their lives to rob and kill as if they were of little worth yea when they know that they must die how desperately go they to the gallows and how little make they of their lives It s true as was aforesaid that nature abhorreth death but we see among Souldiers that he that at first is timerous when he hath been used a while to kill men or to see them kill'd by thousands groweth senseless almost regardless of his life and will make as it were a jest of death And when it is so ordinary a thing with men to kill birds and fishes and beasts for their daily food and pleasure why should they not easily bear their own if they look for nothing after death A beast loveth his life as well as we and our death is no more painful than theirs and we should have as much courage as a beast Especially men that live a poor and miserable life on earth would little fear that death which endeth it and so humane Government it self would be in vain He that would have an instrument to revenge him on his enemy to kill his Governour or do any villany in the world if it were not for fear of another world might find enow among Poor villains that by misery or melancholly are a-weary of their lives At least as long as they run but a hazard like a Souldier in fight and may possibly scape by craft or flight or friends or strength what wickedness will they not commit What Prince so just that hath not some rebellious Subject or some Enemy that seeks his life What man so good that is not maliced by some Who hath mony or an estate which one or other doth not desire and if there were nothing but death and annihilation to restrain men what Prince what person had any security of his life or estate If a Rogue once grow but sensual and idle he will deliberately resolve I will venture my life to live in pleasure rather than live in certain toil and misery a short life and a sweet is better than a longer which is miserable and must end at last We see if once men be perswaded that they shall die like beasts that they are not much troubled at it because they think that when they have no being they shall have no fear nor care nor grief nor trouble nor pain nor want And though right improved Reason which hath higher expectations makes a greater matter of the loss of them yet sensual men so brutine themselves that they grow contented with the felicity of a Bruit and are not much troubled that they have no more Annihilation therefore certainly is a penalty utterly insufficient even to keep any common Order in the World as I proved before And therefore it is certain that the penalty inflicted hereafter will be greater than Annihilation And if so it must contain with the Being of the Creature a suffering worse than the loss of Being § 35. The Belief of a Hell or endless punishment being that which is de facto the restraint of the Obedient part of the World and that which proveth too weak with the Disobedient part it thence followeth that a Hell or endless punishment will be inflicted The Reasons I have given before 1. Because that Experience sheweth that the Threatning of Hell is necessary in the Law therefore it self is necessary in the execution 2. Because God doth not govern the World by deceit § 36. God will inflict more punishment for the final rejection of his Government than Kings do for treason and rebellion against thousands There is no proportion between God and Man and between a fault against God and against Man Therefore if racks torments and death be justly inflicted for Treason against a King much more may be expected for rebellion against God Obj. But mens sins do God no hurt as they do the King Answ They do wrong where they do no hurt It is not for want of Malignity in sin but through the perfections of God that they do not hurt him But they displease him and injure him and they hurt the World and the sinner himself who is not his own A Child is to be corrected for many faults which do his Father no harm It is not hurting God that is the Cause that sin is punished Obj. But God is mercifull as well as just Answ True and therefore he shewed mercy to sinners in the day of Mercy And it is for the contempt and abuse of mercy that he condemneth them If the Mercy abused had been less the sin and punishment had been less A mercifull King and Judge will hang a Murderer or Traytor Mercy to the good requireth punishment of the bad Gods Attributes are not contrary He is mercifull to the due Objects of mercy and hath penal Justice for the Objects of that Justice Obj. But after this life the ends of punishment cease therefore so will the punishment For there will be none in the next World to be warned by it nor any further sin to be restrained unless it be a Castigatory Purgatory for the sinner himself Answ 1. I have proved that the Law was necessary to the Government of this World And if it was necessary that God say everlasting death shall be the wages of sin then his Truth and Justice make the execution necessary afterwards 2. When this life is ended we look for a New Heaven and a New Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness And the penalties of the sinners of this World may be a means of that righteousness of the next as the punishment of the Devils is a warning to us and proposed to us for our terror and restraint 3. How little know we whether thousands of the Orbs which we see are not inhabited and whether the penalties of Earthly sinners may not be a warning to any of those superiour Worlds God hath not acquainted us with all the uses that he can make of sinners punishments And therefore when Nature telleth us what is due it is folly to say it will not be because God hath no use for it Obj. But Hell is a cruelty which expresseth tyranny rather than wise justice Answ That 's but the voice of Folly partiality and guilt Every thief that is hanged is like enough to think the same of his own Punishment and Judge If you think it such a cruelty why was not the threatning of it enough to govern you and to counterpoise a Feather the trifles of sordid fleshly pleasure Why did you choose it in the choice of sin were you not told of it and was not Life and Death offered to your choice Would you choose that which you think it is cruelty to inflict who is it that is cruel to you but your selves Why will you now be so cruel to your own souls and then call God cruel for giving you your choice O sinners as you are wise as you are men as ever you care what becometh of you for ever
him who will live such a Holy Life 114 CHAP. XIV That there is a Life of Retribution after this proved 119 CHAP. XV. Of the Intrinsecal Evils of SIN and of the PERPETVAL PVNISHMENT due to the Sinner by the undoubted Law of Nature 156 CHAP. XVI Of the present sinfull and miserable state of the World 176 CHAP. XVII What Naturall Light declareth of the Mercy of God to Sinners and of the Hopes and Means of Mans Recovery 182 PART II. Of CHRISTIANITY and Supernatural Revelation CHAP. I. OF the need of a clearer Light or fuller Revelation of the Will of God than all that hath been opened before p. 191 CHAP. II. Of the several RELIGIONS which are in the World 198 CHAP. III. Of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION and 1. What it is 204 CHAP. IV. Of the Nature and PROPERTIES of the Christian Religion 229 CHAP. V. Of the CONGRVITIES in the Christian Religion which make it the more easily credible and are great Preparatives to Faith 241 CHAP. VI. Of the WITNESS of JESVS CHRIST or the great demonstrative Evidence of his Verity and Authority viz. The SPIRIT In 4. parts 1. Antecedently by PROPHECY 2. Constitutively and Inherently the Image of God on his Person Life and Doctrine 3. Concomitantly by the Miraculous Power and Works of Christ and his Disciples 4. Subsequently in the actual Salvation of men by Renovation Opened Notes added 258 CHAP. VII Of the subservient Proofs and Means by which the forementioned Evidences are brought to our certain knowledge 302 How we know the antecedent Prophetical Testimony and the Constitutive Inherent Evidence How we know the Concomitant Testimony of Miracles 1. By Humane Testimony 2. By Evidence of Natural Certainty 3. By Divine attestation in the Testifyers Miracles The Proofs of that Divine attestation with the Witnesses 1. In the holy Constitution of their Souls and Doctrine 2. In their Miracles and Gifts 3. In the success of their Doctrine to mens sanctification How the Churches testimony of the Disciples Miracles and Doctrine is proved 1. By most credible Humane Testimony 2. By such as hath Natural Evidence of Certainty 3. By some further Divine attestation The way or Means of the Churches attestation and Tradition The Scriptures proved the same which the Apostles delivered and the Churches received How we may know the 4th part of the Spirits Testimony viz. The Successes of Christian Doctrine to mens sanctification What Sanctification is and the acts or parts of it Consectaries from p. 302. to 350 CHAP. VIII Of some other subservient and Collateral Arguments for the Christian Verity 350 CHAP. IX Yet Faith hath many Difficulties to overcome What they are and what their Causes 365 CHAP. X. The Intrinsecal Difficulties in the Christian Faith resolved or 24 Objections against Christianity answered 371 to 424 CHAP. XI The Extrinsecal Difficulties or 16 more Objections resolved 424 CHAP. XII The reasonable Conditions required of them who will overcome the Difficulties of Believing and will not undoe themselves by wilfull Infidelity 444 The summ of all in an Addresse to God 453 457 CHAP. XIII Consectaries I. What Party of Christians should we joyn with or be of seeing they are divided into so many Sects 464 CHAP. XIV II. Of the true Interest of Christ and his Church and the Souls of Men of the means to promote it and its Enemies and Impediments in the World Which being only named in brief Propositions should be the more heedfully perused by those that dare pretend the Interest of Religion and the Church for the proudest or the most dividing practices and those which most directly hinder the successefull preaching of the Gospel the pure Worshipping of God and the saving of Mens Souls 466. The Conclusion or an Appendix defending the Souls Immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other Pseudo-philosophers OBJECTION I. MAtter and Motion only may do all that which you ascribe to Souls p. 495 OBJECT II. By Sense Imagination Cogitation Reason you cannot prove the Soul to be incorporeal and immortal because the Bruits partake of all these 523 OBJECT III. Humane Souls are but Forms and Forms are but the qualities or modes of Substances and therefore perish when seperated from Bodies 535 OBJECT IV. The Soul is material and consequently mortal because it dependeth upon matter in its Operations and therefore in its Essence 539 OBJECT V. No immaterial Substance moveth that which is material as a principle of its Operations but the Soul so moveth the Body Ergo 540 OBJECT VI. The Soul in our sleep acteth irrationally according to the fortuitous motion of the spirits Ergo 543 OBJECT VII Reason is no proof of the Souls Immateriality because Sense which the Bruits have is the more perfect apprehension 543 OBJECT VIII Sensation and Intellection are both but Reception The Passivity therefore of the Soul doth shew its Materiality 544 OBJECT IX There is nothing in the Intellect which was not first in the Sense c. Ergo the Soul that can reach but things corporeal is such it self 547 OBJECT X. That which things Corporeal work on is Corporeal but c. 551 OBJECT XI That is not incorporeal which knoweth not it self to be so nor hath any notion but Negative and Metaphorical of Incorporeal Beings 551 OBJECT XII The Soul is generated Ergo corruptible 555 OBJECT XIII Omne quod oritur interit That which is not eternal as to past duration is not eternal as to future duration But c. 567 OBJECT XIV You have none but Moral Arguments for the Souls Immortality 568 OBJECT XV. You seem to confess that it is not the endless duration of the Soul but only a future state of Retribution which you can prove from Nature alone 568 OBJECT XVI Both Soul and Body are like a Candle in fluxu continuo Ergo being not long the same are uncapable of a Life of Retribution 569 OBJECT XVII The Soul returneth to the Anima Mundi or Element of Souls and so loseth its Individuation and is uncapable of Retribution 571 OBJECT XVIII The Fictions of the Platonists about their several Vehicles and such like do make their Doctrine the more to be suspected 574 OBJECT XIX The Souls actings will not be such as they are now by Corporeal Spirits and Idea's Ergo it will be uncapable of Retribution 578 OBJECT XX. The belief of the Souls Immortality doth fill men with fears and draw them to superstition and trouble the Peace of Kingdoms c. 579 In Objection about the Worlds Eternity What Christianity saith about it 582 The Testimony of Socrates and Zenocrates of the Souls Immortality 589 â—icero's Doctrine and his redargution of the Somatists at large 590 The Stoicks neerness to the Doctrine of Christianity with their particular Moral Tenets and their Praises by the Learned and Pious Mr. T. Gataker 595 The Stoicks Platonists and other Philosophers opinion of the sufficiency of Virtue to be Mans Felicity against the Epicurean Doctrine of Pleasure Vindicated It importeth a
