said Does this offend you What if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That will be a very strange and stupendious spectacle to you and such as will assure you of my Divinity but withall remove my body so far from you that you cannot then if you would mistake so grosly as to think I speak of this body and bloud I carry now about with me It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life that is to say They are touching the spiritual body which is the inmost Temple of the holy Ghost and which you are in some measure to partake of here and which shall have its compleat refinement when I shall crown you with the perfection of Life Eternal at the last day Or They are simply concerning the Spirit and that Life which I my self am according to my Divinity viz. The Eternal Word in whom is the Life and that Life is the light of men This is that which you are to feed on and to drink into your Souls when you have not my particular bodily presence with you For this Word and Spirit is every where to be taken in by them that breath and thirst after this Heavenly sustenance of their Souls and so is that fulfilled which he declares v. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him For the eating of the flesh is in some measure partaking of the spiritual body and the drinking of the bloud the imbibing that life therewith that rayes out from the Eternal Word into all purged and purified hearts whereby Christ dwelleth in them and they in him and God in all 3. Again Iohn 7.37 In the last day that great day of the Feast Iesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believes on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Which he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive as the Text it self expounds it And therefore is a good ratification of the Mystical sense of those Prophecies we rehersed out of Esay But these things are spoken more plainly and without a Metaphor Ioh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Which Precept and Promise is like that of Esay chap. 58. which is that if we seriously compose our mindes to do due acts of obedience to God he will pour out his Spirit upon us Then shall thy light break forth like the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward He shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not That is as any spiritual Christian would be apt to interpret the place If thou thirst after Righteousnesse and in the mean time to thy utmost power do the outward functions thereof in thy duties to God and man at length this Spirit of truth will break forth like the morning light within thee and the emanations of the holy Ghost will so throughly refresh thee and strengthen thee that with ease and pleasure thou shalt walk in all the wayes of God which shall be like the flowry Alleys of a Paradise to thee both to thine inward and outward man 4. Not that our endeavours or desires are any obligation to God by way of merit on our part but it is his mercy to the Soul that does in good earnest pant after him For till he has compleated his work in us all our works are worth nothing and whenever they are worth any thing they are not ours but his And to this sense speaks Paul to Titus chap. 3. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us or poured out upon us as the Original has it abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Like that of the Prophet Thou shalt be like a watered garden 5. Adde to these Ioh. 3.5 Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit And Rom. 8.9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his And vers 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered And also 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And lastly Ephes. 3.14 For it were infinite to reckon up all places of Scripture that tend to this purpose For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inward man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us To him therefore be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulnesse of the Gospel and the Necessity of undeceiving the world in those points that so nearly concern Christian Life 2. The ill condition of those that content themselves with Imaginary Righteousnesse figured out in the Fighters against Ariel and Mount Sion 3. A further demonstration of their fond conceit 4. That a true Christian cannot sin without pain and torture to himself 1. VVE have now abundantly proved out of places of Scripture The necessity of inward Sanctification and reall in-dwelling Righteousness
mentioned they be proposed in the Scripture but in a more shady obscure and general way that being enough to serve the End they are proposed for And if any one be at a loss how to conceive the Mystery let him make it up with devout admiration and humble veneration Affections better becoming every holy man then a fierce and peremptory pursuit of his own conceited Reason and bold attempt to pry into those things that God has thought fit to hide from him Which is a saucy and clownish as forcibly to unveil or unmask some noble Matron or modest Virgin whether they will or no. 5. But that no fraud be done to Truth nor mankind left liable to all the incredible forgeries and fables of covetous Priests and Impostors we shall more carefully limit this our exaction of Reverence only to such Articles of Religion as are recommended to us not only upon account of Divine Revelation and Serviceableness to some laudable end but are also clear from contradiction and incompossibility For for my own part I am well assured That God who made our Faculties will never offer any thing to us to believe that upon close debate does plainly contradict them Else all Religions were alike credible and the Moons coming out of Mahomet's sleeve as passable as the History of Ionas his being three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly and afterwards coming out alive Which though it be miraculous is not at all impossible 6. And therefore I do with all confidence imaginable assert That the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity so far forth as the Scripture has de-declared it self in these points have nothing of contradiction nor impossibility in them Nay I will go one step further Athanasius his Creed which one would think is expresse enough concerning this Mystery if certain words in it be but varied in that latitude of sense which they are capable of and not only so but must of necessity have in the Creed there may be such an interpretation made of it as the most captious Reason can finde no cavil against CHAP. II. 1. That there is a latitude of Sense in the words of Athanasius his Creed and that One and Unity has not the same signification every where 2. The like in the terms God and Omnipotent 3. Of the word Equal and to what purpose so distinct a knowledge of the Deity was communicated to the Church 4. In what sense the Son and Holy Ghost are God That Divine adoration is their unquestionable right And that there is an intelligible sense of Athanasius his Creed and such as supposes neither Polytheisme Idolatry nor Impossibility 5. That there is no intricacy in the Divinity of Christ but what the Schools have brought in by their false notions of Suppositum and Union Hypostatical 6. That the Union of Christ with the Eternal Word implies no Contradiction and how warrantable an Object he is of Divine worship 7. The Application thereof to the Iews 8. The Union of Christ with God compared with that of the Angels that bore the Name Jehovah in the Old Testament 9. The reasonableness of our Saviours being united with the Eternal Word and how with that Hypostasis distinct from the others 1. NOw that there is necessarily understood this latitude of variety in the sense of several of the words of the Creed is apparent from the consent of those that do subtilize this Mystery to the utmost curiosity For it is impossible for them or any else to think that the Godhead of the whole Trinity is One in the same sense that the Father considered alone is One or the Son or Holy Ghost so considered For then there being no more Unity in the single Hypostases then in the whole Trinity every Hypostasis will be Triune which no man will assert Wherefore there is a latitude of sense in the word One or Unity allowable in the Creed 2. So when the Father is said to be Omnipotent the Son Omnipotent and the Holy Ghost Omnipotent it is evident that Omnipotent has not the same sense in all For the Father has the power of Eternal Generation of the Son and both Son and Father of an Eternal Emission of the Spirit but the Son does not proceed from the Spirit neither is the Father generated of the Son Yet the Spirit and the Son which are both from the Father how infinitely do they exceed the Creation of the World And the like may be said of the term God by which if you understand That which is first of all in such a sense as that all else is from him and he from none the Son and the Spirit cannot be said to be God in this signification because the Father is not from them but they from the Father 3. And therefore it is further manifest that the word Equal is not to be understood mathematically and absolutely but in an useful reference to us Which is a Key that will easily open the whole Mystery of the Creed which God did not communicate to the world to spin and weave unprofitable cobwebs out of but did thus explicitly impart the knowledg of his Divine glory that understanding the Distinctness of his Godhead in the Triunity thereof the Divinity of Christ might the better be conceived and how warrantable an Object he is of our worship Divine Adoration For it passing through the Titles of the Humanity to the Eternal Son of God there cannot be the least scruple or show of Idolatry in such Divine worship 4. For the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God as well as the Father that is to say they are all Eternal Omnipresent Omniscient Omnicreant and therefore Divine Adoration is due without question to the whole Trinity from the Creatures And not upon this account onely but because they are so perfectly One and have the same indivisible Omnipresency and therefore are One entire Godhead One coequal Glory and Majesty coeternal I say then that this latitude of sense being once admitted which is necessarily implied the meaning of Athanasius his Creed may prove such as no imputation of either Polytheisme Idolatry or unconceivable Impossibility can be alledged against it and the end of this Mystery fully served in such an intelligible Interpretation But I shall not undertake any such Paraphrase in this place And what I have already ventured at is rather by way of Essay or invitation to others to make trial then peremptory assertion in so profound a point that deserves rather our humble admiration then curious disquisition It is sufficient that so far as Scripture has determined of this Article it is without exception or Contradiction 5. The Divinity of Christ in my apprehension is a more easie Object of belief being as intelligible as the Union of our Soul and Body For as they two make up one man so God and Man make one Christ as Athanasius himself has expressed it This the Schools call Hypostatical Union which has no intricacy
