an Enthusiasme or immediate Revelation but such motives and inducements as were before recited which amounted onely to strong and high probabilities yet sufficient enough in an humble modest heart to produce Faith a certainty of adhaerence though not of evidence and this sufficient to produce acts and operations of Faith to provoke to the obedience of Faith A bruised Reed God will not break nor quench a smoaking Flax Mat. 12.20 if we have but Faith so much as a graine for a little Faith if sound is true Faith of mustard seed let the motives be what they will if this encline and promote obedience the least degree thereof is well pleasing to God he will accept without being furnished with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full Armour of infallibilities and demonstration Nathaniels Faith had neither Enthusiasme nor demonstration but a Topick or Argument a paribus backed by an humane testimony or report John 1.48 and Christ approved this his Faith and rewarded it with an higher concession of grace ver 30.51 and so Christ accepted Thomas his Faith though enduced by senfible experiments John 20 28. whatsoever the instrument or beginning or motive of beleife be if that work by love and work in us a care and desire to find the truth humility in following and constancy in professing it this shall be our reasonable service of God The third Part the Prayer O Eternall Lord God in whom to beleeve is Eternall life give to us thy grace which may suppresse every motion of infidelity that there be not in us an evill heart of unbeleife and however we be not able to manage the shield of Faith yet perfect thou thy strength in our weaknesse making it mighty through thy power working in us to pull down strong holds cast downe imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowlege of God O holy Jesus the Eternall Word of the Father we beleeve thou hast the Words of Eternall Life Lord help thou our unbeleife and increase our Faith bring into captivity every thought to thine obedience that thy servants and followers may submit to thee our Lord and Master resigning our Vnderstandings to the Truth our Wills to the Goodnesse our Affections to the holinesse of thy Precepts and by Hope depending for satisfaction on thy precious promises O Immortall and all-glorious Spirit sanctifie unto us all those means and methods which are the preparatives and Introductions of Faith that they may be Instrumentall to Principle us in wholesome Doctrine to beget in us a love of the truth and obedience to thy Laws unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead and advance us to further degrees of Knowledge and spirituall Wisedom to the spirit of obsignation the confidence of hope and the assurance of thine eternall love and favour O holy blessed and glorious Trinity to whom belongeth the Kingdom the Power and the Glory throughout all Ages World without end Amen MOSES his Choice Heb. 11.24.25.26 By Faith Moses when he was come to Years refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter c. MOses in his Infancy and Minority being saved and preserved by a miraculous mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in his Minority and riper Years preferred educated and advanced in Pharaohs Court when he had arrived at full maturity and strength of dayes he bethinks himself how to exercise his Princely perfections and accomplishments supposing God had been so good and gracious to him for some great and honourable ends and purposes of mercy and beleeving no better way to imploy those powers then in the service of God the interest and concerments of his Church and People and further conceiving God therefore had delivered him that he might be the Cheif and Principall Instrument of his glory in the Preservation of his Fathers House and the redemption of his Brethren according to the Flesh For By Faith c. The first Part. Q. But why should Moses desert and relinquish Pharaohs Court in which he was so Honourably Educated and Entertained Or why should he deny for so the Vulgar renders it the appellation and title of the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter who by her tender care and liberall bounty had obliged him Was it not both grosse ingratitude and great incivility thus to sleight her and her high respect Could he not at once be called the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter and be indeed the Child and Servant of God a Courtier and a Christian Did not Joseph the holy Patriarch before him live both magnificently and religiously in the same Egypt and enjoyed the dignities and wealth thereof And long after this was not Devout Esther Queen to Ahasuerus Daniel and his Associates Nobles to Nebuchadnezzar A. Doubtlesse had not Pharaoh and his Court been implacable and mercilesse Tyrants violent Persecutors of and incorrigible irreconcilable Enemies to the people of God Moses might still have resided in that Court and without any violence to his Religion possessed whatsoever Egypt afforded but in this juncture of time the case was otherwise to be stated then it was when Joseph Esther and Daniel had charge and command under Infidell Princes for these had liberty and opportunities to exercise their Religion to improve and manage their Royall Priviledges and immunities to the behoofe and advantage of their civill and sacred relations whereas Moses must either in a base and unworthy complyance joyn with the Egyptians to vex them whom God had wounded or in a dull sleepy security and