we do nothing against our Neighbours Life or Bodily welfare but carefully preserve it as our own 7. That no man defile his Neighbours wife nor commit Fornication but preserve our own and others Chastity in thought word and deed 8. That we wrong not another in his Estate by stealing fraud or any other means but preserve our Neighbours Estate as our own 9. That we pervert not Justice by false witness or otherwise nor wrong our neighbour in his Name by slanders backbiting or reproach That we lie not but speak the truth in love and preserve our neighbours right and honour as our own 10. That we be not selfish setting up our selves and our own against our Neighbour and his good desiring to draw from him unto our selves But that we love our Neighbour as our selves desiring his welfare as our own doing to others as regularly we would have them do to us forbearing and forgiving one another loving even our enemies and doing good to all according to our power both for their Bodies and their Souls This is the Substance of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION § 15. II. The summ or Abstract of the Christian Religion is contained in three short Forms The first called The Creed containing the matter of the Christian Belief The second called The Lords Prayer containing the matter of Christian Desires and hope The third called The Law or Decalogue containing the summ of Morall Duties which are as followeth The BELIEF 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth 2. And in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended to Hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come again to judge the quick and the dead 3. I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the body and the Life Everlasting The LORDS PRAYER Our FATHER which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The Ten COMMANDEMENTS God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage 1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth Thou shalt not vow down thy self to them nor serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandements 3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain 4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy Man-servant nor thy Maid-servant nor thy Cattel nor the Stranger that is within thy gates For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the Seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it 5. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee 6. Thou shalt not kill 7. Thou shalt not commit Adultery 8. Thou shalt not Steal 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour 10. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Man-servant nor his Maid-servant nor his Oxe nor his Ass nor any thing that is thy Neighbours § 16. The ten Commandements are summed up by Christ into these two Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might and Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self § 17. These Commandements being first delivered to the Jews are continued by Christ as the summ of the Law of Nature only instead of Deliverance of the Jews from Egypt he hath made our Redemption from sin and Satan which was thereby typified to be the fundamental motive And he hath removed the memorial of the Creation-Rest from the seventh day-Sabbath to be kept on the Lords day which is the first with the Commemoration of his Resurrection and our Redemption in the solemn Worship of his holy Assemblies § 18. III. The briefest Summary of the Christian Religion containing the Essentials only is in the Sacramental Covenant of Grace Wherein the Penitent Believer renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil doth solemnly give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit as his only God his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier engaging himself hereby to a Holy life of Resignation Obedience and Love and receiving the pardon of all his sins and title to the further helps of grace to the favour of God and everlasting life This Covenant is first entered by the Sacrament of Baptisme and after renewed in our communion with the Church in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ So that the Christian Religion is but Faith in God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer producing the hope of Life Everlasting and possessing us with the love of God and Man And all this expressed in the genuine fruits of Patience Obedience and Praise to God and works of Charity and Justice unto Man § 19. That all this Religion might be the better understood received and practised by us the Word of God came down into Flesh and gave us a perfect Example of it in his most perfect Life in perfect holiness and innocency conquering all temptations contemning the honours riches and pleasures of the World in perfect patience and meekness and condescension and in the perfect Love of God and Man When perfect Doctrine is seconded by Perfect Exemplariness of Life there can be no greater Light set before us to lead us out of our state of darkness into the everlasting Light And had it not been a pattern of holy Power Wisdom and Goodness of Self-denyall Obedience and Love of Patience and of Truth and Prudence and of contempt of all inferiour things even of Life it self for the Love of God and for Life eternal it
me who I know canst neither be deceived or by any falshood or seduction deceive On thee therefore O my dear Redeemer do I cast and trust this sinful soul with Thee and with thy holy Spirit I renew my Covenant I know no other I have no other I can have no other Saviour but thy self To thee I deliver up this soul which thou hast redeemed not to be advanced to the wealth and honours and pleasures of this world but to be delivered from them and to be healed of sin and brought to God and to be saved from this present evil world which is the portion of the ungodly and unbelievers to be washed in thy Bloud and illuminated quickned and confirmed by thy SPIRIT and conducted in the ways of holiness and love and at last to be presented justified and spotless to the Father of spirits and possessed of the glory which thou hast promised O thou that hast prepared so dear a medicine for the clensing of polluted guilty souls leave not this unworthy soul in its guilt or in its pollution O thou that knowest the Father and his Will and art nearest to him and most beloved of him cause me in my degree to know the Father acquaint me with so much of his will as concerneth my duty or my just encouragement leave not my soul to groap in darkness seeing thou art the Sun and Lord of Light O heal my estranged thoughts of God! is he my light and life and all my hope and must I dwell with him for ever and yet shall I know him no better than thus shall I learn no more that have such a Teacher and shall I get no nearer him while I have a Saviour and a Head so near O give my faith a clearer prospect into that better world and let me not be so much unacquainted with the place in which I must abide for ever And as thou hast prepared a Heaven for holy souls prepare this too-unprepared soul for Heaven which hath not long to stay on earth And when at death I resign it into thy hands receive it as thine own and finish the work which thou hast begun in placing it among the blessed Spirits who are filled with the sight and love of God I trust thee living let me trust thee dying and never be ashamed of my trust And unto Thee the Eternal Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son the Communicative LOVE who condescendest to make Perfect the Elect of God do I deliver up this dark imperfect soul to be further renewed confirmed and perfected according to the holy Covenant Refuse not to bless it with thine indwelling and operations quicken it with thy life irradiate it by thy light sanctifie it by thy love actuate it purely powerfully and constantly by thy holy motions And though the way of this thy sacred influx be beyond the reach of humane apprehension yet let me know the reality and saving power of it by the happy effects Thou art more to fouls than souls to bodies than light to eyes O leave not my soul as a carrion destitute of thy life nor its eyes as useless destitute of thy light nor leave it as a senseless block without thy motion The remembrance of what I was without thee doth make me fear lest thou shouldest with-hold thy grace Alass I feel I daily feel that I am dead to all good and all that 's good is dead to me if thou be not the life of all Teachings and reproofs mercies and corrections yea the Gospel it self and all the liveliest Books and Sermons are dead to me because I am dead to them yea God is as no God to me and Heaven as no Heaven and Christ as no Christ and the clearest evidences of Scripture verity are as no proofs at all if thou represent them not with light and power to my soul Even as all the glory of the world is as nothing to me without the light by which it 's seen O thou that hast begun and given me those heavenly intimations and desires which flesh and bloud could never give me suffer not my folly to quench these sparks nor this bruitish flesh to prevail against thee nor the powers of hell to stifle and kill such a heavenly seed O pardon that folly and wilfulness which hath too often too obdurately and too unthankfully striven against thy grace and depart not from an unkind and sinful soul I remember with grief and shame how I wilfully bore down thy motions punish it not with desertion and give me not over to my self Art thou not in Covenant with me as my Sanctifier and Confirmer and Comforter I never undertook to do these things for my self but I consent that thou shouldest work them on me As thou art the Agent and Advocate of Jesus my Lord O plead his cause effectually in my soul against the suggestions of Satan and my unbelief and finish his healing saving work and let not the flesh or world prevail Be in me the resident witness of my Lord the Author of my Prayers the Spirit of Adoption the Seal of God and the earnest of mine inheritance Let not my nights be so long and my days so short nor sin eclipse those beams which have often illuminated my soul Without thee Books are senseless scrawls studies are dreams learning is a glow-worm and wit is but wantonness impertinency and folly Transcribe those sacred precepts on my heart which by thy dictates and inspirations are recorded in thy holy word I refuse not thy help for tears and groans but O shed abroad that love upon my heart which may keep it in a continual life of love And teach me the work which I must do in Heaven refresh my soul with the delights of holiness and the joys which arise from the believing hopes of the everlasting Joys Exercise my heart and tongue in the holy praises of my Lord. Strengthen me in sufferings and conquer the terrors of death and hell Make me the more heavenly by how much the faster I am hastening to heaven and let my last thoughts words and works on earth be likest to those which shall be my first in the state of glorious immortality where the Kingdom is delivered up to the Father and GOD will for ever be All and In all of whom and through whom and to whom are all things To whom be glory for ever Amen CHAP. XIII Consectaries 1. What Party of Christians should we joyn with or be of seeing they are divided into so many Sects I Shall briefly dispatch the Answer of this Question in these following Propositions § 1. GODLYNESS and CHRISTIANITY is our only Religion and if any party have any other we must renounce it § 2. The Church of Christ being his Body is but One and hath many Parts but should have no Parties but Vnity and Concord without Division § 3. Therefore no Christian must be of a Party or Sect as such that is as
