Aurelianus Dioclesianus turned their bloody swords upon them The very name of a Christian was crime enough upon every ill accident the Christians were cryed out upon as worthy of death as the only causes of the incumbent Calamity Thus the Powers of the World for the three first Centuries though ordained for good were Patrons of that great Evil Idolatry and utter Enemies to that great good Christianity No Christian in those times could imagine to retain his Religion unless he were willing to part with his life for it The great men in Wisdom the Philosophers of the World were Adversaries to Christianity their Wits as well as the Emperors Swords were bent against it outwardly they were in the splendor of Morality and seemed to make some approaches towards Christian Virtues but inwardly they were black with Enmity against the Gospel and at a vast distance from the holy Temper of it Many cavils they made against the Christians but the root of their Enmity lay in two or three things 1. Their carnal Reason would not stoop to the supernatural Truths revealed in the Gospel they were for Humane Wisdom but against Divine Those natural Truths which were within the sphere of Reason they looked on as Wisdom But those supernatural ones which were above it they esteemed no better than foolishness scorning that which they could not measure and casting that down below their Reason which indeed was above it With them St. Paul was but a babler Act. 17.18 one who had gathered up some vanities that he might scatter them abroad to others The Resurrection was a matter of mockery vers 32 as if the limits of Nature could not be exceeded no not by the God of it They thought that there was nothing in the Christian Doctrines Magd. cent 2. cap. 15. Fat c. Graecos praeter stultitiam nugas but toys and follies That God should be born a Man was against Reason a thing utterly incredible That a crucified man should be second to God the Father of all Just Mart. ad Anton. was madness and intolerable folly They thought that all the Wisdom lay on their own side Celsus could find much wiser things in Plato than in the Sacred Scriptures Julian boasted that the Gentiles had all the learning Spond Ann. Nazian Or. the Christians had only their Creed as if Faith which is a key to infinite treasures of Wisdom were a poor inconsiderable nothing These wise men of the World would not be made wiser than their own reason had made them and upon that account they set themselves against the great Mysteries of the Gospel 2. Their corrupt hearts would not brook that simplicity and sincerity which the Gospel called for they knew well enough that there was but one God yet in their very Worship in which if in any thing they should have been sincere and pure-hearted they dissembled and made as if there were many complying with the Idols of the place where they lived and doing many things Non tanquam Diis grata sed tanquam legibus jussa not as grateful to the Gods but as commanded by the Laws Hence St. Austin saith of Seneca Aust de C. D. l. 6. c. 10. that Colebat quod reprehendebat agebat quod arguebat He worshipped what he reproved he acted what he found fault with under all the beauty of Moral Virtues there lay a false heart such as could not bear a Command of internal Purity 3. They were animalia gloriae Creatures which lived upon popular air Accordingly their design was as opposite to that of the Gospel as pride is to the Grace of God That which the Gospel aimed at was that Pride might be stained that no flesh might glory in it self that we might be saved by meer Grace that God might be exalted therein But the aim of the Philosophers was quite contrary to this they were lifted up in self-excellencies in all their Moral Virtues they did but sacrifice to the pride of their own Reason and Will they needed no such thing as Grace or Prayer for it Quid votis opns est fac te faelicem saith Seneca What need of Prayers Epist 31. thou mayst make thy self happy Their fundamental maxim the very firmament of their happiness was sibi fidere to trust to themselves they would be virtuous as Ajax would be victorious without the help of God that the glory might be entirely their own In homine id landandum quod ipsius est that only is praise-worthy which is a mans own Their Virtuoso was Deorum socius a Peer to the Gods He did cum Diis ex pari vivere live equally with them nay he did in one thing go before them they were such by Nature he by Virtue This makes Seneca cry out Epist 53. Ecce res magna habere imbecillitatem hominis securitatem Dei Behold a great thing to have the frailty of a Man the security of a God This horrible Pride the venom in their Moral Virtues which was so near and intimate to them that one looking into Plato's vomit said I see his choler here but not his Pride meaning that that stuck too close to him to be cast up by him was a temper as opposite to the Gospel as any thing could be it did utterly evacuate Christ and Grace What room could there be for Grace when Nature might do the work What need that the Eternal Word the brightness of Glory should be incarnate when the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sinall spark of Reason in our bosom was enough to make us virtuous and happy No frame of mind no not that of the profane man could be at a greater distance from Heaven than this Salv. de Gub. l. 4. Inter maltos reos nullus est criminosior quà m qui fe non putat criminosum Among many guilty persons none is more criminal than the presumptuous self-justitiary who