who is the Truth that makes one free indeed by not admitting or gainsaying these high and divine inventions of theirs concerning God and Christ wherewith they have wrapped him and clothed him though they doe but what Dionysius did to the golden vestments of Iupiter take them off and put on a linsy-wolsy one may well be suspected and accused of Blasphemy and injury to God when it is nothing but a refusal of the groundless Conclusions of rash and inconsiderate men or else worse that of purpose cloth God and Christ and represent him to the people in such a dress as will make most for the countenancing their own Hypocrisie Profit and Interest I will only name one instance of many How has the Roman Clergy forced and rack'd their wits to make good the grand mystery of Transubstantiation whose ordinary Priests must have greater power of working miracles then the Devil could invent to puzzle our Saviour withall For what is the turning a stone into bread in comparison of turning bread into God incarnate And yet a Mass-priest after the uttering of a few formal words of Consecration has brought about the prodigie And he that will be so bold as to call bread but bread and not Christ or God how can he chuse but be thought to blaspheme But yet this Blasphemy is not against the Nature of God or Christ but against the forgery and fictions of men and so indeed is no more Blasphemy then Bread is Christ or mans Phansy the Deity The Rule therefore that Christians are to take notice of here is this There being so much Humour and Interest and Stupour of Education that may begin or continue false conceptions of God if any one professe himself that he cannot conceive such things as some so peremptorily and imperiously obtrude upon his belief that he is not straightway to be accounted a Blasphemer of God it haply being but a dissent only from the conceits of men 5. The second Aspersion cast on our Saviour was That that miraculous good that he did was from the power of Satan not of God And methinks it is not hard to find something parallel to this in some Aspersions cast upon his true members by rash Pharisaical censure Which is this The eximious and exemplary life of good and holy men is many times by those that are more addicted to such a dress or outward platform of Religion consisting of certain Ceremonies and Opinions then to the truth and essence of Religion it self imputed to corrupt natural principles such as Vain-glory and the esteem of the World Political advantage and the like which answers to the Pharisees giving out that Christ cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils So say our modern Pharisees of such as are not of their Sect if those men live never so holily and unblamably in this present evil World exercising Vertue and avoiding Vice that it is not from any Divine Principle in them but from the instigation of Pride the Prince of Vices 6. So in the third place They that affect even more then a Iudaical strictness in the observation of the Sabbath though God knows it is too many times that their consciences may be the more free to work unrighteousness all the week after yet they will take upon them to censure them of no less crime then Prophaneness that observe neither the same measure of Superstition nor Hypocrisie with themselves 7. Fourthly Neutrality and cold Indifferency in publick controversies how can it possibly chuse but seem very abominable to the Pharisee or formal Professour For they knowing no other Religion then what consists in certain dispensable and unnecessary Opinions and Performances when they are shaken and hazarded he that will not engage to the utmost then as if God and true Religion it self were at stake cannot but be deemed very unworthy and detestable Whenas to be but coldly and indifferently affected in things indifferent is in all reason to be esteemed just and good 8. Nor is it a whit strange to hear the Pharisaical Tribe complain of the true regenerate Christian as Unjust whenas the one acts according to an outward Rule or Tradition which was made for the meeting with their own wicked and untamed corruptions malo nodo malus cuneus and which notwithstanding they craftily and perversly make use of by leguleious cavills to the injuring of one another or them that are better then themselves but the true Christian acts and judges according to the living Law of Equity and the Eternal Love of God springing up in his heart 9. Sixthly As for the accusation of Railings and Revilings even a sober and wel-carriaged Christian may well be subject to that calumnie For the Pharisee bearing himself very high in the opinion of his own either Formal or Phantastical righteousness making a shift rather any way to perswade himself he is righteous and religious then by partaking of true Religion and Righteousness indeed he acting therefore according to the nature he really has not according to what he phansies himself to be it cannot but happen that the true Christian endued with the Divine nature and spirit of Righteousness not intending at all to raile or revile but using the most easie and unaffected propriety of words calling a Spade a Spade as the Proverb is doing but so as Adam did in innocency giving the creatures names according to their natures it cannot but happen I say that the Actions and Persons being foully bad of such as notwithstanding be in their own conceit as good as any when they be called by what names express the truth of their natures and no more that yet they will presently judge the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Railer and Reviler 10. Now for tumultuary Zeal I must confess that Pharisaical Hypocrisie is such an abominable provoking thing in the sight of all the Sons of God that it can scarce fail scorching and heating their tender and lively spirits no more then a natural flame can fail to swinge and pain our natural flesh which none of us can suffer with such patience but we are ready to testifie our sensibleness both by gestures actions and words Besides that in a moderate and well-guided zeal against the Pharisaical Interest all being so rotten there so sore and patched over with pitiful plaisters the least Action or Opposition will make them cry out even afore they be hurt being conscious to themselves how unsound and unable they are to abide the least measure of rough handling So that the least vigour of Opposition in good earnest against their hypocritical and unwarrantable waies will by them be deemed but bitter and tumultuous Zeal Eighthly The just and seasonable bemoanings of the dear servants of God and fellow-members of Christ when Nature is very much oppressed with adversity or torment are not to be judged rashly the Symptomes of Impatience or Despair For the expressing of the sense of ones Misery is no Vice since the suppressing