God in great and solemn Assemblies Many Hearts are like many pieces of Wood or Coals which flame up greatly when set together which none of them alone would do And it is a fuller signification of Honour to God when his Creatures do purposely assemble for his solemn and most reverent Praise and Worship And therefore Nature shewing us the reasons of it doth make it to be our duty § 14. Nature telleth us that it is evil to cherish false opinions of God or to propagate such to others to slander or blaspheme him to forget him despise him or neglect him to contemn his Judgements or abuse his Mercies to resist his instructions precepts or sanctifying motions And that we should alwayes live as in his sight and to bend all our powers entirely to please him and to think and speak no otherwise of him nor otherwise behave our selves before him than as beseemeth us to the infinite most blessed and holy God § 15. Nature telleth us that in Controversies between Man and Man it is a rational means for ending strife to appeal to God the Judge of all by solemn Oaths where proof is wanting And that it is a hainous crime to do this falsly making him the Patron of a lie or to use his name rashly unreverently prophanely or in vain All this being both against the Nature of God and of our speech and of humane society is past all doubt unnatural evil § 16. Nature telleth us that God should be worshipped heartily sincerely spiritually and also decently and reverently both with soul and body as being the Lord of both § 17. It telleth us also that he must not be worshipped with sin or cruelty or by toyish childish ludicrous manner of Worship which signifie a minde that is not serious or which tend to breed a low esteem of him or which are any way contrary to his Nature or his will § 18. Nature telleth us that such as are endued with an eminent degree of holy wisdom should be Teachers of others for obedience to God and their salvation As the Soul is more worth than the Body and its welfare more regardable so charity to the Soul is as Natural a duty as to the body which cannot better be exercised than in communicating holy wisdom and instructing men in the matters of highest everlasting consequence § 19. Yea Nature teacheth that so great a work should not be done slightly and occasionally only as on the by but that it should be a work of stated office which tried men should be regularly called to for the more sure and universal edification of Mankind Nature telleth us that the greatest works of greatest consequence should be done with the greatest skill and care and that it is likest to be so done when it is made a set Office intrusted in the hands of tried men for it is not many that have such extraordinary endowments and if unfit persons manage so great a work they will marr it and miss the end and that which a man taketh for his Office he is liker to take care of than that which he thinks belongeth no more to him than others and how necessary Order is in all matters of weight the experience of all Governments Societies and Persons may soon convince us § 20. Nature telleth us also that it is the duty of such Teachers to be very diligent serious and plain and of Learners to be thankful willing studious respectful and rationally-obedient as remembring the great importance of the work For in vain is the labour of the Teachers if the Learners will not do their part the Receiver hath the chief benefit and therefore the greatest part of the duty which must do most to the success § 21. Nature telleth men that they should not live loosely and ungoverned but in the order of governed Societies for the better attainment of the ends of their Creation as is proved before § 22. Nature telleth us that Governours should be the most wise and pious and just and merciful and diligent and exemplary laying out themselves for the publick good and the pleasing of the universal Sovereign § 23. It teacheth us also that Subjects must be faithful to their Governours and must honour and obey them in subordination to God § 24. Nature telleth us that it is the Parents duty with special love and diligence to educate their children in the knowledge fear and obedience of God providing for their bodies but preferring their souls § 25. And that children must love honour and obey their Parents willingly and thankfully receiving their instructions and commands § 26. Nature also telleth us that thus the Relations of Husband and Wife should be sanctified to the highest ends of life and also the Relation of Master and Servant and that our callings and labours in the world should be managed in pure obedience to God and to our ultimate end § 27. Nature teacheth all men to love one another as servants of the same God and members of the same universal Kingdom and creatures of the same specifick nature There is somewhat amiable in every man for there is something of God in every man and therefore something that it is our duty to love And that according to the excellency of man's nature which sheweth more of God than other inferiour creatures do and also according to their additional virtues Loveliness commandeth love and love maketh lovely This with all the rest afore-mentioned are so plain that to prove them is but to be tedious § 28. Nature telleth us that we should deal justly with all giving to every one his due and doing to them as we would be done by § 29. Particularly it telleth us that we must do nothing injuriously against the life or health or liberty of our neighbour but do our best for their preservation and comfort § 30. Man being so noble a creature and his education so necessary to his welfare and promiscuous unregulated generation tending so manifestly to confusion ill education divisions and corruption of mankind and unbridled exercise of lust tending to the abasement of reason and corruption of body and mind Nature telleth us that carnal copulation should be very strictly regulated and kept within the bounds of lawful marriage and that the contract of marriage must be faithfully kept and no one defile his neighbours bed nor wrong another's chastity or their own in thought word or deed This proposition though Boars understand it not is proved in the annexed reasons Nothing would tend more to houshold divisions and ill education and the utter degenerating and undoing of mankind than ungoverned copulation No one would know his own children if lust were not bounded by strict and certain Laws and then none would love them nor provide for them nor would they have any certain ingenuous education Women would become most contemptible and miserable as soon as beauty faded and lust was satisfied and
disconsolate Disciples who had but lately sinfully forsaken him He giveth them no upbraiding words but meltingly saith to her Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God He after this familiarly converseth with them and instructeth them in the things concerning the Kingdom of God He maketh an Vniversal Pardon or Act of Oblivion in a Covenant of Grace for all the world that will not reject it and appointeth Messengers to preach it unto all and what ever pains or suffering it cost them to go through all with patience and alacrity and to stick at nothing for the saving of mens souls He gave the holy Spirit miraculously to them to enable them to carry on this work and to leave upon record to the world the infallible narrative of his Life and Doctrine His Gospel is filled up with matter of consolation with the promises of mercy pardon and salvation the description of the priviledges of holy Souls justification adoption peace and joy and finally He governeth and defendeth his Church and pleadeth our cause and secureth our interest in Heaven according to the promises of this his word Thus is the Gospel the very Image of the Wisdom and Goodness of God And such a Doctrin from such a Person must needs be Divine 2. And the Method and Style of it is most excellent because most suitable to its holy ends not with the excellency of frothy wit which is but to express a wanton fancy and please the ears of aery persons who play with words when they should close with wisdom and heavenly light such excellency of speech must receive its estimate by its use and end But as the end is most Divine so the light that shineth in the Gospel is Heavenly and Divine the Method of the Books themselves is various according to the time and occasions of their writing the objections against them are to be answered by themselves anon But the Method of the whole Doctrin of Christianity set together is the most admirable and perfect in the world beginning with God in Unity of Essence proceeding to his Trinity of Essential Active Principles and of Persons and so to his Trinity of Works Creation Redemption and Regeneration and of Relations of God and Man accordingly and to the second Trinity of Relations as he is our Owner Ruler and Chief Good And hence it brancheth it self into a multitude of benefits flowing from all these Relations of God to Man and a multitude of answerable duties flowing from our Correlations to God and all in perfect method twisted and inoculated into each other making a kind of cirulation between Mercies and Duties as in mans body there is of the arterial and venal bloud and spirits till in the issue as all Mercy came from God and Duty subordinately from man so Mercy and Duty do terminate in the Everlasting Pleasure of God ultimately and man subordinately in that mutual love which is here begun and there is perfected This method you may somewhat perceive in the description of the Christian Religion before laid down 3. And the style also is suited to the end and matter not to the pleasing of curious ears but to the declaring of heavenly mysteries not to the conceits of Logicians who have put their understandings into the fetters of their own ill-devised notions and expect that all men that will be accounted wise should use the same notions which they have thus devised and about which they are utterly disagreed among themselves But in a Language suitable both to the subject and to the world of persons to whom this word is sent who are commonly ignorant and unlearned and dull That being the best Physick which is most suitable to the Patients temper and disease And though the particular Writers of the Sacred Scriptures have their several Styles yet is there in them all in common a Style which is spiritual powerfull and divine which beareth its testimony proportionably of that Spirit which is the common Author in them all But of this more among the Difficulties and Objections anon But for the discerning of all this Image of God in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Reason will allow me to expect these necessary qualifications in him that must discern it 1. That before he come to supernatural Revelations he be not unacquainted with those natural Revelations which are antecedent and should be foreknown as I have in this book explained them with their evidence For there is no coming to the highest step of the Ladder without beginning at the lowest Men ignorant of things knowable by Natural Reason are unprepared for higher things 2. It is reasonably expected that he be one that is not treacherous and false to those Natural Truths which he hath received For how can he be expected to be impartial and faithfull in seeking after more Truth who is unfaithfull to that which he is convinced of or that he should receive that Truth which he doth not yet know who is false to that which he already knoweth Or that he should discern the evidence of extraordinary Revelation who opposeth with enmity the ordinary light or Law of Nature Or that God should vouchsafe his further light and conduct to that Man who willfully sinneth against him in despight of all his former teachings 3. It is requisite that he be one that is not a stranger to himself but acquainted with the case of his heart and life and know his sins and his corrupt inclinations and that guilt and disorder and misery in which his need of mercy doth consist For he is no fit Judge of the Prescripts of his Physician who knoweth not his own disease and temperature But of this more anon § 8. III. The third way of the Spirits witness to Jesus Christ is Concomitantly by the miraculous gifts and works of Himself and his Disciples which are a cogent Evidence of Gods attestation to the truth of his Doctrine § 9. By the Miracles of Christ I mean 1. His miraculous actions upon others 2. His miracles in his Death and Resurrection 3. His predictions The appearance of the Angel to Zachary and his dumbness his Prophesie and Elizabeth's with the Angels appearance to Mary the Angels appearance and Evangelizing to the Shepherds the Prophesie of Simeon and of Anna the Star and the testimony of the wise Men of the East the testimony of John Baptist that Christ should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire and that he was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World These and more such I pass by as presupposed At twelve years of age he disputed with the Doctors in the Temple to their admiration At his Baptism the Holy Ghost came down upon him in the likeness of a Dove and a voice from Heaven said Thou art my beloved Son in Thee I am well-pleased When he was baptized he fasted forty dayes and nights and
themselves as being wholly his own 3. It absolutely subjecteth the Soul to God and sitteth up his Authority as absolute over our thoughts and words and all our actions And maketh the Christians life a course of careful obedience to his Laws so far as they understand them 4. It taketh up a Christians mind with the thankful sense of his Redemption so that the pardon of his sins and his deliverance from hell and his hopes of everlasting glory do form his soul to a holy gratitude and make the expressions of it to be his work 5. It giveth man a sense of the love of God as his gracious Redeemer and so of the goodness and mercifulness of his Nature It causeth them to think of God as their greatest Benefactor and as one that loveth them and as LOVE it self and so it reconcileth their estranged alienated minds to him and maketh the love of God to be the very constitution and life of the Soul 6. It causeth men to believe that there is an everlasting Glory to be enjoyed by holy Souls where we shall see the glory of God and be filled with his love and exercised in perfect love and praise and be with Christ his Angels and Saints for evermore It causeth them to take this felicity for their portion and to set their hearts upon it and to make it the chief care and business of all their lives to seek it 1. It causeth them to live in the joyful hopes and foresight of this blessedness and to do all that they do as means thereunto and thus it sweetneth all their lives and maketh Religion their chief delight 8. It accordingly employeth their thoughts and tongues so that the praises of God and the mention of their everlasting blessedness and of the way thereto is their most delightful conference as it beseemeth travellers to the City of God and so their political converse is in heaven 9. And thus it abateth the fears of death as being but their passage to everlasting life And those that are confirmed Christians indeed do joyfully entertain it and long to see their glorified Lord and the blessed Majesty of their great Creator 10. It causeth men to love all sanctified persons with a special love of complacency and all mankind with a love of benevolence even to love our neighbours as our selves and to abhor that selfishness which would engage us against our neighbours good 11. It causeth men to love their enemies and to forgive and forbear and to avoid all unjust and unmerciful revenge It maketh men meek long-suffering and patient though not impassionate