I prove you foolish in your Infidelity And if you will conjecture then that there may as many of those other Regions be damned 1. You shew your selves much more harsh in your censures than the Christians are whose harshness you are now reproving Yea you conjecture this without all ground or probability And will you say then For ought I know it may be so Ergo Christianity is incredible Can a groundless conjecture allow any rational man such a Conclusion Obj. But you say your selves that many of the Angels fell and are now Devils Answ But we say not how many we never said that it is the whole number of the Glorious Inhabitants of all the superiour World who are called Angels as Messengers or Officers about man we know not how small a part of them comparatively it may be And of them we know not how few fell Augustine conjectured that it was the tenth part but we have no ground for any such conjecture Obj. But it is incredible that the World should perish for one mans sin whom they never knew nor could prevent Ans 1. To them that know what Generation is and what the Son is to the Father it is not incredible at all that the unholy Parents do not beget holy Children nor convey to them that which they have not themselves nor yet that God should hate the unholy Nor that the Parents choice should signifie much for their Childrens state who have no wills of their own fit for actual choice nor that restored imperfect holiness should not be conveyed to Children by natural propagation which came to the Parents by Regeneration nor that the Children of Traytors should be disinherited for their Fathers faults nor that the Children of Drunkards and Gluttons should be naturally diseased 2. No man in the World doth perish for Adams sin alone without his own Though we judge the case of Infants to allow you no exception yet to carry the controversie to them into the dark and to argue à minus notis is not the property of such as seek impartially for truth Christ hath procured a new Covenant upon which all those that hear the Gospel shall again be tryed for life or death And those that hear it not have divers means which have a tendency to their recovery and are under undenyable Obligations to use those means in order to their recovery which if they do not faithfully they perish for their own sin Should it not make Christianity the more easily credible when certain experience assureth us how prone even Infants are to sin and how universally the World is drown'd in wickedness and then to finde so admirable and suitable a Remedy revealed Obj. But Punishment is to warn others from sinning But after this life there will be none to warn therefore there will be no punishment because the end of punishing ceaseth Answ 1. It is a false position that punishment is only or chiefly to be a warning to others It is chiefly for the ultimate end of Government which secundum quid among men is the bonum publicum but simpliciter in Gods Government it is the Glorifying or demonstration of the Holiness and Justice of God the universal Governour to the pleasure of his holy will 2. It is the Penalty as Threatned in the Law and not the penalty as executed which is the first necessary means to deterre others from offending And then the execution is secondarily necessary because the Law must be fulfilled It is not the actual hanging of a murderer which is the first necessary instrument or means to restrain murderers But it is the Penalty in the Law which saith that Murderers shall be hanged And the commination of the Law would be no restraint if it were not that it relateth to a just execution So that it was necessary to the restraint of sinners in this world that God should threaten Hell in his Law And therefore it is necessary that he execute that Law or else it would be delusory and contemptible 3. How know we who shall survive this present World to whom God may make mans Hell a warning Are not the Devils now set out in Scripture for a warning to Man And how know we what other Creatures God hath to whom these punished sinners may be a warning Or whether the New Earth wherein Righteousness must dwell according to Gods Promise 2 Pet. 3.12 13. shall not have use of this warning to keep them in their righteousness As long as all these things are probable and the contrary utterly uncertain how foolish a thing is it to go from the light of a plain Revelation and Scripture and argue from our dark uncertainties and improbabilities against that light And all because self-love and guilt doth make sinners unwilling to believe the truth So much for the Objection against Hell Obj. VIII But it is incredible that all those shall be damned that live honestly and soberly and do no body harm if they do not also live a holy and heavenly life and forsake all for another World Answ It is but selfishness and blindness which maketh men call him an honest man and speak lightly of his wickedness who preferreth the dung and trifles of this World before his Maker and Everlasting glory What if a pack of Murderers Thieves and Rebels do live together in love and do one another no harm shall that excuse their murders or rebellions and give them the name of honest men What is the Creature to the Creator what greater wickedness can man commit than to deny despise and disobey his Maker and to preferre the most contemptible vanity before him and to choose the transitory pleasure of sinning before the endless fruition of his God what is wronging a Neighbour in comparison of this wrong shall a sinner refuse his everlasting happiness when it is offered him and then think to have it when he can possess the pleasure of sin no longer and all because he did no man wrong Doth he think to refuse Heaven and yet to have it If he refuse the Love of God and perfection of Holiness he refuseth Heaven It is so far from being incredible that the unholy should be damned and the Holy only saved that the contrary is impossible I would not believe an Angel from Heaven if he should tell me that one unholy Soul in sensu composito while such shall be saved and have the heavenly felicity because it is a meer contradiction For to be blessed in Heaven is to be happy in the perfect Love of God And to love God without Holiness signifieth to love him without loving him Are these the Objections of unbelief Obj. IX The Resurrection of these Numerical Bodies when they are devoured and turned into the substance of other bodies is a thing incredible Answ 1. If it be neither against the Power the Wisdom or the Will of God it is not incredible at all But it is not against any of
kept it out of the world and saved the Individuals from it will confess that man's interest is not the Measure of God's goodness especially considering what consequents also follow sin both here and hereafter 3. And as to this lower part of the Vniverse how many Nations of the Earth are drown'd in woful ignorance and ungodliness how few are the wise and good and peaceable When God could have sent them Learning and Teachers and Means of Reformation and have blessed all this Means to their deliverance So that the far greater part of this lower world hath not so much good as God could give them and the infirmities of the best do cause their dolorous complaints It is certain that God is infinitely good and that all his works also are good in their degree but withall it is certain that God in himself is the Simple Primitive Good and that created goodness principally consisteth in a conformity to his Will which is the standard and measure of it § 16. God as considered in the Infinite Perfections of his Nature and his Will is most Amiable and the object of our highest love § 17. But he is not known by us in those Perfections as seen in themselves immediately but as demonstrated and glorified expressively in his works in which he shineth to us in his goodness § 18. His works therefore are made for the apt revealing of himself as amiable to the intelligent part of his Creation They are the Book in which he hath appointed us to read and the Glass in which he hath appointed us with admiration to behold the Infinite power Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator and in which we may see that he is not only our Chief Benefactor but the Vltimate Object of our Love and so the End of all our Motions § 19. This third Relation of God to us as our Chief Good efficiently and finally is the highest and most perfective to us but is not separated from the former two but they are all marvelously conjunct and concur in the production of most of the subsequent effects of Gods providence As the Elements are conjuct but not confounded in mixed bodies and in themselves are easily to be distinguished where they are not divided and their effects sometimes also distinct but usually mix'd as are the causes so is it in the case of these three Great Relations though God's Propriety extend further than his Government because Inanimates and Bruites are capable of one and not of the other yet as to the Rational Creatures they are in reality of the same extent God is as to Right the Owner and the Ruler of all the world and also their real Benefactor and quoad debitum their ultimate end But as to consent on their parts none but the godly give up themselves to him in any one of these Relations In order of Nature God is first our Owner and then our Ruler and our chief Good or End His work in the first Relation is Arbitrary Disposal of us his work in the second is to Govern us and in the third Attraction and Felicitating But he so Disposeth of us as never to cross his rules of Government and so governeth us as never to cross his absolute Propriety and attracteth and felicitateth us in concent with his Premiant act of Government and all sweetly and wonderfully conspire the perfection of his works § 20. All these Relations are oft summed up in one name which principally importeth the last which is the persective Relation but truly includeth both the former and that is That GOD is Our FATHER As the Rational Soul doth ever include the Sensitive and Vegetative Faculties so doth God's Fatherly Relation to us include his Dominion and Government A Father is thus a kind of Image of God in this Relation For 1. he hath a certain Propriety in his children 2. He is by nature their rightful Governour 3. He is their Benefactor for they are beholden to him for their being and well-being Nature causeth him to love them and bindeth them again to love him And the Title OVR FATHER which art in Heaven includeth all these Divine Relations to us but specially expresseth the Love and Graciousness of God to us Obj. But I must go against the sense of most of the world if I take God to be infinitely or perfectly good for operari sequitur esse He that is perfectly good will perfectly do good But do we not see and feel what you said before The world is but as a wilderness and the life of man a misery We come into the world in weakness and in a case in which we cannot help our selves but are a pity and trouble to others we are their trouble that breed us and bring us up we are vexed with unsatisfied desires with troubling passions with tormenting pains and languishing weakness and enemies malice with poverty and care with losses and crosses and shame and grief with hard labour and studies with the injuries and spectacles of a Bedlam world and with fears of death and death at last Our enemies are our trouble our friends are our trouble our Rulers are our trouble and our inferiours children and servants are our trouble our possessions are our trouble and so are our wants And is all this the effect of perfect Goodness And the poor Bruits seem more miserable than we they labour and hunger and die at last to serve our will we beat them use them and abuse them at our pleasure And all the Inanimates have no sense of any good and which is worst of all the world is like a Dungeon of ignorance like an Hospital of mad-men for folly and distractedness like a band of Robbers for injury and violence like Tygers for cruelty like snarling Dogs for contention and in a word like Hell for wickedness What else sets the world together by the ears in wars and bloudshed in all generations what maketh peace-makers the most neglected men what maketh vertue and piety the mark of persecution and of common scorn how small a part of the world hath knowledge or piety And you tell us of a Hell for most at last Is all this the fruit of perfect Goodness These thoughts have seriously troubled some Answ He that will ever come to knowledge must begin at the first Fundamental Truths and in his enquiry proceed to lesser Superstructures and reduce uncertainties and difficulties to those points which are sure and plain and not cast away the plainest certain truths because they over-take some difficulties beyond them The true method of enquiry is that we first try whether there be a God that is perfectly Good or not If this be once proved beyond all controversie then all that followeth is certainly reconcilable to it for Truth and Truth is not contradictory Now that God is perfectly Good hath been fully proved before He that giveth to all the world both Heaven and Earth and all the Orbs all that Good whether Natural
they were before notwithstanding their long converse with Christ in person it being his pleasure to illuminate them by supernatural infusion that it might appear to be no contrived design to deceive the world And they were enabled to preach the word with power and by this Spirit were infallibly guided in the performance of the work of their Commissions to settle Christ's Church in a holy order and to leave on record the doctrine which he had commanded them to teach Also they themselves did heal the sick and cast out devils and prophesie and by the laying on of their hands the same holy Spirit was ordinarily given to others that believed so that Christians had all one gift or other of that Spirit by which they convinced and converted a great part of the world in a short time and all that were sincere had the gift of sanctification and were regenerate by the Spirit as well as by Baptismal water and had the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the holy Ghost which was given them A holy and heavenly mind and life with mortification contempt of the world self-denial patience and love to one another and to all men was the constant badge of all Christ's followers The first Sermon that Peter preached did convert three thousand of those sinful Jews that had crucified Christ And after that many thousands of them more were converted One of their bloody persecutors Saul a Pharisee that had been one of the murderers of the first Martyr Stephen and had haled many of them to prisons as he was going on this business was struck down by the high-way a light from Heaven shining round about him and a voice saying to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And he said Who art thou Lord And the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks And he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do And the Lord said Arise and go into the City and it shall be told thee what thou must do And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man And so Saul was led blind to Damascus where one Ananias had a vision commanding him to Baptize him and his eyes were opened This Convert called Paul did hence-forward preach the Gospel of Christ from Country to Country in Syria in Asia at Rome and a great part of the world in marvellous unwearied labours and sufferings abuses and imprisonments converting multitudes and planting Churches in many great Cities and Countries and working abundance of miracles where he went His History is laid down in part of the New Testament There are also many of his Epistles to Rome to Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Coloss Thessalonica to Timothy to Titus and to Philemon and the Hebrews as is supposed There are also the Epistles of Peter James John and Jude with the Revelation of John containing many mysterious Prophesies An Eunuch who was of great power under the Queen of Ethiopia was converted by Philip and carried the Gospel into his Country The rest of the Apostles and other Disciples carried it abroad a great part of the world especially in the Roman Empire and though every where they met with opposition and persecution yet by the power of the holy Ghost appearing in their Holiness Languages and Miracles they prevailed and planted abundance of Churches of