men made perfect after he had lent him to this unworthy world for about Five and thirty years A short life his was if we measure it by so many years but if we consider the great Ends of Life and Being in the world which he fulfill'd in his generation his great Accomplishments qualifying him for eminent Service and accompanied with as great a Readinesse to approve himself a good and faithful Servant to his gracious Lord and Master in heaven his life was not to be accounted short but long and we may justly say of him what is said by the Author of the Book of Wisdom concerning Enoch that great Exemplar of holiness and the shortest-liv'd of the Patriarchs before the flood for he lived but 365 years as many years as there are daies in one year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He being consummated in a short time fulfilled a long time For as the same Author doth well express it in some * preceding verses Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time nor that which is measured by number of years But Wisdom is the gray hair unto men and an unspotted life is old age Thus much for the Papers now published There are some other pieces of this Author's both English and Latine which may make another considerable Volume especially if some papers of his in other hands can be retriv'd For my particular I shall wish and endeavour that not the least Fragment of his may be conceal'd which his Friends shall think worthy of publishing and I think all such Fragments being gathered up may fitly be brought together under the Title of Miscellanies If others who have any of his Papers shall please to communicate them I doubt not but that there will be found in some of his Friends a readiness to publish them with all due care and faithfulness Or if they shall think good to doe it themselves and publish them apart I would desire and hope that they would bestow that labour and diligence about the preparing them for publick view and use as may testifie their respect both to the Readers benefit and the honour of the Author's memory And now that this Volume is finished through the good guidance and assistance of God the Father of lights and the Father of mercies whose rich Goodness and Grace in enabling me both to will and to doe and to continue patiently in so doing notwithstanding the many tedious difficulties accompanying such kind of labour I desire humbly to acknowledge now that the severed Papers are brought together in this Collection to their due and proper places as it was said of the Bones scattered in the vally that they came together bone to his bone Ezek. 37. what remains but that the Lord of life he who giveth to all things life and breath be with all earnestness and humility implor'd That he would please to put breath into these otherwise dry Bones that they may live That besides this Paper-life which is all that Man can give to these Writings they may have a living Form and Vital Energy within us That the Practical Truths contained in these Discourses may not be unto us a Dead letter but Spirit and Life That He who teacheth us to profit would prosper these Papers for the attainment of all those good Ends to which they are designed That it would please the God of all grace to remove all darkness and prejudice from the Mind and Heart of any Reader and whatsoever would hinder the fair reception of Truth That the Reader may have an inward Practical and feeling knowledge of the Doctrine which is according to Godliness and live a life worthy of that Knowledge is the Prayer of His Servant in Christ Jesus JOHN WORTHINGTON Cambridge December 22. 1659. In this Epistle pag. vii lin alt for mouth to mouth r. face to face The CONTENTS of the several DISCOURSES in this Volume DISCOURSE I. Of the true WAY or METHOD of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE SEct. I. That Divine things are to be understood rather by a Spiritual Sensation then a Verbal Description or mere Speculation Sin and Wickedness prejudicial to True Knowledge That Purity of Heart and Life as also an Ingenuous Freedome of Judgment are the best Grounds and Preparations for the Entertainment of Truth Page 1. Sect. II. An Objection against the Method of Knowing laid down in the former Section answered That Men generally notwithstanding their Apostasie are furnished with the Radical Principles of True Knowledge Men want not so much Means of knowing what they ought to doe as Wills to doe what they know Practical Knowledge differs from all other Knowledge and excells it pag. 13. Sect. III. Men may be considered in a Fourfold capacity in order to the perception of Divine things That the Best and most excellent Knowledge of Divine things belongs only to the true and sober Christian and that it is but in its infancy while he is in this Earthly Body pag. 17. DISCOURSE II. OF SUPERSTITION THE true Notion of Superstition well express'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an over-timorous and dreadfull apprehension of the Deity A false Opinion of the Deity the true Cause and Rise of Superstition Superstition is most incident to such as Converse not with the Goodness of God or are conscious to themselves of their own unlikeness to him Right apprehensions of God beget in man a Nobleness and Freedome of Soul Superstition though it looks upon God as an angry Deity yet it counts him easily pleas'd with flattering Worship Apprehensions of a Deity and Guilt meeting together are apt to excite Fear Hypocrites to spare their Sins seek out waies to compound with God Servile and Superstitious Fear is encreased by Ignorance of the certain Causes