much less against Omnipotency Or who can spread tender Mercies over all the Creation but the Faithful Creator himself All which are absolutely necessary to the Concernments of the truly Catholick Publick Religion Quest What are the Records God hath vouchsafed to men of this Catholick Publick Religion Answ They are two The Law ingraven upon Man's heart justified and sealed by the constant Miracle of Creation and Providence that carry semblable Lines of all that is written upon Mens hearts For that which may be known of God is manifest in men for God hath shewed it to them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead The Work that God commands Men to do is written in their heart their Consciences bearing witness and their Thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another The Eternal Word or Reason that made all things is the Light that lighteth the Reason of every man that cometh into the world Quest Which is the second Record Answ The second Record is Divine Revelation collected into Holy Scriptures All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine Reproof Instruction Correction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work No Prophesie of Scripture is of any Private Interpretation for Prophesie came not in old time by the Will of Man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And even as the Law of Nature is seal'd by Creation and Providence so hath Revelation always been by Evidences of Divinity and Miracles a new Creation proportioned to the Ends of those Revelations Miracles of meer Power or Justice as upon Pharaoh of greatest Mercy and Benefaction only as by the most merciful Saviour of Mercy and sometimes of Justice as by Moses the Prophets and the Apostles who were to establish the Laws of the Old and New Testament Quest I perceive then all the things of Religion were not clear to Man by the Law written in his heart Answ No For some Parts of Religion are so necessary to our very Natures as Men that they were concreated with us and engraven upon our very Souls and the immediate motions of our Faculties must needs lead us to them while right and streight and continuing in that perfect state wherein our Creator left them For he looked upon all things that he had made and behold all was good and very good And he appointed a Sabbatism for all his Creatures and especially his Rational Creatures the Morning Stars to sing together and praise him for them But there are other Divine Truths which are as the breaking up of the Great Deep of the Infinite Wisdom Grace and Goodness of God that can be known to the highest Understandings of Angels or Arch-Angels only by Revelation Much less to Man a Reason of a lower Orb and least of all as fallen and corrupted Yet supposing the Souls of Men had abode in their first Clearness and Luster all his Faculties would have immediately received and adored God in all such Manifestations of himself and Congratulated those mighty Accessions of Light and Truth Quest But what need was there of any Revelation when Man was made perfect and good while he continued so Answ Revelation was even then necessary to shew that it is not consistent with the Nature of a Creature to have Happiness and Perfection within it self but to be in continual dependence upon and expectation from the Creator For even that Perfection wherein Adam was made was thus to maintain continue and assure it self and so to rise to higher Perfection He had therefore at first a Doctrine by Revelation sutable to the two Sacramental Trees so that though he was Perfect as such a Creature without Sin yet he was made with a possibility of higher Advancement and Perfection as he was of falling from his present Perfection by not adhering to his Creator according to what was revealed to him Quest What Relation do these two Records bear to one another being both of God Answ It is therefore impossible they should either of them one contradict another but that they unite with confirm and justifie one another and one pass out of and repass into another but the latter being more full clear and perfect makes not only the Additions of what was not contained in the former but does much inlighten and clear it and since the Fall it is no where else perfectly to be found but in Revelation Yet so that whatever of it remains or is reinkindled by Revelation does both prepare a Man to receive and does also assure him the truth of Divine Revelation Quest You have shewed with what Wisdom Goodness and excellent Contrivance all things were laid by the Creator let me now hear from you the use I am to make of it Answ This teaches us to adore applaud the Fidelity and Goodness of our Holy Maker and to confess whatever disorder hath invaded this State of things is owing altogether to the perverseness and weakness of Man whose Destruction is of himself alone and his help only in God returning him to himself according to this first Designation Quest What then is the Supreme End of this Publick and Catholick Religion Answ God the Universal Being receiving into his own most Publick Glory Life and Happiness the Universe of his Holy Creation is Praised Glorified Enjoy'd and admired in them and by them to Eternity CAP. II. Of the Violation of this Catholick Order of Religion and the Means provided by God to restore it Quest HOw did a change begin in this Catholick State of Religion in the place of which we now see endless Schisme and Confusion Answ The Fallen Angels a higher Region of Spirits being Anathematiz'd out of Heaven settled in a black and detestable Heresie and Separation from God Quest How did this affect Man Answ They immediately endeavoured upon Humane Natures being newly breathed from God and received into Society with himself and all Blessed Spirits to propagate their own Malignancy into it in our First Parents and to separate it with themselves from the Creator and his happy Publick Quest With what appearance was so malicious an Attempt covered Answ Under the plausible Disguise of Mans setting up for Happiness and becoming a Publick within himself without and against the Divine Oracle Quest What was the mischievous Design that lay hid under this Answ To have enslav'd Humane Nature under perpetual Vassallage to the Pseudo-Catholick Synagogue of Satan and to have depended upon a lye and the Father of it for Infallibility Quest What was the Effect of this Hellish Attempt Answ Too unhappily successful it was for drawing our unwary Progenitors from the Royal Law implanted in their hearts and rendring suspicious to them the Oracle of the Divine Universal Spirit they gave heed to an unknown obscure Spirit and
