reading more learned Books than another that we know better than he Christ and the sence of Scripture And though we be like St. Paul and like Nicodemus Masters in literature brought up in Divinity skill'd in the Law and Gospel for Paul being well versed in the controversies of his time and very deep engaged against Christians Act. 22.4 26.9 cannot rationally be supposed more ignorant of the Gospel-doctrine before he was converted than all the Lip-Christians are yet until it pleaseth God to reveal his Son in us as in him Gal. 1.16 we are as far as he was to seek in the true meaning of the said doctrine of Christ and as much in the dark as to his saving knowledge until it be given us to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven a Turk a Jew a Heathen that can read the Old and New Testament and we Christians understand Christ all alike Mat. 13.11 until he that hath the key of David opens Scriptures no man saith he Rev. 3.7 openeth them till the Son of God doth come and give us understanding to know him by 1 John 5.20 the Scriptures speak unto us in Parables Mark 4.11 and are not capable alone without the other witness that testifieth of Christ John 15.26 to suggest us any true and real knowledge of him till the Comforter doth bring whatsoever Christ hath said unto our remembrance John 14.26 we neither see in seeing nor understand in reading what we read concerning him Act. 8.30 31. The Scriptures are unto us a Parable every where Jo. 16.25 and like an imperfect Tale and full of contradictions 1 Cor. 2.14 which we believe no better though the Lip-Christians perswade themselves to the contrary than the Turks the Jews the Heathen and all those Sects which we count erroneous and the worst of all Christians Mat. 13.13 And the Scriptures are to us like the Book of the Law lost in the days of Amon and Josiah 2 Kings 22.8 historicè understood and believed but neither their full contents nor the depth of their meaning better known than they were then for as the Jews did not think but that the Law was fully known and duly satisfied by the few Ceremonies and Shews performed all those days wherein the Book was not found and what it contained perused and considered of yet after they had found it and read it attentively they perceived otherwise v. 11. so we fancy that we are by learning some few notions out of our Catechism and hearing a Chapter read and a Sermon preached or repeated now and then well informed of the drift and true meaning of Scripture and are fully instructed and made wise to Salvation but when we begin once to mind what we read of them in hearing to understand and in seeing to perceive what we hear and see therein our eyes which like those of the blind man of Bethsaida Mark 8.22 did first but spy out or see some few things confusedly v. 24 are restored v. 25. and we do then become sensible indeed of our past ignorance when we find in the Field of Scripture the hidden treasure Mat. 13.44 the old things of the Vicar pag. 9. which yet are all new to us when we come to perceive them thus being both new and old v. 52. which our eyes like Agars Gen. 21.19 were held from seeing before though we had read the same place over and over often learned without-book and have of it a full remembrance He that hath ears to hear or understand let him hear needed not to have been said and proclaimed so often if the sence were plain to all and all the men that can hear and understand were capable to understand the meaning of what the Scripture saith there Many great Prophets and Kings have desired to hear what the disciples of Christ hear and have not heard it saith Christ Luk. 10.24 and shall they that are not made Kings and Priests with the Unction of Christ the only Master perceive and understand it God manifest in the flesh is without controversie so great and deep mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 that none but the Spirit of God which searcheth all things 1 Cor. 2.10 can justifie that is know and acknowledge this wisdom hidden in a mystery which none of the Princes of this world did ever know but those only whose Faith doth stand in the power of God v. 5 7 8. and that are like St. Stephen Act. 6.8 7.55 perfect and full of Spirit Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart of man conceived this hidden wisdom of God which the Angels themselves desire to pry into 1 Pet. 1.12 but God reveals them unto the faithful by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 I will get me unto the great men and speak with them saith Jeremy for all times ch 5.5 for they have known the way and the judgment of the Lord but they have altogether broken the yoke burst the bonds they steal every one my word from his neighbours books ch 23.30 and seek honour and applause so that they cannot believe and the knowledge of Christ is not manifest to them John 14.21 23. and so they cannot make it manifest to other men as I have said before The true and the only way to have it manifested is to become humble and meek Luk. 18 17. Mat. 18.3 and to be born of water with the tears of repentance John 1.31 3.5 Luk. 3.3 confessing and forsaking the sins past Prov. 28.13 like Zacheus Luk. 19.8 and then doing righteousness we shall be accepted of with God like Cornelius Act. 10.35 44. God will love us John 14.23 and meet us Isa 64.5 and make himself manifest by the understanding he will give us 1 John 5.20 unto us whilst he is neither known nor perceived of the world John 14.22 The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek or lowly in heart will he teach his way Psal 25.9 Verily the first entrance or initiation into the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven begins at the singleness of eye and humility usual to a little child who is not self-conceited nor pre-possess'd with any prejudice and opinions but receives what he is taught and endeavours both to learn and to understand it well without murmuring at it and arguing against it and deriding his Teachers as the proud Pharisees did for as by Pride Adam fell from knowledge and righteousness which two the Image of God or the Heavenly kingdom doth saith St. Paul Ephes 4.24 Coloss 3.10 consist in so by Pride men continue fallen think to be as Gods taking upon themselves to judge both good and evil Gen. 3.5 not owning their ignorance and do not embrace the contrary way to Pride which is the beginning of their rising up again And as all men are fallen short of the Image of God Rom. 3.23 1 Cor. 11.7 and are all guilty of pride prejudice and self-conceit as it may be gathered from the aversion all men the highest and the lowest from the most learned