persons at great distances off nor doth cease till a due distance after the congress 7. Concerning Preaching that which is most remarkable is this That whereas there are three chief kindes thereof namely Catechizing Expounding a Chapter and Preaching usually so called whereof the first is the best and the last the least considerable of them all this worst and last is the very Idol of some men and the other rejected as things of little worth But assuredly they are of most virtue for the effectual implanting the Gospel of Christ in the mindes of men and of the two as I said Catechizing the better because it enforces the catechized to take notice of what is taught him and what is thus taught him is not so voluminous but that he can carry it away and remember it for ever and withall the most Useful as being the very Fundamentals comprized in the Christian Creed or the first and most natural results from them tending to indispensable duties of life and therefore will alone if sincerely believed and faithfully practised carry a man to Heaven But the next profitable way of Preaching is Expounding of a Chapter provided that he that does so makes it his only business without any vain excursions to shew his reading to render those places of the Chapter that are obscure easie and intelligible to the capacity of the Auditors with some brief but earnest urging of their duties from such passages as most necessarily tend thereto This will make the private Reading of Scripture pleasant to his charge And it will prove the more effectual for their good if he contain himself within the New Testament and fetch only so much out of the Old as will be subservient for the full understanding of the New There is nothing so likely to convince the Conscience as this when men are able to reade and understand the Text of Scripture it self and are sensibly beat upon by the power of that Spirit that is found in those Writings far beyond all the fine Speeches and Phrases of humane Eloquence Which yet is the greatest matter in this Third way of Preaching and the truest use that can be made of it namely not to fill the peoples head with unprofitable or hurtful Opinions but by the artifice of a more florid and flowing style to raise the affections of the Auditors to the love and pursuit of such things as are commanded us by the Precepts of the Gospel I confess therefore This exercise may be of laudable use in such a Congregation where all the people are throughly grounded in the Fundamentals of Christianity and are well skilled in the knowledge of the Bible otherwise if the other Two necessary wayes of Preaching be silenced by this more overly and plausible way it is to the unspeakable detriment of the flock of Christ. Which will happen even then when it is performed after the very best manner How great then is the evil think you when the exercise of their popular Eloquence is nothing but a Stage of ostentation and vain-glory to the Speaker and begets nothing but an unsound blotedness and ventosity of Spirit in his hearers and admirers they being intoxicated with lushious and poisonous Opinions which tend to nothing but the extinguishing of the love and endeavour after true Righteousness and Holiness and the begetting in them a false security of minde and abhorred Libertinisme Had it not been far better that they had rested in the Fundamentals of their Faith comprised in the Apostles Creed with an obligation on their Conscience to live according to the Laws of Christ and his holy Precepts then to be led about and infatuated by the heat and noise of such false Guides 8. Concerning Praying it is an Epidemical mistake That men think extemporary Prayers are by the Spirit and that the Spirit is not in a Set Form Whenas in truth the Spirit may be absent in the highest extemporary heats and present in the use of set Forms where there may appear greater calmness and coolness For the Spirit of Praier does not consist in the invention of words and phrases which is rather a Gift of Nature as the Faculty of extemporary speaking in other cases is proceeding from heat and phansy and copiousness of the Animal Spirits but in a firm belief in God through Christ and in an hearty liking and sincere desire of having those holy things communicated to us that we pray for And therefore he that reads or hears a publick Liturgy read in such a frame of minde as I have described does as truly pray by the Spirit as he that invents words and phrases of his own For there is nothing Divine but this holy Faith and Desire the rest is mere Nature And it is a demonstration how ignorant these men are that talk so loud of the Spirit whenas they cannot so much as discern what is truly Spiritual from what is but Animal and Natural To which you may adde That if none pray by the Spirit but those that invent their own words the whole Congregation are very Spiritless Prayers they all hanging upon the lips of the Minister who alone will be acknowledged to pray by the Spirit Whose pretended assistance is not yet always so powerful as to protect him from the incurring of the danger of Non-sense and of making the Publick Worship of God insipid or else distasteful and loathsome or which is even as ill contemptible and ridiculous 9. Wherefore it is far more safe as it is undoubtedly more solemn to use a publick Liturgy that bears the authority of the whole Church then to venture so holy and devotional a performance upon the uncertainty of any mans private spirit who will be but tempted to ostentate his own conceited Eloquence or forced to discover his own weakness and folly Whenas a set Form will prevent all Pride and knackishness and preserve the publick worship in its due reverence and honour especially where it is contrived with that cautiousness that nothing is expressed therein that engages the Minde in controverted Opinions but speaks according to the known tenour of Scripture undepraved by humane glosses 10. But you will say if a Minister be cut so short in these performances of extemporary Praier and expatiating Preachments how shall he be able to give any eximious Testimony of his abilities in his calling how shall he have the opportunity of shewing his Gifts To which I answer That the end of the Ministry is not the Ostentation of any mans particular Gifts but the Edification of the People which are better edified by diligent catechizing and faithful and judicious expounding of the Scripture then by loose and ranging Discourses out of the Pulpit where he that speaks having taken leave of his short Text may fill the ears of his Auditors with nothing but the noise of his own conceits and inventions whenas in the Exposition of a whole Chapter suppose at a time the peoples mindes will be kept closer to those
the hearts of all true Believers And what we have said of additional Ceremonies there is the same reason of deductional Opinions they are to have their recommendation from their Use and Efficacy in promoting Life and Godliness in the Souls of men But their obtrusion is as unwarrantable as of the other if not more Forasmuch as Ceremonies are most-what indifferent Opinions never but determinately true or false or to be held so by them that either doubt or think the contrary Which therefore is a greater violence to ingenuous Natures As also the Usurpation greater to intrude into either the Prophetick or Legislative office of Christ then to affect to be onely the master of the Ceremonies and the Superstition alike since Superstition is nothing else but a fear and scrupulosity about such things as bear no estimate in the eyes of God as certainly neither of these do one way nor other neither Opinions that concern not Life and Godliness nor Ceremonies that are of an indifferent nature and may of themselves be either practised or omitted And therefore for men to be affected timorously and meticulously in these things it is a sign they understand not the royal Law of Christian Liberty and commit that which is the main vice included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Superstition in that they phansy to themselves a pettish and captious Deity Whence it is manifest that the over-careful using or scrupulously omitting of indifferent Ceremonies as also over-much solicitude in the rejecting or embracing of useless and uncertain Opinions is no commendable Worship or Service but rather an implicite Reproach of the Holy Godhead they profess to adore THE END The CONTENTS PREFACE 1. THE Authors natural averseness from writing of Books fol. v 2. That there was a kind of necessity urged him to write what he has wrote hitherto ibid. 3. The occasion of writing his Psychozoia ibid. 4. As also of his Poem Of the Immortality of the Soul vi 5. His Satyricall Essays against Enthusiastick Philosophie ibid. 6. The great usefulness of his Enthusiasmus Triumphatus and of this present Treatise for suppressing Enthusiasme ibid. 7. The occasion and preparations to his writing his Antidote against Atheisme and his Threefold Cabbala vii 8. The urgent occasion of writing this present Treatise as also of his Discourse Of the Immortality of the Soul ibid. 9. His account of the Inscription of this present Treatise viii 10. His Apology for his so copiously describing the Animal Life x 11. And for his large Parallel betwixt Christ and Apollonius ibid. 12. The reason of his bringing also Mahomet upon the Stage and H. N. and of his so large Excursions and frequent Expostulations with the Quakers and Familists xi 13. That the wonderful hopes and expectations of the Religious of the Nation yea of the better-meaning Fanaticks themselves are more likely to be fulfilled by this happy restoring of the KING then by any other way imaginable xii 14. Wherein consists the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme xiii 15. That the Honour of beginning that pure and Apostolick Church that is so much expected seems to have been reserved by Providence for CHARLES the Second our gracious Soveraign with pregnant arguments of so glorious an hope ibid. 16. The reasons why he did not cast out of his Discourse what he had written concerning Quakerisme and Familisme notwithstandâ—ng the fear of these Sects may seem well blown over through the happy settlement of things by the seasonable return of our Gracious Soveraign to his Throne xiv 17. The reason of his opposing the Familists and Quakers above any other Sects xv 18. His excuse for being less accurate in the computation of Daniels weeks ibid. 19. As also for being less copious in the proving the expected restorement of the Church to her pristine purity together with a Description of the condition of those happy ages to come xvi 20. That this Discourse was mainly intended for the information of a Christian in his private capacities xvii 21. What points he had most probably touched upon if his design had urged him to speak any thing of Church-Government ibid. 22. A Description of such a Bishop as is impossible should be Antichristian xx 23. Why he omitted to treat of the Reasonableness of the Precepts of Christ. xxi 24. That the pains he took in writing this Treatise were especially intented for the Rationall and Ingenuous xxii 25. His Apology for the sharpness of his style in some places ibid. 26. An Objection against Mr. Mede's Apocalyptick Interpretations from the supposed sad condition of all Adherers to the Apostate Church with the Answer thereto ibid. 27. The Adversaries Reply to the foregoing Answer with a brief Attempt of satisfying the same xxv 28. An Apology for his free dislike of that abused Notion of Imputative Righteousness xxvi 29. His Defence for so expressly declaring himself for a duly-bounded liberty of Conscience xxvii BOOK I. CHAP. I. THe Four main Properties of a Mystery 2. The first Property Obscurity 3. The second Intelligibleness 4. The third Truth 5. The fourth Usefulness 6. A more full Description of the Nature of a Mystery 7. The distribution of the whole Treatise fol. 1. CHAP. II. 1. That it is fit that the Mystery of Christianity should be in some measure Obscure to exclude the Sensuall and Worldly 2. As also to defeat disobedient Learning and Industry 3. And for the pleasure and improvement of the godly and obedient 4. The high Gratifications of the Speculative Soul from the Obscurity of the Scriptures 3 CHAP. III. 1. The Obscurity of the Christian Mystery argued from the Effect as from the Iews rejecting their Messias 2. From the many Sects amongst Christians 3. Their difference in opinion concerning the Trinity 4. The Creation 5. The Soul of Man 6. The Person of Christ 7. And the Nature of Angels 5 CHAP. IV. 1. That the Triniâ—y was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church by the Fathers 2. A Description of the Platonick Trinity and of the difference of the Hypostases 3. A Description of their Union 4. And why they hold All a due Object of Adoration 5. The irrefutable Reasonableness of the Platonick Trinity and yet declined by the Fathers a Demonstration that the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church 6. Which is further evidenced from the compliableness of the Notion of the Platonick Trinity with the Phrase and Expressions of Scripture 7. That if the Christian Trinity were from Plato it follows not that the Mystery is Pagan 8 9 10. The Trinity proved from Testimony of Holy Writ 7 CHAP. V. 1. That the natural sense of the First of S. Iohn does evidently witness the Divinity of Christ. 2. A more particular urging of the circumstances of that Chapter 3. That S. Iohn used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Iewish or Cabbalistical notion 4. The Trinity and the Divinity of Christ argued from Divine worship due