thinks himself not criminal at all Thus stood the Philosophers all in Armor of Pride opposing the Gospel and the Grace of it We see here to make men Christians was an admirable work a great deal of Power was to be laid out upon it Such a Faith was to be raised up as might render them victorious over all the Power and Wisdom of the World Veniant Crux ignis ossium confractiones modo Christum bakeam Ignat. Such a temper of mind was to be wrought as might make them ready to welcom death in what shape or terror soever it came and to pour out their dearest blood and life for the Gospel Those spirits which before hung about Earth and these lower things were to be tuned for Heaven and wound up to so Divine a pitch that the whole world should not be able to unbend them to loosen them from Christ or let them down into earthly Vanities The great Emperors with all their Engines of Power and Cruelty could not rent them off from the World to come or piece them to the
way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
swallowed up in weakness Let him come down from the Cross and we will believe him Matth. 27.42 as if without a fresh Miracle all his holy Doctrines would vanish into nothing The Jews who were for Signs stumbled and fell in the midst of those glorious Miracles which he wrought among them The Greeks who were for Wisdom saw nothing but foolishness in the midst of the divine Mysteries which he brought down out of his Fathers Bosom A crucified Christ look'd like a spectacle of weakness and folly But here the divine Wisdom appears in that as the Apostle hath it The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men This crucified Christ shall attract a Church out of the corrupt Mass of mankind the foolishness of Preaching shall do it The Plato's or Aristotles of the World shall not be employed in the work no there shall be only Piscatoria simplicitas a few Fishermen shall catch men and draw them home unto God to the effectually called this despised Christ shall be the power and wisdom of God The divine Spirit merited by him shall endue them with a wisdom much higher than that of Nature and Philosophy and cloathe them with a power to make them live above all the hopes and fears of this World Death the last Enemy which had devoured so much humane flesh did not spare that Sacred portion which was assumed into the Son of God but in his death Death it self was swallowed up in Victory It passes indeed upon all men but when it comes to a Believer it lays by its sting and becomes only a passage into life Eternal To conclude In all these Conquests we may see one Contrary brought out of another Life out of Death Power out of Weakness a Blessing out of a Curse and a Victory out of Sufferings which speaks no less than an admirable contrivance therein These appearances of Divine Wisdom naturally teach us humility of mind Humane Reason is indeed in its own Orb an excellent Light but a greater than it the Reason of God himself comes forth to us in supernatural Mysteries to make us sit down at his feet for Instruction Nothing can be more just and purely rational than for our Intellect being finite to be subject to the infinite Truth and being lighted up by God to do homage to its great Original It 's true ever since man tasted of the Tree of Knowledg his Reason hath had a malignant pride in it of a Minister it would be a Lord over our Faith assuming the Magisterial Chair it would fall a-judging Divine Mysteries it would comprehensively span them within it self and what could not be so comprized it would out of enmity cast away as spurious This in the issue hath so far as it hath prevailed desperately overturned all Faith in the act and in the object in the act for to believe a thing because I can comprehend it is not faith in God but trusting in my own heart not a sealing to his Veracity but a subscribing to my own Sagacity Hence the learned Maresius saith of the Socinians That they have manus oculatas hands with eyes in them that only do they believe which they see they will trust God no further than they see him Also in the Object this hath been very subversive to the Gospel In the Pagan Philosophers whose Motto was Soli rationi cedo it cast away Christ crucified as foolishness and the Gospel as an absurd Fable it reflected on Christians as meer Simpletons men of an easie and irrational faith hence that jeer of Cato Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem it 's folly to hope for salvation in the death of another In the Socinians whose Rule is Nihil credi potest quod a ratione nequeat capi nothing can be believed which cannot be comprehended by Reason it hath blown up the fundamental Articles of Christianity the sacred Trinity to them is a contradiction the Hypostatical Union an irrational repugnancy the Satisfaction of Christ a contumely to Gods grace and in all this they do but build a Tower a Name to their own Reason and as a just punishment in the doing of it they fall into confusion and inconsistencies Mar. Hydra Tom. 2.460 Sometimes they make the Law to exact a more perfect obedience than the Gospel Sometimes the Gospel to call for a more accurate righteousness than the Law To evert Satisfaction they lift up Grace but to elevate Free-will they depress it They own a God yet deny his Prescience they say Christ is but a creature yet they worship him Thus that great thing Reason falling from the supreme Truth becomes a forlorn spectacle of vanity In a kind of self-splendor it goes out in the darkness of errour and confusion