concerned has a ready and open way to Examine and in all Cases to be resolved Quest Have all Nations since the Days of the Blessed Seed been Communicated with these Revelations Answ There hath been a Freedom given to Communicate them and a Right in all Nations to demand the benefit of them granted by God and Christ to them but there are many sad Accounts to be given why this Universal Grace to Mankind has not yet taken Effect 1. The unaccountableness of the Methods of Gods Government of the World in the Efficacies of his distinguishing Goodness even when things seem equally disposed to the advantage of one as of another 2. The Experiment made upon so great a part of Mankind that have the Gospel justifies God in not effectually conveying it to others who would make as ill an use of it The Idolatry Superstition of some the sottish Ignorance Sloath and neglect of others The Cruelty and Barbarity exercised by Christians upon one another and the unanswerable living to it in all Sects make plain the great perverseness of our degenerate Nature and how Nations that have not the Gospel would have abused it if they had had it 3. But especially the great Enmity to and Contempt of the Heavenly Doctrine great Nations are inviron'd with against the approaches of it so far as it has come within their notice as among Jews Turks and Pagans are a very obvious Reason why they receive not the benefit of the Gospels free promulgation Quest What then is the immediate Reason why so many Nations that have the Light of Nature to guide them and the Jews that have the Scriptures of the Old Testament have been the one great Enemies to all Scripture Revelations and the other to the new Testament Answ Because Nations that have the light of Nature stay not themselves upon that which is clear and evidently Divine and Publick in Natures Law but either by unnatural Collections and miserable wrestings of its Principles or flying to false and dark Revelations fortifie themselves in falshood or misapplyed Truth As to the Jews it is very plain they were bemisted with the private Interpretation they had affixed to the Old Testament so that they could not see the clear easie and certain Trains of the same Publick and Divine running betwixt the Old and the New but the Rudiments in the Old being more kind to the Cabal or Cypher of their self-interested Sense they venerated them and hated the Perfection and Life in the New that would not at all bear their privy Gloss although both Scriptures had the same Credentials from Heaven and carried the same Publick Sense So great is the Delusion of Private Quest But how comes it to pass that even among those that enjoy the Light of the Gospel the Scriptures and profess the same Christianity nay the most Refined and Reformed Christianity there are so great Differences and Divisions Answ All proceeds from the same unhappy Spring Men cannot endure to rest in the Clear and Certain Oracles of Truth but by forc'd Additions Misinterpretations violent Detorsions forsake that which is Publick and Divine for that which is Private and their own and are greatly offended and too often enraged that others do not concur with them Quest It seems then the best Method of keeping off from Errour is to rest upon the most undoubted Points of Truth before we remove from them to any thing further Answ It is undoubtedly so Religion in all the Branches of it having suffered much more by forreign and disagreeable Additions than by wary Suspensions For hereby a Man keeps himself from False Religion and stands ready and open to receive Truth Quest But how then should a Man make forward from Natural Religion to Revealed or from what he does not understand to what he may in time come to see very good Proof for Answ By staying the due time upon the Uncontrovertible Doctrines and Commands of Natures Laws yielding full Obedience to God in them trembling to add any thing of baser Alloy to them A Man shall see Revealed Truth shining out upon Natural and joyning it self to it and with it Thus many of the Fathers came over to Christianity And so in all parts of Scripture by rising from the most Fundamental Truths lov'd and obey'd a Man shall ascend by due degrees to those more remote Thus Good Men in the Old Testament waited for the Kingdom of God and upon just Considerations moved upon the Line of Truth from the State of Religion in the Old Testament to that of the New except sometimes a Light shines suddenly round about Men as in extraordinary Conversions Quest You seem then to think False Religion and All Divisions in the True have most nearly sprung up from over-confidence of Things not of the Evidence of Publick and Divine Truth Answ I do so indeed although I know Mens not liking to retain Truth but being bewitched by false Imagination betrays them both to the Plague of Lost and Fallen Spirits warring under the Prince of our disordered Air the Ruler of the Darkness of this World and to the various Arts of Men who corrupt Religion for the Ends they have to serve themselves of by it I know Mens Faculties of Search Inquiry into and Comprehension of Truth are much shrivell'd and shrunk up I know Endless Doubts and Incertainties are brought upon Religion by Darkness and false Appearances to Souls that are so full of all the Reasons and Causes of Delusion within themselves and deserted by the just Judgment of God giving them over to believe a Lie I acknowledge all these Causes of Errour Yet I am assured the close Adherence to God in Truths evidently Divine and not removing farther into a Religious Esteem of Things till upon the same Evidence is the Means under the Conduct of the Holy Spirit to be secure from dangerous Errour or Schism from the true Publick And whatever is not so evidently Publick and Divine is liable to Private Interpretation and so to Errour And when Men are overweening upon Private Interpretation they easily fall into Errour and when they are surly and masterly upon it it moves Wrath Emulation Strife so that both Falshoood and Cruelty have entered in at this Door and rang'd over the World Quest But ought we to stupifie all Inquiry and benumb Judgment in every thing not evidently Divine Answ Not so but to behave our selves humbly and modestly to acknowledge there are vast Tracts of Truth and Knowledge beyond what we know but we must feel the Evidence of them before we can receive them yet to carry our selves with due concession to every Mans Sense that though their Sense cannot nor ought to master us no more ought we to expect ours should them which would exceedingly reconcile or abate Differences and retrench the mischievous Effects the World hath so long groan'd under by so many Religions of Nations Names of Churches and Persons propagating their Private that is not Divine