insensible or void of that anger which is the necessary opposer of sin and folly 12. It employeth men in doing all the good they can it maketh them long for the holiness and happiness of one another's souls and desirous to do good to those that are in need according to our power 13. This true Regeneration by the Spirit of Christ doth make those Superiours that hath it even Princes Magistrates Parents and Masters to Rule those under them in holiness love and justice with self-denial seeking more the pleasing of God and the happiness of their Subjects for soul and body than any carnal selfish interest of their own and therefore it must needs be the blessing of that happy Kingdom Society or Family which hath such a holy Governour O that they were not so few 14. It maketh subjects and children and servants submissive and conscionable in all the duties of their Relations and to honour their Superiours as the Officers of God and to obey them in all just subordination to him 15. It causeth men to love Justice and to do as they would be done by and to desire the welfare of the souls bodies estates and honour of their neighbours as their own 16. It causeth men to subdue their adpetites and lusts and fleshly desires and to set up the government of God and sanctified Reason over them and to take their flesh for that greatest enemy in our corrupted state which we must chiefly watch against and master as being a Rebel against God and Reason It alloweth a man so much sensitive pleasure as God forbiddeth not and as tendeth to the holiness of the soul and furthereth us in God's service and all the rest it rebuketh and resisteth 17. It causeth men to estimate all the wealth and honour and dignities of the world as they have respect to God and a better world and as they either help or hinder us in the pleasing of God and seeking immortality and as they are against God and our spiritual work and happiness it causeth us to account them but as meer vanity loss and dung 18. It keepeth men in a life of watchfulness against all those temptations which would draw them from this holy course and in a continual warfare against Satan and his Kingdom under conduct of Jesus Christ 19. It causeth men to prepare for sufferings in this world and to look for no great matters here to expect persecutions crosses losses wants defamations injuries and painful sicknesses and death and to spend their time in preparing all that furniture of mind which is necessary to their support and comfort in such a day of trial that they may be patient and joyful in tribulation and bodily distress as having a comfortable relation to God and Heaven which will incomparably weigh down all 20. It causeth men to acknowledge that all this grace and mercy is from the love of God alone and to depend on him for it by faith in Christ and to devote and refer all to himself again and make it our ultimate end to please him and thus to subserve him as the first Efficient the chief Dirigent and the ultimate final Cause of all of whom and through whom and to whom are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen This is the true description of that Regenerate Sanctified state which the Spirit of Christ doth work on all whom he will save and that are Christians indeed and not in Name only And certainly this is the Image of God's Holiness and the just constitution and use of a reasonable Soul And therefore he that bringeth men to this is a Real Saviour of whom more anon II. And it is very considerable by what means and in what manner all this is done It is done by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ and that in plainness and simplicity The curiosity of artificial oratory doth usually but hinder the success as painting doth the light of windows It was a few plain men that came with spiritual power and not with the entising words of humane wisdom or curiosities of vain Philosophy who did more in this work than any of their successors have done since As in Naturals every thing is apt to communicate its own nature and not anothers heat causeth heat and cold causeth cold so wit by communication causeth wit and common learning causeth common
learning and so it is holiness and love which are fittest to communicate and cause holiness and love which common qualifications are too low for though they may be helpful in their several places and degrees what contemned instruments hath God used in the world to do that for the regenerating of souls which the greatest Emperors by their Laws nor the subtilest Philosophers by their Precepts did not The Athenian Philosophers despised Paul and Gallio counted his doctrine but a supertitious talk about names and words but Satan himself despised not those whom he tempted men to despise but perceived they were like to be the ruine of his Kingdom and therefore every where stirred up the most vehement furious resistance of them It is evident therefore that there is an inward effectual operation of the holy Ghost which giveth success to these means which are naturally in themselves so weak And it is to be observed that this great change is very often wrought on a sudden in a prevalent though not a perfect degree One Sermon hath done that for a many thousand sinners which twenty years teaching of the greatest Philosophers never did One Sermon hath turned them from the sins which they had lived in all their days and hath turned them to a life which they were strangers to before or else abhorred One Sermon hath taken down the world which had their hearts and hath put it under their feet and hath turned their hearts to another world which sheweth that there is an internal Agent more powerful than the speaker And it is remarkable that in the main the change is wrought in one and the same method first humbling men for sin and misery and then leading them to Jesus Christ as the remedy and to God by him and so kindling the love of God in them by the bellows of faith and then leading them towards perfection in the exercises of that holy love III. And it will further lead us to the original of this Change to consider on whom it is thus wrought 1. For their place and time 2. Their quality in themselves 3. And as compared to each other 4. And as to their numbers 1. For time and place it is in all ages since Christ to say nothing of the former ages now and in all Nations and Countries which have received him and his Gospel that Souls have been thus regenerated to God If it had been only a fanatick rapture of brain-sick men it would have been like the effects of the Heresies of the Valentinians Basilidians Gnosticks Montanists c. or of the Swenckfeldians Weigelians Behmenists Quakers and other such Enthusiasts who make a stir for one Age in some one corner of the world and then go out with a perpetual stink In all Ages and Countries these effects of Christian Doctrine are the very same as they were in the first Age and the first Country where it was preached Just such effects as it hath in one Kingdom or Family it hath in all others who equally receive it and just such persons as Christians were in the first Ages at Jerusalem Rome Antioch Philippi c. such are they now in England according to their several degrees of grace though not in miracles and things extraordinary to the Church The children of no one father are so like as all God's sanctified children are throughout the world 2. As to their civil quality it is men of all degrees that are thus sanctified though fewest of the Princes and great ones of the world And as to their moral qualification it sometime falleth on men prepared by a considering sober temper and by natural plainness and honesty of heart and sometimes it befalleth such as are most prophane and drown'd in sin and never dreamt of such a change nay purposely set their minds against it These God doth often suddenly surprize by an over-powering light and suitable-constraining-overcoming attraction and maketh them new men 3. And as to their capacities compared there is plainly a distinguishing hand that disposeth of the work Sometimes a persecuting Saul is converted by a voice from Heaven when Pharisees that were less Persecutors are left in their unregeneracy Sometimes under the same Sermon one that was more prophane and less prepared is converted when another that was more sober and better disposed remaineth as he was before The husband and the wife the Parents and the Children Brothers and Sisters Companions and Friends are divided by this work and one converted and the other not Though none is deprived of this Mercy but upon the guilt of their forfeiture resistance or contempt yet is there plainly the effect of some special choice of the Holy Spirit in taking out some of these that abused and forfeited grace and changing them by an insuperable work 4. And as to the number it is many thousands that are thus renewed enow to shew the Love and Power of him that calleth them But yet the far smaller part of mankinde to shew his Dominion and distinguishing will who knoweth the reason of all his works of which more anon IV. Consider what Opposition this work of Grace doth overcome 1. Within us 2. Without us 1. Within men it findeth 1. A dungeon of Ignorance which it dispelleth by it's heavenly light 2. Abundance of error and prejudice which it unteacheth men 3. A stupid hardened heart which it softeneth and a senseless sleepiness of Soul which it overcometh by awakening quickening power 4. A love to sin which it turneth into hatred 5. An idolizing self-esteem and self-conceitedness and self-love and self-willedness which it turneth into self-loathing and self-denyall not making us loath our selves as Natural or as Renewed but as corrupt with sin and abusers of Mercy and such as by wilfull folly have wronged God and undone themselves So that Repentance maketh men fall out with themselves and become as loathsome in their own eyes 6. It findeth in us an over-valuing love of this present World and a foolish inordinate desire to its profits dignities and honours which it destroyeth and turneth into a rational contempt 7. It findeth in us a prevailing sensuality and an unreasonable appetite and lust and a Flesh that would bear down both Reason and the Authority of God And this it subdueth and mortifieth it 's inordinate desires and bringeth it under the Laws of God 8. It findeth all this radicated and confirmed by Custome And overcometh those sins which a sinner hath turned as into his Nature and hath lived in the love and practice of all his dayes All this and more opposition within us grace doth overcome in all the sanctified And there is not one of all these if well considered of but will appear to be of no small strength and difficulty to be truly conquered 2. And without us the holy Spirit overcometh 1. Worldly allurements 2. Worldly men 3. All other assaults of Satan 1. While the Soul is in flesh and worketh by the means of the outward
senses these present things will be a strong temptation to us Prosperity and plenty wealth and honour ease and pleasure are accommodated to the desires of the flesh partly to its natural appetite and much more to it as inordinate by corruption And the flesh careth not for Reason how much soever it gainsay And then all these entising things are neer us and still present with us and before our eyes when Heavenly things are all unseen And the sweetness of honour wealth and pleasure is known by feeling and therefore known easily and by all when the goodness of things spiritual is known only by Reason and believing All which laid together with sad experience do fully shew that it must be a very great work to overcome this World and raise the heart above it to a better and so to sanctifie a soul 2. And worldly men do rise up against this Holy work as as well as worldly things Undenyable experience assureth us that through all the World ungodly sensual men have a marvellous implacable hatred to Godlyness and true mortification and will by flattery or slanders or scorns or plots or cruel violence do all that they are able to resist it So that he that will live a holy temperate life must make himself a scorn if not a prey The foolish wit of the ungodly is bent to reason men out of Faith Hope and Holiness and to cavill against our obedience to God and to disgrace all that course of life which is necessary to salvation And it is a great work to overcome all these temptations of the foolish and furious World Great I say because of the great folly and corruption of unregenerate men on whom it must be wrought though it would be smaller to a wise and considerate person To be made as an Owl and hunted as a Partridge or a beast of Prey by those that we converse with when we might have their favour and friendship and Preferments if we would say and do as they this is not easie to flesh and blood But its easie to the Spirit of God 3. The Devil is so notoriously an enemy to this sanctifying work that it is a strong discovery that Christ was sent from God to do it What a stir doth he first make to keep out the Gospel that it may not be Preached to the Nations of the World And where that will not serve what a stir doth he make to debauch Christs Ministers and corrupt them by ignorance heresie error schism domineering pride sensuality covetousness slothfulness and negligence that they may do the work of Christ deceitfully as if they did it not Yea and if it may be to win them to his service to destroy the Church by Oppression or Division under pretense of serving Christ And what cunning and industry doth this Serpent use to insinuate into great ones and Rulers of the Earth a prejudice against Christ and Godliness and to make them believe that all that are seriously Godly are their enemies and are against some interest of