But now to humble our minds it is of excellent use to consider the divine Wisdom which is so much above us When our Reason stands by sense it hath a noble stature and greatness but as soon as it turns about to infinite Wisdom it perceives a greater Presence than it self and must in all reason confess it self a little spark a very Nothing in comparison It cannot step out into the sphere of Nature but it finds matter of humility being true to it self it can do no less than say that it is everywhere posed and nonplust It is not able rationally to stand under the secrets of Nature much more must it stoop and do reverence before such a Mystery as that is God manifest in the flesh in which the transcendent Mystery amazes us and the unparallel'd Pattern draws us into humility Thither must we come or else turn Infidels and allow Reason for a Deity saying with Seneca Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem What is the rational Soul but God dwelling in flesh a kind of Christ or rather Antichrist This I am sure Christian ears cannot bear But a little more to demonstrate how necessary a thing humility of mind is let us consider Reason in a three-fold state then it will appear that Reason in its Integrity could not find out supernatural Mysteries in its Fall cannot spiritually know them and lastly in the irradiations of Faith cannot comprehend them 1. Reason in its Integrity could not find them out The pure primitive light in Adam could dive into the secrets of Nature but it could not reach such a Mysterie as that of the sacred Trinity which is the fundamental center of Christian Religion He could name the creatures and that significantly to their natures but that Question What is his sons name Prov. 30.4 would have been too hard for him There are say the School-men some obscure Images of the Trinity in the Volume of Nature but they were found out à posteriori and not to be read till after Revelation and how should humane Reason dictate in those things which it could not find out or know any thing from it self when it hath
excesses of Nature and therefore things very congruous to seal up those super-natural Truths which are above our Reason Evangelical Mysteries are such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into mans heart They are above the line of Reason and so very aptly ratified by those miraculous Works which are above the line of Nature We are in all Reason to conclude that God who acts above Nature is to be believed even when he speaks above Reason which being but a part of Nature may be as well exceeded by Mysteries as other parts of Nature are by Miracles But further his Miracles had a special aptitude in them to confirm the Gospel they were not destructive as the wonders in Egypt were nor meerly to raise an admiration as Simon Magus's were who would present himself flying in the air Spond Annal. 68. frame walking-statues and make bread out of stones that he might be esteemed a great one a kind of Deity among men No our Saviours Miracles were for the good of mankind he went up and down doing of good he healed the distempers of men and cast Devils out of their bodies And what works could be more admirably fitted to the Gospel which was ordained to heal inward distempers and cast Satan out of the Souls of men What can better accord together than healing Miracles and healing Doctrines It is very reasonable to believe that he who did such wonders on the bodies of men can do as much and more upon their souls He who cast Satan out of the outward man can eject him and all his furniture out of the inward Moreover it is to be observed that his Miracles were ordinarily wrought upon Faith Thus he said to the Centurion As thou hast believed so be it done to thee Matth. 8.13 Thus to the blind men According to your faith be it unto you Matth. 9.29 Thus to the Father of the possessed Child If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth Mark 9.23 as if the Divine Power were made over to Faith We see here how our Saviour in doing his Miracles did put an honour upon Faith which is the Condition of the Gospel and withal what great reason we have to go to him for Spiritual Miracles who hath done so many Corporal The last instance of the Divine Power is in converting the world to Christianity in raising up a People to God out of the ruins of the Fall The Son of God did not come in the flesh meerly to do Miracles upon the bodies of Men No his greatest work is upon their souls Corporal Miracles were pledges of Spiritual Some of them as the inlightning of the blind and raising of the dead did as Estius observes type out the giving of the Vital Principles of Grace In Sent. lib. 2. fol. 337. to restore the faln faculties in men Some of them as Peters walking on the Waters by the helping-hand of Christ did shadow forth the giving of auxiliary Grace to Saints to keep them from sinking under Temptations As the external Miracles were wrought by the Power and Spirit of God so are the internal also When a blind mind is irradiated there is a word of Power such as at first commanded light out of darkness When a dead sinner is raised up to a Divine Life the Glory of God may be seen in it even as it was upon Lazarus's coming out of the Grave Now that we may see some Rays of this glorious Power several things are to be considered by us First of all let us look upon the state of the World as it was at our Saviours coming The world was made up of Jews and Gentiles both of them were not only tainted with Original sin but deeply