bounds do the same things she doth by Equivalencie and run to the same End by a quite contrary way The Romish Church it cannot be denyed makes her Popes and Prelates with other Pillars of their Church plain Idols They which out of an undiscreet and furious zeal seem most to abhor this kind of Idolatry commit Sacrilege and rob God of his honour as the Romish Church doth And he that robs God of his honour doth the very same thing and no other which an Idolater doth Now they are said in Scripture to rob God of his honour and to commit an abomination more then heathenish for the heathen do not spoil their Gods which defraud him of his tithes offrings which were due unto the Priest for his ministration and service in Gods House But they rob God of his honour more immediately and more directly which despise or contemn his Embassadors not in word only but in taking that Authority from them which he hath expresly given unto them and which is worst of all in seeking to alienate it unto them over whom he hath in matter of salvation appointed them Guides and Overseers That Precept of our Apostle I am sure will stand good when all Laws or Intendments of Laws to confront it will fail Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 17. What Rule doth he mean meerly Civil or Temporal No! What then Ecclesiastick Not that only But the Rule of Government spiritual such as is proper to the Bishops of the Church For so it follows for they to whom you are to submit your selves watch for your souls as they that must give an accompt and you are therefore to obey that they may do their office with joy and not with grief for that saith the Apostle is unprofitable for you Now that in this plenty of preaching and frequencie in hearing The most hearers profit so little in the School of Christ the true Reason is for that men do not submit themselves unto their Pastors in such sort as they ought but think it his Duty or Office only to preach and their duty only to hear not to be Ruled or Governed by him whereas the ones preaching is vain and the others hearing is vain unless this duty of obedience be first planted in their hearts The Pastors Grief which ariseth from neglect or contempt of this Duty will prove in the issue the Peoples Curse 8. But the main stream of Popery from which the name of Babylon is derived unto Rome was the Absolute Infallibilitie of the Romish Church Representative The branches of this supposed absolute Infallibilitie were Two The First That the sense of Scriptures which that Church doth maintain or avouch concerning Faith or Manners is alwayes Authentick undoubted and true But whereas many Points as well of Doctrine as Practise concerning Faith and Manners were in that Church established by Prescription and Use without so much as any Pretence of warrant from Scripture They were inforced in the Second Place to maintain That the Unwritten Traditions of the Church were of equal Authoritie with the Scriptures and that the present Church was as Infallible in her Testimony of the One as in her Judgment of the other The Infallible Consequence of which supposed Infallibilitie is This That the people were absolutely to believe whatsoever that Church should propound unto them as a Point of faith or practise commendable and to abjure whatsoever that Church should condemn for heresie or ungodliness By Absolute Belief or obedience they intend a belief or obedience not only without Condition or scruple in the first undertaking but without Reservation of appeal upon any new discovery of dangers unseen unsuspected in the first undertaking The Churches Authority once declared was in their Divinity sufficient to quell or put to silence all succeeding Replies or mutterings of Conscience Both these dangerous Errors were well Reformed The later stream or puddle of Traditions in a manner drained by this Church and State For every Bishop at his Consecration doth solemnly promise or vow not to propound any thing to the people as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly conteined in the Scripture or may be thence deduced by necessary Inference To bind or tie all Bishops thus solemnly unto the observance of this Rule the wisdom of those Times had these Reasons Not only to curb or restrain the licentious Abuse of Bishops former Authoritie but because they knew that the people were in many Cases concerning the service of God and other Christian duties bound to yeeld more credence and obedience to their Bishops and Pastors then unto men not called to Sacred or Pastoral Function It is One Thing to believe any Doctrinal Proposition as A Point of Faith necessary to salvation Another to believe it so far as we may safely adventure upon any practise or duty injoyned by superiors That is to believe it not Absolutely but Conditionally and out of such belief to obey them not absolutely but conditionally that is with reservation of freedom or libertie when either the truth shall be better discovered then now it is or greater dangers appear then for the present we do suspect The Obedience which we give unto Superiors may be Ex Fide of Faith albeit the points of doctrine or the perswasions out of which we yeeld this obedience be not De Fide No points of Faith or necessary to salvation 9. But a great many well-meaning men there were who shortly after this happy Reformation could not content themselves to stand upon such sure Termes of Contradiction unto the Romish Church as the first Reformers had done but sought in this Point which was indeed above all others to be abhorred to be most extremly Contrary unto her Wherein then doth that Contradiction to the Romish Church wherein the first Reformers of Religion did entrench themselves and wherein doth the Extream Contrarietie whereunto others more Rigid Reformers if they could have effected their Projects would have drawn this Church and Land consist The Romish Church as you heard before did make Unwritten Traditions a Part of the Rule of Faith as soveraign as the written Word of God and did obtrude those observances which had no other warrant then such Tradition as altogether necessary to salvation The First Reformers of this Error were contented to contradict them only in this And their Contradiction is expresly mainteined partly in the Articles of Religion partly in the Book of Consecration of Bishops The Contradiction is This That all things necessary to salvation are contained in Scripture which is all one as to say That the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith Yet did they not for all this utterly reject All use of Tradition or Ceremonies as you may find expressed in the thirty fourth Article in which though Rites and Ceremonies or other customs of the Church be not injoyned in particular as they take for granted by God himself
And I beseech the Infinite Mercie to pardon these and all others as fully freely and upon the same termes I desire pardon for mine own I have but Two Things more to say and the One concernes the Vulgar Reader 1. That this Book seems no way lyable to the Objection of Obscurity which hath been sometimes made against some other parts of this Authors Writings the Style here being more easie and Popular as first prepared for His Charge at Newcastle Though to say the truth The Darkness was most-what in the Readers Eye and not in the Object or Authors Writings 2. That the longer the world lasts the more seasonable every day then other will this Book be yea so it must needs be the Essential parts thereof treating of and proving Christs Coming to Judgement The Resurrection and Life Everlasting If any One shall either by reading the Book or the Preface be any thing bettered I beseech him make his Return in Prayers for the Church of England once the Envie and Fear now by the folly of her own children made the scorn of her Aemula That the Lord would so build up her walls set up her Gates and erect her Towers That Her Militancie in his strength may be victorious for His Truth and at last changed into a Triumph in His Glory Which shall be the earnest Request of Her most Unworthy Son and the Readers Humble Servant in the Lord Jesus B. O. ERRATA In the Tenth Book Fol. 3137. lin 16. read some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of R. In this Book Fol. 3327. lin 26. read Fifth Chapt. Fol. 3789. lin 16. read Cui à nobis reddenda A TABLE Of the Principal Arguments of the several Sections and Chapters contained in this BOOK SECT I. Of Christs Sitting at the Right Hand of God Of the Grammatical sense of the Words and of the Real Dignity answering thereto CHAP. I. Of the Grammatical sense of the words Heb. 10. 12. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice c. and whether they be meerly Metaphorical pag. 3307 2. Of the Real Dignitie contained in this Article viz. The Exaltation of Christ That Christ was exalted both as the Son of God and the son of David p. 3311 3. In what sense Christs humane Nature may in what sense it may not be said to be infinitely exalted The Question concerning the Ubiquity of Christs Bodie handled p. 3317 4. A Paraphrase upon the sixth of S. John In what sense Christs flesh is said to be truly meat c. What it is To eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Of Eating and Drinking Spiritual and Sacramental and whether of them is meant John 6. 56. Of Communion in one kind and Receiving Christs Blood per Concomitantiam Tollets Exposition of Except ye Eat And Drink by disjunction turning And into Or confuted and Rules given for better expounding like Cases How Christ dwells in Us and We in Him The Application All which be seasonable Meditations upon the Lords Supper p. 3328 5. The Great Attribute of Christ His being the Chief Corner stone handled in the foregoing Chapter prosecuted more amply in this Christ is the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets How Christians being built upon this Foundation do grow into an Holy Temple p. 3348 SECT II. Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Phil. 2. 11. That every tongue should confess c. p. 3358 CHAP. 6. What it is to be a Lord. Though there be many called Lords yet there is but One Absolute Lord. ibid. 7. In what Respects or upon what Grounds Christ by peculiar Title is called The Lord. And first of the Title it self Secondly of the Real Grounds unto this Title 3362 8. What our confession of Christ to be The Lord importeth and how it redoundeth to the glory of God the Father SECT III. Of Christs Coming to Judgment CHAP. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 10. insisted upon p. 3375 10. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to those Notions of a final Judgment 3377 11. By what Authority of Scripture this exercise of the final Judgment is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ p 3390 12 The manner of Christs coming to Judgment which was the third General proposed in the ninth Chapter p. 3401 SECT IV. Of the Resurrection of the Dead CHAP. 13. The Belief of the Article of the Resurrection of high concernment malignantly impugned by Satan and his Agents needs and deserves our best Fortification The Heathens had Implicite notions of a Resurrection The obstacle of impossibility removed by proof of this Conclusion That though all things were annihilated yet God is able to retrieve or recover The Numerical same p. 3422 14. This Argument drawn from Seed sown 1 Cor. 15. 36. c. is a concludent proof of the resurrection of the Bodie p 3434 15. The Objections of the Atheist and the Exceptions of the Naturalist both put fully home and as fully answered The falsitie of the Supposals and Paradoxes rather then Principles of the Atheist discovered and made even palpable by ocular demonstration and by Instances in Bodies Vegetant and Sensitive A Scruple that might trouble some pious mind after all this satisfied A short Application of the Doctrin contained in the whole Chapter p 3444 16 The Apostles method 1 Cor. 15. 16 17 20. in proving the Resurrection peculiar and yet Artificial His way of Natural or reciprocal Infeference both Negative and Assertive justified and shewed That both these Inferences naturally arise and may concludently be gathered from the Text and from the Principles of Christian Belief Wherein the witness false upon supposition ver 14 15. should consist That Philosophical Principle Deus et Natura nihil faciunt frustra divinely improved Gods special and Admirable works have ever a Correspondent that is some extraordinary end How sin is taken away by Christs Death How by his Resurrection How we are justified by Christs Resurrection How we may try our selves and know whether we rightly believe this Article of the Resurrection or no. p 3455 SECT V. Of the Article of Everlasting Life CHAP. XVII Rom. 6. 21 22 23. What fruit had ye then of those things c. The Connexion of the fifth and sixth Chapters to the Romans A Paraphrase upon the sixth chapter The importance of the phrase Dead to sin No Christians in this life so dead to sin as to come up to the Resemblance of Death natural True Christians dead to sin in a proportion to civil death All Christians at least all the Romans to whom S. Paul writes did so in Baptism professe themselves dead to sin and vow death to sin by a true Mortification thereof All have in Baptism or may have a Talent of Grace as an Antidote or Medicine against the deadly Infection of sin as a strengthning to make us victorious over sin Three Motives to deter us from the service of sin 1. It is fruitless 2. It
