the Truth that they might be saved God shall send them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength of delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess. 2 10. The forementioned particulars do of themselves lead to the most dangerous errours how much more then must they needs so do when they are backed on with the Divine Vengeance But if honesty and an Obedient temper of Soul will secure from the other causes of errour and seduction it will in so doing secure from this last So that it is manifest that a sincere desire of Righteousness and true Holiness will not fail to help men to a thorow-belief and sufficient understanding of that Book which is onely designed to indue them with it And that nothing can occasion the contrary but a wilful adhering to some one or other immorality and that this hath a very great aptness so to do So that it is not the least matter of wonder to see men of excellent wits and brave accomplishments either fall into gross errours or even into a flat disbelief of the Christian Religion As strange as this may seem to some it appears from our past Discourse that there is not any real cause of admiration in it For other endowments of as excellent use as they may be when accompanied with that of an obedient temper must needs do more hurt than good to the Souls that are adorned and graced with them when separated from it and occasion those vices that may well make way for Heresies And it is certain that an acute wit when it hath not a purified sense going along with it is so far from being a sufficient praerequisite to the right understanding of Evangelical truths that it is as notable an Engine as the Grand Deceiver can desire to make use of in order to the bringing about his mischievous designs upon the person that is Master of it So that indeed it is on the contrary rather matter of wonder that any man that hath a naughty Will should have a good Iudgement in Gospel-truths though both his natural and acquired parts should be ne'r so great And again we may without the least breach of Charity presume that whosoever to whom Christianity is sufficiently made known doth either disbelieve it or any of the Fundamentals of it his Heart is much more in fault than is his Head and that he hath darkened his Discerning faculty and greatly dimmed the Eye of his Soul by entertaining some filthy lust that sends up a thick sog and mist of vapours to it If any man teach otherwise saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 3. and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the Doctrine that is according to Godliness he is proud c. not he is weak and cannot but he is wicked and will not understand the Truth And by the way this Discourse may conduce to the no small encouragement of the weaker sort Let such be but heartily solicitous about doing God's Will and having the Design of the Gospel effected in them and they need fear that their weakness will betray them into the wrong way to Blessedness CHAP. XXVII The Last Inference That we are taught by the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth Instances of what kind of things it doth not consist in For what Ends the several Exercises of Piety and Devotion are injoyned How God is Glorified by men and by what means Whom it is our duty to esteem and carry our selves towards as true Christians That by following the Example of Christ and making his Life our Pattern we shall assure our selves that the Design of Christianity is effected in us and that we are indued with the Power of it LAstly We learn from the Doctrine of the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth viz. In a good state and habit of mind in a holy frame and temper of Soul whereby it esteemeth God as the Chiefest good preferreth him and his Son Jesus before all the world and prizeth above all things an interest in the Divine Perfections such as Iustice and Righteousness universal Charity Goodness Mercy and Patience and all kinds of Purity From whence doth naturally proceed a hearty complyance with all the Holy Precepts of the Gospel and sincere endeavours to perform all those actions which are agreeable to them are necessary expressions of those and the like vertues and means for the obtaining and encrease of them and to avoid the Contrary The Kingdom of God or Christianity is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost as Saint Paul tells us Rom. 14. 17. That is it doth not consist in any merely external matters or bodily exercises which elsewhere he saith do profit but little And as not in such as he there meaneth viz. things of a perfectly indifferent nature and neither good nor evil so neither in such as are very good and laudable for the matter of them It is onely their flowing from an inward Principle of Holiness that denominateth any whatsoever Christian actions But such as are onely occasioned by certain external inducements and motives and proceed not from any good temper and disposition of Soul be they never so commendable in themselves bespeak not him that performeth them to be a true and sincere Christian. He is not a Iew saith the same Apostle that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision that is outward in the flesh But he is a Iew that is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. 28 29. That is he onely is a true child of Abraham who in the purity of the heart obeyeth those substantial Laws that are imposed by God upon him And if no one that doth not thus might properly be called a Iew or child of Abraham much less can the name of a Christian and a Disciple of the Holy Iesus be due to him He it is evident is onely so in whom the Design of Christianity is in some measure accomplish'd And it appears from what hath been said that its Design is Primarily and immediately upon the Nature which being rectified and renewed will certainly discover it self so to be throughout the whole life For a good tree will not bring forth corrupt fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit as our Saviour hath said Were it possible as it is not that we should forbear all outward acts of sin and yet our Souls cleave to it we could not but be destitute of the Life and Power of Christianity And should we abound never so much in the exercise of good duties if our design in so doing be to gratifie any lust and serve some carnal interest they will be so far from Christian actions that they may
