a God and one God but yet only as one person Therefore are we bound to beleeve persons in the Godhead or not Phila. You are bound to beleeve God as he revealeth himselfe Now he hath revealed himselfe to be a divine essence subsisting in three persons that is a Unity in Trinity Mathe. I pray first unfold the terms and then prove God to be a Vnity in Trinity Phila. First for the terms you must not look to find them in Scripture yet it disalloweth them not for they express the sense of them For 1. The essence of God is expressed Exod. 3.14 in that name I am that I am for essence or being is that which is 2. Subsistence signifieth only the manner of Being as humane nature is mans essence or substance of man and his person is his manner of subsisting in that nature So 3. Unity signifieth and shewes the divine nature cannot be divided diversified nor multiplied 4. The word Trinity sheweth the manner of the divine nature subsisting which the Scriptures deliver to us of God as in the 1 of John 5.7 There be three that bear record in heaven Vbi unus ibi unitas ubi tres ibi Trinitas the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Where by the WORD is meant the Son who is so called also John 1.1 to signifie his divine and spirituall generation like a word expressed by the mind So 5. The word Person signifieth to us that God is in his subsistence or manner of being an intellectuall substance neither divided nor communicated nor sustained in or by any other which is the property of a person This word is found Heb. 1.3 where Christ the Word or Son of God is called the ingraven image of Gods person Mathe. How came these words into use Phila. They were formed by the Doctors of the Church for the more easie confutation of heresie by a shorter way of disputation and demonstration of this mystery of the sacred Trinity which in many words could not have been so well moulded into a form of dispute without much trouble to the memory and the understanding As in all Arts there be proper terms which include in them the sum of the science in short words and therefore we are not to stumble at termes which serve to explain or maintain holy mysteries for whatsoever is not against the truth is for it Mathe. But how prove you that God is Vnity in Trinity Phila. That God is a unity in himselfe none can doubt who beleeves that God is one and that there is but one God as is already proved And that this Godhead hath a Trinity of persons in it selfe subsisting we are to beleeve it upon Scriptures which do first intimate to us more persons in the Godhead then one as Gen. 1.1 which saith Elohim bara that is Elohim plu Bara sing if translated word for word The Lords he created to which answereth John 1.1 In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God And ver 2. All things were made by him that is the Son and yet Gen. 1.2 The spirit of God moved upon the waters so that there were three in this work i. God the Father did it by the Son through the Spirit So Gen. 1.26 God said Let us make man which argued a consultation of persons So when God appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre Gen. 18.1 yet it was in three persons ver 2. though Abraham speaks to them as one saying my Lord The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Jupiter The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Neptune The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Pluto Mathe. But may they not be more then three persons Phila. No because the Lord God never expressed himself by more then three as appears first By his commanding Moses to blesse
by the Church they must not be suspected by the children that their mother the Church would put poison in their milk or else they must try by learning the first language Hierom. in lib. cont Helvid Aug. lib. 15. de Civitate Dei cap. 13. whether it so or no and in the mean time receive them thankfully as they be and as doubts arise inquire for satisfaction And if this rule be not kept we shall beleeve either many or not any and be of many religions or of none Truely it is a lamentable case that children should suspect parents and more for the Church to give them cause to suspect her Deut. 17. For God commands the Jewes to sit down silent upon the definitive sentence of the Priests and no doubt so must we upon the Churches unlesse we mean to beleeve our selves more then either Church or Scriptures The variety in translation makes no considerable difference in the sense but like descant in Musick makes the ground plain note seem more grave and full or like the variation of the compasse makes the Pilot more studious to steer his course Mathe. Of what antiquity is the translation among us Christians Phila. Long before printing Bed lib. 1. hist cap. 1. For Bede tels us it was in five languages of the Britains And Vphila Bishop of the Goths translated it for his people Such Copies were among the Armenians Russians Socrat. lib. 4. c. 33. Eccius cap. de miss Lati. Agrip. de vanit scientiarum Ethiopians Dalmatians and Muscovites And these translations were allowed by the Nicen Synods decree that no Christian might want a Bible in his house So Chrysostom exhorteth people of his time Hom. 9. in Epist Colos and rightly cals them the physick for the soul And therefore we were better to lay out monie then want health and sell our cloak then want a Bible and have as good opinion