of some principal man or publick Officer And Beza well observes that the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the epithite or title of the Corner-stone here in the Text doth signifie both extremes of any dimension as well the lowest as the highest and he gives this good Caveat withal that we are not to presse this comparison of Christ to a Corner-stone too far no further than our Apostle meant it which was the joyning of two wals together which before had been distant and unsociable to wit the Jew and the Gentile Now in everie compleat building there must be more then two walls four at the least and therefore four Corner-stones four imi angulares lapides four Foundation-stones and four Summi angulares lapides that is four Supreme or binding Corner-stones and all these corner-stones are said to be the chief in the building It is evident that Christ is the First foundation-stone and yet may it not be denyed that he is also the chief Corner-stone which binds the building For in this sense must that of the Psalmist Psal 118. 22. be understood The Stone which the Builders refused is become the Head-Stone of the corner For if we respect the literal sense of this Prophesie or the ground of the metaphor the lowest or foundation stone being once refused by the builders cannot by the same builders be layed in the foundation again unless they will pull down what they have built But whilest the foundation is in laying a stone may be rejected or laid aside by the builders as not so fitting to be laid in the Foundation or to be any intermediate part of the edifice erected and yet may come to be the fittest Stone for coupling or binding the building that is to be the supreme Corner-stone The Author of the Scholastick Historie hath a Tradition for whose authoritie he perhaps could have produced better Warrant then we can take from him that in the building of the second Temple at whose consecration in all probabilitie this 118. Psalm was conceived there was a peculiar Stone often layed aside by the builders as unfitting in their judgement to become any part of the foundation or intermediate building which yet afterwards proved the fittest Corner-stone for binding or coupling together the walls erected And the extraordinarie unexpected fitnesse of this stone to finish that building for whose erection it was continually held unfit did minister hint or occasion unto the Psalmist to say This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes But leaving the truth or probabilitie of this Tradition to the search of Antiquaries or Criticks the literal or emblematicall sense which the author makes of the Psalmist doth well suit with the allegorical and mystical which the Apostles S. Paul here and S. Peter Act. 4. 11. from our Saviours mouth have made of the Psalmists parabolicall speech For thus our Saviour Christ whom God had presented and commended to the Master builders of his Temple that is to the Priests the Scribes and Pharisees to the elders and chief rulers of the Synagogue in the dayes of his humiliation here on earth was by them rejected scoffed and spurned at and lastly buryed in the earth as altogether uselesse and unfit for Building And yet after his resurrection He became not onely imus but summus angularis lapis not only the first firm Corner-stone or supporter but the chief and supreme Corner-stone too aswell the finishing as the Foundation of this spiritual Temple not made with hands That Christ himselfe is both the Foundation and finisher that is both the highest perfection and lowest foundation in this building his owne interpretation of the Psalmists words Matth. 21. 42 44. will necessarily inferre Did you never read saith he in the Scriptures The stone which the Builders rejected the same is become the head of the corner this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken but on whom soever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder Fall upon this corner-stone they could not but as it was the lowest in the building Their fall upon it could not be so grievous as to break their limbs unlesse it had been layd deeper or lower then ordinary foundations or corner-stones are usually layd And the mystical sense of our Saviours words is that such as spurned and stumbled at him in his humilitie should as it were break their limbes But that this stone should fall upon any this in the literall sense supposeth that it should be higher than they were so high placed in this building that the fall of it should not bruise or break their limbes but grind their bones to powder And thus was the Jewish nation broken or cut off from being Gods people for their contempt of Christ in his humilitie And not onely they but all such as continue the like contempt of his passion and resurrection shall by his second coming to Judgement in glorie be ground to powder that is the paines of their first breaking by falling upon this corner-stone shall be multiplied without end or measure To conclude this second Point Christ is both Lapis summus angularis lapis imus primus latissimus angularis as Pineda saith in Chap. 38. Job vers 6. The highest and the lowest corner-stone in this building the center and circumference the whole strength of this citie and the walls about it so saith the Prophet Esay 26. 1. Wee have a strong citie salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks Open yee the gates that the righteous Nation which keepeth the truth may enter in And again ver 4. Trust yee in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength or as the Hebrew the rock of ages As this Spiritual temple in the Text is a Temple not made with hands for God dwelleth not in such Temples Act. 7. 48. Heb. 9. 11 24. So Christ who is the chief corner-stone of it is that stone which Nebuchadnezzar saw in visions by night Dan. 2. vers 34. A stone not cut out of any quarrie by hands yet a stone which smote the Image upon the feet which were of Iron and clay and broke not them onely but the whole Image aswell the brasse the Gold and Silver as the iron and clay unto peeces And afterwards became a great mountain which filled the whole earth But how or when this stone became a great mountain or in what manner wee are said to grow into an holy temple will better appear in discussing the third Point proposed which was Concerning the manner how these Ephesians or others are said to be built upon the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles and upon Jesus Christ the chief Corner-stone and how they grow into an Holie Temple 4. When the Prophet saith that the stone cut without hands did become a Great Mountain he supposeth that it should be a living stone And when
he hath a more peculiar right of Dominion over us over all that pertain unto his Church then by right of Creation he hath as God then by right of Redemption or Attonement he hath as God and Man For That part of our nature that flesh and blood which he took of his Mother was his by a more peculiar Title and real property then it was God the Fathers or the Holie Ghosts and we by mystical and spiritual union with that part of the humane nature which he assum'd into the Unitie of his Divine Person are His at least He by this union is our Head and Lord by a more strict and proper Title then God the Father or God the Holie Ghost is By the former Title of Redemption or satisfaction made for us he is our Lord and we his servants By this Title of mystical Union with him he is the Bridegroom or Head the Church is his Spouse and being Head of the Church every member of it is bound as God by the Psalmist exhorts the Spouse Psal 45. to worship him as our Lord and God for the husband is Lord of the wife He bought all our souls being in the state of Aliens or bond-servants and after cleansed and purified them that they might be espoused to him and finally presented to his Father He hath purchased the Church of God saith St. Paul with his own blood Acts 20. 28. And again Eph. 5. Christ gave himself for the Church that he might Sanctifie it and cleanse it by the washing of water through the word That he might make it unto himself a glorious Church c. ver 25 26 27. CHAP. VIII What our Confession of Christ to be The Lord importeth and how it redounds to the Glory of God the Father 1. EVery tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Our Lord by a peculiar real Title To this Confession every Son of Adam to whom God hath given the use of the tongue is bound de Iure but many sons of Adam to whom God hath given the use of the tongue do not confess so much de Facto The Jews with their tongues flatly deny him to be the Lord or their promised Messias The Turks and Mahumetans confess him to be a Lord of Christians but deny him to be The Lord The chief Lord under God the Father This title of Chief Lord they ascribe to Mahomet and under his right they pretend a title of dominion over Christendom The Heathens which know not God do not so much as question whether he be a Lord or whether He or Mahomet be under God the chief Lord. But as for us Christians we all to whom God hath given the use of the tongue do confess him to be The Lord As for those to whom the use of the tongue is by the course of nature and Gods ordinarie providence denyed others for them do ingage themselves at Sacred Baptisme that they when God shall grant them a heart to understand and a tongue to speak shall confess him to be the Lord and to be unto them their Lord. And in case they dye before they come to possesse the use of their hearts or of their tongues the Church or parish wherein this profession of faith was made on their behalfs are bound to profess thus much for them And as God no doubt accepts the prayers of the Church wherein they are baptized for them which cannot so much as speak to men much less pray to God or to Christ That they may be admitted into his visible Church and be reputed as members of his mystical bodie so doubtless he will accept the prayers of the Church and of every faithfull member of the Church wherein they live and dye that they may be accepted into the Church Triumphant and to us invisible albeit they never attained unto the use of the tongue or when as the Lord which gave others this blessing hath taken it from them For even of the tongue or of the use of the tongue that of Iob is most true and to be resumed by all as well by the dying as by the living by him for his owne part and by the living on his behalfe the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1. 21. 