honour to be a Chaplain to that great Order instituted by my blessed Founder King Edward and I have been a servant to that order near 40 yeers God having thus laid a sure and strong foundation of his Church that besides the operation of his Spirit and his over-ruling providence even naturall Reason by demonstrative Proofes might be sufficiently assured and convinced in the truth of Religion Now for a further tryall of our Faith in the beginning of the fifteenth hundred yeer after Christ he exposeth his Church to a tryall by the incounter of enemies and first the School-Learning which indeed did sharpen the wits of men yet for our sins some out of perversness and others out of shallowness of brain not able to fathom the depth and grounds of that Learning they made all the Articles of our Faith disputable and as in humane things there is variety of opinions so in Religion if man be left to himself there will be nothing but Sects and Divisions And here the carnall man hath found out two motives to incourage him in his cursed attempts first he conceives that all the Laws of the Church are like so many yokes imposed upon him to infringe his Christian liberty thus he would fain be a lawless man and wholly left to his own carnall will and profaneness The second motive is that whereas he sees stately and great Cathedrals erected which as they were built with great charge so they must be supported with great meanes and here a sacrilegious eye is cast upon them yet must there be some pretence of Religion as if these had proceeded from superstition and that God needed not nor required any such sumptuous charge in his service that it was superfluous and that a spirituall service of the inward man might suffice and could we but look and search that inward man it is not unlike but we should finde as much emptiness there as outwardly we finde ruines but this serves for the present and so much I will say let all the ages from the Creation of the world be examined I am confident it will be found that God was never so much provoked to right himself and in his own quarrell to revenge himself so much upon man and to vindicate his own honour as in these times And seeing he made the world of nothing onely with the word of his mouth and that he daily supporteth this world and preserves it from falling to nothing it is he that will govern this world and may in an instant with the blast of his mouth bring all the endeavours and practises of men unto nothing and this he may do in his own due time when we think all is secure And here I cannot sufficiently blame these times and our unhappy condition it was the observation of Josephus the Jew speaking of the worst sort of men and wondring much that there should be such Monsters amongst men Sunt qui ex contemptu Religioniâ—… sacerdotum famam opinionem sapientiae Nobilitatis sibi aucupantur alass this is now grown to be the common condition of these times a man for his credit sake and that he might be reputed a wise States-man doth generally scorn and contemn Churchmen and therein he dishonours God and makes his service contemptible thus the devill hath long intended and attempted to blot out all Religion out of mans heart but this he could never do for as long as man can look up to heaven so long he conceives hopes of Gods Mercy and sees the skirts and bounds of an other world and if man lookes down to the earth he sees the place of his buriall and the way of all flesh and that he is in his passage for every day he loseth a day of his age and a great part of his life is already spent and is dead unto him he shall never see it return and that which remaines it is the worst part of his age the dregges of his age the longer he lives he shall be sure to have the more sorrow and these very thoughts must needs work some Religion in man now the Devill seeing that he could not herein prevaile to root all Religion out of mans heart therefore he hath found out another stratagem to reduce all Religion to some few acts or heads and then to make those acts of Religion contemptible and so to bring Religion to nothing and this I fear he hath effected For whereas Religion is lex Christiana a Law to govern our actions he hath made it dogma Christianum a theame to be disputed on or a text to be â—…iscoursed on as if the whole practise of Religion did onely consist in the precept and that men should be alwayes learning which is an argument of their ignorance and that they are not come to the knowledge of the truth Sir Thomas Moore that wise Lord Chancellor did foresee this and therefore called it by the name of pelpeting wherein men would take occasion to broach all their new and strange opinions and wherein the State might likewise suffer for somtimes it might serve for sedition what a lamentable thing it is to consider how all the exercises of Religion are laid aside as if Preaching alone would suffice thus we have no Fasting Mortification Confession Charity Devotion Sacrifice or frequent Sacraments no Religious Orders or Magnificency in Gods service and in a word whatsoever else may tend to the honour of God and the furtherance of Piety we know not the practise thereof Queen Elizabeth was wont to say that she had rather speak to God her self then to heare an other speaking of God she seldom heard Sermons but onely in Lent and then as it may be supposed she heard them with the greater devotion there was a sufficient ground laid for the whole year after to practise it were to be wished that preaching alone might not swallow up all publick prayer and all other acts of Religion You will say likewise that we have a strict observation of the Sabbath I fear it is over strict and not kept in the right way for it ought to be kept with hospitality relief of the poor and whatsoever doth tend to nourish love and society between man and man and certainly after Gods service to express our joyfulness and to stir up a cheerfulness of minde with honest recreations for a man may be so tired and dulled in Gods service as that he may be unfit for his service and sin more against God with his wandring thoughts and his sleepy heavyness then if he should be absent from Gods service but under colour of this strict observation of the Sabbath Chirurgians have been hindred from going to dress wounds Physitians from visiting their patients Midwifes from doing their duties and poor infants cannot have a little new sweet milk on the Sundays alas they know not what belongs to the Sabbath Mundus vult decipi I will here make bold to desire
preserve the Truth Unity and Majesty of the Godhead The Metaphysicks do further use Arguments taken from Analogies as that one spirituall God should appoint one Vicegerent under himself as it were one corporeall God to govern this materiall world viz. One Sun in the firmament from whom all the Stars borrow their light and from whom the Corporeall World receives all her perfection and as God is only known by the revealing of himself so this Sun is discerned only by his own light yet the eye must not presume to penetrate or fasten on the Sun lest wasting the spirits it fall into blindness and darkness yea when the Sun is eclipsed when by the interposition of the Moon the brightness thereof is obscured yet then it is not safe to behold it nothing is so hurtfull to the sight which serves by way of comparison or Analogâ—…e to deterre us from prying into the secrets of the Deity From the Metaphysicks I come to the Mathematicks which have the commendations that of all other Sciences they are the most demonstrative I will therefore borrow some examples from them and I will only instance in Astrology and when it plainly sheweth so many great and such strange wonders in the heavens such as a man of ordinary capacity cannot easily conceive it must needs argue that God himself must be much more admirable and incomprehensible suppose that the Sun which appears unto the eye to be but of a little compass and quantity yet should be so much greater then the whole Earth which certainly it must be or else it could not enlighten so great a part of the World secondly the motion of a Bullet may seem very swift for the eye cannot follow it nor avoyd it yet certain it is that the Stars near the Equinoctiall do move a hundred times swifter