must needs be so too for ours is the same with theirs Evangelically considered their Types Sacrifices Prophecies and Ordinances referring to Christ who is the very substance of the Christian Religion The Mosaical Law of the Old Testament what is it else but Evangelium reconditum a veiled Gospel And the Gospel in the New Testament what is it but Lex Revelata the Law of the Old Testament revealed And thus it appears that the Christian Religion is the most Ancient Secondly If we look at the means and way of Atonement and Propitiation held forth in the Christian Religion it must needs appear to be the most Wise and Reasonable of any Religion The Eternal God or Supreme Being as He is full of Love and Mercy so He is Just and Righteous His Justice is infinite as Himself is He will so shew Mercy as that He will appear to be infinitely Just toward the the Offendor and therefore in Reason there must be some way or means of Satisfaction and Atonement found out or else God and Man being separarated by Sin could not be reunited The wiser sort among the Heathens were convinc'd by the Light of Reason That Man being alienated from God and not able of himself to come to God in regard of his darkness and ignorance there is a necessity of some way or means of cleansing and atonement Hence came the multitude of their Sacrifices and Oblations especially when any great Plague or Judgment was upon them But now that Christ the Son of God who is equal with God should be this way or means by giving up himself a Sacrifice for Sin of this they were wholly ignorant Is it so that the Justice of God offended by Sin is infinite Then it is but reasonable that this infinite Justice should have infinite reparation and satisfaction which neither Angels nor Men being but finite Creatures can give to the infinite God And therefore unless the Mediator or Days-man that takes up the difference between God and man be himself the infinite God as well as man such an infinite Satisfaction cannot be given This way or means being contrived and found out only by the wise infinite God and clearly held forth in the Christian Religion and in no other Religion besides it must needs be even by the Light of Reason the best and safest and truest Religion as that which vindicates the Honour of the great God and gives true peace and security to man Thirdly The Glorious Miracles wrought by Christ may convince any man's reason of the Truth of the Christian Religion Not only Josephus and other Jews besides him but also divers Heathen Authors and some of Christ's greatest Adversaries do acknowledge His Miracles Julian the Apostata as great an Enemy as he was confess'd that Jesus cured the Blind and the Lame and delivered some from Devils that were possessed in Bethsaida and Bethany Pilate himself in a Letter of his to the Emperor Tiberius witnesseth That Jesus gave sight to the Blind cleansed the Lepers healed them that were diseased delivered them that were possessed from Devils over-ruled the Waters raised the Dead and rose again Himself from the dead after three days Hereupon Tertullian bids the Senate and People of Rome read their own Commentaries and search their Records where they shall find the Miracles of Jesus which if they had not been sufficiently known to be true and real Tertullian himself in this Case might have been easily convicted of lying and forgery These Miracles of Christ were wrought not in one or two places but in many not in a corner but in the open view of the World and were attended with such Majesty and Power that there are thousands that will rather die on a Rack than deny or gainsay the same Jesus wrought great Miracles saith Josephus and although He was Crucified and put to death yet His Disciples forsook him not but did cleave unto him And as He Himself wrought many Miracles when he was upon Earth so His Disciples after He was gone from them by His power and virtue did likwise effect such Miracles as fill'd the World with the fame of them and were a special means to convert whole Kingdoms to Christ If any be so absurd and impudent as to deny the Miracles of Christ then I would ask of them whether it be not a great and strange Miracle That so many Nations and in them so many Wise and Learned men should follow and adore a poor contemptible man without Miracles and should be willing to die for Him even for Him that died a cursed ignominious Death upon the Cross If His Miracles were not great and far surmounting the Nature and capacity of a meer Man if they were not divine and supernatural can any sober man imagin that so many thousands would be so far convinc'd and perswaded by them as to die joyfully and triumphantly for the Name and Honour of this Jesus Is it a Miracle to work upon a man by touching him and much more without touching him and most of all without seeing him Then what a Miracle is it to work powerfully in the Hearts of whole Nations a far off without once seeing them and to touch them without coming at them and to convert and draw them to Himself without touching them with