therefore might judge all things But we cannot allow the present Pretenders amongst us to apply this to themselves or to any of theirs Ver. 16. Says We have known the Mind of Christ viz. by Revelation of the Spirit not only by the Letter Nay from the Spirit in them by whom the Letter of what we call Gods Word was dedicated and framed Eph. 3.3 Ye have heard of the Grace of God given me and that by Revelation God made known unto me the Mystery viz. that Mystery intended in our present Chapter Col. 1.26 Even the Mystery which hath been hid from all Ages and Generations But was then made manifest to the Saints of that Time Eph. 1.17 I pray that God will give you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation the Eyes of your Vnderstanding being enlightened that ye may know the Hope of his Calling and the Riches of his Glory Galat. 1.16 It pleased God to call me by his Grace and to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him Ver. 12. I neither received the Doctrine of the Gospel from Man nor was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ Nor did he then consult with other Apostles or his own Flesh and Blood about it but went into Arabia far from other Teachers Acts 8.26 The Angel of the Lord spake to Philip saying arise and go towards the South with other Directions Ver. 29. The Spirit said to Philip go near and join thy self to this Chariot Ver. 39. When they were come up out of the Water the Spirit of God caught away Philip and the Eunuch saw him no more Act. 10.19 While Peter thought on the Vision the Spirit said to him behold three Men seek thee arise and go with them for I have sent them So Chap. 11.12 The Spirit bad me go with them nothing doubting Act. 13 2. As at Antioch they ministred to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have appointed them Acts 16.6 Paul was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia Ver. 7. And they essayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not These Texts have been quoted to evince and declare the Manner and Efficacy of God's Communicating his Spirit in those Times Of which sort our present Pretenders to Endowments of the Spirit have not a Face to challenge any thing We return now to Examination of our quoted Text and Chapter and say That the Wisdom of which St. Paul here speaks is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery ordained before the World unto our Glory called Eph. 1. The Mystery which had been hid from Ages and Generations but was made manifest to the Saints of that Time Mentioned Matth. 16.17 Peter says to his Master thou art Christ the Son of the living God And Jesus answered Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven The Redemption of the World by Christ and that Jesus preached to the People was Christ was the Mystery of St. Paul intended in this Text. The Princes of this World had no Knowledge of this Mystery for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory This was not a Thing that could enter into the Senses or the Heart of Man to conceive But God had then revealed it by his Spirit to the Holy Apostles and Disciples of that Time who had received the Spirit of God that they might know this Mystery as a Thing freely given to them of God of which they spake in Words taught by the Spirit But the Natural Man or the Reason of Man could not find out or were not capable of receiving this Mystery by any Helps of Nature or Reason for this Mystery would be Foolishness to a Natural Man and could not be known by Natural Means or Grounds of Reason but must be Spiritually discerned by Revelation of God's Spirit For the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God As our Lord to Peter Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this to thee but my Father hath done it A Thing which no other Means had Power to do Not Man's Nature or his Reason Nothing could discover this to Man but the Revelation of Gods Spirit Every Parcel of this Mystery is above the Natural Man's Capacity and Comprehension What Eye had ever seen or Ear heard or what Heart had ever conceived That a Woman should bear a Child without the Assistance of a Man The Virgin demands How can this Thing be seeing I know not a Man The Natural Man could not receive this small or least Part of the Mystery of Man's Redemption but it would appear Foolishness to him Not to speak of the Trinity and Second Person in it united to the Nature of Man and chusing to appear in the Form of a Servant to undergo Contempt Want Pain and Death and rise again by his own Power and that his so doing should be Expiatory for the Sins of Men and be so accepted in the Sight of God the Natural Man receives not cannot naturally receive the Things of this Mystery for they are Foolishness to him nor can his Reason know or conceive them because they are and must be Spiritually discerned viz. must come to be first known by the Revelation of God's Spirit only Our Apostle's Text thus applied is not only firm and true but also plain and clear intelligible and rational which Men take upon them to confound by taking a dictum secundum quid for a dictum simpliciter and applying what the Apostle speaks concerning this great Mystery and concerning the first and eminent Revelations of it to all Occasions