then a Bullet which must needs be considering the great circuit which they make within the compass of a naturall day and yet notwithstanding they seem unto us as if they stood still thirdly the spacious Earth together with all her huge Mountains and Rocks alas they carry no proportion of any sensible quantity in respect of the heavens when we are at Sea we see the whole medietie of the heavens as if there were no earth at all to hinder our sight fourthly one mother earth affording the same nourishment a little durty Pap to the severall plants yet by virtue of the heavens it should prove sweetness in one bitterness in another and so of all severall tasts and savours fitted and proportioned to all particular natures this I write to assure man both in his sense and in his understanding that there is such a difference and disproportion between the two Worlds that man might see his own infirmity acknowledge his weakness and himself to be so much inferior as to be ignorant in the particulars of the spirituall World and therefore not rashly to oppose but humbly to submit his own Judgement But fearing lest these Metaphysicall Mathematicall contemplations might be obscure I will therefore descend lower and instance in such particulars which may be more perspicuous and whereof we may take morenotice as being more sensible and therefore better known unto us and seeing the Logicians have reduced all things into predicaments I will insist in them as they are in order First for Substance which consists of matter and form who fashioned these each to other that the matter should afford Organs and Instruments and a fit habitation for the form that the form should adde perfection beauty and ornament to the matter surely they could not thus severally dispose themselves therefore there must be some efficient cause to order them accordingly From the matter proceeds quantity which hath severall dimensions longitude latitude and profundity but who squared out these with his Rule and his Compass according to measure and proportion but some omnipotent power for nothing will bound and limit it self From the form proceeds qualitie which admits degrees of comparison good better best but needs there must be some infinite power to prescribe and appoint the degrees Thus far how things are constituted in themselves now in relation to others to see how the heavens are sitted for the Earth how the Eâ—…ements are proportioned each to other and agree in their Symbolizing qualities how the Male and the Female are fitted to each other how every thing is fitted with food with harbour with rayment surely some infinite omnipotent wisedom made our provision for if we were left to our selves we should starve in our own wants For Action if unreasonable creatures do work according to the Rules of reason as the dumb creatures do in every thing naturally which concerns them and their condition Surely this must proceed from some infinite intellective power which infuseth such a knowledg into them with this limitation that it should only extend to such things as are necessary to their beeiâ—…g and no further For Passion it is a wonderfull thing to consider what Birds and Beasts will do for their own defence the Hares which are near the Sea side do watch their time that when the Hounds are in pursuit they may goe close by the Sea side that the tyde coming in might take away the sent they shall observe where the sharpest stones are that themselves being light may pass over while the dogges being heavy may cut themselves and cannot follow the pursuit if Gunpowder be a late invention of ours surely the wilde Foule in discovering it it is a late invention of theirs there is not a fencer so cuning as they are in defending themselves The Serpent will so winde her body that she will make it a Buckler for defence of her head where she knows the least blow proves deadly neither are they wanting in Stratagems Quando in respect of time it is wonderfull to consider how the poor Silkworm and the Mulbery bud come together The Swallow the Cuckow and other Summer Birds if they come not at their just time it is an Argument that some Storms and Winter cold are behind Where these Birds should hide themselves how they should continue without food and where they should provide food at their coming for it is certain the Martins bring into their Nest such worms as no reasonable man scarce knowes where to finde the like For the building of their Nests that they should be able on the highest Trees to lay as sure a foundation as if they did build upon a Rock that no man let him be never so skilful in Architecture and use the best means and instruments he hath his Rule his Square his Levell his Compass yet he shall not be able to make the like Nest. And to conclude whatsoever doth habitually concern the creatures you shall finde it so grounded in wisdom and so supported with all severall circumstances that we can do no lesse then admire the goodness and
the state and condition of the creature But supposing the three Persons in one Deity why should the Word be made flesh the Father and the Spirit excluded Certainly if we were to make choice of the Person reason would inform us that to be the natural son of man is more agreeable to the natural Son of God then to the unbegotten Father or to the proceeding Spirit The manner of his double birth would testifie the same truth begotten in the understanding of God from all eternity conceived in the womb of a Virgin in the fulness of time The nature of that sin which was the first motive of this descent seems to fasten a necessity upon the second Person of the Trinity it was a sin against the wisdom of God the tasting of the Tree of Knowledge Eritis sicut Dii scientes bonum malum and therefore fit it was to shew the large treasures of Gods mercy and the strictness of Gods Justice that the same wisdom offended should satisfie for the offence Foelix culpa quae talem habuit Redemptorem where is the wrong where is the injury when the party offended shall satisfie and therefore we will with humility retort Gods own words upon himself who upon the fall of man could say Ecce Adam quasi unus ex nobis so now upon the fall of God that is upon the descent of God we will say Ecce Deus quasi unus ex nobis If man lose the image of God as concerning Holiness and Sanctity wherein he was first created nothing can restore this image but that which gave the first impression If man cannot conform himself unto God then for an upshot and agreement between both necessary it is that God should consorm himself unto man Man lost Gods image God takes up mans image and this was most competent to that Person in the holy Trinity who as the Apostle describes him to the Hebrews was Splendor gloriae figura substantiae Patris Observe I beseech you the creation of man being made of the earth God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life Breath if it were agreeable to Gods nature yet certainly proceeding from an intelligent Spirit it could not be bare breath but necessarily it must be accompanied with some word especially considering that in all other Creatures you shall finde the power of this word for God spake the word and they were created But here this word is concealed and therefore we may well suppose that there is some mystery concealed Behold then the first earnest of his Incarnation God intending a marriage between the Deity and the Humane Nature he takes the body of man as it were taking his wedding gloves breathes in them to extend them to warm them to sit them for himself at length puts them on Here now at length the word accompanies the breath the breath made us living souls the word shall make us quickning spirits breath gave us a natural life the word shall regenerate and give a new birth and thus by virtue of this breath by virtue of this word man hath a double root the first Adam and the second Adam taking sap from both he is Arbor arbor inversa he hath a root downward and a root upward he treads upon the earth and looks up towards heaven And thus God if ever intending the renewing of his Creatures sit it was that God should there begin where he did end Man was the last work of the Creation and therefore in man there must be the first beginning of renovation