we do nothing against our Neighbours Life or Bodily welfare but carefully preserve it as our own 7. That no man defile his Neighbours wife nor commit Fornication but preserve our own and others Chastity in thought word and deed 8. That we wrong not another in his Estate by stealing fraud or any other means but preserve our Neighbours Estate as our own 9. That we pervert not Justice by false witness or otherwise nor wrong our neighbour in his Name by slanders backbiting or reproach That we lie not but speak the truth in love and preserve our neighbours right and honour as our own 10. That we be not selfish setting up our selves and our own against our Neighbour and his good desiring to draw from him unto our selves But that we love our Neighbour as our selves desiring his welfare as our own doing to others as regularly we would have them do to us forbearing and forgiving one another loving even our enemies and doing good to all according to our power both for their Bodies and their Souls This is the Substance of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION § 15. II. The summ or Abstract of the Christian Religion is contained in three short Forms The first called The Creed containing the matter of the Christian Belief The second called The Lords Prayer containing the matter of Christian Desires and hope The third called The Law or Decalogue containing the summ of Morall Duties which are as followeth The BELIEF 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth 2. And in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended to Hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come again to judge the quick and the dead 3. I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the body and the Life Everlasting The LORDS PRAYER Our FATHER which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The Ten COMMANDEMENTS God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage 1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth Thou shalt not vow down thy self to them nor serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandements 3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain 4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy Man-servant nor thy Maid-servant nor thy Cattel nor the Stranger that is within thy gates For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the Seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it 5. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee 6. Thou shalt not kill 7. Thou shalt not commit Adultery 8. Thou shalt not Steal 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour 10. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Man-servant nor his Maid-servant nor his Oxe nor his Ass nor any thing that is thy Neighbours § 16. The ten Commandements are summed up by Christ into these two Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might and Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self § 17. These Commandements being first delivered to the Jews are continued by Christ as the summ of the Law of Nature only instead of Deliverance of the Jews from Egypt he hath made our Redemption from sin and Satan which was thereby typified to be the fundamental motive And he hath removed the memorial of the Creation-Rest from the seventh day-Sabbath to be kept on the Lords day which is the first with the Commemoration of his Resurrection and our Redemption in the solemn Worship of his holy Assemblies § 18. III. The briefest Summary of the Christian Religion containing the Essentials only is in the Sacramental Covenant of Grace Wherein the Penitent Believer renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil doth solemnly give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit as his only God his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier engaging himself hereby to a Holy life of Resignation Obedience and Love and receiving the pardon of all his sins and title to the further helps of grace to the favour of God and everlasting life This Covenant is first entered by the Sacrament of Baptisme and after renewed in our communion with the Church in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ So that the Christian Religion is but Faith in God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer producing the hope of Life Everlasting and possessing us with the love of God and Man And all this expressed in the genuine fruits of Patience Obedience and Praise to God and works of Charity and Justice unto Man § 19. That all this Religion might be the better understood received and practised by us the Word of God came down into Flesh and gave us a perfect Example of it in his most perfect Life in perfect holiness and innocency conquering all temptations contemning the honours riches and pleasures of the World in perfect patience and meekness and condescension and in the perfect Love of God and Man When perfect Doctrine is seconded by Perfect Exemplariness of Life there can be no greater Light set before us to lead us out of our state of darkness into the everlasting Light And had it not been a pattern of holy Power Wisdom and Goodness of Self-denyall Obedience and Love of Patience and of Truth and Prudence and of contempt of all inferiour things even of Life it self for the Love of God and for Life eternal it
to be their Captain who led them into Canaan and miraculously conquered all the inhabitants and setled Israel in possession of the Land There they long remained under the government of a Chieftain called a Judge successively chosen by God himself Till at last they mutinied against that form of Government and desired a King like other Nations Whereupon God gave them a bad King in displeasure but next him he chose David a King of great and exemplary holiness in whom God delighted and made his Kingdom hereditary To David he gave a Son of extraordinary wisdom who by God's appointment built the famous Temple at Jerusalem yet did this Solomon by the temptation of his Wives to gratifie them set up Idolatry also in the land which so provoked God that he resolved to rend ten Tribes of the twelve out of his sons hand which accordingly was done and they revolted and chose a King of their own and only the Tribes of Juda and Benjamin adhered to the posterity of Solomon The wise Sentences of Solomon and the Psalms of David are here inserted in the Bible The Reigns of the Kings of Juda and Israel are afterwards described the wickedness and idolatry of most of their successive Kings and people till God being so much provoked by them gave them up into Captivity Here is also inserted many Books of the Prophesies of those Prophets which God sent from time to time to call them from their sins and warn them of his fore-told judgments And lastly here is contained some of the History of their state in Captivity and the return of the Jews by the favour of Cyrus where in a tributary state they remain'd in expectation of the promised Messiah or Christ Thus far is the History of the Old Testament The Jews being too sensible of their Captivities and Tributes and too desirous of Temporal Greatness and Dominion expected that the Messiah should restore their Kingdom to its ancient splendour and should subdue the Gentile Nations to them And to this sense they expounded all those passages in their Prophets which were spoken and meant of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ as the Saviour of Souls which prejudiced them against the Messiah when he came so that though they looked and longed for his coming yet when he came they knew him not to be the Christ but hated him and persecuted him as the Prophets had fore-told The fulness of time being come in which God would send the Promised Redeemer the Eternal Wisdom and Word of God the Second in the Trinity assumed a Humane Soul and Body and was conceived in the womb of a Virgin by the holy Spirit of God without man's concurrence His Birth was celebrated by Prophesies and Apparitions and applause of Angels and other Wonders A Star appearing over the place led some Astronomers out of the East to worship him in the Cradle Which Herod the King being informed of and that they called him the King of the Jews he caused all the Infants in that country to be killed that he might not scape But by the warning of an Angel Jesus was carried into Egypt where he remained till the death of Herod At twelve years old he disputed with the Doctors in the Temple In this time rose a Prophet called John who told them that the Kingdom of the Messiah was at hand and called the people to Repentance that they might be prepared for him and baptized all that professed Repentance into the present expectation of the Saviour About the thirtieth year of his age Jesus resolved to enter upon the solemn performance of his undertaken work And first He went to John to be baptized by him the Captains being to wear the same Colours with the Souldiers When John had baptized him he declared him to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and when he was baptized and prayed the Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him and a voice came from Heaven which said Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased The first thing that Jesus did after his Baptism was when he had fasted forty days and nights to expose himself to the utmost of Satan's temptations who thereupon did divers ways assault him But Jesus perfectly overcame the Tempter who had overcome the first Man Adam Thenceforth he preached the glad tidings of Salvation and called men to repentance and choosing Twelve to be more constantly with him than the rest and to be witnesses of his works and doctrin he revealed the mysteries of the Kingdom of God He went up and down with them teaching the people and working miracles to confirm his doctrin He told them that he was sent from God to reveal his will to lost mankind for their recovery and to bring them to a fuller knowledge of the unseen world and the way thereto and to be a Mediator and Reconciler between God and Man and to lay down his life as a Sacrifice for sin and that he would rise again from the dead the third day and in the mean time to fulfill all righteousness and give man an example of a perfect life Which accordingly he did He never sinned in thought word or deed He chose a poor inferiour condition of life to teach men by his example to contemn the wealth and honours of this world in comparison of the favour of God and the hopes of immortality He suffered patiently all indignities from men He went up and down as the living Image of Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness doing Miracles to manifest his Power and opening the doctrin of God to manifest his Wisdom and healing mens bodies and seeking the salvation of their souls to manifest his Goodness and his Love Without any means by his bare command he immediately cured Fevers Palsies and all diseases cast out Devils and raised the dead to life again and so open uncontroled and numerous were his Miracles as that all men might see that the Omnipotent God did thereby bear witness to his Word Yet did not the greatest part of the Jews believe in him for all these Miracles because he came not in worldly pomp to restore their Kingdom and subdue the world but they blasphemed his very Miracles and said He did them by the power of the Devil And fearing lest his fame should bring envy and danger upon them from the Romans who ruled over them they were his most malicious persecutors themselves The doctrin which he preached was not the unnecessary curiosities of Philosophy nor the subservient Arts and Sciences which natural light revealeth and which natural men can sufficiently teach But it was to teach men to know God and to know themselves their sin and danger and how to be reconciled to God and pardoned and sanctified and saved How to live in holiness to God and in love and righteousness to men and in special amity and unity