which the most populous were at Jerusalem Antioch Rome and Alexandria And though they were all dispersed abroad the world and out of the reach of mutual converse yet did they never disagree in their Doctrine in the smallest point but proceeded through sufferings in Unity and Holiness in the work of saving Souls till most of them were put to death for the sake of Christ having left the Churches under the Government of their several Pastors according to the will of Christ This is the abstract of the History of the holy Scriptures § 14. The summ of the Doctrine of Christianity is contained in these Articles following consisting of three general Heads I. Things to be known and believed II. Things to be willed and desired and hoped III. Things to be done I. 1. There is one only GOD in Essence in Three Essential Principles POWER UNDERSTANDING and WILL or OMNIPOTENCY OMNISCIENCE and GOODNESS in Three Subsistences or Persons the FATHER the SON and the HOLY SPIRIT who is a Mind or Spirit and therefore is most Simple Incorruptible Immortal Impassionate Invisible Intactible c. and is Indivisible Eternal Immense Necessary Independent Self-sufficient Immutable Absolute and Infinite in all Perfections The Principal Efficient Dirigent and Final Cause of all the world The CREATOR of all and therefore our Absolute OWNER or Supreme RULER and our Total BENEFACTOR and CHIEF GOOD and END 2. GOD made Man for himself not to supply any want of his own but for the pleasing of his own Will and Love in the Glory of his Perfections shining forth in his works In his own Image that is with Vital Power Understanding and Free-will Able Wise and Good with Dominion over the Inferiour Creatures as being in subordination to God their OWNER their GOVERNOUR and their BENEFACTOR and END And he bound him by the Law of his Nature to adhere to GOD his MAKER by Resignation Devotion and Submission to him as his OWNER by Believing Honouring and Obeying him as his RULER and by Loving him Trusting and Seeking him Delighting in him Thanksgiving to him and Praising him as his Grand BENEFACTOR chief Good and ultimate end to exercise Charity and Justice to each other and to Govern all his inferiour faculties by Reason according to his Makers will that he so might please him and be Happy in his Love And to try him he particularly forbad him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death 3. Man being tempted by Satan to break this Law of God did believe the Tempter who promised him impunity and advancement in Knowledge and who accused God as false in his threatning and as envying Man this great advancement And so by wilfull sinning against him he fell from God and his uprightness and happiness under the displeasure of God the penalty of his Law and the power of Satan And hence we are all conceived in sin averse to good and prone to evil and condemnation is passed upon all and no meer Creature is able to deliver us 4. God so loved the World that he gave his only SON to be their REDEEMER who being the Eternal WISDOM and WORD of God and so truly GOD and one in Essence with the FATHER did assume our Nature and became Man being conceived by the HOLY SPIRIT in the Virgin Mary and born of her and called JESVS CHRIST who being Holy and without all sin did conquer the Tempter and the World fulfilling all righteousness He enacted and preached the Law or
Covenant of Grace confirming his Doctrine by abundant uncontrolled Miracles contemning the World he exposed himself to the malice and fury and contempt of sinners and gave up himself a Sacrifice for our sins and a Ransom for us in suffering death on a Cross to reconcile us to God He was buryed and went in Soul to the Souls departed And the third day he rose again having conquered death And after forty dayes having instructed and authorized his Apostles in their Office he ascended up into Heaven in their sight where he remaineth Glorified and is Lord of all the chief Priest and Prophet and King of his Church interceding for us teaching and governing us by his Spirit Ministers and Word 5. The New Law and Covenant which Christ hath procured made and sealed by his Blood his Sacraments and his Spirit is this That to all them who by true Repentance and Faith do forsake the Flesh the World and the Devil and give up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier he will give Himself in these Relations and take them as his reconciled Children pardoning their sins and giving them his grace and title to Everlasting Happiness and will glorifie all that thus persevere But will condemn the unbelievers impenitent and ungodly to everlasting punishment This Covenant he hath commanded his Ministers to proclaim and offer to all the World and to baptize all that consent thereunto to invest them Sacramentally in all these benefits and enter them into his holy Catholick Church 6. The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son did first inspire and guide the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists that they might truly and fully reveal the Doctrine of Christ and deliver it in Scripture to the Church as the Rule of our Faith and Life and by abundance of evident uncontrolled Miracles and gifts to be the great witness of Christ and of the truth of his holy Word 7. Where the Gospel is made known the HOLY SPIRIT doth by it illuminate the minds of such as shall be saved and opening and softening their hearts doth draw them to believe in Christ and turneth them from the power of Satan unto God Whereupon they are joyned to Christ the Head and into the Holy Catholick Church which is his Body consisting of all true Believers and are freely justified and made the Sons of God and a sanctified peculiar people unto him and do Love him above all and serve him sincerely in holiness and righteousness loving and desiring the Communion of Saints overcoming the Flesh the World and the Devil and living in Hope of the coming of Christ and of Everlasting life 8. At death the Souls of the Justified go to Happiness with Christ and the Souls of the wicked to misery And at the end of this World the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and will raise the Bodies of all men from the dead and will judge all the World according to the good or evil which they have done And the righteous shall go into Everlasting Life where they shall see Gods Glory and being perfected in Holiness shall love and praise and please him perfectly and be loved by him for evermore and the Wicked shall go into Everlasting punishment with the Devil II. According to this Belief we do deliberately and seriously by unfeigned consent of Will take this One God the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the Father Son and Holy Spirit for our only God our reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifyer and resolvedly give up our selves to him accordingly entering into his Church under the hands of his Ministers by the solemnization of this Covenant in the Sacrament of Baptism And in prosecution of this Covenant we proceed to stirre up our DESIRES by daily PRAYER to God in the Name of Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit in the order following 1. We desire the glorifying and hallowing of the Name of God that he may be known and loved and honoured by the World and may be well-pleased in us and we may delight in Him which is our ultimate end 2. That his Kingdom of Grace may be enlarged and his Kingdom of Glory as to the Perfected Church of the sanctified may come That Mankinde may more universally subject themselves to God their Creator and Redeemer and be saved by him 3. That this Earth which is grown too like to Hell may be made liker to the Holy ones in Heaven by a holy conformity to Gods Will and Obedience to all his Laws denying and mortifying their own fleshly desires wills and minds 4. That our Natures may have necessary support protection and provision in our daily service of God and passage through this World with which we ought to be content 5. That all our sins may be forgiven us through our Redeemer as we our selves are ready to pardon wrongs 6. That we may be kept from Temptations and delivered from sin and misery from Satan from wicked men and from our selves Concluding our Prayers with the joyfull Praises of God our Heavenly Father acknowledging his Kingdom Power and Glory for ever III. The Laws of Christian PRACTICE are these 1. That our Souls do firmly adhere to God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer by Faith Love Confidence and Delight that we seek him by desire obedience and hope meditating on himself his word and works of Creation Redemption and Sanctification of Death Judgement Heaven and Hell exercising Repentance and mortifying sin especially atheism unbelief and unholiness hardness of heart disobedience and unthankfulness pride worldliness and flesh-pleasing Examining our hearts about our Graces our Duties and our sins Watchfully governing our thoughts affections passions senses appetites words and outward actions Resisting temptations and serving God with all our faculties and glorifying him in our Hearts our Speeches and our Lives 2. That we worship God according to his Holiness and his Word in Spirit and Truth and not with Fopperies and Imagery according to our own devices which may dishonour him and lead us to Idolatry 3. That we ever use his Name with special Reverence especially in appealing to him by an Oath abhorring prophaneness perjury and breach of Vows and Covenants to God 4. That we meet in Holy Assemblies for his more solemn Worship where the Pastors teach his Word to their Flocks and lead them in Prayer and Praise to God administer the Sacrament of Communion and are the Guides of the Church in Holy things whom the people must hear obey and honour especially the Lords Day must be thus spent in Holiness 5. That Parents educate their Children in the Knowledge and Fear of God and in obedience of his Laws and that Princes Masters and all Superiours govern in Holiness and Justice for the glory of God and the common good according to his Laws And that Children love honour and obey their Parents and all Subjects their Rulers in due subordination unto God 6. That
and peace If you say that the contrary appeareth in the practice of Christians I shall answer that with the rest of the objections by themselves I shall only say now That if this that I have laid down be certainly the doctrin of Christ then it is as certain that the contrary is contrary to Christianity and that so far such persons are no Christians It is hypocrites that take up the name of Christians for worldly advantage and are no Christians indeed who live thus contrary to the nature and precepts of Christianity which they profess § 10. The Christian Religion is most exactly just in its Rules and Precepts and vehemently condemneth all injustice fraud persecution and oppression What juster Rule can there be than to suit all our actions to the perfect Law of Primitive Justice and to do as we would be done by What more effectual principle of Justice can there be than Charity and Self-denial to love all men for God and to account our neighbours welfare as our own Bring all men but to love their neighbours as themselves and they will have little inclination to cruelty oppression fraud or any other injuries And when Heaven is made the reward of Justice and Mercy and Hell the reward of Injustice and Cruelty we have the greatest Motives that humane nature is capable of § 11. The Christian Religion is the most excellent Rule for order and government in the world and for the peace of Kingdoms and their stability in that it prescribeth the only method of true Government and condemneth both impiety and tyranny in the Governours and all sedition and rebellion in the subjects 1. It setteth Government on the only foundation the Authority which men receive from God and teacheth men to rule as the Officers of the Universal King in due subordination to him for his glory and according to his Laws and letteth them know that they have no power but from God and therefore none against him and that they must be judged by him themselves for all their Government and that all oppression tyranny and persecution will be to their own confusion in the end 2. It teacheth Subjects to honour their Superiours and to obey them in all things in which they disobey not God and to be patient under all oppressions and to avoid all murmurings tumults and rebellions and this for fear of God's condemnation And certainly these are the most powerful means for peace and for the happy order and government of Societies § 12. The Christian Religion greatly condemneth all fierceness and impatience and discontentedness and requireth a meek and patient frame of minde and therefore must needs conduce to the forementioned Vnity and Peace § 13. It is wholly for sincerity and uprightness of heart and greatly condemneth all hypocrisie It giveth Laws for the very disposition of the minde and for the government of the secretest thoughts affections and actions and condemeth every sin which the World observeth not or condemneth not § 14. I finde that the Christian Religion is not fitted to any Worldly designs but only to the sanctifying of mens hearts and lives and the saving of their Souls Christ did not contrive by dominion or riches to win the ungodly multitude to be his admirers but by holy Precepts and Discipline to make his Disciples good and happy Mahomet took the way of violence and fleshly baits and blinde obedience to bring in the multitude and to advance a Worldly Kingdom But Christ goeth the clean contrary way He calleth men to a life of Self-denyal and patient suffering in the World he calleth them to contemn the riches honours and pleasures of the World and to forsake all even life it self for him and telleth them that they can on no lower terms than these be Disciples He hath set up a Discipline in his Church to cast out all Drunkards Fornicators Covetous-persons Railers and other such scandalous sinners who are impenitent and will have none in his true mystical Church but such as are truly holy nor none in his visible Church but such as are professed to be so He turneth away all that come not up to his spiritual and holy terms and he casteth out all that notoriously violate them if they do not repent § 15. The Christian Religion containeth all things Necessary to mans happiness and taketh men off unprofitable speculations and doth not overwhelme the mindes of men with multitudes of needless things It is for the most things unnecessary as well as uncertain with which the Philosophers have troubled the World They have lost true wisdom in a Wilderness of fruitless controversies But Christianity is a Religion to make men holy and happy and therefore it containeth these necessary substantial Precepts which conduce hereunto And it taketh men off unnecessary things which else would take up their mindes and talk and time from things necessary And so it s suited to the generality of men and not only to a few that have nothing else to do but wander in a Wilderness of vain Speculations and it is fitted to Mans best and ultimate end and not to a phantastical delight § 16. It tendeth to exalt the minde of man to the most high and heavenly elevation that it is capable of in this life For it teacheth men as is aforesaid to live in the Spirit upon the things above in the continual Love of God and desires and endeavours for everlasting glory Than which mans minde hath nothing more high and honourable and excellent to be employed about § 17. It leadeth men to the joyfullest Life that humane Nature is capable of on Earth For it leadeth us to the assurance of the Love of God and of the pardon of all our sins and of endless glory when we die It assureth us that we shall live for ever in the sight of the glory of God with Jesus Christ and be like the Angels and be perfected in holiness and happiness and be employed in the Love and Praises of God for evermore It commandeth us to live in the foresight of these everlasting Pleasures and to keep the taste of them alwayes upon our mindes and in daily meditation on the Love of God to live in the daily Returns of Love and to make this our continual Feast and Pleasure And can the minde of man on Earth have higher and greater delights than these § 18. The Christian Religion forbiddeth men no Bodily pleasure but that which hindereth their greater pleasure and tendeth to their pain or sorrow nor doth it deny them any earthly thing which is truly for their good Indeed it taketh the bruitish appetite and flesh to be an unfit Judge of what is truly good and desireable for us And it forbiddeth much which the Flesh doth crave Because either it tendeth to the wrong of others or the breach of order in the World or to the corrupting of mans minde and diverting it from things sublime and