theirs that so he might take the sword which God hath put into their hands and turn it to his own service against him that gave it How cunning and diligent is he to seduce men that begin to set themselves to a Religious life into some false Opinions or dividing Sects or scandalous unjustifiable practice that thereby he may triumph against Christ and have something to say against Religion from the faults of men when he hath nothing to say against it justly from it self and that he may have something to say to those Rulers and People with whom he would fain make Religion odious How cunningly doth he engage ungodly men to be his Servants in seducing others and making them such as they are themselves and in standing up for sin and darkness against the light and life of Faith So that ungodly men are but the Souldiers and Preachers of the Devil in all parts employed to fight against God and draw men from holiness and justice and temperance to sin and to damnation So that it is a very discernable thing that Satan is the Head of one party in the World as the Destroying Prince of Darkness and deceit and that Christ is the Head of the other party as the Prince of light and truth and holiness And that there is a continued war or opposition between these two Kingdoms or Armies in all parts and ages of the World of which I have fullyer treated in another Book If any shall say How know you that all this is the work of Satan I shall have fitter occasion to answer that anon I shall now say but this that the nature of the work the tendency of it the irrationall erroneous or brutish tyrannical manner of doing it the internal importunity and manner of his suggestions and the effects of all and the contrariety of it to God and Man will soon shew a considerate man the author Though more shall be anon added V. All this aforegoing will shew a reasonable man that the Spirits Regenerating work is such as is a full attestation of God to that Doctrine by which it is effected And if any now say How prove you that all this is to be ascribed to Jesus Christ any more than to Socrates or to Seneca or Cicero I answer 1. So much truth of a sacred tendency as Plato or Pythagoras or Socrates or any Philosopher taught might do some good and work some reformation according to its quality and degree But as it was a lame imperfect doctrine which they taught so was it a very lame imperfect reformation which they wrought unlike the effects of the Doctrine and Spirit of Jesus Christ I need to say no more of this than to desire any man to make an impartial and judicious comparison between them And besides much more he shall quickly finde these differences following 1. That the Philosophers Disciples had a very poor dark disordered knowledge of God in comparison of the Christians and that mixt with odious fopperies either blasphemous or idolatrous 2. The Philosophers spake of God and the Life to come almost altogether notionally as they did of Logick or Physicks and very few of them Practically as a thing that mans happiness or misery was so much concerned in 3. They spake very jejunely and dryly about a holy state and course of life and the duty of Man to God in resignation devotedness obedience and love 4. They said little comparatively to the true humbling of a Soul nor in the just discovery of the evil of sin nor for self-denyall 5. They gave too great countenance to Pride and Worldliness and pleasing the senses by excess 6. The Doctrine of true Love to one another is taught by them exceeding lamely and defectively 7. Revenge is too much indulged by them and loving our Enemies and forgiving great wrongs was little known or taught or practised 8. They were so pitifully unacquainted with the certainty
Wisdom of the Soul produced by his Light and Wisdom by which we know the difference between Good and Evil and our Reason is restored to its dominion over fleshly sense It is the Goodness of the Soul by which it is made suitable to the Eternal Good and fit to know him love him praise him serve him and enjoy him And therefore nothing lower than his Goodness can be its principal Cause 2. It subserveth the Interest of God in the World And recovereth the apostate Soul to himself It disposeth it to honour him love him and obey him It delivereth up the whole man to him as his own It casteth down all that rebelleth against him It casteth out all which was preferred before him It rejecteth all which standeth up against him and would seduce and tempt us from him And therefore it is certainly his work 3. Whose else should it be Would Satan or any evil cause produce so excellent an effect would the worst of beings do the best of works It is the best that is done in this lower world Would any enemy of God so much honour him and promote his interest and restore him his own would any enemy of mankind thus advance us and bring us up to a life of the highest honour and delights that we are capable of on earth and give us the hopes of life eternal And if any good Angel or other Cause should do it all reason will confess that they do it but as the Messengers or Instruments of God and as second causes and not as the first Cause for otherwise we should make them gods For my own part my Soul perceiveth that it is God himself that hath imprinted this his Image on me and hath hereby as it were written upon me his Name and Mark even HOLINESS TO THE LORD and I bear about me continually a Witness of Himself his Son and holy Spirit a Witness within me which is the Seal of God and the pledge of his love and the earnest of my heavenly inheritance And if our Sanctification be thus of GOD it is certainly his attestation to the truth of Christ and to his Gospel for 1. No man that knoweth the perfections of God will ever believe that he would bless a deceiver and a lie to be the means of the most holy and excellent work that ever was done in the world If Christ were a Deceiver his crime would be so execrable as would engage the Justice of God against him as he is the righteous Governour of the world And therefore he would not so highly honour him to be his chiefest instrument for the worlds Renovation He is not impotent to need such instruments he is not ignorant that he should so mistake in the choice of instruments he is not bad that he should love and use such Instruments and comply with their deceits These things are all so clear and sure that I cannot doubt of them 2. No man that knoweth the mercifulness of God and the Justice of his Government can believe that he would give up Mankind so remedilesly to seduction yea and be the principal causer of it himself For if besides Prophecie and a holy Doctrine and a multitude of famous Miracles a Deceiver might also be the great Renewer and Sanctifier of the world to bring man back to the obedience of God and to repair his Image on Mankind what possibility were there of our discovery of that deceit Or rather should we not say he were a blessed Deceiver that had deceived us from our sin and misery and brought back our straying souls to God 3. Nay when Christ fore-told men that he would send his Spirit to do all this work and would renew men for eternal life and thus be with us to the end of the world and when I see all this done I must needs believe that he that can send down a Sanctifying Spirit a Spirit of Life a Spirit of Power Light and Love to make his Doctrine in the mouths of his Ministers effectual to mens Regeneration and Sanctification is no less himself than God or certainly no less than his certain Administrator 4. What need I more to prove the Cause than the adequate effect When I find that Christ doth actually save me shall I question whether he be my Saviour When I find that he saveth thousands about me and offereth the same to others shall I doubt whether he be the Saviour of the world Sure he that healeth us all and that so wonderfully and so cheaply may well be called our Physician If he had promised only to save us I might have doubted whether he would perform it and consequently whether he be indeed the Saviour But when he performeth it on my self and performeth it on thousands round about me to doubt yet whether he be the Saviour when he actually saveth us is to be ignorant in despite of Reason and Experience I conclude therefore that the Spirit of Sanctification is the infallible Witness of the Verity of the Gospel and the Veracity of Jesus Christ 5. And I entreat all that read this further to observe the great use and advantage of this testimony above others in that it is continued from Generation to Generation and not as the gift and testimony of Miracles which continued plentifully but one Age and with diminution somewhat after this is Christ's witness to the end of the world in every Country and to every Soul yea and continually dwelling in them For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 He that is not able to examine the History which reporteth the Miracles to him may be able to find upon his Soul the Image of God imprinted by the Gospel and to know that the Gospel hath that Image in it self which it imprinteth upon others and that it cometh from God which leadeth men so directly unto God and that it is certainly his own means which he blesseth to so great and excellent ends 6. Note also that part of the work of the Spirit of God in succeeding the Doctrine of Jesus Christ doth consist in the effectual production of Faith it self for though the work be wrought by the Reasons of the Gospel and the Evidences of Truth yet is it also wrought by the Spirit of God concurring with that evidence and as the internal Efficient exciting the sluggish faculties to do their office and illustrating the understanding and fitting the will to entertain the truth for the difficulties are so great and the temptations to unbelief so subtil and violent and our own indisposedness through corruption the greatest impediment of all that the bare Word alone would not produce a belief of that lively vigorous nature as is necessary to its noble effects and ends without the internal co-operation of the Spirit So that Christ doth not only teach us the Christian Faith and Religion but doth give it us and work it in us by his Spirit And he that can do
matter of fact indeed by common sense but their sufficiency and gifts by which they carried on their ministry were suddenly given them by the holy Ghost when Christ himself was ascended from them And Paul that had conferred with none of them yet preached the same Gospel being converted by a voice from heaven in the heat of his persecution 3. Their doctrine containeth so many and mysterious particulars that they could never have concorded in it all in their way 4. And their labours did so disperse them about the world that many new emergent cases must needs have cast them into several minds or ways if they had not agreed by the unity of that Spirit which was the common Teacher of them all § 25. 7. That the Disciples of Christ divulged his Miracles and Resurrection in the same Place and Age where the truth or falshood might soon have been search'd out and yet that the bitterest enemies either denied not or confuted not their report is apparent partly by their confessions and partly by the non-existence of any such confutations That the Disciples in that Age and Country did divulge these Miracles is denied by none for it was their employment and by it they gathered the several Churches and their writings not long after written declare it to this day That the enemies confuted not their report appeareth 1. not only in the Gospel-history which sheweth that they denyed not many of his Miracles but imputed them to conjuration and the power of Satan but also by the disputes and writings of the Jews in all Ages since which do go the same way 2. And if the enemies had been able to confute these Miracles no doubt but they would have done it having so much advantage wit and malice Object Perhaps they did and their writings never come to our knowledge Answ The unbelieving Jews were as careful to preserve their writings as any other men and they had better advantage to do it than the Christians had and therefore if there had been any such writings yea or verbal confutations the Jews of this age had been as like to have received them as all the other antient writings which they yet receive Josephus his testimony of Christ is commonly known and though some think it so full and plain that it is like to be inserted by some Christian yet they give no proof of their opinion and the credit of all copies justifieth the contrary except only that these words are like to have been thrust in This is Christ which some Annotator putting into the Margin might after be put into the Text. And that the Jews wanted not will or industry to confute the Christians appeareth by what Justin Martyr saith to Tryphon of their malice That they sent out into all parts of the world their choicest men to perswade the people against the Christians that they are Atheists and would abolish the Deity and that they were convict of gross impiety § 26. 8. The great diversity of believers and reporters of the Gospel Miracles doth the more fully evince that there was no conspiracy for deceit There were learned and unlearned Jews and Gentils rich and poor men and women some that followed Christ and some as Paul that perhaps never saw him and for all these to be at once inspired by the holy Ghost and thenceforth unanimously to accord and concur in the same doctrine and work doth shew a supernatural cause § 27. 