THE DESIGN OF Christianity QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS Clem. Alexandr Paedag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE DESIGN OF Christianity OR A plain Demonstration and Improvement of this Proposition VIZ. That the enduing men with Inward Real Righteousness or True Holiness was the Ultimate End of our Saviour's Coming into the World and is the Great Intendment of His Blessed Gospel By EDWARD FOWLER Minister of God's Word at Northil in Bedford-shire LONDON Printed by E. Tyler and R. Holt for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty and Lodowick Loyd MDCL XXI Imprimatur April 17. 1671. Rob. Grove R. P. Dom. Episc. Lond. à sac Dom. To the Reader Reader WHereas there was somewhat above a Twelve-moneth since exposed to Publick view a Free Discourse between the two intimate Friends Theophilus and Philalethes which containeth an Account of some Principles and Practices of certain Moderate Divines c. together with a Defence of them I desire thee to take notice that in this Tractate is pursued the main and Fundamental Reason of that Dialogue As if thou art not a stranger to it thou mayest easily guess by the foregoing Title-page And if thou shalt please to give thy self the trouble of running over the following Pages I hope thou wilt be satisfied that the Doctrines that are chiefly maintained in that Book do most naturally result from and those which are most opposed in it are confuted by the Argument that is here insisted on If thou conceivest that in Demonstrating the establishment of Real Righteousness and True Holiness in the world to be the Ultimate Design of our Saviour's Coming and the Grand and even whole Business of the Christian Institution I have taken upon me to prove a Proposition that is as evidently and imdisputably true as any First Principle I must tell thee that I most heartily wish there were more of thy mind than I doubt there are And that I have been so far from giving my Reader any the least Temptation to suspect the Contrary that I have expresly as thou wilt see shewn That there is nothing in the whole world more clearly apparent than the Truth thereof to such as are not either through Ignorance or Wilfulness very strangely blinded or that have with any seriousness read the New Testament or but a small part of it But though this be so I may not be accused of so idley employing my self in the first Section as if I there held up a Torch to shew the Sun for I have pointed to it by its own light only that is exposed to thy View in a few leaves the summ and substance of that abundant evidence which throughout the Gospel is given us of that great Truth And whosoever shall say that to do this was needless I shall give him my unfeigned thanks would he make me sensible that I am guilty of a mistake in believing otherwise And upon that account rejoyce to be convinced that I have in that business spent time impertinently But alas it is no less undeniable that a Discourse of this nature is necessary and seasonable than that the matter thereof is true For it cannot be at all doubted that the Design of the Christian Religion is by abundance of its Professors very sadly mistaken and that though it is with infinite plainness expressed to be no other than the Reformation of our Lives and Purification of our Natures and is wholly adapted to that purpose the complaint that Tully took up of certain Philosophers viz. that they esteemed their Philosophy Ostentationem scientiae non Legem vitae a boast of science not a law of life may be applied to not a few of those that are called Christians concerning their opinion of Christianity And besides that there are diverse Opinions that too many among us are greatly fond of which make it absolutely certain that they think otherwise than they ought and have entertained unworthy notions of the Design of the Gospel it must be acknowledged that such Practices are likewise observable in the far greater part as are a Demonstration that if they have no false conception of it yet it is but little considered and therefore not thorowly believed by them And this alone is abundantly sufficient to avouch the Usefulness of my undertaking both in that and the two other Sections And till those that Profess themselves Christ's Disciples do more generally become effectually sensible as those of the first Ages were That the Mystery into which they are initiated is purely a Mystery of Godliness and that it is entirely composed of such Principles as tend throughly to instruct Man-kind in the Particulars of that Duty that the Law of their Nature obligeth them to towards their Creatour themselves and their Fellow-creatures together with the most Powerful Motives to Excite and the best means and most successful assistances to enable them to a faithful discharge of them we may never hope to out-live or to see the least abatement of that gross Superstition Fanaticism and Enthusiasm or those mad Enormities and most impious Practices which have now for a very long time sullied and most miserably defaced the beauty obscured nay and even utterly extinguish'd the glory of the Church of Christ have laid the honor w ch she was deservedly once crowned with in the very dust and bring the borridest scandal upon her holy profession and that Blessed Name she is called by But not to detain thee with a tedious Preface thou wilt have no reason to accuse me upon the account of this Discourse of starting and troubling the world with any more Controversies but mayst on the contrary be greatly assured That there cannot be taken a more effectual course to put an end to those we are at this day disturb'd with and to the pernicious effects of all whatsoever than is the right explaining and well improving of the Subject that is here handled For this is to strike at the Grand cause of them they being to be imputed to nothing so much as to the Ignorance of or Non-attendence to the Design of Christianity I will add no more but that if thou shalt please to accept this small performance as ingenuously and candidly as it is meant honestly and believe that it proceeds not from an Humour of Scribling but a sincere desire of doing some service thou wilt be but just to him who is ambitious of nothing so much as of being Instrumental towards the promoting of that most Excellent and infinitely Important Design in thy Heart and Life E. F. The Contents SECT I. That True Holiness is the Design of Christianity plainly Demonstrated CHAP. 1. The nature of true Holiness Described Pag. 5. Chap. 2. A general demonstration that the holiness described is the Design of Christianity by a Climax of seven particulars pag. 12. Chap. 3. A particular demonstration that holiness is the onely design of the Precepts of the Gospel And that they require 1. The most
give over all thoughts of becoming better nay and to let the reins loose unto all ungodliness But yet nothing short of Sincerity and diligent serious endeavors to abstain from all Sin will be admitted by him in order to our being made the objects of his Grace and Favour And as for Wilful and Presumptuous Sins of what kind soever he makes no allowances for them but hath by himself and his Ministers declared very frequently that they shall not be pardoned without our unfeigned Reformation from them And Lastly notwithstanding the allowances and abatements that in tender Compassion to us he is pleased to make us no less than our absolutely Perfect Holiness is designed by him though not to be effected in this yet in the other World CHAP. IV. That Holiness is the onely Design of the Promises of the Gospel shewed in Two Particulars And of the Threatnings therein Contained SEcondly The Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel have most apparently the promoting of Holiness for their onely Design First The Promises it is plain have This S. Peter assureth us 2 Epistle ch 1. v. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and pretious promises that by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the world through lust And S. Paul doth more than intimate the same in 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having saith he these Promises dearly beloved viz. those which the foregoing Chapter Concludes with let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord. Again Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the Mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your Reasonable Service And be ye not conformed to this present world but be ye transformed by the Renewing of your Minds c. 1. We always find these promises either limited to Holy persons or made use of as encouragements and exciting motives to Holiness The Apostle tells us that it is Godliness which hath the promises of the life that now is and of that which is to come The promise of the Beatifical vision is made to the Pure in Heart Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see God That of the Kingdom of Heaven to the Poor in Spirit or those that are of humble and lowly tempers The promise of obtaining Mercy to the Merciful That of inheriting the Earth of temporal felicity to the Meek or such as live in obedience to Government c. That of Eternal life to those that patiently Continue in Well-doing That of sitting with Christ on his Throne to those that overcome that is that mortifie their Lusts and corrupt affections The promise of a Crown of life is used as a motive to perswade to faithfulness to the Death But to what purpose do I multiply instances when as there is not a particular promise throughout the whole Gospel but it is expressed or plainly enough intimated that its performance depends upon some duty of Holiness to be on our parts first performed or at least heartily endeavoured And whereas the Promises of Pardon and of Eternal Life are very frequently made to Believing there is nothing more evidently declared than that this Faith is such as purisieth the Heart and is productive of Good Works 2. Nay the Nature of these Promises is such as is of it self sufficient to satisfie us That Holiness is the Design of them 1. This is manifestly true concerning the Principal Promises or those which relate to the other life They may be reduced to these three Heads That of the holy Spirit of Remission of Sin and of Eternal happiness in the Enjoyment of God Now for the first of these viz. The Promise of the Spirit that is it to which we are beholden for grace and assistance in the great work of subduing Sin and acquiring the habit of Holiness and this is the very business for the sake of which that Promise is made to us And for the second third they are such as none but holy Souls are capable of That none but such are capable of having the Guilt of their Sins removed and of being freed from the displeasure and wrath of God is self-evident for the Guilt of Sin must needs remain while its power continues these two are inseparable from each other Sin is so loathsome and filthy a thing as shall hereafter be shewn that it is perfectly impossible that the blood of Christ it self should render a sinner lovely or not odious in the sight of God any otherwise than by washing away the pollution of it And nothing is more apparent than that holy Souls alone are in a Capacity of the Happiness that consists in the Enjoyment of God in the other World than that as without Holiness no man shall see the Lord as saith the Author to the Hebrews So without it none can see him For the full and Complete participation of God which our Saviour promiseth his Disciples and faithful followers ariseth out of the likeness and Conformity of mens Souls to him But there is such a perfect unlikeness and contrariety in impure and polluted souls to the infinitely Holy God that it is impossible there should be any Communications from him to them any friendly agreement and complacency between Him and them He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither can evil dwell with him Psal. 5. 4. What Communion hath Light with Darkness saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. 14. But vicious and unholy souls are full of Darkness whereas God is pure splendid Light and in Him is no Darkness at all The Platonists would not admit that any man is Capable of being acquainted with Divine things that is not purged from that which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remissness of Mind and Brutish Passions How utterly impossible then is it that such as are not so should be acquainted with the Divinity it self Hierocles saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As a Bleer eye cannot look upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things very bright and shining so a Soul unpossessed of vertue is unable to behold the Beauty of Truth How unable then is such a soul to behold the Beauty of God himself to see him as he is and be happy in the sight of him Those eyes which have continually beheld Vanity as saith an Excellent late writer of our own would be dazled not delighted with the Beatifick Vision Thanks be to God saith the Apostle who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light Those can by no means partake of it that are not by Holiness made meet and disposed for it What happiness can we find in the enjoyment of God when he is of a perfectly contrary nature to our own and moreover how can we then enjoy him There must be in us a likeness
full of danger Again how wisely did our Saviour from time to time defeat and render unsuccessful the Plots and Machinations of the Pharisees and his other enemies against him We find in Matth. 22. 15. the Herodians or those of the Jews that adhered to the Caesarean and Roman Authority and the Pharisees who esteemed it as an usurpation combining together to intangle him in his talk And they so ordered their plot as that they might get an advantage from whatsoever he should say either to render him Obnoxious to Herod and the Roman Party or to Inrage the most popular and highly esteemed Sect of the Jews the Pharisees In order hereunto they cunningly put to him this Question viz. Whether it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar If he should answer that it was he would make himself lyable to the latter mischief if that it was not to the former and the far greater Now as is to be seen in the 19 20 21. verses our Saviour with such admirable prudence contrived his answer that vers 22. both factions are said to wonder at it and to be basfled by it When they had heard these words they marvelled and left him and went their way Diverse other Instances there are of a like nature as in Iohn 8. 3. to 9. Matth. 21. 23. to 27. Matt. 22. 41. to 46 c. And thus we have sufficiently and fully enough proved that it was the whole business of our Saviour's life to make men in all respects Pertuous and Holy and that thereunto were subservient as his Discourses with them so his Actions likewise and whole Behaviour Plus docent exempla quà m praecepta Examples are the most natural and easie way of teaching and they are so by reason of Mankinds being so greatly addicted to imitation and I say it doth from our past discourse sufficiently appear That our Saviour's whole Conversation was a rare exemplification of all kinds of Vertue and true Goodness CHAP. VI. That to make men truly Virtuous and Holy was the Design of Christ's unimitable Actions or Mighty works and Miracles And that these did not onely tend to promote it as they were convincing Arguments that He came forth from God but were also very proper to effect it in a more immediate manner BUt it cannot be amiss if we moreover adde That it was not onely the Design of our Saviour's imitable Actions to teach the world Vertue but also of those which are not imitable viz. Of his Miracles and Mighty works And that these did not onely tend to the promoting of that Design as they were convincing and infallible Arguments that he came forth from God but were likewise very proper to effect it in a more immediate manner For they were not onely Argumentative or a proof of the Truth of his Doctrine but also Instructive and minded men of their Duty Those Miracles which he chose to work were of such a nature as to be hugely fit to accomplish at one and the same time both these businesses They were not such as the foolish and carnal Jews expected that is signs from Heaven that were apt to produce directly no other effect than that of pleasing their Childish Phansies or striking their senses with admiration and astonishment by making prodigious and amazing shews and Representations before their eyes but most of them were expressions of the greatest kindness and Charity to Mankind For instance his Healing the sick of all manner of Diseases his making the lame to walk and the blind to see and the deaf to hear his cleansing the Lepers Feeding the Hungry Raising the Dead and ejecting of Evil Spirits out of those that were miserably possessed with them and tormented by them c. In Acts 10. 