of the Churches translation as of a Physitians prescription or an Apothecaries composition In this case we must beleeve our selves or some body else and why not the Church thy mother and thy nurse It is a great judgment of God upon men when they suspect the learned whose lips preserve knowledge and beleeve the ignorant and so the blind leads the blind I know some say the Apostles were ignorant men so they were at first but after Christ and the Spirit had taught I think they were the most learned men in the world In vain do men therefore preserve ideots before him to whom God hath given the tongue of the learned or to suspect antiquity and trust novelty and love to hear no more then they know already and so bring the Scriptures into question the Churches doctrin into suspition and the true knowledge of God to be disregarded For we have little reason to mistrust the Churches translation except she be notoriously proved to be a deceiver and a patronesse of adulterous faith or maintain opinions contrary to the truth of which the Church of Rome was guilty and from which the Protestant Church is refined of whose fidelity if we now doubt we must either fall to Atheisme or back Papisme or be overrun with Barbarisme Mathe. But how shall we find the sense of Scripture Phila. If you mean in things necessary to faith and manners Esa their sense is plain to an ordinary capacity as was prophecied If you mean the sense of difficult places there if we use diligence and yet fall into error there is no danger in it because it is not necessary and therefore he that erreth and he that erreth not may both be saved holding the points necessary to faith and fact If men therefore would look upon Scripture not as the tree of knowledge with the eie of curiosity but as the Tree of Life affording all things necessary to their salvation John 15.26 the saving sense would soon be found especially if men when they read would pray for the spirit who can best explaine his own writing Mat. 11.25 for they are indeed spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.12 So if they would lay by carnall thoughts and selfe opinion and receive it with meeknesse as a little child or a new born babe purged from the corruption of our naturall birth by repentance and preparednesse to beleeve the Gospell for no other end then for gods glory and one souls happinesse not desiring so much to increase as to better conscience Mathe. But if I doubt of thesense who shall be judge Phila. If the Scripture be a perfect rule to judge there needs no other judge of it And if it be not a perfect rule who can one trust to judge in matters of faith having no perfect rule to judge by The sense therefore is found by analogy and lying parallel with other parts of Scripture and with those axioms collected therefrom and generally agreed upon Therefore if any sense that I gather from it run contrary to the Lords Praier in matter of devotion or to the Commandements in matter of action or to the Creed in matter of faith I may suspect it so if that sense crosse any other place of Scripture evidently that sense may justly be thought to be adulterate Surely S. Paul aimed at some such thing when he bad Timothy hold fast the form of sound words which if men do they may hold both peace and truth For as a naturall man finds out a truth by reason so doth a Christian find out saving Truth true Religion and a true Church by the Scripture which is the perfect rule for that purpose and so it may be a judge of those things now Rom. as well as it shall be at the last day and as well as mans reason nature or by art may be a rationall though not a personall judge of other things Mathe. What need have we then of Preachers Phila. 1. To remember people of what they have been taught 2. Heb. 2.1 2 Pet. 1.13 To stir them up to do what they have not practised 3. To confirm and establish them in what they have beleeved Acts 8.14 and cap. 14.21 22. 4. To convert those that are not converted 5. To edifie and build them up farther in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ Acts 20.32 6. To explaine difficult places of Scripture 7. To confute the adversary to truth Isa 54.13 For though it be prophecied they shall be all taught of God which John 6.45 Christ makes good and expounds it ver 46. not that any one hath seen the Father that is immediatly taught of the Father but by that more clear medium the Son of God and his Ministers which the world never knew before which ministry must stand to the end of the world Mat. 28.20 till the mystery of God be finished and the number of the elect be accomplished It is a great presumption for men to think themselves above Ordinances They may be in higher forms of knowledge and holy experience then some