His Hand Yea but say some very absurdly and irrationally Christ and His Apostles wrought Miracles by the help of Magick Let such vain men resolve us if ever they knew or heard of a Magician that wrought such Miracles and came with such power and efficacy upon the Hearts of all sorts of men after his death as Jesus did And as for His Apostles what gain or advantage could they get by exercising this Magick No considerate man will attempt any great matter but for some end or other Now what Profit what Preferment what Honour in this World got they by it Nay did it not procure them much Hatred Danger Imprisonment Torments and at last Death it self Magicians usually hide themselves and conceal their Art when they are pursued for it But did the Apostles do so What a strange kind of Magick is this that will needs be known and exercised even in despite of the rage of Rulers and People yea of Death it self Doubtless 't is very remarkable that as in Moses time God so ordered in His wise Providence that there should be many great Magicians in Egypt that He might make His own Power the more evident So in the times of Christ and His Apostles there was great store of them in Judaea Rome and other places that a difference might be put between the Illusions of Satan and the miraculous Works of God Pliny reports that there were never more Magicians in the World than in the Reign of Nero which was the time of spreading the Gospel by Christ's Apostles neither was the vanity of that Art as he saith ever more apparently known than at that time If therefore this Art of Magick did never
most wicked Superstition CHAP. XII The divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures proved by Reason THe Laws of God as we have heard differ much from the Laws of men these command only the outward man but the divine Laws reach the Spirit and command the inward man which Laws are Recorded in the Sacred Scriptures now that these Holy Writings are the word of God and do contain the Laws of God and the Rule of our Faith and practice may be proved by Reason so far as may convince a Heathen or Infidel that there is such a divine Authority and Efficacy in these Writings as are not to be found in any other First then let it be granted as it hath been clearly demonstrated that there is one living and true God and that this God is to be honoured and adored by his reasonable Creatures with that service and worship which becomes him Then it will undeniably follow That there must be some Revelation made by God himself touching that way of worship wherein he will have us obey him this is practic'd by all wise Princes and States who govern their Subjects in a way of Reason and of Prudence for who can know what pleaseth God but he himself and they to whom he makes known his will and pleasure Now then supposing some Revelation of Gods will in order to that service which he will accept if the Scripture be not this Revelation where then shall we find it Let any man if he can shew some other or better manifestation concerning the will and worship of the great and Holy God then what he hath made known in his Written word Nothing can be the standing unerring Rule of our Faith but what God himself hath made so That which is the Rule must be the law of our Beleif and who can make a Law of this nature but God himself 'T is unreasonable to imagine that any men or Creatures can prescribe to us what we are to beleive concerning God unless God himself make known his will and publish his Laws Secondly As for the Scriptures of the Old Testament which are received and imbraced as the word of God both by Jews and Christians let us rationally consider how the Church of the Jews who were the peculiar People of God to whom were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 have witnessed these Books to be divine and Supernatural Have they not from time to time for many Ages together in their greatest misery and affliction constantly acknowledged and contended for the divine Authority thereof whenas by only denying the same they might have had not only liberty but great preferments in the World And is it not very observable that though the Princes high Preists and others amongst the Jewes persecuted the Prophets and despised their words whilst they lived yet they received their Writings as Prophetical and Divine when they where dead and since blindness and obstinacy came upon the Jewes notwithstanding their great enmity and hatred to the Christian Religion and the Professors thereof yet the Scriptures of the Old Testament yea those very Texts that do evidently confirm the truth of the Christian Religion are kept pure and uncorrupt amongst them Thirdly The Christian Church which embraceth both the Books of the Old and New Testament have witnessed and do still witness to the divine Authority thereof even to the Death the whole Vniversal Church of God even from the first Penning of the Scriptures till this very day have all along professed that these Books are divine and Thousands of them have Sealed the same with