38. The Apostle expresseth our Saviour's working of Miracles by this Phrase Doing good who saith he went up and down doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil And in his Miracles did he give Instances of great kindness and good-will even unto those which did least deserve it For he made use of his Divine Power for the Healing relief of the Disingenuous and Unthankful Ill-natured and Wicked as well as of the better-disposed and more worthy persons Therein imitating his heavenly Father as he required us to do who maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the Iust and on the Unjust Matth. 5. 45. And as I take it the last Miracle that before he ascended the Cross was wrought by him was the Cure of one of those his Enemies that came with Clubs and Staves to apprehend him And the few Miracles besides those that consisted in doing kindnesses to Men for those we have on record are almost all such were such as by which he gave us an Example of other Vertues As particularly of Piety Trust in God and zeal for him Of his Piety and Trust in God his Fasting fourty days and fourty nights was a great evidence It was so of his Trust in him and constant adhering to him as by thus doing he put himself by his Father's appointment upon most violent and strong temptations in Conflicting wherewith as hath been shewn he came off a most Noble Conquerour Of his Zeal for God was his whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple no small expression and I adde it was so also of his most gracious and loving respect to the contemned Gentiles whose Court as Master Mede and others have most evidently demonstrated they were whip'd out of they making their house of Prayer a Den of Thieves as our Saviour told them And this may deservedly be numbered among his Miracles because it is unconceivable how a Man unarmed in no Authority and of mean esteem in regard of his Parentage poverty and low Circumstances should strike such a fear into those people as to force them without the least offer of Resistance to flee before him if the cause thereof were not extraordinary and more than natural And even that Miracle which might seem the most inconsiderable namely his causing his Disciple Peter to catch a Fish with a small piece of money in its mouth was also Instructive of a Duty It being an Instance of his Loyalty to the Supreme Magistrate for the money was expended in paying Tribute and taken out of the Sea in that strange manner for no other purpose In short I know no one Miracle that our Saviour wrought but over and above its being a Seal for the Confirmation of his Divine Mission it teacheth some one or other good Lesson and is proper for the bettering of the Souls of those that seriously consider it And that great Miracle which after his Ascension according to his promise he shewed in sending the Holy Ghost did promote the business of making men holy in a far higher way than that of Example For the grand standing office of the Spirit in the world is the exciting in us Holy Desires and the assisting of
own souls And therefore it could do no other than infinitely become the Son of God himself to endure the Cross and despise the shame for the joy that was set before him taking that joy in no other sence than hath been generally understood viz. for the happiness of Heaven consisting in a full enjoyment and undisturbed possession of the Blessed Deity nor is there any reason why we should enquire after any other signification of that word which may exclude this And on the other hand to be diligent in the service of God for fear of hell understanding it as a state perfectly opposite to that which we have been describing is in a like manner from a principle of love to God and true goodness as well as self-love and is no more unworthy of a Son of God than of a mere servant And thus the truth of this proposition That to make men Holy is to confer upon them the greatest of blessings by the little that hath been said is made plainly apparent CHAP. XIII The Second Account of our Saviour's preferring the business of making men holy before any other viz. That this is to do the best service to God An objection answered against the Author's Discourse of the Design of Christianity IT remains secondly to be shewn That to promote the business of Holiness in the world is to do God Almighty the best service And this will be dispatcht in a very few words For is it not without dispute better service to a Prince to reduce Rebels to their Allegiance than to procure a pardon under his Seal for them This is so evidently true that to do this latter except it be in order to the former business is not at all to serve him nay it is to do him the greatest of disservices I need not apply this to our present purpose And therefore to be sure the work of making men holy and bringing over sinners to the obedience of his Father must needs have been much more in the eye of our Blessed Saviour than that of delivering them from their deserved punishments simply and in it self considered For his love to him will be I hope universally acknowledged to be incomparably greater than it is to us as very great as ' t is None can question but that by our Apostacy from God we have most highly dishonoured him we have robbed him of a Right that he can never be willing to let go viz. The obedience that is indispensably due to him as he is our Creator continual Preserver our infinitely bountiful Benefactor and absolute Soveraign And therefore it is as little to be doubted that Christ would in the first place concern himself for the Recovery of that Right And but that both works are carried on together and inseparably involved in each other he must necessarily be very greatly and far more solicitous about the effecting of this Design than of that of delivering wicked Rebels from the mischiefs and miseries they have made themselves lyable to by their disobedience So that laying all these considerations together what in the world can be more indisputable than that our Savious chief and ultimate design in coming from Heaven to us and performing and suffering all he did for us was to turn us from our iniquities to reduce us to intire and universal obedience and to make us partakers of inward real righteousness and true holiness And we cannot from this last discourse but clearly understand that it is most infinitely reasonable and absolutely necessary that it should be so But now if after all this it be objected that I have defended a notion concerning the Design of Christianity different from that which hath