Incipiat ubi desitum est it is a rule in all works and here you shall finde it true by experience the last work is first perfected For the Word was made flesh But I would gladly demand of the Jews who do not acknowledge these mysteries either the Trinity or the Incarnation Why should God be so careful and curious in giving himself a Name a Name it is therefore ordained to make a difference in a multitude as many men of one kinde are distinguished by their names But the nature of God is one as the Sun is but one and therefore wants no name but the name of his own kinde Gods Name then as it imports no difference in his nature so it implies a distinction and difference of Persons in that one nature of the Deity This will better appear if you please to consider that great and ineffable Name of God the Name of four letters The first letter was Jod quod significat principium and doth undoubtedly betoken the Person of the Father The second was He quod vivere significat setting out the second Person as being life in himself though life by participation imparting life unto the Creatures for in him we live we move and have our being he is the Way the Truth and the Life The third letter was Vau quae vim apud Hebraeos habet Copulandi intimating the love of God proceeding from the Father and the Son whereby the Father and the Son are united The last letter it was the same with the second letter He twice repeated ut duas in filio fateamur naturas Dei Hominis And that you may conceive that this observation of the Name proceeds not from mans fancy and conjecture I pray give me leave to bring another Example to this purpose When God had tied himself unto Abraham as touching the promised seed in token hereof it pleased God to change the name of Abraham from Abram to Abraham by the addition of a letter so likewise of his wife from Sarai to Sarah by the substraction of a syllable and the addition of a letter Now you shall observe that this letter which was added to both their names it was indeed one and the same letter and it was a letter of Gods own Name the second letter of his Name that as the second Person was to be united to the nature of Abraham and Sarah so this letter given and received might serve as a pledge or an earnest to signifie that union Observe the phrase and style of Scripture Verbum Domini venit ad Isaiam venit ad Prophetas c. which form of speech to my understanding cannot be so well justified were it not that this word were a Person and that some certain manner of coming were proper and peculiar to this Person Why should God speak of himself after the manner and fashion of men I cannot disallow the opinion of our Divines that God speaking to mans understanding fit it was that he should descend to mans capacity but desiring that truth in Gods words might altogether appear I had rather apply them to an intended incarnation then to admit a bare figure in Gods words which happily to us might be some occasion of error Wherefore serve the groanings and cries of the Fathers Expectabo salutare tuum Domine Mitte quem missurus es Rorate Coeli desuper nubes pluanâ—… iustum
Sacrifices their hopes and expectation of the Messias together with Gods frequent Messages and Admonitions by Prophets Thus the four Gospels of the New Testament describe the Life and History of Christ the acts of the Apostles shew how the Church was planted and continued the Epistles were written upon several occasions the Apocalypse is a Prophesie of the Church to the end of the world And if Scripture hath such reference to the Church and that the Penmen of Scripture were but particular members of the Church surely the Church cannot be vilified or neglected without great offence to Scripture or rather to God himself And therefore in my judgement there is yet one great daily continual Miracle in the Church which exceeds all and serves most abundantly for the confirmation of Christian Catholick Religion and it is this To consider all the Times and Ages of the world and all the parts of the habitable world and therein the several Religions professed and compare them with Christian Catholick Religion and they will all instantly vanish and come to nothing God hath ever had the guiding and a special providence in the protection of his Church it hath ever been accompanied with all Moral Virtues with paternal Civil government with fruits and blessings of Peace attended on with all humane Learning with the profession of all Arts and Sciences to consider how this Religion hath continued and been preserved in all Ages visibly successively notwithstanding many Persecutions and the cursed attempts of Gods adversaries To consider these things uno intuitu not to insist in singulars and particulars but take all things together in general and then they shall amount to as much as a Miracle above Nature in so much that a man may plainly say Hic digitus Dei est These things could not fall out in a naturall course but by Gods extraordinary Providence Here I did consider what Religion was every where professed through the whole world I found when those Religions began their progress and what Testimony they gave to Christianity and what they borrowed from Jewes or Christians and this I did for the satisfaction of those which are learned but for such as were simple ignorant they cannot but hear of the Navigations of this age how we have compassed the whole earth and finde that a great part of the world is not yet inhabited so the world in effect is but newly created this morning for it hath not yet once seen a revolution of the Heavens nay it hath not yet seen the sixt part of one revolution for it hath not yet seen 6000 years and take all the Monuments of the world we know and can point out their beginnings the most Ancient Monument in the world is not above three thousand yeers continuance we have our Merchants and Factors in all Nations under the Sun we have the Fruits the Spices the Druggs the Silk and commodities of all Nations it is easie then to hearken out what Religion is every where professed alas you shall finde them all barbarous and not worth the naming in respect of Christian Catholick Religion I cannot insist in particulars onely in generals for the distribution of times as Saint Matthew the first Evangelist divided the times by 14 generations so I do distinguish the time of the Gospell by three hundred yeers and mark the degrees how Religion hath been setled and since hath declined from the first integrity after our blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus had laid the first foundation of his own Church in his death and passion then for the raising of walls and to finish the building it was necessary that there should be some conformity that the workmen labourers in laying their Stones upon that head-corner-stone should temper their Morter with their own bloud As then in the Birth of Christ there were miracles a vision of Angels and a Star appearing in the heavens together with the Massacre of innocents so in the Birth of his Church there were miracles his own resurrection a vision of Angels the coming down of the holy Ghost in a miraculous manner the gift of Tongues many miracles so was there great effusion of bloud for the first 300 yeers past in ten great persecutions and Martyrdom it self is a kinde of miracle to see such courage and resolution accompanied with all morall virtues and that man in the flesh shall renounce the flesh and scorning the world and the pompe thereof shall offer up himself as a sacrifice for the truth of his Religion and the honour of God and this to be done deliberately advisedly not out of rashness or any strong impression of melancholy surely this can be no naturall act for it is to renounce and deny nature in her own denne and therefore being a supernaturall work it can be no less then a miracle and this age lasted to Constantine the blessed Emperour After the Martyrs the next 300 yeers was the age of Confessors and excellent Writers men that for their sanctity holiness and great learning became lights in the Church and by their mortified lives by their preaching and writtings though their Letters were not written in bloud yet did they serve to convert the Nations and this age lasted to the six hundred yeer after Christ to