2. Thus every tongue is bound de Jure to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord that Lord whom Job so long before did confess But though every tongue of men throughout the world every tongue of Christians of Jewes of Mahumetans or Infidels should from their birth confess thus much would this be enough for that acknowledment which here is required that Jesus Christ is the Lord or would such acknowledgement of every tongue be sufficient to pay that tribute which is due unto the Glorie of God the Father from this Confession which is here required that Jesus Christ is the Lord No it is not the Confession of every tongue that will suffice albeit the acknowledgment or Confession of every tongue be de jure required In this speech Every tongue must confess c. there is a Twofold Universalitie included The One of the Parties thus confessing or aknowledging The Other of the Duties or services to be performed by everie party thus acknowledging Christ to be the Lord. To begin with the Former when the Apostle saith That every tongue must Confesse that Jesus Christ is THE LORD You must take this Universal note to be equivalent to that phrase so often used in the Book of the Revelation by the Evangelist and Apostle all nations and Kindreds all people and Tongues every one of all Sorts of the Sons of Adam are bound de Jure to confesse That Jesus Christ the son of God and the son of man conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the virgin Marie is THE LORD of the Dying and of the Living of the Quick and of the Dead As for all such as do not either in heart or tongue or in both either by themselves or by others for them truly acknowledge Him in this life to be such a Lord they shall acknowledge Him to be such A Lord after their Resurrection from death of which likewise He is Lord. 3. But the acknowledgment of Every Tongue or of every one to whom God hath vouchsafed either a tongue or the use of the tongue will not suffice to find him a Gracious Lord at the resurrection from the dead and at the day of finall Judgment There must be as is said an Universalitie as well of duties and services to be performed by every particular person to whom God hath given an heart to understand as an universalitie of tongues or lips which are to make this confession The real language of every heart will be sufficient for every one in particular whom God hath deprived or denied the use of the tongue But unto him to whom God hath given an understanding heart and the use of the tongue also the hearty prayers and
and Dignity of Lord and to put on The Affection of a Priest perpetually to make intercession on our behalf for Remission of sins past Rom. 3. 26. and for Grace whereby for the future we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Seeing then we have so great an High Priest Let us hold fast our Profession And let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Worthy is THE LAMB that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing Revel 5. 12. And THE LAMB shall overcome them for He is LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS Rev. 17. 14. SECTION III. Of Christs coming to Judgement 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ That every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Acts 17. 30. But now God commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given all men assurance in that he raised him from the dead Daniel 7. 9. Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living We shal All stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Revel 20. 12. CHAP. IX THe First Words contain an undoubted Maxim or principal Article of our Faith yea such a Plurality of Articles of Christian Belief that I could not choose fitter for continuation of my former Argument concerning Christs Lordship or Dominion And His Dominion as was said before was A Dominion both of Property and of Jurisdiction We are his servants not our own Men as we say we may not dispose of our own souls or bodies much less of our bodily imployments or endeavours as We please but as He pleases Or in case we wrong him by alienating the imployments of our bodies or of our souls from his service who hath the full Dominion of Propertie we cannot exempt our selves from his Dominion of Jurisdiction to which all flesh is lyable without Appeal Now of his Dominion of Jurisdiction or of his Royal Power over us the Exercise of Final Judgment is the Principal Part And of this Judgment the general Sum or Abstract is contained in 2 Cor. 5. 10. Before I enter upon the Particulars therein contained I am in General to advertise That albeit the Scripture be such A Compleat Rule of Christian Faith That neither those which are appointed to interpret the Scriptures ought to propose or commend any point or doctrine as an Article of Faith unto others nor are others bound to believe any thing as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly contained in the Scriptures or may out of the express testimonies of them be deduced by infallible Rules of Reason and Art Yet in the things believed because contained in Scripture there is a Difference to be observed Some things we believe without any Ground at all besides the meer Authority of Scriptures Other things we beleive from the Authority of Scriptures too yet so as we have the truth which the Scriptures teach concerning them ensealed unto us by Experiments answering to the Rules of Scriptures And these Experiments be of two sorts Either Observable in the general Book of Nature and course of times or Observable in our selves Of this later rank are the Articles of the Godhead of the Creation of Divine Providence of Original Sin of Final judgment and of Life and Death everlasting The Being of a Godhead or Divine Power the very Heathens which knew not Scriptures did in some sort believe of Gods Providence and of Judgment after this life the Heathens likewise had divers Notions which were as rude materials or stuffe unwrought The frame or fashioning of which Notions into true and Christian Belief cannot otherwise be effected then by the Rules of Scripture which are The Lines by which the structure or edifice of Faith must be squared or wrought Now whatsoever the Heathens without the help of Scriptures or Divine Revelations did believe or conceive concerning the Points mentioned Every Christian man which doth believe the Scriptures though but by an historical Faith may much better believe and conceive by the help of Scriptures albeit his affections be not as yet sanctified by the Spirit of Grace although he be but in the Estate of a meer Moral or Natural man so he be not delivered up unto a Reprobate sense The Branches then of my Meditations concerning this Grand Article of Christs coming to Judgment shall be in general These First Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and which every natural man so his Conscience be not seared may have Experienced in himself of a Final Judgment after this life or of a Recompence according to his wayes or works The Second By what Authoritie of Scriptures the Exercise of this Final Iudgment is appropriated to Christ The Third The manner of Christs coming to Iudgment The Fourth The parties that are to be Iudged to wit the Quick and the Dead The Fifth The Sentence or Award of this great Iudge and that is Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death Thus you see Three Principal Articles of Our Creed to wit This of Christs coming to Iudge the quick and the dead and the Two last viz. The Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting are so link't together that they cannot be so commodiously explained in several as they may be in this proposed Link or Chain CHAP. X. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to these Notions of a Final Judgment 1. THe Notions which the Heathens had of a Iudgment to passe upon them after this life were of Two Sorts Either Implicite and Indirect such â—s give better Testimony to us then they made of it to themselves or Direct and Express though indefinite and imperfect and mingled for the most part with some errour And these Later are most frequent in the ancient heathen Poets Many of whose Testimonies to this purpose are so Express and direct that they may well seem to have been taken from some scattered Traditions of that truth which God had revealed unto the Patriarchs before the Law was written or from the written Law it self which it is probable Plato with some other Philosophers and Poets had read at the least received at the second hand However unless the truth concerning this point delivered in Scriptures had been imperfectly implanted in mens hearts by nature these meer natural men could not have submitted their Assent or Opinions unto it That not the ancient Poets onely but the ancient Philosophers had an
meer instinct of nature or would be as far to seek if he were put to give the true reason of it as the poor Pilgrim in the Fable was who being kindly entertained by a Satyr which had found him blowing his fingers for extremity of cold in the woods was unkindly thrust out of his house only for seeking to cool his broth with the same breath wherewith he had warmed his fingers 4. But in what practises or resolutions in the heathen was this divine truth of a Judgment after this life necessarily included The particulars are many but most of them may be reduced unto this General As many of the heathens as either esteemed the love of virtue honestie or godliness more dear then this mortal life with its appurtenances temporal or as many of them as did abhorre the practise of any villani or impietie more than death whatsoever they themselves did expresly say or think concerning this Article of Final Judgment in particular did by these practises or resolutions give authentick testimony unto it Now that virtue or honesty were to be more esteemed then this mortal life with all the commodities of it the most part of heathen Philosophers besides the Sect of Epicures did grant and maintain The Stoicks went further in the esteem of moral virtue then any wise Christian will do in practise then any good Christian ought to do in opinion but of their errors or Hyperboles anon Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers grants that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that some things be absolutely good so good that a man ought to love them more than life or rather to abandon life than their practise Some things again he grants absolutely evil So evil that a man ought rather to chuse death then adventure upon them such are Treason against our native Country Incest Perjury c. This great Philosopher in expresly granting thus much is necessarily concluded by his own Principles to grant a life after this life ended much better then this and a death or an estate of life much worse than death to such as have lived and died dishonestly Nor is he thus far concluded onely by his own Principles but by the very Principles of Nature whose chief Secretary he was For every thing that hath Being doth by an indispensable Law of nature desire the continuance of such Being as it hath but most of all of its Well-being or bettering of its present estate Now if mans hopes or fears were terminated in this life as needs they must with this life be terminated unless we grant a Judgment after death or an award of the evils which men fear or of the good things which they hope every man were bound in reason and by nature to seek the preservation or continuance of his own life before all things in the world besides Nothing were to be esteemed worse then a bodily death nothing so good as continuation of bodily life with health and competency Much better it were to be a part of this visible world then utterly not to Be. To avoid or put off this utter not-Being so long as were possible no devise could be dishonest no practise amiss We do not blame bruit beasts for making what shift they can for maintaining or saving their lives no means which they can use to this end onely are by us accounted foul for as we say they do but follow kind or do as nature directs them But what is the reason why in thus doing they do not amiss nor deserve blame Because nothing can be so ill to them as death nothing so good as life But for a Man to transform himself into a Beast or to continue beastly or filthy practices for continuance or preservation of his bodily life this the very Heathens did detest as unnatural base and odious What was the reason they saw by light of nature that man had better hopes then beasts are capable of as it were wrapped up for him in the constant practice of honesty and vertue and was capable withal of greater evil which might accrew from a dishonest