their blood this Testimony is of great weight and force though it be not so infallible and effectual to perswade and satisfie the Conscience as the Testimony of the Holy Ghost himself Of all humane Testimonies whereby the Author of any Book that hath is or ever shall be extant can be proved or evinced so as to satisfie mans Reason the Testimony of the Universal Church of God concerning this Book is the greatest and most satisfactory both in respect of the multitude wisdom honesty and faithfulness of the witnesses and the likelyhood constancy and uninterrupted continuance of the Testimony it self Is it probable in a way of Reason that so good and wise a God should suffer so many honest well meaning People to be so long abused and deceived by a false or feigned Book fathered upon himself such a horrid Imposture the God of truth will not endure to lye hid and undiscovered for so many hundred years Christians of all sorts and conditions Noble and Ignoble Rich and Poor Learned and unlearned Married and unmarried Old and Young throughout the World for a long time together have endured the most grievous and exquisite torments that the Devils could invent or the malice of men find out for the defence of this truth and that with great constancy and alacrity with an undaunted heart and merry countenance And can any sober man think that so many thousand persons and some of them of great quality learning and prudence that might have lived bravely and carried a great part in this World should suffer so many and so great things out of meer weakness pride vaine glory discontent or that they should suffer for a fable that hath no Truth nor reality in it This Testimony which is taken from the great sufferings Christian patience joy and courage of the Martyrs is not meerly humane for that courage and cheerfulness which they shewed in the midst of their Torments was not from the strength of humane Nature and reason but it was from above and supernatural Fourthly God hath confirmed the divine Authority of the Scriptures in the view of the World by many great wonders and Miracles from Heaven such as Satan himself cannot imitate such as exceed the power of any yea of all the Creatures in the World such as the most malitious subtil Enemies of God's truth could not deny to be divine These Miracles hath the Lord openly wrought by the hands of Moses the Prophets and Apostles which as they were sufficient to confirm the divine Authority of the Scriptures to them who were eye-witnesses thereof so the undoubted and clear Narration of them is to us an invincible Argument that the Word and Gospel of Christ is from Heaven and not from men the Lord witnessing thereunto both by Signs and wonders and with divers Miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Heb. 2.4 What shall I say of the Antiquity of the Scriptures and the Doctrine contain'd therein which of all Writings and Doctrines that have been taught and published is the most Ancient In all other Writings and Records the Doctrine of the Creation and fall of man is omitted which yet is particularly and plainly set down in the Scriptures And truly it is admirable to Consider how the power and wisdom and goodness of God have appeared in preserving his written Word and Laws to this day notwithstanding the rage and
Authority of the sacred Scriptures proved by Reason Page 97 1. Because no other or better Revelation of Gods Will can be produced 2. The Old Testament hath been throughout all Ages witnessed to and wonderfully preserved by the Jews 3. The whole universal Church of Christ have all along witnessed the Divine Authority of the Old and New Testament even to the death 4. God hath confirmed the Authority thereof by great and strange Miracles from Heaven 5. The Scriptures are the most antient and authentical of any writing 6. The stile order contexture and frame of the Scripture shew the Divine Authority thereof 7. Another Reason is taken from the wonderful powerful effects of the Doctrine of the Scriptures 8. From the admirable harmony and consent thereof 9. The matter treated of therein is divine and wonderful Here are mentioned five notes of a Divine Power 10. The end which the Scriptures aim at is divine and heavenly CHAP. XIII Of the use of Reason in the interpreting of Scripture and judging of Controversies Page 110 1. Here is a discovery of the unreasonableness of the Popish implicite Faith and blind Obedience 2. Their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is made apppear 1. To be against Sense 2. Against Reason 3. Against Faith 3. 