and what he utters concerning the Spirit chap. 16.14 He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Wherefore I say the Fathers being every way so fairly invited to bring the Platonick Notion of the Trinity into the Church assuredly if themselves had been Platonists and had fetched the Mystery from that School they would not have failed to have done it 7. Secondly Admit that the ancient Fathers were Platonists and brought the Mystery of the Trinity into the Church of the Christians it does not straight follow That it is therefore a Pagan or Heathenish Mystery Pythagoras and Plato having not received it from Pagans or Heathens but from the learned of the Iews as sundry Authors assert the Iews themselves in long succession having received it as a Divine Tradition and such is Platonisme acknowledged to be by Iamblichus who sayes it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And assuredly if there had not been some very great reason for it men so wise and profoundly knowing as Pythagoras Plato Plotinus and others would never have made so much adoe about it 8. Thirdly and lastly I say it is not only impious but vain and foolish to asperse that Mystery with the reproch of Paganisme that is so plainly to them that be not prejudiced set down and held forth in the Holy Scripture For the very Forme of Baptisme prescribed by our Saviour evidently enough denotes Three Divine Hypostases Of the Father there is no question Concerning the Divinity of the Sonne we shall speak more fully in the Second point we proposed That the Holy Ghost is not a mere Power Property or Attribute of God but an Hypostasis one free enough from being swai'd by Tradition or Authority of any Church and as himself conceits a very close and safe adherer to Scripture does grosly enough acknowledge while he makes it some created Angel that bears the sacred Title of the Holy Ghost and undergoes those Divine functions that are attributed to him But we need not maintain Truth by any mans Error it being sufficiently able to support it self and therefore we will make use of no advantage but what Scripture it self offers us And this Forme of Baptisme affords us something to the evincing that the Holy Ghost is not an Attribute but an Hypostasis For sith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to give up a mans self to the Discipline Government and Authority of this or that Person it is the most natural sense to conceive that all Three mentioned in the Forme are Persons we being so well assured that two of them are But there are other passages of Scripture that will make the point more clear Rom. 15.13 The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Now if the Holy Ghost were but a Power not a Person what a ridiculous Tautology would it be for the sense would be through the power of the holy power Again John 16.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very ill Syntax were it not that there is a Personality in the Holy Spirit which by what follows is most undeniably evident For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak To receive of one and communicate to others by way of hearing and speaking what can that belong to but a Person or Hypostasis To this you may adde also Mark 13.11 Whatsoever shall be given you in that hour that speak ye for it is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost Now that this Hypostasis is not a created Angel amongst other Reasons the Conception of Christ may well argue it being more congruous That that spirit that moved upon the waters and created the world should form that holy Foetus in the womb of the Virgin then that any created Angel should apply himself to that work for he had not then been the Son of God but of an Angel as in reference to his birth in time 9. Besides this one Individual Spirit in Scripture in represented as every where ready to sanctify to regenerate to distribute various gifts and graces to the Church to have spoke by the mouth of the Prophets to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a discerner of the thoughts of the heart Baptisme also and Benedictions are imparted in his name he is also called to witness which is a piece of Divine worship all which seems more naturally to be understood of him whom we properly call the Spirit of God then of any particular created Angel whatsoever 10. We shall onely adde one place more which will put all out of doubt to them that do not doubt of the Text it self 1 John 5.7 There are three witnesses in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are One What can be writ more plain for the proof of the Triunity of the Godhead But for those that suspect the Clause to be supposititious I shall not trouble my self to confute them that task being performed so solidly and judiciously by a late Interpreter that nothing but Prejudice and Wilfulness can make a man depart unsatisfied with so clear a demonstration Wherefore secure of this Point Concerning the Trinity we go on to the next concerning The Divinity of Christ. CHAP. V. 1. That the natural sense of the First of S. Iohn does evidently witness the Divinity of Christ. 2. A more particular urging of the circumstances of that Chapter 3. That S. Iohn used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Iewish or Cabbalistical notion 4. The Trinity and the Divinity of Christ argued from Divine worship due to him and from his being a Sacrifice for sin 5. That to deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ or to make the Union of our selves with the Godhead of the same nature with that of Christ's subverts Christianity 6. The uselesness and sauciness of the pretended Deification of Enthusiasts and how destructive it is of Christian Religion 7. The Providence of God in preparing of the Nations by Platonisme for the easier reception of Christianity 1. THat Christ is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a mere Creature but a divine Hypostasis or truly really and Physically not Allegorically and Morally joyn'd with that Divine Hypostasis which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if men would not bring their own sturdy preconceptions but listen to the easy and natural aire of the Text the Beginning of S. Iohns Gospel would put out of all controversy For I 'le appeal to any supposing the Union of Christ's Humanity with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be true in what fitter more significant or better-becoming way could it be expressed then already it is in the Beginning of that Gospel Wherefore to interpret it in any other sense is to delude themselves and to abuse the Scripture through the prepossessions of their
as with the Ocean who changes his name according to the Coasts he beats upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dionysius notes in his Geographicall Poem 6. And if they took into their Religious consideration the worship of the Genii or Spirits whether such as whole appearance was so horrid and terrible that it caused affrightment or such as whose benign aspect was accompanied with a more pleasing wonderment and joy these they look'd upon also as eminent manifestations of that One Eternal Deity which runs through all things giving life and Being to all whom therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom though they make three viz. Iupiter coelestis Iupiter marinus and Iupiter infernalis the latter two whereof they also call Neptune and Pluto yet it is one Eternal Spirit say they which we worship in these Three whose Kingdome and Dominion is over all though the administration thereof differ according to the nature and merit of them that are Governed The same Apology we may make for that Honour we do to the deceased Heroes whose noble persons and refined Spirits the Divine excellencies more illustriously shone through then ordinary For in truth we do not so much worship them as God shining through them as he that bows to the Sun or Moon through a glass-window intends not his obeisance to the glass but to those Celestial Luminaries nor do we bow our body to those Luminaries but to God who to us appears through all things CHAP. IV. 1. The Heathens Festivals Temples and Images 2. Their Apology for Images 3. The Significancy of the Images of Jupiter and Aeolus 4. Of Ceres 5. Of Apollo 6. Their Plea from the significancy of their Images that their use in Divine worship is no more Idolatrous then that of Books in all Religions as also from the use of Images in the Nation of the Iews 7. Their Answer to those that object the Impossibleness of representing God by any outward Image 8. That we are not to envy the Heathen if they hit upon any thing more weighty in their Apologies for their Religion and why 1. NOW according to the various appearances of This One Divinity that puts forth it self every where our Ancestors instituted various Religious Rites and Ceremonies appointed sundry sorts of Festivals and Sacrifices built Temples set up Altars with several inscriptions and erected Images proper and significative of that or this Divine Power which at set times and places they were to worship To which Religious Customes under which we were born we submitted our selves without being obnoxious as we conceive to any just imputation of Idolatry 2. For we worshipped not those Images which were thus erected no more then any other Nation does the Holy Volumes of their Law or Religion when either they pray out of them have them read or use them in the administring of an Oath For that reverence that is done is not done to the Book but to him whose Word it is said to be to him whom they pray to or swear by and those Images to us are not unlike the Religious Books of others they being very expressive of the circumstances of the exertion of that Divine Power which we at any time adore As you may see in the Images of Iupiter Aeolus Ceres Apollo and the rest 3. For Iupiter who was their God of Thunder as he bore in his left hand a royal Scepter his right hand was charg'd with Thunder according to that of the Poet Cui dextra trisulcis Ignibus armata est Aeolus the God of the Winds he was made standing at the Mouth of a Cave having a linnen garment girt about him and a Smiths bellows under his feet at his right hand stood Iuno covered with a cloud putting a Crown upon his head as having given her Kingdome to him and on his left hand stood a Nymph up to the middle in Water which Iuno gave him to wife Which Image is very significative of the Nature and Causes of the Windes and so intelligible if we do but take notice that Iuno is the Aire that it wants no further explication 4. Ceres was made in the figure of a country-woman sitting upon an Oxe having in her right hand a Plough-share and a basket of Seeds hanging from her arme in her left hand a sickle and a flayle Iuno the Goddess of the Aire and of the Clouds was on one side and Apollo or the Sun on the other intimating how the warmth of the Sun and kindly showrs are to second the labour of the Husbandman or else nothing will prosper 5. The figure of Apollo or the Sun was thus His Image had a Youthful countenance in his right hand he held a Quiver of arrows and a Bow in his left an Harp under his feet was a terrible Monster in the form of a Serpent having three heads viz. of a Wolf of a Lion and of a fawning Dog on the Top of his head was a golden Trivet and about his temples a Crown of Twelve precious stones The meaning whereof though it may seem abstruse at first sight yet if you consider it a while it very fitly sets out the nature of the Sun and of Time whose knowledge depends on him and of Knowledge which depends on Time His Bow and Arrows signify nothing but the darting of his Beams from so far a distance whence he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Poets and his youthful countenance nothing but his unfading vigour which Age seems not at all to diminish His Harp signifies the dance of the Planets about him as if he sate and played to them or at least according to the other Hypothesis as if he led the dance himself playing on his Harp and the rest of the Planets followed him The twelve precious stones signifie the twelve signes of the Zodiack with which he is incircled and the three-headed Serpent deciphers Time in the threefold notion of it Past Present and to come The time past as Macrobius notes like a ravenous Wolfe devouring the memory of things the time present being urgent and raging like a Lion through its instant actuosity and the time to come flattering us with hopes like a fawning Dog And lastly the golden Trivet or Tripod denotes the Threefold object of Knowledge which Time affords them that are wise such as Homer makes Calchas the Priest of Apollo to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who knew what was what is and what 's to come So that it is apparent how strange soever the use of these Images may seem that it was no other then that of Books they raising our minds and it may be with a greater advantage of devotion and admiration into the sense and consideration of that Divine Power which we were to adore 6. Wherefore that imputation is very unjust that would charge us with Idolatry properly so called as if we did worship the Idols themselves But to use Images in Divine worship there being