and filthy life then any evil that is incident to the nature of beasts yet did not that Good which good men did aim at either in practice of virtue or by declining vice always betide them in this life in the Judgement of most Heathen 5. Two things there were which most later Heathens not the Stoicks onely did highly extol in Regulus the one That he did prefer the love of his Countrie before the contentments of this life which he might have enjoyed in plenteous manner The other That he did prefer a lingring and cruel death before the stain or guilt of perjury For being in hold or durance amongst the Carthaginians he was remitted to Rome upon oath That if he did not effect what they had given him in charge to treat for he should return again to Carthage and undergo such punishment as they should think fit to inflict It was in his power to have effected with the Romans that which the Carthaginians did desire but he would not use his power to perswade but rather to disswade the Romans from condescending to their enemies desire because he saw it would be prejudicial to their Commonweal and posterity though advantageous to him in particular But he accounted it rather loss then gain as well to himself as to the Roman State to save the life though of some worthy Peer as he was by breach of Oath or Perjury and in this resolution he returned unto the Carthaginians although he knew they resolved to put him to cruel and lingring torture The Observation upon this resolution of Regulus which will generally serve for all the like by what Heathen soever practised or commended is briefly This No humane practise or resolution can be truly commendable but onely so far as it helps to make the Practitioner a better man then he was before or could continue to be without such practise Was Regulus then a better man by this practise then without it he could have been Or did it truly propagate or continue that goodness which before he had If he by doing this did not continue his former goodness or become a better man his commendations are unjust the Fact it self was not truly commendable was no argument either of reason or wit in the Practiser or of honesty in the Resolution If by this Resolution he became a better man then before he was or without it could have been somewhat of Regulus did after the accomplishment of this fact remain to receive the due reward of this Resolution as either his soul his body or both For every real Accident or Attribute necessarily supposeth a real subject to support it and if no better doom had been reserved for Regulus then that which the Carthaginians his chief Judges on earth did award him he could not possibly either have continued or bettered his well-being by undertaking it it was altogether impossible for him to
which is alwayes more lively by night then by day but in the application or composition of such representations whilest they dream This commonly is as imperfect or monstrous as if one should be able to name his Letters right but not able to spell or make a syllable otherwise then by rote or guess or apt to put those syllables ill-favouredly together which he had severally spelled not much amiss Like to mens apprehensions of these Dreams were most speculations of the Heathens concerning the truth or manner of a final Iudgment or future Resurrection whose indefinite Notions Nature had implanted in their hearts So vain and idle they were for the most part in their Collections or applications of what they conceived that no more credence was to be given unto their particular speculations or doctrine then unto a sick mans apprehensions of his present Dream But however many of them did write and speak of a future Iudgment more out of Art and imitation of others then out of any solid Experiments yet was it not possible that the wits of all or most of them of the Antients especially should have been set a working in this Argument without some undoubted and experienced impulsions of nature seeking to lead or drive them upon that Truth which we Christians are expresly taught by a Better Master then Nature 12. Other Dreams there be which are reputed natural whose observation is very useful because they have real Causes in nature and alwayes exhibit either a true Crisis or notice of mens present estate of body or some right Prognosticks of some disease growing upon them whose original or progress is to their waking thoughts unsensible or unapprehended Howbeit the right interpretation or signification of such suggestions or intimations as nature gives to men in Dreams is usually unknown or much mistaken for the present by the parties to whom they are immediately made by nature They must be expounded or Judged of by the Physician or Philosopher Some men no way distempered nor disquieted in thought have dreamed that some part of their Legs or Arms have been turned into a stone or into an Icie substance The apprehension or composition was vain and false yet not without a true and observable Cause The Physician did by the relation of the circumstances perceive as the Event did prove a cold humor beginning to settle in that part of the body whose transformation was represented in the Dream and gather'd withall that the humor not thence removed would breed a numness or oppression of the nerves in that part Others oft times dream not from any thoughts or discourses to that purpose that they are flying in the air or can jump from one place to another further distant then any man can conceive it possible for himself or other terrestrial creatures to leap or skip The Philosopher or Physician knows this or the like representation made in sleep not occasioned from any late waking thoughts to be a token of a clean stomack of pure blood or lively spirits Others I have heard of in the midst of their quiet sleep have suddenly cryed out as if they had been stabbed under the ribs Themselves after they awaked and such as heard them before they were awakt knew the conceit or apprehension to be altogether false yet not vain or idle in respect of the Cause or observation The skilful Physician from this their mis-apprehension rightly apprehended a salt humor violently distilling upon the lungs ready to breed a dangerous Consumption whose removal would have been more difficult had not Nature given this imperfect advice or forewarning for the speedy prevention of it This secret advice or forewarning of Nature was so much the more to be credited because no occasion of any quarrel no thought or discourse tending to the representation of any such fear had presented it self to the waking thoughts of the party thus dreaming for a long time before Every real occasion of joy or fear the very least annoyance or pleasance that can befall our bodies in night-sleep or slumber as the Philosopher long ago observed is apt to misinform our Common sense or Judicative faculty being now surprised by sleep with representations or conceipts of the greatest delight or fear that is of the same kinde with that which is really represented as if a drop of sweet flegm do distil upon the swallowing place it raiseth an apprehension of honey or other sweet meat to which the tast of the party thus dreaming hath been accustomed and from this Original hungry men in their sleep feed their Phantasies with apprehension of pleasant Banquets Abundance of choler oft-times raiseth an apprehension of some great fire And nothing more common then for men troubled with flux of Rheum from the brain to dream of drowning or danger by floods or water The least oppression of the motive faculty will occasion the Ephialtes or Gigas that affection which we commonly call The Mare In all these and the like affections Nature doth her part however the Parties to whom she secretly suggests these signs or tokens of their bodily estate or constitution do for the most part grosly erre in their constructions of them until they be rectified or better instructed by the Physician or Philosopher who onely know the natural causes of such representations by sleep which is as a false glass wherein every thing appears much greater to the Phantasie then in nature it is or would appear to our vigilant senses 13. In like manner the best apprehensions or collections which the Heathens made of those Real Notions which are by nature implanted of a Final Judgement were erroneous their Doctrinal speculations or expressions were no better then an ignorant mans apprehension of his natural Dreams howbeit even the speculations of such Heathens as did most erre in particular do minister much matter of true and useful Contemplation unto the Christian Divine part of whose office it is or should be to search the original of others errors whose rectification must be made by the Scripture which is the Rule of Life without whose Aphorisms or directions the apprehension of natural Notions or Suggestions even when they work most strongly would lead or push the Physicians of souls themselves into Heresie Of all the Sects of Heathen Philosophers the Sect of Epicures did seek most earnestly to exempt themselves from the Jurisdiction and their actions from the Cognizance of A divine Providence yet could they not so dead the working of the Notion of it in themselves or hood-wink their own understandings so close as not to apprehend or observe the working of it in others Epicurus himself albeit he placed felicity in the moderate pleasures of this life though not in bodily pleasures onely for he was not so gross as to exclude the delights or pleasures of the soul or minde but rather required a competency of bodily pleasures for the fruition of this delight yet however he failed in his apprehensions of
observe did report of Them to the Asiaticks who slandered and persecuted them Take notice saith he of the late and daily Earthquakes compare our estate with theirs They he means Christians have more confidence to God-ward then you have 15. This was The solid Truth whose liveless Lineaments or obscure Picture nature had drawn unto the Heathen in the former indefinite Notions or Suggestions The best fruits of a good conscience the principal end why we are to study and labor for the preservation of our Consciences void of offence towards God and man throughout the whole course of our life is that we may be enabled in that last day to stand without horror or confusion before the Son of Man As peace of conscience breedeth confidence so the onely Fountain whence this peace of conscience can issue must be our reconciliation to that supreme Judge whose doom or Censure the Consciences of meer natural men implicitly or by instinct of Nature dread albeit they cannot apprehend the express manner of the Judgement to come or who it is that shall be Judge Both these and all like points which are necessary unto true Christian Faith must be learned out of the Book of Life Thus much of the First General viz. Heathen Notions of a Judgement to come c. we proceed to the second according to the method proposed in the 9 th Chapter CHAP. XI By what authority of Scripture the Exercise of this Final Judgement is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ 1. THat there was to be a Judgement general to all but most terrible to the wicked and ungodly was a Truth revealed before any part of the sacred Books now extant were written But if it be a Revelation more ancient then the written Canon what warrant can we have to believe it besides Tradition Is then Tradition a sufficient warrant for us to believe unwritten verities or Revelations made to Gods Saints for many thousand years ago It is not unless the Tradition be expresly avouched by some Canonical Writer But then it or rather the Vouchers authority concerning the truth of the Tradition is to be believed So that our Belief in this Point must be resolved into a written verity or a parcel of Canonical Scripture The Revelation concerning the final Judgement whereof we now speak was made to Enoch before the Flood The Avoucher of this Revelation is St. Jude ver 14 15. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Besides the authority of St. Jude which makes this Tradition to be no more a meer Tradition but Canonical Scripture we have other more special Grounds to believe that Enoch did thus Prophesie then we have to believe any other pretended Revelations which are not contained in Scripture The truth and certainty of this Judgment denounced by Enoch was so publickly and notoriously known that the Hebrew Church before our Saviours incarnation did begin the Writ or Instrument of their Great and terrible Excommunication with the first words of Enochs Prophesie Dominus veniet the Lord shall come As if they meant to bind the party whom they excommunicated besides all other punishments or infamies over to this Grand Assize But is there in this Prophecie any particular character of Christ Any pregnant intimation that this Great Judge of the world should be the Second Person in the Trinity rather then The First In the words themselves there is no peculiar Character of Christ save only in The Title LORD which as we said before is peculiar to Christ whether it be in the Original exprest by the word Jehovah or Adonai whensoever Judgment or visible exercise of Jurisdiction Regal is the subject or matter of the prophetical discourse as in this Prophecy of Enoch it is Besides this Character in the words of the prophecie the Prophet himself Enoch was a lively Type of Christ the great Prophet in the very ground of his Title to Lordship and Jurisdiction Enoch was translated that he should not see death but before his translation had this testimony that he Pleased God Hebr. 11. 5. Before his Translation he denounced this Wo or Curse against all that continue in ungodliness fore warning the world withal that the Lord himself whose Embassador he was should come to put his Embassage in execution The congruity of the Fact or Type with the Body fore-shadowed implies that this Propheeie was then to be fulfilled after the Prince of Prophets had been translated as Enoch was from earth but in a higher degree then Enoch was into heaven it self And albeit before his translation he had a more ample Testimony then Enoch had this is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased yet was he not made Lord and King and Judge till after his Resurrection and Translation From that time the Angels and Principalities and Powers even all the Hoast of Heaven intimated by Enoch became by that Title subject unto him That Christ is that very Lord against whom those ungodly men whom Enoch mentions did speak such bitter words our Apostle St. Paul though obscurely yet fully implies in the conclusion of his first Epistle to the Corinthians chapt 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let him be accursed or excommunicated with that Great and terrible Excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Lord shall come for so they call their Excommunication as we do Writs by the first words of the Writ or Instrument and these were the first words of Enochs Prophecie Veniet Dominus The Lord shall come The full meaning or implication of the Apostle is That whosoever doth not love the Lord Jesus shall be liable to all the Iudgments or Woes denounced by Enoch against the hard speeches of ungodly Sinners which they have spoken against their Lord and Iudge 2. That God is Judge of all the Earth that there shall be a final Judgment generally awarded to all the Inhabitants of the Earth by God himself the places of the old Testament are infinite I shall only touch the principal or more pregnant testimonies to this purpose To begin with the First Gen. 18. 22. When the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom Abraham stood yet before The Lord and drawing neer he said wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked ver 23. And again ver 25. To slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee Shall not The Judge of all the Earth do right Thus he spake in the case of Sodom whose Judgment this Lord and Judge of all the earth was then
ready to put in execution Now this Judgment of Sodom was but as a Private or Particular Sessions to give the world an undoubted pledge of that General and Terrible Judgment which must be given upon all such as they were by the same Lord 's visible appearance before whom Abraham did now appear as Advocate or Intercessor for these men of Sodom So St. Iude instructs us Ver. 6 7. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire There were Three in number which then appeared unto Abraham under the shape and likeness of men yet to his apprehension more then Men Angels of the Lord or the Lord Himself in a Trinity of Angels representing the Blessed Trinity in which as Athanasius tels us there are not three Lords but one Lord Yet though there be but one Lord Iehovah and though the Father Son and Holy Ghost be This One Lord yet as we said Chap. 6. 7. The Son of God is Adonai or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord or Judge by peculiar Title and by such personal Right as God the Father and God the Holy Ghost is not Lord and Judge And for this reason albeit there were Three that appeared to Abraham yet Abraham directs his speech unto One as unto his Lord this Lord did vouchsafe his answer unto Abraham after the men which appeared unto him turned their faces thence and went towards Sodom Other Testimonies to this purpose are most frequent in the book of Psalms Psal 50. 1 2 3. The mighty God even the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall not keep silence a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him And ver 6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is Judge himself Psal 93. 1 2. The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty the Lord is cloathed with strength wherewith he hath girded himself The world also is established that it cannot be moved Thy Throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Every Throne or Tribunal is established for execution of Judgment But this Throne though established of old or from Eternity yet was not the Judgment for which this Throne was established executed from eternity or so executed at any time before the Date of this Psalm as the Psalmist expected in due time or at the end of time it would be And the Author of the next Psalm whether the same or some other conceives a solemn prayer for the speedy execution of that Judgment which was to proceed from the former Throne which had been established from everlasting and to be executed by that God to whose honor the former Psalm was consecrated O Lord God saith the Psalmist Psal 94. 1 2 3 4. to whom vengeance belongeth O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self lift up thy self thou Judge of the Earth render a reward to the proud Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph how long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves To omit other testimonies to the like purpose This one Observation is general to all As the Messias who was first promised and but Promised only to Adam was afterwards Promised by Oath to Abraham and to David and by them to all mankind So this future general Judgement which was first revealed for ought we read to Enoch afterwards known to Abraham and to David and to the Psalmists were they one or more was afterwards confirmed by the Oath of God himself unto the Prophet Esay Cap. 45. ver 22 23. Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else I have sworn by my self the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear 3. All these Testimonies are Concludent that God is Judge of all the earth and that there shall be A final Judgment executed by God himself But the Point wherein the Reader as I suppose expects satisfaction is From what authentick Testimony of Scripture it is or may be made as clear and evident that This final Iudgment shall be personally executed by the Son of God or by the Man Christ Jesus As much as to this purpose can be required is avouched by our Apostle St. Paul Rom. 14. 11. It is written as I live saith the Lord Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God The written Testimony which he avoucheth is That before last cited Esay 45. 23. And from this Testimony he infers these Two Conclusions the Former ver 10. which is the same with 2 Cor. 5. 10. We shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ The Later ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God The Issue or Corollary of both Conclusions is That Iesus Christ is that Lord and God which had interposed his Oath unto the Prophet Esay that every knee should bow unto him This Issue of both Conclusions Rom. 14. is more fully exprest Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father But for more full satisfaction some here may justly Demand Whether St. Paul did make this interpretation of the Prophet Esay by some new Revelation of the Spirit made in particular to him unknown to most others before that time Or whether the interpretation of the Prophet Esay and of other like prophecies which he made were literally and really included in the prophecies themselves and ratified by the General Analogie of Faith or by the Common Rule of interpretation in those times sufficiently known to the learned whose eyes were not blinded with passion nor prejudiced with partiality to their own Sects or Factions To this we Answer that St. Paul's Interpretation of the Prophet was really included in the literal sense of the Prophecie and the literal sense or construction which he made of the fore-cited passage in the Prophet Esay and other Prophets was warrantable by the Common Rule of Interpretation sufficiently known in those times The Rule is General That all those places of the old Testament which
Question Art Thou The Christ Our Saviour in the morning answered If I tell you you will not believe Luke 22. 67. And it is probable our Saviours words related by St. Matthew thou sayest it include as much as if he had said Thy Conscience tels thee though thou wilt not hearken to it nor believe it that I am Christ the Son of God but howsoever you will not now believe it nevertheless hereafter you shall be inforced to acknowledge it Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Then the High Priest rent his clothes saying he hath spoken blasphemy what further need have we of witnesses Indeed if the matter which he confessed had been truly Capital his own confession being made before a competent Judge had been a sufficient and full conviction without any further witness But there was nothing in his Answer which according to these High-Priests Rules or Principles could bear so much as the least colour or appearance of any Crime much less of Blasphemy unlesse their hearts had been infected with malice against his Person They now condemn him of Blasphemy in their own Court And yet immediately after they accuse him of Treason in the Roman Court for saying he was the King of the Iews Their accusation in both was so grosly malicious that it did plainly reverberate or reflect upon themselves For if to be King of the Iews were Treason against the Roman State then the High-Priests and Elders with all their complices were traytors because they expected their Messias to be a temporal King greater then Caesar But such is their malice against Jesus of Nazareth that rather then he should be acknowledged for their Messias they would make their Messias a traytor their own doctrine concerning him to be treason Rather then they will acknowledge Iesus of Nazareth to be the Son of God or the Son of man appointed to be the Iudge of quick dead they will make their Messias to be a Blasphemer the Prophets doctrine concerning his Personal Office to be blasphemy for if the vail of malice had been removed from their hearts or if they had not looked upon our Saviours Answer through it there is no branch or part of this Answer which was not distinctly and expresly foretold by the Prophets As That their expected Messias should be both the Son of God and the Son of Man and the Judge of all the earth First David had said of their Messias Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool Psal 110. 1. Here was the Seat of his Judgment prepared at the right hand of Power His Coming likewise in the clouds as the Son of Man to the Antient of dayes to receive this Power and Jurisdiction is expresly foretold by Daniel Chap. 7. ver 13. And was it not now full time that God as the Psalmist before had prayed Psal 82. 