the time of Saint Gregory the great After the Confessors the next 300 yeers was the age of Virgins here were those brave magnificent foundations of Monasteries the erection of Cathedrals where God might be served like a God with the greatest magnificence and that fond expectation of a temporall Messias might in some sort be verified by the great solemnity of Gods service and in this age lived many famous Founders here in England King Ethelbert King Osricus Ulfrune with others whom I doubt not but God hath rewarded In the next 300 yeers was the flourishing time of Laicks where the Kings were generally much given to devotion and piety where so many great Princes took upon them Religious habits and so many excelled in all virtue and piety as here amongst us King Alfred Edmund Oswald Canutus the Dane Edward the Confessor my blessed Founder and hereunto you may adde the Christian valour of Princes in recovering the Holy Land where Godfrey of Bullen was their chief Captain and this age lasted to the end of the twelve hundred yeer after the Birth of Christ. In the next 300 yeers began the School Learning to flourish then began Peter Lumbart and Saint Thomas Aquinas to be in request together with all the rest of the Schoolmen and thus much I will say in the behalf and honor of Schoole-Learning that it is the very Touchstone of all truth and it is impossible for any falshood to endure the tryall thereof And hereunto we may adde some military orders as Champians to fight in defence of the Church and though military yet were they Religious orders as that of Saint George in Windsor where I had the
power of their Maker that such unreasonable creatures in themselves should notwithstanding order themselves according to the rules of best reason Thus every thing doth testifie a God and therefore you might fill up a book greater then the whole World with arguments and proofes of the Deity Not to confound my self with generals I will descend to particulars When we look upon the heavens and see the Suns continuall motion for our service when we our selves are not the Authors thereof nor yet those heavenly bodies as wanting understanding cannot direct their course and know not the use of their own motions doubtless we must conceive some higher agent some intellective power who both giving and knowing the influence and operation of the heavens as likewise the use and necessities of this inferior World did accordingly dispose and order these Actions and that is God himself And seeing that all things are carried Certa lege pulcherrimo ordine by the Rule and Square of his providence seeing all things were Created verbo virtutis suae by the word of his mouth for otherwise a world of ages would not have sufficed for the framing of this world doubtless we must conceive that in God there is an infinite wisdom â—…joyned with infinite power and this the best approved heathen Philosophers did acknowledge nothing can be hid from his wisdom for there is nothing which his wisdom hath not contrived nothing can resist his power for there is nothing but only the effects of his power But here if I shall further demand what is an infinite then we begin to discover our own weakness Natura abhorret infinitum we cannot possibly conceive that any thing should be infinite and the reason is because mans understanding is a kinde of comprehension and to comprehend that which is infinite without limits and bounds and therefore is in it self incomprehensible this implies a contradiction And thus by the light of reason we are brought to acknowledge God this God to be infinite and by the same light of reason we are taught that we cannot possibly conceive an infinite Now every thing in God being of like extent that is infinite reason in the knowledge of God must be taught in hurnility to prostrate her self and not with blear eyes to behold the Sunshine with waxen wings to draw near a consuming fire as it were again pâ—…esumptuously to taste of the Tree of knowledge For your further satisfaction let us consider other attributes of God every one of them hath this property to be infinite and even naturall reason shall testifie so much for to be infinite is to be without bounds or limitations and what should bound or limit Gods nature when as there is nothing but God and the Creatures the effects of Gods power Thus God hath a most absolute freedom liberty of wil neither violence can inforce him nor any necessity can be imposed upon him only he is tyed to the Laws of his own nature which makes for his infinite excellency and perfection for thereby he is made uncapable of any blemish or defect thus being infinitely good or Goodness itself he cannot commit sin being Justice it self he can do no injury or wrong being Truth it self he cannot speak falshood there can be no contradiction in his words he is a light without shadow he neither hath nor can any imperfection befall him Since God is the Author of his own beeing he must therefore have the best and most incomparable beeing to which there can be no addition made for his duration or continuance both à parte ante and à parte post it is alike infinite for it is from all eternity and to all eternity for the extent of his being it is infinite he is every where and hath an unlimited Ubiquity the whole world and the heavens cannot contain him and the least punctilio cannot exclude him for his Wisdom he is Omniscient he knows all things past future present what is or what can possibly be without any discourse or reasoning he sees them all in an instant they are all present unto him When his wisdom hath once laid the ground and platform give me leave to speak of God after the manner of men having the weakness of infirmity of man in my self and speaking to men who cannot otherwise conceive me then the power of God puts all in execution and this is infinite and therefore Omnipotent for he creates all things of nothing à non-ente ad ens there is an infinite distance which requires an infinite power and what can resist this power when as there is nothing but onely the effects of his power Things being once constituted then succeeds Gods infinite providence which implies his wisdom and power together with the constancy of his will for the preservation of that which being founded with such excellent wisdom and power cannot possibly be permitted to perish And as there is such a constancy in his actions so is there an Immutability in his nature for having the best condition if he should any way alter or change it should be for the worse and so to his detriment and loss which his infinite wisdom and power could not permit and upon all several occasions God is most abundantly provided for having given unto men a liberty and freedom of will making man according to his own image and like unto himself hereby man is enabled and made capable either to conform himself to Gods law or to transgress and answerable thereunto there is in God an infinite Justice to punish the offence of infinite malignity being committed against an infinite Majesty or otherwise there is in God an infinite Mercy to accept and reward the poor weak endevours of man which are of no value in themselves for alas what can man do to deserve Gods favor when as he is nothing in himself surely his works must needs be less then nothing for if the substance or body be wanting there cannot be so much as a shadow Gods infinite mercy and Christs passion as the means must make them acceptable and crown them with an infinite bliss both in respect of the object which is God himself as likewise in respect of continuance which is for Eternity Neither can God make any thing which shall be wholly independent from himself for this were to devest himself of his own power and to resign it to the Creatures and so to deprive himself which God cannot do for as man was created of nothing so without a constant and continual support he would in every moment fall unto nothing As God is the first and sole Cause so he is the continual and sole preserver of all and though making man according to his own image he hath given him a liberty of will yet still God hath reserved to himself not onely the foresight and prescience but when occasion serves he hath a