Covenant of Grace confirming his Doctrine by abundant uncontrolled Miracles contemning the World he exposed himself to the malice and fury and contempt of sinners and gave up himself a Sacrifice for our sins and a Ransom for us in suffering death on a Cross to reconcile us to God He was buryed and went in Soul to the Souls departed And the third day he rose again having conquered death And after forty dayes having instructed and authorized his Apostles in their Office he ascended up into Heaven in their sight where he remaineth Glorified and is Lord of all the chief Priest and Prophet and King of his Church interceding for us teaching and governing us by his Spirit Ministers and Word 5. The New Law and Covenant which Christ hath procured made and sealed by his Blood his Sacraments and his Spirit is this That to all them who by true Repentance and Faith do forsake the Flesh the World and the Devil and give up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier he will give Himself in these Relations and take them as his reconciled Children pardoning their sins and giving them his grace and title to Everlasting Happiness and will glorifie all that thus persevere But will condemn the unbelievers impenitent and ungodly to everlasting punishment This Covenant he hath commanded his Ministers to proclaim and offer to all the World and to baptize all that consent thereunto to invest them Sacramentally in all these benefits and enter them into his holy Catholick Church 6. The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son did first inspire and guide the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists that they might truly and fully reveal the Doctrine of Christ and deliver it in Scripture to the Church as the Rule of our Faith and Life and by abundance of evident uncontrolled Miracles and gifts to be the great witness of Christ and of the truth of his holy Word 7. Where the Gospel is made known the HOLY SPIRIT doth by it illuminate the minds of such as shall be saved and opening and softening their hearts doth draw them to believe in Christ and turneth them from the power of Satan unto God Whereupon they are joyned to Christ the Head and into the Holy Catholick Church which is his Body consisting of all true Believers and are freely justified and made the Sons of God and a sanctified peculiar people unto him and do Love him above all and serve him sincerely in holiness and righteousness loving and desiring the Communion of Saints overcoming the Flesh the World and the Devil and living in Hope of the coming of Christ and of Everlasting life 8. At death the Souls of the Justified go to Happiness with Christ and the Souls of the wicked to misery And at the end of this World the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and will raise the Bodies of all men from the dead and will judge all the World according to the good or evil which they have done And the righteous shall go into Everlasting Life where they shall see Gods Glory and being perfected in Holiness shall love and praise and please him perfectly and be loved by him for evermore and the Wicked shall go into Everlasting punishment with the Devil II. According to this Belief we do deliberately and seriously by unfeigned consent of Will take this One God the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the Father Son and Holy Spirit for our only God our reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifyer and resolvedly give up our selves to him accordingly entering into his Church under the hands of his Ministers by the solemnization of this Covenant in the Sacrament of Baptism And in prosecution of this Covenant we proceed to stirre up our DESIRES by daily PRAYER to God in the Name of Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit in the order following 1. We desire the glorifying and hallowing of the Name of God that he may be known and loved and honoured by the World and may be well-pleased in us and we may delight in Him which is our ultimate end 2. That his Kingdom of Grace may be enlarged and his Kingdom of Glory as to the Perfected Church of the sanctified may come That Mankinde may more universally subject themselves to God their Creator and Redeemer and be saved by him 3. That this Earth which is grown too like to Hell may be made liker to the Holy ones in Heaven by a holy conformity to Gods Will and Obedience to all his Laws denying and mortifying their own fleshly desires wills and minds 4. That our Natures may have necessary support protection and provision in our daily service of God and passage through this World with which we ought to be content 5. That all our sins may be forgiven us through our Redeemer as we our selves are ready to pardon wrongs 6. That we may be kept from Temptations and delivered from sin and misery from Satan from wicked men and from our selves Concluding our Prayers with the joyfull Praises of God our Heavenly Father acknowledging his Kingdom Power and Glory for ever III. The Laws of Christian PRACTICE are these 1. That our Souls do firmly adhere to God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer by Faith Love Confidence and Delight that we seek him by desire obedience and hope meditating on himself his word and works of Creation Redemption and Sanctification of Death Judgement Heaven and Hell exercising Repentance and mortifying sin especially atheism unbelief and unholiness hardness of heart disobedience and unthankfulness pride worldliness and flesh-pleasing Examining our hearts about our Graces our Duties and our sins Watchfully governing our thoughts affections passions senses appetites words and outward actions Resisting temptations and serving God with all our faculties and glorifying him in our Hearts our Speeches and our Lives 2. That we worship God according to his Holiness and his Word in Spirit and Truth and not with Fopperies and Imagery according to our own devices which may dishonour him and lead us to Idolatry 3. That we ever use his Name with special Reverence especially in appealing to him by an Oath abhorring prophaneness perjury and breach of Vows and Covenants to God 4. That we meet in Holy Assemblies for his more solemn Worship where the Pastors teach his Word to their Flocks and lead them in Prayer and Praise to God administer the Sacrament of Communion and are the Guides of the Church in Holy things whom the people must hear obey and honour especially the Lords Day must be thus spent in Holiness 5. That Parents educate their Children in the Knowledge and Fear of God and in obedience of his Laws and that Princes Masters and all Superiours govern in Holiness and Justice for the glory of God and the common good according to his Laws And that Children love honour and obey their Parents and all Subjects their Rulers in due subordination unto God 6. That
luculentissima Josephi edita paulo post annum à Christi abitu 40. Cum quibus consentiunt ea quae apud Thalmudicos de iisdem temporibus leguntur Neronis saevitiam in Christianos Tacitus memoriae prodidit Exstabant olim libri tum privatorum ut Phlegontis tum acta publica ad quae Christiani provocabant quilus constabat de eo sidere quod post Christum natum apparuit de terrae motu solis deliquio contra naturam plenissimo lunae orbe circa tempus quo Christus crucis supplicio affectus est Celsus and Julian do not deny the miracles of Christ Mahomet himself confesseth Christ to be a true Prophet and the Word of God and condemneth the Jews for rejecting him he confesseth his miraculous Nativity and mighty works and that he was sent from heaven to preach the Gospel He bringeth in God as saying We have delivered our declarations to Jesus the Son of Mary and strengthned him by the holy Ghost And We have delivered him the Gospel in which is direction and light c. And he teacheth his followers this Creed Say We believe in God and that which was delivered to Moses and Jesus and which was delivered to the Prophets from their Lord we distinguish not between any of them and we deliver up our selves to his faith And if Christ be to be believed as Mahomet saith then Christianity is the true Religion for as for his and his followers reports that the Scriptures are changed and that we have put out Christ's prediction that Mahomet must be sent c. they are fables not only unproved but before here proved utterly impossible Read Eusebius Eccles Hist l. 8 c. 17 18. l. 9. c. 10. of God's strange judgments on Maximinus the Emperour whose bowels being tormented and his lower parts ulcerated with innumerable worms and so great a stink as kill'd some of his Physicians which forced him to confess that what had befallen him was deservedly for his madness against Christ for he had forbidden the Christians their assemblies and persecuted them wherefore he commanded that they should cease persecuting the Christians and that by a Law and Imperial Edict their Assemblies should be again restored He confessed his sins and begg'd the Christians Prayers and professed that if he were recovered he would worship the God of the Christians whom by experience he had found to be the true God See Bishop Fotherby Atheomast l. 1. c. 3. p. 140 141. comparing his case with Antiochus his Paulus Orosius histor li. 6. fine telleth us of a Fountain of Oyl which flowed a whole day in Augustus Reign and how Augustus refused to be called Dominus and how he shut up Janus Temple because of the Universal Peace and that eo tempore id est eo anno quo fortissimam verissimamque pacem ordinatione Dei Caesar composuit natus est Christus cujus adventum pax ista famulata est in cujus ortu audientibus hominibus exultantes Angeli cecinerunt Gloria in excelsis Deo in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis See also what after others he saith of Tyberius motioning to the Senate that Christ might be accounted a God and Sejanus resisting it li 7. Auct Bib. Pat. To. 1. p. 209. where he saith also that aliquanti Graecorum libri attested the darkness at Christs death And li. 7. p. 216. he sheweth that as after the ten Plagues of Egypt the Israelites were delivered and the Egyptians destroyed so was it in the Roman Empire with the Christians and Pagans after the particular revenges of the ten Persecutions But because he is a Christian Historian I cite no more from him CHAP. IX Yet Faith hath many Difficulties to overcome What they are and what their Causes THere are two sorts of persons who may possibly peruse these things and are of tempers so contrary that what helpeth one may hurt the other The first are those who see so many objections and difficulties that they are turned from the due apprehension of the Evidences of Christianity and can think of nothing but stumbling-blocks to their Faith To tell these men of more difficulties may adde to their discouragement and do them hurt And yet I am not of their minde that think they should be therefore silenced For that may tempt them to imagine them unanswerable if they come into their mindes The better way for these men is to desire them better to study the Evidence of truth And there are other men who must be thought on who seeing no difficulties in the work of Faith do continue unfortified against them and keep up a Belief by meer extrinsick helps and advantages which will fall as soon as the storms assault it And because no doubt is well overcome that is not known and Nil tam certum quà m quod ex dubio certum est I will venture to open the Difficulties of Believing § 1. That Believing in Christ is a work of Difficulty is proved both by the paucity of sound Believers and the imperfection of Faith in the sincere and the great and wonderfull means which must be used to bring men to believe Superficial Believers are a small part of the whole World and sound Believers are a small part of professed Christians And these sound Believers have many a temptation and some of them many a troublesom doubt and all of them a Faith which is too farr from perfection And yet all the Miracles Evidences Arguments and Operations aforesaid must be used to bring them even to this § 2. The Difficulties are I. Some of them in the things to be believed II. Some of them in extrinsecal impediments III. And some of them in the minde of Man who must believe § 3. I. 1. The mysteriousness of the doctrine of the blessed Trinity hath alwayes been a difficulty to Faith and occasioned many to avoid Christianity especially the Mahometanes and many Hereticks to take up Devices of their own to shift it off § 4. 2. The Incarnation of the second Person the Eternal Word and the personal union of the Divine Nature with the Humane is so strange a condescension of God to man as maketh this the greatest of difficulties and the greatest stumbling-block to Infidels and Hereticks § 5. 3. The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ and the advancement of mans nature in him above the Angelical nature and glory is a difficulty § 6. 4. To believe all the history of the Miracles of Christ the Prophets and Apostles is difficult because of the strangeness of the things § 7. 5. It is not without difficulty firmly to believe the Immortality of Souls and the endlesness of the felicity of the life to come § 8. 6. And it hath proved hard to many to believe the endless miseries of damned souls in Hell § 9. 7. And it is as hard to believe the paucity of the blessed and that the damned are the farr greater number § 10. 8.