hitherto been constantly received by all Christians viz. That it is to display and magnifie the exceeding riches of God's Grace to fallen mankind in his Son Jesus I answer that he will be guilty of very great injustice towards me that shall censure me as labouring in this discourse to propagate any new notion For I have therein endeavoured nothing else but a true explication of the old one it having been grossly misunderstood and is still by very many to their no small prejudice Those therefore that say that the Christian Religion designeth to set forth and glorifie the infinite Grace of God in Jesus Christ to wretched sinners and withall understand what they say as they speak most truly so do they assert the very same thing that I have done For as hath been shewn not only the Grace of God is abundantly displaied and made manifest in the Gospel to sinners for this end that they â—…ay thereby be effectually moved and perswaded to forsake their sins but also the principal Grace that is there exhibited doth consist in delivering us from the power of them Whosoever will acknowledge sin to be as we have proved it is in its own nature the greatest of all evils and holiness the chiefest of all blessings will not find it easie to deny this And besides as we have likewise shewn men are not capable of God's pardoning Grace till they have truly repented them of all their sins that is have in will and affection sincerely left them And also that if they were caPable of it so long as they continue vile slaves to their lusts that Grace by being bestowed upon them cannot make them happy nor yet cause them to cease from being very miserable in regard of their disquieting and tormenting nature in which is laid the foundation of Hell it self The free Grace of God is infinitely more magnified in renewing our Natures than it could be in the bare justification of our persons And to justifie a wicked man while he continueth so if it were possible for God to do it would far more disparage his Iustice and Holiness than advance his Grace and Kindness Especially since his forgiving sin would signifie so little if it be not accompanied with the destruction of it In short then doth God most signally glorifie himself in the world when he most of all communicates himself that is his Glorious perfections to the souls of men And then do they most Glorifie God when they most partake of them and are rendered most like unto him But because nothing is I perceive more generally mistaken than the notion of Gods Glorifying himself I will adde something more for the better understanding of this and I am conscious to my self that I cannot do it so well as in the words of the Excellent man we a while since quoted Mr. Iohn Smith sometimes Fellow of Queens College in Cambridge When God seeks his own Glory he doth not so much endeavour any thing without himself He did not bring this stately Fabrick of the universe into being that he might for such a monument of his mighty Power and Beneficence gain some Panegyricks or Applause from a little of that fading breath which he had made Neither was that Gracious Contrivance of restoring lapsed men to himself a
Christ yet this use of them was so mystical and reserved so impossible to be collected out of the letter of the Law that without a special Revelation from God the eyes of the Israelites were too weak to serve them to pierce through those dark clouds and shadows and to carry their observation to the substance So that proceeds he I conceive those Sacrifices of the Law in this respect are a great deal more beneficial to us Christians For there is a great difference between Sacraments and Types Types are onely useful after the Antitype is discovered for the confirmation of their faith that follow As for Example Abraham ' s offering of Isaac by Faith did lively represent the real oblation of Christ but in that respect was of little or no use till Christ was indeed Crucified it being impossible to make that History a groundwork of their Faith in Christ. The like may be said of the Legal Sacrifices And for a clear understanding of the direct use of this Law I refer the Reader to that Sermon Where it is fully and in my opinion as judiciously discoursed as I have ever elsewhere met with it Secondly Nor were these special Favourites of heaven upon any other accounts in circumstances for the obtaining of a thorow reformation of life renovation and purification of nature comparable to those which our Saviour hath blessed his Disciples with For though they had as we said for the substance the same Spiritual Precepts which are enjoyned in the Gospel over and above the Mosaical Law yet these were inforced by no express promises of eternal happiness or threatnings of eternal misery Nor was so much as a life to come otherwise than by Tradition or by certam ambiguous expressions for the most part of their inspired men or by such sayings as onely implyed it and from which it might be rationally concluded discovered to them As for instance in that place particularly where God by his representative an Angel declared himself to his servant Moses to be the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob from whence our Saviour inferred that Doctrine for this Reason That God is not the God of the dead but of the living And that the notices they had hereof were not very plain and clear is apparent in that there was a Sect among them viz. the Sadduces that professed to disbelieve it and yet notwithstanding were continued in the body and enjoyed the privileges of the Jewish Church But that one forecited Assertion of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 10. putteth this out of all question viz. That Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel From whence we may assuredly gather thus much at least viz. That in the Gospel is manifestly revealed Life and Immortality which was never before made known so certainly I adde moreover that the Israelites were required to keep at such a distance from all other Nations that they could not but be by that means greatly inclined to morosity self-conceitedness and contempt of their fellow-creatures And were ever and anon employed in such services as naturally tended through the weakness of their natures to make their spirits too angry and fierce not to say cruel As for instance that of destroying God's and their enemies and sometimes their innocent children too and the cattle that belonged to them And several connivances and Indulgences they had as in the Cases of Divorce and Polygamy and Revenge which did not a little conduce to the gratifying of Sensuality and the Animal life in them All which are taken away by our Saviour Christ. These things with diverse others made it in an ordinary way impossible for those people to arrive at that height of vertue and true goodness that the Gospel designeth to raise us to And though we find some of them very highly commended for their great Sanctity we are to understand those Encomiums for the most part at least with a reference to the Dispensation under which they were and as implying a consideration of the Circumstances they were in and the means they enjoyed And thus have we shewed what a most admirably effectual course our Blessed Saviour hath taken to purifie us from all filthiness both of the flesh and spirit and to make us in all respects Righteous and Holy And how much the Christian Dispensation excelleth others as to its aptness for this purpose And from what hath