and the Bad are manifestly enough thrown off For in main things there is so much repeated and said over again and again as that all such Truths may be fully presented and assured and yet not so much be said as might be said of the same kind without any Tautology for the Subjects are so rich that even the World would be over-charg'd and not able to contain the Books that would be written Amen CAP. VII Of the Publick Interpretation of Scripture Quest THat the Progress upon this great Point may be made with the best Advantage it will be necessary to state the Amount of what hath been already asserted viz. That Scripture is a Publick and Divine Record and That the Proof and Evidence it is Divine is Divine and Publick also What therefore do these two Positions arise to Answ They arise plainly to this 1. That True Religion is at once given unalterably fixed on Monuments of its own and cannot receive the various Phases of Increase or Decrease like the Moon by new and upstart Decrees Canons or Anathemas 2. That Religion is in this Sense Publick even as God himself that it is of free and open access in the Scripture and its Entertainment as liberal as the Light and the Fountains of Water and no Man need wait till his Religion be drawn out of the private Repository of Breast or Breasts 3. That the Assurance and Evidence of Scripture is very near us when we come to treat with it so that we need not send up to Heaven that were to bring Scripture down from above when it is come down already nor beyond the Sea to oldest Antiquity for a Scale to it which hath always the Broad Seal of Divinity with it for that were to bring Scripture a second time from the Apostles and former Ages through which Divine Care and Providence hath already pass'd it down to us with the very same principal Assurance it gave them viz. that Divine Life of Truth and Holiness that cannot be far from any one of us for in it our Understandings and Consciences live and move and have their Beings and in that Light alone see Light Quest But hath the Private Spirit of Apostate Angels working by Corrupted Humane Nature made no Attempt upon this Publick Record though so every way guarded as it is to introduce a False Religion even under the Appearance of this Publick Authority of Scripture Answ Yes that very notorious one of Private Interpretation Answ What is Private Interpretation Answ That it may be well understood being a very great Instrument of the False Spirit we must proceed by degrees to the true Comprehension of it And first in the strictness of its Notion it is an affixing a Sense to Scripture or any part of it that does not so evidently and indisputably flow from Scripture as to partake of the Divinity of Scripture Quest How should an Interpretation be so made of Scripture as to partake of its Divineness Answ An Interpretation is as Divine as Scripture when it is the true evident Importance and Sense of Scripture Words and Scope and carries the perfect Spirit and Analogie of Scripture with it or is a Deduction and Doctrine arising from Scripture measured by the Context by its usual ways of expressing it self and the compare of one Place of Scripture with another so as to evince it self to be a just and necessary Consequence Quest What is the Effect of such Interpretations Answ Every one that soberly and impartially and piously attends to it cannot but be convinced and instructed by it as the true Divine Scripture-Sense opened and applied to him Quest How else may Interpretation be Publick and Divine even as Scripture it self Answ When there is truly a Divine Presence and such Motives of Credibility by which a rightly qualified Person may be induced to believe that such an Interpreter is immediately assisted by the Holy Spirit to give such an Interpretation that else could not be found by any Created Sagacity or Industry in such particular Places of Scripture either from the Importance of the Words the strength of the Context or Scope or in the Analogie of Scripture comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual Quest What are to be understood to be Motives of Credibility in so great a Case Answ The Divine Sense of an Interpretation agreeable with all those so self-evident Notions of God and all Goodness the Weight and Gravity of the Matter The Authoritativeness of Scripture-Language and Elocution Miracles Agreement with all former Scripture Awes upon the Conscience Inward Illumination of the Holy Spirit in its Sanctifying and Heavenly Influences breathing in it and with it These are a Divine and Publick Presence and absolutely constitute further Scripture even as they illustrate and put a greater Splendour upon former Scripture and compleat it Quest Who were such Interpreters of former Scripture Answ The Prophets were such Interpreters upon the Law in their Time even all that writ after Moses who either by Histories compiled by such Divine Inspiration gave Examples agreeable to the Scope of the Law or by Sermons stirr'd up to the Obedience of it and reproved the Disobedience or by Divine Meditations Discourses and Hymns display'd it or by Prophesies foretold the Government of God in his Church and in the World according to it but especially accommodated all things in it under Prophetick Veils to Christ and the State of True Religion under the New Testament All the Prophets from Samuel and all that followed after as many as have spoken foretold likewise of these days All which together fill up wholly the Spaces of Scripture in the Old Testament Quest How did the New Testament and the Writers of it succeed in this great Office of Expounding and Summing up Scripture in this Publick Divine Authority Answ They were above all that went before them For John the Baptist than whom a greater Prophet among them that were born of Women had not risen yet he that was least in the Kingdom of God in the more explained State of Christianity was greater than he Quest How is this Notion of Publick Interpretation contradistinguish'd to Private made good out of Scripture it self Answ From the Apostle Peter who expresly tells us Scripture is not of any Private Interpretation Whose Sense in that place is very necessary to be pursued both as it much clears the Nature of Private Interpretation and also strengthens the Foundations of the New Testament as laid in the Old Quest But you know the Original Word there used and translated Interpretation is by some understood for no more than the Prophetick Declaration or Interpreting the Mind of God revealed by Inspiration and by very many another Word signifying Inspiration it self or the Illapse of the Divine Spirit in those Prophetick Revelations is preferred to the Word translated Interpretation as the more genuine Reading Answ I know the Current of Expositors both the ways you mention but against them both there is this great