esse which was dependent in fieri which are Contradictions 2. The effects in the admirable frame and nature and motions of the Creation declare that the Creator is infinitely wise The smallest insect is so curiously made and so admirably fitted and instructed to its proper end and uses The smallest Plants in wonderfull variety of shapes and colours and smells and qualities uses and operations and beautifull flowers so marvellously constituted and animated by an unseen form and propagated by unsearchable seminal vertue The smallest Birds and Beasts and creeping things so adorned in their kinds and so admirably furnished for their proper ends especially the propagation of their species in love and sagacity and diligence to their young by instinct equaling in those particulars the reasonable creature The admirable composure of all the parts of the body of Man and of the vilest Beast and Vermine The quality and operation of all the Organs humours and spirits The operations of the Minde of man and the constitution of Societies and over-ruling all the matters of the World with innumerable instances in the creature do all concurr to proclaim that man as mad as madness can possibly make him in that particular who thinketh that any lower cause than incomprehensible wisdom did principally produce all this And that by any bruitish or natural motion or confluence of Atomes or any other matter it could be thus ordered continued and maintained without the infinite wisdome and power of a first Cause superiour to meer natural matter and motion What then should we say if we had a sight into the inwards of all the Earth of the nature and cause of Minerals and of the forms of all things If we saw the reason of the motions of the Seas and all other appearances of Nature which are now beyond our reach Yea if we had a sight of all the Orbs both fixed Starrs and Planets and of their matter and form and order and relation to each other and their communications and influences on each other and the cause of all their wonderous motions If we saw not only the nature of the Elements especially the active Element Fire but also the constitution magnitude and use of all those thousand Suns and lesser Worlds which constitute the universal World And if they be inhabited if we knew the Inhabitants of each Did we know all the Intelligences blessed Angels and holy Spirits which possess the nobler parts of Nature and the unhappy degenerate Spirits that have departed from light and joy into darkness and horrour by departing from God yea if we could see all these comprehensively at one view what thoughts should we have of the wisdom of the Creator And what should we think of the Atheist that denyeth it We should think Bedlam too honourable a place for that man that could believe or durst say that any accidental motion of subtile matter or fortuitous concourse of Atomes or any thing below a Wisdom and Power infinitely transcending all that with Man is called by that name was the first Cause and is the chief continuer of such an incomprehensible frame § 18. The first Cause must needs be infinitely Good By Goodness I mean all essential Excellency which is known to us by its fruits and appearances in the Creature which as it hath a Goodness natural and moral so is it the Index of that transcendent Goodness which is the first cause of both This goodness is incomparably beyond that which consisteth in a usefulness to the creatures good or Goodness of Benignity as relative to Man And it is known better by the meer name as expressing that which Nature hath an intrinsick sense and notion of than by definitions As sensible qualities light colour sound odour sweet bitter c. are known by the name best which lead to the sensitive memory which informeth the Intellect what they are As the mention of things sensible entereth the definition of sense and the mention of sense doth enter the definition of things sensible and yet the object is in order of nature before the act And as Truth must enter the definition of Intellection and Intellection the definition of Truth and yet Truth is in order before Intellection and contemporary with the Intellect so is it between Goodness and the Will But if we speak of uncreated Good and of a created Will then Good is infinitely antecedent to that Will But the Will which is created hath a nature suited to it and so the notion of Excellency and Goodness is naturally in our estimative faculty and the relish of it or complacency in it is naturally in the Will so far as it is not corrupted and depraved As if I knew a man that had the wisdom and virtue of an Angel my estimation calleth him Excellent and Good and my Will doth complacentially cleave to him though I should never look to be the better for him my self or if I onely heard of him and never saw him or were personally beholden to him That God is thus infinitely Excellent and Good the Goodness of his Creatures proveth for all the goodness that is in Men and Angels Earth and Heaven proceedeth from him If there be any Natural Goodness in the whole Creation there must be more in the Creator If there be any Moral Goodness in Men and Angels there must be more in eminency in him For he can make nothing better than himself nor give to creatures what he hath not § 19. The Goodness of the first Being consisting in this infinite Perfection or Excellency containeth his Happiness his Holiness and his Love or Benignity § 20. The HAPPINESS of the first Being consisteth 1. In his BEING HIMSELF 2. In his KNOWING HIMSELF 3. In his LOVING and ENJOYING HIMSELF The most perfect Being must needs be the most Happy and that in Being what he is his own Perfection being his Happiness And as Knowledge in the Creature is both his Perfection and Delight so the transcendent Omniscience of the Creator must needs be both part of his Perfection as distinguished by our narrow minds and such felicity as may be called Eminently his Delight though what God's Delight is we know not formally And as Love or Complacency is the perfective operation of the Will and so of the Humane Nature in Man and is his highest final and enjoying acts of which all Goodness is the object so there must be something in the Perfection of the first Cause though not formally the same with Love in Man yet eminently so called as knowable to us by no other name And this complacency must needs be principally in Himself because He himself is the Infinite and onely Primitive Good and as there was primitively no Good but Himself to Love so now there is no Good but derived from Him and dependent on Him And as his Creature of which anon is obliged to love Him most so he must needs be most amiable to Himself Self-love and self-esteem in
them have their right and part And this is the common reward or benefit of obedience and fidelity Besides which some great exploits are usually rewarded with some special praemium In humane Kingdoms as such the End is no higher than the Beginning Temporal Governours give but temporal Rewards The felicities of the Kingdom which are the ends of Government as they are from Man are but temporal and our share in them is all our Reward from men But the original and end of the Kingdom of God are higher and of further prospect The benefits of fidelity are greater as shall be further proved But let it be noted that this Objection saith nothing against a life of Punishment Governours never leave their Precepts without this sanction And he that believeth future Punishment will easily believe a future Reward Let it also be noted that Paternal Government hath evermore Rewards in the strictest sense that is a special favour and kindness shewed to the Childe that is specially obedient and so the rest according to their measures But the Kingdom of God is A PATERNALL KINGDOM as is proved That God will make in his Retributions a just difference between the good and bad is proved from his Justice in Government If his Laws make no difference then men are left at liberty to keep or break them nor can it rationally be expected that they should be kept Nor could he be said so much as to love or approve or justifie the obedient more than the rebellious But so unholy a Nature and so indifferent between sin and duty and so unwise and unjust in governing is not to be called God Either he justly differenceth or he doth not Govern That God maketh not a sufficient differencing Retribution in this life is the complaint of some and the confession of almost all the World The bad are commonly the greatest and the Lords and Oppressors of the Just The Turks the Tartarians the Moscovites the Persians the Mogull and more such brutish Monarchs who use the people as the slaves of their pride and lust do take up the far greatest part of the Earth Few places are so good where Goodness exposeth not men to sufferings from the rabble of the vulgar if not from the Governours slanders and abuses are the common lot of those that will differ from the carnal wilde rebellious Rout. And poverty pain sickness and death do come alike to all The sensual that have wit enough so far to bridle their lusts as to preserve their health do usually live longer than more obedient men And they deny themselves none of those fleshly pleasures which the obedient do continually abstain from Obj. But do you not ordinarily say that Vice bringeth its punishment with it in its natural effects and Obedience its Reward Is not the life of a Glutton and Drunkard punished by poverty and shame and sickness And is not Godliness a pleasure in it self If it be our highest end and Happiness to love God and please him then sure the beginnings of it here must have more good than all the pleasures of sin and so God maketh a sufficient difference here Answ Some Vices that are sottishly managed do bring poverty shame and sickness but that may easily be avoided by a vicious wit Gluttony and drunkenness may fall short of sicknesses Fornication and adultery and incest may be managed with greater craft Pride and ambition may attain dominion and wealth Theft may be hid and cheating and fraud may make men rich and free them from the pinching wants and cares and the temptations to discontent and contention of the poor Malice may delight it self in secret revenges in poysonings murderings and such like without any worldly hurt to the transgressour A Tiberius a Nero a Caligula a Domitian a Commodus a Heliogabalus a Sardanapalus may be on the Throne when a Socrates a Seneca a Cicero a Cato a Demosthenes is put to death yea when a Paul or Peter an Ignatius a Cyprian are sacrificed to their bloody rage Yet it is true that all this while they want the dignity and comfort of the Just But while they value it not and feel not the want of it they take it not for a punishment but choose it as a felicity And as for the present Rewards of Virtue to speak impartially I verily think that if there were no life to come Virtue and Holiness were rationally more eligible But that is much because God is an End above our selves And for our own content in many Holiness would give the minde more pleasure than all fleshly pleasure and worldly greatness could counterpoise But with many others whose afflictions are very heavy and pains and poverty very great and who are grievously tormented by cruel persecutors and perhaps a Melancholy constitution may forbid them much delight it is hard to say that if they durst let loose themselves to all sin which maketh for their fleshly interest their Pleasure would not be much greater While the Soul is in flesh it unavoidably partaketh of the pain or pleasure of the flesh Therefore the torment of the Stone or Strangury or of a Rack or Strappado will reach the Soul And the operations of the Soul being in and by the body a tormented body will hinder those Contemplations which should feed our Joy and also hinder the Joy of those Contemplations Most Christians enjoy little comfort in Holiness through the very cares of this life and the weakness of Grace and power of Corruptions and doubts and fears which do attend them Much less would they have much comfort if they were here tormented and miserable in body and had no hope of another life In some sense we may say that Heaven is begun on Earth because Holiness is begun But the Heaven on Earth is the hope and reflection of the Heaven indeed and is soon gone if that be gone as the light here ceaseth when the Sun is set God seen and loved in a glass doth more differ as to us from God as seen and loved in the intuition of his Glory than the heart of man is now able to conceive The difference may be well called specifical as to our actions yea transcendently such Let any man in torment without any hope of Heaven be Judge And though Honesty without the Pleasure and Comforts of it be still better and more eligible yet while mans Reason and Virtue is so weak and his sense and appetite so strong and his body hath so much power upon his minde it is very few that the meer Love of Virtue would prevail with if that Virtue were never to come to a higher degree than this It is undoubtedly true that the Delights of Holiness are incomparably more desireable as we have them in this life than Kingdoms and all the pleasures of the flesh But that is principally because that this life is the passage to a better and hath relation to so glorious a reward The least fore-thought of