corrupted with Actual out of both God would raise up a Church to himself to make the Power of his Grace known The Jews once Gods special People were now desperately degenerate blindness was upon them notwithstanding that Rabbinical learning was at the height in the Schools of Hillel and Shammai they interpreted the holy Scriptures as the Vail upon their hearts would let them in a very gross carnal manner as if they had lost all savour of things Divine and Spiritual Thus the establishing the mountain of the Lords house in the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 is with one of them the bringing of Tabor and Carmel and setting Jerusalem upon the top of them Buxt Syn. c. 10. The calling the sabbath a delight Isa 58.13 is to eat and drink and indulge their genius They made the Sacred Law whose primary aim was at the heart to bind only the outward Man According to their corrupt gloss there was no Murder but what purpled the hand with blood nor no Adultery but what was in the gross Act evil thoughts and purposes were not so much as peccadillo's neither did God take notice of them so as to punish for them A thought or purpose of sacriledg in Antiochus was nothing with Josephus regarding or seeing iniquity in the heart was nothing with David Kimchi as appears by his gloss upon the 66th Psalm Thus the Law was dispirited and strip't of its Divinity Religion went off from its Center the heart to paint and varnish over the outward Man Sin might reign and do what it would within so as it did not break out and profane the Life Having thus humbled the Law according to their own Model they stood upon their Terms with God they would establish their own Righteousness though it were a poor cadaverous thing without any Divine Life or Spirit in it yet they would prop it up and make it stand before God they were full of their own Righteousness and compleat in themselves they looked only for a Temporal Messiah one who by his outward greatness might subdue their Enemies and feast them in the holy Land A spiritual Saviour they expected not neither could it be thought according to their Principles what such an one should do for them As for his suffering or dying for them they jested at it as an horrible absurdity saying Tobias deliquit Weems of the Jew sigog plectitur their own Temporal death was expiation enough for all their sins Hence the sick man was to pray thus Buxt Syn. c. 35. Sit mors mea expiatio pro omnibus peccatis meis As for regenerating-Grace to be procured for them they dream't of no Regeneration but a ritual one The baptized Proselyte was accounted by them as recens natus one new-born The sick man having but his name changed was esteemed as nova creatura a new creature As for Eternal life they thought they could earn it by their own Works In none of these respects would the pride of their hearts suffer them to see any need of a Spiritual Saviour Further they advanced their Traditions above the written Word their Talmud is Lux illa magna that great light Isa 9.2 it is fundamentum legis the
rich and abundant measure upon all sorts of men Jews and Gentiles Into what place soever the Gospel comes there the Spirit is at work to frame new creatures and set them in motion that God may be served not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit that his Worship under the gales and sweet influences of the Spirit may come forth as it ought in its life and pure spirituality 4. The great motive to Worship the reward of eternal life was never so manifested as it was by Jesus Christ It 's true holy men of old had some glimmerings of it Abraham sought after an heavenly Country Jacob waited for Gods salvation Moses had respect to the recompence of Reward Job speaks of seeing God in his flesh the believing Jews could see eternal things in temporal and measure Heaven by an Astrolabe of Earth In their Ikkarim in the Articles of their Creed there is one touching the Resurrection of the dead Those Ancients had some obscure knowledg of life eternal but in and by Christ it is set forth plainly and clearly in lively and orient colours Heaven as it were opens it self and in pure discoveries comes down and approaches near unto our faith It is now plain that the true worshippers shall ever be with the Lord shall see him and be like him shall enter into his joy and be swallowed up there shall have a Crown of life a weight of glory and that to all eternity All this is as clear as if it were writ with a Sun-beam Hence the Apostle saith That Christ brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 and again That befor the way into the holiest of all was not made manifest Heb. 9.8 that is That light or manifestation of this Reward which was under the Law was as none at all in comparison of the pure and great discovery of it which is under the Gospel The servants of God need not say What shall we have The Reward is before them the Celestial Paradise is in plain view to attract their hearts into the holy ways which lead thither In this display of Truth we have a notable proof of the truth of our Religion Admirable are the harmonies and compliances between the two Testaments the Substance though but one corresponds to the Types and Shadows though very many The Messiah in the flesh notwithstanding the vast distance in time fully answers to the Messiah in Promises and Predictions All things concur and conspire together to evidence the truth of our Religion It was the observation of some of the ancient Fathers That there is umbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo a shadow in the Law an image in the Gospel the Truth in Heaven Hence we may thus conclude That Religion which was in the Law in shadow in a darker representation which is in the Gospel in the image in a more lively representation and which leads to Heaven where is perfection of light and eternal life in the thing it self That Religion must needs be true Or we may go higher than the Mosaical Law and conclude thus That Religion which in the morning of the World immediately after the fall of man appeared in the first Promise of the Messiah which afterwards appeared in types and more Promises which after these shone out illustriously in Jesus Christ which at last introduces into the perfect day in Heaven That must needs be true The succession and harmony which is in these things tell us that infinite wisdom did order and dispose the same Now after the Evangelical light is clearly revealed to us what manner of persons ought we to be How thankful should we be that we live in the shining days of the Son of man The Pagans are in gross darkness but we have the Divine light shining round about us The Jews had some dawnings and strictures of light but we have the Sun the full Globe of light We need not now grope in the dark after happiness Christ the true light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon us in the pure light of the Gospel How should we believe and adhere to the Promises God hath performed the great Promise of the Messiah and it is not imaginable that he should fail in the other which are but appendants to that great Promise The Promises now have a double seal Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and in all reason we should seal them up by our faith not to do so is practically to say that God may lye or Christs Merits fail In what truth and obedience should we walk No lust should now be indulged no duty should now be baulked Every holy beam must be welcome as coming from Heaven to guide us thither Every Command of God must be precious as being the Counterpane of his heart and proved to be such by the obedience of his own Son in the flesh Now to walk in darkness is to reproach the holy light which shines round about us To be false to God who is so true to us is no less than horrible ingratitude to him and in the end will prove utter ruine to our souls it being utterly impossible for us while we are false to him to be true to our selves or our own happiness How spiritual should we be in worship With what holy fear faith zeal devotion should we serve him Our spirits should be consecrated and offered up to God our duties should have warmth and life from the inward parts the infinite Spirit must not be mocked with a shell a meer body of Worship Jesus Christ the Substance being come we must not rest in the shadows and rituals of Religion God is real in promises and we should be so in services He will give us the best Reward even Heaven it self and we should give him the best we have even our hearts that he may dwell there till he take us up into the blessed Region to dwell with him in glory in so doing we shall at once be true to him and to our own happiness CHAP. VIII Chap. 8 Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative both are manifested in Christ It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing That Opinion That Christ might have died and yet there might have been no Church is false All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed The Objections touching the Afflictions of good men and the event of Sin solved The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy HAVING spoken of the Divine Attributes I now proceed to speak of Providence which in a special manner directed this great Dispensation God manifest
good will he opens his heart as well as his hand he doth not only draw out his Alms but his Soul to the hungry he doth not only give outward things but himself in real compassions to the afflicted he knows that Sacrifice is not acceptable to God without Mercy no more is the outward Alms-deed without inward Pity he therefore as the Elect of God puts on Bowels of Mercy that when his hand is distributing his Bowels may be moved towards those in misery that he may not give a meer external thing but aliquid sui ipsius something of himself I mean his Compassion Si nihil habes da lacrymulam magnum enim solatium afflicto est misericordia Naz. Orat. 16. it doubles the Alms to give it with Pity meer Mercy in it self is a comfort to the afflicted but when it comes with a supply of necessaries in its hand it is then a comfort in matter and manner Moreover the holy Man hath not only humane Bowels but Christian in all his acts of Charity he moves from an high Principle and unto an high end and upon that account the Apostle calls those acts Pure Religion Jam. 1.27 And St. Ipsa misericordia si propter Deum non fit non est Sacrificium Sacrificium res divina est Aust de Civ Dei l. 10. c. 6. Austin call them a Sacrifice a Divine thing First I say He acts from an high Principle he doth not extend Mercy to Men in misery only out of humanity but out of love to God he doth not respect them meerly because they are his own Flesh such as are in conjunction of Nature with him but chiefly because they are rational Creatures such as stand in Relation to God and are capable of union with him the love of God who alone is to be loved for himself is the great Wheel which moves our Love and Mercy towards our Neighbour St. John argues thus Whoso seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his Bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him 1 Joh. 3. 