everlasting Heb. 7.24 A Sacrifice he was in his manhood not Eucharisticall but expiatory offered up whole like the Holocaust for sin which was burned up to ashes by the fire of Gods wrath And his Godhead was the spirituall Altar called the eternall spirit by which he offered up himselfe Heb. 9.14 yet the Crosse might be taken as a materiall Altar upon which his body was laid for though the Altar sanctifieth the gift as it is the utensill of Gods instistution yet he that sanctifieth himselfe may sanctifie the Altar too by his own oblation the fruit whereof made a blessed attonement by the sweet savour thereof Eph. 5.2 for all those that are crucified with him by crossing their own corrupt natures and that look upon Christ by faith as on the brazen Serpent that cured the people Iohn 3.14 and also to consecrate themselves to God as a living sacrifice to his service Rom. 12.1 Mathe. I pray shew me the reasons why he was erucified in such a manner Phila. He was crucified naked to satisfie for Adams losing the garment of innocence and might uncloath us of mortality of which the skins given to Adam for cloathing was an Emblem and cloath us with his merits also that he and we might enter into heaven naked as Adam did into earthly paradise so to comfort us that when the world and death strips us naked of all we have to suffer it joyfully for we shall find a cloathing from heaven 2 Cor. 5.4 when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and therefore to be content in the mean time Lignum mortis Lignum vitae that the world be crucified to us and we to the world Again he was fastned to the wood that death might be driven out of the world by a tree as it came in by a tree and life brought back to us again He was laied on the crosse as Isaac on the wood and nailed as foretold Psal 22.17 they digged my hands and my feet also that all bils and bonds of law against us might be nailed with him to his Crosse 1 Pet. 2.14 Then he was lifted up that he might carry our sins from the earth and conquer the spirits that rule in the aire Col. 2.15 He was crucified with his hands spread as reaching them out to embrace both Jewes and Gentiles that are not a gainsaying people His blood was shed on the Crosse to answer all the sacrifices of the Law without which there had been no remission Heb. 9.18 whereas it is now an universall medicine for all our soules languishing 1 John 17. and obtaineth for us eternall redemption Heb. 9.12 Beside he was crucified between two theeves 1. Because it was foretold that he should be reckoned among the transgressors 2. Esa 53.12 That he might sanctifie the death of repenting malefactors for his death in effect was to be divided among sinners of whom at last he would be Judge while some stand on his right hand and some on his left as the bad and repenting Theefe hung Now while he hung on the Crosse alive he suffered beside the paine 1. The division of his garments and casting lots on his vesture as was prophecied Psal 22.19 2. To shew that his very enemies should partake of his graces 3. Into four parts to shew that his good grace should edifie the four parts of the world So the not dividing his other coat shewed that his righteousnesse should be applied whole to every beleever And the casting lots for it argued that no man had his merits by their deserving but by the meer gift of God Col. 1.12 who disposeth of the Lot To all which misery they added derision Mat. 27.39 wagging their heads and upbraiding him with his words of destroying and building the Temple in three daies Yet it was truth in his sense of his resurrection ut praedixit sit revixit and mocking at his miracles saying he saved others but himselfe he cannot save Others mocked at his trust in God Others at his praiers as if he called upon Elias to save him which he suffered that we might know the abominableness of our sins that heaped such contempt upon the Son of God Also that we might be delivered from the scorn of this world and enjoy the comfort of our repute from God and a good conscience Heb. 12.3 without reviling the world again Nay more they blasphemed God as if he could not deliver him as the wicked said Psal 22. with whom they join issue and so condemn themselves to be of the wicked crew even like theeves who also did the same But beside all this he suffered great torments both in body and mind In body by hanging on the Crosse by his nailed hands and feet so that his heart might be rightly said to be melted like wax Psal 22.15 This was undergone to satisfie for our despising the threatning and the power of God in punishing those sins we had committed in the body also to free us from eternall torments and to sanctifie whatsoever pains we suffer in the body by diseases or from persecutors So he suffered anguish in soule when he cried out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which some writers take to be meant of his descending into hell for now God seemed to desert him by deferring his deliverance and by withdrawing from his humane nature the divine support of comfort that he being sensible of them we might be delivered from them by his meritorious suffering them Yet we are not to conceive that the divine nature of the Sonne did forsake the humane but that the union was obscured or eclipsed nor that God the Father forsook him quite but permitted his humane nature as surety to feele what was due to the principall And this first confutes those that think he suffered not in soule though the Prophet say he made his soule an offering for sin And if not in soule his bitter cry argued more impatience then the Martyrs had It also may comfort men in their distresse of mind since Christ was forsaken for a time and surely it should work in us a feare of sin that made God thus to deale with his only Son whom he spared not being only the principall how terrible will he be against unrepenting sinners whom he will forforsake for ever and to make us consider with commiseration those that are troubled in mind a wounded spirit who can bear No wonder if many of them cry out they be damn'd of whom we are to judge charitably since Christ complains of Gods forsaking him through fear whom yet he calleth his God by faith Lastly he through paine suffereth thirst and they to adde to his misery gave him vinegar and so they fulfilled the Scripture Psalm 69.22 and he compleated our redemption saying it is finished Mathe. But did he only suffer on the crosse without any glorious testimony of his roialty and Deity Phila. No God left him not without witnesse For Pilats