'T is also shewed that there is a twofold Judgment in matters of Religion one in foro publico another in foro privato 4. That every private Christian ought to make use of his Reason and to exercise a Judgment of discretion in trying Spirits and Doctrines This is proved by six cogent Arguments Objections against this tenet and practise answered CHAP. XIV Of the Internal testimony of the Holy Ghost proving the Divine Authority of the Scriptures Page 123 1. It is here shewed that this Testimony is more satisfactory to the Conscience then all other proofs 2. That a Christians Faith should be ultimately and finally resolved into the Testimony of the Holy Ghost and not into the Testimony of the Church which is but humane 3. The Popish Circle is described and the Protestant Doctrine herein vindicated 4. Some Rules and Cautions concerning the Testimony of the Spirit are here propounded to prevent mistakes CHAP. XV. Shewing when Reason is rightly used and when abused to the prejudice of the Spirits Testimony in the Scriptures Page 133 1. Reason is the Organ which lets into the Soul the Light of Faith 2. It being overpowered by the Spirit of God sees the greatest reasonableness in the Truths and Wayes of Christ 3. Reason is exceeding useful in maintaining the Doctrine of Christ 4. Nevertheless we should not make Reason the Judge in Divine matters nor subject the Authority of the Scriptures to our Reason as Socinians do Three Arguments against it CHAP. XVI Of the difference betwixt the meer rational and spiritual man and their Acts about spiritual things Here is shewed Page 142 1. That the Spiritual man hath Christ formed in him and lives the life of Christ which the meer rational man doth not 2. That the divine Principle which acts the Spiritual man is more then the improvement of the most excellent natural and rational abilities 3. That man is passive in the new spiritual Birth and cannot by all his Reason discern how this spiritual life is wrought 4. How and wherein the spiritual Mans Acts and Operations do far transcend the meer rational Mans. 5. They differ in the nature and effects of their Faith in reference to Christ and the Promises in five Particulars CHAP. XVII Proving that none can be saved by the meer improvement of the Light of Reason Page 152 1. Divers of the Fathers and some modern Writers have err'd in this Point 2. Four things are laid down for the better opening of it God might reveal his Son if he so pleased in an extraordinary way to some Heathens 3. It is proved by nine Arguments that no rational moral Heathen can be saved without faith in Christ as Mediator One or two material Objections answered CHAP. XVIII Of rational and intellectual delights Here is shewed Page 16â— 1. That every being chuseth to it self some kind of pleasure As 1. God who is the chiefest Being 2. The Angels 3. Men that have rational Souls 4. The sensitive Creatures 2. In what particulars the delights of Reason and of the Mind do far excel the pleasures of the Body CHAP. XIX Shewing that Reason and much more Faith doth fortifie a man against the excessive fear of death Page 172 1. Here are eight Considerations drawn from Reason against the slavish fear of death 2. Seven Arguments are also drawn from Faith in the Word of God against the fear of death 3. The famous sayings of some dying Christians are mentioned CHAP. XX. That humane Reason and the due exercise thereof is a great mercy Page 187 1. This is opened in some particulars 2. It is here shewed that man who hath a reasonable Soul is wonderfully made like a curious piece of Embroydery 1. In respect of his Body and the members thereof 2. In respect of his rational Soul wherein Man far excels other Creatures Five things mentioned relating to the excellency of the reasonable Soul 3. In respect of his new spiritual Birth and participation of the Divine nature CHAP. XXI A Recapitulation of particulars touching the use of humane Reason and Knowledge in reference to the Christian Religion Page 195 1. Here are five Considerations premised 2. The excellency and use of humane Reason and Knowledge is particularly held forth As 1. Some that have been famous Instruments in the Church of God have abounded therein 2. The Penmen of the holy Scriptures make use of it 3. It helps us to understand the Grammatical literal sense and the Chronology and Prophesies of Scripture 4. It 's useful for convincing Heathens and Infidels 5. In trying Spirits and Doctrines comparing Scripture with Scripture 6. As a passive qualification of the subject for Faith and Repentance in which case there must be a Principle of Reason CHAP. XXII How and in what respects Reason comes short and is abused in Divine things Page 206 1. Reason cannot discover the mystery of the Trinity Incarnation of Christ c. 2. Nor the sinfulness and corruption of mans heart and nature 3. It cannot prescribe the true worship of God 4. Nor enable us perfectly to perform natural and civil Actions without the general assistance of God 5. Our assent to the Gospel should be the assent of Faith and not of meer Reason 6. The Scripture and not Reason is the Rule for a Christian to walk by in spiritual matters he must be crucified to his Reason Here is also shewed in six particulars when and wherein humane Reason and Knowledge is abused and so becomes dangerous to the Christian Religion