among themselves who are his disciples How to mortifie sin and to contemn the wealth and honours of the world and to deny the flesh its hurtful desires and lusts and how to suffer any thing that we shall be called to for obedience to God and the hopes of Heaven To tell us what shall be after death how all men shall be judged and what shall become both of soul and body to everlasting But his great work was by the great demonstrations of the Goodness and Love of God to lost mankind in their free pardon and offered salvation to win up mens hearts to the love of God and to raise their hopes and desires up to that blessed life where they shall see his glory and love him and be beloved by him for ever At last when he had finished the work of his ministration in the flesh he told his Disciples of his approaching Suffering and Resurrection and instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud in Bread and Wine which he commandeth them to use for the renewing of their covenant with him and remembrance of him and for the maintaining and signifying their communion with him and with each other After this his time being come the Jews apprehended him and though upon a word of his mouth to shew his power they fell all to the ground yet did they rise again and lay hands on him and brought him before Pilate the Roman Governour and vehemently urged him to crucifie him contrary to his own mind and conscience They accused him of blasphemy for saying he was the Son of God and of impiety for saying Destroy this Temple and in three days I will re-build it he meant his Body and of treason against Caesar for calling himself a King though he told them that his Kingdom was not worldly but spiritual Hereupon they condemned him and clothed him in purple like a King in scorn and set a Crown of thorns on his head and put a Reed for a Scepter into his hand and led him about to be a derision They cover'd his eyes and smote him and buffeted him and bid him tell who strake him At last they nailed him upon a Cross and put him to open shame and death betwixt two Malefactors of whom one of them reviled him and the other believed on him they gave him gall and vinegar to drink The Souldiers pierced his side with a Spear when he was dead All his Disciples forsook him and fled Peter having before denied thrice that ever he knew him when he was in danger When he was dead the earth trembled the rocks and the vail of the Temple rent and darkness was upon the earth though their was no natural Eclipse which made the Captain of the Souldiers say Verily this was the Son of God When he was taken down from the Cross and laid in a stone-Sepulchre they set a guard of Souldiers to watch the grave having a stone upon it which they sealed because he had fore-told them that he would rise again On the morning of the third day being the first day of the week an Angel terrified the Souldiers and rolled away the stone and sate upon it and when his Disciples came they found that Jesus was not there And the Angel told them that he was risen and would appear to them Accordingly he oft appeared to them sometimes as they walked by the way and once as they were fishing but usually when they were assembled together Thomas who was one of them being absent at his first appearance to the rest told them he would not believe it unless he saw the print of the nails and might put his finger into his wounded side The next first day of the week when they were assembled Jesus appeared to them the doors being shut and called Thomas and bad him put his fingers into his side and view the prints of the nails in his hands and feet and not be faithless but believing After this he oft appeared to them and once to above five hundred brethren at once He earnestly prest Peter to shew the love that he bare to himself by the feeding of his flock He instructed his Apostles in the matters of their employment He gave them Commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel and gave them the tenour of the New Covenant of Grace and made them the Rulers of his Church requiring them by Baptism solemnly to enter all into his Covenant who consent to the terms of it and to assure them of pardon by his Blood and of salvation if they persevere He required them to teach his Disciples to observe all things which he had commanded them and promised them that he would be with them by his Spirit and grace and powerful defence to the end of the world And when he had been seen of them forty days speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God being assembled with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait till the holy Spirit came down upon them which he had promised them But they being tainted with some of the worldly expectations of the Jews and thinking that he who could rise from the dead would sure now make himself and his followers glorious in the world began to ask him whether he would at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel But he answered them It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father hath put in his own power But ye shall receive power after that the holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses to me both at Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth And when he had said this while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up two men stood by them in white apparel and said Why gaze ye up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Upon this they returned to Jerusalem and continued together till ten days after as they were all together both the Apostles and all the rest of the Disciples suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and the likeness of fiery cloven tongues sate on them all and they were filled with the holy Ghost and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance By this they were enabled both to preach to people of several languages and to work other miracles to confirm their doctrine so that from this time forward the holy Spirit which Christ sent down upon Believers was his great Witness and Agent in the world and procured the belief and entertainment of the Gospel wheresoever it came For by this extraordinary reception of the Spirit the Apostles themselves were much fullier instructed in the doctrine of salvation than
this wickedness it is wilfull and stupid and incorrigible and ordinary means do little to the Cure Thus is it a sinfull evil World II. And it is a Tempting World that would make all bad as it is it self Whereever the sanctifying Truth of God doth come to illuminate and reform men the World is presently up in arms against it and fighteth against that which would save mens Souls as if it were a Plague or Enemy that would destroy them Princes think it is against their interest and the people finde that it is against their lusts And so the sin of Tyranny keepeth the Gospel out of the greatest part of the World and popular fury resisteth it where it cometh The Empires of the Turks and Tartarian and China are sad instances of the success of Tyranny against the means of mens salvation And the Empire of Japan hath given the World an instance of such unparallel'd cruelty to that end as maketh the persecutions of Nero and Dioclesian and even the Popish Inquisition and almost the Massacres of Piedmont France and Ireland to seem very merciful acts of Charity What rage what inhumane fury hath been shewed through all the World to keep out Knowledge and keep the Nations in their darkness and misery and forbid relief But for Error and Deceit Idolatry and Superstition how industriously are they propagated Empire and Arts Power and Learning are employed to deceive and undoe the World And though Empire be Gods Ordinance and Arts his gifts they are turned against him in the farr greatest part of the Earth and Satan is served by them as if they had been ordain'd by him Almost every Countrey hath their proper opinions and a Religion fitted to resist Religion He that is an Idolater or a Mahometan or Infidel would make more And they that are against all serious Religion are as eager to make others of their minde as if it were a work of charity or commodity And he that is endeavouring to undoe Souls is as vehement in it as he that is endeavouring to save them He that hath any passion or corrupt affection is as inclinable to convey it to another as fire is to kindle fire or one that hath the Plague to infect his Neighbour Covetousness ambition voluptuousness lust and wrath and revenge are all contagious Rioters think it strange if we run not with them into all excess The very noise of their impertinent talk and business and the great adoe that they make in doing nothing is a great diverter of those that are about them from serious business and sober consideration They keep men so busie about their vanities that they can finde no leisure to remember that they are men or to think what business they have in the World nor where it is that they must dwell for ever And when their folly and selfishness hath set them all together by the ears they must needs draw or drive others into the fire of contention with them They cry Who is on my side who And he that will not be of one party or other but will keep his peace shall lose it by the enmity of all And no man shall be taken for orthodox or honest that will not be of that Faction whose commendation he desireth And when he hath humoured them he shall go for a knave or a reproached person with all the rest A peaceable man shall hardly finde the peace which he desireth to himself but it 's ten to one but he loseth his labour if he would make peace between others especially if he have an honest ambition of extending that blessing to Parties and Countreys or any great and considerable numbers If by tyranny and cruelty by prisons and torments and death they cannot affright men from honesty and the obedience of God at least they will vex them in their way and be as thorns and bryars to them in this Wilderness III. And it is a calamitous miserable World It is void of the comforts of sacred Illumination and of the assured Love of God and of the exercise of wisdom or holiness The delights of Saints in loving God and waiting for eternal Life are unknown to all the multitudes of the ungodly They are confounded and lost in their ignorance and error and tormented with their own passions divisions and contentions Their vices are part of their disquietment and pain though pleasure be their intended end It is a pitifull servitude that they are in to Satan and an endless drudgery that they follow in serving their covetousness pride and lust and a tiresome task to care and labour to make provision for their fleshly appetites and wills They are led captive by Satan to do his will and yet in doing it they do their own and are in love with their Captivity and glory in their Chains They are engaged daily against God and Mercy against their Happiness and their Friends that would procure it and think him their Enemy that would make them wiser They go under the guilt of all this sin and they have no assurance of pardon or deliverance And God overtaketh them many times with bodily distresses here Sicknesses and pains consume men and torment them Warrs and plagues do send them by thousands out of the World which they took for their felicity Fire and famine piracy and robbery and fraud impoverish them The frustrations of their hope torment them And yet under all they are hardened against God and fall not out with their sin and folly but with the Justice of Heaven and with its instruments or rather with all that beareth the Image of the Holiness of God This is the visible condition of this World Obj. If you say How can all this stand with the infinite Goodness of God I have answered it before It sheweth you that it is not this World which is the great demonstration of the Goodness or Love of God from whence we must take our estimate of it by the effects If you will judge of the Kings splendour and bounty and clemency will you go seek for examples and demonstrations of it in the Gaol and at the Gallows or rather at the Court Hell is as the Gallows and Earth is as the Gaol Measure not Gods bounty and mercy by these It is no sign of unmercifulness in God that there are Flies and Worms and Toads and Serpents on Earth as well as Men nor that Earth was not made as indefectible as Heaven And when men have drown'd themselves in sin it is no want of Goodness in God but it is Goodness it selfe which causeth the demonstrations of his Justice on them This World is not so much to all Gods Creation as a wen or wart upon a Mans body is to the whole body And if it were all forsaken of God as it hath forsaken him it were proportionably no more than the cutting off such a wart or Wen. God hath many thousand thousand thousand times more capacious Regions which it 's