every man their fellow The books that some of their own have written shew enough of their simplicity Mathe. Are we not troubled with some of the old Pelagians Phila. There have been some long agoe that held some of the opinions of old Pelagius Britto the Welsh man alias Morgan Cond in the fift Council of Carthage and in others Pontanus Cat. Haeret. who lived in the time of the Emperour Theodosius the younger about the year 416. His followers of latter time are reckoned to hold many errors as 1. That Adam should have died by the course of nature though he had not sinned yet we find that God joins death to disobedience Gen. 2.17 So 2. They say Adams sin only hurt himselfe not his posteritie yet Paul saith otherwise Rom. 5.12 by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men because all men did partake of that one sin yea even those that never sinned as Adam did ver 14. i. actuallie but not originallie as children have no sin but that and yet die August Beza But therefore 3. These Pelagians denie originall sin in children but how then saith David in sin my mother conceived me Psal 51. and therefore originall sin is propagated by generation 4. They say the children of the faithfull though not baptized are saved and they shall enjoy everlasting life but not in heaven but Christ saith Joh. 3. that those which belong to Gods Kingdome must be baptized with water nor doth the Scripture set forth to us any third place between heaven and hell 5. They say that men are born in Adams perfection stature and age excepted yet sure they are not born in such integrity as Adam was made for then all would be equally wise and good when they come to age 6. They say men have free will by which they are enabled to do well without Gods grace yet saith Paul not I but the grace of God in me 7. Gods grace they say is obtained by the merit of our works yet Paul saith that they that are in the flesh cannot please God and therefore by naturall works they cannot merit grace 8. They say that the word grace in Scripture doth not signifie remission of sin or donation of the Holy Ghost but the doctrine of the Gospell But this is found otherwise for as there is the doctrine of faith Fides quam credimus fides quâ credimus which is preached Rom. 10.8 and the vertue of faith by which we beleeve it and are thereby justified Rom. 5.1 So the promulgation of the Gospell is a common grace afforded to many Tit. 2.11 teaching us to denie ungodlinesse and next by it is begot saving grace 1 Tim. 1.14 the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in me with faith and love which is in Jesus Christ 9. They say that faith is the knowledge of the Law and the Historie not any speciall work in us but then the faith of divels and good Christians are both alike Jam. 2.19.10 They say the Law is not impossible for a man to keep and it is satisfied by the externall obedience why then doth Paul say that by the work of the Law no man can be justified Rom. 3.20 yet he that can fulfill it may be justified by it and hath no need of Christ Gal. 3.12 So 11. They say that to pray for the conversion of sinners or for the Saints perseverance is vain because it is in the power of their own free will But surely the will of man hath not power to revive him though he had power to kill himselfe and therefore praier is very fit to be used for people unconverted and also for the godly because of their frailties therefore Christ bids us pray for our enemies and Paul boweth his knees dailie for the Ephesians c. 3.16 So 12. They slight the doctrin of predestination which is applauded by St Paul Rom. 8. and comfortable to Gods people Many other errors they hold not worth relating Mathe. But I hear of some called Independents and Levellers I would willingly know what they are Phila. Independants are those that set up a congregationall government which shall depend upon no other Church Synod nor Classis and though they be against the Bishops yet they would have in every Church Bishop-Independants and so many Parishes so many prelacies because they are Independant upon any other They are bred from Separatists and Brownists The first of them that I can hear of was one Mr Robinson who leaving Norwich turned a rigid Brownist at Leyden He dying many of his followers went from thence to New England and planted at Plymoth there and spread their errors by discourse and into old England by letters where they endeavor to set Church against Church and Conventicles against our Churches which they call steeple-houses which were at first set up for the honour of God and his service though abused by the Papists to superstition yet are they never the worse when they are returned to a right use for as there is no inherent righteousness in their wals so neither is inherent superstition in them It is true that Jehosaphat took away the high places and