Laodicaea besides the Indians Persians Arabians Albanians and others but these may suffice which we have already named for remarkable examples of Satan's villainous miscarriages in his usurped Rule over the Sons of Men. CHAP. XVI 1. Four things still behind to be briefly touch'd upon for the fuller Preparation to the understanding the Christian Mystery as First the Pagan Catharmata The use of them prov'd out of Caesar 2. As also out of Statius and the Scholiast upon Aristophanes 3. That all their expiatory Men-sacrifices whatsoever were truly Catharmata 4. The Second their Apotheoses or Deifications of men The names of several recited out of Diodorus 5. Of Baal-Peor and how in a manner all the Temples of the Pagans were Sepulchres Their pedigree noted by Lactantius out of Ennius 6. Certain examples of the Deification of their Law-givers 1. WE have clearly and fully enough set out unto your view the Uncleanness and Cruelty of the Pagan Superstitions there are only Four things behind which we will lightly touch upon and then I think we shall sufficiently have prepared the way to give you an easy and intelligible representation of the whole Frame of Christian Religion as it is set out in the Holy Scripture The First of the Four things I were a mentioning is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purgamenta Piacula but the Greek word is more proper which signifies the death of some man which the Pagans sacrificed for the expiating of their faults and saving themselves from the rigour and vengeance of their Gods This Reason was acknowledged plainly by the Gaules amongst whom this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this mactation of men was so frequent as Caesar has observed Pro vita hominum nisi vita hominis reddatur non posse Deorum immortalium numen placari arbitrantur i. e. They think that unless the life of a man be given in lieu of the life of men the Majesty of the immortall Gods cannot be pacified And therefore in gravioribus morbis praeliis periculis homines pro victimis immolant aut immolaturos vovent as Ortelius cites it out of Caesar And therefore in more grievous diseases warrs dangers they either sacrifice men or at least make a vow they will sacrifice them 2. This kind of Sacrifice because it was made ordinarily of the vilest sort of people Slaves or Captives or other contemptible persons the Apostle to shew how vilely himself was esteemed of by men set off his condition by a phrase borrowed from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4.13 To this custome Papinius Statius alludes where he brings in Meneceus his mother speaking to him thus Lustralemne feris ego te puer improbe Thebis Devotumque caput vilis ceu mater alebam Have I ô wicked child thee nourished Like mother poor for cruell Thebes to be A lustral wretch a vile devoted head This is noted also by Servius upon Virgil. But there can be nothing more pertinent either for the explaining of that Phrase of the Apostle or for a clearer witnessing of this Heathenish custome then what Grotius addes upon the place out of the Scholiast upon Aristophanes his Plutus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Men that were sacrificed to the Gods for the clearing of a city or people from the pestilence or any other disease were called Catharmata which custome also obtain'd amongst the Romans And on another Comedy the Scholiast asserts it to have been also the custome of the Athenians and that they made choice of some poor useless wretches for that purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. For the Athenians also gâ—t certain base and useless persons and in the time of any Calamity coming upon the city as of pestilence and the like they sacrificed these thereby to be cleared of their piacular crime for which cause these men were called Catharmata Which in Latine is Piacula or Purgamenta 3. We might alleadge other Testimonies as that out of Suidas upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others but these may suffice for so easy a matter For all the Expiatory sacrifices wherewith they would appease the wrath of the Gods as often as they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mactations of men which were too-too frequent all over the World these men that were thus sacrificed were indeed Catharmata properly so called 4. The Second thing we would have noted is Their Apotheoses then which nothing was more frequent amongst the Gentiles there scarce being any of the Immortal Gods so deem'd amongst them but some Mortall man there was also that bore the same name and had the same worship also done unto him Diodorus instances in Sol Saturn Rhea Iupiter Pan Ceres and others whose Genealogies inventions or famous exploits that Historian pursues in his First Book of his Bibliotheca Historica He names also Belus the Sun of Neptune and Libya as the Captain of an Aegyptian Colony into Babylon with whom it fared as with innumerable others who were considerable Benefactours to the Countrey they liv'd in or people with whom they did converse They had Altars and Temples erected to their memorial and Sacrifices and Religious ceremonies appointed to be done to them as to the immortal Deities 5. And Baal-Peor to whom Israel joyned where they are said to eat the sacrifice of the dead Bede upon the Text expounds it to this sense Initiati sunt sacrificaverunt Baal qui colebatur in Phegor Belus enim fuit pater Nini c. and that is the reason that they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they were sacrifices offered to the Soul of the deceased Belus Clemens Alexandrinus upbraids to the Heathen that in a manner all their Temples were nothing else but the Sepulchres of some famous men whose Memory was the first occasion of those Religious solemnities and ceremonies that were performed there Lactantius also out of Ennius and Cicero plainly demonstrates that the generality of the Pagan Deities such as we have already named out of Diodorus were once Men living here on Earth and produces out of Ennius their pedigrees counsels and transactions in this life Cicero makes a kind of distinction in his de Legibus where he makes this decree concerning Religion Divos eos qui Coelestes semper habiti sunt colunto eos quos in coelo merita locaverunt Herculem Liberum Aesculapium Pollucem Castorem Quirinum i. e. Let them worship the Gods both those who were ever accounted Celestial and those whom their merits have placed in Heaven as Hercules Bacchus Aesculapius Pollux Castor Quirinus 6. For the Romans worshipped Romulus as the Babylonians Belus like as other Nations also have Deified those that have first given them Laws and Religious rites as the Scythians Zamolxis and the Chineses their Kings and in particular their Law-giver Confusius Minos also Aeacus and Rhadamanthus for their singular Iustice while they lived were by the Greeks assigned to the honour of being Judges amongst the dead in the
others out of the captivity of the Kingdome of darkness and Tyranny of Devil 5. Wherefore if any man start up and pretend an Equality with Christ he is ipso facto convinced of ignorance in the Mystery of Godliness and deprehended to be an Impostour and a Lyar or he is haply a Beast and an Epicure denying the Immortality of the Soul and thereupon building all his slights and contempts of the Personal knowledge of our Saviour he deeming him as all men else wholly Mortal and therefore utterly to have perished above sixteen hundred years agoe CHAP. VI. 1. An objection against Christ's Soveraignty over Men and Angels from the meanness of the rank of Humane Spirits in comparison of the Angelical Orders 2. An Answer to the objection so far as it concerns the fallen Angels 3. A further inforcement of the Objection concerning the unfallen Angels with an Answer thereto 4. A further Answer from the incapacitie of an Angels being a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World 5. And of being a fit Example of life to men in the flesh 6. That the capacities of Christ were so universal that he was the fittest to be made the Head or Soveraign over all the Intellectual Orders 7. Christ's Intercession his fitness for that Office 8. What things in the Pagan Religion are rectified and compleated in the Birth Passion Ascension and Intercession of Christ. 1. BUT it may be further objected That although it be very Reasonable that the Angels and the Spirits of men whether in the body or out of the body be reduced under some Political form of Government yet it seems very incongruous and disproportionable that some one of the lowest rank of all the Orders of Rational Creatures should be made the Soveraign over all over Angels and Archangels and all Principalities and Powers whatsoever whether in Heaven or in Earth 2. But to this I answer That though the Superiour Orders of Intellectual Beings may have far more strength and natural Understanding in them then Man yet the Humanity of Christ may not be inferiour to them in Humility and an holy adhesion to God in Self-resignation and Faith in him who is the Root of all things in Love also and dear Compassion over the whole Creation and in a word in whatever appertains to the Divine life But as for the lapsed Angels let them be otherwise as cunning and knowing in all Arts and Subtilties of Nature let them be as powerfull as Gigantick as they will even to the overturning mountains and striking down steeples at a blow yet Christ has infinitely the preeminence of them in those Divine accomplishments I have recited nay he has a Principle beyond them removed above their Sphere as man has a Principle beyond Beasts And therefore it is no more wonder that God has constituted him Lord over these rebellious Titans then that Man is made superiour to Lions Elephants Whales and other mighty and monstrous Creatures 3. But you 'l say Though it seem just that the usurped Empire of the Devil be taken from him and given to Christ yet there is no reason that the unfallen Angels should be brought under his sceptre they being naturally of an higher order then himself and having forfeited nothing by rebellion or disobedience to God And therefore it had been more Reasonable for God to have united himself Hypostatically as they call it with some Angel then with Humane nature But what art thou O man that pretendest to be so wise as to give laws to God may not he dispose of his own and of himself as he pleases Besides there being so great a Revolt in the Angelical Orders who tempted also Mankind into their lapse the pretermission of them all in the conferring of so great an Honour as was conferred upon Christ was but a just check and slight cast upon all their Orders at once the Angelical bloud as I may so say being tainted with Treason Again the revolt and rebellion of the Apostate Angels being nothing else but a wilde and boundless giving themselves up to the pleasures and suggestions of the Animal life and Christianity as I have already defined it nothing else but a Triumph of the Divine life over the Animal this Triumph Scorn and Insultation over the Animal life is more exactly pursued by how much in every place those things that seem of most value to it are left out as slighted and disregarded and the whole Mystery of the Recovery of the lapsed Creation to God performed by him who undertook it without the false pomp of those needless circumtances of highness of Order Nobleness of Birth worldly Authority Strength and Beauty of body Subtilty of Wit Knowledge of Nature Plausibility of Eloquence or whatsoever else seems precious to the mere Natural or Animal Spirit So that upon this very account the Angels were to be excluded from this function 4. But fourthly and lastly If any Angel would have been competitour with our Saviour in this Honour that question put to Zebedee's Children might well have dash'd him out of countenance in his competition You know not what you ask can you drink of the cup that I am to drink of and be baptized with the Baptisme that I am to be baptized with that is Can you undergoe that shamefull and scornfull death of the Cross Certainly an Angel cannot For if he could be born into the World in Humane flesh and suffer those agonies the Soul of the Messias did this Angel were no Angel but an Humane Soul But perhaps you 'l replie that though an Angel cannot suffer death in an Humane body yet he is so capable of torment and punishment that he may be made an Expiation for the Sinnes of the World But I demand how we that are so much concerned in it shall know of that suffering For the Transactions of men are a spectacle to the Angels but the Transactions of Angels are not discerned by men by reason of the Tenuity of their Vehicles But this suffering Angel would have appeared on purpose Yet how unsatisfactory and phantastical would this have been conceived in comparison of the real and assured Passion of our Saviour Christ. 5. Besides If an Angel had undertaken this office he could not have been so fit an Example of life to us as Christ who was a man subject to the same infirmities with our selves and who really felt what belong'd to the imbecillity of our natures For the Passions of his Minde were no more abated nor destroyed by his union with the Deity then the Passibility of Matter is by being united with a Soul Wherefore Christ wading thus faithfully without sin or blame throughout all the incumbrances of the Flesh which are greater then those that the Angelical Orders are liable unto is a very concerning spectacle of both Men and Angels But what an Angel could do would but very little concern us men 6. Wherefore he who was of so universal a capacity as to be an