earthly things as is necessary to them that will attain it For few men will seek with their utmost labour or let go all other things to attain a happiness which they are not well perswaded of the reality of And though sound reason might well perswade them of it yet reason is now become so blind and unsound and partial and enslaved to the flesh that it is not fit for such an office according to our necessity without some heavenly Revelation § 9. And it is exceeding congruous to mans necessity who is faln under the power and fears of death as well as the doubts and estrangedness to the other world that he that will save and heal us do himself in our nature rise from the dead and ascend up into heaven to give us thereby a visible demonstration that indeed there is a Resurrection and a life to come for us to look for Though God was not obliged to do thus much for us yet Reason telleth us that if he will do it it is very suitable to our necessities For all the reasonings in the world do not satisfie in such things so much as ocular demonstration when we either see a man that is risen from the dead or have certain testimony of it it facilitateth the belief of our own resurrection and he that is gone into Heaven before us assureth us that a Heaven there is § 10. When God in mercy would forgive and save a sinful people it was very congruous to reason that there should be some fit means provided to demonstrate his holiness in his justice and to vindicate the honour of his Laws and Government and so to secure the ends of both For if God make a penal Law and execute it not but let man sin with impunity and do nothing which may deter him nor demonstrate his Justice as much as the sinners sufferings would do it would tell the world that he that gave them the Law and thereby told them that he would rule and judge them by it did but deceive them and meant not as he spake And it would bring both the Law and Governour into contempt and perswade men to sin without any fear and he that was question'd for the second crime would say I ventured because I suffered not for the first It was the devils first way of tempting men to sin to perswade mankind that God meant not as he spake in his threatning of their death but that they should not die though God had threatned it And if God himself should by his actions say the same it would tempt them more to sin than Sathan could as his credibility is greater Therefore he that is a Governour must be just as well as merciful and if God should have pardoned sinners without such a sacrifice or substitute means as might preserve the honour of his Law and Government and the future innocency of his Subjects as well as their punishment in the full sense of the Law would have done the consequents would have been such as I will leave to your own judgements § 11. And it was very congruous to reason that so odious a thing as sin should be publickly condemned and put to shame although the sinner be forgiven As it was done in the life and death of Christ For the purity of God is irreconcileable to sin though not to the sinner and therefore it was meet that the sin have all the publick shame though the sinner escape and that God be not like weak imperfect man who cannot do good without doing or encouraging evil § 12. It is congruous to our condition that seeing even the upright do renew their sins their consciences should have some remedy for the renewal of their peace and comfort that it sink them not into desperation which is most suitably provided for them in Jesus Christ For when we were pardoned once and again and oft and yet shall sin he that knoweth the desert of sin and purity of God will have need also to know of some stated certain course of remedy § 13. It was meet that the sinful world have not only a certain Teacher but also a perfect pattern before them of righteousness love self-denial meekness patience contempt of lower things c. which is given us by Jesus Christ alone And therefore the Gospel is written Historically with Doctrins intermixt that we might have both perfect Precepts and Pattern § 14. It was very congruous to a world universally lapsed that God should make with it a new Law and Covenant of Grace and that this Covenant should tender us the pardon of our sins and be a conditional act of oblivion And that sinners be not left to the meer Law of perfect Nature which was to preserve that innocency which they have already lost To say Thou shalt perfectly obey to a man that hath already disobeyed and is unfitted for perfect obedience is no sufficient direction for his pardon and recovery Perhaps you 'l say That God's gracious Nature is instead of a Law of Grace or Promise But though that be the spring of all our hopes yet that cannot justly quiet the sinner of it self alone because he is just as well as merciful and Justice hath its objects and pardon dependeth on the free-will of God which cannot be known to us without its proper signs The Devils may say that the Nature of God is good and gracious and so may any condemned malefactor say of a good and gracious Judge and King and yet that is but a slender reason to prove his impunity or pardon All will confess that absolute pardon of all men would be unbeseeming a wise and righteous Governour And if it must be conditional who but God can tell what must be the condition If you say That Nature telleth us That converting Repentance is the condition I answer 1 Nature telleth us That God cannot damn a holy loving Soul that hath his Image but yet it telleth us not That this is the only or whole condition 2. It is not such a Repentance as lieth but in a frightned wish that the sin had not been done but such a one as consisteth in the change of the mind and heart and life and containeth a hatred to the sin repented of and a love to God and Holiness and we have as much need of a Saviour to help us to this repentance as to help us to a pardon § 15. It is very congruous to our miserable state that the Condition of this Covenant of Grace should be on our part the acknowledgment of our Benefactor and the thankful acceptance of the benefit and a hearty consent for the future to follow his conduct and use his appointed means in order to our full recovery which is the condition of the Christian Covenant § 16. Seeing man's fall was from his God unto himself especially in point of love and his real recovery must be by bringing up his soul to the love of God again
villanies though they call it railing nor will he flatter proud rebellious dust though they call flattery a necessary civility nor will he give leave to his Messengers to leave sin in honour and to let the proud do what their list and quietly damn themselves and others without plain reproof though it be called unreverent sawciness or sedition 2. And he that considereth how little Title Caesar had to the Kingdom of the Jews and that the sword alone is a better proof of force and strength than of Authority and is a Plea which an Usurper may have on his side will rather praise the submission and peaceableness of Christ than blame him as disloyal But for the doctrin of Obedience in general who hath ever taught it more plainly and pressingly than Christ and his Apostles 2. The Gospel or doctrin of Christ it self also hath the very Image and Superscription of God I will not say imprinted on it for that is too little but intrinsecally animating and constituting it which is apparent in the Matter and the Method and the Stile 1. The Matter and Design containeth the most wonderful expression of the Wisdom of God that ever was made to man on earth All is mysterious yet admirably fit consistent and congruous as is before declared That a world which is visibly and undeniably fallen into wickedness and misery should have a Redeemer Saviour and Mediator towards God! That he should be one that is near enough to God and unto us and hath the nature of both that he should be the second Adam the Root of the Redeemed and Regenerate that God should give all mercy from himself from his own bounty and fulness and not as unwilling be perswaded to it by another and therefore that the Redeemer be not any Angel or intermediate person but God himself that thus God come nearer unto man who is revolted from him to draw up man again to Him that he lose not the world and yet do not violate his governing Justice that he be so merciful as not to be unrighteous nor permit his Laws and Government to be despised and yet so just as to save the penitent renewed souls that he give man a new Law and conditions of salvation suitable to his lapsed guilty state and leave him not under a Law and conditions which were fitted to the innocent that he revealed himself to the apostate world in that way which only is fit for their recovery that is in his admirable love and goodness that so love might win our love and attract those hearts which under guilt and the terrors of condemning justice would never have been brought to love him that guilty souls have such evidence of God's reconciliation to encourage them to expect his pardon and to come to him with joy and boldness in their addresses having a Mediator to trust in and his Sacrifice Merits and acceptable Name to plead with God that Justice and Mercy are so admirably conjoyned in these effects that Satan and the world and death should be so conquered in a suffering way and man have so perfect a pattern to imitate for self-denial humility contempt of honour wealth and life and exact obedience and resignation to the will of God with perfect love to God and man that the world should be under such an universal Administrator and the Church be all united in such a Head and have one in their nature that hath risen from the dead to be in possession of the glory which they are going to and thence to send down his Spirit to sanctifie them and fit them for Heaven and afterward to be their Judge and to receive them unto blessedness and that sinners now be not condemned meerly for want of innocency but for rejecting the grace and mercy which would have saved them that we have all this taught us by a Messenger from Heaven and a perfect rule of life delivered to us by him and all this sealed by a Divine attestation that this doctrin is suited to the capacity of the weakest and yet so mysterious as to exercise the strongest wits and is delivered to us not by an imposing force but by the exhortations and perswasions of men like our selves commissioned to open the evidences of truth and necessity in the Gospel All this is no less than the Image and wonderful effect of the Wisdom of God And his Goodness and Love is as resplendent in it all for this is the effect of the whole design to set up a Glass in the work of our Redemption in which God's Love and Goodness should be as wonderfully represented to mankind as his Power was in the works of Creation Here sinful man is saved by a means which he never thought of or desired he is fetch'd up from the gates of hell redeemed from the Sentence of the righteous violated Law of God and the execution of his Justice The Eternal Word so condescendeth to man in the assumption of our nature as that the greatness of the love and mercy incomprehensible to man becomes the greatest difficulty to our belief He revealeth to us the things of the world above and bringeth life and immortality to light He dwelleth with men He converseth with the meanest He preacheth the glad tidings of Salvation to the world He refuseth not such familiarity with the poorest or the worst as is needful to their cure He spendeth his time in doing good and healing all manner of bodily diseases He refuseth the honours and riches of the world and the pleasures of the flesh to work out our salvation He beareth the ingratitude and abuse of sinners and endureth to be scorned buffeted spit upon tormented and crucified by those to whom he had done no greater wrong than to seek their salvation He maketh himself a Sacrifice for sin to shew the world what sin deserved and to save them from the deserved punishment God had at first decreed and declared that death should be the punishment of sin and Satan had maliciously drawn man to it by contradicting this threatning of God and making man believe that God would falsifie his word and that he did envy man the felicity of his advancement to be liker God in knowledge And now Christ will first justifie the truth and righteousness of God and will demonstrate himself by dying in our stead that death is indeed the wages of sin and will shew the world that God is so far from envying their felicity that he will purchase it at the dearest rate and deliver them freely from the misery which sin and Sathan had involved them in Thus Enemies are reconciled by the sufferings of him whom they offended even by his sufferings in the flesh whose Godhead could not suffer and by his death as Man who as God was most immortal As soon as he was risen he first appear'd to a Woman who had been a sinner and sent her as his first messenger with words of love and comfort to his