9. There were dissentions upon many accidents and some of them to the utmost distance which would certainly have detected the fallacy if there had been any such in the matters of fact so easily detected 1. In Christ's own family there was a Judas who betrayed him for mony This Judas was one that had followed Christ and seen his Miracles and had been sent out to preach and wrought miracles himself If there had been any collusion in all this what likelier man was there in the world to have detected it yea and his conscience would never have accused but justified him he need not to have gone and hanged or precipitated himself and said I have sinned in betraying the innocent bloud The Pharisees who hired him to betray his Master might by mony and authority have easily procured him to have wrote against him and detected his fraud if he had been fraudulent it would have tended to Judas his justification and advancement But God is the great defender of truth 2. And there were many baptized persons who were long in good repute and communion with the Christians who fell off from them to several Sects and Heresies not denying the dignity and truth of Christ but superinducing into his doctrine many corrupting fancies of their own such as the Judâ—izâ—rs the Simonians the Nicolaitans the Ebonites the Cerinthians the Gnosticks the Valentinians Basilidians and many more And many of these were in the days of the Apostles and greatly troubled the Churches and hindred the Gospel insomuch as the Apostles rise up against them with more indignation than against the Infidels calling them dogs wolves evil workers deceivers bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed c. They write largely against them they charge the Churches to avoid them and turn away from them and after a first and second admonition to reject them as men that are self-condemned c. And who knoweth not that among so many men thus excommunicated vilified and thereby irritated some of them would certainly have detected the deceit if they had known any deceit to have been in the reports of the afore-said Miracles Passion would not have been restrained among so many and such when they were thus provoked 3. And some in those times as well as in all following ages have forsaken the faith and apostatized to open infidelity and certainly their judgment their interest and their malice would have caused them to detect the fraud if they had known any in the matters of fact of these Miracles For it is not possible that all these causes should not bring forth this effect where there was no valuable impediment If you again say It may be they did detect such frauds by words or writings which come not to our knowledge I answer again 1. The Jews then that have in all ages disputed and written against Christianity would certainly have made use of some such testimony instead of charging all upon Magick and the power of the devil 2. And it is to me a full evidence that there were no such deniers of the Miracles of Christ when I find that the Apostles never wrote against any such nor contended with them nor were ever put to answer any of their writings or objections When all men will confess that their writings must needs be written according to the state and occasion of those times in which they wrote them and if then there had been any books or reasonings divulged against Christ's miracles they would either have wrote purposely against them
are all baptized into one body whether we be Jewes or Gentiles bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit And in 1 Cor. 14. the gift of speaking with tongues was so common in the Church of the Corinthians that the Apostle is fain to give them instructions for the moderate use of it lest they hindered the edification of the Church by suppressing prophecy or instruction in known tongues And therefore he perswadeth them to use it but more sparingly And James 5.14 15. exhorteth Christians when they were sick to send to the Elders of the Church that they may pray for them and anoynt them and they may be forgiven and recover By which it seems it was no unusual thing in those times to be healed by the Prayers of the Elders Yea the very Hypocrites and ungodly persons that had only the barren profession of Christianity had the gift of Miracles without the grace of Sanctification And this Christ foretold Matth. 7.22 Many shall say in that day Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out devils and done many wonderfull works Obj. But all were not healed by them Paul left Trophimus at Miletum sick Why doth not Paul cure Timothy of his weak stomack and infirmity without drinking of Wine if he could do it Answ 1. Certainly they did not cure all men that were sick For then who would have dyed It was none of the intent of the Spirit of Christ in working Miracles to make men immortal here on earth and to keep them from Heaven 2. And it is easily confess'd that the Spirit was not at the command or will of them that had it And therefore they could not do what and when they pleased but what the Spirit pleased And his operations were at his own time and disposal And this proveth the more fully that it was the testimony of God and not the contrivance of the wit of man 3. And miracles and tongues were not for them that believed but rather for them that believed not And therefore a Trophimus or a Timothy might be unhealed § 35. 3. These Miracles were oftentimes wrought even for many years together in several Countreys and places through the World where the Apostles and Disciples came and not only once or for a little space of time Dissimulation might be easilyer cloaked for a few acts than it can be for so many years At least these gifts and miracles continued during the Age of the Apostles though not performed every day or so commonly as might make them uneffectual yet so frequently as to give success to the Gospel and to keep up a reverence of Christianity in the World They were wrought not only at Jerusalem but at Samaria Antioch Ephesus Corinth Philippi and the rest of the Churches through the World § 36. 4. They were also wrought in the presence of multitudes and not only in a corner where there was more possibility of deceit The Holy Ghost fell on the Apostles and all the Disciples at Jerusalem before all the people that is They all heard them speak in several tongues the wonderfull works of God even the Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the Inhabitants of Mesopotamia Judaea Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphylia Egypt Lybia Cyrene Rome Jews and Proselites Cretes and Arabians Act. 2.8 9 10 11 12. It was three thousand that the Holy Ghost fell on Act. 2.38 Those that went into the Temple and all the people saw the lame man that was cured by Peter and John Act. 3. The death of Ananias and Sapphira was a publick thing so that fear fell on all and hypocrites were deterred from joyning with the Church Act. 5. The gifts of tongues and interpretation were commonly exercised before Congregations or multitudes And crowds of people flocked to them to be healed As with Christ they uncovered the roofs of the houses to lay the sick before him so with the Apostles they strove who might come within their shadow or touch the hem of their garment or have Cloaths or Napkins from them that they might be healed So that here was an age of publick Miracles § 37. 5. All these miracles were uncontrolled that is They were not wrought in opposition to any controlling Truth which hath certain evidence contradicting this nor yet were they overtopt by any greater miracles for the contrary A miracle if God should permit it to be wrought in such a case might be said to be controlled either of these two wayes 1. If a man should work Miracles to contradict the certain light of Nature or perswade men to that which is certainly false 2. If men should do wonders as Jannes and Jamâ—res the Egyptian Sorcerers which should be overtopt by greater wonders as those of Moses and as Simon Magus and Elymas by Peter and Paul In these cases God could not be said to deceive men by his power or permission when he giveth them a sufficient preservative But these Miracles had no such controll but prevailed without any check from contradictory Truths or Miracles Thus Christ performed his Promise Joh. 14.12 Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I goe unto the Father § 38. III. The third testimony of the Spirit to the truth of the Apostles witness was the marvellous success of their doctrine to the sanctifying of souls which as it could not be done without the power and Spirit of God so neither would the righteous and mercifull Governour of the World have made a company of profligate lyars and deceivers his instruments of doing this excellent work by cheats and falshoods This I spake of before as it is the Seal of Christs own doctrine I now speak of it only as it is the Seal of the Apostles verity in their testimony of the Resurrection and Miracles of Christ Peter converted three thousand at once Many thousands and myriads up and down the world were speedily converted And what was this Conversion They were brought unfeignedly to love God above all and their neighbours as themselves Act. 2.42 46. They continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayer And all that believed were together and had all things common not by levelling but by lone and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favour with all the People Act. 4.32 The multitude of Believers were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things that he possessed was his own but they had all things common All that are in Christ have his Spirit and are spiritually minded and walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts
The world is crucified to them and they to the world Gal. 5.24 6.14 They are chosen to be holy and unblameable in love Eph. 1.4 They walk as renewed in the spirit of their mindes with all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering forbearing one another endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.23.2.3 As being created unto good works in Christ Eph. 2.10 Without corrupt communication bitterness wrath clamor evil-speaking fornication uncleanness covetousness filthiness foolish talking and jeasting Eph. 4.29 5.3.4 Denying ungodlyness and worldly lusts living soberly righteously and godly in this present world as redeemed from all iniquity and purified as a peculiar people to Christ zealous of good works Tit. 2.12 14. Having their conversation in Heaven from whence they expect their Redeemer to translate them into Glory Phil. 3.20 21. These were the fruits of the Ministry of the Apostles And God was pleased to bless their labours more than any others since and make better holyer heavenlyer Christians by the means of their endeavours that so he might give a fuller proof of the truth of their testimony of Christ § 39. It is the great advantage of our Faith that these second attestations to the Disciples testimony of the Miracles of Christ are much more open evident and convincing to us at this distance than the Miracles of Christ himself that so there might be no place for rational doubting The sorts of their miracles were as numerous as his They were wrought by hundreds and thousands and not by Christ alone They were wrought for an age and not for three years and a half alone They were wrought in a great part of the World and not in Judaea and Galilee alone They were done in the face of abundance of Congregations and not before the Jews only And they succeeded to the conversion and sanctification of many thousands more than did the preaching of Christ himself So that if any thing that is said before of the confirmation of Christs own miracles had wanted evidence it is abundantly made up in the evidence of their miracles who were the reporters and witnesses of his § 40. I have hitherto been shewing you how the miracles of Christ were proved attested and made certainly known to the first Churches planted by the Apostles themselves viz. by the testimony of the Spirit 1. In their doctrine and lives 2. In their miracles and 3. In their success in the sanctification of mens souls I am next to shew you how these matters of fact or actions of the Apostles are certainly proved or brought down to us § 41. And this is by the same three wayes of proof as the Apostles proved to the first Churches their testimony though with much difference in the point of miracles viz. I. We have it by the most credible humane testimony II. By such testimony as hath a natural certainty III. And by some of that testimony of God which is also a supernatural evidence Of all which I must speak in order supposing what is said before § 42. I. The only natural way of transmitting those things down to us is by Historical Conveyance And the authors of this History are both the Churches of Christ and their enemies The credibility of which Testimonies will be fullyer opened under the second degree of proofs which comprehendeth this § 43. II. That there is a natural Impossibility that our History of the Apostles gifts and miracles should be false will appear by reviewing all the particulars by which the same was proved of the Apostles testimony of the miracles of Christ And in many respects with much more advantage § 44. 