Persons and Times without observing the Measures of Difference which ought to be made between them concerning which we say That although at the first Times of making this great Mystery known to the World there was no Way of Producing that Effect save the only Revelation of God by his Spirit and the same was performed accordingly Yet in a short Process of Time it came to pass that this Mystery was Taught Accepted and Believed by Natural Men upon Reasonable Grounds and without being counted Foolishness amongst them viz. when God by his Spirit had revealed this Mystery to Peter Paul and the rest of the rest of the Disciples of our Lord and other Christians Then they preached the same to other Men and declared this Mystery to them Mark 16.23 They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with Signs following Their Auditors Natural Men had Reason to consider the Teachers the Doctrine and the Signs following The Teachers were Men Sober and Pious not seeking Worldly Interests ready to suffer for Justifying the Truth of their Doctrines and without Exceptions in the Course of their Lives The Doctrine was Sublime said to be revealed by God the Facts delivered of our Lord's Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension and Descent of the
will not suffer his faithful Servants to go unrewarded and therefore hath promised the Resurrection inserted into all our Creeds Now though I be not certain of my immediate departing to Christ at my dissolution yet I have an end intended which will make me Godly Charitable Just and Happy so far as I am made for Happiness supposing that to please God is the right end of all To this he replies We must desire to please God better then we can do in this Life This I do not grant for neither Nature nor Scripture do teach or require such desires Secondly He says It s own Felicity is so necessary to the Soul of Man as a desire to please God cannot stand without it This is denied but yet we do believe God to be a beatifying Rewarder of them who diligently seek him yet not of Debt but of Grace and so the Articles of the Resurrection do prove being assurances of future rewards and punishments Pag. 4. He says If a man have not his aim level'd at the reward he can have no certain end of his endeavour as if a design and intention to please God and serve to his Glory were to little or no purpose without a profitable consequent reward Pag. 5. He says Men use not to serve God for nought and specially not to their loss and yet I say it is the duty of all Creatures so to do to please God and serve to his Glory without other reward or intention to obtain it and yet the Resurrection is for reward and punishment and they are Lawful but neither the only nor the principal Considerations of Mans obedience to God And says If sin overspread the World notwithstanding the hopes and fears of a Life to come what would it do if there were no such things in that case I say Still it could but overspread the World and yet I do agree that hopes and fears are well grounded upon the Article of our Resurrection Pag. 6. He says No Blessing of God can be rightly esteemed and used but by him who sees it leads to a better Life I say Divers Blessings may be rightly esteemed and used without farther references than the thankful receiving them as Gods Favours beneficial to Men in this Life He says No wonder if Unbelievers be unthankful no nor that Believers are so too nor that he and his Proselites take every Blessing and prosperous Success here for an assurance of Gods Love and Acceptance and that their ways and doings are pleasing to him and an earnest penny of Eternal Glory which they earnestly covet and for which they slavishly serve as their Teachers direct them and without which hopes neither he nor they pretend to serve or honour God or to perform any other Duties of their Christian Religion And he exclaims against the Miseries of this Life not to be abidd'n but for the hopes of a future Glorious Life not considering that this later Life was not revealed to the World 'till our Lord Discovered it not 1700 Years ago and yet Men lived as happily in the World before that time as they have done since and submitted to their several Conditions and Circumstances with as much quietness and content of mind as Christians do at this Day serving God under enjoyment and expectation of Temporal rewards propounded by Moses and many other Law-givers of the World But he it seems found himself apt to murmur against God upon account of Cares and Worldly Griefs and the fears of Death and future Events but that was his infirmity at the best and perhaps a perverse humour in him for he might remember that Moses Laws revealed from Heaven Propounded no Rewards beyond the Happiness of this World nor Punishments but of the same nature and yet that People lived often very Happily under them and might always have done so by being Obedient to them Pag. 7. But to his Proposal Concerning the Behaviour of his good Old Women I say the part which they Acted upon the Stage of this World was very convenient for their Circumstances which require of them to take upon Trust and the Credit of their Teachers and other Informers the Rules both of their Faith and Manners and likely it is no more will be required of