Epicurean softnesse neglect the remembrance and afflictions of Joseph and stifle and choke that publike Spirit which God had endowed and enobled him withall for eminent and illustrious atcheivements for besides what is above mentioned Moses had sufficient Authority and Commission to enterprize and undertake the Deliverance of his Hebrew Brethren from the Egyptian Bondage a Command Call and Order from God the Lord of Lords the onely Supreme and so as Pharaohs cruelty did lessen Moses his Obligation of gratitude for he being a Publique Spirit and no pure self-lover every indignity and injury to his Brethren was so to him so Gods command did quite supersede all Obligations to Pharaoh his Daughter or Court both because they were but the Instruments of Gods providence who of Enemies made them Friends and Benefactors and so the highest Obligation was to the principall efficient God and also because a command from God to whom proud Pharaoh was but a mean Subject the Supreme of all doth null and voyd all Orders and Obedience to the Inferiour for though Religion doth not take away or disanull the tyes of Nature and Civility but rather enforce and perfect them yet where their Ruler and Offices are counter-checked by an expresse command or prohibition from God there it is Religion and Duty to wave them and observe the expresse The result then is this That if it come to this passe and point that our temporall preferments and possessions our naturall or civill
and practises should combine and conspire unanimously to destroy themselves and deceive others both because we suppose them holy men and also men of admirable parts of great strength and clearnesse of understanding And as their holinesse preserved them from worldly designes and contrivances in their profession witnesse that high esteem they had thereof as even to suffer death for it so their wisedome and learning kept them from grosse oversights of misunderstanding and prejudice in these things they both professed and suffered which was the diseipline of the holy Jesus who could and would highly and honourably crowne their sufferings And hence it will undeniably follow these all Primitive Fathers and Christians which is a very wonderfull thing notwithstanding their severall tempers and inclinations their severall Ages and Successions their severall distances and Countries yet did agree for the space of fifteen hundred years constantly and unanimously in all those things which were revealed and recommended by our Saviour Christ as important and necessary to salvation for if they were ignorant of any Article necessary to salvation how could they be saved it follows I say by their such agreement and consent That this is an Article of the Christian Discipline in what they held and observed is a strong and solid proofe to all godly sober men That Tenet so held is a Catholique Tenet and that Observation so used is a Catholique Observation and to oppose or contradict either is Heresie and Schisme or which is all one an Hereticall or Schismaticall separation and departure from the true Christian Catholique Faith Adde to all this That the differences in Opinions and disagreements among themselves in many Points of Religion which are not de symbolo of necessary beleise but truths onely of an inferiour natute will to any indifferent unbiassed Persons take off and clearly acquit their consent and agreement in the maine Fundamentalls the Prims Fundamentalia from all suspition that it proceeded from some combination correspondence or mutuall intelligence and common cousultation and withall fully satisfie and convince that it proceeded out of a serious examination and consideration of the things themselves And then secondly as the concurrence of these all is a valid Testimony in necessary points so in these points and means of salvation the generall silence of the Ancients these all would be a very proper and unanswerable Argument to prove the nullity or falsenesse of it as this Doctrine was not known or beleeved in the parest and Primitive times therefore it is not an Article of Faith a Catholique verity but a Novelty or upstare Opinion As for Example If we find nothing either in whole or in part either in grosse or in retaile concerning the Monarchicall Authority of the Pope or the supream Authority of the present Roman Church or concerning Purgatory and Transubstantiation among the Writings of the Fathers and Records of the Antient Church we may safely conclude they are not such as they pretend them to be necessary such whereon our salvation dependeth for if they be such as they would have us beleeve it would be too great injustice to the Ancients to say They knew nothing of them or that knowing them they would not speak any word of them and discharge their trust And lastly it hence also follows That in those unhappy controversies which are continued in this Nationall Church it is not faire and ingenuous dealing in some of those Disputants to aver and avow the practise and perswasion of some reformed Churches in the last Contury or hundred when others put in their Plea from the consent and practise of the former fifteen Centuries For what is this but to oppose a part against the whole a part in one Centurie against it selfe and all other Churches for fifteen a few against all these But above all they are grossely absurd who to these all have none to oppose but themselves have no Authority but their power no reason but their fancy no Testimony but their own approbation and