of Terrible Effects in Nature c. as also by frightful Apparitions of Ghosts and Spectres A further Consideration of Superstition as a Composition of Fear and Flattery A fuller Definition of Superstition according to the Sense of the Ancients Superstition doth not alwaies appear in the same Form but passes from one Form to another and sometimes shrouds it self under Forms seemingly Spiritual and more refined pag. 25. DISCOURSE III. OF ATHEISM THat there is a near Affinity between Atheism Superstition That Superstition doth not only prepare the way for Atheism but promotes and strengthens it That Epicurism is but Atheism under a mask A Confutation of Epicurus his Master-notion together with some other pretences and Dogmata of his Sect. The true Knowledge of Nature is advantageous to Religion That Superstition is more tolerable then Atheism That Atheism is both ignoble and uncomfortable What low and unworthy notions the Epicureans had concerning Man's Happiness and what trouble they were put to How to define and Where to place true Happiness A true belief of a Deity supports the Soul with a present Tranquillity and future Hopes Were it not for a Deity the World would be unhabitable p. 41. DISCOURSE IV. OF
with that common sense and Experience which we have of our Souls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul being nothing else but that Innate force and power which it hath within it to stir up such thoughts and motions within it self as it finds it self most free to And therefore when we reflect upon the productions of our own Souls we are soon able to find out the first Efficient cause of them And though the subtilty of some Wits may have made it difficult to find out whether the Understanding or the Will or some other Facultie of the Soul be the First Mover whence the motus primò primus as they please to call it proceeds yet we know it is originally the Soul it self whose vital acts they all are and although it be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First Cause as deriving all its virtue from it self as Simplicius distinguisheth in 1. de An. cap. 1. yet it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vitally co-working with the First Causes of all But on the other side when we come to examine those Motions which arise from the Body this stream runs so far under ground that we know not how to trace it to the head of it but we are fain to analyse the whole artifice looking from the Spirits to the Blood from that to the Heart viewing all along the Mechanical contrivance of Veins and Arteries neither know we after all our search whether there be any Perpetuum mobile in our own Bodies or whether all the motions thereof be onely by the redundancy of some external motions without us nor how to find the First mover in nature though could we find out that yet we know that there is a Fatal determination which sits in all the wheels of meer Corporeal motion neither can they exercise any such noble freedome as we constantly find in the Wills of men which are as large and unbounded in all their Elections as Reason it self can represent Being it self to be Lucretius that he might avoid the dint of this Argument according to the Genius of his Sect feigns this Liberty to arise from a Motion of declination whereby his Atomes alwaies moving downwards by their own weight towards the Centre of the World are carried a little obliquely as if they tended toward some point different from it which he calls clinamen principiorum Which riddle though it be as good as any else which they who held the Materiality and Mortality of Souls in their own nature can frame to salve this difficulty yet is of such a private interpretation that I believe no Oedipus is able to expound it But yet by what we may guesse at it we shall easily find that this insolent conceit and all else of this nature destroys the Freedome of Will more then any Fate which the severest censours thereof whom he sometimes taxeth ever set over it For how can any thing be made subject to a free and impartial debate of Reason or fall under the Level of Free-will if all things be the meer result either of a Fortuitous or Fatal motion of Bodies which can have no power or dominion over themselves and why should he or his great Master find so much fault with the Superstition of the world and condemn the Opinions of other men when they compare them with that transcendent sagacity they believe themselves to be the Lords of if all was nothing else but the meer issue of Material motions seeing that necessity which would arise from a different concourse and motion of several particles of Matter begetting that diversity of Opinions and Wills would excuse them all from any blame Therefore to conclude this Argument Whatsoever Essence finds this Freedome within it self whereby it is absolved from the rigid laws of Matter may know it self also to be Immaterial and having dominion over its own actions it will never desert it self and because it finds it self non vi alienâ sed suâ moveri as Tully argues it feels it self able to preserve it self from the forrein force of Matter and can say of all those assaults which are at any time made against those sorry mud-walls which in this life inclose it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoick did all this is nothing to me who am yet free and can command within when this feeble Carkass is able no longer to obey me and when that is shattered and broken down I can live any where else without it for I was not That but had onely a command over It while I dwelt in it But before we wholly desert this Head we may