such lame imperfect nay as I said impossible Interpretations Wherefore the Vindication of the Method of Mr. Mede in interpreting this Book is really the rescuing of the Book it self into that power and use it ought to have in the Church For it is a standing Light to all Ages thereof and the greatest to the last Nor do those Expressions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all infringe the Truth we have declared or import that all the matters in the Apocalypse appertain to either the Destruction of Ierusalem or to Rome Heathen For as for the former it seems very needless to spend many Visions upon it our Saviour having prophesied of it so clearly before and with all usefull circumstances that could be desired How vain therefore is it to imagine so many Visions spent thereupon in this Book that are not only obscurer then our Saviour's Prophecie but so obscure that they are now not tolerably applicable to the known Events and therefore must be utterly useless to the Church because they could neither forewarn them of any thing before the Event nor be a Record of God's foresight and Providence after it And for the latter I say there are Visions plain and express enough concerning Heathen Rome and her bloudy persecuting the Church in the battel of Michael and the Dragon The first six Seals also appertain to that time while Rome was Heathen the Sixth whereof signifies the mighty change of things to the advantage of the Church the Empire becoming Christian. Wherefore there is no want of Visions for Heathen Rome nor any but what were very significant and usefull as all the six Seals and the Vision of Michael and the Dragon are Which encourage the Church to be patient under those Ten bloudy persecutions in assurance that at last they should have the victorie over their persecuting enemie And what could they desire more to be signified then this in such general Prophecies as these Nay I say further they might have counted the nearness of their deliverance by the posture of the Beasts that were the Praeco's of the four first Seals observing from what quarter such Emperours came as bore the greatest similitude with the Riders of the red black and pale Horses and when the Persecution was the highest their Hopes were the clearest and the Event nearest as appears from the easie meaning of the Fifth and Sixth Seal So that there are Visions enough concerning the Romane Empire while it was Pagan so far forth as it concerned the Church And why should there not be Visions that concern the Empire when it was turned Christian and Paganized again under Christianity and in this Apostasie cruelly oppressed and persecuted the true members of Christ Why should not this State of things be prophesied of as well as the former To this there are but these two Answers to be given Either that the Church is not apostatized or that those Phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do plainly signifie that the scope of the Apocalypse reaches not so far The former answer I could wish were solid but have no leisure here to dispute it The latter I conceive is very weak and unsatisfactory and from an inference as ridiculous as his would be that upon the report that such a Comedy or Tragedy was to be acted half a quarter of an houre hence which I think is very quickly should conclude that all the Acts and Scenes thereof would not be a quarter of an hour long And to make use of the suffrage of our very Adversaries Grotius himself interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of the whole series of Visions but of some of them only and particularly of the Destruction of Ierusalem and othersome they are fain to expound of such Events as have hapned but two hundred years ago and of such as are not to come to pass before the End of the World Which is a demonstration of the insolidity of this Exception against Mr. Mede's method of interpreting this Book Whose meaning for the general we having cleared from all possible prejudices let us now consider the important Usefulness thereof 2. In the first place therefore in my apprehension it is the clearest and plainest conviction that can be offered to the Understanding of a man That there is a special Providence over the Church of God and That there are Angels the Ministers of this Providence to consider how there has been the communication of Prophecies concerning the affairs of the Church and Family of God by the ministry of Angels appearing to his Servants the Prophets from Abraham's time the Father of the faithfull to this very age and onwards the truth of the Events plainly lying before our eyes either in things that still continue or are to be read in undoubted History Which is a sign that those Prophets who said they did commune with Angels did not commune with their own Fancies but had real conference with those Celestial Inhabitants As Abraham certainly had Gen. 18. where the Angel tells him That in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed namely by Christ who was of his seed Nor did Daniel when he was by the River Ulai talk with his own shadow as the truth of the Event proves but with an Angel As also Gabriel was who imparted to him the Prophecie of the Seventy weeks then which nothing can be more accurately answering to the Event To which you may add those Angels that appeared to him on the banks of the River Hiddekel the Event of whose predictions are partly come to pass and partly now fulfilling under the Time and Times and half a Time which also are almost expired and are the Period of the latter times pointed at by those numbers 1290 daies and 1335 daies mentioned by the Angel on the banks of the river Hiddekel as Mr. Mede has I think very solidly interpreted Which general intimations in Daniel's Prophecies are more particularly and more fully set out in the Apocalypse of S. Iohn who also plainly professeth himself to have had conference with Angels and his Visions suting the Events so punctually it is a demonstration of both the continued Providence of God over his Church and of the Existence of those Angelical Beings Which is the First great Fruit and Use of this Book of the Apocalypse that he that reads and rightly observes the exact applicableness of the Visions to the Event cannot doubt of the Existence of God and of his Holy Angels nor of his Special Providence over the Church I might add also nor of the Souls Immortality Christ appearing so plainly to Iohn and speaking to him in these words I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the Keys of hell and death that is of raising men at the last day c. To which you may
believe any other Service or Information but what is administered by the Elders in the house of the Love enjoins them to give up their Understandings wholy to the Eldest of the Family and to give ear to none else but the Teachers of his own Sect. Nay he will not so much as suffer them to appeal to the Light that is within them nor to judge themselves nor be judged by their own Consciences but only by the Elders of the house of the Love concerning whom they must not have the least suspicion of Errour or Unfaithfulness Which is the greatest Tyranny and Slavery upon the Soul of man that can be devised and a shrewd Indication that those Elders will approve and advise things against express Scripture Reason and Conscience And thus is many a poor simple Lamb catched out of the Fold of Christ and carried quite away without recovery into the thickest and remotest Woods and darkest Caverns or Dens to be devoured by this white Wolf who by his gracious speeches heart-melting insinuations soft-soothing language that is oiled and perfumed with nothing but Love first intices the little ones after whom his mouth most of all waters to a great esteem of himself and then utterly extinguishes in them to their Eternal Destruction all that Faith they had in the Person and Promises of our ever-blessed Saviour Which he does by intercepting all aid that the use of Reason and the Knowledge of the Scripture could administer giving them such hard language as we have above recited the civilest aspersion he bestows being the Imagination of the Knowledge but magnifying himself and his Service of the Love that is his own Doctrine above whatever yet appear'd to the sons of men as you shall now hear 4. For he sets himself above Abraham Moses David and all the Prophets above Iohn the Baptist yea above the Person of Christ himself For indeed he will allow that the service of the Fathers in the Covenant of Circumcision until Moses was the Forefront of the true Tabernacle and that Moses in figures and shadows set out the true being of the true sanctuary of God in the Spirit and that to David and the Prophets was shewn the true Being in the Spirit of their sight That Iohn the Baptist was a Preparation by Repentance to an entrance into the Holy of the true Tabernacle and that this Holy of the true Tabernacle is the Service of Christ in the Belief But the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy this he reserves to himself and his Service of the Love Wherein as he boasts is the Perfection of Life the Completion of all Prophecies from the beginning of the World the righteous Judgment of God the Throne of Christ before which all things must needs be manifested the perfect Being of the Godhead and the true Rest of the chosen of God He calls also this his Service of the Love the Last Day and the Perfection and Conclusion of all the works of God Whereby he would intimate it to be an everlasting Seventh day or Sabbath And yet he will have it also the Eighth Day as if he affected an holy-day beyond that of God himself and a time beyond Eternity 5. Again in his Prophecie of the Spirit of Love he sets himself highest in the enumeration of the Three principal Services namely the Service of the Law under God the Father the Service of the Belief under Christ the Saviour and the Service of the Love under the Holy Ghost The affectation of which office he learnt of his master David George as is noted by them that have wrote of these Enthusiasts I omit to speak of lesser Encomiums of his doctrine as That it is the last Trump that sure word of Prophecie that his day of the Love is that new day that the Lord has made abundant in clearness and full of Eternal joy the new Ierusalem descending from Heaven and the Inheritance of the Right-perfection We will conclude all with what he writes in his Revelation of God Behold presently in this day is the Kingdome of the God of Heaven and his Righteousness the godly Majesty and his Glory as also the salvation of Christ and the eternal life appeared in perfect Clearness with great Triumph and Ioy The Resurrection also of the dead the cleansing of the Earth the blessing of all Generations the righteous Iudgment of God the Glorious coming of Christ with all the thousands of Saints and the everlasting Condemnation of all ungodly in the hellish Fire What therefore can you expect more then is accomplished in his Service of the Love and what greater Person can there be then he who sets so glorious a Dispensation on foot on the earth Let us therefore take notice what he makes himself in the midst of this Glory and Pomp which he sets out 6. As if it were a small thing for him to be raised from the dead and to be anointed with the holy Ghost he boasteth further that God has sealed in him the Dwelling of his Glory and of his Holy Name and elsewhere that he is Godded with God and consubstantiated with the Deity and expresly in his Evangely Chap. 34. he declares how God has manned himself with him and Godded him with his Godhead to a living Tabernacle a House for his dwelling and to a seat of his Christ the seed of David and how the Judgment-seat of Christ is revealed out of Heaven from the right hand of God and that on the same Judgment-seat of Christ there sitteth one meaning himself in the Habitation of David which judgeth uprightly thinketh upon equity and requireth righteousness and that through him God will judge the compass of the Earth This in his Introduction to the Glass of Righteousness is the right Messias the high Priest for ever in the most holy the noble King of Israel and Iuda that possesses the seat of his Father an everlasting peaceable Prince over the house of Iacob according to the promises But you 'l say this cannot be understood of H. Nicolas but of Christ according as he has wrote elsewhere that there is in his Communialty of the Love a true Iudge Iesus Christ our Lord and King which executes the right Iudgment of his Father according to the truth But we are also to understand that This Christ that sits on the throne of his Father David is the eldest Father of the Family of Love as appears out of his Evangelium Cap. 31. sect 14. and 16. Which places compared with what has been recited it is clear that H. Nicolas is this Christ on the seat of David for his life-time and which is still worse and the seed of endless Madness and Blasphemie that this wild Presumption of the eldest in the Family being the very Christ from Heaven returned to judge the World with equity will be entailed upon their Successors for ever And that the appearance of this Christ may be the more glorious