they themselves so inconsiderable in respect of these all that they are not so much as the Gleanings of a full Corne Feild in a large Campania to the whole Cropp And yet they deale subtilly too for they take a safe course that they shall never satisfie you nor you confute them For their Argument and Evidence is their Conscience and what that is you cannot they will not know And hence they are such Vagrants in their Faith you shall never know where to have them and so they may justly be excluded out of the Catalogue of these all and be in the pack of Saint Judes Bruites They speak evill of those things they know not and corrupt themselves in those things they know naturally Jude 10. And yet there is a third sort who though not so bad as these yet bad enough disparaging and decrying the testimonies of these all in the Christian Church fleighting and undervaluing their Authority and Writings and rejecting them as uselesse except the Apostles themselves and their Writings The vanity of this misprision will presently appear if we remember That the whole dispute is what is Apostolicall or not what they practised or not And then the result is obvious Those Persons who lived in or immediately after the Apostles times should know better their usage then we at this distance of time can guesse at they who searched into all Records to discover what was Apostolicall and were after carefull to keep them should know better then they who care for no Evidences Testimonies or Records and all this upon no other pretence but this That the mistery of iniquity then wrought and since notorious forgery hath been used to corrupt all Testimonies and Books the former of which is most unjust because even then though corruptions and Haeresies crept in yet were they zealously opposed and punctually confuted by the Writers of those Times The latter is partly false altogether impertinent For the same Objection might be used against the Canonicall Books of holy Scripture if in the instance it be admitted good and against all Records of Kingdoms and Common-wealths that from them it were impossible to find out what the former Laws and Customes have been for in all these there may equally be suspition of Fraud and Forgery as in the other kind And yet no wise man because the Discovery is somewhat intricate and perplext and the businesse a work of difficulty will therefore conclude it altogether uselesse and to no purpose Certainly they who labour for the finding out the truth by the search of Antiquity next after holy Scripture are more likely to discover it by that way then any other As they who would know our Laws and Customs are more probable to find them out by searching the Antient Records and Law Writers then by consulting present Authors unlesse we take all upon trust and at the second hand But now to prevent mistakes it may be worthy our enquiry to examine what
THE CATALOGVE OF THE Hebrevv Saints Canonized by St. Paul Heb. 11th Further Explained and Applied Luke 16.29 They have Moses and the Prophets c. James 5.10 Take my Brethren the Prophets for an Example Ambr. l. 1. Off. c. 25. Exempla majorum proponimus quae neque obscuritatem afferunt ad intelligeadum neque ad tractandum versutias Sit igitur nobis vita majorum disciplinae speculum non calliditatis commentarium imitandi reverentis non disputandi aâ—â—â—â—ia Idem Orat. de side Resurrect Vivant Patriarchae c. Vivemus nos si gesta moresque majorum voluerimus imitari Miremur eorum praemia imitemur obsequia praedicemus gratiam Newcastle Printed by S. B. 1659. MOSES his Minority Heb. 11.23 By Faith Moses when he was Borne was hid three Moneths of his Parents because they saw he was a proper Child and they not afraid of the Kings Commandement JOsephs Death Concluded the former Part and the Saered Story of those most holy Men which the Spirit of God hath Recorded and Commended to Posterity for the space of 2368. Years for so many are computed from the Birth of the World till Josephs Death And this Second Part begins with Moses his Birth and a Narrative of the signall Providences which not long after occurred For By Faith Moses c. The first Part. As Moses his Preservation from the Tyranny of the Egyptian Edict and Inquisition Exod. 1.15 was a most eminent work of the Divine-all-ruling Providence so was it a most heroicall and Religious Act of his both affectionate and holy Parents For though Nature not assisted by any other guide will sufficiently enstruct Parents both to desire and endeavour and is therefore often found to be very ingenious to contrive wayes for the preservation of their Issue Yet Religion both sharpens those desires which threatned and apprehended hazards might either dull or divert and also seconds and backs those endeavours which might be stopped and stayed with an infidell perswasion and an unbeleeving beleife of an impossible event Nature is full of jealousies and fears and so apt to make men doubtfull and remisse Religion is made up of hope and ingenuity and renders Men clear confident and resigned For Faith in emminent dangers both superadds resolution to the scrupulous and faint wishings and wouldings of false and fearfull and also diligence and constancy to the recoyling and revolting indeavours of the same trayterous and declining nature Nature will not hold out unlesse Religion command in cheife terrors and threats in the losse of life or estate will lay her off and cow her unlesse the auxiliaries of grace be called in for assistance and when both these concur