Reason No other but Interpretation and that strictly taken will fit the Apostles Purpose Quest What was the Apostles Purpose Answ To assure the Jewish Christians in the Truth of Christianity out of that more sure Word of Prophesie in the Old Testament Quest Was it not then to the purpose to assure the Divine Original of that Word of Prophesie and to assert its immediate Descent from the Publick Holy Spirit Answ That indeed was necessarily suppos'd and included or rather concluded on all hands but not the close Point in discourse For the Sacredness of the Old Testament being agreed both by Jews and Christians the Apostle commends the giving heed to it as to a Light that shone in a dark place a great Lamp shining when all was dark and deep Night about till the Day of the Gospel dawn'd and Christ the Day-star arose in their Hearts by Faith Quest What was the precise Mark the Apostle was to aim at Answ To vindicate the true way of Interpreting this sure Word of Prophesie Quest Why was this so much to his purpose Answ Because the whole Stream of Interpretation of the Old Testament among the Jews run against Christianity Quest Whence came this Current of False Interpretation Answ Even from whence Interpretation might seem least of all to deserve the name of Private from the Scribes and Pharisees Doctors of the Law Elders of the People who vogued themselves the Publick and so Proprietors of the Sense and Interpretation of the Scriptures but as our Saviour says they had indeed taken away this true Key of Knowledge neither entring in themselves nor suffering those that would Quest How does the Apostle vindicate this Point Answ By a vehement Caution on those to whom he vrit to measure from the Publick and Divine Original of Scripture to the Interpretation as necessarily to be Publick and Divine also You do well saith he to take heed to the Word of Prophesie of the Old Testament as yet more sure to you than the New can be if you do but know and well consider this first and lay it in the Foundation That Scripture cannot be subject to a Private Interpretation whose Original you your selves together with us acknowledge as Publick as the Holy Spirit For can that be subject to the Will and Dispose of Man in the Interpretation that came not by the Will of Man but by the Supreme Motion of the Holy Ghost in the Original Quest Wherein lies the Strength of this Argument Answ In this If the Interpretation of Scripture be not as high as the Original so high an Original is to no purpose For Sense being more Scripture than Words and Interpretation assigning the Sense if That be Private All is Private at the Rebound and not Divine else a Divine Original shall be mismatch'd controll'd and even made servile by and to a Private and often a False and Unworthy Interpretation Quest Into what Vse and Effect did this Argument issue Answ To a silent calling them to compare the Manner and Kind of Interpretation used by the Lord and his Apostles and that other of the Jewish Doctors and then to udge which appeared Divine and from God which not and they would easily give the Preference to our Lord and his Ministers as the only Divine Interpreters Quest How then did our Saviour and the Apostles justifie their Interpretation to be Publick and Divine Answ By one of the two fore-named ways either from the evident Importance of some very express Scriptures of the Old Testament applied in the New as David's calling Christ who was his Son Lord which muzled the very Adversaries or by the immediate Presence of the Divine Spirit discovering what it had treasured and sealed up in such Expressions which Eye could not see nor Heart conceive till in due time the Spirit it self revealed them The Spirit that knows its own Depths the Spirit to whom are known all its own Designs from the first Foundations or Beginning of Scripture to the highest Stone in the Structure or End of it The Top is known to it in the very Bottom the End in the Beginning That therefore which was seen to Men only in the Rudiment or Foundation and seem'd to mean no more appeared at that very time to him in the Complement and he applies it to that Complement as certainly and justly as they did to the first Rudiment or Foundation As Out of Egypt have I called my Son was as truly applied to Christ's coming out of Egypt being then come to its Perfection of Sense as it was applied to Israel coming out of Egypt in the first Rudiment and the Divine Spirit as truly meant the last as the first though none could know its Sense but it self till it self revealed it Quest How could it be proved the Ministers of the New Testament had the true Key of Interpretation committed to them by the Spirit Answ By the concurrence of all things that justified the first Writers of Scripture to be Commissioned by God Great and weighty Truth Holy Heavenly becoming God as the Author such Speech as none beside the Writers of Scripture ever spoke all of a piece with former Scripture Miracles mighty Efficacy upon Consciences the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls the abolishing of Sin the Ends designed in all the removing all lower Forms and Ceremonies for the time being into a most High Spiritual Substantial Religion True Peace of Conscience introduced These with innumerable others concurring in any Interpretation of former Scripture that could not else be found out in its full Meaning do both enlighten former Scripture and enlarge it into further and more Scriptures Quest If then our Lord and his Apostles in Interpreting the Old Testament by the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit resting without measure on our Saviour and in full measures on the Apostles discover'd that Sense in the Ancient Scriptures which was indeed deposited there but could not be unlock'd by any Created Wisdom it will follow thence That it is an unnecessary Labour of many Worthy Expositors of Scriptures to press too hard in every Quotation of the Old Testament we find in the New for a free and full Confession of all that Sense it there expresses as if it could naturally arise from so many Words and Syllables so put together having power and vertue by themselves to signifie so high since the Holy Spirit had a reach in them which none could grasp or fathom but it self and contriv'd that Sense so into Words as none could summon it but it self and that it rested upon the Lord and his Apostles to bring it to light and reveal it into New and Higher Scriptures and that it appears as undeniably they did so as that the Old Testament it self is Scripture Answ The Industry of such Worthy Persons is not to be blamed to trace the Sense of the New Testament in the Words of the Old as far as it is possible for them to go But if