curb to bridle and order this liberty of will as he shall see cause and Gods prescience imposeth no necessity upon the action for as the Omnipotency of God creates all things out of nothing so the Omnisciency of God may foresee and foreknow all things out of nothing Gods power and Gods knowledge are of like extent and efficacy and when no cause is determinated and ordered yet God who seeth all things which are not as if they were so he may foresee things which shall be though the causes be free and not determinated for he sees things not onely in their causes but in the infinite light of his own Intellectuals so that in respect of the causes whereof alone we are to judge the effects may be free voluntary though in respect of Gods prescience whereof we are not to judge they may be necessary and infallibly succeed This I will illustrate by an example He that stands on a high Mountain and on either side sees passengers riding in the same rode-way some forward some backward some towards each other the passengers ride of themselves and it lies in their power to go or not to go but he that stands on the hill may know where and when they shall meet and yet notwithstanding his foreknowledge they meet very casually and voluntary and thus may Gods prescience stand with the freedom and liberty of mans actions Hitherto I have made a high flight and now me thinks I am like a man that is weary in holding up his head to look upon the Sun and the heavens and finding that his spirits are a little wasted with too much light he retires home and coming to his inner rooms he findes them so dark that he can see nothing yet rests himself there for a time to recover his strength whereby he might be the better enabled again to discern the Sun and the heavens So give me leave in stead of making further search into the Attributes of God wherein I finde my eyes dazled now to turn mine eyes inward and to make a diligent search what knowledge man hath of his own in such things as meerly concern himself and how far his natural knowledge may transport him in the knowledge of God and Religion and how far we may presume upon our natural light to discern a supernatural object and things of another world of a higher condition Our own reason informs us that there is nothing in man that hath not bounds of Circumscription Thus in our stature Datur maximum minimum we cannot adde to our own growth thus in our senses Excellens sensibile â—…orrumpit sensum we cannot fasten our eyes on the Sun thus in the strength of our limbs we finde in our selves a definite and determinate power that we cannot work beyond our ability so is there a measure and stint of knowledge that we cannot conceive beyond our limited capacity This will better appear if we consider the several degrees of understanding in man himself how one man doth far exceed another in wit capacity and apprehension Thus we finde that all wits are not fit for all studies and all Sciences he must have the light of great natural Intellectuals who is fit to wade through the midnight of the Metaphysicks or to spy out the curious subtilties of School-learning he must have engines in his brain who is fit for Mathematical studies or Architecture he must have a quick and nimble fancy who aims to excel in Poetry or Rhetorick he must have an exact memory to compute the Concordancy of Times to be a perfect Historian So then it pleaseth God so to order the states of men and the several gifts of nature that some should become Teachers others prove Scholars and Proficients as God shall give a blessing and prosper their endevours And while they are learning necessary it is that they should believe their Teachers And is there such a difference of men between themselves comparing one with another then much more is there a far greater difference between God and man Suppose I should compare God with man in other Attributes and see the infinite difference what is the strength of man but weakness in respect of Gods Omnipotency what is the length of mans age but less then a minute in respect of Gods eternity what is the wealth of man but beggery in respect of Gods treasures Then what is the wit and understanding of man but meer foolishness in respect of Gods wisdome But that we may lay a deeper foundation lest natural reason might presume too far she must first be taught to humble her self I would then first ask what is the object of natural reason surely I will extend the object as far as possibly I can I will give her the uttermost due and therefore I do acknowledge the object of natural reason to be the natural world for upon the same grounds and principles whereof the world doth subsist Reason doth likewise guide her self by way of direction but man sees the bounds of the natural world the material heavens which incompass and hedge in the world as a Circumference to the Centre or Circle Then surely he must see the bounds of his natural Reason beyond which he cannot extend his natural knowledge which is very fitly set forth by the form and fashion of mans head or scull which is somewhat circular and not unlike the Globe of the world all his brains are within the scull and what is without is no part of man So what is within the cavity of the Globe of the world may be partly involved and laid up in mans brain as it were written in Characters but what is without the convexity of this Globe it cannot enter into mans brain Thus every faculty hath his object and this must be adaequatum every way answerable and proportionable to the faculty and what exceeds this object comes not within the sphere of that faculty as the eye cannot hear the ear cannot smell the hand cannot taste for every faculty hath as her own proper organs and instruments so her own proper bounds And lest Reason should be presumptuous and being onely natural should rashly adventure to leap into the supernatural world or out of infidelity should utterly deny what is above her reach and apprehension I must lay open her weakness and see how far she is wounded even in her own naturals that she may be well asham'd of her self if being so ignorant at home and in things which concern her yet she must presume to comprehend mysteries of another world which so far exceed her reach and apprehension See then our defects in natural knowledge not onely in the motion of the heavens the insensible Influences the miraculous Meteors but come we to the meanest Creatures and to speak of them in general The Philosophers will tell you that the forms of things are utterly unknown whence the Logicians conclude That we cannot
assign the proper differences and consequently both of them fail in their definitions and content themselves onely with bare descriptions and outward properties And therein we are so far from attaining any perfection that every day new qualities are discovered And thus far I tax the greatest Philosophers in the world Hippocrates who knew as much as any man did living in his time begins his book with excusing his ignorance Ars longa est vita brevis Alas what shall we say of the ordinary sort of men when great Clerks after much study night-watchings and labours think it a great perfection if they can but discern their own ignorance I remember when I was a young Scholar in Cambridge sometimes for our own health and recreation taking the fresh air in the fields we would look for Herbs and Simples but for the virtues and operations of them alas alas ouâ—… Her alists were wonderfully defective At the same time to try conclusions we would finde out a Birds nest and when the Hen had laid her full number of eggs and began to sit every third day we would open an egge to see the manner and degrees of Conception it was the white of the egge which made the skin the bones the feathers the beak while the yolk was reserved for the more inward and vital parts and truly we could but admire Gods workmanship and wonders in the course of nature and thence we did conclude that if there were such ignorance in natural things it could not seem strange if we proved stark blinde in supernaturals Thus far we have taught the natural man his ignorance in natural things and until he can acquit himself therein it were a strange presumption to trust to his own skill in supernaturals Now God observes the same method and rule for our learning and instruction both