in this subordination the effect is not onely a work of Nature but an act also of Faith And this seems to be the case betwixt Moses and his Parents here affection and humanity told them they should endeavour his preservation and the way for that was by his concealement Religion goes higher and commanded them thus to doe and also assured them that what they did thus in obedience to her dictates should prosper and succeed according to their affectionate desires and inclinations Nature set forth the enterprize Faith kept it a foot Nature saith This I would doe Faith saith Goe on and prosper Nature is right set and never sayles when she is subject to the counsels and commands of Grace 2. But Faith not well grounded is either a fancy and delusion or rashnesse and presumption and therefore it was not sufficient to denominate this their concealement an act of Faith because the concealers were perswaded and therefore presumed that it would take and prove according to their expectation for a strong persuasion may be a strong and strange delusion a fantasticke Faith is but the beleeving a lye 2 Thes 2.11 unlesse also they had sufficient Motives and Arguments to bottome and found that perswasion and confidence 3. Now that Moses his Parents had such supports and grounds for their concealement we have these following enducements and considerations to evidence to us and secure our Faith that what they did was done as the Apostle here declares by Faith Look then upon this contrivance with the Eye of Faith and you will finde by searching into the rule of Faith that it was a commanded work and designe of Faith For 1. Consider it in thesi that must needs be looked on as an effect and production of Faith which hath an expresse revelation from Heaven for its foundation and Gods truth and goodnesse for its warranty and security Now Moses his Parents knew the Propheticall praedictions of dying Israel and Joseph the former recorded Gen. 48.21 the latter Gen. 50.25 and both of them relating to the Hebrews Deliverance the accomplishment whereof they fully beleeved and apprehended as approaching and drawing nigh 2. Consider it in hypothesi that the set time was come for the Hebrews Deliverance and that Moses should be preserved that he might be the Deliverer of his Brethren they had high and cogent Arguments to engage their beleife For the former They knew that Pharaohs rage was neer the height and his tyranny almost at the full and that God would declare his Power in restraining and suppressing Pharaohs Exod. 9.16.17 that it was Gods usuall Method to leade captivity captive to confound the policies of Tyrants when they seem to them most prudent and to subdue their power when they appeare most potent to themselves and most terrible to his persecuted people and withall That God was a fure and present refuge in due time of trouble Psal 9.9.10 and Psal 46. And for their confirmation besides these contemplative they had experimentall grounds For de facto God through the Religious temper of the Hebrew Midwives and the motions of compassion and common humanity in some neighbouring Egyptians had preserved many Hebrew Infants from that barbarous Massacre which Pharaoh had projected and by his cruel Edicts ordered and therefore it was very obvious for Moses his Parents from those received axiomes and attested experiments of Gods goodnesse to draw conclusions of mercy towards themselves and their tender Infant and particularly to apply them to themselves in his behalfe For the latter That Moses should be preserved for his Brethrens Deliverance besides what was contained and folded up in the generall Propositions of holy Faith Moses his Parents though we have no expresse speciall Revelation in that Record that they had had some more distinct and clear Declaration from God which St. Steven Acts 7.20 seems to report when he tells us that Moses was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the vulgar reades Gratus Deo Tremel Dilectus Deo and the Genevah enclines to this and then this expression is Argumentatively full to our purpose Thus God at Moses his Birth did represent to his Parents and they accordingly did apprehend in him somewhat extraordinary for which he would deliver and preserve him then God manifested he should be his
on the Crosse to his justice should be as available to them as to us and the merits of Christs death as imputable to them as to us And upon that account God accepted these all as his Redeemed ones Even as an honest Creditor will release his Debtor when a faithfull Solvent Surety or undertaker makes satisfaction or gives security to content and according to desire and demand And as Jesus Christ was yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. so the vertue of his death is Eternall both à parte ante and à parte post is from and to all Eternity But besides all this premised we have expresse Evidence for our Plea and Cause for the precedent Verses of this Chapter where it is set down in plain Language that some of these all had passed from Earth to Heaven and particularly instanced in Enoch and Elijah and it s said of Abraham that he looked for a City and that sure was a free Priviledged Place conspicuous eminent and glorious not a close dark hole or Prison and of the Patriarkes that they aymed at Patriam Caelestem an Heavenly Country and that jam tum illis paratum even then prepared for them Heb. 11.10.16 And hereupon Haymo thus concludes Nunc verò quiescunt in animae in heatudine Regui Caelestis