been said we may safely conclude That neither the world nor any part of it was ever favored by God with means for the accomplishment of this work comparable to those which are contained in the Christian Religion So that well might S. Paul call the Gospel of Christ the power of God to Salvation that is both from misery and the cause of it Well may the weapons of the Christian Warfare be said not to be carnal and weak but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds and casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Great reason had Clemens Alexandrinus to call our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Instructer and School-master of Humane Nature and to say as he doth in the following words That he hath endeavoured to save us by using with all his might all the instruments of Wisdom or all wise courses and draws us back by many bridles from gratifying unreasonable appetites And Iustin Martyr speaking of the Gospel had cause pathetically to break out as he did in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c O thou expeller and chaser away of evil affections O thou extinguisher of burning lusts This is that which makes us not Poets or Philosophers or excellent Orators but of poor mortal men makes us like so many Immortal Gods and translateth us from this low earth to those Regions that are above Olympus And well again might the same good Father having throughly acquainted himself with the Stoick and Platonick Philosophy by which latter he thought himself to have gained much wisdom and at last by the advice of an old man a stranger having studied the Gospel thus express himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I found this alone to be the safe and profitable Philosophy and thus and by this means became I a Philosopher Symplicius faith thus of Epictetus his Enchiridion That it hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much of powerfulness and pungency that those which are not perfectly dead must needs come to understand thereby their own affections and be effectually excited to the rectifying of them Could he give such a Character as this of that little Book of his BrotherHeathen what can be invented by us high enough for the Gospel That as very fine a thing as it is being most apparently extremely weak and insufficient for the purpose upon the account of which he praiseth it if
the honour that is due to that order of spirits which is immediately subordinate to Him and above the Daemons and Heroes all he â—…aith concerning it is that it consisteth in understanding the excellency of their natures and in endeavouring after a likeness to them where as he hath afterward a very excellent Discourse of tho necessary obligation men are under of praying to God But I have not yet instanced in the worst part of the Popish prayers to departed Saints the blasphemies contained in those to the Virgin Mary are such as I would not defile my pen with the recital of any of them did I not know it to be too needful so to do She is stiled in their publique prayers the Saviour of Desparing Souls the bestower of Spiritual Grace and Dispenser of the most Divine Gifts One higher than the heavens and deeper than the earth and many such compellations as are proper onely to some one Person of the glorious Trinity are given in them to her In her Anthem she is supplicated for pardon of sin for Grace and for Glory And the forementioned Learned Bishop observeth that in the Mass-Book penned One thousand five hundred thirty eight and used in the Polonian Churches they call the Blessed Virgin viam ad vitam c. the way to Life the Governess of all the World the Reconciler of sinners with God the Fountain of Remission of sins Light of Light And at last she is there saluted with an Ave universae Trinitatis Mater Hail thou Mother of the Holy Trinity And he adds that the Council of Constance in the Hymn they call a Sequence did invocate the Virgin in the same manner as Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost That they call her the Mother of Grace the Remedy of the Miserable the Fountain of Mercy and the Light of the Church And lastly his Lordship alleageth a Psalter of our Lady that hath been several times Printed at Venice at Paris and Leipsich the Title of which is The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin compiled by the Seraphical Doctor S. Bonaventure c. Which consisteth of the Psalms of David One hundred and fifty in number in which the name of Lord is left out and that of Lady put in and altered where it was necessary they should to make sense Therein whatsoever David said whether prayers or praises of God and Christ they say of the Blessed Virgin and whether saith he all that can be said without intolerable Blasphemy we suppose needs not much disputation Who would not readily conclude it altogether impossible for any men to invent or approve nay or not to have indignation against such daring and most execrable Impieties that are not utterly berefâ—… of their senses or are but one remove from perfect Atheists There are diverse other most prodigious sayings concerning the Virgin Mary transcribed out of the approved Books of Great Sons of the Roman Church in the now cited Disswasive from Popery to which I refer the Reader And to them I will adde some which may doubtless vie with the worst that we can well imagine were ever uttered of one Iohannes Argentus a Prime Catholique youth which he hath exposed to the view of the world in a Right worthy piece treating of the seven Excellencies of the most Blessed Virgin Saith he Christus servit atque assiduè ministrat Matri suae Christ serveth and continually administreth to his Mother and next thus vents himself in a great fit of Devotion to her O si liceret quà m libenter me illi socium adjungerem c. If it might be lawful Oh how gladly would I joyn my self with him as his Companion How willingly would I learn of him the way of perfectly serving thy self and God! the Reader will not anon judge his placing the Virgin before God himself as proceeding from inadvertency How willingly would I ease my most sweet Iesus of this his labour O Lord Iesu my most lovely Saviour permit me to perform some service to thy Mother but if thou wilt not grant me this yet at least give me leave that whilest thou servest thy Mother I may serve thee And he tells us afterward that God is in other creatures after a threefold manner by his Essence by his Presence and by his Power but in the most Blessed Virgin after a fourth manner viz. by Identity or being one and the self-same with her Who could think that the worst should be yet behind Let the Reader judge whether it be or no. He farther saith That her seventh degree of excellency consists in this quòd sit Domina Dei that she is the Mistriss of God And then a line or two after as if he had thought that he had not yet sufficiently performed the part of a most impudent blasphemer he adds that supra ipsum thronum Dei solium suum collocavit she hath erected her seat above the very throne of God This was a Fellow that had improved to purpose the Prayers he had learn'd of his holy Mother Surely she could not find in her heart to deny so passionately devout a worshipper of the Holy Virgin a very considerable share in the Merits of her Supererogations or rather may we not think that she would judge him so great a Saint as to stand in no need of them and to have of his own to spare wherewith to add to the riches of her treasury for