this Jesus their Idol-Gods fell down and their Oracles at Delphos Dodon and other places were stricken dumb Insomuch as Porphyrie himself confesseth and bewaileth that since the time that Jesus was Worshipped they have had no benefit at all by any of their Gods The Voice that was heard in the Air in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar about the time of Christ's death commanding the Master of the Ship to cry aloud that the Great God Pan is dead upon which followed great screechings and lamentations in the Air we find mentioned in divers credible Authors Lactantius tells us that when the Heathens offered Sacrifice to their Gods the very presence of a Christian would dash and spoil their Mysteries and thereupon came that speech which we read in Lucian If there be any Christian here let him depart hence This Jesus hath made such work amongst the Idol-Gods that Augustine cries out Where are your Gods where are your Prophets where are your Oracles where are your Sacrifices are they not ceased If Christ the Ark of God comes in place Dagon the great Idol must needs fall down Now the Christian Religion hath three great Enemies in the World Heathens Jews and Mahumetans against whose Religion or rather Superstition we will speak a few words to shew the unreasonableness and absurdity thereof And First * I. Reasons against the Heathenish Idolatry touching the Heathen Gods we have this to say against them in a way of Reason which may be much more enlarged That they must needs be vain and even ridiculous since by the confession of their own Learned Writers these Gods or rather Devils did command Images to be erected to them and told the fashion that they were of And is not this absurd and unbecoming the Majesty of a Deity seeing the true and infinite God who dwells in the Light inaccessible cannot be resembled by any Shape What did these Dunghil-Gods of theirs chiefly command and forbid but outward corporeal things Whereas the true God is a Holy Glorious Spirit who commands the Spirits of men and chiefly requires spiritual Worship and Obedience These Gods of theirs were not of Vniversal use nor were they good for all things One forsooth was good for Medicine and another for Wisdom and another for War whereas the true God is an Universal perfect Good The Religion of these Heathen Gods consisted only in offering Frankincense and Spices and outward Oblations which could never cleanse the Soul of man from its spots and defilements And therefore when Cyril told Julian the Apostata that Sin defileth the Soul and that outward and bodily things could never wash away the inward filthiness and corruption of the Spirit this made Julian stagger for he could not tell how to answer it What shall we say further Are not the Parents Birth and Manners of these goodly Deities particularly set down by their own Poets and Philosophers and by divers of the Ancient Fathers and our own Modern Writers and is it not ridiculous for any man to believe that these were true Gods Nay truly they were not only Men whom the Heathens Worshipped but wicked men the worst and vilest of men given up to Whoredom and Drunkenness and Cruelty and all manner of vice and wickedness Yea they were Devils and wicked Spirits that appeared in the likeness of Men and commanded themselves to be worshipped So absurd and irrational were some of these poor Heathens that they did not only worship wicked Men and Devils but even Beasts also an Ox a Dog a Crocodile yea Onions and Garlick O monstrous folly and madness How did the Devil bewitch them What horrid cruelty did he exercise upon them commanding them to sacrifice Men and Women to him when he was grievously offended with them as he doth at this day in some Heathenish Countries But when he was more mild and gentle then forsooth he must have Stage-Plays Musick Dancing and the like Pastimes to make him merry Behold here the Vanity and Brutishness of the Heathenish Idolatry Secondly As for the Jews * II. Against the Jewish Religion they are most unreasonable in their Enmity against Christ and the Christian Religion The truth of the Old Testament is acknowledged by them as well as by us though they do not rightly and spiritually understand it by reason of the veil which is upon their Hearts to this day So blind and so deluded they are as to hold that the true Messias is yet to come that Jesus is not the Messias and that when the Messias first comes he shall be great in the World and have a Princely Court and Attendants at Jerusalem and that he shall subdue all the Enemies of the Jews Now truly these are but vain dreams and fancies of theirs and quite contrary to Scripture and Reason In Jacob's Prophesie concerning the Messias Gen. 49.10 we read that the Scepter was not to depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his Feet till Shiloh come by which Shiloh is meant the true Messias But the Scepter was then newly departed when Jesus came and therefore He is the true Shiloh or Messias The Scepter as is well known was in Judah till the Captivity and after the Captivity it continued till Aristobulus and Hircanus who contending for it were both of them dispossessed of it and Herod an Idumaean and a stranger was invested with the Royal