like have more noble and blessed Inhabitants Look to them if you would see his Love in its most glorious demonstration Justice also must be demonstrated if men will sin And if Hell be quite forsaken and Earth which is next it be partly forsaken of the favour of God for all that God may gloriously demonstrate his Love to a thousand thousand-fold more subjects of the nobler Regions than he doth demonstrate his Justice on in Hell or Earth But these two things I gather for the confirmation of my Faith 1. That the sin and misery of the World is such that it groaneth for a Saviour And when I hear of a Physician sent from Heaven I easily believe it when I see the wofull World mortally diseased and gasping in its deep distress The condition of the World is visibly so suitable to the whole Office of Christ and to the Doctrine of the Gospel that I am driven to think that if God have mercy for it some Physician and extraordinary help shall be afforded it And when I see none else but Jesus Christ whom Reason will allow me to believe is that Physician it somewhat prepareth my minde to look towards him with hope 2. And also the Evil of this present World is very suitable to the Doctrine of Christ when he telleth us that he came not to settle us here in a state of Prosperity nor to make the World our Rest or Portion but to save us from it as our enemy and calamity our danger and our Wilderness and trouble and to bring up our hearts first and then our selves to a better World which he calleth us to seek and to make sure of Whereas I finde that most other Religions though they say something of a Life hereafter yet lead men to look for most or much of their felicity here as consisting in the fruition of this World which experience tells me is so miserable § 3. Moreover I finde that the Law of entire Nature was no more suitable to Nature in its integrity than the Law of Grace revealed by Christ is suitable to us in our lapsed state so that it may be called the Law of Nature-lapsed and restorable Naturae lapsae restaurandae Nature entire and Nature depraved must have the same pattern and rule of perfection ultimately to be conformed to because lapsed man must seek to return to his integrity But lapsed or corrupted man doth moreover need another Law which shall first tend to his restoration from that lost and miserable state And it was no more necessary to man in innocency to have a suitable Law for his preservation and confirmation than it is to man in sin and guilt to have a Law of Grace for his pardon and recovery and a course of means prescribed him for the healing of his Soul and for the escaping of the stroke of Justice The following particulars further open this § 4. It seemeth very congruous to Reason that as Monarchy is the perfectest sort of Government which it is probable is even among the Angels so Mankinde should have one universal Head or Monarch over them Kingdoms have their several Monarchs but there is surely an Universal Monarch over them all we know that God is the primary Soveraign but it is very probable to Nature that there is a subordinate Soveraign or general Administrator under him It is not only the Scriptures that speak a Prince of the Devils and of Principalities and Powers and Thrones and Dominions among the happy Spirits and that talk of the Angels that are Princes of several Kingdoms Dan. 10. but even the Philosophers and most Idolaters have from this apprehension been drawn to the worship of such as an inferiour kinde of Deity And if man must have a subordinate universal King it is meet that it be one that is also Man As Angels and Devils have Principals of their own sort and nature and not of others § 5. It seemeth congruous to Reason that this Head be one that is fitted to be our Captain Generall himself to lead us by Conduct Precept and Example in our warfare against those Devils who also are said to have their Prince and General As Devils fight against us under a Prince of their own nature so is it congruous that we fight against them under a Prince of our own nature who hath himself first conquered him and will go on before us in the fight § 6. It is congruous to Reason that lapsed Man under the guilt of sin and desert of punishment who is unable to deliver himself and unworthy of immediate access to God should have a Mediator for his restoration and reconciliation with God If any be found fit for so high an Office § 7. And it is congruous to Reason that this Mediator be one in whom God doth condescend to Man and one in whom man may be encouraged to ascend to God as to one that will forgive and save him And one that hath made himself known to man and also hath free access to God § 8. It is congruous to Reason that lapsed guilty darkened sinners that know so little of God and of his Will and of their own Concernments and of the other World should have a Teacher sent from Heaven of greater Authority and Credit than an Angel to acquaint us with God and his will and the Life that we are going to more certainly and fully than would be done by Nature only That this is very desireable no man can doubt How gladly would men receive a Letter or Book that dropt from Heaven Or an Angel that were sent thence to tell them what is there and what they must for ever trust to Yea if it were but one of their old acquaintance from the dead But all this would leave them in uncertainty still and they would be doubtfull of the credit and truth of any such a Messenger And therefore to have one of fuller Authority that shall confirm his Word by unquestionable attestations would very much satisfie men I have proved that Nature it self revealeth to us a Life of Retribution after this and that Immortality of Souls may be proved without Scripture But yet there is still a darkness and unacquaintedness and consequently a doubting and questioning the certainty of it upon a carnal minde And it would greatly satisfie such if besides meer Reason they had some proof which is more agreeable to a minde in flesh and might either speak with some credible Messenger who hath been in Heaven and fully knoweth all these matters or at least might be certainly informed of his Reports And indeed to men that are fallen into such a dark depravedness of Reason and such Strangers to God and Heaven as mankind is it is become needful that they have more than natural light to shew them the nature the excellency and certainty of the happiness to come or else they are never like so to love and seek it and prefer it before all
disconsolate Disciples who had but lately sinfully forsaken him He giveth them no upbraiding words but meltingly saith to her Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God He after this familiarly converseth with them and instructeth them in the things concerning the Kingdom of God He maketh an Vniversal Pardon or Act of Oblivion in a Covenant of Grace for all the world that will not reject it and appointeth Messengers to preach it unto all and what ever pains or suffering it cost them to go through all with patience and alacrity and to stick at nothing for the saving of mens souls He gave the holy Spirit miraculously to them to enable them to carry on this work and to leave upon record to the world the infallible narrative of his Life and Doctrine His Gospel is filled up with matter of consolation with the promises of mercy pardon and salvation the description of the priviledges of holy Souls justification adoption peace and joy and finally He governeth and defendeth his Church and pleadeth our cause and secureth our interest in Heaven according to the promises of this his word Thus is the Gospel the very Image of the Wisdom and Goodness of God And such a Doctrin from such a Person must needs be Divine 2. And the Method and Style of it is most excellent because most suitable to its holy ends not with the excellency of frothy wit which is but to express a wanton fancy and please the ears of aery persons who play with words when they should close with wisdom and heavenly light such excellency of speech must receive its estimate by its use and end But as the end is most Divine so the light that shineth in the Gospel is Heavenly and Divine the Method of the Books themselves is various according to the time and occasions of their writing the objections against them are to be answered by themselves anon But the Method of the whole Doctrin of Christianity set together is the most admirable and perfect in the world beginning with God in Unity of Essence proceeding to his Trinity of Essential Active Principles and of Persons and so to his Trinity of Works Creation Redemption and Regeneration and of Relations of God and Man accordingly and to the second Trinity of Relations as he is our Owner Ruler and Chief Good And hence it brancheth it self into a multitude of benefits flowing from all these Relations of God to Man and a multitude of answerable duties flowing from our Correlations to God and all in perfect method twisted and inoculated into each other making a kind of cirulation between Mercies and Duties as in mans body there is of the arterial and venal bloud and spirits till in the issue as all Mercy came from God and Duty subordinately from man so Mercy and Duty do terminate in the Everlasting Pleasure of God ultimately and man subordinately in that mutual love which is here begun and there is perfected This method you may somewhat perceive in the description of the Christian Religion before laid down 3. And the style also is suited to the end and matter not to the pleasing of curious ears but to the declaring of heavenly mysteries not to the conceits of Logicians who have put their understandings into the fetters of their own ill-devised notions and expect that all men that will be accounted wise should use the same notions which they have thus devised and about which they are utterly disagreed among themselves But in a Language suitable both to the subject and to the world of persons to whom this word is sent who are commonly ignorant and unlearned and dull That being the best Physick which is most suitable to the Patients temper and disease And though the particular Writers of the Sacred Scriptures have their several Styles yet is there in them all in common a Style which is spiritual powerfull and divine which beareth its testimony proportionably of that Spirit which is the common Author in them all But of this more among the Difficulties and Objections anon But for the discerning of all this Image of God in the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Reason will allow me to expect these necessary qualifications in him that must discern it 1. That before he come to supernatural Revelations he be not unacquainted with those natural Revelations which are antecedent and should be foreknown as I have in this book explained them with their evidence For there is no coming to the highest step of the Ladder without beginning at the lowest Men ignorant of things knowable by Natural Reason are unprepared for higher things 2. It is reasonably expected that he be one that is not treacherous and false to those Natural Truths which he hath received For how can he be expected to be impartial and faithfull in seeking after more Truth who is unfaithfull to that which he is convinced of or that he should receive that Truth which he doth not yet know who is false to that which he already knoweth Or that he should discern the evidence of extraordinary Revelation who opposeth with enmity the ordinary light or Law of Nature Or that God should vouchsafe his further light and conduct to that Man who willfully sinneth against him in despight of all his former teachings 3. It is requisite that he be one that is not a stranger to himself but acquainted with the case of his heart and life and know his sins and his corrupt inclinations and that guilt and disorder and misery in which his need of mercy doth consist For he is no fit Judge of the Prescripts of his Physician who knoweth not his own disease and temperature But of this more anon § 8. III. The third way of the Spirits witness to Jesus Christ is Concomitantly by the miraculous gifts and works of Himself and his Disciples which are a cogent Evidence of Gods attestation to the truth of his Doctrine § 9. By the Miracles of Christ I mean 1. His miraculous actions upon others 2. His miracles in his Death and Resurrection 3. His predictions The appearance of the Angel to Zachary and his dumbness his Prophesie and Elizabeth's with the Angels appearance to Mary the Angels appearance and Evangelizing to the Shepherds the Prophesie of Simeon and of Anna the Star and the testimony of the wise Men of the East the testimony of John Baptist that Christ should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire and that he was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World These and more such I pass by as presupposed At twelve years of age he disputed with the Doctors in the Temple to their admiration At his Baptism the Holy Ghost came down upon him in the likeness of a Dove and a voice from Heaven said Thou art my beloved Son in Thee I am well-pleased When he was baptized he fasted forty dayes and nights and
are all baptized into one body whether we be Jewes or Gentiles bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit And in 1 Cor. 14. the gift of speaking with tongues was so common in the Church of the Corinthians that the Apostle is fain to give them instructions for the moderate use of it lest they hindered the edification of the Church by suppressing prophecy or instruction in known tongues And therefore he perswadeth them to use it but more sparingly And James 5.14 15. exhorteth Christians when they were sick to send to the Elders of the Church that they may pray for them and anoynt them and they may be forgiven and recover By which it seems it was no unusual thing in those times to be healed by the Prayers of the Elders Yea the very Hypocrites and ungodly persons that had only the barren profession of Christianity had the gift of Miracles without the grace of Sanctification And this Christ foretold Matth. 7.22 Many shall say in that day Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out devils and done many wonderfull works Obj. But all were not healed by them Paul left Trophimus at Miletum sick Why doth not Paul cure Timothy of his weak stomack and infirmity without drinking of Wine if he could do it Answ 1. Certainly they did not cure all men that were sick For then who would have dyed It was none of the intent of the Spirit of Christ in working Miracles to make men immortal here on earth and to keep them from Heaven 2. And it is easily confess'd that the Spirit was not at the command or will of them that had it And therefore they could not do what and when they pleased but what the Spirit pleased And his operations were at his own time and disposal And this proveth the more fully that it was the testimony of God and not the contrivance of the wit of man 3. And miracles and tongues were not for them that believed but rather for them that believed not And therefore a Trophimus or a Timothy might be unhealed § 35. 3. These Miracles were oftentimes wrought even for many years together in several Countreys and places through the World where the Apostles and Disciples came and not only once or for a little space of time Dissimulation might be easilyer cloaked for a few acts than it can be for so many years At least these gifts and miracles continued during the Age of the Apostles though not performed every day or so commonly as might make them uneffectual yet so frequently as to give success to the Gospel and to keep up a reverence of Christianity in the World They were wrought not only at Jerusalem but at Samaria Antioch Ephesus Corinth Philippi and the rest of the Churches through the World § 36. 