1. It is naturally impossible that all Reporters could be themselves deceived For 1. They were many thousands in several Countreys through the World And therefore could not be all either mad or sensless 2. They were men that took their salvation to be most neerly concerned in the thing and were to forsake the pleasures of the World and suffer from men for their Religion and therefore could not be utterly careless in examining the thing 3. They were present upon the place and eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of all 4. The Languages were said to be spoken in their assemblies and the miracles done among them for many years even an age together And it is impossible all Countreys could be cheated by juggling in matters which their eyes and ears were such competent witnesses of for so many years together 5. They were said to be the objects of many of these miracles themselves viz. That the cures were wrought on many of them that the same Spirit was given to them all 6. And they were said to be the Agents themselves in the several works of that Spirit according to their several gifts So that their common deceit must be impossible If any man should now among us take on him to speak with divers Languages or tell the Churches that divers Languages are spoke among them in their hearing by unlearned men and that Prophesyings Interpretations miraculous cures c. are wrought among them and name the persons time and place and should tell them that they had all some sort or other of the same gifts themselves were it possible for the people to believe all this if it were a Lie Would they not say when did we ever hear your Languages or when did we ever see your Cures and other Miracles when did we see an Ananias and Saphira die When did we do any such works our selves Do we not know what we doe Men could not believe such palpable untruths in matter of publick fact so neer them among them upon them and much less could so many thousands believe this in so many Nations if it were false Because the understanding is not free in it self but per modum naturae is necessitated by cogent evidence Absurd doctrines may easily deceive many thousands and so may false History do by men at a sufficient distance But he that thinks the ears and eyes and other senses of so many thousand sound persons were all deceived thus in presence will sure never trust his own ears or eyes or sense in any thing nor expect that any man eise should ever believe him who so little believeth his own sense and understanding § 45. 2. That the reporters were not purposely the Deceivers of the World by wilfull falshood is also certain by these following evidences § 46. It was not possible that so many thousands in all Countreys should have wit and cunning enough for such a contrivance and could keep it secret among themselves that it should never be detected They that think they were all so stupid as to be themselves deceived cannot also think that they were all so cunning as to conspire the deceiving of all the World so successfully and undiscovered But it is past doubt that for their Naturals they were ordinary persons neither such mad people as all to think they saw and
the rest would quickly detect it and be upon his head § 88. 9. Yea the many Sects and Contentions among Christians and the many Hereticks that were at enmity with them would certainly have detected any combination to corrupt the Scriptures § 89. 10. Some few Hereticks in the beginning did attempt to bring in the Gospel of Nicodemus and some other forged Writings and to have corrupted some parts of Scripture and the Churches presently cryed them down § 90. 11. Most Hereticks have pleaded these same Scriptures and denyed them not to be genuine Yea Julian Celsus Porphyry and other Heathens did not deny it but took it as a certain truth § 91. 12. The ancient Writers of the Church Clemens Ignatius Justin Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Arnobius Athenagoras Lactantius Eusebius Nazianzene Nyssen Basil Chrysostom Epiphanius Hierom Augustine c. do all cite these Scriptures as we now have them in all things material § 92. 13. The Christian Emperours have inserted the mention of some passages in their Laws in the same words as they are in our Bibles § 93. 14. Several Councils have not only cited several passages out of them but pleaded them still as the Word of God and enumerated the particular Books which constitute the whole Systeme All this set together will tell any man of reason consideration and impartiality that we have much fuller certainty that these Scriptures are the same which the first Churches received from the Apostles than they can have that Virgil's Ovid's Cicero's or Plutarch's works are theirs or that the Statutes of this Land are currant Yea were it not lest I be too tedious I might distinctly shew you the forementioned threefold certainty of all this 1. A moral certainty of the strongest humane Faith 2. A natural certainty grounded upon Physical impossibilities of the contrary 3. And somewhat of a Divine supernatural attestation by the continued blessing of God on the Scriptures for the sanctifying of souls in every age And this bringeth me up to the last part of this Chapter I have all this while been shewing how the three first parts of the Spirits witness to Christ are made known to us viz. Prophecy the Holyness of the Doctrine and Miracles I come now in a word to the fourth § 94. IV. How may we certainly know the fourth part of the SPIRITS witness to Christ viz. The success of his doctrine in the Regeneration of his Disciples and the actual saving them from their sins Answ I shall answer this 1. As to the times past and 2. As to the present age § 95. 1. What men have been in times past we have but these three wayes to know 1. By the History of those ages 2. By their remaining works 3. By their successors in whom their belief and qualities are continued And 1. that there have been holy persons in all ages yea that all true Christians were such we have as good testimony as History can afford whether you will judge of them by their profession life or sufferings 2. Their remaining works are very great testimonies what a spirit of Holiness Charity and Justice doth breath in the writings of those holy men which are come to our hands Clemens Romanus Ignatius Cyprian Ephrem Syrus Macarius Augustine Gregory Nazianzene Gr. Nyssen Basil Ambrose Chrysostom Salvian Cassianus Bernard c. 3. Those that succeed them at this day in the serious profession of Christianity are a living history of the virtues of their ancestors § 96. 2. Of the sanctity of the Christians of this present age there is a double knowledge to be had 1. By them that are Regenerate themselves 2. By them that are not Between these wayes of knowledge the difference must be great § 97. 1. As he that hath learning or love to his Parents or loyalty to his King or faithfulness to his friend may know that he hath it so may he that is renewed by the Spirit of God and hath a predominant love to God a heavenly minde and conversation a hatred of sin a delight in holiness a love to all men even his enemies a contempt of the World a mastery over his fleshly appetite sense and lusts a holy Government of his passions thoughts and tongue with a longing desire to be perfect in all this and a supporting hope to see Gods glory and enjoy him in the delights of Love and Praise for evermore § 98. This evidence of the Spirit of Sanctification in our selves is not the reason or motive of our first faith but of our confirmation and fuller assurance in believing afterwards For a man must in some sort believe in Christ before he can know that he is sanctifyed by him The rest of the motives are sufficient to begin the work of Faith and are the means which God ordinarily useth to that end § 99. It is Christs appointed Method that by learning of Him and using his appointed means Men be brought up to such a degree of Holyness as to be able to discern this witness in themselves and thence to grow up to full assurance of Faith and Hope Therefore if any one that hath heard the Gospel do want this inward assuring testimony it is because they have been false to the truth and means before revealed to them He that will but enquire into the Gospel and receive it and obey it so far as he hath reason to do it and not be false to his own Reason and Interest shall receive that renewing sanctifying Spirit which will be an abiding witness in himself But if he will reject known truth and refuse known duty and neglect the most reasonable means that are proposed to him he must blame himself if he continue in unbelief and want that evidence which others have Suppose that in a common Plague one Physician should be famed to be the only and infallible Curer of all that take his remedies and suppose many defame him and say He is but a Deceiver and others tell you He hath cured us and many thousands and we can easily convince you that his Remedies have nothing in them that is hurtfull and therefore you may safely try them especially having no other help He that will so far believe in him and trust him now as to try his Remedies may live but he that will not must blame none but himself if he die of his disease He that tryeth shall know by his own cure and experience that his Physician is no Deceiver And he that will not and yet complaineth that he wanteth that experimental knowledge doth but talk like a peevish self-destroyer § 100. 2. He that yet hath not the evidence of the Spirit of Regeneration in himself may yet be convinced that it is in others and thereby may know that Christ is indeed the Saviour of the World and no deceiver Even as in the aforesaid instance he that never tryed the Physician himself yet if he see thousands cured by him may know by that that
interest of their sect or cause and party 6. Nor by your own partial interest which will make you judge of men not as they are indeed and towards God but as they either answer or cross your interests and desires 7. Nor must you judge of all by some that prove hypocrites who once seemed sincere 8. Nor must you judge of a man by some particular fall or failing which is contrary to the bent of his heart and life and is his greatest sorrow 9. Nor must you come with a fore-stalled and malicious mind hating that holiness your self which you enquire after for malice is blind and a constant false interpreter and a slanderer 10. You must know what Holiness and Honesty is before you can well judge of them These conditions are all so reasonable and just that he that liveth among religious honest men and will stand at a distance unacquainted with their lives and maliciously revile them upon the seduction of false reports or of interest either his own interest or the interest of a faction and will say I see no such honest and renewed persons but a company of self-conceited hypocrites this man 's confirmed infidelity and damnation is the just punishment of his wilful blindness partiality and malice which made him false to God to truth and to his own soul § 107. It is not some but All true Christians that ever were or are in the world who have within them this witness or evidence of the Spirit of Regeneration As I have before said Christ will own no others Rom. 8. 4 5 6 7 8 9. 2 Cor. 5.17 Luk. 14.26.33 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts Indeed the Church visible which is but the congregate Societies of professed Christians hath many in it that have none of this Spirit or grace but such are only Christians equivocally and not in the primary proper sense 1 Joh. 5.7 8 9 10. There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son § 108. The more any one is a Christian in degree the more he hath of this witness of the sanctifying Spirit in himself and the holier he is § 109. The nearer any Philosopher or others are like to Christians the nearer they come to this renewed Image of God § 110. As this Image of God the holiness of the soul is the very end and work of a true Saviour so the true effecting of it on all true Christians is actually their begun salvation and therefore the standing infallible witness of Christ which should confound unbelief in all that are indeed his own This which I spake of the fore going Chapter is a testimony in every holy soul which the gates of hell shall not prevail against He that undertaketh to cure all of the Plague or Stone or Gout or Fever that will take his medicines and be ruled by him is certainly no deceiver if he do that which he undertaketh He that undertaketh to teach all men Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Musick c. who will come and learn of him is certainly no deceiver if he do it What is it that Jesus Christ hath undertaken Think of that and then tell me whether he be a deceiver He never undertook to make his Disciples Kings or Lords or rich or honourable in the world nor yet to make them the best Logicians Orators Astronomers Mathematicians Physicians Musicians c. but to make them the best men to renew them to the love of God in holiness and thereby to save them from their sins and give them repentance unto life Nor hath he promised this to all that are baptized or called Christians but only to those that sincerely consent to learn of him and take his counsel and use the remedies which he prescribeth them And is it not certain that Christ doth truly perform this undertaking How then can he be a deceiver who doth perform all that he undertaketh Of this all true Christians have a just demonstration in themselves which is his witness Object But Christ undertaketh more than this even to bring us to everlasting blessedness in heaven Answ It is our comfort that he doth so but me-thinks its easie to believe him in that if he perform the rest For 1. I have proved in the first part of this Book that by the light of nature a future life of retribution must be expected and that man is made for a future happiness 2. And who then should have that happiness but the holy and renewed souls Doth not natural reason tell you that so good a God will shew his love to those that are good that is to those that love him 3. And what think you is to be done to bring any man to heaven but to pardon him and make him holy 4. And the nature of the work doth greatly help our faith For this holiness is nothing but the beginning of that happiness When we find that Christ hath by his Spirit begun to make us know God and love him and delight in him and praise him it is the easier to make us believe that he will perfect it He that promiseth to convey me safely to the Antipodes may easily be believed when he hath brought me past the greatest difficulties of the voyage He that will teach me to sing artificially hath merited credit when he hath taught me the gradual tones the Scale of Musick the Sol-fa-ing the Cliffs the Quantity the Moods the Rules of time c. He that causeth me to love God on earth may be believed if he promise me that I shall love him more in heaven And he that causeth me to desire heaven above earth before I see it may be believed when he promiseth that it shall be my great delight when I am there It is God's work to love them that love him and to reward the obedient and I must needs believe that God will do his work and will never fail the just expectations of any creature All my doubt is whether I shall do my part and whether I shall be a prepared subject for that felicity and he that resolveth this resolveth all He that will make me fit for
