be appetens vini so may he sometimes judge or censure another and yet not be A Judge or Censurer of others for that notes the Habit or Custom not the Act alone Now every one that taketh upon him the Habit or Custom of censuring others is without Apologie or Inexcusable not only in that he takes upon him that Judicature which God hath not appointed him to exercise but Because it is impossible for any man much accustomed to judge or censure others not to do the same things which he Condemnes in others which was the effect and sense of the Minor Proposition For as St. James tels us not excluding him self who questionless was one of the best men then living in many things we all offend And if we offend in many things and accustom or use our selves to censure many or to pass our sentence upon most things which we see amiss we cannot possibly avoid the condemning of our selves because we cannot possibly avoid some one or other of those faults which we censure or condemn in others Again As it is not every Matter for which a man may in any sort be judged as for natural parts or businesses of Art suppose unartificially done so neither is it every kind of judging or censuring which is here meant The Text must needs at least have more special force and Reference to matters of more special weight or consequence To give instance in such matter of Life and Doctrine as imports or is conceived to implie Favour or Dis-Favour with God As that This man is an Elect vessel That a cast-away or Reprobate Now every one doth condemn himself who so judges others in these Points that he seekes to justifie himself by judging them He saith in his heart as the Pharisee did I thank God I am not as other men are nor as this Publican The Pharisee had taken notice of some good Evidences or qualities in himself of which he saw a want in the Publican and of some ill conditions in the Publican from which he thought himself free in the particular Et sic ad pauca respiciens facilè pronunciat This is the ordinarie ground of rash and uncharitable judgement when men compare their own Good parts with others Bad. 5. To sift the Orginal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little further besides the Multiplicitie of censuring or proneness to judge others It imports a kinde of Usurped authority over others For whosoever takes upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sentence or judge another hath a secret perswasion or Conceit that he is better then the man whom he judgeth at least in respect of those things for which he judgeth him Otherwise he would not judge but rather pitty him or pray for him and for himself lest he fall into the like temptation No man is fit to judge or censure another but he that is able to correct or reform that fault or Error for which he judgeth him Now the fervent zeal of correcting or Reforming Abuses most grosse and palpable usally misleades men not well instructed in the wayes of God into worse errors then those are which they seek to Reform in others He that will take upon him to be a Reformer of others must first be throughly reformed himself must be renued as the Apostles speakes in the spirit of his minde enabled by The spirit of God and by the knowledge of his Providence to see a far off as well as neer at hand and to forecast the inconveniences which may follow long after as well as to discern mischiefes present or their redress And When our Apostle saith Thou that judgest another doest the same things His meaning is not that he doth alwayes the same things Quoad speciem as we say in kind or the same things for outward semblance but oft-times the same things by Equivalencie things of the like value or importance And after this manner Two men may do the same things although the things done by the one be quite contrary to the things done by the other Every Opposition to error is not a Truth For Two Contrary Propositions as Logicians observe may be alike false And so may the Reformation of grossest Errors whether in matter of Manners or Opinions be altogether as bad as the Errors or Abuses which they seek to Reform if they alwayes seek the cure of the disease by contraries In maters of Fact or Manners that saying of the Poet is most True Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt Whilst unwise men seek to avoid one vice they run into a contrary vice And in matter of Opinion or speculation That Saying of the same Poet hath been often ratified by woful Experience In vitium ducit culpae fuga si caret arte The eschewing of one error is the high way to another if it be done by hastie inconsiderate flight and not according to the Art and Rules of A Sober Retreat The truth of what is said before is plain from the Apostles Instances v. 21. 22. Thou that teachest a man should not steal doest thou steal This imports a committing of the same sin in kinde for which he judged another But when he saith Thou that abhorrest Idols committest Thou sacrilege This cannot be meant of commiting the same sin in kinde but only by Equivalency For Idolatry and Sacrilege are contrary The one is the fruit of superstitious zeal or blinde devotion The other of Atheism But as diverse other Contraries so these Two agree too well in One General that is in robbing God of his honor And for this Reason As often as any Sacrilegious persons suppose the Jews which robbed God in his tithes and offerings did judge or censure the heathen for Idolatry they did condemn themselves for they did the same or worse And it is Generally True That none are so rigid Judgers censurers or Reformers of others as those that are tainted with the contrary Crime or Fault And no marvell seeing the unwiser sort of men which are the far greater part know no other way how to eschew one vice but by running into the contrary Like that Lunatick child in the Gospel sometimes falling into the water and then soon after into the fire which was a miserable cure of the harm received in the water Not much better is the Reformation which many in our dayes seek to make in themselves or Others Some whose Zeal in youth had outrun their discretion have changed that temper into Retchless profaneness Others from a dissolute riotous course of life have been transformed into fierie zealots or Seditious Schismaticks 6. In matters spiritual whether concerning Manners or Opinion The natural man is no better no wiser than a natural fool in matters Civil And many which are in part spiritual that is well reformed in Christian Life and manners are but Punies or Novices in matters of Opinion or speculation or of small insight in the Sacred Art of Reforming others As in War or battel
which is alwayes more lively by night then by day but in the application or composition of such representations whilest they dream This commonly is as imperfect or monstrous as if one should be able to name his Letters right but not able to spell or make a syllable otherwise then by rote or guess or apt to put those syllables ill-favouredly together which he had severally spelled not much amiss Like to mens apprehensions of these Dreams were most speculations of the Heathens concerning the truth or manner of a final Iudgment or future Resurrection whose indefinite Notions Nature had implanted in their hearts So vain and idle they were for the most part in their Collections or applications of what they conceived that no more credence was to be given unto their particular speculations or doctrine then unto a sick mans apprehensions of his present Dream But however many of them did write and speak of a future Iudgment more out of Art and imitation of others then out of any solid Experiments yet was it not possible that the wits of all or most of them of the Antients especially should have been set a working in this Argument without some undoubted and experienced impulsions of nature seeking to lead or drive them upon that Truth which we Christians are expresly taught by a Better Master then Nature 12. Other Dreams there be which are reputed natural whose observation is very useful because they have real Causes in nature and alwayes exhibit either a true Crisis or notice of mens present estate of body or some right Prognosticks of some disease growing upon them whose original or progress is to their waking thoughts unsensible or unapprehended Howbeit the right interpretation or signification of such suggestions or intimations as nature gives to men in Dreams is usually unknown or much mistaken for the present by the parties to whom they are immediately made by nature They must be expounded or Judged of by the Physician or Philosopher Some men no way distempered nor disquieted in thought have dreamed that some part of their Legs or Arms have been turned into a stone or into an Icie substance The apprehension or composition was vain and false yet not without a true and observable Cause The Physician did by the relation of the circumstances perceive as the Event did prove a cold humor beginning to settle in that part of the body whose transformation was represented in the Dream and gather'd withall that the humor not thence removed would breed a numness or oppression of the nerves in that part Others oft times dream not from any thoughts or discourses to that purpose that they are flying in the air or can jump from one place to another further distant then any man can conceive it possible for himself or other terrestrial creatures to leap or skip The Philosopher or Physician knows this or the like representation made in sleep not occasioned from any late waking thoughts to be a token of a clean stomack of pure blood or lively spirits Others I have heard of in the midst of their quiet sleep have suddenly cryed out as if they had been stabbed under the ribs Themselves after they awaked and such as heard them before they were awakt knew the conceit or apprehension to be altogether false yet not vain or idle in respect of the Cause or observation The skilful Physician from this their mis-apprehension rightly apprehended a salt humor violently distilling upon the lungs ready to breed a dangerous Consumption whose removal would have been more difficult had not Nature given this imperfect advice or forewarning for the speedy prevention of it This secret advice or forewarning of Nature was so much the more to be credited because no occasion of any quarrel no thought or discourse tending to the representation of any such fear had presented it self to the waking thoughts of the party thus dreaming for a long time before Every real occasion of joy or fear the very least annoyance or pleasance that can befall our bodies in night-sleep or slumber as the Philosopher long ago observed is apt to misinform our Common sense or Judicative faculty being now surprised by sleep with representations or conceipts of the greatest delight or fear that is of the same kinde with that which is really represented as if a drop of sweet flegm do distil upon the swallowing place it raiseth an apprehension of honey or other sweet meat to which the tast of the party thus dreaming hath been accustomed and from this Original hungry men in their sleep feed their Phantasies with apprehension of pleasant Banquets Abundance of choler oft-times raiseth an apprehension of some great fire And nothing more common then for men troubled with flux of Rheum from the brain to dream of drowning or danger by floods or water The least oppression of the motive faculty will occasion the Ephialtes or Gigas that affection which we commonly call The Mare In all these and the like affections Nature doth her part however the Parties to whom she secretly suggests these signs or tokens of their bodily estate or constitution do for the most part grosly erre in their constructions of them until they be rectified or better instructed by the Physician or Philosopher who onely know the natural causes of such representations by sleep which is as a false glass wherein every thing appears much greater to the Phantasie then in nature it is or would appear to our vigilant senses 13. In like manner the best apprehensions or collections which the Heathens made of those Real Notions which are by nature implanted of a Final Judgement were erroneous their Doctrinal speculations or expressions were no better then an ignorant mans apprehension of his natural Dreams howbeit even the speculations of such Heathens as did most erre in particular do minister much matter of true and useful Contemplation unto the Christian Divine part of whose office it is or should be to search the original of others errors whose rectification must be made by the Scripture which is the Rule of Life without whose Aphorisms or directions the apprehension of natural Notions or Suggestions even when they work most strongly would lead or push the Physicians of souls themselves into Heresie Of all the Sects of Heathen Philosophers the Sect of Epicures did seek most earnestly to exempt themselves from the Jurisdiction and their actions from the Cognizance of A divine Providence yet could they not so dead the working of the Notion of it in themselves or hood-wink their own understandings so close as not to apprehend or observe the working of it in others Epicurus himself albeit he placed felicity in the moderate pleasures of this life though not in bodily pleasures onely for he was not so gross as to exclude the delights or pleasures of the soul or minde but rather required a competency of bodily pleasures for the fruition of this delight yet however he failed in his apprehensions of
perish What is the reason why they are so careful in these Toyes and we so negligent in matters of such moment and the like They have a Tradition whether received from Mahomet himself or from his Successors their Mufties I know not but a Tradition they have which they strongly believe That before they can enter into such a heaven as they dream of they must pass over a long iron grate red hot without any other fence to save their naked feet from scorching save only so much paper as they shall preserve from perishing Now of the pains or tortures which the violent heat of Iron produceth in naked bodies they have a kind of feeling or experience The conceit or Notion of this pain is fresh and lively and works more strongly upon their affections then the dread of hell fire doth upon many Christians albeit there is no Christian which doth not believe the fire of hell to be everlasting whereas the Turk thinks this his supposed Purgatory to be but temporary and between pains temporary and pains everlasting there is no proportion How then comes it to pass that this superstitious fear of pains but temporary should so far exceed our true fear or belief of pains uncessant and everlasting Many which truly believe there is a Hell whose fire never goeth out yet conceive this fire to be an immaterial fire a fire of whose heat or violence they have no sense or feeling in this life a fire altogether unknown unto them And as no man much desireth that good which he knoweth not how great soever it be so no man much feareth that evil whereof he hath no sense or feeling no experimental knowledge whereby to measure the greatness of it but only believes it confusedly or in gross and hence it is that the acknowledgment or belief of such a fire how great soever it may seem to be in the General abstract conceit is but like a spacious Mathematical body which hath neither weight nor motion which can produce no real effects in the soul or affections of man For this reason I have alwayes held it a fruitless pains or a needless curiosity to dispute the Question Whether the fire of hell be a material fire or no that is such a fire as may be felt by bodily senses seeing most men conceive no otherwise of things immaterial or spiritual then as of Abstract Notions or of Mathematical Magnitudes As the determination of this Question were it possible in this life to be determined would be fruitless So the chief reason which some have brought to prove the Negative to wit That it is not a material fire is of no force in true Philosophie much less in Divinitie 10. Their chief Reason is This That if hell fire were a material or bodily fire it could not immediately work upon the soul which is an immaterial or spiritual substance But let them tell us how it is possible That the soul of man which is an immortal substance should be truly wedded to the body or material substance and I shall as easily answer them That it is as possible for the same soul to be as really wrought upon by a material fire As possible it is for material fire to propagate death without End to both body and soul as it is for the immaterial or immortal soul to communicate life without end to the material substance of the body For the bodies of the damned shall never cease to be material substances and they shall live to everlasting pains by a life communicated unto them from their immaterial and immortal souls And as the bodies do live continually by reason of their continual union with their living immaterial souls so the soul may die the second death continually by its union with or imprisonment in material but everlasting fire Or if any man be of opinion that hell fire is no material fire or hath no resemblance of that fire which we see and know yet let him believe that it is a great deal worse and that the greatest torture which in this life can come by fire is though a true yet but an imperfect scantling of the torments of the life to come and the danger will be less Of this opinion were the Antients and this conceit or notion of hell fire did in some bring forth very good effects So Eusebius in his Fifth Book and first Chapter of his Ecclesiastical Story tels of one Biblis a woman which had professed Christianity but was so danted with the cruel persecutions of Christians that she renounced her profession and was brought unto the place where the Christians were executed with purpose to withdraw others from constancie in their profession by her expected blasphemie against Christ and reproachful aspersions upon Christians But the very sight of those flames wherein the Martyrs were tortured did throughly awake her out of her former slumber her very fear or rather conceit of such torments which they for the time suffered did afford her a measure or scantling to calculate the incomparable torments of hell fire which being now awaked she began to bethink her self that she must suffer them without hope of release if she should deny Christ or renounce her calling and thus expelling the lesser fear by the greater she resolutely professed her self to be a true Christian in heart and so contrary to the expectation of the persecutors and her own former resolution increased the number of the glorious Martyrs and incouraged others after her to endure the Cross 11. But albeit the Scripture usually describes the horrour of the second death by a fire which never goeth out or by a lake of fire and brimstone and so describes it either because that fire is of such nature and quality as these descriptions literally and without Metaphor import or because these are the most obvious and most conspicuous representations of the pains and horrours of hell which flesh and blood are generally most acquainted with most afraid of yet many other branches of pains and tortures there be besides those which fire of what kind soever can inflict and of these several pains most men respectively may have as true a rellish or sensible representation as they can have of hell fire You have read before that as there is in this life A body of sin which hath as many members as there be several senses or several faculties of the soul So there is a body of the second death every way proportionable to the body of sin The extreamitie or deadliness of all the pains discontents or grievances which are incident to any bodily sense or facultie of the soul in this life are contained either Formaliter that is as we say in kind in the body of the second death or Eminenter that is either in a worse kind or in a greater measure then in this life they could be endured though but for a minute and yet must be endured everlastingly in the life to come
any good Christian that will but raise his thoughts above the earth by this or the like Experiment of nature Albeit this bodily Sun which we dayly see were much further distant from the earth then now it is yet could we easily conceive it to be of force and efficacie enough to enlighten the earth whereon we dwell and those coelestial Spheres which are or might be as farre above it as it is above the Center And in the greatest distance we can imagin it is or might be distant from the earth it would give life and vigour to things vegetable or capable of vital heat It were a silly Argument to infer that because the hottest fire on earth cannot impart his heat to bodies 10 miles distant from it therefore the Sun cannot communicate vital heat and Comfort to vegetables more then ten-hundred-thousand miles distant from it This Inference notwithstanding is not so foolish in Philosophie as This following is in Divinitie The Sun cannot quicken trees or herbs which have lost their root and sap Ergo the Sun of righteousnes or Christs Humane Nature in which the Godhead dwelleth Bodily cannot quicken the dead or raise up our mortal bodies to immortalitie The only sure Anchor of all our hopes for a joyfull Resurrection unto the life of Glorie is the Mystical Union which must be wrought here on earth betwixt Christs Humane Nature glorified and our mortal or dissoluble nature The Divine Nature indeed is the Prime Fountain of Life to all but though inexhaustible in it self yet a fountain whereof we cannot drink save as it is derived unto us through the Humane Nature of Christ 11. Although it be most true which Tertullian in the 17 Chapter of his Apologie hath observed That even those Heathens which adored Jupiter Capitolinus and multiplied their Gods according to the number of the places wherein they worshiped them when they were throughly stung with any grievous affliction or calamitie were wont to lift up their eyes and hands not to the Roman Capitol but to heaven it self as knowing that by instinct of nature to be the seat or throne of Divine Majestie And the Hill from whence came their help Yet notwithstanding the truth of this Observation and the profitable use which that Father there makes of it it was an extraordinary Favour of God unto the Israelites that they were permitted and instructed to worship God in his Sanctuarie and to present their devotions towards the Ark of the Covenant or the Mercy-seat before which they might adore him in such manner and sort as they might not in any other place or before any other creature They knew much better then the heathen that Gods Throne of Majestie was in heaven and yet were to tender their devotions unto him as extraordinarily present in his Temple or Sanctuarie here on earth For as our bodily sight doth scatter or dazle without some sensible Object to gather and terminate it So our cogitations though of heaven and heavenly things do float or vanish without some determinate and comprehensible Object whereon to fasten them Now albeit the Temple of Jerusalem wherein Gods People only were to worship were long since demolished yet the Sanctuarie wherein they were to worship God is rather translated or advanced from earth to heaven then destroyed For it was Gods Presence that made the Temple and That is more extraordinary in Christs Body which the Jewes destroyed but which he raised again in three dayes then ever it had been in Solomons Temple in the Glorie of whose goodly structure and manifestation of Gods Glorie in it the true Israelites did much rejoyce and the later Iewes too much boast and glorie But this Prerogative we have in respect of the ancientest and truest Israelites that since the vail of the Temple was rent we may at all times reflecting upon that modell the Scripture hath imprinted in our mindes look within the vail and behold the Ark or Mercy-seat and use the most holy Sanctuarie or inner place made with hands as a Perspective Glasse or instrument for surveying the heavenly Sanctuarie which God hath pitched and not man This hope have we saith S t Paul Heb. 6. 19. as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus made an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek He is gone before us into the Sanctuarie to make perpetual intercession who before had made an everlasting attonement for us here on earth He is now become to us the Temple of God the Ark of the Covenant the Propitiatorie or Mercie-seat the fulfilling of all things and unto him now placed in his Sanctuarie at the Right-hand of God we are not only to direct our Cogitations or devotions but to transmit our affections to the Divine Nature by him The Son of God after he had suffered in Our flesh and made a full sufficient satisfaction for all our sins did in our nature rise again did in our nature ascend into heaven and in our nature sitteth at the Right-hand of God not only to gather our scatered contemplations and broken notions of the Godhead but withall to draw and unite our affections unto him which otherwise would flagg droop or miscarry if we should direct them to heaven at large or to the incomprehensible Majestie of the Godhead without a known Advocate or Intercessor to present them and to return their effects or issues Hence saith our Apostle Colos 3. 1. If ye be risen with Christ that is if you sted fastly believe that Christ who was the Son of God and as incomprehensible for his Divine Nature as God the Father to whom he was equal did dye in your flesh and comprehensible nature and in the same nature did rise againe from the dead then seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God Set or settle or fasten your affections on things above not on things on the earth And as we are to settle our dearest affections on him so are we to direct our prayers unto him in his heavenly Sanctuarie 12. That we may direct our prayers unto the Blessed Trinitie according to the Rule of Faith which is the first Degree of praying in Faith take for the present these short Directions The First and Fundamental Object of Belief as Christian is the acknowledgement of the Blessed Trinitie And by this Belief we acknowledge such a Distinction of Persons or Parties between God the Father God the Son and God the Holy-Ghost that God the Father doth Personally and in proprietie of Person exact Satisfaction for all the offences committed against the God-head or Blessed Trinitie and that the Son of God doth by like Personal Proprietie undertake to make Satisfaction and Reconciliation for us He it is that doth avert the wrath of God from us and inhibit the proceedings of Divine Justice against us We are then in the First
felicity or in his application of those good Lessons which Nature did suggest unto him he found himself tyed by bond of Conscience to observe the Law of Nature The Original of his positive error was an ignorance or blindness common to him and most Heathen in some degree or other in not being able to discern the corruption of nature from Nature her self or to distinguish between the suggestions or intimations of Nature as it sometimes was and universally might have continued and the particular suggestions or longings of Nature as it was corrupted or tainted in himself or others more or less in all It was a Principle of his Doctrine as Seneca tells us That Nature which he profest to follow as his guide did abhor all vice or wickedness It seems he held those courses or habits of life onely vicious which we Christians account unnatural or prodigious vices as Tyranny Cruelty or excessive Luxury And such vices as these the most Heathens whom corruption of Nature did lead blindfold into many grievous sins and cast such a mist before their eyes as made unlawful pleasures appear unto them as parts of true happiness did by the light of Nature detest as contrary to the unapprehended Remnants or Reliques of Gods Image yet inherent in them though mingled with Corruption or much defaced with the Image of Satan But from what Grounds of Nature or Experiments did this Author or first Founder of the Sect of Epicures collect that Nature did detest all wickedness Thus he did reason and collect Quia sceleratis etiam inter tuta timor est Because he saw such as had polluted their Consciences with wicked and prodigious practises to live in fear even whilest they seemed to have safety her self for their guard against all external Occurrences whose probable assaults or annoyances humane Policy could possibly forecast And none more subject to this slavish fear which their Consciences did inwardly suggest then such as for their greatness and confidence in Tyranny and Cruelty were most terrible to others What was it then which these men did so much fear No other men nor any revenge that man could attempt upon them What then The company of themselves or solitary conference with their own Consciences Yet no mans conscience can make his heart afraid unless the conscience it self be first affrighted What is it then which the consciences of supream earthly Judges or Monarchs absolute by right of Conquest can so much fear in the height of their temporal security The Censure doubtless or check of some superior Judge If this fear had been vain or but a speculative Phansie it could not have been uinversal or general in all or most wicked men specially in such as were by nature terrible and stout and wary withal to prevent all probabilities of danger from men Yet was this check of Conscience or this unknown Doom or Censure which Conscience whilest it checkt the hearts of wicked men did so much fear so universal and constant that Epicurus a man of no scrupulous Conscience did observe it to be implanted by nature in all and upon this observation did ground his former general Principle That nature her self did abhor or detest wickedness The suggestion then or intimation of a future Judgement was natural but the apprehension or construction which Epicurus made of these suggestions was but such as ordinary men make of representations in natural Dreams before they be throughly awaked or before they consult the Philosopher or Physician The Christian Truth which nature in these Heathens being in respect of any supernatural use or end of her own suggestions altogether dumb did seek by these signs or intimations to express was that Lesson which the Author of nature great Physician of our souls hath expresly taught us Fear not them which after they have killed the body can do no more but fear him who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Matth. 10. 28. Luke 12. 4. 14. As the wicked amongst the Heathens could not by any earthly Guard or greatness exempt themselves from that Dread or Fear which their corrupt Consciences did internally suggest So that confident Boldness which the integrity of conscience doth naturally suggest unto every man in his laudable actions was sometimes represented by the more civil and sober sort of Heathens after a manner more magnificent and in a measure more ample then it usually is by most Christians Their expressions or conceipts of such confidence as integrity of conscience doth arm men withal did as far exceed our ordinary apprehensions of it as the representations of natural Causes working within us which are made unto us in sleep or dreams do our waking apprehensions of the like workings or suggestions of nature Si Fractus illabatur orbis saith Horace a profest Disciple of Epicurus Carm. Lib. 3. Ode 3. impavidum ferient ruinae Albeit the Heavens should rend assunder above his head and this inferior world break in pieces about his ears yet a man of an intire and sound conscience would stand unmoved unaffrighted like a pillar of brass or marble when the roof which it supporteth were blown away or fallen from it This Hyperbolical expression of that Confidence which integrity of Conscience in some measure always affords was in this Heathen if he had been put upon the tryal but as the representation of a mans bodily estate made in a Dream whose true cause is unknown unto the Dreamer As in men that dream so in this Heathen Poet the apprehension of that which Nature did truly and really suggest is most full and lively but full and lively in both without Judgement without true use or right application That Confidence then is the companion of a good Conscience is a truth implanted by Nature and freely acknowledged by the oppugners of Divine Providence But from what original or fountain this truth should issue or to what comfortable Use it might serve were points which Nature could not distinctly teach or points at least which the meer natural man without help of Scriptures or instructions from those Heavenly Physicians of the soul whom God hath appointed Interpreters of this Book of life could not learn But we Christians know and believe that when the Heavens shall be gathered as a Scroul when the Elements shall melt with heat and when the earth shall be removed out of his place that even in the midst of these terrible spectacles such as have their Consciences purified by Faith shall lift up their heads for joy as knowing these and the like to be undoubted Prognosticks or fore-running signs of their Redemption drawing nigh unto them A Crisis rather a kinde of First-fruits of this Holy Confidence was most remarkably attested to have been in the Primitive Christians So Antoninus the Emperor as in our 1. Book chap. 24. out of Eusebius his 4. Book of Hist Eccles chap. 13. we did
ready to put in execution Now this Judgment of Sodom was but as a Private or Particular Sessions to give the world an undoubted pledge of that General and Terrible Judgment which must be given upon all such as they were by the same Lord 's visible appearance before whom Abraham did now appear as Advocate or Intercessor for these men of Sodom So St. Iude instructs us Ver. 6 7. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire There were Three in number which then appeared unto Abraham under the shape and likeness of men yet to his apprehension more then Men Angels of the Lord or the Lord Himself in a Trinity of Angels representing the Blessed Trinity in which as Athanasius tels us there are not three Lords but one Lord Yet though there be but one Lord Iehovah and though the Father Son and Holy Ghost be This One Lord yet as we said Chap. 6. 7. The Son of God is Adonai or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord or Judge by peculiar Title and by such personal Right as God the Father and God the Holy Ghost is not Lord and Judge And for this reason albeit there were Three that appeared to Abraham yet Abraham directs his speech unto One as unto his Lord this Lord did vouchsafe his answer unto Abraham after the men which appeared unto him turned their faces thence and went towards Sodom Other Testimonies to this purpose are most frequent in the book of Psalms Psal 50. 1 2 3. The mighty God even the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall not keep silence a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him And ver 6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is Judge himself Psal 93. 1 2. The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty the Lord is cloathed with strength wherewith he hath girded himself The world also is established that it cannot be moved Thy Throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Every Throne or Tribunal is established for execution of Judgment But this Throne though established of old or from Eternity yet was not the Judgment for which this Throne was established executed from eternity or so executed at any time before the Date of this Psalm as the Psalmist expected in due time or at the end of time it would be And the Author of the next Psalm whether the same or some other conceives a solemn prayer for the speedy execution of that Judgment which was to proceed from the former Throne which had been established from everlasting and to be executed by that God to whose honor the former Psalm was consecrated O Lord God saith the Psalmist Psal 94. 1 2 3 4. to whom vengeance belongeth O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self lift up thy self thou Judge of the Earth render a reward to the proud Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph how long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves To omit other testimonies to the like purpose This one Observation is general to all As the Messias who was first promised and but Promised only to Adam was afterwards Promised by Oath to Abraham and to David and by them to all mankind So this future general Judgement which was first revealed for ought we read to Enoch afterwards known to Abraham and to David and to the Psalmists were they one or more was afterwards confirmed by the Oath of God himself unto the Prophet Esay Cap. 45. ver 22 23. Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else I have sworn by my self the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear 3. All these Testimonies are Concludent that God is Judge of all the earth and that there shall be A final Judgment executed by God himself But the Point wherein the Reader as I suppose expects satisfaction is From what authentick Testimony of Scripture it is or may be made as clear and evident that This final Iudgment shall be personally executed by the Son of God or by the Man Christ Jesus As much as to this purpose can be required is avouched by our Apostle St. Paul Rom. 14. 11. It is written as I live saith the Lord Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God The written Testimony which he avoucheth is That before last cited Esay 45. 23. And from this Testimony he infers these Two Conclusions the Former ver 10. which is the same with 2 Cor. 5. 10. We shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ The Later ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God The Issue or Corollary of both Conclusions is That Iesus Christ is that Lord and God which had interposed his Oath unto the Prophet Esay that every knee should bow unto him This Issue of both Conclusions Rom. 14. is more fully exprest Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father But for more full satisfaction some here may justly Demand Whether St. Paul did make this interpretation of the Prophet Esay by some new Revelation of the Spirit made in particular to him unknown to most others before that time Or whether the interpretation of the Prophet Esay and of other like prophecies which he made were literally and really included in the prophecies themselves and ratified by the General Analogie of Faith or by the Common Rule of interpretation in those times sufficiently known to the learned whose eyes were not blinded with passion nor prejudiced with partiality to their own Sects or Factions To this we Answer that St. Paul's Interpretation of the Prophet was really included in the literal sense of the Prophecie and the literal sense or construction which he made of the fore-cited passage in the Prophet Esay and other Prophets was warrantable by the Common Rule of Interpretation sufficiently known in those times The Rule is General That all those places of the old Testament which
help of this Rule For Instance to lay this Rule unto St. John Baptists speech Matth. 3. 10 11 12. Now also the ax is laid unto the root of the tree Therefore every tree which bringeth forth not good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire I indeed Baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the Garner But will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire This Prediction cannot be exactly fulfilled until the Final Sentence be given and put in execution And yet within 43 years after his Baptism by John there was a manifest and lively representation exhibited to the World of his second coming unto Judgement and this representation was exhibited upon the Nation of the Jews The full accomplishment whereof shall at his second coming and not before be universally and exactly accomplished in all Nations and Languages and People Wherein then doth this representation of Final Judgement which at his first coming was exhibited in the Jewish Nation punctually consist In this especially There was such a notorious and manifest Crisis or distinction between the Elect and Reprobate of the Jewish Nation or seed of Abraham at his first coming as in no Nation or People had been experienced before nor shall be experienced in any before the day of Final Judgement in which this distinction of Elect and Reprobates shall not be onely universally manifested but solemnly declared in respect of all mankinde Every Son of Adam shall in that day be irrevocably marshalled or ranked either amongst the absolute Reprobates or absolute Elect In the one or other rank of which estates neither all nor most of every Nation or Church are at all points of time in the Interim to be accounted no not in respect of Gods Eternal Decree Nor may the Verdicts or Aphorisms whether of our Saviour himself or of his Apostles after his death concerning Election or Reprobation be extended to other times or Nations in the same measure or Tenor wherein they were verified and experienced in the Nation of the Jews at or upon our Saviors first coming Thus far to extend them in respect of all Times or Nations were to transgress the Analogie of Faith or received Rules of Interpreting Scriptures and to dissolve the sweet and pleasant Harmony between the Law and the Gospel or between the Evangelists and the Prophets And thus far of the second Point in handling whereof divers passages have intruded themselves which are not impertinent to the third Point CHAP. XII Of the manner of Christs coming to Judgement which was the third General proposed in the ninth Chapter 1. IT is said in the former Prophecie of Daniel chap. 7. ver 13. that One like the Son of Man came in the clouds of Heaven unto the Ancient of days The literal fulfilling of this Prophetical vision is recorded Acts 1. 9. And when he to wit Christ the Son of Man had spoken these things whilest they beheld He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight But whither he was carried in the Cloud which received him they could not distinctly see Their bodily eyes could not see so much by day as had been revealed to Daniel in vision by night But admit that this cloud did carry him into the presence of the Ancient of days or of God his Father What is this manner of his going into Heaven unto the manner of his coming to Judge the Earth which is The Point in hand Certainly much for so the Angels ver 11. admonished his Disciples which stedfastly beheld the Manner of his Ascension Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into Heaven But shall the manner of his coming to Judge the World be in every point like unto the manner of his ascending into Heaven No! then it should not be so terrible as we believe it shall be The chief parts then of this similitude are these Two The First As he did locally and visibly go into Heaven so he shall locally and visibly come to judge the earth The second As he was received into Heaven in a cloud so he shall come to Judge the World as he himself foretold the High Priest and his Complices Matthew 26. 64. in the clouds of heaven The literal meaning of both places and the intent and purpose as well of the Angels as of our Saviour in this prediction infers That this Son of man whom they now beheld with bodily eyes was that very God whose glorious kingdom and reign the Psalmist describes Psal 104. 3. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariots who walketh upon the wings of the wind Who maketh his Angels Spirits or the Spirits his Angels his Ministers a flame of fire So they will appear when they attend him Coming to Judgment which will be in flaming Fire In all the manifestations of Christ to be the Son of God The Cloud is still a Witness First In his Transfiguration upon the Mount A Cloud did overshadow him and out of the Cloud this testimony was given him by God the Father Matth. 17. 5. this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him 2. Whilest he ascends to God his Father Acts 1. 9. A Cloud receives him And 3. When he shall come from heaven or from his Fathers presence to judge the earth he shall have a Cloud for his Canopy For more particular Description of the Manner of his Coming the next Point is From what place he shall come Now it is expresly said in our Creed That Christ Jesus our Lord who was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended into hell who the third day rose again from the dead ascended into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God shall thence come to Judge the quick and the dead But this word Thence is of ambiguous Reference It may be referred in general either to the Heavens into which he ascended or unto the Right hand of God or unto both Certain it is that he shall come from Heaven as visibly and locally as he ascended thither Yet whether he shall come from the Right hand of God is questionable but not by us determinable unless it be determined already in the first Chapter of this Book what is literally meant by The Right hand of God either in the Creed or in those places of the New Testament out of which This Article is taken If Christs Body as Lutherans did contend chapt 3. § 6. be every where or if
shaken may remain that is that there may be a world everlasting That which the Prophet Haggai intimates more darkly the Prophet Esay had exprest more plainly chap 34. ver 4. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroul and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the Vine and as a falling fig from a fig-tree The same vision was more lively and clearly made unto St. John Rev. 6. 12 13 14. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth Seal and lo there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sack-cloth of hair and the Moon became as blood And the Stars of Heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind And the heaven departed as a scroul when it is rolled together and every mountain and Island were moved out of their places 7. But that which shall adde life and spirit to all these is The terrible Voice or sound which shall then be heard summoning all flesh to appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ As it was the Voice of Christ which did shake the earth at the giving of the Law so shall the Voice of Christ but a Voice more terrible then That produce this terrible commotion here mentioned in the Heavens and in the earth For as St. Paul instructs us 1 Cor. 15. 52. The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised c. And again 1 Thess 4. 16. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven in a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first The Terror of this Voice to such as sleep not in Christ may be gathered from the power or efficacy of it which is more fully expressed by St. John Rev. 20. 13. The sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works This universal efficacy of his Voice is expressed by our Saviour Iohn 5. 28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Some late Historians and Astronomers relate a natural Eclipse of the Sun so terrible in Spain that the Crows and other Fowls of the air seeking as it seems to flie from it were so affrighted with the suddain increase of darkness about mid-day that they fell down to the earth in a deadly astonishment What tongue then can express the Dread and Horror which the terrible apparitions at that day shall produce in all such as have lived and died in incredulity or security of the Judgement which shall follow them in all on whom that day shall come as suddenly without any better observation or preparation for it as the forementioned Eclipse of the Sun did upon the reasonless Fowls of the air Or if you desire a further a description of the Terror which shall then fall upon the Inhabitants of the earth even upon the most intrepid and undanted in respect of any ordinary Terrors then take it from St. Iohn Rev. 6. 15 16. And the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man hid themselves in the dens and in the Rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us Thus much was distinctly likewise fore-told and Prophetically set forth by the Prophet Esay chap. 2. 11 c. That neither St. Johns words nor the Prophet Esays are Hyperbolical but are Literally meant by them and really and punctually to be fulfilled is clear from our Saviors Interpretation of the Prophet Esay and the like passages of other Prophets at his going to the Cross Luke 23. 30 31. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us for if they do these things in a green tree what shall be done in a dry Howbeit this terror shall not meerly proceed from these Terrible Spectacles and Sounds which shall be Antecedent to the Final Judgement but from the Sight of Christ placed in his seat of Judicature So St. Iohn in the forecited place Rev. 6. 16. tells us That the Affrightment and dread that seized upon the great men of the Earth did arise from seeing the face of him that sate upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. 8. Having thus shown the Terrors antecedent to the Process we go on to the Process it self That takes beginning from the Manner of Christ's Coming and approach or from His Appearance as he shall sit in Judgement He shall come from Heaven or from the Right hand of the Throne of God where he now sitteth to execute Judgment in the open air or in that region wherein the clouds have their Rake The Manner of his Progress or approach shall be Swift and as before hath been intimated to our apprehension Violent For at his coming to Judgment and not before shall the Prophet Esay's Prayer or Wish be accomplished Oh that thou wouldest rent the heavens that thou wouldst come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence As when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the waters to boyl to make thy name known to thy adversaries that the nations may tremble at thy presence When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for thou camest down the mountains flowed down at thy presence Esay 64. 1 2 3. But because St. John intimates in the fore-cited place that the chief cause of Terror was the sight of him that sate upon the Throne we shall first consider how his Throne or Presence is described in the Old Testament Secondly how these Descriptions or Representations are decyphred or charactred out unto us by more then parallels in the New Now all the Prophecies or Predictions which to this purpose can be produced must all be interpreted by the Rule heretofore given that is However they may be literally meant or verified of some former times or events yet they are verified or meant of them Inchoativè onely They are not they cannot be Completivè applyed to any other time or times besides the day of Final Judgement or the world to come which shall ensue upon it The terror of his Throne and of him that sitteth thereon is described Dan. 7. 9 10. I beheld till the Thrones were cast down and the Ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto
him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books were opened The Fiery Wheels are Emblems of his suddain approach or of the swiftness of his Judgements to overtake his Enemies Though the Vision was new and uncouth yet the Branches of the things seen or revealed unto Daniel were known before unto Gods Prophets His Seat or Throne was prepared of old so faith the Psalmist Psal 9. 4. Thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the Throne Judging right And again ver 6 7. O thou enemy destruction is come to a perpetual end and thou hast destroyed Cities their memorial is perished with them But the Lord shall endure for ever he hath prepared his Throne for Judgement See Psal 96 ver 10. 13. And Psal 98. ver 8 9. But Daniel saw more seats and Thrones then one albeit he mention as perhaps he saw none sitting in them This as one wittily commenteth upon this place of Daniel is an Emblem of the Law which was an Emptiness or vacuum in respect of the Gospel and as all things else in the Law prefigured or forepainted were solidly accomplished in the Gospel So these Seats which are here indefinitely represented unto us by Daniel without any specification of their number without intimation of any sitting on them are pictured unto us by St. John with 24. Elders sitting upon them Rev. 4. 4. And round about the Throne were 24. seats and upon the seats I saw 24. Elders sitting and clothed in white raiment and they had on their heads Crowns of Gold Our Savior had said unto his Apostles Matth. 19. 28. that They should sit upon twelve seats Iudging the twelve Tribes of Israel And twelve Heads of the Tribes of Israel or the like number of Select Ones who lived under the Old Testament may make up the number of 24. That as all the Truths of both Testaments will consummately be fulfilled so the Saints of Both may then be most perfectly united in the Church Triumphant 9. But to proceed to such other Representations as are to be found in the Scripture This manner of Christs coming to Judge the earth or of his appearance in glory was represented unto Moses and to the Israelites Exod. 24. 10. 17. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel And this fire had devoured them if they had approached the mountain or Gods presence without Gods invitation But Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and 70. of the Elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a Saphir stone and as it were the body of Heaven in its clearness And upon the Nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand This was a Peculiar Priviledge or dispensation Also they saw God and did eat and drink and in this they represented the state of the Elect which notwithstanding the terror of that last day shall be invited by Christ and be admitted to eat and drink with him in his Kingdom But this dispensation during the time of the Law was not granted to all Israel but to Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and to the 70. Elders or Nobles of Israel only unto all the rest whom God did not vouchsafe to invite the Spectacle though seen afar off was Terrible so terrible that they durst not approach unto it So shall the coming of the Son of Man be to all the kindreds of the earth which have not hearkned to his sweet and loving Invitations here on earth All such as have neglected them or make their appearance before him without a garment or habit in some sort suitable to the Marriage unto which they have been invited shall be everlastingly excluded and cast into utter darkness where shall be nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth But the thred which I am now to follow is the forementioned Prophecie Dan. 7. v. 9. 10. Now whether in the vision of the Ancient of days God the Father were personally represented or whether it were a representation of the Godhead or Divine Power onely as it is indivisibly in the Blessed Trinity without any note of Personal difference or whether at the last day there shall be any distinct representation of Christs sitting at the right hand of the Father or whether The Throne of the Son of God shall then onely appear are Questions which I will refer wholly to the Schools It sufficeth us to believe and know that the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement especially this Final Judgement to the Son and that the SON OF MAN shall then appear in the Glory of his God-head in Glory equal to God the Father What Manner of appearance this shall be and how the world shall be affected with it we are now to inquire so far as is fitting taking the description of it from Gods written word And haply lest we should conceive of God the Father as more ancient for dayes then the Son which Transformation of the Divine Nature the pictures of the Blessed Trinity seen and allowed by the Roman Church do naturally and inevitably suggest to the unlearned St. John doth describe the Son of Man or that glory wherein the Son of God and the Son of Man shall then appear much what after the same manner that Daniel had done the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7. 9 10. The description of the Son of God and of the Son of Man taken by St. John is Rev. 1. 13 14 15 16. And I saw in the middest of the 7. Candlesticks one like unto the Son of man clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle His head and his hairs were white like wooll as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire And his feet like unto fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength You have heard before out of the seventeenth of St. Matthew that St. Peter Iames and John when they were spectators of his transfiguration which was but a representation of the Son of Mans coming in his kingdom when they heard the voice out of the cloud fell on their faces and were sore afraid until he came and touched them and said arise be not afraid This sight or vision of his glory Apoc. 1. 17 18. was more terrible then the Voice which they then heard When I saw him saith St. John I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and the last I am be that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore
its course it could not without a positive force or power communicated unto it from The Creator in whom as the Apostle speakes it moves But it ceased for a while to move without any positive force or power to inhibit or restrain its course But as we said by meer substraction of that power by which it moves So long as it continues its course it both moves and hath its Being in God and it is partaker of two branches of His Almighty Power But when it stood still it onely had its Being in him The influence of the other branch of Power was intercepted Now the Argument drawn from those works which we call The works of nature unto works miraculous or supernatural would in this case hold a majore He that dayly makes the Sun to compasse the world is able to stay its course when he pleaseth 4. A miracle likewise it was and a great one too that The three Children should be untouched in the midst of the flaming furnace yet neither was there a greater nor more immediate positive effect of Gods Power in the restraint of that fire then then was in the sustaining other Fire which at other times devoured the bodies of his Saints The Holy Martyrs who loved not their lives unto the death but gave them up for the Testimonie of the Lord Jesus For Without the co-operation or concurse of Gods Power the fire could not have touched their bodies Wherein then did the Miracle Recorded in Daniel and experienced in the three children properly consist Not so much if at all in fencing their bodies from the violence of the flame by imposition or infusion of any new created qualitie into their bodies as in substracting or withdrawing his ordinary Co-operation from the fire whose natural propertie is to consume or devour bodies combustible such as the bodies of the three Children by nature were The only cause why the fire did not burn them was the substraction or withdrawing of Gods Co-operative Power without whose strength or assistance the hottest furnace that Art or experience can devise cannot exercise the most natural operation of fire For as the substance of the fire cannot subsist or have any place in the Fabrick of this universe unless it be supported by Gods Power sustentative So neither whilst it subsists or hath actual being amongst Gods creatures can it work or move without the assistance of Gods co-operative or all-working Power In Him both these Powers are one both as he is are infinite But as communicated unto his creatures they are not altogether one but two participated branches of his infinite Power And in the burning of the Martyrs or in other destructions made by fire both branches as well of his sustentative as of his co-operative power are manifested Whereas in the preserving of the three Children from the violence of the flaming furnace the one branch only to wit His Power sustentative was communicated to the fire the other branch to wit the participation of his co-operative or working Power was for the time being lop't off from the body or substance of the fire Now this withdrawing of his co-operative Power from the fire was a true document or proof that he is the God and guide of nature That without him the fire even whilst it is for nature and substance most compleat cannot perform the proper work or exercise of its nature The necessary consequence of which Proof or experiment is this That he is the Author or fountain as well of all the works or exercises of natural causes as of natural bodies or substances themselves And if we consider his Power not in it self but as communicated to his Creatures or natural Agents it is and ought to be acknowledged greater in those works which we call works of nature and of which we have dayly experience then it was in either of these two Miracles before mentioned Both of them were for this Reason only Miraculous in that they were most unusual and without the circuit of any experiment or observation in the course of nature before the times wherein they hapned 5. To raise Mens Bodies out of the Grave or out of the Elements into which they have been dissolved is far more unusual then to raise up Corn out of putrified seed and in this respect the Resurrection which we hope for must be acknowledged a work more Miraculous and wonderful then the yearly springing of Corn of fruits of herbs or grass But may we say in this Case as in the former that the Power of God is no less but rather greater in these ordinary works of nature as in causing herbs fruit or corn to sprout or fructifie with advantage of increase then it shall be in the Resurrection of the dead which is a work not of Nature but miraculous and supernatural a work in which natural Causes shall not be entertained nor imployed by God No there shall be a manifestation of greater Power then either of Gods Sustentative Power by which all things that were created are still preserved or of His Co-operative Power without whose participation nothing which is so preserved can work at all or perform the exercises of its proper nature The Power indeed by which He Preserveth all things is the self same Power by which He Made all things out of nothing The Preservation of things that are is but a continuation or proroguing of the first Creation As all things are made of Nothing so would they instantly return into Nothing were they not continually supported and preserved by the self same Power by which they begun to Be when they were not Creation and preservation differ onely in sensu connotativo only in relation not in substance Creation includes a Negation of Being before For all things that are took their beginning by Creation Conservation supposeth a beginning of things that are and includes a Negation of their returning into nothing These Two Negations being abstracted or sequestred the Creation of all things and their Conservation are as truly and properly the same Power or work of one and the same party as the way from Athens to Thebes and from Thebes to Athens is the same But if the Continuation of things that are be a Creation or if the self same Almighty Power be still manifested in the preservation of things temporal that was manifested in the first Creation what greater power can be manifested in the Resurrection from the dead then is daily manifested and ought to be acknowledged in the preservation and daily increase of herbs of fruits of corn sown and springing out of the earth Or if any greater power shall be manifested in the Resurrection from the dead then is daily experienced in these works of nature how shall we justifie our Apostles Argument in this place to be an Argument of proportion or an Argument as we said before from the greater to the lesse or an Argument à pari from The like Case or Instance The Argument
were much better then their present in mercie favour and loving kindnesse 5. But whilst they thus contend for the merit of works done by Grace do they not derogate from the merits of Christ who is the only fountain of all Grace We say They do But They Reply They do not but rather magnifie the merits of Christ more then we do who deny the merits of Saints For Christ as they alledge did not only merit Grace for us but this also that we by Grace might truly Merit Now grace itself and the merit of grace is a more Magnificent Effect of Christs Merits then grace alone Here is a Double Effect of Christs Merits by their Doctrine whereas we admit but a single One. Thus they reply But if the One of those two effects which they imagine or conceive doth derogate more in true construction from the merits of Christ then the supposal or admission of it can add unto them We attribute more unto his merits by the admission of One single Effect only to wit meer grace then they do by acknowledgment of Two to wit grace it self and the merit of grace in us But the more we are to merit by grace for our selves the less measure of merit we leave unto Christ For as that which he merited for us is not ours but his so that which we merit for ourselves is not His but Ours The merit of grace supposeth a Fulnesse or Fountain of grace and Fountain of grace there is no other but Christ himself nor is there any Fulness of grace but in him only For of his fulnesse as the Evangelist saith Iohn 1. 16. we all have received grace for grace that is grace upon Grace Every degree or greater measure of Grace which we receive doth flow alike immediatly from the fulness of this inexhaustible Fountain of Grace without any secondary Fountain or Feeders Grace doth not grow in us as Rivers do which although they have one main spring or fountain yet they grow not to any greatness without the help of secondary Fountains or concurrence of many springs or feeders Grace doth so immediatly come from Christ as the Rivers do from the sea Increase of Grace doth come as immediatly from Christ as the increase of Rivers from rain or as the increase of light in the waxing Moon comes from the Sun 6. The state of this Question concerning The merits of works comes to the same issue with that other Great question concering Justification As whether it be by faith alone or by faith and works The Romish Church grants that we are justified by faith in Christs blood or merits Tanquam per Causam efficientem as by a true efficient Cause seeing all the Grace which we first receive is bestowed upon us for Christs sake But they hold withall that it is the Grace which for Christs sake is bestowed upon us by which we are formally justified that is As water poured into a vessel doth immediatly expell the air which was in it before so the infusion of Grace for the merits of Christ doth expell sin whether Original or actuall out of our souls And this in their Language is The remission of sins for the attaining whereof There needs no imputation of Christs righteousness after Grace be once infused The formall Cause of every thing requires some efficient or Agent for the production or resultance of it but being once produced or existent it excludes the interposition or intervention of any other Cause whatsoever for the production or existence of its formall Effect To produce heat in the water it is impossible without the Agency or Efficiency of fire but the water being made scalding hot by the heat of fire will heat or scald the flesh of of man or other living creature although it be removed from the fire although it work only in its own strength or of the heat inherent in it Thus say the Romanists that grace cannot be produced in us but by the vertue and efficiency of Christs merits but being by them once produced it doth justifie us immediatly by the strength and vertue of it inherent in us and by the same strength and vertue working in us it doth produce its formall effect to wit the increase of grace and lastly eternal life But if this Doctrine of theirs so far as it concerns Justification or the Remission of sins were true then this inconvenience as I have elsewhere shewed would necessarily follow That no man already after this manner justified could say or repeat that Petition in our Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us without a mockerie of God or Christ For if our sins be formally remitted by the infusion of grace and if by the infusion of the same grace we be formally justified the only true meaning of this Petition is in true Resolution This Lord makes us such or remit our sins after such a manner that we shall not stand in need of thy remission or forgivenss of them or that we shall not stand in need of the mediation of thine only Son For if they be remitted immediatly by grace so long as this grace endures all mediation is superfluous is impossible This Inconvenience is farther improved by the same Doctrine so far as it concerns the merits of works done in charitie And prophanes those Two other Petitions in the same our Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven no lesse then their Doctrine of Justification doth that Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us For if works done by grace or charitie could truly merit eternal life the effect of all the three Petitions should be but this Lord let thy Kingdom of Grace so come unto us Lord let thy will be so done by us here on earth that as we have been long debters unto thee for giving thine only Son to die for our sins and for the purchasing of the First Grace unto us so let us by this grace be inabled to make both Thee and Him debters to us by the merit of this grace and debters in no meaner a sum then the retribution or payment of Eternal Life For if that life can be merited by our works then God doth owe it unto us for our works And if it be due unto us by merit or by debt then it is not as our Apostle hath it in this 23. verse the gift of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Original hath it the Grace of God The Apostle might as well have said that Eternal Life was as truly the wages of our righteousness as death is the wages of our sin And so the best Scholars in the Romish Church do grant he might have said What then is the Reason why he did not say so Of this they give us This Reason Inasmuch say they as the First grace by which we merit the Kingdom of heaven is
as it respects this Point that is if we will not suffer our selves to be saved the same delight or pleasure is set upon our punishment and fulfilled upon us and if we would but enter into our own hearts we might see the Image of Gods Will hitherto manifested by his Word distinctly written in them and that the Rule which his infinite Justice observes in punishing the wicked and reprobate is to measure out their plagues and punishments according to the measure of their neglecting his Will or contradicting his delight in their salvation that as the riches of his Goodness leading them to repentance hath been more plentiful so they by their impenitencie still treasure up greater store of wrath against the day of wrath To this purpose doth the Lord threaten the obstinate people before mentioned Isai 65. 5. These are as a smoke in my nose a fire that burneth all the day Behold it is written before me I will not keep silence but will recompense even recompense into their bosom your iniquities and the iniquities of your Fathers together saith the Lord which have burnt Incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the Hils therefore wil I measure their former work into their bosom Both these parts of Gods delight are fully expressed by Solomon Prov. 1. 21. VVisdom crieth without she hath uttered her voice in the streets she crieth in the chief place of the Concourse in the opening of the gates in the Citie she uttereth her words saying How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledg Turn you at my reproof Behold I wil pour out my spirit upon you I wil make knowne my words unto you These passages infallibly argue an unfeigned delight in their repentance and such a desire of their salvation as the Wisdome of God hath expressed in my Text. But what followes Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also wil laugh at your calamity I wil mock when your fear cometh Thus his delight remaines the same but is set upon another Object To the same purpose Isai 65. 12. Therefore I wil number you to the sword and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter because when I called ye did not answer when I spake ye did not hear but did evil before mine eyes and did chuse that wherein I delighted not So then whether by the destruction of the wicked or the salvation of his Chosen Gods name is still alike glorified His Justice exacts what should have been but was not payed unto his Mercie He can be no loser by mans unthankfulness or ungratiousnesse The Case is all one as if we should take that from a thief with the left hand which he had picked out of our right hand Thus much of the two Points proposed 13. I do desire no more then that the Tree may be judged by the Fruit. And questionless the Use of these Resolutions whether for convincing our selves of sin or quelling despere or for encouraging the careless and impenitent unto repentance by giving them right hold of the means of life is much greater then can be conceived without admittance of their truth First Seeing the end of our preaching is not so much to instruct the Elect as to call sinners to repentance not so much to confirm their faith that are already certain of salvation as to give Hope to the Unregenerate that they may be saved How shall we accomplish either intendment By magnifying Gods Love towards the Elect who these are God and themselves know How shal he which lives yet in sin perswade himself there is any probabilitie he may be saved Because God hath infallibly decreed to save some few Rather seeing by the contrary Doctrine the most part of mankind must necessarily perish he hath more reason to fear least he be one of those many then to hope that he is one of those few The bare possibility of his salvation cannot be inferred but from indefinite Premisses from which no certain Conclusion can possibly follow And without certain apprehension or conceit of Possibilitie there can be no sure Ground of Hope But if we admit the former Extent of Gods unspeakable love to all and his desire of their eternal safetie which desperately perish every man may nay must undoubtedly thus Conclude Ergo Gods Love extends to me It is his good will and pleasure to have me saved amongst the rest as well as any other and whatsoever he unfeignedly wills his power is able effectually to bring to passe The danger of sin and terrour of that dreadful day being first made known unto our Auditors the pressing of these Points as effectually as they might be were this Doctrine held for current would kindle the Love of God in our hearts and inflame them with desires answerable to Gods ardent Will of our Salvation and these once kindled would breed sure hope and in a manner inforce us to imbrace the infallible means thereto ordained 14. Without admission of the Former Doctrine it is impossible for any man rightly to measure the heinousnesse of his own or others sins Such as gather the infinitie of sins demerit from the infinite Majestie against which it is committed give us the surface of sin infinite in length and breadth but not in soliditie The will or pleasure of a Prince in matters meanly affected by him or in respect of which he is little more then indifferent may be neglected without greater offence then meaner persons may justly take for foul indignities or grievous wrongs But if a Princes Soveraign Command in a matter which he desired as much as his own life should be contemned a Loyal Subject conscious of such contempt though happening through Riot or perswasions of ill company would in his sober thoughts be ready to take revenge upon himself specially if he knew his Soveraigns Love or liking of him to be more then ordinary Consider then that as the Majestie and Goodnesse of our God so his Love and Mercie towards us is truly infinite That he desires our repentance as earnestly as we can desire meat or drink in the extremity of thirst or hunger as we can do life it self while we are beset with death That this our God manifested in our flesh did not desire his own life so much as our redemption We must therefore measure the heinousness of our sins by the abundance of Gods Love by the heighth and depth of our Saviours Humiliation Thus they will appear infinite not only because committed against an infinite Majestie but because with this dimension they further include a wilful neglect of infinite mercie and Incomprehensible desires of our Salvation We are by nature the seed of Rebels which had lift their hands against the infinite Goodness of their Creator in taking the forbidden