hardship of his whole life For being that the Kingdome of God on earth which is the Church was to overcome the kingdome of Satan by suffering our Saviour Christ gives himself an example of all manner of trials and troubles of the most tedious difficulties that could occurre like a wise and couragious Commander animating his Souldiers by his own willingness to suffer as deeply as they that he commands Which Polyaenus relates to be the stratagem of Iphicrates who when he saw it convenient to draw out his souldiers in a cold frosty night to assault the enemy and observed their aversness by reason of the bitterness of the season and the thinness of their clothing he straitway clad himself more thin then the thinnest of them and on his bare feet trudged from tent to tent to shew himself to his Camp which did so encourage the souldiers that they set upon the enterprize without delay under the conduct of so wise and valiant a Commander 4. And therefore Christ in like manner for the incouragement of his followers went before in all manner of difficulties not onely in poverty in reproach and in a constant refusal of all the pleasures riches and honours of this present World as being to establish the faith of a better but he was given up also to be tempted of the Devil that we may not be dismai'd by such encounters and know how to behave our selves when we are ingaged in them For his being transported thus securely in the aire by the hand of Satan like some innocent bird in the talons of a rapacious Hawk and yet not fainting under it what can it be but an eminent effect of his Faith in the living God which is the very Root and inmost original of the Divine life The same may be said of his miraculous Fast For himself in answer to the Tempter did profess man lived not onely by bread but by Faith in that Word that sustaineth all things That also is worth the noting that Grotius observes upon the place That this Threefold temptation wherewith the Devil tempted Christ is the most usual and most prevalent that he assalts mankind withall viz. Egestas Confidentia Praedestinationis Spes splendoris humani especially those that have disentangled themselves from the more soft and sensual desires of the Flesh and the advantage of Christs Temptation is that we are punctually instructed aforehand how we are to oppose Wherefore this History of his Temptation is very decorous and agreeable to Reason Nor does the relation of the Devil 's assalting of the Son of God make it the less credible for it is most likely that he was not sure yet he was such in that sense that we understand the Son of God and a question whether all the Devils be yet convinced that he is what we rightly believe him to be But for his own curiosity to try what he was as well as out of a malicious design to pervert him if he could he assalted him after this manner in the Wilderness 5. That of shewing him all the Kingdomes of the Earth from an exceeding high mountain seems to have some difficulty in it For if it was onely a prestigious representation of the glory of the Kingdomes of the Earth what needed a transportation of him to the top of a mountain or at least of a mountain so exceeding high But if it was a real view of them the highest mountain in the world will not enlarge our prospect so as to take in one ordinary Kingdome under our sight But to this I answer That this cunning Prestigiator took the advantage of so high a place to set off his Representations the more lively and to make them the more probable to be true For the Prospect seeming so great to the eye and ruder phansies imagining the Earth a round flat this old Jugler might easily hope that he might delude the Carpenters son with so large a show and perswade him that what was so great was all especially perstringing his sight so as that the whole Horizon should seem full of the pompous varieties of the Powers and Principalities of the world 6. As for the long and solemn Fast of Christ and his retirement into solitude for fourty dayes after notice was given from Heaven that he was the Messias the Son of God this was very seemly and convenient to sharpen the desire of the people to receive him when he did return and to gain more Authority to his doctrine which he was to teach them and to inculcate to his successors by his Example how fit it is to starve the Animal Life and quite vanquish all the pleasures of the Body before they take upon them to be instructers in Divine matters which are of eternal concernment to the Soul When as now-a-daies by how much more a mans skin is full treg'd with flesh blood and natural Spirits and by how much the more eager appetite he has to the things of the World by so much impatienter he is to get into the Pulpit to exercise his voice and lungs and thereby to approve himself for a preferment whenas Christ would not exercise this office of preaching the Kingdome of Heaven before he had at once despised all the riches pomp and pleasures of the Earth And as his Wisdome is discovered in undertaking this solemn Abstinence and Retirement so is also his Humility in affecting no innovation therein but he took up the example of Moses and Elias who after conferr'd with him in the mount at his Transfiguration which is the Third and last eminent accident which happen'd to our Saviour before his Passion and which is not recited to fill up the Story but is of very deep and weighty consequence 7. Our Saviour takes unto him Peter Iames and Iohn three of the prime of his Apostles to be spectatours and witnesses of what they should see on the Mount whither he carried them where he was transfigured before them his face shining like the Sun and his raiment becoming as white as the light where Moses also and Elias talked with him concerning his Death and glorious Resurrection Which conference was First a great Cordial to animate our Saviour the better to go through his heavy sufferings and Secondly a great Satisfaction to as many of the Jews as should be converted to Christianity that Moses and Elias that is their Law-giver and ther chiefest of their Prophets were abettours to Christ in this new Dispensation he was to set up in the World and Thirdly there was a particular injunction even while Moses and Elias were present with him face to face to hearken and yield obedience now to Christ as to the beloved Son of God and to let Moses and Elias go all things being compleated in him For a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud saying This is my wel-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him 8. And the very Vision was a representation