Dignity and then came Christ as was long before prophesied after whose coming the Jews were dispersed and scattered throughout the Earth so that now there is no distinct Tribe of Judah but they are all mingled one with another the Roman Emperors still labouring to root out the Jews and especially the Tribe of Judah which made them to confound their Genealogies That the seventy Weeks referring to the coming of the true Messias Dan. 9.24 are long since determined he that runs may read it and yet the Messias not come if we will believe the obstinate Jews In their Talmud we read that the Disciples of Hillel whom they highly esteem perceiving the first seven Weeks in Daniel to fall out so justly they looked for the coming of the Messias in those days being long before the full time because they had read in the Prophecy of Isaiah that the Lord would shorten those days And immediately before the Incarnation of our Saviour we find that there was a general expectation of the coming of the Messias amongst the Jews as appears by their continual sending to John Baptist to know whether he himself was the Messias or they must expect another And about this time also which may be a further proof that the Messias is already come there were more false Christs and deceivers such as Judas Theudas Gaulonites Barcosba as the Scriptures and Josephus with other Writers bear witness than was ever before or since How came it to pass that the glory of the second Temple Hag. 2.10 was greater than the glory of the first Was it not by the coming and
subtilty of Antiochus Nero Dioclesian Julian the Apostate and other cruel and subtil Persecutors and notwithstanding that Egyptian darkness of Popery Error and Ignorance which overspread the World for some hundred years since Christ and his Apostles during which time these sacred Writings were laid aside and contemned and blind Ignorance extolled as the Mother of Devotion Fifthly The very Stile of the Scripture argues the divine Authority thereof By the Stile we do not understand the external superficies of words and phrases but the whole order contexture and frame thereof which fitly agreeth to the dignity of the speaker and the nature of the Argument treated of and is excellently and wisely tempered according to the capacity and condition of them for whose sake it was written Indeed every Prophet and Apostle almost had a peculiar Stile God making use of their several faculties and abilities Isaiah is Eloquent and sweet David affectionate Solomon Accurate Jeremiah vehement and more rough and so it may be said of the several Apostles and Evangelists that their Stile is somewhat different but all of them divine and Heavenly The Majesty and excellency of the Stile appears in that Majestick Title and dignity which the Author of the Holy Scriptures doth justly challenge to himself the which imports Independency of nature and essence Supereminency of power and soveraignty and excellency both of properties and works and is further displayed in the manner of teaching which is used in the Holy Scriptures commanding promising and threatning things above sense and reason In this Book there are hidden Mysteries divine and supernatural Truths such as exceed all humane capacity revealed unfolded without Argumentation or Rhetorical motives of perswasion and we are required to understand and beleive them relying only upon the Truth and credit of the Revealer God the great and absolute Soveraign requires in his word such and such things to be done such and such duties to be performed by the Sons of men with great strictness and severity and yet brings no argument to perswade or confirm the equity of these commands but only the will of the Commander which though it becomes not man to do yet it well becomes the Majesty of God In this Book also promises are made of good things to come whereof there is no humane probability nor reason given to assure us of the performance thereof but I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it In the manner of threatning also the like majesty and Soveraign Authority may be observed throughout the Scriptures which you shall not meet with in meer humane writings God commands and threatens without respect of persons be they what they will be 't is all one to him he prescribes his Laws to all men Magistrates and Rulers Schollers and Soldiers to whole Kingdoms and States commanding and requiring what is distastful to their fleshly nature and interest and forbidding what they approve and commend promising them not Earthly Honours and Riches but Life Eternal if they be obedient to the Gospel and threatning them not with Rack or Gibbet but with eternal Death and Torments if they disobey Neither let any man be offended with the low and humble manner of speech used in holy Scripture for it was penned for the use and benefit of the unlearned as well as the learned for those of weak parts as well as for those of strong parts and abilities And though the phrase or manner of speech be plain yet the matter is high and excellent profound