adde some further strength to it from the Observation of that Conflict which the Reasons and Understandings of men maintain against the Sensitive appetite and wheresoever the Higher powers of Reason in a man's Soul prevail not but are vanquish'd by the impetuousness of their Sensual affections through their own neglect of themselves yet are they never so broken but they may strengthen themselves again and where they subdue not men's inordinate Passions and Affections yet even there will they condemn them for them Whereas were a Man all of one piece and made up of nothing else but Matter these Corporeal motions could never check or controul themselves these Material dimensions could not struggle with themselves or by their own strength render themselves any thing else then what they are But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks call it this Self-potent Life which is in the Soul of man acting upon it self and drawing forth its own latent Energie finds it self able to tame the outward man and bring under those rebellious motions that arise from the meer Animal powers and to tame and appease all those seditions and mutinies that it finds there And if any can conceive all this to be nothing but a meer fighting of the male-contented pieces of Matter one against another each striving for superiority and preeminence I should not think it worth the while to teach such an one any higher learning as looking upon him to be indued with no higher a Soul then that which moves in Beasts or Plants CHAP. V. The third Argument for the Immortality of the Soul That Mathematical Notions argue the Soul to be of a true Spiritual and Immaterial Nature WE shall now consider the Soul awhile in a further degree of Abstraction and look at it in those Actions which depend not at all upon the Body wherein it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks speak and converseth onely with its own Being Which we shall first consider in those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mathematical notions which it conteins in it self and sends forth from within it self which as they are in themselves Indivisible and of such a perfect nature as cannot be received or immersed into Matter so they argue that Subject in which they are seated to be of a true Spiritual and Immaterial nature Such as a pure Point Linea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
assimilant formam cum formante eam But in case the Imaginative facultie be not thus set forth as the Scene of all Prophetical illumination but that the Impressions of things nakedly without any Schemes or Pictures be made immediately upon the Understanding it self then is it reckoned to be the gradus Mosaicus wherein God speaks as it were face to face of which more hereafter Accordingly R. Albo in the Book before cited and 10 th Chapter hath distinguished Prophesie into these four degrees The first and lowest of all is when the Imaginative power is most predominant so that the impressions made upon it are too busie the Scene becomes too turbulent for the Rational facultie to discern the true Mystical and Anagogical sense of them clearly and in this case the Enthusiasms spend themselves extreamly in Parables Similitudes and Allegories in a dark and obscure manner as is very manifest in Zachary and many of Ezechiel his Prophesies as also those of Daniel where though we have first the outward frame of things Dramatically set forth so potently in the Prophet's phansie as that his Mind was not at the same time capable of the mystical meaning yet that was afterward made known to him but yet with much obscuritie still attending it This declining state of Prophesie the Jews supposed then principally to have been and this Divine illumination to have been then setting in the Horizon of the Jewish Church when they were carried captive into Babylon All which we may take a little more fully from our Author himself in his 3. Book and 17. Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Every Prophet that is of a strong fagacious and piercing Understanding will apprehend the thing nakedly without any Similitude whence it comes to pass that all his sayings prove distinct and clear and free from all obscuritie having a literal truth in them But a Prophet of an inferior rank or degree his words are obscure enwrapp'd in Riddles and Parables and therefore have not a Literal but Allegorical truth contained in them Thus he And so afterwards according to the general opinion of the Jewish Masters he tells us that after the Captivity in the twilight of Prophesie Ezekiel began to speak altogether in Riddles and Parables and so he himself complains to God Ah Lord God they say of me Doth he not speak Parables The second degree which our forementioned Author makes of Prophesie is when the strength of the Imaginative and Rational powers equally ballance one another The third is when the Rational power is most predominant in which case as we heard before the Minde of the Prophet is able to strip those things that are represented to it in the glass of Phansie of all their materiality and sensible nature and apprehend them more distinctly in their own naked Essence The last and Highest is the gradus Mosaicus in which all Imagination ceaseth the Representation of Truth descends not so low as the Imaginative part but is made in the highest stage of Reason and Understanding But we shall hereafter speak more fully concerning the several degrees of Prophetical Inspiration and discourse more particularly of the Ruach hakkodesh the highest degree of Prophesie or gradus Mosaicus and Bath col or the lowest degree of Prophesie Seeing then that generally all Prophesie or Prophetical Enthusiasm lies in the joint-impressions and operations of both these forementioned faculties the Jews were wont to understand that place Numb 12. 