4. They were also wrought in the presence of multitudes and not only in a corner where there was more possibility of deceit The Holy Ghost fell on the Apostles and all the Disciples at Jerusalem before all the people that is They all heard them speak in several tongues the wonderfull works of God even the Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the Inhabitants of Mesopotamia Judaea Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphylia Egypt Lybia Cyrene Rome Jews and Proselites Cretes and Arabians Act. 2.8 9 10 11 12. It was three thousand that the Holy Ghost fell on Act. 2.38 Those that went into the Temple and all the people saw the lame man that was cured by Peter and John Act. 3. The death of Ananias and Sapphira was a publick thing so that fear fell on all and hypocrites were deterred from joyning with the Church Act. 5. The gifts of tongues and interpretation were commonly exercised before Congregations or multitudes And crowds of people flocked to them to be healed As with Christ they uncovered the roofs of the houses to lay the sick before him so with the Apostles they strove who might come within their shadow or touch the hem of their garment or have Cloaths or Napkins from them that they might be healed So that here was an age of publick Miracles § 37. 5. All these miracles were uncontrolled that is They were not wrought in opposition to any controlling Truth which hath certain evidence contradicting this nor yet were they overtopt by any greater miracles for the contrary A miracle if God should permit it to be wrought in such a case might be said to be controlled either of these two wayes 1. If a man should work Miracles to contradict the certain light of Nature or perswade men to that which is certainly false 2. If men should do wonders as Jannes and Jamâ—res the Egyptian Sorcerers which should be overtopt by greater wonders as those of Moses and as Simon Magus and Elymas by Peter and Paul In these cases God could not be said to deceive men by his power or permission when he giveth them a sufficient preservative But these Miracles had no such controll but prevailed without any check from contradictory Truths or Miracles Thus Christ performed his Promise Joh. 14.12 Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I goe unto the Father § 38. III. The third testimony of the Spirit to the truth of the Apostles witness was the marvellous success of their doctrine to the sanctifying of souls which as it could not be done without the power and Spirit of God so neither would the righteous and mercifull Governour of the World have made a company of profligate lyars and deceivers his instruments of doing this excellent work by cheats and falshoods This I spake of before as it is the Seal of Christs own doctrine I now speak of it only as it is the Seal of the Apostles verity in their testimony of the Resurrection and Miracles of Christ Peter converted three thousand at once Many thousands and myriads up and down the world were speedily converted And what was this Conversion They were brought unfeignedly to love God above all and their neighbours as themselves Act. 2.42 46. They continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayer And all that believed were together and had all things common not by levelling but by lone and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favour with all the People Act. 4.32 The multitude of Believers were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things that he possessed was his own but they had all things common All that are in Christ have his Spirit and are spiritually minded and walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts
interest of their sect or cause and party 6. Nor by your own partial interest which will make you judge of men not as they are indeed and towards God but as they either answer or cross your interests and desires 7. Nor must you judge of all by some that prove hypocrites who once seemed sincere 8. Nor must you judge of a man by some particular fall or failing which is contrary to the bent of his heart and life and is his greatest sorrow 9. Nor must you come with a fore-stalled and malicious mind hating that holiness your self which you enquire after for malice is blind and a constant false interpreter and a slanderer 10. You must know what Holiness and Honesty is before you can well judge of them These conditions are all so reasonable and just that he that liveth among religious honest men and will stand at a distance unacquainted with their lives and maliciously revile them upon the seduction of false reports or of interest either his own interest or the interest of a faction and will say I see no such honest and renewed persons but a company of self-conceited hypocrites this man 's confirmed infidelity and damnation is the just punishment of his wilful blindness partiality and malice which made him false to God to truth and to his own soul § 107. It is not some but All true Christians that ever were or are in the world who have within them this witness or evidence of the Spirit of Regeneration As I have before said Christ will own no others Rom. 8. 4 5 6 7 8 9. 2 Cor. 5.17 Luk. 14.26.33 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts Indeed the Church visible which is but the congregate Societies of professed Christians hath many in it that have none of this Spirit or grace but such are only Christians equivocally and not in the primary proper sense 1 Joh. 5.7 8 9 10. There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son § 108. The more any one is a Christian in degree the more he hath of this witness of the sanctifying Spirit in himself and the holier he is § 109. The nearer any Philosopher or others are like to Christians the nearer they come to this renewed Image of God § 110. As this Image of God the holiness of the soul is the very end and work of a true Saviour so the true effecting of it on all true Christians is actually their begun salvation and therefore the standing infallible witness of Christ which should confound unbelief in all that are indeed his own This which I spake of the fore going Chapter is a testimony in every holy soul which the gates of hell shall not prevail against He that undertaketh to cure all of the Plague or Stone or Gout or Fever that will take his medicines and be ruled by him is certainly no deceiver if he do that which he undertaketh He that undertaketh to teach all men Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Musick c. who will come and learn of him is certainly no deceiver if he do it What is it that Jesus Christ hath undertaken Think of that and then tell me whether he be a deceiver He never undertook to make his Disciples Kings or Lords or rich or honourable in the world nor yet to make them the best Logicians Orators Astronomers Mathematicians Physicians Musicians c. but to make them the best men to renew them to the love of God in holiness and thereby to save them from their sins and give them repentance unto life Nor hath he promised this to all that are baptized or called Christians but only to those that sincerely consent to learn of him and take his counsel and use the remedies which he prescribeth them And is it not certain that Christ doth truly perform this undertaking How then can he be a deceiver who doth perform all that he undertaketh Of this all true Christians have a just demonstration in themselves which is his witness Object But Christ undertaketh more than this even to bring us to everlasting blessedness in heaven Answ It is our comfort that he doth so but me-thinks its easie to believe him in that if he perform the rest For 1. I have proved in the first part of this Book that by the light of nature a future life of retribution must be expected and that man is made for a future happiness 2. And who then should have that happiness but the holy and renewed souls Doth not natural reason tell you that so good a God will shew his love to those that are good that is to those that love him 3. And what think you is to be done to bring any man to heaven but to pardon him and make him holy 4. And the nature of the work doth greatly help our faith For this holiness is nothing but the beginning of that happiness When we find that Christ hath by his Spirit begun to make us know God and love him and delight in him and praise him it is the easier to make us believe that he will perfect it He that promiseth to convey me safely to the Antipodes may easily be believed when he hath brought me past the greatest difficulties of the voyage He that will teach me to sing artificially hath merited credit when he hath taught me the gradual tones the Scale of Musick the Sol-fa-ing the Cliffs the Quantity the Moods the Rules of time c. He that causeth me to love God on earth may be believed if he promise me that I shall love him more in heaven And he that causeth me to desire heaven above earth before I see it may be believed when he promiseth that it shall be my great delight when I am there It is God's work to love them that love him and to reward the obedient and I must needs believe that God will do his work and will never fail the just expectations of any creature All my doubt is whether I shall do my part and whether I shall be a prepared subject for that felicity and he that resolveth this resolveth all He that will make me fit for
heaven hath overcome the greatest difficulty of my belief and I should the more easily believe that he will do the rest and that I shall surely come to heaven when I am fit for it Object But Christ doth not only undertake to regenerate and to save us but also to justifie us and this by a strange way by his Sacrifice and Merits Answ The greater is his wisdom and goodness as made known to us I am sure an unpardoned unrighteous person is uncapable of felicity in that state and I am sure I cannot pardon my self nor well know which way else to seek it And I am sure that so excellent and holy a person is fitter to be well-beloved of God I than But I pray you remember 1. That he undertaketh not to pardon or justifie any man whom he doth not renew and sanctifie 2. And that all his means which seem so strange to you are but to restore God's Image on you and fit you for his love and service And this we can testifie by experience that he hath done in some measure in us and if I find his means successful I will not quarrel with it because it seemeth strange to me A Physician may prescribe me remedies for some mortal disease which I understand not but seem unlike to do the cure but if I find that those unlikely means effect it I will not quarrel with him nor refuse them till I know my self to be wiser than he and have found out some surer means It is most evident then that he who saveth us is our Saviour and he that saveth us from sin will save us from punishment and he that maketh us fit for pardon doth procure our pardon and he that causeth us to love God above all doth fit us to enjoy his love and he that maketh us both to love him and to be beloved by him doth prepare us for heaven and is truly the MEDIATOR § III. Four or five Consectaries are evident from this which I have been proving 1. That we have left no room for their insipid cavil who say that we flie to a private spirit or conceit or Enthusiasm for the evidence of our faith There are some indeed that talk of the meer perswasion or inward active testimony of the Spirit as if it were an inward word that said to us This is the word of God But this is not it which I have been speaking of but the objective testimony or evidence of our Regeneration which could not be effected but 1. by a perfect doctrine and 2 by the concurrent work or blessing of God's Spirit which he would not give to confirm a lie The Spirit is Christ's witness in the four ways fore-mentioned and he doth moreover cause me to believe and increase that faith by blessing due means But for any Enthusiasm or unproved bare perswasion we own it not § 112. II. That Malignity is the high-way to Infidelity As the holiness of his members is Christ's last continued witness in the world so the malicious slandering and scorning at godly men or vilifying them for self-interest or the interest of a faction is the devils means to frustrate this testimony § 113. III. That the destruction of true Church-discipline tendeth to the destruction of Christianity in the world by laying Christ's Vineyard common to the Wilderness and confounding godly and the notoriorsly ungodly and representing Christianity to Pagans and Infidels as a barren notion or a common and debauching way § 114. IV. That the scandals and wickedness of nominal Christians is on the same accounts the devils way to extirpate Christianity from the earth § 115. V. That the great mercy of God hath provided a sure and standing means for the ascertaining multitudes of holy Christians of the truth of the Gospel who have neither skill nor leisure to acquaint themselves with the History of the Church and records of Antiquity nor to reason it out against a learned subtil caviler from other extrinsick arguments Abundance of honest holy souls do live in the fervent love of God and in hatred of sin and in sincere obedience in justice and charity to all men and in heavenly desires and delights who yet cannot well dispute for their Religion nor yet do they need to flie to believe as the Church believeth though they know not what or why nor what the Church is But they have that Spirit within them which is the living witness and Advocate of Christ and the seal of God and the earnest of their salvation not a meer pretense that the Spirit perswadeth them and they know not by what evidence nor yet that they count it most pious to believe strongliest without evidence when they least know why but they have the spirit of Renovation and Adoption turning the very bent of their hearts and lives from the world to God and from earth to heaven and from carnality to spirituality and from sin to holiness And this fully assureth them that Christ who hath actually saved them is their Saviour and that he who maketh good all his undertaking is no deceiver and that God would not sanctifie his people in the world by a blasphemy a deceit and lie and that Christ who hath performed his promise in this which is his earnest will perform the rest And withall the very love to God and Holiness and Heaven which is thus made their new nature by the Spirit of Christ will hold fast in the hour of temptation when reasoning otherwise is too weak O what a blessed advantage have the sanctified against all temptations to unbelief And how lamentably are ungodly Sensualists disadvantaged who have deprived themselves of this inherent testimony If two men were born blinde and one of them had been cured and had been shewed the Candle-light and twilight how easie is it for him to believe his Physician if he promise also to shew him the Sun in comparison of what it is to the other who never saw the light CHAP. VIII Of some other subservient and Collateral Arguments for the Christian Verity HAving largely opened the great Evidence of the Christian Verity viz. The SPIRIT in its four wayes of testifying Accidentally Inherently Concomitantly and Subsequently I shall more briefly recite some other subservient Arguments which I finde most satisfactory to my own understanding § 1. I. The natural evidence of the truth of the Scripture about the Creation of the World doth make it the more Credible to me in all things else For that is a thing which none but God himself could reveal to us For the Scripture telleth what was done before there was any man in being And that this World is not eternal nor of any longer continuance is exceeding probable by the state of all things in it 1. Arts and Sciences are far from that maturity which a longer continuance or an Eternity would have produced Guns and Printing are but lately found out The body of man is not yet well Anatomized