and unutterable Plainness and perspicuity doth best become the truth A Pearl needs no painting True beauty needs not a whorish dress to set it forth nor needs the truth of God to be supported or underpropt with forraign aids for it is of it self sufficient to uphold and sustain it self It becomes not the Majesty of a Prince to play the Orator this would be more pedantick in him then in a person more inferior Though the Scripture seems to be plain in word and phrase yet it is great in power No writings of men be they never so well set forth with Wit Learning and Ornaments of Rhetorick can so enlighten the mind move the will pierce the heart and stir up the affections as the word of God doth Nor do the Scriptures want Eloquence if the matter be well weighed no other writing can equalize them The Song of Moses the beginning of the Prophesie of Isaiah and other portions of Scripture in variety and force of divine Eloquence do far exceed and transcendall other Authors Greek or Latine that are extant though never so excellently indited and penned yet it may be easily discerned that the one was written by a Divine the other by a humane Spirit Sixthly the wonderful powerful effects of this doctrine more then any other do clearly demonstrate even to an eye of reason the divine Authority thereof for it inlighteneth the understanding discovereth clearly the evil of sin and the vanity of the Creature converteth the Soul convinceth the gainsayer terrifieth the Conscience of a sinner quickeneth and reviveth the wounded Spirit manifesteth the thoughts of the heart man casteth down strong holds and the power of Satan and remains invincible notwithstanding all the opposition of men and devils for though the nature thereof be contrary to the will and wisdome of the flesh and world yet still it hath prevailed and overcome The enemies that have opposed this doctrine were many and mighty and subtil the Devil the Roman Emperor the learned Philosophers the zealous Jews and the common people being stirred up by them have with incredible fury and falshood and vigilancy endeavoured the utter abolition of it but could never do it This doctrine conquers where it comes either it converts or destroys its Adversaries And what manner of persons are they whom God chuseth as his Heralds and Embassadors to publish this doctrine are they great and many are they learned and wise are they potent and mighty in the world No no they are in number but few in outward appearance simple rude poor and weak despised of men things that are not in the judgment of men by these God hath confounded things that are and through their preaching the Cross of Christ hath subdued many Nations to himself in a little time a great part of this habitable world was converted and brought to the obedience of faith so that Paul filled all places from Jerusalem to Illyricum with the sound of the Gospel Nor is it to be forgotten that the Jews though wasted with many and great Slaughters and though they had and still have a desperate Enmity against Christ and the Christian Religion yet the Scriptures of the old Testament have alwayes remain'd safe and entire in their custodie even when the Hebrew language did lye almost unknown and had perished altogether had not God provided for the true Religion by the care of those Jews so that will they nill they they shall be instrumental
sensible of great defects in Nature and Reason THough the Heathen Philosophers and Moralists generally did ascribe too much to the Light of Nature and Reason yet the wisest of them after long experience were sadly sensible that this Candle at the best after all their snuffing did burn but dim Socrates than whom there was not a more prudent virtuous man amongst the Heathens doth so far complain of the weakness of his Candle-light i. e. his Intellectuals as that he tells us his lamp would shew him nothing but his own darkness and ignorance This only he knew that he was ignorant and knew nothing Other Philosophers besides him were deeply sensible of and groaned under these great decays and imperfections of natural light and reason You may hear them often complaining of a defluvium pennarum that the wings of the Soul flag and many of the feathers drop away One will tell you that his head his understanding akes another that his eye his reason is dimm'd a third that his Soul trembles with doubts and uncertainties As you heard Socrates the Master and the wisest man in Greece complaining of the languishings and faintings of natural light and reason so you may see Plato his Scholar sitting down by the waters of Lethe and weeping because he could not remember his former notions You may likewise hear Aristotle another of his Scholars bewailing his condition that his Abrasa tabula hath so few and such imperfect impressions upon it and that his Intellectuals are at so low an ebb that the motions of Euripus will pose and nonplus him And as for Zeno Epictetus and other famous Philosophers they confess ingeniously that they had not the right apprehension of things and