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
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
A Sellius his milkie Veines and Pecquets Receptacle of the Chyle and Bartholines Glandules and the Vasa Lymphatica are of late discovery Galilaeus his Glasses and his four Medicaean Planets and the Lunary mutations of Venus and the strange either opacous parts and shape of Saturn or the proximity of two other Stars which mishape it to our sight the shadowy parts of the Moon c. with the innumerable Stars in the Via Lactea c. were all unknown to former ages Gilberts magnetical discoveries I speak not of those questionable Inferences which Campanella and others contradict the nature of many Minerals and Plants the chief operations and effects of Chymistry abundance of secrets for the cure of many diseases even the most excellent medicaments are all of very late invention Almost all Arts and Sciences are encreasing neerer towards Perfection Ocular demonstrations by the Telescope and sensible experiments are daily multiplyed Yea the World it self is not all discovered to any one part but a great part of it was but lately made known even to the Europeans whose knowledge is greatest by Columbus and Americus Vesputianus and it is not long since it was first measured by a Circumnavigation If the World had been eternall or of much longer duration than the Scripture speaketh it is not credible that multiplyed experiences would not have brought it above that Infancy of knowledge in which it so long continued Obj. Cursed Warrs by Fire and Depopulation consume all Antiquities and put the World still to begin anew Answ It doth indeed do much this way but it is not so much that Warre could do For when it is in one Countrey others are free and some would fly or lie hid or survive who would preserve Arts and Sciences and be teachers of the rest Who can think now that any Wars are like to make America or Galilaeus's Stars unknown again or any of the forenamed Inventions to be lost 2. Moreover it is strange if the World were eternall or much elder than Scripture speaketh that no part of the World should shew us any elder Monument of Antiquity no engraven Stones or Plates no Mausolus Pyramids or Pillars no Books no Chronological Tables no Histories or Genealogies or other Memorials and Records I know to this also cursed Warrs may contribute much But not so much as to leave nothing to inquisitive Successors § 2. II. It greatly confirmeth my belief of the Holy Scriptures to finde by certain experience the Original and Vniversal pravity of mans nature how great it is and wherein it doth consist exactly agreeing with this Sacred Word when no others have made such a full discovery of it This I have opened and proved before and he is a stranger to the World and to himself that seeth it not Were it not lest I weary the Reader with length how fully and plainly could I manifest it § 3. III. The certain observation of the universal Spiritual Warre which hath been carryed on according to the first Gospel between the Woman's and the Serpent's seed doth much confirm me of the truth of the Scriptures Such a contrariety there is even between Cain and Abel Children of the same Father such an implacable enmity throughout all the World in almost all wicked men against Godliness it self and those that sincerely love and follow it such a hatred in those that are Orthodoxly bred against the true power use and practice of the Religion which they themselves profess such a resolute resistance of all that is seriously good and holy and tendeth but to the saving of the resisters that it is but a publick visible acting of all those things which the Scripture speaketh of and a fulfilling them in all ages and places in the sight of all the World Of which having treated largely in my Treatise against Infidelity of the sin against the Holy Ghost I referre you thither § 4. IV. It much confirmeth me to finde that there is no other Religion professed in the World that an impartial rational man can rest in That man is made for another life the light of Nature proveth to all men And some way or other there must be opened to us to attain it Mahometanisme I think not worthy a confutation Judaisme must be much beholden to Christianity for its proofs and is but the introduction to it inclusively considered The Heathens or meer Naturalists are so blinde so idolatrous so divided into innumerable sects so lost and bewildred in uncertainties and shew us so little holy fruit of their Theology that I can incline to no more than to take those natural Verities which they confess and which they cast among the rubbish of their fopperies and wickedness and to wipe them clean and take them for some part of my Religion Christianity or nothing is the way § 5. V. It much confirmeth me to observe that commonly the most true and serious Christians are the holyest and most honest righteous men and that the worse men are the greater enemies they are to true Christianity And then to think how incredible it is that God should lead all the worst men into the truth and leave the best and godlyest in an error In small matters or common secular things this were no wonder But in the matter of Believing worshipping and pleasing God and saving of Souls it is not credible As for the belief of a Life to come no men are so far from it as the vilest Whoremongers Drunkards perjured persons Murderers Oppressors Tyrants Thieves Rebels or if any other name can denote the worst of men And none so much believe a Life to come as the most godly honest-hearted persons And can a man that knoweth that there is a God believe that he will leave all good men in so great an error and rightly inform and guide all these Beasts or living walking images of the Devil The same in a great measure is true of the friends and enemies of Christianity § 6. VI. It hath been a great convincing argument with me against both Atheisme and Infidelity to observe the marvelous Providences of God for divers of his servants and the strange answer of Prayers which I my self and ordinarily other Christians have had I have been and am as backward to ungrounded credulity about wonders as most men that will not strive against knowledge But I have been oft convinced by great experience and testimonies which I believed equally with my eye-sight of such actions of God as I think would have convinced most that should know as much of them as I did But few of them are fit to mention For some of them so much concern my self that strangers may be tempted to think that they savour of self-esteem and some of them the factions and parties in these times will by their interest be engaged to distaste And some of them have been done on persons whose after scandalous Crimes have made me think it unfit to mention them lest I should seem
And that so great a change and so holy a life is necessary to salvation hath proved a difficulty to some § 11. 9. The doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body is one of the greatest difficulties of all § 12. 10. So is Christ's coming into the World so late and the revealing of his Gospel to so few by Prophecy before and by Preaching since § 13. 11. So also was the appearing Meanness of the Person of Christ and of his Parentage place and condition in the World together with the manner of his birth § 14 12. The manner of his sufferings and death upon a Cross as a Malefactor under the charge of Blasphemy Impiety and Treason hath still been a stumbling-block both to Jews and Gentiles § 15. 13. So hath the fewness and meanness of his followers and the number and worldly preeminence and prosperity of unbelievers and enemies of Christ § 16. 14. The want of excellency of speech and art in the holy Scriptures that they equall not other Writings in Logical method and exactness and in Oratorical elegancies is a great offence to unbelievers § 17. 15. As also that the Physicks of Scripture so much differeth from Philosophers § 18. 16. As also the seeming Contradictions of the Scripture do much offend them § 19. 17. And it offendeth them that Faith in Christ himself is made a thing of such excellency and necessity to salvation § 20. 18. And it is hard to believe that present adversity and undoing in the World is for our benefit and everlasting good § 21. 19. And it offendeth many that the doctrine of Christ doth seem not suited to Kingdoms and Civil Government but only for a few private persons § 22. 20. Lastly the Prophesies which seem not intelligible or not fulfilled prove matter of difficulty and offence There are intrinsecal difficulties of Faith § 23. II. The outward adventitious impediments to the Belief of the Christian Faith are such as these 1. Because many Christians especially the Papists have corrupted the doctrine of Faith and propose gross falshoods contrary to common sense and reason as necessary points of Christian Faith as in the point of Transubstantiation § 24. 2. They have given the World either false or insufficient reasons and motives for the belief of the Christian Verity which being discerned confirmeth them in Infidelity § 25. 3. They have corrupted Gods Worship and have turned it from rational and spiritual into a multitude of irrational ceremonious fopperies fitted to move contempt and laughter in unbelievers § 26. 4. They have corrupted the doctrine of Morality and thereby hidden much of the holyness and purity of the Christian Religion § 27. 5. They have corrupted Church-history obtruding or divulging a multitude of ridiculous falshoods in their Legends and Books of Miracles contrived purposely by Satan to tempt men to disbelieve the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles § 28. 6. They make Christianity odious by upholding their own Sect and power by fire and blood and inhumane Cruelties § 29. 7. They openly manifest that ambition and worldly dignities and prosperity in the Clergy is their very Religion and withall pretend that their party or Sect is all the Church § 30. 8. And the great disagreement among Christians is a stumbling-block to unbelievers while the Greeks and Romans strive who shall be the greatest and both they and many others Sects are condemning unchurching and reproaching one another § 31. 9. The undisciplined Churches and wicked lives of the greatest part of professed Christians especially in the Greek and Latine Churches is a great confirmation of Infidels in their unbelief § 32. 10. And it tempteth many to Apostasie to observe the scandalous errors and miscarriages of many who seemed more godly than the rest § 33. 11. It is an impediment to Christianity that the richest and greatest the learned and the far greatest number in the World have been still against it § 34. 12. The custom of the Countrey and Tradition of their Fathers and the reasonings and cavils of men that have both ability and opportunity and advantage doth bear down the truth in the Countreys while Infidels prevail § 35. 13. The Tyranny of cruel persecuting Princes in the Mahometane and Heathen parts of the World is the grand Impediment to the progress of Christianity by keeping away the means of knowledge And of this the Roman party of Christians hath given them an incouraging example dealing more cruelly with their fellow-Christians than the Turks and some Heathen Princes do So that Tyranny is the great sin which keepeth out the Gospel from most parts of the Earth § 36. III But no Impediments of Faith are so great as those within us As 1. the natural strangeness of all corrupted mindes to God and their blindeness in all spiritual things § 37. 2. Most persons in the World have weak injudicious unfurnished heads wanting the common natural preparatives to Faith not able to see the force of a reason in things beyond the reach of sense § 38. 3. The carnal minde is enmity against the Holiness of Christianity and therefore will still oppose the receiving of its principles § 39. 4. By the advantages of Nature Education Custom and Company men are early possest with prejudices and false conceits against a life of Faith and Holiness which keep out reforming truths § 40. 5. It is very natural to incorporated Souls to desire a sensible way of satisfaction and to take up with things present and seen and to be little affected with things unseen and above our senses § 41. 6 Our strangeness to the Language Idiomes Proverbial speeches then used doth disadvantage us as to the understanding of the Scriptures § 42. 7. So doth our strangeness to the Places and Customs of the Countrey and many other matters of fact § 43. 8. Our distance from those Ages doth make it necessary that matters of fact be received by humane report and Historical Evidence And too few are well acquainted with such History § 44. 9. Most men do forfeit the helps of Grace by wilfull sinning and make Atheism and Infidelity seem to be desireable to their carnal Interest and so are willing to be deceived and forsaking God they are forsaken of him flying from the Light and overcoming Truth and debauching Conscience and disabling Reason for their sensual delights § 45. 10. Those men that have most need of means and help are so averse and lazy that they will not be at the pains and patience to read and conferre and consider and pray and use the means which is needfull to their information but settle their judgement by slight and slothfull thoughts § 46. 11. Yet are the same men proud and self-conceited and unacquainted with the weakness of their own understandings and pass a quick and confident judgement on things which they never understood It being natural to men to judge according to what they do actually apprehend and not according to what they should
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