fruition is our state in patriâ our end and perfection and not fit for the state of trial and travellers in the way § 12. 2. If I had been to choose who this Messenger should be I could have preferred none before him who is the very Wisdom Truth and Word of God Had it been but an Angel I might have thought that his Indefectibility and Veracity is uncertain to mankind on earth but Wisdom and Truth it self can never lie § 13. 3. If I had been to choose in what way this Messenger should converse with man as an effectual and suitable Teacher of these Mysteries and how the work of Mediation between God and man should be performed I could have desired no fitter way than that he should assume our nature and in that nature familiarly instruct us and be our example and our High Priest toward God by his Merit Sacrifice and Intercession § 14. 4. Had I been to choose what way he should prove his Message to be of God I could not have chosen a more satisfying way than that of Prophecy Sanctity and open numerous and uncontrouled Miracles with his own Resurrection and Ascension and giving the holy Ghost to be his Advocate and Witness continually to the world § 15. 5. I could not have expected that these Miracles should be done in the sight of all the persons in the world in every place and age for then they would be but as common works but rather before such chosen Witnesses as were fit to communicate them to others § 16. 6. Nor could I have chosen a fitter way for such Witnesses to confirm their testimony by than by the same Spirit of holiness and power and by such a stream of Miracles as the Apostles wrought and such success in the actual renovation of their followers § 17. 7. Nor could I well have chosen a more meet and convincing way of History or Tradition to convey down all these things to us than that before described which hath been used by God § 18. 8. Nor could I have chosen any one standing Seal and Witness of Christ so fit for all persons learned and unlearned and to endure through all generations as is the actual saving of men by the real renovation of their hearts and lives by the holy Spirit reclaiming them from selfishness sensuality worldliness and other sin and bringing them up to the Image of God's holiness in love and heavenliness which is the continued work of Christ So that when God hath done all things so as my very reason is constrained to acknowledge best what should I desire more I confess I feel still that my nature would fain be satisfied by the way of sight and sense Could I see heaven and hell I think it would most effectually end all doubts But my Reason is satisfied that it is a thing unmeet and utterly unsuitable to a world that must be morally governed and conducted to their end § 19. XI The temptations of Satan by which he would hinder us from faith love and obedience are so palpable malicious and importunate that they do much to confirm me of the truth and goodness of that word and way which he so much resisteth I think that there are few men good or bad if they will observe both the inward suggestions with which they are oft solicited for matter manner and season and the outward impediments to every good work and invitations to evil which they meet with in their conversations but may be convinced that there are malicious spirits who are enemies to Christ and us and continually by temptations fight against him § 20. XII The Devils contracts with Witches opposing Christ and engaging them to renounce their Baptism and to forsake his ways is some confirmation of the Christian verity That Witches really there are as I said before he that will read Remigius and Bodin only may be satisfied as also the Malleus maleficorum Danaeus c. and the numerous instances in Suffolk and Essex about 21 years ago may further satisfie them And that the Devil draweth them to such renunciations of the Covenant and Ordinances of Christ the many Histories of it are full proof § 21. XIII Though many such reports are fabulous and delusory yet there have been certainly proved in all ages such Apparitions as either by opposition or defence have born some testimony to the Christian faith Of both these last see what I have written in my Treat of Infidelity and in the Saints Rest Part 2. And read Lavater de Spectris Zanchius tom 3. lib. 4 cap. 10. and cap. 20. Daelrio c. And what I said before especially the Narrative called The Devil of Mascon and Dr. Moor of Atheism § 22. XIV The speeches and actions of persons possessed by the Devil usually raging blasphemously against Christ doth somewhat confirm the Christian verity That there are and have been many such there hath been unquestionable evidence See my Saints Rest part 2. page 258 c. Zanchius tom 3. lib. 4. cap. 10. page 288. Forestus de Venenis observ 8. in Schol. Pet. Mart. Loc. Com. Clas 1. cap. 9. Fernel de abdit rerum causis lib. 2. cap. 16. Platerus observ pag. 20. de stupore Doemon c. Tertul. Apol. cap. 23. Cyprian Epis ad Demetrium Origen in Matth. 17. Augustin de Divinat Doemon c. § 23. XV. Lastly the testimony of the enemies of Christianity is some encouragement to faith What conjectures there be that Pythagoras had his knowledge from the Jews and Plato was not a stranger to Moses's writings hath been shewed by many How plain it is that the wiser and better any Heathens have been the nearer they have come in their doctrines to that of Jesus Christ I need not say much to convince the considerate that are men of reading How the Jews were convinced of the miracles of Christ and fled to the accusation of Christ as a Magician is already shewed The wisest and best of the Roman Emperours favoured them Dion Cassius in the life of Nerva Cocceius page 1. saith Caeterum Nerva omnes qui impietatis in Deos rei fuerant eos absolvi voluit exules in patriam reduxit These that were called Impietatis rei were the Jews and Christians who refused to sacrifice to Idols And he addeth Et ne servi de caetero dominos criminarentur edicto vetuit neve liceret aut impietatis aut Judaicae sectae quemquam dehinc insimulari It seemeth by this that when displeased servants would be revenged on their masters they used to accuse them of Christianity or Judaism Trajan did something against the Christians being provoked by the Jews who saith Dion Cassius in vita Trajani did make one Andrew their Captain and about Cyrene murdered of Greeks and Romans above two hundred thousand men But upon Pliny's information of the Christians innocency and unjust sufferings their persecutions were moderated Adrian also was exasperated by the Jews who
Benignitas a quibus omnia procedunt in quibus omnia subsistunt per quae omnia reguntur Pater est Potentia Filius Sapientia Sparitus sanctus Benignitas Potentia creat Sapientia gubernat â— Benignitas conservat Potentia per Benignitatem sapienter creat Sapientia per potentiam benignè gubernat Benignitas per sapientiam potenter conservat Sicut Imago in speculo cernitur sic in ratione animae Huic similitudini Dei approximat homo cui Potentia Dei dat Bonum posse sapientia tribuit scire Benignitas praeâ—tat velle Haec triplex Animae rationalis vis est scil Posse Scire Velle quae supradictis tribus fidei spei charitati cooperantur c. Read more in the Author and in Raimundus Lullius and among latter Writers in Campanella Raymundus de sabundis c. as I said before He that will give you a scheme of Divinity in the true method will but shew you how all God's Works and Laws flow from these Three Essentialities or Principles and the three great Relations founded in them His being our Owner Ruler and Chief Good And how all our duty is branch'd out accordingly in our correlations He will shew you the Trinity of Graces Faith Hope and Love and the three summary Rules the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue and in a word would shew you that the Trinity revealeth it self through the whole frame of true Theology or Morality But who is able to discern it in the smaller and innumerable branches Yea if ever it were to be hoped that our Physicks should be brought into the light of certainty and true method you would see Vnity in Trinity in all things in the world You would see that in the Sun and the other Celestial Luminaries which are the glorious Images of the Intellectual world in the Vnity of their Essence there is a Moving Illuminating and Heating Power and that no one of these is formally the other nor is any one of them a Part of the Sun or other Luminary much less a meer accident of quality but an Essential Active Principle or Power the whole Luminary being essentially a Principle of Motion Light and Heat which are not accidents in them but Acts flowing immediately from their Essential Powers as Intellection and Volition from the Soul I shall now say no more of this but profess that the discovery of the emanations or products of the Trinity and the Image and Vestigia of it in the course of Nature and Method of Morality doth much increase my reverence to the Christian Doctrine so far is the Trinity from being to me a stumbling-block Object But what are such Trinities in Vnity as these to the Trinity of Persons in the Deity such weak arguments will but increase incredulity Will you pretend to prove the Trinity by natural reason or would you perswade us that it is but three of God's Attributes or our inadequate conceptions of him Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa Ergo No creature can reveal to us the Trinity Answ 1. It is one thing to prove the Sacred Trinity of Persons by such reason or to undertake fully to open the mystery and it is another thing to prove that the Doctrine is neither incredible nor unlikely to be true and that it implieth no contradiction or discordancy but rather seemeth very congruous both to the frame of nature and of certain moral verities This only is my task against the Infidel 2. It is one thing to shew in the creatures a clear demonstration of this Trinity of Persons by shewing an effect that fully answereth it and another thing to shew such vestigia adumbration or image of it as hath those dissimilitudes which must be allowed in any created image of God This is it which I am to do 3. He that confoundeth the Attributes of God and distinguisheth not those which express these three Essential Primalities or Active Principles to which our faculties are analogous from the rest or that thinketh that we should cast by this distinction under the name of an inadequate conception so far as we can imagine these Principles to be the same and that there is not truly in the Deity a sufficient ground for this distinction is not the man that I am willing now to debate this cause with I have done that sufficiently before Whether the distinction be real formal or denominative the Thomists Scotists and Nominals have disputed more than enough But even the Nominals say that there is a sufficient ground for the denomination which some call Virtual and some Relative And they that dispute of the distinction of Persons do accordingly differ calling it either Relative Virtual Formal or Modal or ratione ratiocinata as they imagine best And they that differ about these do accordingly differ about the difference of the faculties of our souls For my part I see not the least reason to doubt but that the Trinity of Divine Primalities Principles and Perfections hath made its impress on man's soul in its three parts viz. the Natural the Moral and the Dominative parts in the first we have an Active Power an Intellect and Free-will In the second Fortitude or holy promptitude and strength Wisdom and Goodness or Love In the third we are to the inferiour creatures their Owners Rulers and Benefactors or End and what ever you will call our faculties and their moral perfections it is undoubted that in God his Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness are his Essence and yet as much distinct as is aforesaid And what mortal man is able to say whether the distinction of Persons be either greater or less than this And remember that as I speak of Motion Light and Heat both as in the faculties of the Sun as I may call them and in the Acts or Emanations and of the Power Intellect and Will of man both as in the Faculties and Acts so do I here of the Divine Primalities yet so as supposing that in God who is called a Pure Act there is not such a difference between Power and Act as there is in man or other creatures 4. No man I think is able to prove that the works of the Trinity ad extra are any more undivided than the works of the three Essential Active Principles they are so undivided as that yet the work of Creation is eminently or most notably ascribed to the Father as is also the sending of the Son into the world the forgiving of sin for his sake c. and the work of Redemption to the Son and the work of Sanctification to the holy Ghost We shall be as loth to say that the Father or holy Ghost was incarnate for us or died for us or mediates for us as that the Power or Love of God doth the works which belong to his Wisdom And the Essential Wisdom and Love of God are no more communicable to man than the Son and holy Spirit who are said to be given to us