17. It is all one as if he had said There is no Love of God at all in him for if there were any that would open his Bowels towards his Brother Piety towards God is the right Fountain of Charity towards Men. Again De Doctr. Christ l. 3. c. 10. He acts unto an high end Charitas est motus animi ad fruendum Deo propter ipsum se proximo propter Deum saith St. Austin Charity is the motion of the Soul to enjoy God for himself and it self and its Neighbour for God The holy Man in his acts of Charity hath a Supream respect unto God he would resemble and glorify God in them there is nothing wherein he can shew himself more like unto God than in Mercy and Love God when he proclaims his Name Exod. 34.6 insists very much upon Mercy He is good and doth good Psal 119.68 Therefore the holy Man would be still a doing of good that he might in his Sphear though but a little one resemble that God who doth good in the great Sphear of Nature God makes his Sun to shine and rain to fall every where and the holy Man who would be like him endeavours to shine in good works and drop in Charities upon all occasions in all he would have no other center than God and his Glory his aim is that those drops and models of Mercy which are in him may bear witness to the infinite Fountain and Ocean of Mercy which is above still he desires that God in all things may be glorified Take him in prosperity he is holy there I may say of him what the Historian saith of Mauritius the Emperour His Prosperity doth not make him leave his Piety He esteems himself less than the least of God's Mercies he holds all that he hath in capite of God the great Donor he desires to see free Grace in every crum of Bread drop of drink and moments patitience when there is a Table spread and a Cup running over and an affluence of all good things he suffers nothing to be lost but returns all in a thankful acknowledgment unto the giver Thus holy David All things are of thee 1 Chr. 29.14 Life Health Peace Prosperity the whole Catalogue of Blessings are from God the holy Man looks on it as no less than Sacriledge to substract the least fragment from him He looks upon Blessings in dependance upon their Original he sees the sence and meaning of them to be this that our hearts may be guided and directed by them to the infinite Fountain of Goodness He possesses them but he will not be possessed by them they may flow round about him but they must keep their distance and not enter into the heart which is reserved as an holy place for God while they stand without and minister to the outward Man they are Blessings and Glasses of the Divine Goodness but if once they lean their station and are taken into the Heart they are Idols and Vanities there is a blast and a curse upon them because they turn away the Heart from God the Fountain of Living Waters In the midst of all outward Blessings the holy Man is but a Pilgrim in this World here is not his Happiness his happiness or center of rest he looks after far greater and nobler things thaâ— those which grow here below Corn and Wine and Oil are in his Eyes but poor things in comparison of God's favour Heaven is his Country and by a Divine touch from thence his Heart though courted by the World will point thither he resolves with himself he will be happy only in God and in nothing else whilst he is here he uses his outward good things in the fear of God He knows that The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof God is the absolute Proprietor and Man but a Steward only The poor Man in his necessities hath a right to have supply out of the superfluities of the Rich the Charity of the Rich is but Fidelitas in alieno Faithfulness in that which is another Man's Luke 16.12 Riches are a Talent and must be accounted for if oppression make the beam cry out of the wall or if outward things become the fuel of of lust or if the non-user bring a rust upon them it will be a very ill reckoning at the last day therefore the holy Man endeavours to perform his trust he is what his Riches call for rich in good Works the Goodness of God to him makes him good to others the open hand of the great Donor makes him ashamed to shut his own his great interest lies in the other World and upon that account the exchanges his outwards things thither by such acts of Charity as follow him and live for ever Take him in adversity he is holy there as in prosperity his answer is what was so much in the mouth of the ancient Christians Deo
praeter illum Deum as if there were none in all the World besides himself and God still his Eye is upon God what ever he doth he doth it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto Men Col. 3.23 The great end and center of his actions is God's Glory and under that he designs to do good to Men he would conferre aliquid in publicum casts in something into the common good of Mankind An Holy Magistrate hath the fear of God upon him he judges not for Man but for the Lord he judges righteous Judgment and that as the Rabbins say is a sure sign that the Shecinah the Divine Presence is with him in the judgment An Holy Minister carries with him an Vrim and Thummim Light in his Doctrine and Integrity in his Life He burns in zeal for God and Christ he melts in labours and compassions for the Souls of Men. His Motto is the same with that of Mr. Perkins Verbi Minister es hoc age In a word whatever the Calling be the Holy Man is active faithful