all this is at all incredible But it is indeed incredible till conscience have humbled him that the Thief or Murderer should like this penalty or think well of the Judge or that a sinner who judgeth of good and evil in others as Dogs do by the interest of his throat or flesh and thinks them good only that love him and bad that hurt him and are against him should ever believe that it is the amiable goodness of God which causeth him in justice to condemn the wicked 2. But yet let not misunderstanding make this seem harder to you than indeed it is Do not think that souls in hell are hanged up in flames as beasts are hanged in a butchers shambles or that souls have any pain but what is suitable to souls and that 's more than bodies bear It is an affliction in rational ways which falls on rational spirits Devils are now in torment and yet have a malignant kingdom and order and rule in the children of disobedience and go up and down seeking whom they may devour We know not the particular manner of their sufferings but that they are forsaken of God and deprived of his complacential love and mercy and have the rational misery before described and such also as shall be suitable to such kind of bodies as they shall have And while they are immortal no wonder if their misery be so Object VII Who can believe that the damned shall be far more than the saved and the devil have more than God How will this stand with the infinite goodness of God Answ I have fully answered this before in Part 1. chap. 11. and should now adde but this 1. In our enquiries we must begin with the primum cognita or notissima as aforesaid that God is most good and also just and punisheth sinners is before proved to be among the notissima or primum cognita and therefore it is most certain that these are no way contradictory to each other 2. And if it be no contradiction to God's goodness to punish and cast off for ever the lesser part of the world then it is none to punish or cast off the greater part The inequality of number will not alter the case 3. It is no way against the goodness of humane Governours in some cases to punish even the greater number according to their deserts 4. Can any man that openeth his eyes deny it in matter of fact that the far greater part of the world is actually ungodly worldly sensual and disobedient Or that such are meet for punishment and unmeet for the love and holy fruition of God When I see that most men are ungodly and uncapable of Heaven is it not harder to reason to believe that these shall have that joy and employment of which they are uncapable than that they shall have the punishment which agreeth with their capacity desert and choice Must I believe that God's enemies shall love him for ever meerly because they are the greater number If one man that dieth unrenewed be capable of heaven another is so and all are so Therefore I must either believe that no impenitent ungodly person is saved or that all be saved The number therefore is nothing to the deciding of the case 5. Can any man in his wits deny that it is as sure that God permitteth sin in the world as that the Sun shineth on us yea that he permitteth that universal enormous deluge of wickedness which the world groaneth under at this day And that this sin is the souls calamity and to a right judgment is much worse than punishment what ever beastly sensuality may gainsay If then the visible wickedness of the world be permitted by God without any impeachment of his goodness then certainly his goodness may consist with punishment which as such is good when sin is evil And much of this punishment also is but materially permitted by God and executed by sinners upon themselves 6. The wisdom and goodness of God saw it meet for the right government of this world to put the threatnings of an everlasting punishment in his Law and how can that man have the face to say it was needless or too much in the Law with whom it proved not enough to weigh down the trifling interests of the flesh And if it was meet to put that penalty in the Law it is just and meet to put that Law into execution how many soever fall under the penalty of it as hath been proved 7. The goodness of God consisteth not in a Will to make all his creatures as great or good and happy as he can but it is essentially in his infinite perfections and expressively in the communication of so much to his creatures as he seeth meet and in the accomplishment of his own pleasure by such ways of Benignity and Justice as are most suitable to his Wisdom and Holiness Man's personal interest is an unfit rule and measure of God's goodness 8. To recite what I said and speak it plainlier I confess it greatly quieteth my mind against this great objection of the numbers that are damned and cast off for ever to consider how small a part this earth is of God's creation as well as how sinful and impenitent Ask any Astronomer that hath considered the innumerable number of the fixed Stars and Planets with their distances and magnitude and glory and the uncertainty that we have whether there be not as many more or an hundred or thousand times as many unseen to man as all those which we see considering the defectiveness of man's sight and the Planets about Jupiter with the innumerable Stars in the Milky way which the Tube hath lately discovered which man's eyes without it could not see I say ask any man who knoweth these things whether all this earth be any more in comparison of the whole creation than one Prison is to a Kingdom or Empire or the paring of one nail or a little mole or wart or a hair in comparison of the whole body And if God should cast off all this earth and use all the sinners in it as they deserve it is no more sign of a want of benignity or mercy in him than it is for a King to cast one subject of a million into a Jail and to hang him for his murder or treason or rebellion or for a man to kill one louse which is but a molestation to the body which beareth it or than it is to pare a mans nails or cut off a wart or a hair or to pull out a rotten aking tooth I know it is a thing uncertain and unrevealed to us whether all these Globes be inhabited or not but he that considereth that there is scarce any uninhabitable place on earth or in the water or air but men or beasts or birds or fishes or flies or worms and moles do take up almost all will think it a probability so near a certainty as not to be
vain a bubble the honour of man and the glory of this world is will not be offended at the King of Saints because his Kingdom is not of this World And he that knoweth any thing of the difference between God and the Creature Heaven and Earth will not despise the Eternal Jehovah because he weareth not a silken Coat and dwelleth not in the guilded Palaces of a Prince If Earthly Glory had been the highest it had been the glory of Christ And if he had come to make us happy by the rich mans way Luk. 16. To be cloathed in Purple and Silk and faring sumptuously every day then would he have led us this way by his example But when it is the work of a Saviour to save us from the flesh and from this present evil World the Means must be suited to the end Obj. XII But it is a very hard thing to believe that person to be God Incarnate and the Saviour of the World who suffered on a Cross as a Blasphemer and a Traytor that usurped the Title of a King Answ The Cross of Christ hath ever been the stumbling-block of the proud and worldly sort of men But it is the confidence and consolation of true Believers For 1. It was not for his own sins but for ours that he suffered Even so was it prophesied of him Isa 53.4 Surely he hath born our griefs and carryed our sorrows yet did we esteem him stricken of God and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like Sheep have gone astray we have every one turned to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all And it is impudent ingratitude to make those his sufferings the occasion of our unbelief which we were the causes of our selves and to be ashamed of that Cross which we laid upon him by our sins It is not worth the labour to answer the slanders of his accusers about his usurpation of a Kingdom when they believed it not themselves He was above a worldly Kingdom And it could be no blasphemy for him to say that he was the Son of God when he had so fully proved it by his works 2. His suffering as a reputed Malefactor on a Cross was a principal part of the merit of his Patience For many a man can bear the corporal pain who cannot so far deny his honour as to bear the imputation of a Crime For the innocent Son of God that was never convict of sin to suffer under the name of a Blasphemer and a Traytor was greater condescention than to have suffered under the name of an innocent person 3. And in all this it was needfull that the Saviour of Mankinde should not only be a Sacrifice and Ransom for our sinfull Souls but also should heal us of the over-love of Life and Honour by his Example Had not his self-denyal and patience extended to the loss of all things in this World both life it self and the reputation of his righteousness it had not been a perfect example of self-denyal and patience unto us And then it had been unmeet for so great a work as the cure of our Pride and love of Life Had Christ come to deliver the Jews from Captivity or to make his Followers great on Earth as Mahomet did he would have suited the Means to such an End But when he came to save men from pride and self-love and the esteem of this World and to bring them to Patience and full obedience to the will of God and to place all their happiness in another life true Reason telleth us that there was no example so fit for this end as Patient submission to the greatest sufferings The Cross of Christ then shall be our glory and not our stumbling-block or shame Let the Children of the Devil boast that they are able to do hurt and to trample upon others The Disciples of Christ will rather boast that they can patiently endure to be abused as knowing that their Pride and Love of the World is the enemy which they are most concern'd in conquering Obj. XIII It was but a few mean unlearned persons who believed in him at the first And it is not past a sixth part of the World that yet believeth in him And of these few do it judiciously and from their hearts but because their Kings or Parents or Countrey are of that Religion Answ 1. As to the Number I have answered it before It is no great number comparatively that are Kings or Lords or Learned men and truly judicious and wise will you therefore set light by any of these Things excellent are seldom common The Earth hath more Stones than Gold or Pearls All those believed in Christ who heard his word and saw his works and had wise considerate honest hearts to receive the sufficient evidence of truth The greater part are every where ignorant rash injudicious dishonest and carryed away with prejudice fancy custom error and carnal interest If all men have means in its own kind sufficient to bring them to believe to understand so much as God immediately requireth of them it is their fault who after this are ignorant and unbelieving and if it prove their misery let them thank themselves But yet Christ will not leave the success of his undertaking so far to the will of man as to be uncertain of his expected fruits He hath his chosen ones throughout the World and will bring them effectually to Faith and Holiness to Grace and Glory though all the Powers of Hell do rage against it In them is his delight and them he will conform to his Fathers will and restore them to his Image and fit them to love and serve him here and enjoy him for ever And though they are not the greater number they shall be the everlasting demonstration of his Wisdom Love and Holiness And when you see all the worlds of more blessed Inhabitants you will see that the Damned were the smaller number and the Blessed in all probability many millions to one If the Devil have the greater number in this World God will have the greater number in the rest 2. It was the wise design of Jesus Christ that few in comparison should be converted by his personal converse or teaching and thousands might be suddenly converted upon his Ascension and the coming down of the Holy Ghost Both because his Resurrection and Ascension were part of the Articles to be believed and were the chiefest of all his Miracles which did convert men And therefore he would Rise from the dead before the multitude should be called And because the Spirit as it was his extraordinary Witness and Advocate on Earth was to be given by him after he ascended into glory And he would have the World see that the Conversion of men to Faith and Sanctity was not the
effect of any politick Confederacy between him and them but the effect of Gods Power Light and Love so that it should be a great confirmation to our Faith to consider that those multitudes believed by the wonderfull testimony and work of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples when Christ had been crucified in despight who yet believed not before but were his Crucifiers It was not so hard nor honourable an act to believe in him when he went about working Miracles and seemed in a possibility to restore their temporal Kingdom as to believe in him after he had been crucified among Malefactors He therefore that could after this by the Spirit and Miracles bring so many thousands to believe did shew that he was alive himself and in full power 3. And that the Apostles were mean unlearned men is a great confirmation to our Faith For now it is apparent that they had their abilities wisdom and successes from the Spirit and Power of God But if they had been Philosophers or cunning men it might have been more suspected to be a laid contrivance between Christ and them Indeed for all his Miracles they began to be in doubt of him themselves when he was dead and buryed till they saw him risen again and had the Spirit came upon them and this last undenyable evidence and this heavenly insuperable Call and Conviction was it which miraculously setled them in the Faith 4. And that Saviour who came not to make us Worldlings but to save us from this present evil World and to cure our esteem and love of worldly things did think it meetest both to appear in the form of a poor man himself and to choose Disciples of the like condition and not to choose the worldly wise and great and honourable to be the first attesters of his miracles or preachers of his Gospel Though he had some that were of place and quality in the World as Nicodemus Joseph Cornelius Sergius Paulus c. yet his Power needed not such Instruments As he would not teach us to magnifie worldly Pomp nor value things by outward appearance as the deluded dreaming world doth so he would shew us that he needeth not Kings nor Philosophers by worldly power or wisdom to set up his Kingdom He giveth power but he receiveth none He setteth up Kings and by him they reign but they set not up him nor doth he reign by any of them Nor will he be beholden to great men or learned men for their help to promote his cause and interest in the World The largeness of his mercy indeed extendeth to Kings and all in Authority as well as to the poor and if they will not reject it nor break his bonds but kiss the Son before his wrath break forth against them they may be saved as well as others Psal 2.1 2 9 10. 1 Tim. 2.1 2. But he will not use them in the first setting up of his Church in the World lest men should think that it was set up by the Learning Policy or Power of man 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28 29. and 2.5 6 7 10 13. 