be cast out except when it may hazard the Church § 45. The means of increasing the Church must ultimately be intended alwayes to the increase of the Church mystical for Holiness and Salvation § 46. These means are 1. All the fore-mentioned means of holiness for holiness is the Church's glory the Image of God which will make it illustrious and beautiful in the eyes of men when they are sober and impartial and will do most to win them home to Christ 2. Especially the great abilities holiness patience and unwearied diligence of the Ministers of Christ is a needful means 3. The advancements of Arts and Sciences doth much to prepare the way 4. The agreement and love of Christians among themselves 5. Love to the infidels and ungodly and doing all the good we can even to their bodies 6. A spiritual pure rational and decent worshipping of God 7. And the concord of Christian Princes among themselves for the countenancing and promoting the labours of such Preachers as are fitted for this work § 47 The hinderances then of the Church's increase and of the conversion of the heathen and infidel world are 1. Above all the wickedness of professed Christians whose falshood and debauchery and unholiness perswadeth the poor Infidels that Christianity is worse than their own Religion because they see that the men are worse that live among them And 2. the badness of the Pastors especially in the Greek and Latine Churches and the destruction of Church-discipline and impurity of the Churches hereupon together with the ignorance and unskilfulness of most for so great a work is a great impediment 3. The defectiveness in Arts and Sciences 4. The many divisions and unbrotherly contentions of Christians among themselves either for Religion or for worldly things 5. Not devoting our selves and all that we have to the winning of Infidels by love and doing them good 6. A carnal irrational or undecent manner of worshipping God for they will contemn that God whose worship seemeth to them ridiculous and contemptible 7. The discords wars or selfishness of Christian Princes who unite not their strength to encourage and promote this noble work but rather hinder it by weakening the hands of the labourers at home 8. Especially when the very Preachers themselves are guilty of covetous or ambitious designs and under pretence of preaching Christ are seeking riches or setting up themselves or those that they depend on These have kept under the Church of Christ and hindred the conversion of the world till now § 48. The attempts of the Jesuits in Congo Japon and China were a very noble work and so was the Portugal Kings encouragements but two things spoiled their suceess which Protestants are not liable to 1. That when they took down the Heathens Images they set them up others in the stead and made them think that the main difference was but whose Image they should worship And withall by their Agnus Dei's and such like trinkets made Religion seem childish and contemptible 2. But especially that they made them see that while they seemed to promote Religion and to save their souls they came to promote their own wealth or the Popes dominion and to bring their Kings under a forein power § 49. The honest attempts of Mr. Elliots in New-England is much more agreeable to the Apostles way and maketh more serious spiritual Christians But the quality of place and people and the greatness of wants doth hinder the multiplication of Converts And higher attempts were very desireable § 50. The translating of fit Books into the language of the Infidels and dispersing them may in time prove the sowing of a holy fruitful seed § 51. Prosperity useth greatly to encrease the Church extensively in the number of visible members and adversity and persecution to encrease it intensively by increasing holiness in the tried and refined Therefore God useth to send vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity like Summer and Winter to the Churches that each may do its proper work § 52. Every true Christian should daily lament the common infidelity and impiety of the world that the interest of true Christianity is confined into so narrow a room on earth and to pray with his first and earnestest desires that more labourers may be sent forth and that God's Name may be hallowed his Kingdom come and his will be done on earth that it may be liker Heaven which now is grown so like to Hell But yet to comfort himself in considering as is before said that as this earth is to all the nobler world but as one mole-hill to all England so if God had forsaken all it had been but as the cutting off a cancer from a man or as the casting away of the paring of his nails in comparison of all the rest Therefore should we long for the coming of our Lord and the better world which we have in hope HOW long Lord holy and true how long Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen For we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3.11 12 14. Exod. 6.12 Behold the children of Israel have not hearkned to me how then shall Pharaoh hear me Ezek. 3. Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language whose words thou canst not understand surely had I sent thee to them they would have hearkned unto thee But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee for they will not hearken unto me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted Octob. 16. 1666. THE CONCLUSION Defending the Soul's Immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other Pseudophilosophers THough in this Treatise I have not wilfully balked any regardable objections which I thought might stick with an intelligent Reader about the truth of the things here delivered yet those which are proper to the Somatical irreligious sect of Philosophers I thought fitter to put here as an Appendix by themselves that they might not stop the more sober in their way As to the Subject and Method of this Discourse it consisteth of these four parts 1. The proof of the Deity and what God is 2. Of the certain obligations which lie upon man to be holy and obedient to this God 3. The proofs of a life of Retribution hereafter where the holy and obedient shall be blessed and the unholy and disobedient punished 4. The proofs of the verity of the Christian faith For the first of these that there is a God though I have proved it beyond all rational contradiction yet I have dispatched it with haste and brevity because it is to the mind as the Sun is to the eye and so evident in all that is evident in the world that there needeth nothing to the proving of it but to help the Reader to a rational capacity and aptitude to see that which all the world declareth The common argument from the effects
them that the Cure had been to have made them more Religious and not less And that the true Belief of a Life to come is the end the motive the poise of all wise and regular actions and of Love and Peace of right Government and obedience and of justice mercy and all that is lovely in the world An OBJECTION about the Worlds Eternity HAving said thus much about the point which I thought most considerable I shall answer an Objection about the Worlds Eternity because I perceive that it sticks with some Obj. We finde it the harder to believe the Scripture and the Christian Doctrine because it asserteth a thing which Aristotle hath evinced to be so improbable as is the Creation of the World within less than 6000 years When no natural reason can be brought to prove that the World is not eternall Answ 1. It is you that are the affirmers and therefore on whom the natural proof is incumbent Prove if you can that the World is eternal Were it not tedious I should by examining your reasons shew that they have no convincing force at all 2. There is so much written of it that I am loth to trouble the Reader with more I now only again referre the Reader to Raymundus Lullius desiring him not to reject his arguments if some of them seem not cogent seeing if any one of all his multitude prove such it is enough 3. I now only desire that the Controversie between the Christian and the Infidel may be but rightly stated And to that end do not charge Christianity with any School-mans or other confident persons private opinions nor suppose Christ or Scripture to determine any thing which they do not determine 1. Christianity and Scripture do not at all determine whether the whole Universe was created at the same time when this our Heaven and Earth was But only that the Systeme or World which we belong to the Sun and Moon and Starrs and Earth were then created Nay a great part of the ancient Doctors and of the most learned late Expositors on Gen. 1. do expound the Heavens which God is said to create as being only the visible Heavens and not including the Angels at all And others say that by In the beginning is meant ab initio rerum and that the Heavens there meant being the Angelical Habitations and the Earth as without form were both ab initio rerum before the six dayes Creation which began with the making of Light out of the pre-existent Heavens or Chaos I think not this opinion true but this liberty Christian Doctors have taken of differing from one another in this difficult point But they utterly differ about the time of the creation of Angels on Gen. 1. and on Job 1. and consequently whether there were not a World existent when this World was created 2. Or if any that seeth more than I can prove the contrary yet it is certainly a thing undetermined by Scripture and in the Christian Faith whether there were any Worlds that had begun and ended before this was made That God is the maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible is most certain But whether this Heaven and Earth which now is was the first which he hath made is a thing that our Religion doth not at all meddle with They that with Origen affirm that there were antecedent worlds are justly blamed on one side not for speaking things false but things uncertain and unrevealed and for corrupting Christianity by a mixture of things alien and doubtfull And those who affirm that there were no antecedent worlds are as much culpable on the other side if not more on the same account and upon further reasons On the one side we know that God needeth nothing to his own felicity but is perfectly sufficient for himself and that he createth not the World ex necessitate naturae as an agent which acteth ad ultimum posse And on the other side we know that though he hath a Goodness of self-perfection unspeakably more excellent than his Benignity as Related to man not that one Property in God is to be said more excellent than another in it self but that quoad Relationem there is an infinite difference between his Goodness in Himself and his Goodness only as Related to his Creatures and measured by their interest yet we confess that his Fecundity and Benignity is included in his own Goodness and that he delighteth to do Good and is communicative and that he doth Good ex necessitate voluntaria ex naturae perfectione without coaction it being most necessary that he do that which his Infinite wisdom saith is best which made Th. White de Mundo say that God did necessarily make the World and necessarily make it in time and not ab aeterno and yet all this most voluntarily because he doth necessarily do that which is best in the judgement of his Wisdom And we deny not that if a man will presume to give liberty to his Reason to search into unrevealed things that it will seem to him very improbable that he who is Actus purus of Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness and who now taketh pleasure in all his works and his delights are with the Sons of men should from all Eternity produce no Creature till less than 6000 years ago when a thousand years with him are but as a day and that he should resolve to have Creatures to all Eternity who as to future duration shall be so like to Himself when from all Eternity he had no Creature till as it were five or six dayes agoe Christians are apt to have such thoughts as these as well as you when they look but to rational probabilities But they hold that all these matters whether there were antecedent worlds and how many and of what sort and of what duration whether this was the first are matters unrevealed which they ought not to trouble the world or themselves with prying into or contending about And they finde that they are unfruitfull speculations which do but overwhelme the minde of him that searcheth after them when God hath provided for us in the Christian Faith more plain and sure and solid and wholsom food to live upon 3. And if it be unrevealed in Scripture whether before this there was any other World we must confess it unrevealed whether there were any emanant or created Entity which God did produce from all Eternity considered quoad durationem only For the Scripture saith no more of one than of the other And if there were one moment dividing Eternity only imaginarily in which there had been nothing but God we must equally confess an Eternity in which there was nothing but God because Eternity hath no beginning 4. But Christianity assureth us of these two things 1. That certainly there is no Being besides God but what was created produced or totally caused by Him And that if any Creature were eternal as to