implying that immediately after the expiration of these the Jews would into Captivity again But that curiosity is more then needs and not so conformable to the sense of the Prophecie so that in my apprehension our English Translation has the odds of it Upon thy people and upon holy City i. e. Near upon the expiration of the Seventieth week the people of the Jews shall be no longer the people of God nor their City holy their Religion naturally ceasing upon some act of theirs whereby a better according to the purpose of God shall be brought in To finish transgression or to fill up perfect or compleat transgression For so will the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifie and seems to be the most natural sense in this place As if the Angel should say Seventy weeks shall the scourge be taken from thy people wherein they will again follow their own evil waies and increase their sins to the very height Which they did the most notoriously by killing their Messiah And to make an end of sin Or to put an end to the Judaical Sin-offerings For so will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as to seal denotes a putting an end to a thing by fulfilling and completing it as towards the latter end of this verse to seal up the Vision and Prophecie the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used And to make reconciliation for iniquity or to expiate iniquity For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies But the sense is much-what the same in both And to bring in everlasting righteousness i. e. Such a Law or Religion which shall endure for ever and according to which if we live that will be our Justification not the works of Moses's Law nor those Offerings nor Sacrifices And to seal up the Vision and Prophecie i. e. To fulfill and accomplish the Prophecies viz. those great important Prophecies concerning the Messiah And to anoint the most Holy viz. the most holy Person that ever lived For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the feminine gender and may seem to signifie rather Sanctity in the abstract or Res sancta yet the Jews themselves understood it of a Person Moses Gerundensis of the very Messiah and it is used of any thing consecrate to God whether Field Man or Cattel Levit. 27.28 Besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 need not be a Noun of the feminine Gender but be the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanctus as appears from Levit. 21. 7. and Numb 6.8 or the words there are to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore again confirme that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belongs to Persons consecrated as well as Things If it had been meant of the most holy place of the Temple it had in all likelihood been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might go for the most holy Place Christ was also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most eminent manner imaginable For in him dwelt the Godhead bodily II. From the going forth of the commandement to restore and to build Ierusalem viz. From the Decree or Command of Artaxerxes in the seventh year of his reign mentioned Ezra 7. whereby Ezra was inabled to constitute Magistrates and Judges over the people to have power of life and death amongst themselves and to live after their own Political Laws In which concession cannot possibly but be included a licence or decree to build up the houses of Ierusalem Besides that as Funccius also pleads their Liberty of living under their own Magistrates is the truest and most substantial sense of building their City and vers 18. there is express leave given to make what use they please of the Remainder of those liberal Contributions which were given for Sacrifices and religious Services Whence it is plain the power of building the City was included in this Commission onely Ezra cared not to begge that expresly that would be involved in a greater Grant and such as might incline the King's Spirit more powerfully viz. matters of Religion as you may see vers 23. Wherefore this is the proper Decree for rebuilding the City or else none For the Titles of the other Decrees are either for building the Temple or else restrained to the rearing of the Walls of the City the houses having been built before as you may see by reading the History of Ezra and Nehemiah Unto Messiah the Prince That is Unto the Manifestation of that Person that is so well known and so much expected by the Iews under the name of their Messiah the word being never used absolutely but concerning him Shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks that is sixty nine weeks there being no mystery in the parting of these Numbers saving an Hebrew Idiom to be understood from Ezekiel 45.12 and Genes 5. often in that chapter as also 8. vers 3. as Grotius comments upon the place Funccius offers at something more considerable That the State of the Iewish Commonwealth should be more unsettled for the first seven weeks or thereabouts as is to be understood out of Ezra and Nehemiah The street shall be built again and the walls even in troublesome times That is not only the Area of Ierusalem shall again be replenished with houses but the wall shall also be built again though in troublesome and unsettled times as appears in the above-mentioned History For the builders were fain to have their Swords in readiness as well as their Trowels III. And after the sixty two weeks which succeed immediately the seven weeks that is to say after sixty nine weeks shall Messiah be cut off viz. the above-named Messiah the Prince For that must needs be the most natural meaning thereof and as I said before Messiah is never put thus absolutely but here whence doubtlesly the Jews gave him whom they expected for their Redeemer the name of Messiah Cut off If it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it might signifie transfixus or affixus as Funccius would have it but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to cut off not only from life but as Mr. Mede observes from reigning as a King And in respect of the Iews he was cut off in both these senses For he was the Messiah their Prince whom his own people cut off from life and thereby from themselves that they should be no more his people nor he their King And therefore it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not and not for himself but the sense is The Messiah shall be cut off by the hands of the people of the Jews and that people shall be none of his This exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manasseh Ben Israel likes so well that he applies it where it is not so natural and easie or else is tautological For he interprets it of Agrippa the last king of the Jews whom he saies Vespasian slew
that what he did visibly or suffered in the World is circumscribed within those Weeks and therefore we may safely conclude that before the Seventy Weeks expired the Messiah was cut off that is that he was cut off above sixteen hundred years agoe to wit before the destruction of the City as plainly appears in the Text that makes the sacking of Ierusalem a consequent of his death and the number of the Weeks pitch upon what Decree you please must needs expire many years before the taking of the City and therefore the Messiah was cut off and consequently came into the World so many years agoe Here the Iews to evade so manifest a Demonstration tell us a story of one Agrippa their last King and of Mumbas his sonne whom they say Vespasian slew at Rome three years and an half before the destruction of the Temple This was he that was cut off from the Kingdome of Iudaea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it was no longer his nor his Posterities This is the most specious Answer they have made yet but yet upon examination will be found excessively weak For first it is plain from Records of History and Antiquity That Agrippa the last King of the Iews lived nigh upon thirty years after the Destruction of Ierusalem And then in the second place if we should suppose their fiction to be true the last week of the Seventy will either expire many years before or run out beyond the cutting off this Agrippa if you make as you ought the Decree for building of the City the Epocha of the account and affix it to the seventh year of either Funccius his Artaxerxes or Scaliger's To all which you may adde that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put here so absolutely it cannot but be understood of the great Messiah the Jews did and do still expect their own Rabbins expounding it so while they were unprejudiced and that it is most natural to understand the same person spoken of in the whole Prophecie who is first prefigured in the expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which their own Doctors also interpret of their Messiah by which if the Temple had been meant it had been rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore again an anointed Person being understood in the first verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in the second and third must be the same Person and there being in the first joyned with the mention of him not only so sacred a Title as the Most Holy but also the bringing in of everlasting Righteousness the expiating of sin and fulfilling of Prophecies it is plain that so mean a person as Agrippa or any else they have or can name is unapplicable to this Prophecie of Daniel such things being there foretold as are utterly incompetible to him but such as will anon appear from other Prophecies to be singularly competible to the great Messiah the Jews expected and are the Characteristicals of his Person as we shall fully make good in its due place CHAP. VI. 1. How convincing Evidences those three Prophecies of Jacob Haggai and Daniel are That the Messiah is come 2. That it was the General Opinion of the Jews That the Messiah was to come about that time we say he did 3. Josephus his misapplication of the Prophecie of Daniel to Vespasian 4. A further confirmation out of Tacitus that the Jews about those times expected their Messiah 5. Another Testimony out of Suetonius 1. IN the mean time it is so plain and apparent from these Prophecies of Iacob and Haggai That the Messiah is already come that any one though secluded from all Commerce with these parts of Europe and knowing nothing of the face of things here if he had but onely certain information that the Iewish Politie and Temple were destroyed and could but read the above-named Prophecies he would be sure that the Messiah was come into the World as also out of this Prophecie of Daniel he might without any intelligence at all provided only he took notice of the Epocha of Decrees and how that the Weeks from any one of them would be expired many hundred years ago infallibly inferr That the Messiah was certainly come These things are so perfectly clear that it is needless to add any thing else to confirm the belief of them 2. Which yet some do by appealing to the judgement of their own Rabbins if they themselves did not conclude that their Messiah was to come about that time we say he did Nehemias a Jewish Rabbin that lived some fifty years before Christ did openly declare out of the Prophecie of Daniel that the coming of their expected Messiah could not be prolonged above fifty years as appears out of Grotius if he was not misinformed by Stoctoxus But by what he answers to Sarravius one would think that he saw the place with his own eyes Ostendit istum mihi locum olim Hagae Stoctoxus And that this was not one Rabbin's opinion but the apprehension of many of their wise men is manifest from what Iosephus has written De bello judaico lib. 7. cap. 31. To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which excited them most of all to the warre was a doubtful Prophecie found in the holy Writings as if about that time some one from their Country should be Emperour of the World This the Iews took as properly belonging to them and many of the wise men were deceived in their judgements about the matter Out of which words it plainly appears that the learned of the Iews and in a manner the whole Nation was perswaded that their Messiah whom they thought would be the Prince of the known World was hard at hand In which perswasion they were so serious that they ventured their Lives Liberty Temple and City thereupon that being the greatest thing that animated them to that infortunate Warre Of their firmness in which opinion a further argument is that they were so ready to phansy this or the other their Messiah about those times For there were many looked upon for a while as such as Herod Iudas Gaulonites Ionathas Barchochab and others 3. Neither does Iosephus his note upon the Prophecie that gave the Iews this confidence he calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ambiguous Prediction derogate any thing from the clearness thereof concerning the Time But the character of his Person it seems was not so perfectly set out but that they missed the knowing of him when he was come and therefore it was necessary for Iosephus to say that the Oracle was ambiguous But it were ambiguous indeed if it were as he would make it more applicable to Vespasian then to the true Messiah For that Messiah there prophecied of was to be cut off which Vespasian was not and that before the last week whenas Vespasian besieged Ierusalem about fourty years after Besides that it is ridiculous to resolve the solemnity of the holy Oracles of the Prophets into so petty a business as in stead