8. should arise to Iudge the earth when as malice had so far perverted the Judgement of the children of God of Moses and Aarons Successors that they had adjudged the Son of God to death for avouching himself to be the Judge of the quick and the dead 6. The Particular Duties whereunto the Belief of this Article doth unpartially bind all may be prest upon the soul of the Reader with better opportunity when we come unto the later General branches proposed viz. the Process or Sentence The most general fruit which this Second Branch affords is Comfort in oppression or when Judgment either publickly or in our own particular is perverted Tully that famous Orator and great States-man seeing his Country laws and priviledges overthrown and his Country brought into Slavery by Augustus writes unto the Emperor that he for his part would leave this world and prefer a complaint against him unto the Decii and Curii Antient Romans which had laid down their lives for the Liberty of their Country long before Thus to desire rather to die then to behold the evil which was likely to befal that goodly and flourishing Common-weal was not amiss not in it self unchristian For so God in mercy takes away good and merciful men before he begin to execute his severe and publick Judgments upon any Land lest they should see the evil to come And out of the strength of this good desire perhaps it was that Tully albeit he had been noted for timorousness in his prosperity did entertain a violent death with manly and Christian-like Courage But alas what a miserable comfort was it which he could hope for from Decius or Curius or from any of his deceased Predecessors whom he knew not where or in what estate to find With what constancie and patience would this man have maintained a just Cause specially his Countries right whether by living or dying if his heart had been fraught with Belief or hopes of finding so wise so gracious so upright and powerful a Judge as we acknowledge Christ Jesus the Son of God to be If he be for us what can be against us If he be pleased to heal us what wounds can hurt us If he acquits us what Sentence or condemnation can prejudice us The Heathen Poet and Epicurean Philosopher had observed Integer vitae scelerisque purus Horace Carm lib. Non eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu c. 1. Ode 22. That there could be no weapons whether offensive or defensive so useful as integrity of life and soundness of Conscience He that was thus armed needed no other armour or weapons This was but a dreaming apprehension of that Confidence which our Apostle deduceth from its true original Rom. 8. ver 31. to 37. In all these things we are more then Conquerors I do not herein dissent from them And I could wish they would not herein dissent from me 7. I know a great many ready to derive this Confidence from the doctrine of Election or Predestination but think that their perswasions of their own Election and Predestination are but vain and meerly Jewish unless in all their troubles and oppressions they become like unto their supream Judge in these Two Points First in the Integrity or uprightness of the Cause for which they suffer oppressions or grievances Secondly in suffering grievances though openly wrongful with Meekness and Patience A Lesson most necessary for these times though hard to learn in this and neighbour places Many I dare not say all or most part of whose Inhabitants are of that disposition and education that they neither know how to entertain wholesom Justice or Government with that obedience and respect which they owe unto it nor can brook any injustice or error in judgement though executed by their lawful Magistrates or Superiors without intemperate speeches undecent opposition or unmannerly Censure Yet let me tell them that this proneness to speak evil of Dignities and Dominions whether Ecclesiastick or Temporal is one of those grievous
seem a welcom Messenger and loss of life and external senses a gainfull exchange if by their loss we might be exempted or acquit from those fearfull Sights wherewith the eyes or from those hideous noyses wherewith the eares and hearts of all then living shall be filled But most men hope for or at least expect a dissolution of this sensitive life before the appearance of that great and terrible day And this very Imagination or conceipt that all our senses shall be locked up by death the eares utterly deprived of hearing the eyes of sight that the whole body even the heart if self being bestript of all feeling or motion shall put on a thick covering of sad earth doth for the most part benum our senses enfeeble our faith and dead our apprehensions either of the Terrours of that day or of the joyes that shall ensue unto all them that do escape them Whilst we think of death or of their estate which have been long dead and consumed in the grave we say in our hearts not as the Psalmist did Lord shall the dead praise thee but shall the dead fear thee O Lord shall such as descend into the pit are covered with dust and resolv'd into rotteness be affrighted with thy voice or stand amazed at thy appearance Thus then as there is no Article of Christian Faith more available to make men live a Christian life then this Article of the last general Judgement So is there no branch either of this general nor any other Article of Christian Faith in particular which requireth more fortification whether from the store-house of the book of Nature or from the book of Grace then this point of the Resurrection doth This is the Hold which Satan the sworn enemy of our Souls eternal peace and welfare seeks by all means to surprize and subvert and unto whose speedie surprizal or utter subversion flesh and blood have been in all Ages most prone to yeild their consent and furtherance As Christ Crucified was the main stumbling-block to the Iew So the preaching of his Resurrection and of our hopes of a joyful Resurrection by the power and virtue of His was the main rock of offence of Contradiction or gain-saying to the Infidels or irreligious Heathens When the Athenians saith S. Luke Act. 17. 32. these were the most civil and learned people amongst the Heathen heard of the Resurrection of the dead some mocked others said we will hear thee again of this thing The rest of his Learned and Philosophical discourse all of them heard with atention and would he have spoken more they would have been willing to have heard him longer upon any other Argument But their entertainment of this Treatise of the Resurection was generally so rude so unrespective on their parts and so unwelcome to him that he immediately departed from them Howbeit God did not leave the truth deliverd by him even in this point without competent Testimonie for Denys of Areopagus and a woman named Damaris with some others did believe Paul But these were but a few in respect of them that did not believe or did mock him Now it is a Rule undoubted that The same motives or temptations which drew the heathen to contradict or oppugn the truth will abate or weaken the Assent of Christians unto the same truth unless they be removed by discovery of their original error 2. The Errors concerning the Final Judgment in general or indefinitely considered are specially Three The First of such as denied the Divine Providence over men or did confine it to this transitory life without expectation of any account or reckoning to be made after death And these were but few among the ancient Heathens to wit the sect of Epicures whose opinion was refuted by the verdict of most other Heathens and by the contradiction which the denial of the Divine Providence did include unto the opinions of the Epicures themselves The Second gross Error or branch of infidelity concerning the Final Judgement was The denial of the Immortality of the human soul And this was accounted an Heresie or impious opinion by the most and hath been exquisitely refuted by the most learned amongst the Heathens The third Error or branch of infidelity concerning the Final Iudgment was The denial ignorance or doubt of the Resurrection of the body or of the whole man as consisting of body and soul And this Error in some degree or other was most general to all the heathen All such as denied either the Divine Providence or the Immortality of the Soul all such as doubted or were ignorant of either of these truths did likewise deny or were doubtful or ignorant of the Resurrection of the body But on the contrary neither all nor most of such as did deny or were ignorant or doubtful of the Resurrection of the body did either deny or were ignorant or doubtful of the immortality of the soul But no marvel if the heathens which did not doubt of the immortality of the soul were altogether or for the most part ignorant of the Resurrection of the body when as in this Church of Corinth which God had visibly graced with many excellent gifts of the Spirit there were some a great sort too many which said There was no Resurrection of the dead and the Thessalonians a people docile and apt to take the impression or most lively character of Christianity a people excelling other Christians in brotherly love were ignorant in part of this great Mystery and from their ignorance or scant measure of knowledge in it did mourn beyond measure for their dead 1 Thess 4. 13 c. Of these Corinthians and Thessalonians and of the Heathens that of our Saviour unto the Sadduces Matth. 22. 29. is most true They therefore erred because they knew not the Scriptures nor the Power of God We are then First To remove that Obstacle of Impossibility which is pretended from Nature and may seemingly be argued by natural and Philosophical Reasons Secondly To set down the manner of the Resurrection and the positive Proofs of it out of the Scriptures or Word of God 3. Albeit none of the heathens did expresly acknowledge such a Resurrection as we believe although the most of them were ready to deny it when it was proposed unto them yet many of them had divers Implicit Notions of it There were though not in any one Sect of their Philosophers yet in divers Sects such scattered Reliques or Fragments of this Eternal Truth as being skilfully put together will represent more then most Christians conceive of it The First Fragment or implicit Notion of it was That antient Opinion fathered upon Pythagoras That the soules of men after their departure from their proper bodies did according to their several demeanors enter into bruit Beasts or other creatures The souls of men which had been given to spoil and raven were in this Philosophers opinion to be imprisoned in the bodies of