A. Catholick Catechism SHEWING THE IMPOSSIBILITY THE CATHOLICK RELIGION Should be varied to the Degree of a Thought from the Measures left Sealed by the Apostles WITHOUT THE LOSS of TRUTH And therefore The Impossibility POPERY or whatever else is not found in Scripture should be CATHOLICK Composed to the Capacity of the Meanest that will but Consider that they may know and be ready upon unmovable Reasons to give an Apologie or Defensive Answer for the Catholick Religion if they are indeed of it and be secured from Temptation in Times of Danger 2 Pet. 1. 12. The Present Truth Prov. 22. 21. That I might make thee know the Certainty of the Words of Truth that thou mightest answer the Words of Truth to them that send unto thee LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Will. Miller at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and the Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Call this A Catechism because I design it a Familiar Instruction in Fundamental Truths Resounding the same Thing from Question to Answer the easiest way of Conveying Truth and Imprinting it upon the Minds of those that are even of the meanest Capacity But especially because the Principles of it are to be daily so Meditated upon Pondered and Applyed to use as to be a perpetual sound in our Ears and so to be properly stiled Catechism For Things of such great weight as Principles are must have as the most Advantageous Admâ—ssion as the most Deep and therefore Leisurely Insinuation as the most Resolved Adherence when found True and Right which is Buying the Truth and not Selling it so they must have the most Easy and Ready Application to all their Uses and Ends They must therefore be bound continually about our Neck that when we go they may lead us that when we sâ—eep they may keep us that when we wake they may talk with us Prov. 6. 21 22. I know the Things I have written cannot be duely received without much Thinking and without that they will be in danger of a Censorious rejection from the most or of a superficial unintelligent Acceptance in the Kinder which is as bad as the other and therefore I present it as a Catechism to those that shall at all approve it that they may be throughly versed in it and the Sense of it grow Domestick to them I call it a Catholick Catechism only with Relation to the Great Subjects it Treats of the Catholick Religion and the Catholick Church in those things wherein they are Catholick or in which their Catholickness consist That is that they are of God and that the whole Society of Holy and Happy Spirits is by that Catholickness united and closely banded with it self Catholick as the Epistles called Catholick that is after some Doubt Asserted to be Divine of the Publick Spirit of God and giving that Publick Doctrine in which the General Assembly is one I have endeavoured to contrive the Questions and Answers so that the Answers may be an Apology or Defensive Answer of that Catholick Truth giving a Reason or a Rational Account to any Demand that can be made upon it And it is the Apology of that Truth it self the Apology it gives and furnishes us with for other can no Man give Truth can need no other than its Native Apology for it self no other will it accept To give this and to be always ready to give it to keep it within us and to have it fitted to our Lips is the proper Fruit of such a Catechetical Instruction and the Apostle assures us it is the great Duty of Christianity and the greatest Honour we can do to God First to Sanctifie him in our Hearts by a full acknowledgment of him in his Divine Truth by a Plerophory or full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ For a Devotion to the True God without knowing him to be the True God cannot thus Sanctifie or Honour him There is nothing we should be more Rational in than in the True Religion the Account of which and of its whole Content ought to be so certain to us that nothing of a Diverse Spirit from it can be added to it nor any thing of its Integral or Essential Nature taken from it but we may plainly see it would change the Account and so we need not make a Traverse over all Falsehood to know Truth but by having a Right understanding in and Just Contemplation of Truth the most even thing in the whole World we come to know it self by it self and to be assured of it although there were no other False Religion in the World to compare it with and set it off by and withal to descry every false way offered to us and to hate it Yea we observe every thing that is but doubtfully Proposed and stay it its due time of Examination and so either accept or reject it or if we see full reason for neither still suspend It is not the Laws of our Country our Church our being Baptiz'd or Educated in it that will justifie our Religion to be the True It is not the High Reverence of it the Devotion we use in it our hating of those that speak Blasphemously of it will make good our Religion what Religion in the World may not be justified upon such Topicks It is not that we find many great Principles of Truth in a Religion that will justifie it There is no Religion that can be called Religion that does not espouse many True Principles And in Christian Religion Antichristianism vies with Christianity it self upon the Fundamental Creeds which it self Confesses with True Christianity but hath Built upon them New Creeds of its own and so Corrupted all For what is so pure and perfect as True Religion is must needs be Corrupted by any Addition All that is Pure and True is already its own who then can add to it and not be found a Lyar Nothing therefore as I have already intimated can be our security for True Religion but the Just Divine Measure the Common Faith the True Catholick Standard which in all things necessary to the main End is most evident and in entertaining nothing that is not so evident till it becomes so upon this Great Test this is our Security For it is very plain there is less danger when our Understandings are not yet extended to the breadth of Divine Truth if none of the Vital Principles are unknown to us unsensed by us which are so exceedingly plain that we cannot be except willfully ignorant of them for no Injury is done to Truth that we do not understand its whole Compass nor to our selves if we do not hate knowledge offering it self to our notices but in adding to Truth seeing we can have nothing to add but what is of no worth we must needs defile it in having only Truth though we have not all Truth we yet are under the Influence of Truth only