Ghost by his mysterious union with the Eternal Word by his miraculous Resurrection from the dead and by his visible Ascension into Heaven and Session now at the right hand of his Father This is warrant enough to do all Divine homage to our blessed Saviour as to the only-begotten Son of God And truly the Church to give them their due has not been sparing the very constitution of our Religion being so effectual for this purpose For so Divine a Person as Christ was namely The very Son of God and yet condescending to undergoe so horrid a death for the World how could engaged Mankind stint themselves from shewing of all manner of expressions of Love and Devotion toward him 3. Wherefore they erected innumerable magnificent Structures of Temples Chappels and other Religious Edifices and consecrated them to his Name They endowed the Christian Priesthood with ample Riches and Dignities set up Church-musick sung divine Anthems in honour of our Saviour adorned their Churches celebrated his Passion with unexpressible reverence instituted Festivals and filled both Time and Place with such variety of Ornaments that a man might observe that the greatest part of the Splendour and Pomp of Christendom was in reference to their Religion Which certainly would have been a very goodly and lovely spectacle if Superstition Hypocrisie and Ecclesiastick Tyranny could have been kept out 4. But this External Worship and the Ceremonies thereof things equally performable by the evil and the good by the regenerate and mere natural man these took growth enormously and like ranck Weeds choaked the Corn or what happens in full and over-fed bodies in which natural heat and activity is very much lost the huge load and bulk of visible Formalities extinguished the Life and Spirit of Religion 5. But however this outward Homage to our Saviour continued and does continue in a great measure over the face of Christendom to this very day though their expressions are not alike courtly every where Which continuation of Divine Honour done unto him cannot but gratifie his faithfully-devoted Servants they having a deep resentment of the shameful Sufferings their Lord and Master underwent out of his dear love to them and therefore do naturally rejoyce at this Tribute of Divine Adoration the World gives to so holy and sacred a Person it being so sutable a part of compensation of his Humiliation and Reproach Besides that they receive some satisfaction that Divine Providence has so brought it about touching the true Members of Christ whose Principles are so opposite to the Guise of the world and their Persons so contemptible that yet the World are fain with the lowest prostrations to adore that in Christ which they kick about and trample upon so in his despised Members But I will insist no longer on this Theme having spoke enough of it elsewhere We have now shewn the Usefulness of the Mystery of Godlinesse in all holy and religious respects I shall adde only a word or two in reference to things of this Life and so conclude the fourth part of my Discourse CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulnesse of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 1. THat Christianity contributes also to the Happinesse of this present World is evident both from the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles and also from the nature of the thing it self Matth. 6. Where our Saviour having exhorted us not to be over-sollicitous for the things of this Life food and raiment setting before our eyes the care of Divine Providence in Creatures of far lesse price then our selves how the Fowls of the Air are provided for that neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns how gloriously the Lilies of the Field are arraied that neither weave nor spin he concludes That we should not so eagerly and carefully seek after those things as worldly-minded men do But seek ye first the kingdom of God saith he and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you For your Heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things And Paul to Timothy Godlinesse is profitable for all things having the promise of this life and that which is to come 2. And if we consider the nature of the thing it self there is an accruement of present Happinesse from true Christianity not only by virtue of Promise but even by natural dependence of Causes and Events especially when that Christian frame of Spirit has arrived to any considerable degree of perfection and maturity For there is no such obliging person in the world as a mature and ripe Christian nor any truer Policy then to be obliging Which Temper the more sincere it is the more taking it is and the more sure Fortress against adverse Fortune Wherefore what advantage Humanity has he has it in the greatest measure Besides that his calm and castigate spirit makes him sensible discreet above all expression and of a sagacity beyond all conceit of the unregenerate man His Faithfulnesse also and honest and chearful Industry have their proper blessing attending them And his moderate desires of Riches and Honours and his laudable use of them unblemished with any blot of either sordid Covetousnesse or vain Ostentation prevents or beats back the ill-aimed darts of secret Malice and Envy And if but a meaner share of the things of this world be allotted to him yet his contentments are not the lesse he finding that true which both David and Solomon have pronounced That better is a little that the righteous has then great possessions of the ungodly And when more unsupportable pressures and afflictions fall upon him such as great Fits of Sicknesse Imprisonment and the Approaches of Death his Advantages in this Condition are unspeakably above what any other mortal is capable of For the more these urge his outward man the more his inward is inflamed and excited to the exercise of those powers that are most holy and precious and needing no admonition though so fit and apposite as that of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Circumstances of things themselves will assuredly awaken this Christian Champion to the exertion of all the strength of his Soul and to the successful use of his spiritual weapons wherewith he is armed against the day of battel For
the more dull or illiterate 7. The danger of debasing the Gospel to the dulness or shallowness of every weak apprehension 1. THE Second Derivative Property of the Mystery of Godliness is Communicability For in that it is Intelligible it becomes hereby Communicable Whence it appears what Communication I mean not such as is competible also to Magpies and Parots that is a sound of words or phrases which those Birds are able to repeat after us but a Rational impartment of the matter whereby a mans Understanding is satisfied of the real grounds of our belief This duty the ancient Christians were charg'd with as appears 1 Pet. chap. 3. v. 15. Be ready alwaies to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of that hope that is in you with meekness and reverence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if we be ask'd a reason of our belief and the Apostle requires us to answer assuredly he was not conscious of any Unreasonableness of the Christian Faith in his time That of that witty Father of the Church Credo quia impossibile however it might please the Answerer it could never satisfie the Opposer This would not prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul speaks a defence and confirmation of the Gospel but rather an exposing it to derision and contempt For he that will acknowledge Impossibilities in his Religion gives up the Cause without blowes and yields at once all that his adversary desired namely that his Religion is nothing but a Forgery or Foolery 2. Intelligibleness therefore must precede Communication in him that communicates the Mystery to another so far as he does venture to communicate it Otherwise if he once give his Tongue leave to out-run his Understanding what hopes has he of seeming intelligible to another when himself understands not what he saith Whence unless he meet with a fool he himself will be sure to be found one or accounted an Impostor or Mad-man So little edification can there be in such Discourses But if a man would be a prudent Imparter of Christian Religion indeed he is not onely to take care that what he pronounces of the Mystery is intelligible to himself but also to be very circumspect how he speaks any thing to any one before they be capable of receiving it And therefore if he would use a right Method he must begin with such things as are the most easy to conceive and the most capable of Demonstration and also are the most certain pledges of the Happiness which they may expect who desire to be real and cordial Embracers of Christianity 3. As for example They are to declare how Christ is the Messias expected of old of the Jews though rejected by them when he came That he is the Son of God miraculously born of a Virgin That he was a Sacrifice for sin and underwent the shameful death of the Cross out of love to us That he was raised from the dead the third day and ascended visibly into Heaven and thence is to be expected as Judge of the quick and of the dead and that then those that believe on him shall be crowned with the highest glory and immortality their vile bodies being changed into the similitude of his Heavenly body And that the Resurrection of Christ is a palpable earnest of the purpose of God to reward us thus with everlasting life Such like things as these are to be communicated first by way of proposal they neither vexing nor wearying the apprehension or imagination of man by any difficulty of conception but are so strange that they may well call out the closest attention and put a man upon the most eager inquisition to be satisfied whether they be true 4. The terms of the question therefore being thus easily intelligible in the next place it will be expected that they evidence the Truth of the Narration which is to be done from those clear Prophecies of the coming of the Messias in the Old Testament and of what he was to do and to suffer any by a rational eviction of the incorruptedness and authentickness of the History of Christ in the Gospels and the rest of the Writings in the New And after this orderly and by degrees they are to be led on to those things that are more obscure and mysterious and yet to the patient and well-prepared mind both true and intelligible For though some few points in Christianity may be obscure yet so far forth as the Scripture defines any thing of them they are both intelligible and true So that Truth and Intelligibility is in every warrantable part of Christianity at least to those that have their understandings exercised in rational Speculations But for others whose parts and imploiments have rendred them less fit for any meditation that is subtile and obscure they may content themselves with the safe adhesion to the forme of Sound words delivered in the Scriptures 5. Out of which they are very intelligibly instructed of the Divinity of Christs Person in that they read there how he was declared the Son of God by voices from Heaven That he was begotten not by man but by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost That he did such Miracles also as became the Son of God to do being utterly above the power of nature That in him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily whenas it dwelt in the Temple of the Jews onely Typically And therefore there is far greater reason that the devotions of Christians should be directed towards Christ then those of the Jews towards the Holy Temple towards which they alwaies worshipped when they put up their supplications to God though they were far distant from it That the Word also is said to be made flesh to wit the Word that was in the beginning with God when all things were made and that this Word also was God and that God was manifested in the flesh by the appearing of Christ in the World 6. That these things are thus really and in truth the Authentickness of the Scriptures makes good But for such as are unexercised in Metaphysical speculations that have not so much as considered the Union of their own Soul with their Body nor once heard of distinction real and formal and other setled notions requisite for the more express apprehension of such high points as the Conjunction of the Divinity and Humanity in Christ and the Triunity of the Godhead the best instruction can be given to them by the Mystagogus is that they would make that up in humble Adoration that they want in Knowledge and that God of his mercy imparted these Mysteries to the World for use and not for curious and vexatious speculation and that they should be so modest as not to think that utterly unintelligible that themselves for the present cannot apprehend 7. That the Truth of the Gospel is a standing and immutable thing not to be altered and changed according to the capacities of men and that if