bent for the Glory of God still he remembers that he is a Christian Religion hath an influence upon his Calling His particular Calling which is Vocatio ad munus to a course of Life is made subordinate to his general Calling which is Vocatio ad Faedus to the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel Thus wee see An Holy Man is like himself at every turn as occasion is one odour of Grace or other is still a breaking forth from him Seventhly In an Holy Life there is not only an exercise of Graces but in that Exercise a growth of them the Holy Man of a Plant comes to be a Tree of Righteousness of a Babe he comes to be a Man in Christ he goes from strength to strength his path is as the shining Light which shines more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 He travels on from Vertue to Vertue to meet the everlasting day He grows in every part of the New Creature till he come to Heaven where Grace is perfected in Glory His Knowledg grows by following on to know the Lord he comes to know more of him by doing of God's Will he comes to understand it better than ever he did the Eye is more open the Heart is more unvailed the Truth is more sealed to the Mind the Understanding is more quick in the Fear of the Lord the Taste and Savour of Divine things is higher than it was before he had at his first Conversion a spiritual Knowledg and Understanding but exercising himself to Godliness he comes by degrees to all Knowledg 1 Cor. 1.5 and to Riches of Vnderstanding Col. 2.2 Notions are enlarged and withal Heavenly things are known per gustum spiritualem by a Spiritual taste of them his Faith grows at first there was but contactus but upon the Exercise of Graces there comes to be complexus fidei the touch of Christ by Faith is advanced into an embrace the recumbency on his Blood and Righteousness is stronger the subjection to his Royal Scepter is more full than it was the reliance on Promises and compliance with Commands are both raised up to an higher pitch than they were before at last Adherence comes to be Assurance His Love grows there comes to be an higher estimate set upon God a closer union with him a greater complacence in him than there was before At last Love becomes a vehement flame Cant. 8.6 Flamma Dei the Flame of God which burns up the earthly Affections and aspires after the full fruition of God in the Holy Heavens Also his Obedience and Patience are upon the increase by much obeying the Intention becomes more pure the Will more free the Obedience more easy and abundant he doth not only do the Work of the Lord but he abounds in it he doth not only bring forth Fruit but much Fruit Joh. 15.8 By patient bearing of Afflictions the Art or Divine Mystery of suffering comes to be understood the Heart is yielded and resigned up to the Divine pleasure he would be what God would have him be he hath not only patience but all patience Col. 1.11 Patience hath not only a Work but a perfect Work Jam. 1.4 Thus in the Holy Man Grace is still a growing Further The Holy Man grows every way he grows inward by exercising himself to Godliness his Vital Principles become more strong his Supernatural Heat is increased his inner Man is strengthened more than ever it was before he hath a Divine vigor to overcome corruptions to repel temptations to live above earthly things to perform Heavenly duties and to endure sufferings He is strengthened in the inner Man Ephes 3.16 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all Power Col. 1.11 to do what is decorous to his spiritual Nature he grows outward he hath not only the fruits of Righteousness but he is filled with them Phil. 1.11 The influences of Grace and supplies of the Spirit make him to bring forth much fruit and that with great variety as occasion serves all the fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance which the Apostle mentions Gal. 5.22 23. break forth from him in their spiritual Glory He is like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Waters Ps 1.3 which hath a fruit for every Season or like Joseph's Fruitful bough by a Well whose Branches run over the Wall Gen. 49.22 There is a redundance and exuberancy of Holy Fruits which shew that he hath a Divine Spirit a Well of living Water in him springing up into all Obedience and good Works He grows upward by conversing in holy things he is un-earthed and unselved he converses more than ever in Heaven the Glory of God is more precious to him his Intention towards it is more pure than it hath been he waits and longs to be in that Blessed Region where God is all in all Every Duty and Good Work looks up more directly than was usual to God the great Center and End of all things He grows downwards I mean in Humility by conversing with God he comes to have a greater Light than ever which discovers the Majesty and purity of God the rectitude and Holiness of the Law the infirmity and reliques of Corruption in the lapsed Nature of Man and this Discovery makes him very humble and vile in his own Eyes even his very lapses and falls serve occasionally to this growth De Corr. Grat. c. 9. Hence St. Austin treating on those words All things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. adds Etiam si deviant exorbitant hoc ipsum eis faciat proficere in bonum quia humiliores redeunt doctiores Experience tells him that he is nothing and Grace is all Morever the Holy Man never thinks that he hath Grace enough never saith I am perfect or I have attained Inceptio bonae vitae in quovis gradu sine desiderio