Rational Discourse and manifestation of themselves in Mens Consciences witness'd to by the Holy Spirit and authorised by a Power of Miracles generally of Beneficence or doing good and in some but sparing Instances of infliction of Bodily Pains or Death Quest Did the Apostles never err in their Administration Answ Whenever that Infallible Guidance was not present to them they might err as was before observed in the Apostle Peter's Miscarriage which no doubt was recorded to shew their Power was not in themselves but in the Divine Spirit acting by them that none in After-ages might pretend to dictate as their Successors having not their Power and yet requiring Obedience as if they had it whereas even the Apostles themselves might err and so lose their Power if never so little deserted by the Holy Spirit And therefore what they consigned over to After-ages was winnowed from every thing Humane and Fallible that both Officers and People might know the one Common Rule by which one is to Govern the other in the Application of it is to be Governed Quest Who were next to the Apostles in this Office and Power Answ Evangelists such as were Timothy and Titus who having a Portion of the Apostolick Work to plant and settle Churches and Ordinary Officers in them had also a Portion of their Power to enable them to it it being absolutely necessary there should be such till the General Rule was fully settled and fixed Quest Were not the Apostles and Evangelists above Ordinary Pastors and Teachers Answ They were in this great Point of Difference that they had the Word of God by Immediate and Infallible Revelation committed to them to commit the same to others by direction from the same Spirit who gave them Discerning to whom to entrust it till all things relating to the Kingdom of God in the Church were sealed in the Canon of the New Testament else they owned themselves Compresbyters as the Apostle Peter stiles himself A Presbyter with Presbyters Quest From all that hath been spoken we are to conclude That the whole Power in the Church and in all things pertaining to Religion is retained in the Word of God Answ It is so For Christ in his Word is the only King and Lawgiver of his Church which Glory he will not give to another Whatever Power can be supposed resident in the whole Church together is no other than in that Word of Truth publickly offered by it The Apostles Power was only the presence of that Word to them by the Immediate Revelation and infallible Guidance of the Holy Spirit for the Preaching it throughout the World and thereby founding the Christian Church Such was the ordinary Power of any extraordinary Ministers under them The and constant Rulership of the Elders of the Church remains unmoveably in the Word which it is their Office to speak Quest Are not those we distinguishingly call Bishops Successours to the Apostles in that Preeminency they had over other Pastors and Elders Answ That Successors to the preeminency of the Apostles may be well established Three things are necessary 1. That there be found and produced Distinct Commands given in Scripture to the Inferior Ministers of the New Testament to obey Superior Ministers or Bishops Commands to Christians to obey Inferior Ministers or Ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors We must find the Apostle distinguishing ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors as we find him distinguishing Civil Magistrates into the King as Supreme and Governors as those that are sent by him 2. Seeing it is very clear and apparent there is nothing more distant from the Design of the Gospel than to Constitute any thing for the sake of making a great Figure without as great an Use or End and that Christ hath not given Power to his Rulers to Command the very least thing but as Commanded by himself first for then they would be Lords which he plainly declares against and absolutely denies to them and that what they do as Commanded by him they should do so in Duty and Service to the Supreme Lord and Subordinately to his Church as not to be called or esteem'd Benefactors for their Services so that it must be evident what their Superior Service is it must be plainly expressed in the Word of God and there at least so determinately set down as to be deduced with greatest clearness to the Understanding and Conscience of Christians and distinguishingly from the Service of other Subordinate Rulers appointed by Christ that so it may be waited for and received according to his Ordinance with Faith and Obedience 3. Seeing Christ appoints none to an Eminency of Service without a suitable Eminency of Abilities as is plain in the Apostles and Evangelists it is therefore reasonable to expect some extraordinary promises of the presence of Christ to those Superior Ministers to assist them in the Conduct of their Superiority wherein they might above any other Ministers of the Gospel Visibly and Experimentally make some approaches to the Eminent Assistances the Apostles and Evangelists had in the time of their Ministry and that they have continued and succeeded in their High Function in the Church of Christ so that the History of the Real Substantial Services of Bishops to Christianity hath come near to the Acts of Apostles and as much excelled that of Common Presbyters as the Order it self is supposed to do Now without these three self evident concurrent marks of Superiority secret invisible Characters are of no signification Quest How then is such a Succession of Bishops in a Superiority over Presbyters so uncontrolably deduced from Antiquity Answ Besides all other Coincident Accounts there is this to be given After the Apostles there was but a Gradual Cessation of Apostolick Men Men of Eminent Graces and Extraordinary Gifts though not of the Infallible Guidance of the Divine Spirit for the Revelation of the Gospel or the writing of Scripture yet of more immediate Divine Assistances in resemblance of Timothy and Titus for the Confirmation of the Churches planted by the Apostles Supervisal over them and Care for them and also for the further propagation of Christianity which being but newly set out had not arrived many places where it was to come and so needed some more than ordinary Assistances Even as Miracles did not immediately Cease no more did these Personages extraordinary in their Endowments Such as these were worthily in a Degree of Superiority over those that had not the same miraculous Inablements nor Knowledge as yet in Christianity Afterwards such Manifestations of the Divine Presence by Degrees retiring and Christianity having fixed it self where it was then to go and the Churches settled the best accounts of the continuing Distinction between those that were upon the same level in regard of their Gifts and Graces were but Humane Prudence and Order which oblige no