being required on their part but to believe that Christ died for them and upon no other condition then that bare belief as if Christ did not give himself to redeem us from sin but to assert our liberty of sinning which is the most perverse and mischievous misconstruction of the grace of God revealed in Christ that possibly could be invented and point-blank against the end and design of his coming into the world For he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 5. Yet as repugnant and irrational as this Errour is it had attempted the Church betimes as appears by sundry monitions of the Apostles when exhorting their charge to holiness of life and real righteousness they often intimate their proneness of being deceived in thinking they had leave to be remiss in these matters Some instances you may have observed already to which you may add that of S. Iames Be ye doers of the word and not hearers onely deceiving your own souls But that of S. Iohn is most express and emphaticall Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous that is even as Christ was righteous who was not putatitiously and imaginarily righteous but really so indeed though it seems by this caution there were that went about in those times to perswade it might be otherwise And I could wish that this errour were not so taking in the Church as it is at this day then which notwithstanding no greater I think can be committed nor more dangerous it rendring this admirable Engine as I have termed it which God has set up in the world for the advancement of Life and Godliness altogether invalid and useless 6. Wherefore all the following Powers of this Instrument depending on this first unless we can make good this the rest will have no force nor motion Therefore that I may make all throughly glib and expedite I find an obligation upon me not to rest in these though never-so-evident testimonies That we are strictly bound to inherent sanctity and holiness but to clear also to the judicious the unwarrantableness and weakness of the grounds of this Errour which they would obtrude upon the world as the chief Mystery of the Gospel namely That if one do but believe though devoid of all sanctification yet he is approved as holy and righteous by the imputation of Christs righteousness and so consequently shall inherit everlasting life let him live here as he will I shall take the rise of my discourse from that grave and affectionate counsel the holy Apostle has given to young and weak Christians and which I even now mentioned Little children let no man deceive you c. CHAP. V. 1. The Apostle's care for young Christians against that Errour of thinking they may be righteous without doing righteously 2. Their obnoxiousness to this contagion with the Causes thereof to be searched into 3. The first sort of Scriptures perverted to his ill end 4. The second sort 5. That the very state of Christian Childhood makes them prone to this Errour 6. What is the nature of that Faith Abraham is so much commended for and what the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. A search after the meaning of the term Justification 8. Justification by faith without the deeds of the Law what may be the meaning of it 9. Scriptures answered that seem to disjoin Reall righteousness from Faith 10. And to make us only righteous by imputation 11. Undeniable Testimonies of Scripture that prove the necessity of real Righteousness in us 1. THAT which Plato commends in Law-givers and Institutors or Governors of Commonwealths that they have a special and prime care of Childhood and youth as the diligent in Husbandry make peculiar fences for their young plants to save them from the dangers their tenderness exposes them to that also is observable in the blessed Apostle who amongst many other provisions he has made in the behalf of all younglings in Christianity has also armed them and fenced them with this caution against being mistaken so dangerously in Christianity as to conceit they may by a bare professing themselves Christians be righteous though there were neither any real Righteousness in their hearts nor any fruits of it in their hands A wicked Errour which several Seducers tempted men to such as were Nicolaus Marcio and Carpocrates as Historians have taken notice of 2. And because there can be no better Antidote then the being convinced that there is an obnoxiousness in younger Christians to this contagion I shall diligently search out and set forth the causes whereby they become obnoxious that finding themselves so they may have the greater care to keep themselves from being smitten with this pestilentiall infection Where we shall finde that come to pass in Spirituall things that often happens in Natural For as weak bodies contract diseases from meats and drinks nay from that which is so perpetual and palpable a principle of life that we can scarce live one moment without it I mean the refreshing Aire which casts many tender bodies into Agues and Feavers and other distempers so tender and weak Souls often by ill concoction turn the very bread of Eternal life the Word of God into morbifick matter and in stead of getting growth and strength by feeding thereon weaken the Divine life in them and sink themselves into most dangerous and desperate maladies 3. The first cause then of the proneness of young Christians to this present Errour is certain places of Scripture the meaning whereof they not rightly understanding make bold to interpret them in favour to their own carnality and fleshly desires It would be too voluminous a business to cull out all the places that are perverted to this ill purpose We shall content our selves in producing the chiefest in answering to which we shall naturally satisfie all the rest And these I may cast into two sorts For they are such as either seem to import That a bare Faith will justifie us and so we may become righteous by an empty belief or else such as seem to say That the righteousness of Christ becomes ours or That we are righteous by that righteousness that is in him And of the first kind is that Rom. 4. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness And Rom. 5. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. And Rom. 10. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth And at the ninth verse of the same Chapter If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God