6 c. as generally decyphering that State or Degree of Prophesie by which God would discover himselfe to all those Prophets that ever should arise up amongst them or ever had been except Moses and the Messiah And there are only these Two waies declared whereby God would reveal himself to every other Prophet either in a Vision or a Dream both which are perpetually attended with those Visa and Simulacra sensibilia as must needs be impressed upon Common sense or Fansie whereby the Prophets seemed to have all their Senses waking and exercising their several functions though indeed all was but Scenicall or Dramatical According to this Twofold way of Divine inspiration the Prophet Joel foretells the Nature of that Prophetical Spirit that should be powred out in the latter times and in Jeremy 14. 14. we have the false prophets brought in as endeavouring apishly to imitate the true Prophets of God in fortifying their Fansies by the power of Divination that they might talk of Dreams and Visions when they came among the people Now for the Difference of these two a Dream and a Vision it seems rather to lie in Circumstantials then in any thing Essential therefore Maim part 2. More Nev. cap. 45. tells us that in a Dream a voice was frequently heard which was not usual in a Vision But the representation of Divine things by some Sensible images or some Narrative voice must needs be in both of them But yet the Jews are wont to make a Vision superiour to a Dream as representing things more to the life which indeed seizeth upon the Prophet while he is awake but it no sooner surpriseth him but that all his external senses are bound and so it often declines into a true Dream as Maimon in the place forenam'd proves by the example of Abraham Gen. 15. 12. where the Vision in which God had appeared to him as it is related ver 1. passed into a Sleep And when the Sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and loe an horror of great darkness fell upon him Which words seem to be nothing else but a description of that passage which he had by Sleep out of his Vision into a Dream Now these Ecstatical impressions whereby the Imagination and Mind of the Prophet was thus ravish'd from it self and was made subject wholy to some Agent intellect informing it and shining upon it I suppose S. Paul had respect to 1 Cor. 13. Now we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a glass in riddles or parables for so he seems to compare the Highest illuminations which we have here with that constant Irradiation of the Divinity upon the Souls of men in the life to come and this glassing of Divine things by Hieroglyphicks and Emblems in the Fansie which he speaks of was the proper way of Prophetical inspiration For the further clearing of which I shall take notice of one passage more out of a Jewish writer that is R. Bechai concerning this present argument which I find Com. in Num. 12. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Voluit Deus assimilare Prophetiam reliquorum Prophetarum homini speculum inspicienti prout innuunt Rabbini nostri illo axiomate proverbiali Nemo inspiciat speculum Sabbato illud speculum est vitreum in quo reflectitur homini sua ipsius forma imago per vim reflexivam speculi cum revera nihil ejusmodi in speculo realiter existat Talis erat Prophetia reliquorum Prophetarum eo quòd contuebantur sacras
the Almighty and to establish an unbounded Tyranny in contradiction to the Will of God which is nothing else but the Issue and Efflux of his Eternal and Unbounded Goodness This is the very Heart of the old Adam that is within men This is the Hellish Spirit of Self-will it would solely prescribe laws to all things it would fain be the source and fountain of all affaires and events it would judge all things at its own Tribunal They in whose Spirits this Principle rules would have their own Fancies and Opinions their perverse and boisterous Wills to be the just Square and Measure of all Good and Evil these are the Plumb-lines they applie to all things to find out their Rectitude or Obliquity He that will not submit himself to nor comply with the Eternal and Uncreated Will but in stead of it endeavours to set up his own will makes himself the most real Idol in the world and exalts himself against all that is called God and ought to be worshipp'd To worship a graven Image or to make cakes burn incense to the Queen of heaven is not a worse Idolatry then it is for a man to set up Self-will to devote himself to the serving of it and to give up himself to a complyance with his own will as contrary to the Divine and Eternal Will When God made the World he did not make it merely for the exercise of his Almighty power and then throw it out of his hands and leave it alone to subsist by it self as a thing that had no further relation to him But he derived himself through the whole Creation so gathering and knitting up all the several pieces of it again that as the first production and the continued Subsistence of all things is from himself so the ultimate resolution and tendency of all things might be to him Now that which first endeavoured a Divorce between God and his Creation and to make a Conquest of it was that Diabolical Arrogancy and Self-will that crept up and wound it self Serpent-like into apostate Minds and Spirits This is the true strain of that Hellish nature to live independently of God and to derive