them at the Day of the Great Audit But their constancy in their Opinions and the sure expectation of Heaven and Happiness at their Deaths Creates no manner of Assurance that they were in the Right or were not deceived in their most assured expectations for Ages and the present World abound with Evidences that false Tenets and very Gross Errors are believed and maintained by misguided and deceived People with as much assurance and establish'd Confidence as the very Truth it self can by any means be Men Women and Children have died bravely in maintenance of gross mistakes and evident untruths And few Turks are found at this Day who will not rather part with Life and all other Worldly Comforts then renounce their Mahomet and his Alchoran Arrians were Anciently and some of them in our times so resolute in their Opinion as to submit to Death rather than to recant it Indian Idolaters daily offer their Lives in honour of their Idols as the most assured means of obtaining a Blessed and Happy State immediately upon their Dissolution with as little doubt as any of our Authors Old Women could possibly attain unto Hence the Author may perswade himself that seing the Old Womens Confidence is no certain Evidence that they were not in an Error and that their Ignorance was more excusable than his would be it becomes him better to enquire after the direct and attainable truth of things and particularly concerning Souls and whether they have a separate subsistance after Death of the Body or not than to sit down contented with his own present conceit or apprehensions concerning the same without making such farther search as he is able into the truth and certainty of such Opinions Pag. 8. He says well That a Faith not upheld by such Evidence of Truth as reason can discern and justifie is joyned with such doubting as though Men dare not open yet they do not therefore overcome and this doubting may likely prove prejudicial both to their Faith and Performance Pag. 10. And things it too much trouble to consider how Souls out of the Body do Subsist and Act But that the Soul of Man doth subsist seperately from the Body and Act in that State he takes upon him to prove Pag. 11. To that intent he undertakes to define what a Humane Soul is and says It is a Spiritual Pure Invisible Substance naturally endowed with the Power Virtue or Faculty of Vital Action Intellection and Volition not destroyed by seperation of Parts or loss of Power Species Individuation or Action and therefore it is an Immortal Spirit He says in proof that it is a Substance that which is nothing can do nothing but the Soul doth move understand and will for that is done
would need no more for their Cure and putting them out of Conceipt with that Vain Apprehension Finally It seems that if our Preachers in Cities Burghs and such as we call Good Towns and Trading Places did apprehend there were no Separate Subsistence of Souls said to be departed they would much abate of their Pressures usually made upon the Score and Title of Men's precious Souls and they would not so clearly neglect and forget if not despise the Body as they commonly appear to do We see them fully joined together in Life and that they arise grow stand decay and fall together And we read much and often that they shall rise be judged and be rewarded together without any one express Averment that either of them doth ever did or can subsist without the other Hence it appears not very sound in them to build their Perswasions to Christian Piety upon Ground so Sandy as the Separate Subsistence of Souls seems to be especially considering they have a Rock so near to them as that of the Resurrection hath been proved Next we say That if they did believe the Rewards of Piety were so far off as to the time of the Resurrection and not to be expected till the Soul and Body should be reunited likely it is they would run a little less hotly upon the serving God mainly at least and primely if not only for the Rewards expected and the Gain and Advantage Men hope to make of a Bargain so prudently driven for their Benefit Men who in their Service look only or principally at their Rewards or Wages are apt to chuse not the best so soon as the most liberal Master a bounteous though wicked rather than a frugal though honest Master And if a Master of Servants find some who serve only or principally for the Wages and others who though they need and expect the Wages yet serve heartily and not as Men-pleasers but out of Love to their Master and a Desire to please him and render themselves acceptable to him We say a Master to whom this Proceeding is undoubtedly known cannot fail to make a great Difference in Account and Esteem of such Servants and their Rewards may be expected enough to give a clear Testimony of the same Baxter in his Quoted Book Pag. 34. 