groves because God had appointed and a place was consecrated for his service 2 Chro. 17.6 and such high places and groves were forbidden But they just contrary to Jehosaphat pull down the consecrated places and set up high places in chambers and meet in the groves and woods God give them a right understanding in the use of Churches Beside this they set themselves to overthrow learning and to rob it of all maintainance and the ministers of all dues and yet ask wherein have we robbed God Mal. 3.8 where God answereth them in tithes and offerings which God thought a fit way to maintaine his Priests And Christ bids the Leper go shew himselfe to the Priest and pay his offering Mat. 8.4 And Paul found it was equity that as they which did wait on the Altar were partakers of the Altar So that it was Gods Ordinance that they that preach the Gospell should live on the Gospell 1 Cor. 9.13 14. Yet these like Julian the Apostate would rob the Church of maintainance that there might be no ministrie because they despise prophecie Again they allow no set forms of Praier no not Christs form and yet they will say St Pauls namely The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost c. Yet it hath ever been the practice of all true Churches Jewes and Christians to have set forms as well for the uniform consent of the people Rom. 15.6 in praier and in praise as also for the confining not of the spirit as they suppose but of their inconsiderate spirits to the words of truth and sobernesse Yet there was alwaies liberty enough to shew the gift of praier before and after Sermon if men could use their libertie not as occasion to fleshly phantasies Mathe.
Church and ordaining Bishops Others at Ancira in Galatia and in France and at Antioch against Montanus Others at Rome about the celebration of Easter But when the Emperour Constantine turned to the Christian faith he called the generall Councill of Nice in Bythinia against Arrius who denied Jesus Christ the Son of God to be of the same substance with the Father which opinion was there condemned and accursed and Easter day setled to be kept upon the Lords day and not on the Jewes fourteenth of Nisan And so Councils were usually called till the Pope usurped the power striving to wrest it from the Emperour and to set himselfe above Councils But had Charls the fift dealt as roundly with him about the Councill of Trent as the Emperour Sigismund did in the Council of Basil it had not been twenty five years in calling nor so long in sitting and so little good done But that they governed the Church by Councils it may appear from the great Councill of Nice Concil Nic. Can. 5. Con. Ant. Ca. 20 which decreed that there should be in every Province a Synod twice a year So concluded the Councill of Antioch so did the first Councill of Constant Can. 2. So the Council of Chalcedon Can. 29. So the third Council of Toledo Can. 18. So the second Councill of Turo Can. 1. And so good and approved was this government that when the Synod of Antioch sixty years before that of Nisen had condemned Paulus Samosatenus for heresie and he would not yeeld up his Church but kept it by violence they complained to the Emperour Aurelianus an heathen and he drove him out to his shame from Antioch Mathe. Why then are Bishops so much cried down in these latter times Phila. 1. By that spirit that lusteth to envy And 2. By selfe love which if it cannot swell us to be as big as others we do strive like Satan to pull down others to be like our selves 3. By covetousnesse which loves to part Christs coat or to cast lots for it many had rather cloath themselves with the Churches means then Christs merits and wrap themselves warm in his coat rather then trust to the purchase of his Crosse These are the motives whatever the pretences are or else why was not the Abby and Bishops lands reserved to pious uses I beleeve the Commonwealth was more rich by the Churches leases then ever she was by the Churches purchases The Farmer then grew from a Yeoman to a Gentleman and most of the purchasers are now fallen from Gentry to beggery But beside all this it is no wonder if that be cried down in these times of Libertinisme Hieron in 1. Epist ad Titum which was set up for the preventing of schism and heresie whose ground is alwaies pretended liberty of conscience which kind of people are alwaies adverse to Christ and his Spouse the Church and therefore ever persecute the overseers of the flock Cypr. Ep. 55. that they may the better adorn themselves with the ruines of the Church and are no doubt the followers of the great Antichrist and forerunners of the last apostacy of this world since the Church hath been governed by them Simler de rep Helvet fol. 148 for 1500 years and upward or by none or else by a disorderly confusion as we see in those Churches who have cast off Episcopacy as in Switzerland where a Lay man is President of their Consistory And at Zurick and Basil their Consistories are wholly Lay and Ministers are only to advise Yea in other places Ministers are not so much as assistants so that they may use their Ministers like minstrels and chuse whether they will hear them or no for they have no power nor hardly a right derivation of their ministry from the order of Christ and his Apostles Mathe. Whether can you derive your own aright having originally received it from Rome by Popish Bishops Phila. You think it