or Title of being called the sons of God And under this style it is promised ver 9. Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the sons of God 13. Yet all these qualifications were not sufficient unless they be accompanied with a firm and constant resolution to suffer persecution all the persecution that flesh and blood can in this life devise against them rather then they should forego their humilty their mourning their meekness their love of righteousness their mercifulness and puritie of heart towards God There must be a greater love of all these qualifications here mentioned then of our selves otherwise we shall be uncapable of the least portion of the Blessedness here so often promised This patience in suffering or constant resolution to endure persecution is the very girdle or tie of all other Christian vertues and for this reason it is twice repeated Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness sake ver 10. And again ver 11. Blessed are you when men shall revile you c. 14. Many may be forward to suffer persecution yea to affect it but as he said Res ingeniosa est esse Christianum It is a matter of extraordinary wit to be a true Christian unto true Martyrdom there is required not only sobrietie of spirit but of Iudgement for none can be a Martyr but he that suffers for Righteousness sake or for Christs sake who is such a fountain of righteousness as the sun is of light Now to discern true righteousness from pretended or to sever Christs Cause from our own particular Interest or engagements is a point of extraordinary skill Whereas it is an easie matter to pawn our fame or credit our very lives in maintenance of that which we have boldly avouched to be true and just None were more forward to sacrifice themselves for their Religion then were the Jews which yet blasphemed the name of Christ and the wayes of truth after they had crucified the Lord of truth and of glory none more forward then they to raise up persecution against the Apostles and disciples in every City and albeit many of them were put to cruell and ignominious deaths for their stiff adherence to Moses Law as they imagined yet Martyrs they were not because they died not for Moses sake nor for his sake for whom Moses wrote but for maintenance of their own perverse opinions and affections For though they abhorred the Idols of the heathen yet they committed more abominable sacriledge then the Heathens did for of all kinds of Idolatry or Sacrilegious worship the most untoward and least to be pittied is when men are prone to sacrifice themselves to their own pride or head-strong ignorance 15. The truth is that no man can suffer persecution for righteousness sake but he that is a follower of righteousness and a son of peace No man can suffer persecution for Christs and the Gospels sake but he that hath learned of Christ to be humble and meek And for this reason haply it is that unto such as suffer persecution whether in their body or good name so they suffer it for Christs name the blessedness of the life to come is promised First under the same Style or Title that it was unto the poor in spirit He had said of these ver 3. That theirs is the Kingdom of heaven and of those ver 10. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven As also secondly under the same Title that it is promised to the meek of whom he had said ver 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth And unto such as are reviled and persecuted falsely for his sake he addeth verse 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven 16. And thus hath our Saviour taught us the Use and application of all that hath been delivered concerning Eternal Life And the Use or application of it is as General and large as are the commandments of God There is no duty enjoyned whereunto the hope or belief of this Eternal Reward doth not enable and bind us This was the first Lesson our Saviour taught after he entred upon his Propheticall function and it is the last Article in our Creed It is as Christ himself is Imus angularis lapis et suminus It is both the foundation stone and that which bindeth all the building nor need we be afraid to do well Intuitu mercedis with respect to recompence or reward seeing Christ himself when he first begun to Preach the glad tydings of the Gospel did make no promise of reward save only to such as continue in weldoing or suffer evil with patience And his Apostle Saint Paul exhorting us to cheerfulness in weldoing and patience in suffering proposeth the like hope of reward making Christ Iesus himself a patern for us to follow Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Heb. 12. 1 2. Nor is it possible for flesh and blood to resist either their proper Enticements or the temptations of Satan much lesse to vanquish this tempter by any other means then by serious meditation upon the several Rewards proposed unto such as shall overcome and of the several punishments which are threatned and shall be awarded unto all such as forsake the field and neglect the service of God And though it be true that we must obtain this victorie by the spirit of God yet one special means by which the spirit of God obtaines this victory for us is by representing and imprinting such punishments or plagues as are dreadful and fearful even to flesh and blood so that the flesh must be affrighted and deterred from or forth of the wayes of sin by the wages of sin And the spirit of God which is in man must be daily animated and encouraged by the hope of heavenly joyes whose very nature and qualitie is spiritual The flesh or sensitive part cannot truly apprehend the joyes of the spirit nor is the spirit so capable or so apprehensive of deadly punishment or pain as the sensitive or animal part is 17. To branch this Use or Application which our Saviour makes of this point into his proper particulars Though it be true that all of us are the seed of rebellious parents and have gone astray from the womb as well by sins of omission as of commission yet that which the heathen Philosopher long since observed if it be candidly interpreted and with such charity as becometh Christians is likewise true Nemo sponte malus No man in his
Lord to utter these words Or which is all one The fulfilling of his imprecation according to the Mystical sense Third The discussion of such Cases of Conscience or controversed Divinity as are naturally emergent out of the Mystical or Literal sense and are useful for this present or future Ages To begin with the Circumstance of the time wherein they were uttered That apparently was the dayes of King Joash Heir and Successor unto Ahaziah King of Judah who was next Successor save one unto good Jehoshaphat by lineal direct descent but no Successor at all to him in vertue or goodness or happiness of Government For Ahaziah was Pessimi patris haud melier proles a very wicked son of a most wicked father and too hard to say whether he or his Father Jehoram were the worse King or more unfortunate Governour But Joash the Orphan Son of Ahaziah hath the Testimonie of the Spirit of God That he ruled well whilst Jehiiada the High-Priest did live 2 King 12. 2. And his zeal to the House of the Lord recorded at large in this chapter as also in the 2 Kings 12. 4. was so great as more could not be expected or conceived either of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah or good Josiah And thus he continued from the seventh year of his Age until the five or six and thirtieth at the least A competent time a man would think for a full and firm growth in goodness But amongst the Sons and Successors of David we may observe that some begun their Reign very well and ended ill Others being extream bad in their beginning did end better then the other begun So Manasses in the beginning and middle of his Reign filled the City with innocent blood and died a Penitentiary This present King Joash begun and continued his Reign for thirty years or thereabouts in the spirit but ended in the flesh or rather in blood leaving a perpetual stain upon the Throne and Race of David This strange Apostacie or Revolt argues that his fore-mentioned goodness and zeal unto the House of the Lord was Adventitious and not truly rooted in his own brest That the fair Lineaments of a pious man and noble Prince were drawn not by his own skill but by the manuduction of Jehoiada the High-Priest as Children oft-times make fair letters while their Tutors guide their hands but spatter and blot and dash after they be left to their own guidance Jehoiada saith the Text waxed old and was full of dayes an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died and they buried him in the City of David among the Kings because he had done good in Israel both towards God and towards his House The solemnization of his death was a strong Argument of the respect and love which both Prince and People did bear unto him whilst he lived and much happier might both of them have been had they continued the same respect unto his Son and Successor But they buried their love unto Jehoiada and which was worst the zeal which he had taught unto the House of God in his Grave For so it followeth verse 17 18. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the Princes of Iudah and made obeysance to the King Then the King hearkened unto them and he left the House of the Lord God of their Fathers and served Groves and Idols Yet Gods love to them doth not determine with the beginning of their hate unto the House of God and to his faithful Servants For notwithstanding that wrath came upon Iudah and Ierusalem for this their trespasse yet he sent Prophets to them to bring them again to the Lord and they testified against them but they would not give ear And the Spirit of the Lord came upon or cloathed Zechariah the Son of Iehoiada the Priest who stood above the people and said unto them Thus saith God Why transgress ye the Commandement of the Lord that ye cannot prosper Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the Commandment of the King in the Court of the House of the Lord. Thus Ioash the King remembred not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done unto him but slew his Son and when he dyed he said or inter moriendum dixit The Lord look upon it and require it 3. But did the Lord hearken to him or require his blood at the Kings and Princes hands which slew him Yes that he did oftner then once For it was required of their posterity But for the present he did visit both the King and his Princes most remarkably by an unexpected Army of the Syrians unto whose Idolatrous Rites they had now conformed themselves complying too well with them and with their neighbors the Heathen in all sorts of wickedness But here the Polititian will reply That the Syrians did upon other occasions intend to do some mischeif to the King the Princes and People of Judah For it was never unusual to that Nation to vex or molest Israel or Judah Nunc olim quocunque dabant se tempore vires As often as opportunity served as often as they could spy advantage And to assign the Probable or meritorious Causes of such Plagues as befal any Nation by their inveterate enemies unto the Judgment of God for this or that sin is not safe specially for men not endued with the Spirit of Prophecie In many Causes I confess it is not yet in this particular we need not be afraid to say as much as the Spirit of God or sacred authority of his Word hath taught us We say no more as indeed we need not for the point is so plainly and punctually set down by the pen-man of this Book from verse 23. to the 26. as it needs no Comment no paraphrase or marginal conjecture any of which would rather soyl then clear the meaning of the Text. And it came to passe at the revolution of the year that the hoast of Syria came up against him and they came to Judah and Ierusalem and destroyed all the Princes of the people from amongst the people and sent the spoyls of them to Damascus c. 4. The Observations or plain Uses which these Literal Circumstances of this Story afford are many I shall touch upon some principal ones As First To admonish Kings or other supreme Magistrates to reverence and respect their Clergy seeing Ioash did prosper so well while he followed the advice and counsel of the High-Priest Iehoiada but came to this fearful and disastrous end first by contemning the warning of Zechariah the Cheif-Priest and afterward by shedding of the innocent blood of this great Prophet of the Lord. But this will be a common place not so proper to this time and place wherein we live wherein there is such happy accord between the supream Majestie and the Prelacie and Clergie of this Kingdom as no good Patriot can desire more then the continuance of it