permitted Satan to tempt him extraordinarily by carrying him from place to place that he might extraordinarily overcome When Nathanael came to him he told him his heart and told him what talk he had with Philip afar off till he convinced him that he was Omniscient At Cana of Galilee at a Feast he turned their Water into Wine At Capernaum he dispossessed a Demoniack Luk. 4.33 34 c. He healed Simons Mother of a Feaver at a word Luk. 4.38 39. He healed multitudes of torments diseases and madness Mat. 4.24 Luk. 4.40 41. He cleanseth a Leaper by a word Math. 8.2 3. Luk. 5.12 so also he doth by a Paralitick Math. 9. Luk. 5. He telleth the Samaritane woman all that she had done Joh. 4. At Capernaum he healed a Noble-mans Son by a word Joh. 4. At Jerusalem he cured an impotent Man that had waited five and thirty years A touch of his Garment cureth a Woman diseased with an Issue of blood twelve years Math. 9.20 He cured two blinde men with a touch and a word Math. 9.28 29. He dispossessed another Demoniack Mat. 9.32 He raiseth Jairus daughter at a word who was dead or seemed so Mat. 9.23 24. He dispossessed another Demoniack blinde and dumb Mat. 12. He healeth the Servant of a Centurion ready to dye by a word Luk. 7. He raiseth the Son of a Widow from death that was carried out in a Biere to be buried Luk. 7. With five Barley Loaves and two small Fishes he feedeth five thousand and twelve baskets full of the fragments did remain Mat. 14. Joh. 6. He walketh upon the waters of the Sea Mat. 14. He causeth Peter to do the like Mat. 14. All the diseased of the Countrey were perfectly healed by touching the hem of his garment Mat. 14.36 He again healed multitudes lame dumb blinde maimed c. Math. 15. He again fed four thousand with seven Loaves and a few little Fishes and seven baskets full were left Math. 15. He restoreth a man born blinde to his sight Joh. 9. In the sight of three of his Disciples he is transfigured into a Glory which they could not behold and Moses and Elias talked with him and a voice out of the Cloud said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye him Mat. 17. Luk. 9. He healed the Lunatick Mat. 17. Multitudes are healed by him Mat. 19.2 Two blinde men are healed Mat. 20. He healed a Crooked woman Luk 13.11 He withereth up a fruitless Tree at a word Mark 11. He restoreth a blinde man nigh to Jericho Luk. 18.35 He restoreth Lazarus from death to life that was four dayes dead and buryed Joh. 11. He foretelleth Judas that he would betray him And he frequently and plainly foretold his own sufferings death and resurrection And he expresly foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple and the great calamity of that place even before that generation past away Mat. 24 c. He prophesied his death the night before in the institution of his Supper When he dyed the Sun was darkened and the Earth trembled and the Vail of the Temple rent and the dead bodies of many arose and appeared so that the Captain that kept guard said Truly this was the Son of God Mat. 27. When he was crucified and buried though his Grave-stone was sealed and a guard of Souldiers set to watch it Angels appeared and rolled away the Stone and spake to those that enquired after him And he rose and revived and staid forty dayes on Earth with his Disciples He appeared to them by the way He came oft among them on the First day of the week at their Meetings when the doors were shut He called Thomas to see the prints of the Nails and put his finger into his side and not be faithless but believing till he forced him to cry out My Lord and my God! Joh. 20. He appeareth to them as they are fishing and worketh a miracle in their draught and provideth them broiled Fish and eateth with them He expostulated with Simon and engaged him as he loved him to feed his Sheep and discourseth of the age of John Joh. 21. He giveth his Apostles their full Commission for their gathering his Church by Preaching and Baptism and edifying it by teaching them all that he had commanded them and giveth them the Keyes of it Mat. 28. Joh. 19. 20. He appeareth to above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15. He shewed himself to them by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty dayes and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God and being assembled with them commanded them to tarry at Jerusalem till the Spirit came down miraculously upon them And he ascended up to Heaven before their eyes Act. 1. And two Angels appeared to them as they were gazing after him and told them that thus he should come again When Pentecost was come when they were all together about a hundred and twenty the Holy Spirit came upon them visibly in the appearance of fiery Cloven Tongues and sate on each of them and caused them to speak the languages of many Nations which they had never learned in the hearing of all Upon the notice of which and by Peters Exhortation about three thousand were then at once converted Act. 2. After this Peter and John do heal a man at the entrance of the Temple who had been lame from his birth and this by the name of Jesus before the People Act. 3. One that was above forty years old Act. 4.22 When they were forbidden to preach upon their praises to God the place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost Act. 4.31 Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead by Peters word for hypocrisie and lying Act. 5. And many Signs and Wonders were done by them among the People Act. 5.12 Insomuch that they brought the sick into the streets and laid them on Beds and Couches that at least Peters shadow might over-shaddow them Act. 5.14 15. And a multitude came out of the Cities round about to Jerusalem bringing sick folks and Demoniacks and they were healed every one v. 16. Upon this the Apostles were shut into the common Prison But an Angel by night opened the Prison and brought them out and bid them go preach to the People in the Temple Act. 5. When Stephen was martyred he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand Act. 7. Philip at Samaria cured Demoniacks Palsies Lameness and so converted the people of that City insomuch that Simon the Sorcerer himself believed The Holy Ghost is then given by the Imposition of the hands of Peter and John so that Simon offered money for that gift Act. 8. Philip is led by the Spirit to convert the Aethiopian Nobleman and then carryed away Act. 8. Saul who was one of the murderers of Stephen and a great Persecutor of the Church is stricken down to the Earth and called by Jesus Christ appearing
in a light and speaking to him from Heaven and is sent to preach the Gospel which he doth with zeal and power and patient labours to the death Act. 9. Ananias is commanded by God to instruct him and baptize him after his first call Act. 9 Peter at Lydda cureth Aeneas by a word who had kept his bed eight years of a Palsie Act. 8. At Joppa he raiseth Tabitha from the dead Act. 9. Cornelius by an Angel is directed to send for Peter to preach the Gospel to him The Holy Ghost fell on all that heard his words Act. 10. Agabus prophesied of the Dearth Act. 11. Peter imprisoned by Herod is delivered by an Angel who opened the doors and loosed his bonds and brought him out Act. 12. Herod is eaten to death with worms Act. 12. At Paphos Elymas the Sorcerer is strucken blinde by Pauls word for resisting the Gospel and Sergius the Roman Deputy is thereby made a Believer Act. 13. At Lystra Paul by a word cureth a Creeple that was so born insomuch as the People would have done sacrifice to him and Barnaâ—as as to Mercury and Jupiter Act. 14. Paul casteth out a divining Devil Act. 16. And being imprisoned and scourged with Silas and their feet in the Stocks at midnight as they sang Praises to God an Earthquake shook the foundations of the Prison the doors were all opened and all their bonds loosed and the Jailor converted Act. 16. The Holy Ghost came upon twelve Disciples upon the imposition of Paul's hands Act. 19. And God wrought so many miracles by his hands at Ephesus that from his body were brought to the sick handkerchiefs and aprons and the diseases departed from them Act. 19. At Troas he raised Eutychus to life Act. 20. His sufferings at Jerusalem are foretold by Agabus Act. 21. At Melita the people took him for a God because the Viper hurt him not that fastened on his hand And there he cured the Father of Publius the chief man of the Island of a Flux and Feaver by Prayer and Imposition of hands In a word in all places where the Apostles came these miracles were wrought and in all the Churches the gifts of the Holy Ghost were usual either of Prophesie or of healing or of speaking strange languages or interpreting them some had one and some another and some had most or all And by such miracles were the Christian Churches planted And all this power Christ had foretold them of at his departure from them Mark 16.17 These signs shall follow them that believe in my Name shall they cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover Yea in his Life-time on Earth he sent forth his Apostles and seventy Disciples with the same power which they exercised openly Luk. 9.1 c. 10.16 17. Thus was the Gospel confirmed by multitudes of open miracles And Christs own Resurrection and Ascension was the greatest of all And here it must be noted that these Miracles were 1. Not one or two but multitudes 2. Not obscure and doubtfull but evident and unquestionable 3. Not controlled or checked by any greater contrary Miracles as the wonders of the Egyptian Sorcerers were by Moses but altogether uncontrolled 4. Not in one place only but in all Countreys where they came 5. Not by one or two persons only but by very many who were scattered up and down in the World And that miracles and such miracles as these are a certain proof of the truth of Christ and Christianity is most evident in that they are the attestation of God himself 1. It is undenyable that they are the effects of Gods own Power If any question whether God do them immediately or whether an Angel or Spirit may not do them that makes no difference in the case considerable for all creatures are absolutely dependant upon God and can use no power but what he giveth them and continueth in them and exerciseth by them the power of the creatures is all of it the power of God without him they are nothing and can do nothing and God is as near to the effect himself when he useth an instrument as when he useth none So that undoubtedly it is God's work 2. And God having no voice but created revealeth his mind to man by his operations and as he cannot lie so his infinite wisdom and goodness will not give up the world to such unavoidable deceit as such a multitude of miracles would lead them into if they were used to attest a lie If I cannot know him to be sent of God who raiseth the dead and sheweth me such a Seal of Omnipotency to his Commission I have no possibility of knowing who speaketh from God at all nor of escaping deceit in the greatest matters of which God by his Omnipotent Arm would be the cause But none of this can stand with the Nature and righteous Government of God This therefore is an infallible proof of the Veracity of Christ and his Apostles and the truth of the History of these Miracles shall be further opened anon § 10. IV. The fourth part of the Spirit 's Testimony to Christ is subsequent in the work of Regeneration or Sanctification in which he effectually illuminateth the mind and reneweth the soul and life to a true resignation obedience and love of God and to a heavenly mind and conversation and so proveth Christ to be really and effectively the SAVIOVR This evidence is commonly much over-look'd and made little account of by the ungodly who have no such Renovation on themselves because though it may be discerned in others by the fruits yet they that have it not in themselves are much hindred from discerning it partly because it is at a distance from them and because it is in it self seated in the heart where it is neither felt nor seen by others but in the effects And partly because the effects are imperfect and clouded with a mixture of remaining faults but especially because that ungodly men have a secret enmity to holy things and thence to holy persons and therefore are falsely prejudic'd against them which is encreased by cross interests and courses in their converse But yet indeed the Spirit of Regeneration is a plenary evidence of the truth of Christ and Christianity To manifest which I shall 1. consider What it is and doth 2. How and by what means 3. On whom 4. Against what opposition 5. That it is Christ indeed that doth it I. The change which is made by the Spirit of Christ doth consist in these particulars following 1. It taketh down pride and maketh men humble and low in their own eyes to which end it acquainteth them with their sin and their desert and misery 2. It teacheth men self-denial and causeth them to resign themselves to God and use