death v. 5. And indeed it were better for false teachers to be hang'd or cast into the Sea with a stone tyed to their neck Luk. 17.1 than they should give such offence as that the Vicar's Sermon hath given to many men for when at the Judgment day one shall accuse the other that he hath caused him to erre and curse him for the evil doings he hath committed this shall then excuse himself upon his next Superiour and the Superiour upon the Supreme Authority and the Supreme Power upon his false Counsellors who having no other plea shall cast the fault of all these upon their wicked Teachers who have kept them in darkness and instead of reproving their courses to bring them to a righteous and godly life have for some Preferments sake soothed them up in their sins then shall the bloud of all these be required at their hands Ezek. 33.6 Deut. 27.18 and this great burthen shall lay so heavy on their shoulders that it were better for them to have been cut off betimes than to have lived to give the least of those that shall thus complain cause of offences And in further evidence that signs are not to convince the gainsayers of the Faith we do not find any where in Scripture that any man who was not before-hand prepared and enclined like the Proconsul Sergius Act. 13.7 was convinced thereupon for as for them which John saith 2.23 believed in the name of Christ seeing the miracle which he had done in Cana it appears from what he saith in the following verses 24,25 of Christ not thinking it fit to commit himself to them knowing what faith was in them that their faith was such as that of Simon who believed and wondred Act. 13.41 beholding the mirarles which were done ch 8.13 but believed not like them v. 12. who it is said believed at the preaching of Philip v. 17. for his heart was saith Peter v. 21 23. not right in the sight of God and he was still in the dark austere and anxious source or the gall of bitterness far from a true faith in Christ that brings man off of that state And such as that of the people of Lystra and of Derbe who after they had seen the impotent man cured and taken Paul for a God on the account of this sign ch 14.11 13. stoned him nevertheless v. 19. what no man would do that hath the least grain of Faith in him so though the Barbarians of Maltha said that St. Paul was a God ch 28.6 honoured him and loaded him and the men with him with necessaries v. 10. yet there is not one word said of any that believed at the several great things which he did there before them v. 5 8 9. But without this it is sure that Christ coming to save man salva integra humana creatura as St. Peter witnesseth and as the words of Christ in Luk. 9.56 may be expounded and he saves by reforming and restoring men unto their first state of perfection for it being very good Gen. 1.31 he needs not add or change it he must use some other means than Miracles to convince them for though a man could believe the words of Christ to be true because he should have seen him do some wonders and Miracles yet not understanding the ground and reason thereof his faith were but implicite he were not yet convinced and should still be in the dark and an imperfect humane creature Coloss 3.10 which if saved such were not saved entire and therefore whilst man is such Christ doth not take him hoodwink into his kingdom of Light but first the humane creature consisting chiefly of these three Essential faculties Intellectus Voluntas Animus seu vires potestas agendi and the perfect state wisdom or summum bonum thereof of these three well rectified God works to make man perfect upon his understanding 1 John 5.20 enlightning his mind by his Spirit and prompting him with reasons fit to convince him and to make him know himself that is find out and perceive that it is as he teacheth and that he speaks true indeed John 4.42 Then when the understanding is perfectly reformed man mistakes no more bonum apparens for the true good but apprehends wherein his summum bonum doth consist and Lux intelligendi being the most perfect Law volendi agendi as soon as he perceives this he will naturally bend his will and desire towards the same and chuse it and that done with all the strength of his courage and virtue which without the help of the power from on high that doth enable him is quite helpless he will avoid and abstain from that which keeps him from it Act. 3.26 and follow embrace and use all the means to compass it and thus may become perfect and come to be saved whole or received entirely reformed to his first state whilst others see and wonder Act. 13.41 and are left Luk. 17.36 37. in a broken and imperfect condition though Christ should have wrought all his Miracles before them John 12.37 Truly if blessed are they that have not seen yet believe John 21.29 because intelligere being ipsum credere and there being no belief of what is not understood they that believe things without seeing them done before-hand shew that they understand the possibility thereof and have more understanding and therefore are more blessed than those that must see the same before they can believe them they that would see some Miracles wrought before they believe will remain under the curse of God and in unbelief And from these things I think it is clear and manifest that Miracles convince no man and that there is no need of visible and outward signs for the conversion of the gainsayers and unfaithful but of the sign of the Son of man the Light of his Star coming imperceptibly and shining like the Lightning Mat. 24.27 in those dark clouds of heaven v. 30. And certainly if Miracles were as the Vicar saith the reason of conviction and if there was great reason that such as were the instruments of so great an undertaking in the first Age of the Church before the Gospel was a National Religion and whilst many gainsayers were yet to be convinced should have a proportionable strength of faith to do it with there is now in its old Age as great a need of Miracles and of as great strength of Faith and Spirit as there was then First on the account of the gainsayers of all parties not only Turks and Papists who are fallen from the Faith and from the purity of Christ's Gospel and Doctrine and are by reason of the prejudice they have therefore against the true followers and teachers of a Doctrine which they have departed from harder to be convinced and to be brought back again to the obedience of it but Protestants who deny the same whilst they profess it Secondly on the account of the self-conceited blindness of all Christian Sects