35. says It is certain and proved that God made it every Man 's chief Duty and Care and Work in this Life to obtain Happiness hereafter And yet I cannot grant him this confident Assertion but do say That the Chief End of Man's Creation was not to obtain Happiness of any sort That was not the End or Scope of the Creation of Man or any other Creature Not made chiefly to obtain or seek their own Good Joy Content or Ease but for the Glory and Service of God and the fulfilling of his Will Things of much greater Importance than the Happiness or Sufferings of Creatures Beasts or Men. And so as they serve God's Will and effect his Glory the Design of their Creation is therein more fully and perfectly accomplished than if they should otherwise have obtained all the Happiness which their Natures are capable of And they have the Advantage of doing and bearing freely the Things and Duties appointed for them which otherwise must however be accomplished by them and upon them Our Lord teaches That when Men have done their uttermost they are but unprofitable Servants and therefore their Rewards must come ex Gratia not ex Debito or by way of Stipulation in the Mode of a gainful Bargain And it seems the Conceipt that the Happiness of the Creatures is the great or main Design of their being or acting is a clear Mistake in a main Point and of very great Importance in the Oeconomy of the World and Disposal of the Creatures in it whose Sufferings shall never be undeserved nor can be very considerable in comparison of their Design viz. the Service of God the fulfilling of his Will and the Advancement of his Glory And the Serving to these Ends or Designs is every Man 's chief Duty and ought to be the Care and Work of his Life much to be preferred before his own obtaining of Happiness hereafter although that is no way excluded or weakned for it is a certain Concomitant or Consequent of such Performances though not the main Design or Intent of them For God is not unrighteous to forget Mens Works and Labour of Love which they shew to his Name And certainly they thought so who sold all they had and delivered the Money to be divided and distributed to others every one as his Need required Our Lord directs Seek first the Kingdom of God and leave the Care of your Rewards to him They are no Debts from God whatsoever Preachers may call them who sometimes say God hath obliged his Word and his Truth to make them good and to pay them accordingly And he who labours in the Vineyard shall be sure of the Wages They ought to remember the Ground of that Expression was but a Parable or Similitude a Sandy Ground for Doctrines to be built upon And whatsoever other Expressions are found in Scripture to that Purpose may pass for Condescentions to the Weakness of Men. Paul tells us God that made the World and all things in it derives not Worship from Mens Hands or Actions as if he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Whence he who gives all things to all Men cannot be made a Debtor to any since no Man hath any thing which he hath not received from God who cannot be made a Debtor for his own When the Servants who had employed their Talents came to Account they delivered up both the Principal and the Product without Pretence to Wages or Hire and yet they were not the less but very highly rewarded Rom. 4.4 To him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt And therefore Christian Righteousness consists in Faith always productive of sutable Works So our Service to God in fulfilling his Will is always productive of Rewards sutable to the Greatness and Goodness of our Lord and Benefactor as the Proceed of his own Bounty and Goodness not paid as Wages nor suting with Mens Work nor in discharge of a Debt nor upon a Compensatory Account but ex certa Scientia mero Motu He knows the Person loved and feared him and had a perfect Heart towards him and therefore laboured to keep his Commandments and all that he hath appointed and to glorifie his Name and fulfil his Will Great Rewards are as sure the Consequences of such Performances as good Works are of a true and lively Faith one can by no means be without the other and where the one is not the other cannot grow nor is reasonably to be expected Performances of Duty for Hire or in Expectation chiefly of the desired Wages is Servile and Mercenary without Chearfulness in the Servant or Regardfulness in the
and gave him Bread and he did eat and they made him drink Water and when he had eaten his Spirit came again to him for he had not eaten no Bread nor drank any Water three days and three nights I demand what sort of Spirit was that which in these Two Persons came again to them and revived them It seems the same sort of Spirit which for want of Food and Moisture was almost extinguished the Spirit by which they lived and which by Nourishment became strengthened refreshed and revived as a Fire wanting supply and therefore ready to go out may be again revived and restored by Ministration of fresh Fewel to that purpose I pass this for a some-what clear evidence that these Spirits were Material and seems the same sort of Spirit which Solomon says returns to God who gave it A Spirit giving Life Sense Understanding and Memory to the Person revived by the coming again unto him or the being restored and re-inkindled in him In both Texts the Words are The Spirit came again into those Persons exprest according to common or vulgar Conception And so when a Man died those who thought he had a Separately Subsisting Soul and could not imagine what became of it were very apt to think that it returned to God who gave it At the first to Adam and from him by Propagation unto all Mankind And if you demand Why they thought Men had