Secondly There lies open a spacious field for such as affect to expatiate in Common Places or dilate upon that Old Maxim Laici semper sunt infensi Clericis to tax the inveterate enmity of secular men against the Clergie Whose violent out burstings into Prodigious Outrages did never more clearly appear then in the wicked suggestions of the Princes of Iudah unto infortunate King Joash against this Godly High-Priest Zechariah for his zeal unto the House and service of the God of their Fore-fathers But however the like prodigious cruelty had not been exemplified before this time yet in many later ages the Prelacie or Clergie have not come an inch short of these Lay-Princes in working and animating Kings and supream Magistrates to exercise like tyranny and oppressing cruelty not upon Laicks only but upon their Godly and religious Priests or inferior Clergie The Histories almost of all Ages and Nations since the death of Maurice the Emperor unto this last Generation will be ready to testifie whensoever they shall be heard or read more then I have said against the Romish Hierarchy whose continual practises have been to make Christian Kings the Executioners of their furious spleen against their own Clergie or neighbor Princes or to stirre up the rebellion of Lay-subjects against all such of their Leige-Lords or Soveraigns as would not submit themselves their Crowns and Dignities or which is more their Consciences unto Peters pretended Primacie The sum of all I have to say concerning this Point is This As there seldom have been any very Good Kings or extraordinary happy in their Government whether in the line of David or in Christian Monarchies without advice and assistance of a Learned and Religious Clergie so but a few have proved extremely bad without the suggestions of covetous corrupt or ambitious Priests So that the safest way for chief Governors is to keep as vigilant and strong Guards upon their own brests and consciences as they do about their bodies or palaces Now the special and safe guard which they can entertain for their souls and consciences is to lay to heart the Examples of Gods dealing with former Princes with the Kings of Judah especially according to the esteem or reverence or the dis-esteem which they did bear unto his Laws and Services 5. Another special meanes to secure even Greatest Monarches from falling into Gods wrath or revenging hand is not to hearken unto not to meditate too much upon or at least not to misconstrue a Doctrine very frequent in all Ages to wit That Kings and supreme Magistrates are not subject to the authority of any other men nor to the coercive authoritie of humane Laws The Doctrine I dare not I cannot in conscience deny to be most true and Orthodoxal And for the truth of it I can add one Argument more then usual That Gods judgments in all Ages or Nations have not been more frequently executed by Counter-passion or Retaliation upon any sort or state of men then upon Kings or Princes or greatest Potentates which pollute their Crowns and Dignities with innocent blood as King Joash did or with other like out-crying sins As if the most Just and Righteous Lord by innumerable Examples tending to this purpose would give the world to understand That none are fit to exercise Iurisdiction upon Kings or Princes besides himself and withall to instruct even Greatest Monarchs that their Exemption from all Controulment of humane Laws cannot exempt or priviledge them from the immediate judgement of his own hands or from the contrivance of his just punishments by the hands of others as by his instruments though his Enemies Agents I forbear to produce more instances of Divine Retaliation upon most Soveraign Princes besides this one in my Text which a bundantly justifieth both parts of my last Assertion or Observation Ioash as you heard before and may read when you please did more then permit did authorize or command the Princes of Iudah to murther their High-Priest Zachariah in the Court of the Lords House A prodigious liberty or licence for a King to Grant and more furiously executed by the Princes of Iudah his Patentees or Commissioners for this purpose And yet the most righteous Judge of all the world did neither animate nor authorize the Prophets Priests or Levites or other cheif men in this Kingdom to be the avengers of Blood or to execute judgement upon the King or Princes of Iudah This service in Divine Wisdom and Justice was delegated to the Syrians their neighbor Nation And the Hoast not by their own skill or contrivance but by the disposition of Divine Providence did Geometrically and exactly proportion the execution of vengeance to the quality and manner of the fact The Princes of Iudah who had murthered Zechariah in the Courts of the Temple of the Lords House were all destroyed by the Syrian Hoast in their own Land and the spoil of their Palaces sent unto the King of Damascus And King Ioash by whose authority Zechariah was stoned to death in his Pue or Pulpit after the Syrians had grievously afflicted him was slain in his own Palace upon the bed of his desired or appointed rest by the hands of two of his own servants yet neither of them by birth his native Subject the one the son of an Ammonitess the other of a Moabitess both the illegitimate off-spring of two of the worst sort of aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel In all this appears the special finger of God But though all this were done by Gods appointment yet may we no way justifie the conspiracy of Ioash his own servants against him though both aliens unless we knew what speciall warrant they had for the execution of Gods judgments which are alwayes most just However we have neither warrant nor reason to exclaim against them or their sins so farre or so much as by the warrant of Gods Word we might against the Princes of Iudah for the instigating of their lawful King or Liege-Lord to practice such prodigious cruelty as hath been exprest upon Zechariah the Lords High-Priest or against the disposition of the stiffe-necked Jewish Nation in general most perspicuous for the Crisis at that time 6. But to exclaim against the Princes or People of that Age we need not for their posterity hath amplified the cursed Circumstances of this most horrible Fact and charged these their fore-fathers with such a measure of iniquity as No Orator this day living without their directions or instructions could have done Septies in die cadit justus The just man fals seven times a day was an ancient and an authentick Saying if meant at all by the Author of it of sins and delinquences rather then of crosses and greivances which fall upon them or into which they fall was never meant of Grosser sins or transgressions But of that dayes work wherein Zechariah was slain these later Jews say Septem transgressiones fecit Israel in illo die I shall not over-English their
ignorant of his Call that had often redeemed them from their enemies How often would I have gathered you and you would not Here were large matter for Rhetorical Digressions or mellifluous Encomions of Divine Love Points wherein many Learned Divines have in later times been very copious yet still leaving the truth of that Love which they so magnifie very questionable It shall suffice me at this time First To prove the undoubted truth and unfeignednesse of Gods tender Love even towards such Cast-awayes as these proved to whom he made this protestation Secondly To unfold as far as is fitting for us to inquire how it is possible that they should not be gathered unto God nor saved by Christ whose gathering and whose safety he to whom nothing can be impossible had so earnestly so tenderly and constantly longed after These are Points of such Use and Consequence that if God shall enable me soundly though plainly to unfold their truth you will I hope dispense with me for want of artificial Exornations or words more choice then such as naturally spring out of the matters handled as willingly as the poor amongst you pardon good house-keepers for wearing nothing but home-spun cloth For as it is hard for a man of ordinary means to bestow much on his own back and feed many bellies so neither is it easie for me and my present opportunities both to feed your souls with the Truth and to cloath my Discourse with choice words and flourishing phrases And I am perswaded many Preachers might in this Argument often prove more Theological so they could be content to be lesse Rhetorical My purpose is not to dissent from any of the Reformed Churches but only in those particulars wherein they evidently dissent from themselves and from General Principles of Truth acknowledged by all that believe God or his Word 3. Were I to speak in some Audience of this Point it would be needful to dip my pen in Nectar or sweeten my voice with Ambrosia to allay the harshnesse of this Position That God should so earnestly desire the conversion of such as perish Howbeit the surest Grounds of that Charitie which God requires should be in every one of us towards all our greatest enemies not excepted is Firm Belief of this his unspeakable Love towards all even towards such as kill his Prophets and stone the Messengers of their peace I exhort saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2. 1. that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in authoritie Yet did most such in those dayes oppress Christians and draw them before Judgement Seats James 2. 6. even because they did pray unto the true God for them who did blaspheme that worthy Name c. This Dutie notwithstanding which was so odious unto those great and rich men for whose good it was performed S. Paul tells us was good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2. 3. Why acceptable in his sight Because v. 4. he would have all men and therefore the sworn enemies of the Gospel to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the truth which they now oppugned Or if the expresse Authoritie of the Apostle suffice not his Reasons drawn from the Principles of Nature will perswade such as have not quenched the Light of Nature by setting not the corruptions only but the very Essence of Nature at odds with Grace For v. 5. there is one God had there beene moe every one might have been conceived as partial for his own Creatures But in as much as all of us have but one Father his love to every one must needs be greater then any earthly Parents love unto their children in as much as we are more truly His then Children are their Parents But here as the Apostle foreseeth might be Replyed That albeit God be One and the onely Creator of all yet in as much as all of us are the Seed of Rebels with whom he is displeased our Mediator might be more partial and commend some to Gods love neglecting others To prevent this Scruple the Apostle adds ver 5. that as there is but One God so there is but One Mediator between God and Man and he of the same Nature with us A Man But men are partial yet so is not the Man Christ Jesus that is The Man annointed by the Holy Ghost to be the Saviour of the world As he truly took our flesh upon him that he might be a faithful and affectionate High Priest so that we might conceive of him as of an unpartial Solicitor or Mediator betwixt God and us he took not our Nature enstampt with any Individual Properties Characters or References to any one Tribe or Kindred Father according to the flesh he had none but was framed by the sole immediate hand of God to the end that as the eye because it hath no set colour is apt to receive the impression of every colour So Christ because he had not those carnal References which others have but was without father without brother without sister on earth might be unpartial towards all and account every one that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven as sister mother and brother Thus saith the Lord unto the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths and chuse the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a Name better then of sons and of daughters I will give them an everlasting Name that shall not be cut off Briefly he is A Brother to all mankind more loving and more affectionate then brothers of intire blood are one towards another 4. The very Ground of the Apostles Reason thus barred will of its owne accord reverberate that distinction which hath been laid against his meaning by some otherwise most worthy defendants of the truth The Distinction is that when the Apostle saith God will have all men to be saved he means Genera singulorum not singula generum Some few of all sorts not all of every sort Some rich some poor some learned some unlearned some Jewes some Gentiles some Italians some English c. The Illustrations which they bring to justifie this manner of speech did the time permit I could retort upon themselves and make them speak more plainly for my Opinion then for theirs It shall be sufficient by the way to note the Impertinencie of the Application supposing the Instances brought by them were justifiable by the Illustrations which they bring Or to shew how little it could weaken Our Assertion although it might intercept all the strength or aid this Place affords for the Fortification of it For what can it help them to turn these words because they make towards us from their ordinary and usual meaning or to restrain Gods Love only unto such as are saved when as the Current of it in