she spake to him as the Priests of Baal to their God that could not hear and made but matter of laughter and pity to those that heard of it There hath not been in England in our dayes that ever I could hear of either by Jesuit Fryer Quaker or other Fanatick so much as a handsome Cheat resembling a Miracle which the People might not easily see to be a transparent foolery But many wonders I have known done at the earnest Prayers of humble Christians So that he who shall compare the Fryers and Fanaticks with the Apostles and other Disciples of Christ whose Miracles were such as afore-described will see that the Devils apish design though it may cheat forsaken Souls into infidelity is such as may confirm the faith of sober men 4. And what Spirit of sanctification doth accompany any of their peculiar doctrines If any of them do any good in the World it is only by the doctrine of Christ But for their own doctrines what do they but cheat men and draw the simple into sin A Frier by his own doctrine may draw men to some foppery or ridiculous ceremony or subjection to that Clergy whose holy diligence consisteth in striving who shall be greatest and Lord it over the inheritance of Christ and rule them by constraint and not willingly A Quaker by his own doctrine may teach men to cast away their bands and cuffs and points and hat-bands and to say Thou instead of You and to put off their hats to no men and to be the publick and private revilers of the holiest and ablest Preachers of the Gospel and the best of the people and with truculent countenances to rail at God's servants in a horrid abuse of Scripture-terms If this image and work of the Devil were indeed the image and work of God it were some testimony of the verity of their doctrine And yet even these Sects do but like a flash of lightning appear for a moment and are suddenly extinct and some other sect or fraternity succeedeth them The Quakers already recant most of those rigidities on which at first they laid out their chiefest zeal If a flash of such lightning or a squib or glow-worm be argument sufficient to prove that there is no other Sun then Friers and Fanaticks as oft as they are mad may warrant you to believe that all men are so too even Christ and his Apostles Object IV. But the power of cheaters and credulity of the vulgar is almost incredible The great number of Papists who believe their holy cheats and the greater number of Mahometans who believe in a most sottish ignorant deceiver do tell us what a folly it is to believe for company Answ This is sufficiently answered already no doubt but cheaters may do much with the ignorant and credulous multitude but doth it follow thence that there is nothing certain in the world None of these were ever so successful in deceiving as to make men of sound understanding and senses believe that they saw the lame and blind and deaf and sick and lunatick healed and the dead raised and that they themselves performed the like and that they saw and were instructed by one risen from the dead when there was no such thing or that abundance of men did speak in many unlearn'd tongues and heal the lame and blind and sick and raise the dead and this for many years together in many Countries before many Congregations and that they procured the same spirit to those that believed them to do the like and that by this means they planted Churches of such believers through the world Who is it that hath been such a successful deceiver As for the Mahometans they do but believe by education and humane authority that Mahomet was a great Prophet whose sword and not his miracles hath made his sect so strong that they dare not speak against it Those few miracles which he pretendeth to are ridiculous unproved dreams And if there be found a people in the world that by a Tyrants power may be so barbarously educated as to believe any foppery how foolish and vain soever be the report it doth not follow that full and unquestionable evidence is not to be believed Object But what can be imagined by the wit of man more certain than sense when it is sound senses and all the senses and all mens senses upon an object suitable and near with convenient media c. And yet in the point of Transubstantiation it is not a few fools but Princes Popes Prelates Pastors Doctors and the most profound and subtil School-men with whole Kingdoms of People of all sorts who believe that all these senses are deceived both other mens and their own What therefore may not be believed in the world Answ And yet a nihil scitur vel certum est is an inhumane foolish consequence of all this nor hath it any force against the certainty of the Scripture Miracles For 1. All this is not a believing that positively they see and feel and taste and hear that which indeed they do not but it is a believing that they do not see and hear and feel and taste that which indeed they do they are made believe that there is no Bread and Wine when indeed there is But this is no delusion of the senses but of the understanding denying credit to the sense If you had proved that all these Princes Lords Prelates and People had verily thought that they had seen and tasted and felt Bread and Wine when it was not so then you might have carried the cause of unbelief but upon no other terms which is to be remarked than by proving that nothing in all the world is certain or credible For all the certainty of the Intellect is so far founded in the certainty of sense and resolved into it in this life that it cannot possibly go beyond it If you suppose not all mens sound consenting senses to have as much infallibility as man is capable of in this life for the ordinary conduct of his judgment you must grant that there is no further infallibility to be had by any natural way For he that is not certain of the infallibility of such consenting senses is not certain that ever there was a Bible a Pope a Priest a Man a Council a Church a World or any thing 2. And for my part I do not believe that all these that you mention do really believe that their senses are deceived though if they did it s nothing to our case Most of them are frightned for carnal preservation into a silencing of their belief others know not what Transubstantiation meaneth Many are cheated by the Priests changing the question and when they are about to consider Whether all our senses be certain that this is Bread and Wine they are made believe that the question is Whether our senses are certain of the Negative that here is not the real Body and Bloud of Christ And they
of the World and the pleasures of the flesh for the Love of God and the Hopes of Glory And he that doth thus much shall undoubtedly be saved But to think that you must ask your hearts such a question as whether you can be content to be damned for Christ is but to abuse God and your selves Indeed both Reason and Religion command us to esteem God infinitely above our selves and the Churches welfare above our own because that which is best must be best esteemed and loved But yet though we must ever acknowledge this inequality Yet that we must never disjoyn them nor set them in a positive opposition or competition nor really do any thing which tendeth to our damnation upon any pretense of the Churches good is past all question He that hath made the love of our selves and felicity inseparable from man hath made us no duty inconsistent with this inclination that is with our humanity it self For God hath conjoyned these necessary ends and we must not separate them § 3. The Interest of the Church is but the Interest of the Souls that constitute the Church and to preferre it above our own is but to preferre many above one § 4. He that doth most for the publick good and the Souls of many doth thereby most effectually promote his own consolation and salvation § 5. The Interest of God is the Vltimate End of Religion Church and particular Souls § 6. Gods Interest is not any addition to his Perfection or Blessedness but the pleasing of his Will in the Glory of his Power Wisdom and Goodness shining forth in Jesus Christ and in his Church § 7. Therefore to promote Gods Interest is by promoting the Churches Interest § 8. The Interest of the Church consisteth I. Intensivè in its HOLYNESS II. Conjunctivè harmonicè in its Unity Concord and Order III. Extensivè in its increase and the multiplication of Believers § 9. I. The HOLYNESS of the Church consisteth 1. In its Resignation and submission to God its Owner 2. In its subjection and obedience to God its Ruler 3. In its Gratitude and Love to God its Benefactor and Ultimate End § 10. These acts consist 1. In a right estimation and Belief of the minde 2. In a right Volition Choice and Resolution of the Will 3. In the right ordering of the Life § 11. The Means of the Churches HOLYNESS are these 1. Holy Doctrine Because as all Holiness entereth by the understanding so Truth is the instrumental cause of all § 12. 2. The holy serious reverent skilfull and diligent preaching of this doctrine by due explication proof and application suitably to the various auditors § 13. 3. The holy lives and private converse of the Pastors of the Church § 14. 4. Holy Discipline faithfully administred encouraging all that are godly and comforting the penitent and humbling the proud and disgracing open sin and casting out the proved impenitent gross sinners that they infect not the rest embolden not the wicked and dishonour not the Church in the eyes of the unbelievers § 15. 5. The election and ordination of able and holy Pastors fit for this work § 16. 6. The conjunct endeavours of the wisest and most experienced members of the flock not usurping any Ecclesiastical office but by their wisdom and authority and example in their private capacities seconding the labours of the Pastors and not leaving all to be done by them alone § 17. 7. Especially the holy instructing and governing of families by catechizing inferiours and exhorting them to the due care of their souls and helping them to understand and remember the publick teaching of the Pastors and praying and praising God with them and reading the Scripture and holy books especially on the Lord's day and labouring to reform their lives § 18. 8. The blameless lives and holy conference converse and example of the members of the Church among themselves Holiness begetteth holiness and encreaseth it as fire kindleth fire § 19. 9. The unity concord and love of Christians to one another § 20. 10. And lastly holy Princes and Magistrates to encourage piety and to protect the Church and to be a terrour to evil doers These are the means of holiness § 21. The contraries of all these may easily be discerned to be the destroyers of holiness and pernicious to the Church 1. Vnholy doctrine 2. Ignorant unskilful negligent cold or envious preaching 3. The unholy lives of them that preach it 4. Discipline neglected or perverted to the encouraging of the ungodly and afflicting of the most holy and upright of the flocks 5. The election or ordination of insufficient negligent or ungodly Pastors 6. The negligence of the wisest of the flock or the restraint of them by the spirit of jealousie and envy from doing their private parts in assistance of the Pastors 7. The neglect of holy instructing and governing of families and the lewd example of the governours of them 8. The scandalous or barren lives of Christians 9. The divisions and discord of Christians among themselves 10. And bad Magistrates who give an ill example or afflict the godly or encourage vice or at least suppress it not § 22. To these may be added 1. The degenerating of Religious strictness from what God requireth into another thing by humane corruptions gradually introduced as is seen among too many Friars as well as in the Pharisees of old 2. A degenerating of holy Institutions of Christ into another thing by the like gradual corruptions as is seen in the Roman Sacrifice of the Mass 3. The degenerating of Church-Offices by the like corruptions as is seen in the Papacy and its manifold supporters 4. The diversion of the Pastors of the Church to secular employments 5. The diminishing the number of the Pastors of the Church as proportioned to the number of souls as if one school-master alone should have ten thousand scholars or ten thousand souldiers but one or two officers 6. The pretending of the soul and power of Religion to destroy the body or external part or making use of the body or external part to destroy the soul and power and setting things in opposition which are conjunct 7. The preferring either the imposition or opposition of things indifferent before things necessary 8. An apish imitation of Christ by Satan and his instruments by counterfeiting inspirations revelations visions prophesies miracles apparitions sanctity zeal and new institutions in the Church 9. An over-doing or being righteous over much by doing more than God would have us over-doing being one of the devils ways of undoing When Satan pretendeth to be a Saint he will be stricter than Christ as the Pharisees were in their company Sabbath-rest and ceremonies and he will be zealous with a fiery consuming zeal 10. Accidentally prosperity it self consumeth piety in the Church if it occasion the perdition of the world the Church is not out of danger of it § 23. II. The