the Principles from another Beginning and carry on the line of all motions and operations to another End then God himself by whom and to whom and for whom all things subsist From what hath been said concerning this powerful and dangerous Enemy that wars against our Souls and against the Divine Will may the Excellency and Noble Spirit of True Religion appear in that it tames the impetuousness and turbulency of this Self-will Then indeed does Religion perform the highest and bravest conquests then does it display the greatness of its strength and the excellency of its power when it overcomes this great Arimanius that hath so firmly seated himself in the very Centre of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is the man of Courage and Valour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is he that subdues his Concupiscence his own Will it is a Jewish Maxime attributed to Ben Zoma and a most undoubted truth This was the grand Lesson that our great Lord Master came to teach us viz. To deny our own Wils neither was there any thing that he endeavor'd more to promote by his own Example as he tells us of himself I came down from heaven not to doe mine own will but the will of him that sent me and again Lo I come in the volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God yea thy Law is within my heart and in his greatest agonies with a clear and chearful submission to the Divine will he often repeats it Not my will but thy will be done and so he hath taught us to pray and so to live This indeed is the true life and spirit of Religion this is Religion in its Meridian altitude its just dimensions A true Christian that hath power over his own Will may live nobly and happily and enjoy a perpetually-clear heaven within the Serenity of his own Mind When the Sea of this World is most rough and tempestuous about him then can he ride safely at Anchor within the haven by a sweet complyance of his will with God's Will He can look about him and with an even and indifferent Mind behold the World either to smile or frown upon him neither will he abate of the least of his Contentment for all the ill and unkind usage he meets withall in this life He that hath got the Mastery over his own Will feels no violence from without finds no contests within and like a strong man keeping his house he preserves all his Goods in safety and when God calls for him out of this state of Mortality he finds in himself a power to lay down his own life neither is it so much taken from him as quietly and freely surrendred up by him This is the highest piece of prowess the noblest atchievement by which a man becomes Lord over himself and the Master of his own Thoughts Motions and Purposes This is the Royal prerogative the high dignity conferred upon Good men by our Lord and Saviour whereby they overcoming this both His and their Enemy their Self-will and Passions are enabled to sit down with him in his Throne as he overcoming in another way is set down with his Father in his Throne as the phrase is Revelat. 3. Religion begets the most Heroick Free and Generous motions in the Minds of Good men There is no where so much of a truly Magnanimous and raised Spirit as in those who are best acquainted with the power of Religion Other men are Slaves and Captives to one Vanity or other but the truly Religious is above them all and able to command himself and all his Powers for God That bravery and gallantness which seems to be in the great Nimrods of this world is nothing else but the swelling of their own unbounded pride and vain-glory It hath been observed of the greatest Monarchs of the world that in the midst of their Triumphs they themselves have been led Captives to one Vice or another All the Gallantry and Puissance which the Bravest Spirits of the world boast of is but a poor confined thing and extends it self only to some Particular Cases and Circumstances But the Valour and Puissance of a Soul impregnated by Religion hath in a sort an Universal Extent as S. Paul speaks of himself I can doe all things through Christ which strengtheneth me it is not determined to this or that Particular Object or Time or Place but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things whatsoever belong to a Creature fall under the level thereof Religion is by S. Paul described to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of power in opposition to the Spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. as all Sin is by Simplicius wel described to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impotency weakness Sin by its deadly infusions
and Love Secondly Of the Sense he felt of his loss Thirdly Of that Honour which he gave him or that Respect and Regard which he had unto him I shall speak a little of all these and then parallel our Case as well as I can to Both. 1. Observe Elijah's Eminency Superiority Dignity and Worth which is both signified in the word Father and also in the other Expressions the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel The Talmudists say of the word Abba which is near of kin as can be to this in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abba is a word of honour and glory even as Rabbi whence the Latine Abbas and our English Abbot have been derived to denote the greatest person in a Society And therefore whom he here calls Father is called verse 3 and 5. Master or Lord Know'st thou not that Jehovah will take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Lord or Master from thee today Elijah was the Head in the Body of the Prophets the Dux gregis a main leading man among the rest And