the relief of those who being conscious to themselves of being too dry and cold devotionists can be perswaded to go to the charge of them Have we not now infinite cause to wonder that the Papists should take it so very heinouâ—…ly at our hands that we fasten upon them the imputation of Idolatry This very wretch would have been sensible of an unsufferable abuse should one have call'd him Idolater as Blasphemous a one as he was and notwithstanding his having even more than Deified a mere Creature and advanced her Throne even above her Creator's Lord to what heights of Impiety will Superstition lead men and how thick is that darkness she blindeth the eyes of her captives with that it will not suffer them to discern that guilt which is no whit less apparent than is the Sun it self But Thirdly The grossest Instance of the Church of Rome's Idolatry we have yet omitted and that is their worshipping the Consecrated Bread not as God's Representative but which is far worse as God himself in the Sacrament of the Altar as they call it and on other occasions This is no where to be parallel'd for the sottishness of it no not among the most Barbarous and Bruitish Nations it being founded upon the most absurd contradictious portentous and monstrous conceit that ever entered the head of any mortal as they have had it unanswerably and to the confusion of their faces proved to them by a multitude of Learned Persons of the Reformed Religion who have also so fully and with such mighty and irresistible strength made
Christ for the pardon of sin and not also in his power for the Mortification of it In short Is it possible that faith in Christ's blood for the forgiveness of sin should be the onely act which justifieth a sinner when such a multitude of plain Texts assure us that he died also to make us holy and that his death was designed to deliver us from dying in order to a farther end namely to this that we should live unto him who died for us I will never trust my discursive Faculty so long as I live no not in the plainest and most undoubted cases if I am mistaken here And will take the boldness to tell those who are displeased with this account of Iustifying Faith that in my opinion it is impossible they should once think of any other if they did as seriously weigh and throughly consider the Design of Christianity as they ought to do I the more insist upon this because those persons explication of this point hath been greatly lyable to be used to ill purposes by insincere persons and hath given infinite advantage to the dangerous errour of Antinomianism And for my part I must confess that I would not willingly be he that should undertake to encounter one of the champions of that foul cause with the admission of this principle That faith justifieth onely as it apprehendeth the merits and righteousness of Iesus Christ I must certainly have great luck or my adversary but little cunning if I were not forced to repent me of such an Engagement Secondly And as for the other Doctrine of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness we learn from the Design of Christianity that this is the true explication of it Namely That it consists in dealing with sincerely righteous persons as if they were perfectly so for the sake and upon the account of Christ's Righteousness The grand intent of the Gospel being to make us partakers of an Inward and Real Righteousness and it being but a secondary one that we should be accepted and rewarded as if we were completely righteous it is not possible that any other notion of this Doctrine should have truth in it For as from thence it appeareth that there can be no such Imputation of Christ's Righteousness offered in the Gospel as serveth to make men remiss in their prosecution of an Inward Righteousness So is it manifest likewise That that Doctrine is designed for a motive to quicken and excite men in their endeavours after such a Righteousness as this is So far is it from tending to cause in us an undervaluing and sleight esteem of it that as sure as that the Ultimate design of Christianity is to indue us with it it must be intended for no other purpose but to farther and promote that business And it is effectual thereunto in that manner that we shewed the exceeding great and precious Promises of the Gospel are But because both these points are discussed in the Free Discourse I have said so little of the former and will proceed no fâ—…rther on this but refer the Reader thither and to other much more elaborate Discourses for his fuller satisfaction And indeed it was enough for me in this place to shew That the notion laid down in that Book of both these Doctrines doth evidently follow from that Proposition which is the Subject of this Treatise CHAP. XX. The Fifth Inference That we Learn from the Design of Christianity the Great Measure and Standard whereby we are to judge of Doctrines How we are to judge of the Truth of Doctrines FIfthly we learn from what hath been said of the Design of Christianity what is the Great measure and standard whereby we are to judge of Doctrines both whether they are true or false and in what degree necessary to be received or rejected First we understand how to judge of the Truth of Doctrines We may be certain that seeing the Design of Christianity is to make men holy whatsoever opinions do either directly or in their evident consequences obstruct the promoting of it are perfectly false and with as great peremptoriness and confidence as they may be by some that call themselves Christians obtruded upon us they are not of Christ nor any part of his Religion And those which do appear to us to discourage from serious endeavours after piety and true vertue we ought for that reason while we have such an opinion of them most vehemently to suspect them to be erroneous For it being the business of our Saviour's coming into the world and of his blessed Gospel effectually to perswade us to use our utmost diligence in subduing our lusts and qualifying our Souls by purity and holiness for the enjoyment of God and to make our endeavours successful for that purpose we may be undoubtedly assured that he hath not either by himself immediately or by his Apostles delivered any thing that opposeth this Design If saith S. Paul I build again the things that I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor And no man that hath in him the least of a Christian will once suspect that the perfectly wise as well as holy Jesus should so manage the business he hath undertaken as what he builds with one hand to pull down with the other and frustrate that Design by some Doctrines which he promoteth by others Those Doctrines on the other hand which in their own nature do evidently tend to the serving of this Design of Christianity we may conclude are most true and genuine And those which upon our serious considering of them we are perswaded do so we ought upon that account to have a kindness for them and to believe them of an higher than humane Original And therefore those which give the most honourable accounts of God his nature and dealing with the sons of men that most magnifie his grace and best vindicate his Holiness Justice and Goodness do commend themselves to our belief with infinite advantage Because the most worthy conceptions of the Deity are extremely helpful and likewise necessary to the loving of God and serving him as becometh us and have a mighty influence into the ordering and regulation of our whole man as might be largly shewn Those Doctrines again that most discountenance all sins both against the first and second Table and best enable to answer all pleas and pretences for security and carelesness that are most highly agreeable to the innate Dictates of our minds and least gratifie and please our carnal part we may from the consideration of the Design of Christianity be greatly perswaded of the Truth of them And on the Contrary Those which are apt to instil into mens minds any unlovely notions of the Divine Nature that disparage his Holiness or lessen his kindness and good will to his Creation and the obligations of the generality of the world to him and his Son Jesus and so make his grace a narrow and scanty thing or that naturally cast any dishonorable reflections on any