look upon as fundamentally repugnant to Christianity it self if the New Testament be the foundation of Christianity For I know nothing more express then that in those Writings And therefore the denying of the Trinity is the denying of the Authority of the New Testament Or if they will pretend they can interpret things there so as to evade this doctrine by the same reason I think they may evade any and so still the sacred Writ shall stand for a cypher and signifie nothing which tends mainly to the enervating of our Faith and is a gross entrenchment upon the third Rule 4. And truly I think it may be made to appear that it is also particularly against the second For the Divinity of Christ does not fall in so handsomly and kindly without the supposition of a Trinity as I have elswhere intimated and therefore I look upon it as a special piece of Providence that so explicite a knowledge of the Godhead in the Triunity thereof was so generally made known to the world together with Christianity that the Eternal Son of God might be worshipped through Christ and the whole Deity as I may so say distinctly honour'd and adored 5. But they will reply that though they deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ namely that the Eternal Word was made Flesh yet they assert that Divine Honour is due unto him and therefore do not transgress against the second Rule For they acknowledge that though Christ be but man yet God has given him all power in Heaven and in Earth and that he shall return visibly to judge the quick and the dead and that as the Father has life in himself so has he given him to have life in himself that is the power of enlivening us and quickening us at the last and of changing these vile bodies of ours into the similitude of his glorious body And therefore that their Opinion serves the End of Christianity as well as the other in reference to Divine Worship due to Christ and is more sutable to the fourth Rule these perplexities of Christs Divinity and the Triunity of the Godhead making our Religion less passable and recommendable to those that are without 6. But to this I answer First as before That to take away the Trinity and Divinity of Christ is to take away the Authority of the New Testament or to take such a liberty of forcing and distorting the sense of things as will make it contemptible and useless then which what can be of more dangerous consequence It will be a Trespass not only against one but against all the Rules I have set down and make the Gospel pass very ill not only with strangers but our selves too and turn Christendome back to Infidelity and Paganisme But Secondly I deny that the Scripture declares any thing concerning the Divinity of Christ or the holy Trinity that is impossible contradictious or more unintelligible then things that men do ordinarily assent to that are free Philosophers and admit nothing upon force or Superstition but upon Reason and That the Union of the Eternal Word with the humane Nature of Christ is as conceivable for the Modus as the Union of the Soul and Body That the Intricacies of the Schools are fooleries and not to be taken into our Religion That the Scripture only sets forth a Triunity in the Godhead in general not obscured by any terme that can entangle any one of a tolerable wit and understanding unless he will be so blockish as to think because the second Hypostasis in this Trinity is called Son that the Father was married and had a wife as the Turks fondly object whenas nothing else is signified but that the Son is from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both Thirdly That the first Author Beginner or at least the most eminent Renewer of this Sect that so boldly and stoutly denies the Trinity was one though of a leguleious Wit yet so inept and averse from Divine matters that he flatly denies that the Existence of God is discoverable by the light of Nature and Reason And after he has found him by help of Scripture as he thinks yet he has missed him For that which is not Infinite in Essence cannot be God And therefore it is no wonder if he hangs off so heavily from the admission of that more distinct and full knowledge of him manifested in the holy Oracles that those that symbolize so much with his Genius in other things follow him also in this Fourthly The noblest Spirits best Philosophers that ever appear'd in the world for the Knowledge of Nature and of God and that some Ages before Christ of their own choice without force or obtrusion held the Triunity of the Godhead which though I will not avouch to be perfectly right in all things they being even over-accurate in the describing of it therefore well may trip yet for the main is such that there is reason for it but none at all against it it is very sutable in the general to those general intimations in the Scripture Nor do I believe any Christian bound to hold the Theory in the set formes of humane Invention though he may peruse them believe as much as he thinks good and do think it a decent thing that his Reason cannot perfectly reach nor exhaust so profound a Mystery that therefore he is to make up the rest in humble Adoration Fifthly and lastly By denying the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ other Articles of our Faith are made incredible and that Divine Adoration we give to Christ suspected of Idolatry For it will not seem credible to strangers especially that abhor such superstitions that God ever exalted any mere man to such a pitch as the Socinians themselves acknowledge Christ is exalted but that it is some cunning plot to lapse the World or retain it in Idolatrous Worship It will also seem to them incredible if Christ be mere man that he should by a power in himself as he professes be able to perform his promise at the last day that is to raise us all to a glorious and immortall life changing these bodies of flesh into a pure celestial substance which is an act for none but the Deity to doe And therefore if it be done by any thing in himself it is by the Deity residing in him by the Eternal Word by whom all things were created Who was said to be the Son of God before the Incarnation and after the Incarnation both he that was born in time and this Eternal Word is look'd upon as one Son of God by real and Physical union From whence that is easily understood which we alluded to before As the Father has life in himself so has he given to the Son to have life in himself But our Adversaries way is very unconceivable and unintelligible and therefore doth plainly transgress against the Rule he pretends it most agrees with the
the Earth and Air when once that Final Vengeance has seised upon the Wicked 5. This is the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord and the Morning-Appearance thereof will not be much more chearful to either the Hypocrite or Prophane person For the hopes of the Hypocrite cannot but fail and his heart sink like a stone while he sees the righteous Judge that tries the heart and reins coming in the clouds of Heaven to execute vengeance on the wicked and to deliver the godly from that imminent fate that attends the Earth And the proud scoffing Epicurean that laugh'd at Religion as a piece of weakness and foolery and impudently denied there was either God or Providence in the world he will then to his utter shame and confusion acknowledge his own Philosophy which he thought such an high piece of wit before the most unhappy Folly and Madnesse he could have light upon For he shall be confuted to his very outward Senses when he shall see Christ himself appear with all his Heavenly Host attending him when he shall hear the sound of the Trump and see forthwith the whole Air filled with his glittering Legions consisting of Saints and Angels For the Trump shall sound saith the Apostle and then those that have already departed this life shall immediatly appear in their celestial Harness in their glorified bodies For those that are alive shall not prevent those that are dead but rather the contrary For those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and harness them with the bright Armour of Life and Immortality whereby they become part of that glorious Angelical Host wherewith our dread Soveraign and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ will face the Earth a while to the exceeding great astonishment and terrour os the wicked World 6. Out of which by the Ministry of his Angelical Troops will he gather his Saints that are found alive in the flesh from all the corners of the Earth as the Angels plucked Lot out of Sodom when the City was to be destroyed with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven a Type questionless of this Final Judgement And whether it be by the quick descent of fiery Chariots like that of Elias who was safely thereby conveighed to Heaven and about a thousand years after conversed with our Saviour on the Mount or bright shining clouds glistering with the glory and lustre of their celestial guides be made foot-stools for them to get up on for there is no fear that the weight of their Bodies should break through their Earth and Flesh being of a sudden changed into pure Aether or whatever other pomp and solemnity there may be in their transportation from the rest of the World unto that glorious Company that strikes all mens eyes with amazement while they look up into the sky This visible Selection of the Good from the Bad must needs fill the hearts of the Wicked with unspeakable Dread and Horrour And that partly by reason of the present wonders of this unexpected supernatural Visitation which thus suddenly has surprised them through unbelief and partly from the sad presage of what will follow even that horrid and dismal Tempest which we have already described that endless Night of Thunders and Lightnings and Earthquakes of roarings and howlings and utter confusion and destruction for ever 7. Which direful vengeance having once entred upon that execrable crue forsaken of God and given up to the merciless Rage of the incensed Elements the victorious Church of Christ retreats with the rest of the Angelical Hosts marching up the Ethereal Regions in goodly Order and lovely Equipage filling as they go along the re-echoing sky with Songs of Joy and Triumph For this is the greatest day of Solemnity the highest Festival that can be celebrated in the Heavens whose Inhabitants if they rejoice at the conversion of one sinner what Joy and Rejoicing must they express at the complete Redemption of the whole Church when Jesus Christ the Prince of our Salvation who is able to save to the utmost has perfectly redeemed us body and soul and leading Captivity captive rescuing us from the power of Hell Death and the Devil does resettle us again in our own Land and reestablish us into the ancient Liberties of the Sons of God making us fellow-citizens with the pure and unpolluted Angels and free Partakers of all the Rights and Immunities of the celestial Kingdom even of that Kingdom where there is Order and Government without Envy and Oppression Devotion without Superstition Beauty without Blemish Love without Lust Sweetness without Satiety where there is outward Splendidness without Pride Musick without Harshness Friendship without Designe Wisedom without Wrinkles and Wit without Vain-glory where there is Kindnesse without Craft Activity without Weariness Health without Sickness and Pleasure without Pain and lastly where there is the Vision of God the Society of Christ the Familiarity of Angels and Communion of Saints where there is Love and Joy and Peace and Life for evermore Upon the consideration of which ineffable Happiness what inference can be more genuine then what S. Paul has made already on the same Subject Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendom 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 1. I Have now sufficiently exposed to your view the Nature and Use of this seven-fold Engine these Seven Powers of the Gospel how potent they are to beat down every strong hold of sin and to raise up the Divine Life and Spirit of Righteousness in us That they have done so little execution in Christendom hitherto that disquisition I shall deferre till its due place In the mean time I appeal to all the World if there can be invented a Religion more powerful for this purpose then the Christian Religion is 2. But for the external Triumphs of the Divine Life in reference to the Person of Christ the Usefulness of our Religion in that point is demonstrable not only from the Frame thereof in it self but from the long and constant Effects it has had in the Christian World For as for the Frame of our Religion we have therein a full warrant to do the highest Divine homage to Christ that we can express He being so clearly therein declared The true Son of God not only by several Testimonies from Heaven but also by that supernatural manner of his generation in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy