And so they maintain it is lawful to Excommunicate Depose Murder Princes out of Zeal to Religion And so they made it lawful nay laudable to murder so many innocent Souls in that Massacre in France Against Transubstantiation I hope every one laughs at the Doctrine of Transubstantion that will fetch Christ from Heaven at every Sacrament The Master-piece of Delusion Satan shews here how much Delusion he can practice in the greatest Ignorance For a Man against Sense and Reason Philosophy and Divinity to believe a Priest can calâ— Christ out of Heaven and turn a piece of Bread into his very Body The strangest Madness in the World I see it feel it Bread and yet must believe it Flesh. I know it was made yesterday by the Baker yet now I must believe it turned into my Creator I know Christ is in Heaven and yet must believe that he is here on Earth The Heathen were never more blind And against the immoral Doctrine of Equivocation Whereof he thus vehemently express'd himself I cannot but admire the Impudency as well as abhor the Wickedness of the Jesuits Doctrine of Equivocation A Doctrine that hath put on a Whore's Forehead a brazen Face and the Devil's Impudency it self before Men as well as it hath clothed it self with horrid Abominableness before God It is a Doctrine that teacheth Men to Lye and yet will maintain they Lye not And by their Doctrine there can be no Lying Forswearing or Deceiving in the World though they Lye Forswear and Deceive never so deeply A Trick beyond the Devils He turns Truth into a Lye These can turn a Lye into Truth A Popish Priest or Jesuite is brought before a Protestant Magistrate He puts him to his Oath Are you a Popish Priest or a Jesuite They will Swear NO roundly and make no Bones of it having this Reserve in their Mind I am not a Priest to you or I am not a Priest of the English Church or I am not a Jesuite to tell you or be your Confessor or some such lurking reserved Thought in his Mind This Man hath not told a Lye tho' he speaks not a Word true He hath not taken a False Oath though he hath Sworn Falsly As the Devil changeth himself into an Angel of Light so these a Lye into a Truth But as he is a Lyar still and is most dangerous when he seems a good Angel so is their Lye when they thus Cloath it with the pretence of Truth Into their secret let not my Soul come and with their Counsil my Glory be not thou united Finally He shewed them the Preference of the Protestant Religion before that of the Papists This is the Reason saith he that so many Protestants turn Papists This he spake in the Year 1674. Because Popery opens an easier way to Heaven a Thousand fold than the Protestant doth Add to this the Viciousness of the Times And the more Viciousness abounds the more will such Apostacy abound according to the intimation of our Saviour Matth. xxiv Because Iniquity shall abound the Love of many to God and his Truth shall wax cold Men would fain enjoy their Pleasures here and yet go to Heaven too They would fain have their Paradise here and have Paradise hereafter This Popery helps them too almost with a wet Finger Hath a Man committed Whoredom Adultery been Guilty of Deceit Luxury Uncharitableness let him go and Confess himself to a Priest and the Priest absolves him and those Sins are gone and there is no more danger of them Or Oh! For how many Thousand Sins for how many Thousand Years can the Pope Pardon him How may Pilgrimage to such a Saint fetch him off How may so many Fastings so many Ave Maries so often lying in Hair-cloth so many Masses make all well and out of Danger That it is as easie almost with them to get to Heaven as for a Man to do his ordinary Days Work But the Protestant Doctrine makes obtaining Salvation a harder Task according to the Truth of the Scripture John vi you read of divers that went away from Christ because they thought his Doctrine a Hard Saying So doth the poor Protestant Religion lose Followers upon the same account None is of poor Michaiah's side because he speaks Truth and Home But let Ahab have the Four Hundred false Prophets for they will be sure to make all well for him let him do what he will There are Four Hundred and Four Hundred false Prophets in the Popish Cause that will warrant the veriest Ahab that ever was Heaven If he have but Money to fee them well will Pray him to Heaven Sing him to Heaven Pardon him to Heaven and he shall never see Hell and it may be not Purgatory It is easie to see by this Comparison which is the truer and better Religion of the Two By these and such like sound and sober Discourses he built up his People committed to his Charge in Truth and Godliness So that it is reported he had not a Dissenter in his Parish The People of his Flock Honest Quiet and Industrious his Church constantly and conscientiously repaired to every Lord's Day with due Devotion And thus I have at length dispatched what I had to say both of our Author and these Remains of his which are now made Publick And I who have once more revived the Memory of this great Ornament of Literature and of our Church of England shall I hope not only be Pardoned but merit some Thanks from the Piously Learned and Sober-Minded Rank of Men. I had some inclination to have added a Fourth Tract of this Author's Namely A Chronicle of Events and Occurrences in the World under the Kings of France and the Ottoman Emperour made by one Joseph a Priest who lived about the Times of Henry VIII Being a Fair Translation out of Hebrew into English done by the Doctor 's own Hand Which he seemed to have taken all this pains about because the History is interspersed with what befel Jerusalem after the Destruction of it by Titus the Emperor and with the Wars waged by divers Kings and Princes for the Gaining and Possession of that Place once so famous for being the Spot of all the Earth appointed for God's Holy Temple to be built on and for the Son of God to Converse and Die and Redeem the World in And also because here is set forth by the Pen of a Jew himself the State and Condition of the Jews in the latter Times and particularly the sad Persecutions and Calamities that befel them by the just Judgment of God in these Western Parts of the World as well as in other Parts by the German and French Nations Whereby might be seen some History of that Desolate Forsaken People and of the Scourge of God upon them in successive Generations ever since they Rejected and Crucified their Messiah and took the Guilt of his Blood upon themselves and their Children The State of which People from Age to Age
And in one and the same Year both Father and Son dye Divers such Passages as these you will find in this Story of the Kings if you will but cast it into Annals after this manner as be these Ahaziah Two Years older than his Father 2 Chron. xxii 2 Baasha fighting Nineteen Years after he is dead 2 Chron. xvi 1 Jotham reigning Four Years after he is buried 2 King xv 30 Joram crowned King in the Seventeenth Year of Jehoshaphat 2 King i. 17 compared with 1 King xxii 51 And in the Two and Twentieth Year of Jehoshaphat 2 King viii 16 And after Jehoshaphat's Death 2 Chron. xxi 1 Variety of such strange things are to be found by taking this course which otherwise you can never see nor doubt of For Resolution of such Ambiguities when you have found them the Text will do it if it be well searched Conference with some Man or other learned and practiced in this way will soon resolve and remove all Scruples One Month or two spent thus with a living Guide will profit more than Seven Years Study spent according to the common way of reading the Bible This way attained to will guide you it self in what else is agreeable to profitable reading As in marking those things that seem to be Contradictions in the Text or Slips of the Holy Ghost in which always is admirable Wisdom Parallels of Times Places and Persons c. Which if you once fix sadly to make a Scripture-Chronicle you cannot slip unmarked and it will be enough to me to see you Doubt I know your Doubting will not rest till resolved I have here briefly run before you the Order of Scripture as I conceive the Continuance of the History requires it to lye If you will but settle to make a Scripture Chronicle this is needless for that will search out the Order for you So that you may spare your Labour of reading this that I have written and then I need not to excuse my Confusedness in it for haste Yet if you do read it it may shew you the Necessity of that that I so instantly urge viz. Skill in the Chronicle For if there be whole Chapters and Books laid out of their Places and the reason thereof commonly most sweet what may we expect in smaller Bulk of things as Genealogies Names Speeches Years Quotations c. but strange Variations yet always Divine Admirable it is to see how the Holy Spirit of God in Discords hath shewed the sweetest Music. But few Men mark this because few â—ake a right course in reading of Scripture Hence when Men are brought to see flat Contradictions as unreconciled there be many in it they are at amaze and ready to deny their Bible A little Pains right spent will soon amend this wavering and settle Men upon the Rock whereon to be built is to be sure SECT II. THE Canonical Books of the Bible are Seventy if the Psalms be parted into Five like the Seventy Souls that built up the House of Israel The Apocrypha speaks for it self that it is not the Finger of God but the Work of some Jews Which got it so much Authority among Christians because it came from them from whom the lively Oracles of God indeed came also But the Talmud may be read to as good Advantage and as much Profit and far more Leviathan reserved to be eaten 2 Esdra vi 52 is Judaism in Targ. Jonath in Gen. R. Sol. Elias 〈…〉 of all tastes in Wisd. xvi 20 21. is Jewish R. Sol. in Num. xi Paradise created before the World is Judaism in Targ. Jonath in Gen. ii Pirke R. Eliezer R. Nephtali Bel and the Dragon is a Jewish Parable from Jer. li. 44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon and I will bring forth out of his Mouth that which he hath swallowed up c. 〈◊〉 blessing Simeon for the Slaughter of 〈◊〉 is worse than Jewish Jud. ix 2 c. flat against Jacob who curseth the Fact and against Moses who for it leaves him out of his Blessings Deut. xxxiii Tobit's Chronology is worse than Heathenish Tob. xiv 4 and 15. making the Ruin of Nineveh by Nebuchadnezzar to depend upon Jonah's Prophecy Whereas since Jonah's Prophesie that City had been deâ—â—royed by Arbaces and Belosus and built again and stood the Succession of Seven or Eight Kings and near about Two Hundred Years before it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar So might one censure the rest but Verbum Sapienti Believe not every Spirit SECT III. GENESIS CHAP. I. THE Law begins with the Creation because by the Creature is our first Step to the Knowledge of God Rom. i. 20 Ps. xix It teacheth the end from the beginning the Resurrection from the Creation For if God made Man of Dâ—st he can raise him our Spiritual Union with God in Glory even in our Body by the Union of our Spirit and Body in Creation God not named Jehovah till the Creation be perfect for special Reason The second Days Work not approved but the third twice Heaven and Earth created in one and the same instant as Center and Circumference The First Day The Heavens are made perfect and move as soon as ever they are made and with them are created the Angels But the Earth is unformed and vast all covered over with Water And the Spirit of God by the Motion of the Heavens cherisheth the inferior Creature of Earth and Waters Twelve Hours did the Heavens move in Darkness and then by God's Appointment Light appeared in that Hemisphere in which God had decreed that the Light of Religion should first shine And there it gave Lustre for Twelve Hours more declining by degrees with the Motion of the Heavens to the other Hemisphere where it also shone Twelve Hours So that the first Day to that part of the World was †So long was Joshuah's Day when the Sun stood still and so long was Christ under Death Six and Thirty Hours long The Second Day As soon as ever the Light was gone off from this upper Horizon God commanded that instead of that Vacuity which was between the Waters that covered the Earth and the Clouds which were created full of Water in the same instant with the Heavens the Air should be spread abroad throughout the Universe And in Four and Twenty Hours the Command is accomplished The Third Day The Waters that cover the Earth at God's Command recoil Westward into those Channels which God had appointed them And still as they go away and dry Land appears Herbs Plants and Trees with their ripe Seed and Fruit upon them grow instantly out of the Earth This Day God plants the pleasant Garden of †The Story of Eden Gen. 11. ver 9 10 11 12 13 14. in proper Order should lye between ver 12 and 13. of this Chapter But Moses hath reserved the History of that to be handled at Adam's being placed in it Because he would dispatch his Treatise of Generals before he come
Wilfulness to have their own Will contrary to the Will of God 2. Now in what particulars this their Wilfulness centered and what it was in which they would have their own Minds contrary to the Mind of God may be the better conjectured by tracing them a little from their Creation to their Fall They were Created as is most probable at the very first bâ—ginning of the Works of God when he laid the Foundation of the Earth the very first instant of the Creation Moses indeed does not mention their Creation at all because he would treat only of things Visible The Great Book of Nature and the Letters of that Book which Men see and from them read the Invisible things of God His Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. i. 20 Upon their first Creation they break into Singing and Praising God upon the Sight of the Glory of him that Created them upon the Sense of the Gloriousness in which themselves were created and upon Observation of the Infinite Power of the the Creator From that first instant they were Spectators of God's proceeding in the Six Days Creation They see him make the Firmament and the Sun Moon and Stars of Heaven They see him command the Waters that covered the Earth into their Bounds and Channels and they Obey him They see him lay the Earth dry and plant it with all manner of Trees and Vegetables and Beasts They see the whole Progress of the Creation and Sing and Praise and Shout for Joy all along For no cause why they should rebel hitherto can be imagined But at last and the last of his Creation God makes Man in his own Image in as Happy a Condition as an Earthly Creature could be capable of He makes him Lord of all the Creatures Nay he chargeth the Angels themselves to attend upon him and to be Ministring Spirits to him for his good As the Apostle tells us their Charge and Employment Heb. i. ult This some of them embraced with all willingness of Mind partly out of most ready Obedience to God for whom they saw they could never do too much who had done so much for them and partly out of pure love to Man whom they saw God had made their Brother having stamped him with his own Image as well as themselves Now as to the others that fell what can we imagine to have been the reason of their Fall more probably and properly than that they envied this Honour and Dignity of Adam and scorned to obey the Command and Charge that God had laid upon them to attend upon him What Must a Piece of Clay be so Honoured as to be Lord of the whole Creation Must a lump of Earth be waited on by Angels And he that is but Dust and Ashes must he be attended on by such Morning Stars the Attendents of Heaven No they scorn this Service They account themselves too good to do it It is a business below their Dignity And so for this Malice against Man and his Honour and their Pride against God and his Command from Angels they become Devils and from Heaven they are cast into Hell and Reserved there in Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the last Day For a more proper Reason and Means of their Fall I suppose can hardly be given And their continual Malice and Hate to Mankind doth very much confirm it And I believe Eliphaz Job v. 2 doth speak something home to it He had said Ch. iv 18 That God put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with Folly Much less might he put trust in poor Man that dwelleth in a House of Clay c. And then he comes on and says Call now if there be any that will answer thee And to which of the Saints wilt thou look For Wrath Killeth the Foolish and Envy Slayeth the Silly one The Papists would fain wrest this passage to prove the Invocation of Saints Departed because there is mention made of Calling and Looking to the Saints But the meaning of the Holy Man looks clean another way viz. to this Tenour Call and look about to all the Saints and Holy Ones whatsoever And where can you find any that God may put trust in For Wrath killeth the Foolish and Envy slayeth the Silly One. Wrath against God and Envy against Man Killed the Foolish and Silly Angels So that God did justly charge them with Folly And very justly indeed take Folly in its most common acceptation And let this that we have mentioned be their Sin and Fall or be it something else as some other Reasons are given they were Fools to purpose to forsake Heaven when they might have kept there To leave their own Habitation saith the Apostle Jude and might have inhabited there still To be in so Blessed Company God and Holy Angels and would forsake it In so Blessed Employment as Praising and Singing and would leave it off In the Blessed Presence of God in his Favour in his Enjoyment and weary of these things Have I been a Wilderness to Israel saith God and a Land of Darkness Is Heaven become a Wilderness a Land of Weariness and Tyring that they that are there should be weary of it What could be in these Creatures Minds to make them so Mad and Desperate so Foolish and Besotted The Raze-brain'd Prodigal to forsake his Father's House where it was so well with him and to go to wander he knew not whither Had he been asked a Reason why he would do so he could have given no better than this Because I will do so And these could be moved by no other Reason than this unreasonable one they were desperately bent to have their own Will though to the defiance of the Will of God Be that their Sin that we have spoken of or be it what else it will it was without all doubting their crossing of the Will of God to have their own Wills and violating some of his Commands upon some wilful bent to have their own Mind It was not Ignorance of what he would have them to do For they knew his Will as well as those Angels that stood in Obedience but they would not do what he would have them It was not of Weakness or Disability to do what he would have them for there is no Reason to think otherwise but that they had the same ability of Obedience that the other had But it was a desperate Wilfulness and a sturdy Resolvedness to have their own Wills let the Will of God be what it will Had one been there to have questioned these Rebels when they first set upon their Rebellion what do you think to do Do you think to better your Estates by crossing him that set you in your happy Estate Or do you think to cross God that made you and he not to meet with you Or do you think your Malice to Adam will any whit abate God's Favour to him Well be it what it will in event we will take
our own Course and have our own Will And this desperate Wilfulness was the Cursed Stumbling-Block that they laid in their own Heart at which they stumbled and fell and were ruined and must never rise more II. Hitherto we have seen these Angels Sinning and Rebelling against God Now let us see them Punished and Rewarded as they deserved God spared them not but cast them down into Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment It is Related in the Story of the Witch of Endor that when she saw Samuel appear in his Mantle she cried out for fear And her reason was Because I see saith she Gods Ascending out of the Earth Are Gods arising out of the Earth such a terror to Her What terror may Devils falling from Heaven be to Men Satan like Lightning falling thence and his Angels with him Thousands and Ten Thousands a Number numberless Such another passage is Rev. xii 9 and forwards The Dragon the Old Serpent the Devil is cast ouâ— of Heaven to the Earth and his Angels with him and this Voice follows them Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth because the Devil is come down among you having great Wrath. And it hath been VVo to the Earth ever since he came down upon it Their Punishment you see is expressed in several Particulars and all Dreadful The first Word God spared them not is the General which includes all the rest of the Particulars and which may give a reason of all the rest VVhy did God cast them into Hell Because he would not Spare them VVhy did he deliver them into Chains of Darkness Because he would not Spare them And upon the same reason he reserves them to Judgment because he will not Spare them The Expression he spared them not is like the Trumpet and Voices of Sinai from lower and milder growing louder and louder and becomes as a Thunder-clap out of which came all the Thunder-Bolts following viz. That they were cast into Hell into Chains because God spared them not 1. It signifies in its mildest and lowest Sense and Degree that he let them not go unpunished tho' they were what they were Though Angels though in Heaven though Attendants upon him and so nearly related to him yet he suffered them not to escape Scot-free He spared them not from Punishment when they Sinned But 2. The signification of the Expression riseth higher and it means not only that he would not let them go unpunished but that he punisht them home sorely and severely And so you have the Expression signifying in several other Places Deut. xxix 19 20. The Man that saith I shall have Peace though I walk after the imagination of mine own Heart the Lord will not SPARE him VVhere the meaning is not only the Lord will not let him go free and unpunished but the punishment of the Lord shall light sore upon him as it follows in the next VVords But the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousie shall Smoke against that Man and all the Curses c. Job xvi 13 His Archers compass me round about he cleaveth my Reins in sunder and doth not SPARE His meaning is not only he lets me not be in quiet but he pays me home with sad Affliction Esa. xxx 14 He shall break it as the breaking of a Potter's Vessel which is broken all to pieces He shall not SPARE And so in our common Language when we incite any one to vex or beat another Oh! spare him not Which in our Meaning is not only Let him not go free but lay on Load and pay him home And so we may very well understand nay indeed we cannot but understand the Expression herâ— He spared not the Angels that sinned that is he let thâ—m not escape tho' they were Angels but paid them home with severe Indignation for he cast them down into Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness c. The first Lash that God's Severity whipt them with is not expressed in plain Terms but included in the Terms that follow There is no mention of his casting them out of Heaven and yet that is plainly enough intimated when 't is said He cast them into Hell And there is no mention how speedily this was done and yet the Quickness of the Words intimates and all reason confirms the Quickness of the thing They sinned and he spared not but instantly cast them out of Heaven into Hell For would God suffer such abominable ones to dwell any more with him They sinned in Heaven but Heaven was no Place to hold Sin and Sinners It is a Country where no Venemous thing can live and subsist and when they are Sinners they must be there no more The Case minds me of King Uzziah's Case when he was struck Leprous in the Temple the Text tells us that the Priests thrust him out yea that he himself hasted to go out For they knew and he knew very well that the Temple was too clean and holy a Place to hold Leprosie and a Lepeâ— Heaven cannot hold a Sinner no not a Moment But as soon as ever even the Angels are become Sinners away with them there is no staying for them there Nay could Heaven have been Heaven to them if it might be supposed they might have stayed there where they could see God only angry and frowning on them and the Angels that stood loathing them and abhorring their Company There they could see nothing that could be pleasing and contentive to them when God and the Holy Angels were become their Enemies and they had lost their Interest in them both and they had lost their own Purity and Glory It was time for them to pack out of Heaven even of themselves when now it was become another kind of thing than Heaven to them But God packs them out and when they had forfeited Heaven the Severity of the Lord takes the Forfeiture and away with them out of Heaven Israel in the Psalm despised the pleasant Land and therefore God excluded them for ever coming there These Rebels despised that which the pleasant Land signified and therefore they must be hurled thence that they be no longer there It is the Opinion of some that there were so many of these Angels that fell that their Number equalled the Number of all the Men Women and Children that must be saved And that God elected so many for Salvation to supply and fill up the room of these Angels that had lost Salvation Not to insist upon the just Number it is without all question that it was a vast Number of them that fell And do but imagine you saw such an infinite Company of Morning Stars not so much falling from Heaven as thrown from Heaven and not lighting upon Fountains and Rivers of Water as the Star Wormwood doth in the Revelations but lighting in Hell and Chains of Darkness And the very Imagination may reasonably read to you the dreadful Signification of the Expression God
WERE and cannot Now we are So in this Case God be thanked that ye were the Servants of Sin that it may be said Ye were but that now ye are not But II. Since there is mention of Servants take a Parallel viz. an Israelite saying thus God be thanked that ye were Bondmen in Egypt His meaning is especially to thank God for their Delivery out of Egypt and what accrued to them upon their being Bondmen there They had never seen so great Wonders never seen so great Deliverance had they not been Bondmen And he thanks not God barely for their Bondage but for the Good and Mercy that followed it So God be thanked that ye were the Servants of Sin Else ye had never known the Riches of the Grace of God else ye had never come to prize the Infiniteness of his Mercy in your Deliverance Ye had never been so careful to be Servants of Righteousness but that ye have known what Slavery it is to be Servants of Sin So that he gives not God Thanks barely for their Slavery to Sin but especially for what was come to pass with them upon their Sinfulness He would not say to any upon Earth God be thanked that ye ARE so sinful but he says God be thanked that ye VVERE and are not That God made your great Sinfulness his Opportunity to shew you Mercy X. The Papists the Millenaries and the Traditionary Jews confuted from that Place Whom the Heavens must contain until the Times of Restitution of all things c. Act. iii. 21 HE shall send Jesus Christ to you Act. iii. 20 And yet the Heavens must contain him A Paradox unless Christ could be in many Places at once VVhich the Papists would fain justifie that they may have his Body in every Sacrament And yet there is a great Truth in this Paradox if we distinguish 'twixt the very Person of Christ and the Influence that proceeds from him As God dwelleth in the highest Heaven and yet dwelleth in an humble Heart As the Sun is in the Firmament and yet the Sun in his Influence is on the Earth also So Christ in his Body and Person is in Heaven and the Heaven must contain him till the Restitution of all things and yet Christ is among Men in the Vertue of his VVord and Influence of his Spirit As the Prince is on his Throne and yet the Diffusion of his Power Justice Clemency is thro' his whole Kingdom The Presence of Christ is everywhere as he is God and his VVord and Spirit everywhere where he pleaseth to send them But that the BODY of Christ should be everywhere is utterly against all Philosophy Divinity Scripture and the Nature of a Body And the Doctrine that Christ's very Body is received by every one that receiveth the Sacrament is clean against all these and against the very Nature of a Sacrament But the thing is not worth insisting on tho' an Argument is commonly taken hence to confute that Doctrine Restitution This is a VVord of Difficulty and requires some Resolution and which being resolved will help the better to understand the rest of the Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Restitution or Restoring of all things Times of Restoring of all things Restitution To what To their old Estate Or to a new and a better Estate This Expression breeds the main Difficulty in this Place And this encourages the Millenary to dream of Christ's reigning here on Earth a Thousand Years before the final End of the VVorld For then they conceive the Jews shall be restored to be a People again universal Peace to be restored to all the VVorld and Swords beaten into Plow-shares and Spears into Pruning hooks Then an universal Peace Concord and Tranquility to be restored to the Church and all the Glorious Things the Prophets have spoken of to come to pass and be settled I. The VVord indeed in Greek Authors commonly signifies Restoration to a former Estate Hence Circuitus Solis the Course of the Sun from the Vernal Equinox to that Point again is called the Restoration of the Year And so is that to be understood Acts i. 6 Lord wilt thou at this Time restore the Kingdom to Israel That is that Israel shall have a Kingdom as heretofore But how does this Sense agree here The restoring of all things in the Prophets to their former Estate What former Estate can here be meant to be the Pattern of another to come And the Millenary will not agree to this Interpretation who dreams not of restoring to any former Estate but to such an one as never was before II. Therefore there may be Restoration or Restitution to a better Estate As Mat. xvii 11 Elias truly shall first come and restore all things Now Elias in the Baptist restored not all things to the former Estate but to a new and better And it is said He restored all things Yet here all things are to be restored still and the Restoration not yet effected Therefore that Restoration cannot be the Restoration here meant neither Therefore III. The meaning is Making good Accomplishing all things So Elias Baptist made good all things written of him and that concerned his Office And the Times are coming when there shall be an accomplishing and making good all Things in the Prophets And so the Arabic reads Until the Times which shall confirm the fulfilling of all those things God hath spoken by the Prophets And the Syriac not much unlike But it will be demanded then When are those Times when all things spoken by the Prophets shall be fulfilled Truly Reason it self may answer At the end of the World For have not the Prophets spoke of the end of all things and of the Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust and of the Eternal Reward of both Till that time then the Heavens must contain Christ. And where should we look for Christ at any time in any Generation but in Heaven All things that God hath spoken by the Mouth of his Holy Prophets The Apostle in so saying seems to face the saying of the Jews Traditions in this Case To give you a brief Story of their Traditions 1. Before the Captivity they had Prophets Urim Visions of God Apparitions of Angels So that in Matters of Doubt they resorted to a Prophet as Saul and his Servant to Samuel In Matters of State to Urim as David did 2. After the Captivity these ceased viz. After the first Generation No Vision no Prophet more So that in how changed a Condition were they now How destitute of their great Priviledge 3. Then the Devil saw his Opportunity and stirred up some Instruments to foist Traditions upon them instead of Oracles And they taught that God gave a written Law but an unwritten Exposition of it And some Glosses that they had invented themselves they imposed as the very Words of God to Moses at Sinai So that every fond Invention of Men now went current as the Oracles of God And this is
thing the more Our English in the Text calls him A Noble Man in the Margin A Courtier ver 46. And the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that he was one that belonged to the King one of Herod's Courtiers Now in that Court time was when John Baptist was heard reverenced and followed Mark vi 17 But John did no Miracles shewed no Signs John x. 41 therefore at last John's Head goes to the Block Now the reason why the Jews were so requiring of Signs and Wonders besides their Hardness of Heart that would not believe without a Miracle was because they had not had a Prophet among them of so long a time It was full Four Hundred Years since the Spirit of Prophecy departed from the Nation For since the Death of Zachary and Malachi there had been no Prophet among them till these times no nor any that had taken upon him to be a Prophet therefore it is no wonder if when Christ came among them in the Evidence of a Prophet they require him to shew some Wonders that they might thereby be confirmed that he was a true Prophet and not a false Here now at his first coming into his Temple after his entring into his Publick Ministry by his Baptism he reforms and refines as the last of the Prophets before Prophecy ceased had foretold Mal. iii. 1 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple And he shall sit as a Purifier and Refiner of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi. He overthrows the Tables of the Money-Changers and whips the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple in the Authority of a Prophet or Messias I say the Jews Dost thou these things so authoritatively I pray thee what Sign shewest thou to prove that thou art either Messias or Prophet Nay Secondly they were so urgent in requiring Signs from him that they require a Wonder when they had newly seen a Wonder nay Wonder after Wonder like him in the Poet's Fiction that stood Chin deep in Water and was still thirsty and seeking after Water Observe but two Passages 1. In Mat. xii 22 there is a Man blind and dumb and possessed with a Devil and Christ heals him Three Miracles in one And to have done any one of them either to have given Sight to the Blind or Speech to the Dumb or to dispossess one possessed had been enough and enough again to have convinced any much more when he wrought all these things at once And yet at ver 38. Certain of the Scribes and Pharisees say to him Master We would see a Sign from thee 2. In John vi at the beginning of the Chapter he feeds Five Thousand Persons with Five Loaves and Two Fishes Who that had seen such a Sign and Miracle but would have said as they do ver 14. This is of a Truth that Prophet that should come into the World And yet some of those very Men that had seen that Miracle eaten of that Miracle and confessed him that of a Truth he was that Prophet c. yet are at it ver 30. What Sign shewest thou then that we may see and believe thee c. Why What would these Men have Can they tell themselves Yes and I will tell you Their foolish and blind Traditions had taught them to look for these two Signs and Wonders from the Messias when he came First That he should raise the old Prophets and the old Holy famous Men from the Dead Secondly That he should bring down Manna from Heaven for them In their old Writings and Records they speak much of these two things of their Expectation And I might shew some Hint in the Gospel that they expected such things Therefore let Christ do never so many Miracles yet they will not be satisfied unless they see him do one or both these things but are still urging and requiring What Sign shewest thou Now they are not so urgent to ask a Sign as our Saviour is backward to satisfie their Curiosity in such a thing And to observe what Return he made to their Demand of a Sign which was a second thing I mentioned to speak to let us consider these two things First That he never did nor never could be brought to shew them a Sign as a meer Sign You remember his own Words A Wicked and Adulterous Generation require a Sign but no Sign shall be given them Mat. xii 39 I call that a meer Sign which is barely a Sign and nothing else A Wonder shewed â—owaâ—d confirming the Doctrine or Authority of him that shews it and it proves no moâ—â— The â—urning of Moses Rod into a Serpent and thâ— Serpent into a Râ—d again was a bare Sign or Wonder to confirm Mâ—seâ— Authority and it was no more Bâ—t the Signs and Wonders that he wrought after in turning Water into Blood bringing Frogs c. were more than Signs for they were also Plagues on 〈◊〉 as well as Miracles So the Miracles and Wonders which our Saviour did healing the Sick cleansing Lepers casting out Devils were more thâ—n meer Signs for they were for the Bodily Benefit of those upon whom they were wrought But meer Sign which was barely a Sign and no more he never shewed never could be brought to shew among them And I remember not more than one meer Sign spoken of in all the New Testament and that was Paul's shaking the Viper off his Hand into the Fire and feeling no Hurt by her Which the Church of Rome might have done well to have considered of before they had made Miracles so great a Sign of their Church as they do Secondly To their requiring of a Sign our Saviour once and again returns an Answer about his own Resurrâ—ction Mat. xii 39 There shall no Sign be given unto it but the Sign of the Prophet Jonas Meaning as Jonas was Three Days and Three Nights in the Whale's Belly and at last cast out of his Belly on the Shoar again so Christ should be Three Days and Three Nights in the Grave and then should be restored to Life again And John ii when they require a Sign he returns a like Answer Destroy this Temple and in Three Days I will raise it up That is this shall be an undeniable Sign to you that I am he that is to come that when you have destroyed this Temple of my Body and put me to Death in Three Days I will raise it up again Which was to be the great Proof and Sign whereby he evidenced himself to be the Son of God or the Messias namely by his Resurrection from the Dead Rom. i. 4 X. An Explanatory Discourse of the Fall and Punishment of Angels WE look not now upon these Creatures in their Brightness and Lustre in the Perfection of their Nature and Nobleness of their Creation Angels Morning Stars Courtiers of Heaven Attendants in God's own Chamber of Presence But are to see them in a clear contrary dismal and dreery Condition
They had not been so glorious before but now they are as horrid not so bright before but now as uggly and not so happy before but now as miserable and ruined For S. Peter shews them sinning hurled from Heaven cast into Hell and damned there to Chains and Darkness and Judgment for evermore 2 Ep. Ch. ii Ver. 4. God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment As God once said to Abraham Lift up your Eyes to Heaven and mark these Stars and if you can number them What could be more Bright and Glorious than they by Creation And what an infinite number of them was made and fell when a whole Legion of them several Thousands when they were fallen dwelt in one poor possessed Man And yet these Glorious Creatures Bright Morning Stars for Excellency parallel to the Stars of Heaven for number you may see them all falling from Heaven at one time and tumbling into Ruin Perdition Misery and Hell And what is that and where is that that hath wrought this Mischief and such a Desolation Oh! it is this wicked Haman this cursed thing call'd Sin that never does better that never will do better and whose Trade is only to ruin and destroy The Angels that SINNED God spared not but cast them down to Hell Their sinning which is so shortly express'd here is uttered by the Apostle Jude That they kept not their first Estate but left their own Habitation Now their first Estate was Righteousness and Holiness and their own Habitation was Heaven and Happiness And when they kept not the one and left the other what Estate did they then come into and what Habitation did they then find out Instead of Righteous and Holy they became horridly sinful and instead of Heaven and Happiness their Habitation now is Hell and Chains of Darkness As great a Change as it was possible to be and as it is possible to imagine unless you should imagine that God should be changed Great and sad was the Change of Adam when from all innocent he became all sinful and from all happy to all miserable But this Change of the Angels that fell was more by how much they were once more happy as being in Heaven already and Adam but just setting out for it And in that they being once fallen had no Possibility of Recovery but Adam had And was not their changing from Angels to Devils a greater vaster and more astonishing Change than if they had been changed from Angels to nothing again For if their Change from Angels to nothing had been a strange Change their changing from Angels to worse than nothing was much more strange And by the way may we not say that they wrought in themselves such a Change as God himself could not have wrought in them His Power did change them from meer nothing to Angels And the same Power could have changed them from Angels to meer nothing again but God could not change them into Devils that was their own Work For the most Holy God cannot work a Creature to Wickedness 'T is far from the acting I may say from the Power of the All-holy God to work or make Wickedness in any Creature Well by their own Wickedness from Angels they are become Devils from bright Morning shining Stars they are become as black as Darkness it self and they that were lately in the highest Heaven are cast into the lowest Hell and delivered into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment And now how may we look upon such a Spectacle and Change as this Job's three Friends when they first came to him Misery and Sickness had so changed the poor Man that they knew him not But when they did know him they lift up their Voices and wept Job ii 12 Can we know these Creatures now Are these they that were lately so illustrious and resplendent Morning Stars and shone so gloriously in their Sphere and Orb Are these they that were once of God's Privy Chamber and among his choicest Nobles and Princes attending upon him Are these they that are while were singing praising and rejoicing and ere now in Hell in Chains and Darkness Shall we lift up our Voices and weep for them It may be some question whether that may befit us because they are become Devils And we may take up a more proper Rule and Practice Weep not for those but weep for your selves Well shall we rejoice at their casting into Hell and Damnation That may be some Question whether that may befit us tho' they be Devils But certainly we have a more proper Work to do upon the Sight and Consideration of their Case That is To hear and fear and tremble and to learn Wisdom from their Madness and Folly In the Words before us you see an Intimation of their Sin and of their Punishment The former very briefly related that they sinned the latter largely express'd and in several Particulars Viz. That they were not spared That they were cast into Hell delivered into Chains and reserved unto Judgment I. As to the former it is expressed that they sinned but what their Sin was is not expressed neither here nor indeed is it spoken out in plain terms in other Places of Scripture And yet out of other Places and Reason and Argumentation from Scripturâ— it may be reasonably collected and conâ—â—ctured what it was and for Search of it let us begin here 1. Angels could not sin at a lower Rate than wilfully or of Pride or Malice or of both or of all And indeed they could not sin at a higher Rate than they did Not at a lower Rate because of their Nature as they were Angels and not at a higher in regard of their Sin which was aggravated that nothing could be added Ignorance or Weakness was far from them they were created in so noble and excellent a Perfection And deceived into any sinning they could not be partly because of the Greatness of their Knowledge and Wisdom and partly because there was none to deceive them And there can be no deceiving in the World of Spirits It may be probable that there was a Chief and a Captain of them that fell As there was a Chief or Captain of them that stood viz. Our Saviour For you have mention of the Devil and his Angels and the Dragon and his Angels a Chief and Subordinate But it is hardly probable that their Chief did deceive them into their Rebellion though he was Ringleader in it As Demetrius led the rest of the Silver-Smiths that made the Insurrection in Ephesus but deceived them not for they were all of the same Principles They were every one their own Tempters And therein was their Sin so much aggravated above the Sin of Adam And what Stumbling-block they found in Heaven was only in their own Hearts and that not so much any Ignorance or Weakness or being Deceived as Desperate
spared not the Angels that sinned Upon their Sin and Fall and Punishment how many useful Thoughts and Meditations may be taken up partly of Speculation partly for Practice Let us but take a Taste of two or three I. When you read of Michael or Christ and his Angels and the Devil and his Angels Revel xii and to the like Tenor tho' not in the same Terms otherwhere you cannot but fairly conjecture these two things 1. That there was an Head of those that fell as Christ was the Head of those that stood 2. That doubtless the Head of those that fell was created a most noble Creature indeed that was set parallel to Christ in this respect that he was the Head of the one Company as Christ was of the other And I see neither Absurdity nor Danger if we should conceive that he was created the noblest of all Creatures and only Christ who was no Creature was above him And I see no reason why not to conceive that the Angels that fell with him were of as noble a Frame and Perfection by Creation as they that stood This then may raise this Question and Meditation what might make the Difference that some of the Angels fell while the other stood and some stood while the other fell The Resolution of which I know not where to lodge so properly as in this viz. That they that stood were under Christ's Headship and they that fell only left to their created Perfection Which like a Glass was shining and resplendent but brittle and soon broken But II. It is very considerable that these Spirits that were in Heaven could not keep there and yet the Spirits of just Men made perfect being once gotten thither cannot fall thence That Angels in Heaven should not stand and that Saints got to Heaven cannot fall Nay further that Angels that were in Heaven could not keep there and that a poor sinful Creature should get from hence thither and to keep there for ever There was a vast Difference between the Case and Condition of Adam and these Angels and both their Falls They in Heaven already he but just setting out for it They tempted themselves or they had no Tempter He tempted by them or he had not fallen They upon their Fall are cast from Heaven and must never more come there again He upon his Fall recovered for Heaven and in Despight of all their Power and Malice geteth thither Such is the blessed Privilege of being in the State of Grace and having â—â—terest in Christ. Both which these wâ—nted being bottomed only upon the Perfection of their own Nature in which they were created It might seem strange that Adam in the State of Innocency when he had Power of perfect Obedience and of standing in his Innocency in his own Hand should be shaken with the very first Temptation and lose all And yet when he was fallen and became sinful he should break through a Thousand Temptations and recover Heaven which he had lost when Innocent But Grace and Interest in Christ made the Difference For where before he had no Support but barely himself and the Perfection of his created Nature now he is supported by Christ and the Spirit and Grace of God But III. We may see by this Dealing of God with the very Angels his own Courtiers of Heaven how dreadful and terrible God is in his Severity against Sin and Ungodliness The dreadful Severity of God towards these Rebels you may observe in these three Things Of which the Words of S. Peter give some Intimation I. That he not only cast them into Hell and damned them but that he dealt thus with them for one Disobedience and Violation of his one Command The Angels that SINNED he cast into Hell That is for the very first Sin and suffered them not to strike a second Stroke on this side Hell II. That which follows necessarily to be observed upon this viz. That he gave them not a Minutes Space of Repentance but he takes them at the very Rebound and as soon as ever they have sinned they are damned III. That he did not only give them no Time and Space of Repentance but that he excluded them from all Possibility of Benefit by Repentance and Hopes of Recovery For he not only cast them into Hell but he reserves them in Chains for further Judgment No Reprieve no Hope no Pardon ever waiting for the Day of Execution Now look upon them and let us reflect upon our selves And first consider seriously why it should be so exceeding severe with Angels and not with Men. That they should be past all Pardon all Recovery and it should not be so with sinning Man Where can we lodge the proper Reason of this Difference And what can we say to the Cause of it I. We might observe that the Angelical Nature is uncurable if it be diseased and no Way but Death with it And that old Saying Corruptio optimi pessima to take Place deeply here and their Nature the more deeply corrupted when it became corrupted by how much it had been the more pure before II. We might observe that whereas they being in Heaven despised Heaven and vilified the Delights there it cannot be imaginable how ever they should recover Heaven again Poor Man was making for Heaven and stumbled and fell at his first setting out And it is a great deal more likely that he might get up and get onward his Journey again than they that had wilfully cast themselves from Heaven whither he was making III. We might observe their Sin to have been aggravated with whatsoever might make Sin unpardonable They sinned in Heaven they sinned without a Tempter they sinned as wilfully proudly maliciously as it was possible to sin And therefore the less Wonder if it were impossible they should ever repent and be pardoned The Sin of Man was not of so very deadly Aggravation and yet we must not lay the Reason of his being pardoned there but in the infinite Mercy of a Gracious God It was not so much for that Man was less sinful than these Angels were that he was therefore pardoned and they not but because God was the more merciful And whereas to them that so sinned he shewed Severity to thee he sheweth Goodness if thou continue in his Goodness as the Apostle speaks in another Case Lastly Let us more nearly yet reflect upon our selves Let your Thoughts at once look up towards Heaven and down towards Hell and see the Angels sinning in Heaven and instantly cast into Hell for it upon their first sinning and upon the very instant of their sinning Now who can give a Reason why we Sinners are not thrown after them Who among us all but hath deserved Hell as well as they if God should take Vengeance on us according to our Deservings as he did on them What have we then to say of the Patience and Mercy that hath so forborn us DECAD III. I. An Inquiry which is most
the undoing of the Nation to this Day Against these our Saviour so declaimeth Mat. xv 3 Why do you transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition And in other Places And the Apostle 1 Pet. i. 18 where he speaks of their vain Conversation received by Tradition from their Fathers Now these Traditions in the two greatest Points of Religion viz. Concerning Christ and the Way of Salvation had introduced Doctrines as contrary to the Prophets and Truth as might be They made the Way to Salvation so easie that it was no strait Gate nor narrow Way that led thither but a few Ceremonious Works Washings Purifications Sacrifices would do the Business By these they thought they could be justified And how easie was it to perform these As for Christ our Messias they thought he should be a Temporal Deliverer and would live always and converse among them and enstate and keep them in all Earthly Pomp and Prosperity To this it is the Apostle speaks here God will send Jesus Christ among you but not as your Traditions teach to be always bodily present with you for he is now in Heaven and Heaven must contain him and there he must be till the restoring or accomplishing of all things But not of all things that are spoken by your Masters of Traditions but which God hath spoken by the Mouth of his holy Prophets According to the Sense of the Prophets not your Traditions AN EXPOSITION OF Two Select Articles OF THE Apostles Creed VIZ. I. The Holy Catholick Church II. The Communion of Saints AN EXPOSITION OF Two Select Articles OF THE Apostles Creed I. I believe the Holy Catholick Church AFTER the Creed hath done with what is to be believed concerning God it comes to speak of what is to be believed concerning other Matters of Faith It teacheth the Trinity and that we are to believe in Father Son and Holy Ghost and most largely what to believe concerning the Son His Incarnation and Acting for Man's Redemption After mention of Faith in the Trinity I believe in God the Father In his Son Jesus Christ and I believe in the Holy Ghost it first comes to teach what to believe concerning the Church and that in this Article I believe the Holy Catholick Church A Papist's Faith upon this Article comes to this Credo in Ecclesiam Sanctam Romanam Catholicam i. e. I believe in the Holy Roman Catholick Church In which they speak Impiety to believe in Men Falshood to call the Roman Church Holy and Nonsense to call that particular Church the Church Catholick or Universal I shall not insist to confute their Belief in this Point the first Part whereof is so plainly confuted by Scripture that bids not to trust in Man the second by Experience and History that tells of the abominable Unholiness of the Roman Church and the third by all Reason and common Language that tells it Nonsense to call a particular Church the Church Universal I shall first unfold to you the Article and then speak to what is observable upon the Meaning and Intent of it The Church you see is made the Object of Faith in it But of what Faith and in what Sense the Articles following shew Viz. To believe that there is a Holy Catholick Church as that there is a Communion of Saints that there is Forgiveness of Sins c. In the Article are three Things to be believed I. That there is a Church of God II. That it is Catholick III. That it is Holy The hardest thing is What is meant by Catholick and it is not easie to say How there is a Holy Church when there is so much Wickedness and Abomination in the World It is said by the Psalmist Psal. xiv 2 3. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth Good no not one And where then can you find a Holy Church The Apostle Paul saith Phil. ii 21 All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's And John saith 1 Ep. v. 19 The whole World lyeth in Wickedness And where can you then find a Holy Church Diogenes searched the City throughout with a Candle at Noon day and said Hominem quaero I seek for a Man So search Jerusalem with a Candle and how rarely can we find one that is Holy And where then is the Holy Catholick Church First As to the Word Catholick it signifies Universal It is rendred General in the Titles of the Epistles of James Peter and John And those are call'd General Epistles because not written to particular Persons Cities or Countries as those to Timothy the Romans the Galatians c. but generally to all in many or all Countries As S. Peter to the Strangers in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia S. James to the twelve Tribes wheresoever scattered So the Catholick Church is first meant in Opposition to the particular Church of the Jews and secondly as meaning the Church of the Gentiles of all Nations that truly profess Christ throughout the World The Jews under the Law cry'd The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these So since the Gospel even hitherto they cry The Church of God are we But the Scripture tells us they are a Synagogue of Satan And Scripture teacheth us to acknowledge a Catholick Church the Church of God abroad in the World among all Nations at one time or other We shall take up the Words particularly and single And first of the Word Church And the Article doth teach and call upon us to believe That God hath ever a Church in the World I shall not insist upon the Signification of the Word in Greek and Latin nor of the Deduction of it into our English Tongue Some think our English is derived from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Belonging to the Lord. As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord's Supper 1 Cor. xi 20 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord's Day Rev. i. 10 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Church to mean the Lord's Portion as Israel is called by that Title very oft There is none of you I suppose but know what is meant by the Church of God viz. Those or that Company that worship and serve God throughout the World About the Definition or Description of the Church of God is now and hath been almost ever under the Gospel the greatest Controversie one of them in Religion As at present whether the Roman Church be a true Church Which many Protestants deny And whether the Protestant Church be a true Church Which the Romanists deny Whether the Church of England be a true Church Which Separatists deny Whether Separatists be of the true Church Which the Church of England denies The like Scruple is made of the Greek Russian Jacobin Abyssin and other Churches Into which Controversie I
Christ it is in the Heart and Spirit and there for ever II. This is the Church Militant here Much is spoken of the Church Militant And Scripture Warrants such a Title Ye sight against Principalities and Powers And As a good Soldier of Jesus Christ. Now how many Thousands are there in the visible Church that never strike Stroke that are Lookers on nay scarce so much that mind not the Christian Warfare at all and that never resist the Flesh the World or the Devil II. I come now to the second Question How far to believe the Church As the Church is sometimes taken for Councils Synods or Convocations or Primitive Fathers I mean not barely the Colliar's Faith to believe as the Church believes tho' he knew not what it was but knowing throughly the Determinations of these whether it be absolutely necessary for us to believe them because they are the Determinations of the Church The Romanist saith Yes And he that believes not what Holy Mother Church determines is a Heretick He that believes not according to what the Council of Trent hath determined let him be Anathema 〈◊〉 answer We first begin here That the Scriptureâ— coâ—ntain all things needful for Faith and Life 〈◊〉 in Es. viii 19 20. And when they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar Spirits and unto Wizzards that peep and that Mutter Should not a People seek unto their God To the Law and to the Testimony If they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them So may I say also in this case if they say to you Seek to Councils Fathers Canons Determinations of the Church To the Law and to the Testimony to Scripture and Holy Writ that contains every thing you need to enquire after for Salvation What to be believed and what to be done Psal. cxix 105 Thy Word is a Lamp unto my Feet and a Light unto my Path. VVhithersoever you need to walk for the pleasing of God doing your duty to Men or to your own Souls the VVord of God is a Light sufficient In the Place before-mentioned Es. viii 19 20. Should not a People seek unto their God For the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimony It is curiosity to enquire after Necromancy But if we desire to know what is fit and needful To the Law and to the Testimony Mal. iv 4 Remember ye the Law of Moses my Servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments Prophecy was then ceasing People might complain what shall we do for Instruction VVhy go to the VVord of God which you have in your Hands to the Law of Moses that will teach you Luke xvi ult Dives desires Abraham to send one from the Dead to teach his Brethren that they might escape that Place of Torment No that needs not Moses and the Prophets will teach all things needful They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them The Apostle speaks this fully 2 Tim. iii. 16 17. All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness That the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works The Papist saith it is not sufficient to instruct in all things of Religion True not of the Romish Religion For the Rags that patch that you must go to some Broker For the Divine VVardrobe of Scripture hath none such viz. the Orders of Monks and Friars Pilgrimages single Life of the Clergy Salt Oil Spittle in Baptism Tapers at the Communion Processions Praying to and for the Dead and a Thousand other Trinklements and Trumperies Scripture never knew such base VVare we must go to some other kind of Shop for it And that Pedlar with them is Tradition VVhen they cannot find Authority to warrant them by Scripture then they have Recourse to some Tradition VVhen they have some Bastard-Doctrine or Practice and want Scripture to father it then they go to some old rotten Tradition Just so did the Jews and these are so like them that Egg to Egg is not more You know Christ's Accusation of those Mat. xv 8 9. This People draweth nigh unto me with their Mouth and honoureth me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me But in vain they do worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. And the very same Quarrel hath he against these The Jews pretended a Thousand Traditions of the Fathers so do these they equalled them with Scripture so do these they spoiled all Religion and made the VVord of God of none Effect and so do these As if God were a Niggard in his VVord and did not afford Food for Salvation but we must seek it in Dunghills The Scriptures are called the Scriptures of Truth the Word of Grace of Salvation able to make Man perfect throughly furnished to every good Work and yet these forsooth must be patch'd out with Traditions or they avail nothing As Argo was patch'd till there was nothing of the old Ship left So these Men have patch'd up a VVord of God till there is nothing of the VVord of God left in it Secondly The Scriptures are to be believed for themselves and they need not fetch their Credit from any thing else Dan. x. 21 I will shew thee that which is noted in the Scripture of Truth They are the TRUTH See John v. 39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they that testifie of me Observe the Bent of Christ's Discourse To clear that he was the Messias he produceth the VVitness of John ver 33. Ye sent unto John and he bare Witness unto the Truth His own VVorks v. 36. But I have a greater Witness than that of John for the Works which the Father hath given me to finish the same Works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me A Voice from Heaven ver 37. And the Father himself which hath sent me hath born witness of me But he concludes in Scripture as the most undeniable Testimony Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they that testifie of me See also 2 Pet. i. 17 18 19. For he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son c. And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy A Voice from Heaven might possibly deceive the Jews feigned such but the Word of prophecy is sure that is a more sure Word The Reason of the Scriptures Credibility is because they are the Word of God 1 Thess. ii 13 When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it