13.19 c. And therefore he would not be voted one of the Gods by Tyberius or Adrians Senate nor accept of the worship of Alexander Sevâ—rus who in his Lararium worshipped him as one of his Demi-gods nor receive any such beggarly Deity from man but when Constantine acknowledged him as God indeed he accepted his acknowledgement Those unlearned men whom he used were made wiser in an hour by the Holy Ghost than all the Philosophers in the World And those mean contemned persons overcame the Learning and Power of the World and not by Arms as Mahomet but against Arms and Arguments wit and rage by the Spirit alone they subdued the greatest powers to their Lord. Obj. XIV But it doth sapere scenam sound like a Poetical fiction that God should satisfie his own Justice and Christ should die instead of our being damned and this to appease the wrath of God as if God were angry and delighted in the blood or sufferings of the innocent Answ Ignorance is the great cause of unbelief This objection cometh from many errours and false conceits about the things of which it speaketh 1. If the word Satisfaction offend you use only the Scripture-words that Christ was a Sacrifice an Atonement a Propitiation a Price c. And if this be incredible how came it to pass that sacrificing was the custom of all the world Doth not this objection as much militate against this was God angry or was he delighted in the bloud and sufferings of harmless sheep and other cattel and must these either satisfie him or appease his wrath What think you should be the cause that sacrificing was thus commonly used in all ages through all the earth if it savoured but of poetical fiction 2. God hath no such thing as a passion of anger to be appeased nor is he at all delighted in the bloud or sufferings of the worst much less of the innocent nor doth he sell his mercy for bloud nor is his satisfaction any reparation of any loss of his which he receiveth from another But 1. Do you understand what Government is and what Divine Government is and what is the end of it even the pleasing of the will of God in the demonstrations of his own perfections if you do you will know that it was necessary that God's penal Laws should not be broken by a rebel world without being executed on them according to their true intent and meaning or without such an equivalent demonstration of his Justice as might vindicate the Law and Law-giver from contempt and the imputation of ignorance or levity and might attain the ends of Government as much as if all sinners had suffered themselves And this is it that we mean by a Sacrifice Ransom or Satisfaction Shall God be a Governour and have no Laws or shall he have Laws that have no penalties or shall he set up a lying scar-crow to frighten sinners by deceit and have Laws which are never meant for execution Are any of these becoming God Or shall he let the Devil go for true who told Eve at first You shall not die and let the world sin on with boldness and laugh at his Laws and say God did but frighten us with a few words which he never intended to fulfill or should God have damned all the world according to their desert If none of all this be credible to you then certainly nothing should be more credible than that his wisdom hath found out some way to exercise pardoning saving mercy without any injury to his governing justice and truth and without exposing his Laws and himself to the contempt of sinners or emboldening them in their sins even a way which shall vindicate his honour and attain his ends of government as well as if we had been all punished with death and hell and yet may save us with the great
All that the World can possibly afford you will not make Death the more welcom nor less terrible to you nor abate a jot of the pains of Hell It is as comfortable to die poor as rich and a life of pain and weakness and persecution will end as pleasantly as a life of Pomp and wealth and pleasures If it be no unreasonable motion of a Physician to tell you of blood-letting vomiting parging and strict dyet to save your lives nor any hard dealing in your Parents to set you many years to School to endure both the labour of learning and the Rod and after that to set you to a seven years Apprentice-ship and all this for things of a transitory nature since God deserveth not to be accused as too severe if he train you up for Heaven more strictly and in a more suffering way than the flesh desireth Either you believe that there is a future Life of Retribution or you do not If not the foregoing Evidences must first convince you before you will be fit to debate the case whether sufferings are for your hurt or benefit But if you do believe a life to come you must needs believe that its concernments weigh down all the matters of fleshly interest in this World as much as a mountain would weigh down a feather And then do but further bethink your selves impartially whether a life of Prosperity or of Adversity be the liker to tempt you into the Love of this World and to wean away your thoughts and desires from the heavenly felicity Judge but rightly first of your own interest and you will be fitter to judge of the Doctrine of Christ Obj. XXI Christ seemeth to calculate all his Precepts to the poorer sort of peoples state as if he had never hoped that Kings and Nobles would be Christians If men think as hardly of the Rich as he doth and take them to be so bad and their salvation so difficult how will they ever honour their Kings and Governours And if all men must suffer such as abuse and injure them and must turn the other cheek to him that striketh them and give him their Coat who taketh away their Cloak what use will there be for Magistrates and Judicatures Ans 1. Christ fitteth his Precepts to the benefit of all men But in so doing he must needs tell them of the danger of over-loving this World as being the most mortal sin which he came to cure And he must needs tell them what a dangerous temptation a flesh-pleasing prosperous state is to the most to entice them to this pernicious sin Had he silenced such necessary truths as these he could not have been their Saviour For how should he save them from sin if he conceal the evil and the danger of it If the corruption of mans Nature be so great that Riches and Honours and Pleasures are ordinarily made the occasions of mens perdition must Christ be Christ and never tell them of it And is he to be blamed for telling them the truth or they rather who create these difficulties and dangers to themselves Christ teacheth men to honour a Sacred Office such as Magistracy is without honouring Vice or betraying sinners by concealing their temptations And to holy faithfull Rulers he teacheth us to give a double honour They that will prove that most of the great and wealthy shall be saved must prove first that most of them are godly and mortified heavenly persons And the fit proof of that must be by shewing us the men that are so 2. The Laws of Christ require every Soul to be subject to the higher Powers and not resist and this not only for fear of their wrath but for Conscience sake and to pay honour and custom to all whom it is due to And what more can be desired for the support of Government 3. Yea nothing more tendeth to the comfort and quietness of Governours than the obedience of those Precepts of patience and peace which the Objection quarrelleth with If Subjects would love each other as themselves and forgive injuries and love their enemies what could be more joyfull to a faithfull Governour And to the Question What use would there be then of Judicatures I answer They would be usefull to good men for their protection against the injuries of the bad where we are but Defendants And also in Cases where it is not want of Love but of Knowledge which causeth the Controversie and when no fit arbitration can decide it And they will be usefull among contentious persons For all men are not true Believers The most will be ordinarily the worst As we will not be Fornicators Thieves Perjured c. lest you should say To what purpose is the Law against such offenders so we will not be revengefull and contentious lest you should say To what end are Judicatures The Law is to prevent offences by threatned penalties And that is the happyest Common-wealth where the Law doth most without the Judge and where Judicatures have least employment For there is none to be expected on Earth so happy where meer LOVE of Virtue and of one another will prevent the use both of Penal Laws and Judicatures 4. And it is but selfishness and contentiousness and private revenge which Christ forbiddeth and not the necessary defence or vindication of any Talent which God hath committed to our trust so it be with the preservation of brotherly Love and Peace 5. And that Christ foreknew what Princes and States would be converted to the Faith is manifest 1. In all his Prophets who have foretold it that Kings shall be our Nursing Fathers c. 2. In that Christ prophesied himself that when he was lifted up he would draw all men to him 3. By the Prophecies of John who saith that the Kingdoms of the World should become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Obj. XXII But it is the obscurity of all those Phophecies which is one of the difficulties of our Faith and that they are never like to be fulfilled Almost all your Expositors differ about the sense of Johns Revelations And the Calling of the Jews and bringing in all the Gentiles to their subjection seem to be plainly prophesyed of which are never like to come to passe Answ 1. Prophecies are seldom a Rule of Life but an Encouragement to hope and a Confirmation to Faith when they are fulfilled And therefore if the particularities be dark and understood by few so the general scope be understood it should be no matter of offence or wonder It is doctrine and precept and promises of salvation which are the daily food of Faith 2. If no man can hitherto truly say that any one Promise or Prophecie hath failed why should we think that hereafter they will fail what though the things seem improbable to us They are never the unliker to be accomplished by God The Conversion of the Gentiles of the Roman Empire and so many other Nations of the World
you before the judgment-seats Christianity teacheth us to lament the sin of Tyranny the grand crime which keepeth out the Gospel from the Nations of Infidels and Pagans through the earth and eclipseth its glory in the Popish Principalities It teacheth us to resist tyrannical Usurpers in the defence of our true and lawful Kings But if it teach men patiently to suffer rather than rebelliously resist that is not from baseness but true nobleness of spirit exceeding both the Greek and Roman genius in that it proceedeth from a contempt of those inferiour trifles which they rebell for and from that satisfaction in the hopes of endless glory which maketh it easie to them to bear the loss of liberty life or any thing on earth and from obedience to their highest Lord. But in a lawful way they can defend their Countries and liberties as gallantly as ever Heathens did Object IX If your Religion had reason for it what need it be kept up by cruelty and bloud how many thousands and hundred thousands hath sword and fire and inquisition devoured as for the supporting of Religion and when they are thus compelled how know you who believeth Christianity indeed Answ This is none of the way or work of Christianity but of that sect which is raised by worldly interest and design and must accordingly be kept up In Christ's own family two of his Disciples would have called for fire from heaven to consume those that rejected him but he rebuked them and told them that they knew not what manner of spirit they were of and that he came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Will you now lay the blame of that consuming zeal on Christ which he so rebuketh The same two men would have been preferred before the rest to sit at his right hand and his left hand in his Kingdom and his Disciples strove who should be the greatest Did Christ countenance this or did he not sharply reprehend them and tell them that they must not have titles and domination as secular Princes have but be as little children in humility and their greatness must consist in being greatliest serviceable even in being servants to all If men after this will take no warning but fight and kill and burn and torment men in carnal zeal and pride and tyranny shall this be imputed to Christ who in his doctrine and life hath form'd such a testimony against this crime as never was done by any else in the world and as is become an offence to unbelievers Object X. We see not that the Leaders in the Christian Religion do really themselves believe it Pope Leo the tenth called it Fabula de Christo What do men make of it but a Trade to live by a means to get Abbies and Bishopricks and Benefices and to live at ease and fleshly pleasure and what do Secular Rulers make of it but a means to keep their subjects in awe Answ He that knoweth no other Christians in the world but such as these knoweth none at all and is unfit to judge of those whom he knoweth not True Christians are men that place all their happiness and hopes in the life to come and use this life in order to the next and contemn all the wealth and glory of the world in comparison of the love of God and their salvation True Pastors and Bishops of the Church do thirst after the conversion and happiness of sinners and spend their lives in diligent labours to these ends not thinking it too much to stoop to the poorest for their good nor regarding worldly wealth and glory in comparison of the winning of one soul nor counting their lives dear if they may but finish their course and ministery with joy Luk. 15. Act. 20. Heb. 13.7.17 c. They are hypocrites and not true Christians whom the objection doth describe by what names or titles soever they be dignified and are more disowned by Christ than by any other in the world Object XI Christians are divided into so many sects among themselves and every one condemning others that we have reason to suspect them all for how know we which of them to believe or follow Answ 1. Christianity is but One and easily known and all Christians do indeed hold this as certain by common agreement and consent they differ not at all about that which I am pleading for there may be a difference whether the Pope of Rome or the Patriarch of Constantinople be the greater or whether one Bishop must rule over all and such like matters of carnal quarrel but there is no difference whether Christ be the Saviour of the world or whether all his doctrine be infallibly true and the more they quarrel about their personal interests and by-opinions the most valid is their testimony in the things wherein they all agree it is not those things which they differ about that I am now pleading for or perswading any to embrace but those wherein they all consent 2. But if they agree not in all the Integrals of their Religion it is no wonder nor inferreth any more than that they are not all perfect in the knowledge of such high and mysterious things and when no man understandeth all that is in Aristotle nor no two interpreters of him agree in every exposition no nor any two men in all the world agree in every opinion who hold any thing of their own what wonder if Christians differ in many points of difficulty 3. But their differences are nothing in comparison of the Heathen Philosophers who were of so many minds and ways that there was scarce any coherence among them nor many things which they could ever agree in 4. The very differences of abundance of honest Christians is occasioned by their earnest desire to please God and do nothing but what is just and right and their high esteem of piety and honesty while the imperfection of their judgments keepeth them from knowing in all things what it is which indeed is that good and righteous way which they should take If children do differ and fall out if it be but in striving who shall do best and please their father it is the more excusable enemies do not so ideots fall not out in School-disputes or Philosophical controversies swine will not fall out for gold or jewels if they be cast before them in the streets but it 's like that men may 5. But the great sidings and factions kept up in the world and the cruelties exercised thereupon are from worldly hypocrites who under the mask of Christianity are playing their own game And why must Christ be answerable for those whom he most abhorreth and will most terribly condemn Object XII You boast of the holiness of Christians and we see not but they are worse than Heathens and Mahometans they are more drunken and greater deceivers in their dealings as lustful and unclean as covetous and carnal as proud and ambitious as tyrannical and