Souls Separately Subsisting I say it was because they could net otherwise imagine how there could be a Distribution of Recompences future to this Life for that then the Doctrine of the Resurrection was not mentioned amongst Men and much less was fully revealed or made known unto them You recite what I had said viz. That if you should forbear to press the Immortality and instead thereof insist upon the Resurrection and the last Judgment your Auditors would be no more Atheists or wicked Livers than they were before and you seem to grant this by your saying nothing against it And so do I grant what you say viz. That if you should tell them that you do not believe the Immortality it would appear scandalous to them and would make them distrust your other Doctrines how true soever the same might be And if you should not press the Immortality believing you therein stifle a Truth of which you are fully perswaded I grant this would be Sin in you because your so doing would not be of Faith but in Dissimulation or Compliance but if I were in your place and should omit to press Arguments from the Immortality and insist upon those of the Resurrection and the last Judgment I should act in Faith or a Belief of well doing and yet make my Auditors no worse Christians Nay if I should say to them whatsoever you have heard of the Souls Separate Subsistence and howsoever things may fall out thereupon yet certain it is from the whole Current of Scripture and the Articles of our Creed that there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead dreadful to those left at the Separation expected to be made by the Angels between the Elected and the Reprobates and joyful to those who shall be elevated and admitted to meet the Lord in the Air and so ever to be with the Lord. It seems Expressions like these would not make Men more Atheists in Opinion or more vicious in their Lives than they formerly used to be And this I did and do say with intent to shew that by the Opinion of the Materiality those grievous Consequences which you are pleased to expect are not likely really to ensue but that rather you are over suspicious on that behalf You say You cannot foresee what good the Publishing of my Opinion can do to the Word To this I say What good doth the Publishing of the Opinion of the Rotation of the Earth do to the World any more than as it is a discovery of Truth or a thing very like it But I have formerly told you that the Materiality doth Fundamentally overthrow Purgatory Prayers for the Dead Prayers to the Saints and gives a great blow to the Worship of their Images Whereby as Pliny says they make a god or a saint of one who is not so much as a Man Secondly It will put to Silence all disputations concerning the Originals Actings and Residences of intelligent Souls in Men and those concerning their Powers Places of being and manner of acting after their departures from the Body which perhaps never troubled you and very few of your Auditors Whence you may repute them as things of small concernment and yet to many others they have been and may be very troublesom Thirdly It would like many other Emanations of Truth Fortifie the Foundations of the Christian Faith and make it apparent that the Professors of it do not submit themselves to be guided by questionable or doubtful Opinions followed by many or few but that willingly we adhere to Truth according to its strength of evidence drawn from Scripture or Reason and no farther Also we Read of some Greeks so Transported with the Surmises of what privileges Souls Departed enjoyed that they killed themselves the sooner to obtain the Possession of them And very likely it is some present Proselytes promise themselves an immediate Transportation to Heaven as soon as their Souls are parted from their Bodies Which you say the Primitive Fathers of the Church did not believe And I find Peter Martyr in his common places Citing Irenaeus That Souls go not to Heaven before the Resurrection and that it is Heresy to think that Souls go to Heaven or are carried to God without attending the time of the Resurrection And this seems to amount somewhat near the Soul and Bodies going to God together then and that seems much agreeable to my Proposal For I think there is no considerable or desirable Difference or Preference between the Souls Temporary Extinguishment and its sleeping in a Limbus or Dormitory and other place of bare rest and quiet according to the Opinion of most of the Fathers You say again That though the Knowledge of my Opinion can do no good in the World that likely it may do much mischief I will not refer you for Answer to 2 Kings 18.20 but do say in Answer that if my Opinion throughly discussed prove not the Truth it shall not be my Opinion and if it prove really or most probably true I believe it ought also to be your Opinion Truth is more valuable than Rubies and a little of it hewn out of the Rock is of great Price not to be sold Prov. 23.23 but to be bought nor are any evil effects of it greatly to be feared The effects of error are very dangerous nam dato uno sequuntur mille but no Lye is of the Truth nor can grow out of it Deut. 32. God is a God of Truth and Psal 15. accepts those who speak in Truth and do the thing which is right viz. propound and