in things natural and supernatural and that is that first we must begin with belief thus it is necessary that the scholar should first believe his Schoolmaster and he that is simplest and weakest in apprehension out of a trust reposed in others doth naturally submit his own opinion to the better judgement of others Thus the poor silly childe who understands not the reason of his fathers counsel yet he believes him and follows his counsel Thus the poor Countrey Husbandman or Plowman though he knows not the reasons of State nor the secret Counsels of his governors yet he believes them and yields his obedience accordingly and if this course be taken in temporal things why not much more in spiritual wherein first God requires faith which by degrees is more and more inlightned until at length it comes to the beatifical vision and then no longer faith of things unseen but an actual vision and a real possession And herein see the goodness of God that man finding the miseries of this world should at length by experience dislike his own estate and loathing the fond carnal pleasures should be ambitious to attain a better condition and to this end God hath added to his natural reason some spark or thirst of knowledge more then natural for seeing the heavens which are the bounds of nature he conceives that above these heavens there must needs be some more excellent and supernatural world Regio superior incognita a place not yet discovered wherein notwithstanding he desires to make a plantation for he concludes in Reason and by the rule of Architecture that the Roof is the fairest and beautifullest thing in building as being most in sight the pavement and groundsel is the meanest and basest as being to be troden on therefore the material heavens which are the roof of this inferior world they are the fairest thing in nature beset and imbroydered with most rich and costly Jewels the Sun the Moon and the Stars yet are these heavens nothing but the pavement and groundsel of the superior world where the inhabitants do tread and trample them under their feet and over our heads and therefore are the meanest things in that superior world And as in dignity and worth so likewise in quantity for the whole earth is in effect an indivisible point and carries no sensible quantity in respect of the heavens which plainly appears by many Astronomical demonstrations Then what inconvenience is it that there should be such a disproportion in the knowledge of these two worlds for the supernatural world must needs have a supernatural light for nothing can be known or acted without means and the means must be of like condition and nature with the end as here below we see the Sun and the Stars onely by their own light so is it much more necessary that we should know nothing above the heavens but by a revealed light answerable and agreeable and of the same nature and condition with that superior world Thus natural Reason by the force and strength of natural Reason is brought to acknowledge the use and necessity of grace to sanctisie and inlighten our natural blindness and ignorance And if the difference be such for the beauty and quantity between the two worlds natural and supernatural then surely there must be as great a disproportion in the knowledge of these two several worlds for to understand the supernatural world needs there must be some supernatural light for nothing can be known without means and the means must ever be of like condition and nature with the end as here below we see the Sun and the Stars not by Candle-light or Torch light but by their own light and the natural eye is not capable of that supernatural light neither yet can reason for want of means to discourse come to any supernatural knowledge yet God for the satisfaction of reason hath ingraffed in man wonder astonishment admiration whereby man may see his own blindness and not oppose the truth of things which are above his reach and apprehension Thus for the knowledge and attaining of the supernatural world there must be a supernatural light and in man there are some aspiring thoughts some ambitious desires that naturally he aims at things higher then nature wherein appears the great mercy of God that as the tasting of the Tâ—…ee of Knowledge was the first sin which proceeded from curiosity so God in his mercy is pleased to sanctisie mans curiosity that being kept within due bounds and limits it proves to be the first step or degree to bring man unto God for now he is curious to know things of a better world and takes this world but for a transitory passage tending and ending in death and destruction Thus far we have brought the natural man to believe that seeing the bounds of the natural world he is apt to confess that above the heavens there is a supernatural world for knowledge whereof there must be a supernatural light for procuring whereof he findes naturally in himself wonder astonishment and admiration and needs there must be some proper object answerable thereunto And here
Philosophy which I know to be very little very little indeed and were my age fit for an encounter I would question their skill in Philosophy as here I will give you a little taste thereof And first see and consider the great difference and opposition between us The Socinian professeth that he doth not believe the Mysteries in Religion because he cannot understand them in Reason and I profess the contrary that I do believe the Mysteries in Religion revealed and much the rather because the Socinian cannot understand them in Reason Nollem ego in Deum quem tu comprehenderes That God whom thou art able to comprehend shall never be my God I will not vouchsafe to serve such a God I scorn to worship such a God I renounce such a God for he is too like thy self to be the true God This I am taught in Philosophy and even by the strength of Reason that God is Infinite and every way Incomprehensible And this I have learned of the Heathen who did erect an Altar ignoto Deo to the unknown God or to the incomprehensible God Surely there is a greater difference between the true God and man then that we should make God of like nature and condition with our selves as that we should think our selves to be able to comprehend him Before I proclaim war I have ever thought it a necessary point of Charity first to try how far forth the difference may be reconciled and so to go hand in hand as far as Honesty and Truth will permit us and when as once we become irreconcileable then to make an utter separation and every man to stand on his own guard That I may then deliver my opinion concerning natural Reason how far she is to be admitted in Religion I do not commend credulity nor would I have a man apt to believe but upon good grounds Memento diffidere is the first Rule in Policy though I confess as Mysteries are above Reason and that I would have Reason to know her distance and not to incroach too far yet would I have Reason to have full satisfaction for it is the guide which God hath given to man for his direction not onely in Humane and Civil things but even a little to prepare and direct him in his way to salvation and to make him capable of Religion whereof the brute beasts are not and though Religion be as far above Reason as the Heavens are above the Earth yet is she no way contrary to Reason but serves to inlighten and to sanctifie Reason and to confirm Reason in her own Principles and grounds as the Heavens adde beauty and perfection to the Earth for neither Jewels nor beautiful flowers can be discerned or appear glorious without the light of the heavens Thus for all the Moral Law which is a great part of Religion Reason serves as an excellent Glosse or a Commentary for the Exposition Thus Reason being sanctified having a tincture of grace serves to draw excellent Conclusions and Theological Precepts out of the premises of Scripture but if we should know no more of God then Reason informs us surely we should be then very unreasonable for we should know nothing of the state of that other world since natural Reaon can make no discovery of a supernatural world If then we should know no more of God but onely so far forth as may be gathered by the works of Nature it would much shorten our knowledge of God and a little detract from Gods