must give light to Christianity and prepare men to receive it And they think to know what is in Heaven before they will learn what they are themselves and what it is to be a man Cond 4. Get a true Anatomy Analysis or Description of Christianity in your minds for if you know not the true nature of it first you will be lamentably disadvantaged in enquiring into the truth of it For Christianity well understood in the quiddity will illustrate the mind with such a winning beauty as will make us meet its evidence half-way and will do much to convince us by its proper light Cond 5. When you have got the true method of the Christian doctrine or Analysis of faith begin at the Essentials or primitive truths and proceed in order according to the dependencies of truths and do not begin at the latter end nor study the conclusion before the premises Cond 6. Yet look on the whole scheme or frame of causes and evidences and take them entirely and conjunct and not as peevish factious men who in splenish zeal against another sect reject and vilifie the evidence which they plead This is the Devils gain by the raising of sects and contentions in the Church he will engage a Papist for the meer interest of his sect to speak lightly of the Scripture and the Spirit and many Protestants in meer opposition to the Papists to sleight Tradition and the testimony of the Church denying it its proper authority and use As if in the setting of a Watch or Clock one would be for one wheel and another for another and each in peevishness cast away that which another would make use of when it will never go true without them all Faction and contentions are deadly enemies to truth Cond 7. Mark well the suitableness of the remedy to the disease that is of Christianity to the depraved state of man and mark well the lamentable effects of that universal depravation that your experience may tell you how unquestionable it is Cond 8. Mark well how connaturally Christianity doth relish with holy souls and how well it suiteth with honest principles and hearts so that the better any man is the better it pleaseth him And how potently all debauchery villany and vice befriendeth the cause of Atheists and unbelievers Cond 9. Take a considerate just survey of the common enmity against Christianity and Holiness in all the wicked of the world and the notorious war which is every where managed between Christ and the Devil and their several followers that you may know Christ partly by his enemies Cond 10. Impartially mark the effects of Christian doctrine where ever it is sincerely entertain'd and see what Religion maketh the best men and judge not of serious Christians at a distance by false reports of ignorant or malicious adversaries And then you will see that Christ is actually the Saviour of souls Cond 11. Be not liars your selves lest it dispose you to think all others to be liars and to judge of the words of others by your own Cond 12. Be-think you truly what persons you should be your selves and what lives you should live if you did not believe the Christian doctrine or if you doe not believe it mark what effect your unbelief hath on your lives For my own part I am assured if it were not for the Christian doctrine my heart and life would be much worse than it is though I had read Epictetus Arrian Plato Plotinus Jamblichus Proclus Seneca Cicero Plutarch every word and those few of my neighbourhood who have fallen off to infidelity have at once fallen to debauchery and abuse of their nearest relations and differed as much in their lives from what they were before in their profession of Christianity though unsound as a leprous body differeth from one in comeliness and health Cond 13. Be well acquainted if possible with Church-History that you may understand by what Tradition Christianity hath descended to us For he that knoweth nothing but what he hath seen or receiveth a Bible or the Creed without knowing any further whence and which way it cometh to us is greatly disadvantaged as to the reception of the faith Cond 14. In all your reading of the holy Scriptures allow still for your ignorance in the languages proverbs customs and circumstances which are needful to the understanding of particular Texts and when difficulties stop you be sure that no such ignorance remain the cause He that will but read Brugensis Grotius Hammond and many other that open such phrases and circumstances with Topographers and Bochartus and such others as write of the Animals Utensils and other circumstances of those times will see what gross errors the opening of some one word or phrase may deliver the Reader from Cond 15. Vnderstand what excellencies and perfections they be which the Spirit of God intended to adorn the holy Scriptures with and also what sort of humane imperfections are consistent with these its proper perfections that so false expectations may not tempt you into unbelief It seduceth many to infidelity to imagine that if Scripture be the word of God it must needs be most perfect in every accident and mode which were never intended to be part of its perfection Whereas God did purposely make use of those men and of that style and manner of expression which was defective in some points of natural excellency that so the supernatural excellency might be the more apparent As Christ cured the blind with clay and spittle and David slew Goliah with a sling The excellency of the means must be estimated by its aptitude to its end Cond 16. If you see the evidences of the truth of Christianity in the whole let that suffice you for the belief of the several parts when you see not the true answer to particular exceptions If you see it soundly proved that Christ is the Messenger of the Father and that his word is true and that the holy Scripture is his word this is enough to quiet any sober mind when it cannot confute every particular objection or else no man should ever hold fast any thing in the world if he must let all go after the fullest proof upon every exception which he cannot answer The inference is sure If the whole be true the parts are true Cond 17. Observe well the many effects of Angels ministration and the evidences of a communion between us and the spirits of the unseen world for this will much facilitate your belief Cond 18. Over-look not the plain evidences of the Apparitions Witches and wonderful events which fall out in the times and places where you live and what reflections they have upon the Christian cause Cond 19. Observe well the notable answers of Prayers in matters internal and external in others and in your selves Cond 20. Be well studied at home about the capacity use and tendency of all your faculties and you will find that your very nature pointeth you up to
even so the bruitish grossness of the Somatists driveth some Philosophers into Platonick dreams and the Platonick fictions harden the Epicureans in a far worser way Lactantius de ira Dei cap. 13. thinks that Epicurus was moved to his opinion against Providence by seeing the hurt that good men and Religious endure from the woâ—ser sort here in this world But why should you run out on one side the way because other men run out on the other why do you not rather argue from the doctrine in the sober mean that it is true than from the extreams that the truth is falshood When reason will allow you to conclude no more than that those extremes are falshood But surely I had rather hold Plato's Anima mundi or Aristotle's Intellectus agens and his moving Intelligences than Epicurus his Atoms and motion only And I had rather think with Alexander Arphad that omnis actio corporis est ab incorporeo principio yea or the Stoicks doctrine of Intellectual Fire doing all than Gassendus his doctrine that no incorporeal thing can move a corporeal or that Atoms and their motion only do all that we find done in nature When I look over and about me I find it a thing quite past my power to think that the glorious parts above us are not replenished with much nobler creatures than we And therefore if the Platonists and the ancient Platonick Fathers of the Church did all think that they lived in communion with Angels and had much to do with them and that the superiour intelligences were a nobler part of their studies than meer bodies they shall have the full approbation of my reason in this though I would not run with them into any of their presumptions and uncertain or unsound conceits Saith Aeneas Gazaeus pag. 778. when he had told us that Plato Pythagoras Plotinus and Numenius were for the passing of men's souls into bruits but Porphyry and Jamblichus were against it and thought that they passed only into men Ego quidem hac ipsa de causa filium aut famulum ob id quod commiserint peccatum puniens antequam de ipsis supplicium sumam praemoneo ut meminerint ne posthac unquam in eadem mala recurrant Deus autem quando ultima supplicia decernit non edocet eos qui poenarum causas sed scelerum memoriam omnem tollet vide pag. 382. For this reason and many others we assume not their conceit of the soul's pre-existence and think all such unproved fancies to be but snares to trouble the world with We think not that God punisheth men for sin in another world while he totally obliterateth the memory of the other world and of their sin When he hath told us that In Adam all die and By one mans disobedience many are made sinners and so condemnation passed upon all Rom. 5. Nor will we with Origen thus tempt men to look for more such changes hereafter which we can give them no proof of Nor will we distribute the Angelical Hierarchy into all the degrees which the pseudo-Dionysius doth nor with the Gnosticks Basilidians Saturninians Valentinians and abundance of those antient Hereticks corrupt Christianity with the mixture of fanatick dreams about the unrevealed Powers and worlds above us either worshipping Angels or prying into those things which he hath not seen and are not revealed vainly puft up by his fleshly mind or without cause puffed up by the imagination of his own flesh as Dr. Hammond translateth it Col. 2.18 Nor will we make a Religion with Paracelsus Behmen the Rosicrucians or the rest described by Christ Beckman Exercit. of the Philosophical whimsies of an over-stretch'd imagination And yet we will not reject the saying of Athenagoras Apol. pag. 57. Magnum numerum Angelorum Ministrorum Dei esse fatemur quos opifex architectus mundi Deus Verbo suo tanquam in classes ordinavit centuriavitque ut elementa coelos mundum quae in mundo sunt vicesque ordinem omnium moderarent Though we may adde with Junilius Africanus that Whether the Angels meddle with the government of the world of stablished creatures is a difficult question OBJECTION XIX IF the soul do continue individuate yet its actings will not be such as they are now in the body because they have not spirits to act by And as Gassendus thinketh that the reason of oblivion in old men is the wearing out of the vestigia of the former spirits by the continual flux or transition of matter so we may conceive that all memory will cease to separated souls on the same account and therefore they will be unfit for Rewards or Punishments as not remembring the cause Answ 1. Iâ— Gassendus his opinion were true men should forget all things once a year if not once a month considering how many pounds of matter are spent every 24 hours And why then do we better when we are old remember the things which we did between nine or ten years old and twenty than most of the later passages of our lives as I do for my part very sensibly 2. What is mans memory for with bruits we meddle not but scientia praeteritorum Is not remembring a knowing of things past surely we may perceive that it is and that it is of the same kind of action with the knowing of things present And therefore we may make not memory a third faculty because it is the same with the understanding 3. We have little reason to think that the surviving soul will lose any of its essential powers and grow by its change not only impotent but another thing Therefore it will be still an intelligent power And though remote actions and effects such as writing fighting c. are done by instruments which being removed we cannot do them without yet essential acts are nothing so which flow immediately from the essence of the agent as light heat and motion of the fire If there be but due objects these will be performed without such instruments Nor will the Creator who continueth at an active intelligent power continue it so in vain by denying it necessaries for its operations There is like to be much difference in many respects between the soul's actings here and hereafter but the acts flowing from its essence immediately as knowledge volition complacency called Love and Displacencie c. will be the same How far the soul here doth act without any idea or instrument I have spoken before And the manner of our acting hereafter no man doth now fully understand But that which is essentially an intellectual volitive power will not be idle in its active essence for want of a body to be its instrument If we may so far ascribe to God himself such Affections or Passions as the ingenious Mr. Samuel Parker in his Teutam Phil. l. 2. c. 8. p. 333 c. hath notably opened we have no reason to think that scientia praeteritorum is not to be ascribed