seems that our Bishops took their ordination there at first or that there were no Bishops in England to ordain others but they must needs travell to Rome for it or take it from Rome by delegation and if so you take our Bishops and ministry to be meerly antichristian But suppose we had it from thence that will no more prove our ministry antichristian or popish then our very Bible Gospell or Baptisme if we received it from thence For superstition cannot annihilate the ordinances of God given at first from Christ no more then building stubble upon the foundation can destroy it or than a spring water is utterly spoiled by running from a rock through a clay But our Bishops and Presbytery we derive from the Apostles as we do also our Protestant doctrine professed which though held in unrighteousnesse in the Church of Rome like a captive for a time yet at last redeemed it selfe and came to light and shewed it selfe the true child of God begotten at first in Rome by the word of truth from which shee deviating the truth chose another foster-mother to dwell withall that will maintain her with goods and life and not forsake her to the death So our Bishops and Clergy came not at first from Rome though Rome hath made bold to invade the Church of England But for the first three hundred years after Christ the Pope had nothing to do out of his own Diocesse as may be seen by the Councill of Ephesus order Con. Ephes p. 1. act 7. made in the behalfe of the Cyprian Bishops against the Patriarch of Antioch who challenged their ordination That Councill decreed that the Cyprian Bishops should not be violated in their right and also that no Bishop should busie himselfe afterwards in anothers Province or invade others priviledges Ruff. hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 6. which they enjoied from the beginning By which the Bishop of Rome was shut up within his owne City and Suburbs And we find for certain that the Brittish Bishops did not acknowledge any obedience due from them to the Pope Spel. Conc. anno 601. which they must needs have done if they had their ordination from him and they had reason to stand upon it being Brittany was the elder Church planted by Joseph of Arimathea in Tiberius Caesars time Gild. de conq Brit. and Peter came not to Rome till the second year of the Emperor Claudius to settle that Church Mathe. How came the Brittish Bishops to be consecrated Phila. Some think by those that came with Joseph of Arimathea into England having Apostolike authority such as Simon Zelotes who was crucified in Brittany Jerom. in Catal. script Eccles Others think that some were ordained by Eugaâ—ius and Damianus whom Elutherius Bishop of Rome sent to baptize at the request of King Lucius himselfe and people And if it were so there is no reason to find fault with our Bishops succession from thence he being an holy man and martyr and his two messengers being faithfull Pastours
received and that is 1. Civility or common honesty and the next is restraining grace by which they may be said to be sanctified sacramentally or putatively Heb. 10.26 or disposed toward it Heb. 6.4 5. but this is but to have it fieri but non in facto esse i. in a way toward it but not in throughly or truly and therefore men must distinguish between civility which is wrought meerly by morall education according to naturall principles without any knowledge or desire of knowing Gods word but they are carefull to maintain equity and common honesty for the keeping up of trade and commendation of themselves upon which ground also they keep themselves from drunkennesse whoredome and enormous crimes without relation to Gods word Now sanctification though it incline to the same things or duties yet it doth it by the true medium of heavenly light which is the word of God and they that do not so are as far from sanctification as the heathen morallists Now their civility and all meer naturall mens honesty stands principally in the duties of the second table where the light of nature is most clear but for matters of piety in the first table they observe it but ceremoniously and so far as they conduce to preserve their credit among those they live withall but true sanctification hath an eie to both to give to Caesar and to God their severall duties Mat. 22.21 So the morall holy man rests only in negatives and thinks it charity enough not to do hurt but true holinesse doth both eschew evill and do good 1 Pet. 3.11 So the morall man thinks it holinesse enough to professe a dislike of popery and to quarrell with a Bishops dignity though they be utterly ignorant of the orthodox faith and the grounds of the true worship of God Again civility never goeth beyond the outward man Mat. because it takes hold only of the outward letter of the law but passeth over the spirituall sense of it So he that hath restraining grace which he takes for sanctification is much deceived for the difference between them is that restraining grace hath painfulnesse and discontentment at the bridle that God puts upon them and at the bands wherewith they are bound at which they rage Psal 2.1 3. as horses that some upon the bit by which they are guided whereas a man that is truly sanctified desireth that his very inclinations to evill were utterly abolished that it might not rebell against the law of the mind Rom. 7.23 Again they desire to extend their Christian