glory besides a preposterous course for whereas we are to govern and teach the dumb creatures who are onely made for our use and therein attain their own ends now on the contrary they should be our onely teachers to direct us to our last end and perfection if all our knowledge of God should be onely by their information and that we should know no more of God but onely so far forth as they should instruct us or catechise us and seeing that every day we learn more and more in the creatures for new qualities and secrets of nature are daily discovered it must hence follow that as yet we have not learnt so much of God as the creatures can teach us they are our very learned Schoolmasters and we are ill Proficients and thus contrary to all good order and form our Reason must be subject to their sense even for the knowledge of such things as do infinitely exceed all sense and all reason Nor is it possible that God should be so forgetful of man as to supply him with all the provisions of this world for his back and belly for his kitchin his wardrobe and yet should neglect his breeding and education to teach him at School and there to instruct him in his necessary ways and means to attain his last end and salvation Surely God is more merciful to the dumb creatures for they have a natural instinct in themselves sufficient and necessary for their preservation to conduct them to their own last natural end and what is wanting in them God hath commanded man to take the care and charge over them yea further God hath given them some priviledges as that they should take the benefit of a rest on the Sabbath that they should have some refreshing in their labours Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the corn that they should be priviledged from slaughter when they are breeding and God hath given them an ingenuity to be taught what is fit for their condition Thus the horse learns his pace remembers his way as knowing that his last end is to be a Traveller Thus is there a natural inclination in every thing to conduct and direct it self in attaining its own last natural end And surely God will be no less merciful to man in supplying him with such means as shall be necessary for his last supernatural end The world was created for man the Sun the Moon and the Stars have their continual motion for the fruitfulness of the earth and the preservation of this sublunary world and all nature tends to the use service and ministery of man Man is the end of nature and therefore man cannot end in nature or have a natural end by the course of this world and the continual succession he knows it can be but a passage he sees the bounds of this natural world the material heavens and then he concludes that needs above this natural world there must be a supernatural world thus over and above his natural knowledge which consists in a rational discourse he findes in himself wonder and admiration which may serve him for his knowledge of that supernatural world Thus he still looks up to heaven and by his aspiring thoughts his hopes and expectation he seems to cast up an Anchor to heaven and wants onely wings to fly up or a ladder to climb and that blessed Spirit which came down in the form of a Dove supplies him
prescribed this was done in the infancy of the Creation when Adam and Eve might happily be ignorant whether the rest of the Creatures were rationall or irrationall whether they were dumbe or spake a language they might see that their works and all their naturall actions were very agreeable to reason and the Creatures having all the instruments of speech why might they not be supposed to have the free use and exercise of speech as well as man and for other things they could speak nothing by their own experience we have heard of Monsters of men whom by their shape and form you could hardly know to be men yet had they the use of reason There was a Fish taken in the time of Hen. 2. so like a man that Fishermen were mistaken and did conceive him to be a man indeed certainly without triall and experience which our first Parents could not have so immediately upon the Creation it was easie for them to mistake I should never believe that Parots and Pyes should speak so distinctly were it not that I find it by proofe But not to trouble you with every circumstance the Angels did sin spiritually in their pride and presumption sins spirituall answerable to their condition as they are wholly spirits Man subsisting of flesh sinned carnally in tasting the forbidden fruit and therein his flesh prevailed over his reason in breaking Gods command only some of the Angels sinned and they were punished accordingly but the first Parents of Mankinde sinned and in them according to the course of our own ordinary justice their whole race and posterity was to suffer but the punishment was small for they had the benefit of repentance whereby they might not only have remission but likewise through the Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ they might attain a greater degree of happiness then was at first allotted unto them And for that punishment of death which God enacted by a Statute Law Statutum est hominibus semel mori alas it is but the transition to a better world whereby we take the possession of that whereof we are not now so capable and therefore it should be a great part of our desires Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo. Thus after the fall of Angels God having given the like freedom of will unto man in pleased God likewise to make tryall of his obedience in giving him the free use of all the rest of his Creatures only forbidding one fruit the Tree of knowledge which might be seen but not tasted whereby might appear whether Gods command or mans inordinate appetite were the more powerfull in man or whether man subsisting of flesh and spirit which of these should be predominant whether man being placed between the blessed Angels and dumbe Beasts should by his abstinency and conformity to God draw neerer to the Angelicall state and become more spirituall or by his carnall uncleanness giving way to his appetite and gluttony he should fall down to the sensuality of Beasts that whatsoever he lusted after he should not deny himself what his own eyes and his carnall concupiscence should offer unto him he should greedily imbrace it and thus by the tasting of the forbidden fruit which the Socinians conceive to be but a small offence there is implyed the great opposition between the flesh and the spirit Now for the truth and demonstration that man did offend it shall appear by the punishment for I have already proved by undenyable arguments that man is fallen from his first integrity and perfection and that the state of the world is much changed and altered since the Creation that many things have and do daily befall man which can be no less then the punishments of sin and the just effects of Gods vengeance that man himself by his fearfulness and naturall uncleanness seemes to acknowledge a guilty conscience and himself to be justly condemned This I have already proved and I set forth a Book to that purpose about 40 years since the Title of the Book is The fall of man or the fall of Adam from Paradise proved by naturall reason wherein I do not only give satisfaction to reason but I do plainly evince it by many naturall proofs I consess I cannot do the like for other mysteries but only for that alone because it comes nearer our naturall state and condition while other mysteries are far above our reach and concern the state of another world but the fall and corruption of Nature must manifestly and demonstratively appear in the effects and punishment of sin and therein the ground and foundation of Socinianism is utterly dissolved and though since that time many of their Books have been vented and published yet I never heard that the scope and intent of that Book was ever so much as questioned which I am ready still to make good and to justifie now in my old age though my strength memory and intellectuals do a little faile me I thank God for it Man being fallen from his first integrity as God would not utterly destroy him so neither would he suffer him to continue in a sinfull state and condition look what distance there is between heaven and earth