ineffabili laetitia perfruontes It seems this conceit of the present Romaniscs was not at that time a Catholike truth or else he was mistaken The second is that of some of the Ancient Fathers who referr this common perfection to be received solely to the day of the Resurrection supposing That no Soules enter into Heaven or enjoyes the beatificall Vision till the day of the generall Resurrection But although the souls be extinguished at the time of their separation from the Body yet they did lye in seeret receptacles in a profound or deep sleep untill the Resurrection doing nothing suffering nothing in the mean time but onely the delay of their Glory For so some of them conceive That Heaven shall not be opened till the day of Judgement unlesse to a few priviledged persons And of this opinion was Irenous Iust Martyr Tertull. August Ambrose Iohn 22. and the Greeke Church still maintains it The Text upon which they ground this perswasion is Apoc. 6.9.10.11 I saw under the Altar the soules of them that wore slain for the Word of God c. Indeed there are severall Expositions of this place Some making it Allegoricall Others Figurative c. Whatsoever the true meaning is Certainly the Text strongly proves the Immortality of the humane Soules by their subsistence after separated But whether their Conclusion let others judge Indeed some later Divines have moderated the supposition Neither with the Romanists dooming their soules to inferior Vaults if not infernall Nor placing in severall resting receptacles yet withall allowing them no residence in Heaven the Throne of Gods Glory But they pretend they are carried into Abrahams bosome or which is all one with them to Paradise thus distinguishing Paradise from Heaven which distinction they attempt to prove from these following places of holy Scripture First from Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise From which words they thus argue how concludingly let others examine That Paradise must needs import a Place or Seate of blessednesse because it is promised as a mercifull reward and favour and this reward the enjoyment of the society of Iesus yet Heaven it cannot be because that Kingdom of blisse was not opened till Christ made the first entry and took Possession thereof at his Ascension when he was solemnly inaugurated intoch is Kingly Office And so they Expound Christs descent into Hell to signifie a state of separation or common receptable of Spirits so that with them both are Seats of Glory but the one far excelling the other And this they in the second place strengthen from 2 Cor. 12. supposing Saint Paul had two Revelations One When he was caught up into the third Heaven The other When into Paradise which say they was the place from whence Laezarus his soule was called back But that the chief and highest degree of blisse is reserved for the last day they infer from Mat. 13.43 and 25.34 2 Tim. 4.8 But the now common received opinion which is all I adde by way of censure is That all the soules of the saints departed goe straightwayes to Heaven upon their separation To this purpose compare Heb. 10.19 with Heb. 12.22.23.24 which words seem to have this sense The spirits of the just could not be perfect unlesse they were in Heaven enjoying the society of God Christ and the Angels and by enjoyment of these their being in Heaven is concluded So 2 Cor. 5.1 If our Earthly Tabernacle c. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have immediately thereupon a building of God c. as soon as the Tabernacle is dissolved Otherwise the Apostle would not have said we have but we hope or expect and to expect is but in reference to a reversion to have supposes Possession For here we hope for Heaven we have it not and here we desire we may have For so it follows ver 2. In this we groane c. Yet we would not have desired to be uncloathed ver 4. but upon this account and assurance That as soon as we were uncloathed we would be cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life And further yet We are willing to be absent from the Body that we might be present with the Lord ver 8. of the same Chapter Hence St. Paul saith Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Christ And St. Stephen when he dyed thus Prayed Lord Iesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 and he Prayed so because he beleeved for this was a Prayer of Faith Iesus would receive his Spirit But super totam materiam we shall anon find as hath been proved and shall be further that waving the supposition upon which this second judgement is given it yet comes neer the mark and the truth if it be not the truth it selfe And therefore we passe to the third The third is that which is commonly asserted by most of the Writers of the Reformed Churches who apprehend this promise to relate to Christs Incarnation and with these the words are thus Paraphrased they obtained not the promises that is The promised Messas had not in their times assumed the humane nature and become flesh So Beza Non obtinuerunt they obtained not that is Eminus viderunt Christum they looked for Christ to come they saw him as Abraham afar off So Major Non sunt consecuti promissionem viz. promissum semen mulieris the promised Seed of the Woman And so Calvin Iunius Piscator and certainly their judgement herein is true the dispensation under Christ more glorious then that under the Law and greater perfections received and better provision made by Christs comming then was before insomuch that our Saviour affirmeth