liberty to the utmost without enquiring after the bounds of liberty or the expedience of putting it in practice but a man sanctified desireth to subsist within his bounds 1 Cor. 6.12 and had rather live where nothing is lawfull then where all things are lawful Beside there is great difference in their absteining from sin for restraining grace makes one abstaine from sin for fear or shame because they would give the greater liberty to some sin which they desire to nourish Aug. de civit dei l. 5. c. 12. as some heathens abstained from injustice intemperance and covetousnesse by that unbounded desire which they had after glory and dominion but he that is sanctified escheweth evill because it is evill and displeasing to God of whose love he hath had so large experience that he trembles to offend him Psal 130.4 Again they that have only restraining grace when the means of that straint is removed grow licentious as Israel when they had no King Judg. 17.6 and the 18.19 but they that are sanctified are a law to themselves 1 Tim. 1.9 they need none of the terrors of it though they are willing to be led by the doctrine of it By these rules thou maist know whether thou art sanctified or not and from these marks arise an assured hope of eternall glory because we carry about us the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen of which at the first it may be we have but a conjecture i. a light inclination to the probability of Gospell truths next an opinion wherein the mind is more strongly swaied to think it true Next comes faith which makes a firm and undoubtfull perswasion of the truth of it Now in this case some have a little faith some a full assurance of it which is peculiar to Gods people and they may know they have it by the comfort that it affords to one under the pressures of sin and Gods justice Psal 73.23 24. and also by the ravishing of the affections to the love of those truths which is very strange and supernaturall for there is no greater antipathy in the world then there is between mans heart and Gods word and yet by faith is bred such affection to it that a man will give his life rather then one tittle of this truth should faile and beside it worketh a strange change in the whole man from sin to righteousnesse that one can hardly know him to be the same man Lact. de falsa sapient l. 3. c. 27 Non abscindit sed abscondit vitia This Philosophy could never attain to but rather hides sin then removes it but the word of God is so powerfull in operation that it not only removes sin but also all doubtfulnesse of the truth of Gospel-truth more then the authority of the Church can do which is variable and possibly erroneous So much of the rules of sanctification and hope of glory Mathe. Whereunto doth sanctification advance us more then common Christians Phila. To a true repentance and a communion with God and his Saints in the Catholick Church Mathe. I desire to know what these things are truly in themselves for I fear some do as much mistake true repentance as the Sectaries do the communion of Saints and the Papists do the Catholick Church Phila. You say true but repentance which is holy and sanctified is not a fretting griefe which some take at sin because it hath brought them into a dangerous condition for which they wish the sin undone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no place being left for other advice and counsell This hurts the mind and casts it from the hinges of deliberation except God turn it to a change of mind whereby one becomes more wise afterward to amend what he hath done amisse and to make amends for his error 2 Cor. 7.9 10. The cause of the one is the spirit of adoption whereby we are sealed the sons of God The cause of the other is the spirit of servitude the one arising from the Gospel-promises the other from the threatnings of the law for fear of condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both are well distinguished by St Luke The godly repentance Acts 2.37 they were pricked in their hearts for their unkindnesse to Christ but Acts 7.54 is described the very spirit of remorse not the remorse of spirit by saying they were cut to the heart by
as by remembring his love expressed to us in his death than which none could be greater being endured for us while we were enemies Rom. 5.8 or the horrour of his death being most painfull shamefull fearfull enduring not only the spight of wicked men but an abstraction of the divine comfort for a time so that never was sorrow like his Lam. 1.12 all which was most properly due to us nor remembring the benefits of his death which concerns us as by it the sting of death is taken away though a stain is left the curse of the law is abolished it is to us no killing letter the exaction of the law is nullified we being not bound to every jot and tittle of it for our justification but our weak performances are excepted of God in Christ because we have a right to all Christs righteousnesse and a just claim in him to all the blessings of the law so that neither the corruption of nature can reign over us Rom. 6.14 nor sin bind us over to punishment everlasting and for temporall afflictions they shall all work to our good and glory as they did to Christs Rom. 8.28 Phil. 2.9 Mathe. How may one then rightly remember Christ in receiving the Sacrament and so become a faithfull receiver Phila. These do one include the