between life and death such and so great is the distance and opposition between corrupted nature and grace therefore needs there must be a regeneration and a redemption of man but whether this should be done without means only by Gods omnipotency as was the act of Creation therein we doubt it is true that in the Creation no means could be used for then there was nothing but God yet notwithstanding in the Creation it self as soon as God had created the confused mass of the heavens and the earth out of nothing then immediately he useth this generall mass as a means for producing particulars Producat terra herbam virentem pro ducant aquae reptile and that light which was created the first day did serve to make the Sun and the Stars the fourth day and in the constituted course of nature there is nothing done without meanes the sap and fatness of the earth together with the Sunshine and influence of the heavens God appointing protecting concurring and blessing his own means serve for our fruitfulness and to continue nature in her own kind Thus in Religion God hath instituted Sacraments and Rites then certainly the same God who is ever so constant in the uniformity of his works for that he doth ever make choyce of the best and therefore is not uncertain or wavering in the constancy of his own resolutions he would use means in the work of mans redemption as well as in the preservation of the world for God out of his infinit love desiring to impart himself as he gives a beeing whereby Creatures made of nothing may together subsist with himself so they subsisting to honour them the more he refuseth not their help but useth them as means that they should together cooperate with himself Thus
life to all others yet hereby he makes himself lyable to death without which there could be no satisfaction Thus God becoming man he is interessed in the cause and so the Justice and Mercies of God are fully reconciled in Christ. Thus the Incarnation being presupposed let us now consider what inconveniency or disparagement it may be or rather what advantage or prerogative may thereby accrue to the Deity and how all the creatures are thereby exalted and honoured but man especially is infinitely tyed to his thankfulness For any dishonor to the Deity certainly there can be none at all for the whole universe in respect of God is as nothing and therefore what aspersion may arise from the Creatures and be cast on the Deity it doth utterly vanish and come to nothing Thus the mists and ill vapours of the earth ascend no higher then the middle region of the aire and there they are dissolved into Showers Storms and Tempests and so fall again to the earth thus Blasphemies and sins done in contempt of God yet no way sasten on God or any way obscute his honor but thereby God takes occasion in justice to powre down his wrath and vengeance upon the transgressors Thus God according to his own ubiquity is every where and in every Creature yet without the least disparagement to himself as the Sun-beams or light shining upon the most unclean and sordid places yet are thereby no way tainted or infected much less can the Godhead receive any blemish or stain from his Creatures So there being no inconvenience let us see what advantage benefit and honor redounds to the Godhead by the Incarnation First we know and our Fathers have told us that the love of God towards man is infinite but how shall this appear really and actually if all the fruits of Gods love towards man be finite and so bounded therefore it is requisit that some act of this infinite love might appear this is done by an infinite bond by an hypostaticall union of God with our nature and this is such a bond as that God himself can do no more he cannot come nearer man then by uniting the two natures in one Person and this we must truly confess to be the fruit and plainly to demonstrate Gods infinite love towards man Secondly we confess Gods omnipotency but how shall this appear unless there should be some infinite Creature It is true that making must something of nothing there being an infinite distance a non ente adens it needs argue omnipotency yet this is only in respect of the manner but that Gods omnipotency might every way appear it is necessary there should be an infinite Creature and here behold God and Man are united and become one Christ who is truly infinite and omnipotent and therefore doth every way confirm Gods omnipotency Thirdly the Incarnation seems to adde some perfection to God and to improve Gods knowledge it is true God knowes all the miseries and sorrowes of man all his imperfections and weakness but he knew them not in that manner as now he doth for he knew them not by way of triall and experience in himself The sick patient who feeles the smart and sorrow of his disease may seem to have better knowledge then the Physitian who hath it onely by speculation God himself had not that experimentall knowledge of mans condition before he became man and put on our nature and in his own Person became subject to passion Fourthly to vindicate the Justice of God for God requires no more of man then what God performed to man The Creation was done by the word of his mouth verbo virtutis suâ—… with the greatest ease and facility but what God requires of man it is accomplished with sorrow labour and misery therefore here is no proportion Now to stop the mouthes of blasphemers God himself hath taken up mans nature thereby to make himself subject to passion and so to perform more in his own person to man then he requires of man or that man can perform unto God for that God died for man but man dies for his own sins Fifthly as God was the Creator of all things the end and conclusion of all so it was necessary he should be the Mediator and Redeemer of man that so God might be all in all the beginning the means and the end Sixthly it was a great addition and increase of honor to God which I prove by the Title which God assumes to himself for whereas before he was called The God of heaven and earth The Lord of the Universe The Maker and Creator of all things The Lord God of Hosts now he assumes another Title and style of honor to be called The God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob which is a more honorable style then to be called The God of heaven and earth seeing that he was then in their loins who did infinitely exceed the whole Universe And as this was his Title in the Old Testament so in the New he is called more particularly The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and this is Gods greatest honor Seventhly and as these advantages and prerogatives accrue unto the Deity by the incarnation of Christ so there are great priviledges which befal the Creatures in having God to be one of their number and society for without this priviledge the Creatures might have expostulated with God that although they were made of nothing yet still in respect of God they were nothing Now God is verity and truth and therefore according to verity and truth they were yet still as nothing See then how much God is disparaged in the work of his Creation that he should create nothing of nothing See how man and all the Creatures are become contemptible for that in respect of God that is in verity and truth they are nothing this were to abate their thankfulness to God and to make them dislike their condition and man himself though he may seem to boast of Gods love that he was created according to Gods image yet still he discerns that there is an infinite distance between God and man but when as once God became man and the Creator was made a Creature this did not onely shorten the distance between both but did indeed incorporate them and made both Natures God and Man to be one Person as if God should descend from the Throne of his Majesty and come nearer the Creature and stretch a hand out of the clouds while poor man out of the dust raised by Gods grace lifts up his hand of Faith and Hope and while these two hands meet and are joyned and coupled together there becomes a perfect marriage both are united in one Person the Deity puts on our weakness and our manhood is clothed with Gods 〈◊〉 And thus is there a perfect union in the Person of Christ. Eighthly though the Creatures were made by God yet still