person of the most holy Trinity must needs be false As also those that make Religion to be a mere Passive thing wholly God's work and not at all ours or that cramp men and perswade them that they are utterly void of the least ability to co-operate with the grace of God or to do any thing towards their own salvation or any way whatsoever discourage them from the diligent prosecution of Holiness or deprive us of any help afforded us towards our gaining and growth in grace either by putting a slur upon the written word in advancing above it the light within men and in Enthusiastical pretences to immediate Revelations c. Or else by teaching men to sleight any one Ordinance of the Gospel c. Or such Doctrines as tend to introduce confusion into the Church of Christ and to deprive it of all Government and Order or in short that give countenance to any Immorality whatsoever I say as sure as the Christian Religion is true and that what we have proved to be the Design thereof is so such Doctrines as these must needs be false What our Saviour saith of false Prophets is as true of most Doctrines By their fruits you shall know them we may understand whether they have any relation to Christianity or no by the Design they drive at and their evident consequences And I may adde that we may make a shrewd guess what those particular wayes and modes of Religion are which the various Sects we are cantonized into have espoused to themselves and are so fond of by the proper and most distinguishing effects of them If we perceive that they make the great sticklers for them to differ from others chiefly in unconcernednes about the most important substantial duties of Morality and in laying the greatest weight upon certain little Trifles and placing their Religion in mere externals or that the things whereby they are most peculiarly discriminated from other folk are spiritual pride and fond conceitedness of themselves and a scornful and fierce behaviour towards those that approve not of their way uncharitableness morosity and peevishness a seditious ungovernable and untameable spirit c. I say if we observe such as these to be the most distinguishing effects of their several Modes and Forms we have sufficient reason from thence alone greatly to presume that they have not the stamp of Ius Christianum upon them that they are not of Christ but of their own invention The wisdom that is from above is quite another thing and begets perfectly other kind of effects as shall be shewn hereafter But to return The Design of the Gospel is as was said the Great Standard by which we are to judge of the Truth of Opinions Those that seem to us to oppose this Design we are bound to suspect because they do so but those which apparently do this we must with heartiest indignation reject And though we should meet with some places of Scripture that at first sight may seem to favour them we may not be stumbled upon that account but be confident that whatsoever is their true meaning as sure as they have God for their Author they cannot possibly patronize any such Doctrines And lastly in examining which of two opinions is true that oppose each other and do seem to be much a like befriended by the holy Scriptures it is doubtless a very safe course to consider as impartially as we can which doth tend most to serve the great End of Christianity and to prefer that which we are perswaded doth so CHAP. XXI How we are to judge of the Necessity of Doctrines either to be embraced or rejected A brief discourse of the Nature of Points Fundamental How we may know whether we embrace all such and whether we hold not any destructive and damnable Errours SEcondly The Design of Christianity is the great measure whereby we are to judge as of the Truth so also of the Necessity of Doctrines either to be embraced or rejected First We may thereby understand in what degree we ought to esteem those Necessary to be by all received which we our selves are convinc'd of the Truth of or which of such are Fundamental Points of the Christian Faith and which not First It is plain That in the general those and those only are primarily and in their own nature Fundamentals which are absolutely necessary to accomplish in us that Design Such as without the knowledge and belief of which it is impossible to acquire that Inward Righteousness and true Holiness which the Christian Religion aimeth at the introduction of It is in it self absolutely necessary not to be ignorant of or disbelieve any of those Points upon which the effecting of the great business of the Gospel in us doth necessarily depend The particulars of these I shall not stand to enumerate because as will appear from what will be said anon it is not needful to have a just Table of them And besides any one that understands wherein the nature of true Holiness lyeth may be able sufficiently to inform himself what they are Secondly It is as evident That those points of Faith are secondarily Fundamental the disbelief of which cannot consist with true Holiness in those to whom the Gospel is sufficiently made known although they are not in their own nature such as that Holiness is not in some degree or other attainable without the belief of them And in the number of these are all such Doctrines as are with indisputable clearness revealed to us Now the belief of these though it is not in it self any more than in higher or lower degrees profitable yet is it even absolutely necessary from an external cause though not from the nature of the Points themselves viz. In regard of their being delivered with such abundant perspicuity as that nothing can cause men to refuse to admit them but that which argueth them to be stark naught and to have some unworthy and base end in so doing But we must take notice here that all such Points as these are not of equal necessity to be received by all Christians because that in regard of the diversity of their capacities educations and other means and advantages some of them may be most plainly perceived by some to be delivered in the Scriptures which cannot be so by others with the like ease And in the second place what hath been said of Fundamental Truths is applicable by the Rule of Contraries to the opposite Errours as I need not shew Now then would we know whether we embrace all the Fundamentals of Christianity and are guilty of no damnable and destructive errours among the great diversity and contrariety of Opinions that this kingdom abounds with I think I may say above all other parts of Christendom our onely way is to examine our selves impartially after this manner Am I sincerely willing to obey my Creatour and Redeemer in all things commanded by them Do I entertain and harbour no lust in my