other For as faith looks upon Christ and his benefits so remembrance cals those things to mind which faith beleeves so that this remembrance must be a beleeving remembrance that the Sacrament presents to us under seal the benefits of Christs death and passion It also must be a thankfull remembrance for those inestimable favours of which I told you Next it must be an obedient remembrance to what he hath commanded and now God in him entreats us to do out of love By all which you may discern how a communicant must be qualified and in what he must especially examine himselfe namely in faith which is the speciall condition of the covenant of grace of which the Sacrament is a seale Now faith must be considered in the cause the nature and the effects of it The causes of faith are the word which is the seed of it and the spirit which is the vertue of this seed both these brings light to discover the darkness of our naturall estate and the comfort in Gospell light Then next a power to regulate and conform us to its own rules and to subdue all opposition 2 Cor. 10.4 Now for the nature of faith it being convinced that the word is of divine authority it gives both an intellectuall assent to the truth of it because God doth avouch it and a fiduciall assent to the goodnesse of it for our own salvation and as to the Word so to the Sacrament which is the seal thereof which goodnesse breedeth in us a love longing and delight in the holy mysteries Upon which followeth an heavenly and holy effect of faith as to desire and hunger after the food of the soule and a strong conversion of it into our soules nutriment and growing in grace by the strength of it more and more Rom. 13. 2 Pet. 2.2 Next a sympathy with Christs members in their griefs and joies Then a readinesse to every good work and a strong repulse of evill upon which followeth affiance in God hope in his promises peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost and a continuall fructification in an holy life by the strength of the Word and Sacrament while we walk here in this wildernesse of sin as the Israelites did in the strength of Manna and the Rock-water till we come to the land of everlasting rest Mathe. I thank you for your patience and resolutions of my generall and disordered queries I shall make bold hereafter if God give leave and you will affoord me your assistance in resolving me to trouble you with some other more particular cases But before I part I desire you since there is such divisions among us to tell me what Church you think most safest for one to cleave unto in life and death and what congregation is best to associate my selfe withall Phila. I suppose you find by what hath been said that the Protestant Church is the soundest for doctrine and therefore hold you to their principles of doctrine as they have been set forth and maintained by our * The 39. Articles of the Church of England Church of England in the time of King Edward the sixt and Queen Elizabeth and her successors And for matters of discipline it is to be wished that some were setled among us for the suppressing voluptuous living and libertinisme But if it may not be had let us be content with the Gospell preached and pray for reformation As for the Congregation you speak of I hold the publike generally best because Preachers in Churches will make more conscience of what they preach then those of the private conventicles or chambers except it be some that are forced to make such places their refuge to exercise their ministry which in conscience they cannot give over though prosecuted much like as the primitive Doctors were persecuted Mathe. But they that do preach in publike some are of one opinion some of another as Prelaticall Presbyterian and Independent Phila. Let no titles trouble you but trie the spirits whether they be of God by their teaching faith and an holy and good life Let men impose upon others or take up what names they please to themselves be thou content to be a Protestant Christian And for mens private opinions except they publish them to seduce others they must stand or fall to their own master And for joining your selse to a Congregation I will give you no advice but only since you have liberty given use it to the best advantage for your soule by hearing ministers of the soundest judgement and most edifying And because all Congregations are mixed it is best to consort with those that are the most pious in their lives and unanimous in their worship of God Mathe. But some say the learned are not the right Preachers but the plain man though a Tradesman who preacheth by the spirit Phila. Surely the learned are more to be trusted for the soule as a learned Physitian for the body but they go by rule others by rote so do these mechanick preachers they despise learning as some do riches because they despaire to get and so they entitle the spirit to their ignorance of which the spirit is no author but the devill and mans presumptuous sins for the spirit never imploied any about his Church but either he made them able by infusion which they cannot prove he hath them or else by acquisition He gave Isaiah the tongue of the learned as well as Bezaleel and Aholiab the gift of handicraft So Christ took plain men to preach his Gospell but he made them learned by the gifts of the Holy Ghost which he hath not done these So he imploied Paul the learned and