that no Religion in the World can deserve the Name of a Religion but looks monstrous and horrid only so far as it borrows some or more of the Grand Principles of our True Religion nor can be at all Weighty and Considerable but is vain and ridiculous if it receive no Ballast from True-Religion That then which was accounted for in the beginning being remembred I shall especially apply my self to ascertain True Christianity in contradiction to the false or Popish Christianity by that which will much ascertain all True Religion also in General and difference it from all False Religion Quest I much desire to have some such Test as you seem to intimate and promise Answ I cannot furnish you with a better surer and more lively than that Emblem of the Divine Spirit representing the New Jerusalem by a four-square City the Length and the Bredth and the Height of which are equal The Walls and the Gates and the City it self amounting to so many Square Solid Furlongs all exactly regulated by the Number Twelve all of Massy-Gold and most precious Pearil Rev. 21. Quest The very General view of so rich an Embleme much affects me but I desire you to lead me into the Application of it to each Particular purpose and in the first place what am I to understand by the City Answ It is evidently told us it is the New Jerusalem that is coming down from Heaven the True Church Seated in the Christian Religion for so the Apostle Paul assures us the Christian Church so Spirited with True Christianity is Jerusalem which is above the Divine and Spiritual Jerusalem which is free and is the Mother of us all if True Christians Gal. 4. 26. Quest What do you understand by the Foundations the Wall the Gates the City it self Answ I am not bold or curious in pursuing Emblems too close but understand in general by the whole of all these the Doctrine the Worship the Rules of Life the Discipline of the True Church Quest What are we directed to by all being reduced to the Number Twelve Answ It is very evident the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb give the Honour to the Number Twelve for the Prophets and Apostles that is the Truth ministred infallibly by them is the Foundation upon which the True Christian Church is built Jesus Christ himself being the Corner-Stone and so to shew True Religion hath been always Substantially the same The Twelue Tribes of Israel and the Name of Jerusalem the People and City of God of old are Recorded with Honour as expressive of the True Church fixed in the True Religion in the Times before Christ Quest Why are all things in the Christian State deserib'd to be of Pure Gold and Precious Pearl Answ To teach us by sensible things the transcendent Purity and Worth of Christian Religion and the equal Purity and Worth of all things in it of a most transparent clearness being all Spiritual Intellectual full of Light and Truth and so to be received and enjoy'd by Purity and Intellectuality or Clearest Understanding Wisdom and Prudence in the Knowledge of this Divine Revelation and by greatest Innocency Cleanness and Heavenliness of Heart Affections and Life Quest But can this be supposed to be the present State of the Church of God as it is here upon Earth Answ This is the certain and most unalterable Constitution and Designation of God concerning it and whoever plants it lower in any of the Things before Named viz. the Doctrine Worship Rules of Life or Discipline contradicts the very thing it self or degrades and embases it though it must be acknowledged its being thus prepared and adorned as a Bride must be from Heaven in some just season appointed by the Father This is yet always the Tryal of the True Church and the True Religion although the Church be not yet perfected to it Quest But you seem to have forgotten the City and all the Parts of it lying Foursquare and being solid square measure for so it must be if the Length Bredth and Height are all equal Answ I did not at all forget it but suffered your Questions to lead through all I less design'd that they might come to the Principal Character of the True Religion and the True Church so exactly adequate to one another Quest Will you then more fully explain this Similitude Answ That I may the better do it I must repeat it from the very Ground and Bottom of it which is that God makes use as he pleases of all the Knowledge and Science â—hat is in the World to Minister to Divine Knowledge â—â— which he principally intends to Instruct as being most absolutely necessary for all of what condition soever As then Mathematicks is the most Demonstrative Science and some things in it are of most retired and fine Speculation so are others most known and necessary to all imployed in Mechanicks Thus God hath been pleased to deposite some Prophetick Truths in the most mystick parts of that Learning and some of the more general use in the most known and acquainted parts of it now those that are more secret and not so necessary I shall leave to those that are most fitted thereunto But what is most plain and imports what is most necessary for all I will insist upon As then Number and Measure are means Ordained for Humane Nature and principal Instruments of Reason to come to the most certain knowledge of things and to be secured they are and continue what they justly ought to be so True Religion is thereupon presented to us under exact Number and Measure falling in one with another the Number Twelve multiplied into a Square Cube of Twelve thousand Furlongs And as the Foursquare Figure does so bind and is so compact with it self that it cannot receive the least Addition but with the loss of its Square nor the least Diminution but under the same Forfeiture thus True Religion is so perfectly it self that it can neither be added to nor diminished from but with a proportionable loss of it self God was pleased upon this account to chuse this Figure for the Altar under the Law for the Breast-Plate of Judgment this was the Measure of Solomons Oracle how far the Measures in Ezekiel agree I leave The Heathen by Natural Wisdom had such a Sense of the so Just to it sel Foursquare that they called a Good Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Foursquare Man And lastly as Solid Square Measure is in all parts of it and throughout every part exactly Square and gives the most certain account of the whole content of a Body so is True Religion in all its Parts exactly so it self and every Part of every Part is reduced to the same exactness for so the Length Bredth and Height of it are equal and so is the True Church exactly adequated to True Religion The Faith is therefore said to be at once delivered to the Saints because it can receive no New Measures and it