this was by reason of his Wisdome Experience and gray-headed Understanding expressed in the word Father He was a Sage and grave person such an Head as was full of Prudence Skill Advice wherein were molded many sober and wise Resolutions many weighty and mature Determinations profound and deep Notions holy and pious Counsels for the teaching of rawer and greener heads He was one that did imitate God the Father of all and in some sort represent him here below being an Oracle among men And such Instruments God hath alwaies in the world Men of greater height and stature then others whom he sets up as torches on an hill to give light to all the Regions round about Men of publick and universal influence like the Sun it self which illuminates all and is not sparing of its beams Men whose Souls come into the world as the Chaldee Oracle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of Mind more impregnated then others with Divine notions and having more teeming Wombs to inrich the world with the fruit of them Men of wide and capacious Souls that can grasp much and of inlarged open Hearts to give forth that freely unto men which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fatherly Mind as the same Oracle calls God hath given unto them that so in some sort they may become Fathers in the world in subordination to God The Sun of Righteousness Jesus Christ is described with seven stars in his right hand Revelat. 1. which were the Angels of the Churches Men its like who were adorn'd and beautified with more then ordinary brightness of Mind and Understanding and did sparkle with more then common heat of Love and Piety and did shine as Lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Elijah was such an one and so was the other Elias John the Baptist a burning and a shining light and so also shall we find our Father that is deceased to have been 2. Take notice of the Care which Elijah took of Elisha and that first as a Master of his Scholar and secondly as a Father of his Son or if you will have both in one as a Fatherly Master Elisha calls him by this name of Father because he was his Scholar and they used commonly to give this title to their Masters or Teachers whence Pirke Avoth among the Jews Capitula Patrum is a Book that contains the wise Sayings Apophthegms of their Doctors And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament that which is received by Tradition from their Fathers signifies nothing else but what their Doctors and learned men in the Law delivered to them and therefore they are sometimes called the Traditions of the Elders Jubal is called the Father of such as handle the Harp Gen. 4. 21. which signifies the same with that which is said of his Brother verse 22. He was an Instructer of artificers in brass and Iron And hence Solomon saith so often My Son hear the instruction of a Father So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Father my Father in the Text is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Master my Master Elijah taught and instructed him out of the Law but with such a care and Fatherly affection that Elisha was truly his Son as well as his Scholar one whom he loved and tendered whom he wrap'd as a child in his Mantle when he was following the plough whom he begot into another shape and made another man in whose heart he sowed the seeds of true righteousness and godliness that he might doe more good in the world For what God doth by Men that they many times are said to doe Hence the Apostles call Christians their little children and dear children whom they had travailed in birth withall till Christ was formed in them They lay in the Apostles wombs they brought them forth Christians and so were truly their Spiritual Fathers And we may still see such noble Souls which God continues amongst men whose mouths as Solomon saies are as a well of life whose lips feed many and whose tongues are as choice Silver Men that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common Fathers and will embrace every body as a Son so they be but willing to be taught that have the whole World for their School and are instilling wholesom notions and rectified apprehensions into mens Minds and implanting the Truth which is after Godliness in their hearts Men that in all meekness tenderness and Fatherly affection reprove those that oppose themselves that endeavour to bring them into their wombs that if it be possible they may beget the life of God and of his Son Christ in their Souls Men who cherish and foster the least gasping panting life that is in any Soul who endeavour to free this life from any obstructions that dull and oppress it and so in every sense prove themselves to be the true Fathers of the Church Common Fathers as before I expressed it neither bound up in themselves nor addicted to any particular Sect but minding the good of all Who think that they were not born for themselves nor to be linked to this or that Body or party of men but are to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect who doth good to all even to the evil and unthankful A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural affection there is in them which makes them think that every mans childe is their own and if they could hatch any heavenly life in them they would willingly cover them under their wings Such a person was S. Paul who went through fire and water had a pilgrimage through this world upon nothing but briers and thorns out of his great love that he bare to men The care of all the Churches lay upon him and no man could be weak but he was weak also no man was offended but