Offered by the Eternal Spirit which certainly makes the comers thereunto perfect On the other side this Liberty lays not open the Inclosures of a Holy Life nor removes the Barriers of Justice against Sin if not satisfied and attoned by Faith in the Blood of Christ 4. Lastly That which answers to each of these Characters of True Religion is that it hath no Secular Interest no Interest of this present World that it looks not upon the things that are seen that are but for a Moment but on the things that are not seen that are Eternal such is the Godliness such is the Sacrifice such the Christian Liberty that their Uses and Ends are too great and large to center in Earthly things and though themselves are the True Interest of the present state yet they no way make it or the Grandeur of it an Interest but seek a Heavenly Country and City even as the Lord of this Religion said My Kingdom is not of this World Now as this measures each of the other Characters so each of them measures it such a Transcendant Holiness and Purity can alone see God in Eternal Habitations such a Sacrifice alone can have its Blood enter into the Holy Place made without Hands having obtained an Eternal Inheritance such a Blood speaks alone in the Heavens better things than the Blood of Abel a Conscience so free so perfected hath boldness to enter into the Holiest and none else These are all fitted and Consecrated to Eternity and Eternity to them Light and trivial Holiness Insignificant Ceremonies and Rites of Purgation a cumber of External Observations invented by Men can never enter within the Vail nor endure for ever And on the other side by such Divine Things to grasp at this World and a Patrimony on Earth is as gross and out of Square so that these things exactly measure one another and square together Quest How is the Four-Square City or the True Church adjusted to these Dimensions Answ In all these things I before mentioned in having these and these only in its Doctrine its Worship its Practice and Obedience its Discipline or Government Quest How is the False Church out of Square to all these Answ In that retaining the Profession of the Christian Religion constituted according to these and pretending an Imitation of them and the Miracles attesting them it hath been most extravagant from them by its Traditional Additions and Counterfeits of them every of which are a Violation and Irregularity from one or all of these Characters or equal Sides of True Religion a great Lie upon them with which they can never be brought to agree being not only an endless Variation from but a flat Opposition to them and a despiting them with themselves so strangely so monstrously mis-shapen and that in so great numbers that as in mockage to the many excellent things our Saviour did and taught so many that if they were all written the World it self could not contain the Books that would be written even so if all the numerous and prodigious excursions of the Antichristian Church and Antichrist the Head of it from Christian Religion by its indeterminable swarm of New pieces of Antichristianism should be written the whole World it self would not be able to contain the Volumes that would be written Quest But does not the Profession of so much of the Christian Religion in such an Eminence like the City upon the Hill that cannot be hid give it the Reputation of a most Famous Church if not the Catholick as it calls it self Answ Christianity so abused as in the Popish Religion is infinitely the more dishonoured for the Eminence of the Antichurch that so exposes it and it is only the Eminence of Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God and the exalting himself above all that is indeed and truly God in his Church and shewing himself that he is God in his Oracles Wonders and Miracles but they are all but one great Lie of this Son of the Father of Lies the Image of the God of this World the Son of his falshood and perdition contrary to Christ the Son of the Father in Truth and Love But if any one receiving Christianity or the Scriptures from the Antichurch and measuring them in and by themselves separates True Christianity from the Antichristianism and retains it Pure it is but like the Service God received from the False Prophet Baalam when he Prophefied Truth into whose Place and Office Antichrist succeeds and is therefore styled the False Prophet Revel 16. 13. Quest What then can this pretended Catholick Church be in relation to the True Catholick Publick Religion Answ It can be no other upon strict account than the Synagogue of Satan the Pseudocatholick Antichurch in a Damnable Heresie from and hatred to the General Assemby and Church of the First Born written in Heaven united with the God of Truth and Love and the Son of the Father in Truth and Love in a Hellish Schism and Separation from the Apostolick Catholick Church of which God and Christ are the Head Quest How can it be believed that so great a Lie upon Christianity should be received by so large a proportion of the Christian World or that Persons of so vast Abilities and Comprehensions should so deceive others or be themselves deceived Answ Scripture has taken all the care possible to Arm us against this Objection which is indeed very great It calls this Apostacy a Mystery of Iniquity and to assure us the Apostle Paul and the Divine Person in the Revelation point to the same Thing upon the Forehead of this Adulterous Church is written Mystery Now a Mystery if it were presently understood and all easie and plain were no Mystery It hath the Energy of Delusion in causing Men to believe a Lie it is the whole Deceit of unrighteousness it sets up a great Stage of Counterfeit Miracles that it vaunts upon and that it might have that Reverend Face of Antiquity to deceive with and say it comes from a far-off Ages It was a Mystery that was then at work in the Apostles time Lastly It hath its effect upon them that may be Christians and receive Truth but not the chaste unprostitute Love of Truth alone Quest But it seems imposible that any parts of the Christian World that have been once disabused should return any more under so great a Delusion Answ There are very great hopes that God who hath Commanded his Light to shine out of this Darkness will interpose by the perpetual Brightness of his own appearance and by that Divine Breath of his Mouth in his Word against the return of so great a Darkness This set aside there are so many Reasons of fear and such possibilities of laying a Train of Causes reaching to such an Effect that there can be no place for Security but in the Almighty Providence and yet what Degrees of that deadly Scourge may fall on the Protestant World God only knows we know our Sins