that they were intangled with a spurious and adulterate kind of reason instead of that which is called right reason If you cast your Eye upon the most Eagle eyed Naturalist you will see him puzzled with an occult quality if you take a view of the exactest Moralist you will find him bewildred and at a great loss in his Morals not being able to attain to true peace and rest in his Soul by all these Virtues Shall these moral Heathens complain of their great defects and behindments and shall Christians pride themselves in their natural or moral improvements and set up the light and power of Nature and Reason as much or more than the light and power of Grace and Divine Revelation How unbecoming how unsutable is this to the glorious Gospel of Christ which clearly sets forth the corruption of Nature the natural man's subjection to Sin and Satan and the Curse of the Law and an absolute necessity of the new birth and regeneration Let not this Candle therefore which burns but dim aspire so high as to make it self equal with the Sun Salomon himself who had made many discoveries with this Candle of the Lord and had thereby search'd into the several veins of Knowledge into the hid Treasures of Wisdom into the depths of State Affairs and into the bowels and mysteries of Nature yet after much searching and a diligent improvement of his intellectual lamp he could not find the chiefest good in any of these or in all of them put together but as a man sufficiently wearied and tired out you may hear him complain that all is vanity and vexation of spirit and that there is no true rest in any thing under the Sun CHAP. V. Of them that give too little to the light of Reason SOme are so strangely prejudic'd against reason without reason that they would have no use at all made of it in Religious Concerns but utterly exclude it out of the Church of God Now this is an extreme which we should avoid and pray to be delivered from such unreasonable absurd men as will not in the least hearken to reason but fill our ears with noise and clamour to no purpose 2 Thess 3.2 First Those are to be blamed that cannot endure the name of reason in Discourses of Religion If you offer to make a Syllogism or a rational Discourse they will presently fall fowl upon you and cry it down as carnal reasoning If one man speak or write more reason than another if it cross some mens humours and interests he shall be term'd a Prudentialist if not a Conjurer or Magician He must needs be a dangerous man if he have better Intellectuals and more wisdom and understanding than others in matters Civil and Religious Secondly Such as wholly relye upon dreams and enthusiasms are Enemies to Reason and renounce their Intellectuals and Understandings Do they pretend to the Spirit of God! let them know that this Spirit is a sober wise and serious Spirit and doth not destroy the use of Reason but elevateth and raiseth up the rational faculties to a higher pitch than meer Nature can mount up to in His service It hath been truly observed both by the Ancient Fathers and our Modern Writers as a characteristical difference between the true prophetical Spirit and the false and counterfeit that the one leaves men in the free use and exercise of their reason and faculties but the other fills and distracts them with pannick fears tremblings and consternations both of body and mind Epiphanius and others discovering the folly and madness of Montanus and his followers gives this reason why they could be no true Prophets because in those that are so there is a great consistency of sense reason and discourse The true Prophet say they had always the free use of his reason and faculties and spake from the Spirit of God with consistency and coherence of discourse whereas it was quite otherwise with the Monatanists they were always trembling both in body and mind and used no consequence of reason in discourse their words had no proper sense but were all dark intricate and obscure Thirdly Those also are upon this extreme that hold an Annihilation or destruction of the Faculties of the Soul in the new spiritual Birth and Regeneration as if there were a new will and understanding not only for quality but for substance infused into us which is to take away our reason and unman us If there be any so absurd and irrational as would perswade us wholly to lay aside our reasons judgments and understandings in matters of Religion and not to make use of or ingage any of these in our Inquiries after things of a spiritual and supernatural concernment This is in effect to render us Bruitish and to extinguish that Candle which the Lord hath set up in our Souls wherewith we ought to search and try Spirits and Doctrines being enabled thereunto by the Spirit of God which reneweth strengthneth and raiseth the Rational faculties of Man's Soul but doth not destroy them Fourthly When Christians are members of a particular Society and will not be regulated by Reason in thing that are not contrary to the Word of God but are led more by humour and faction or by a worldly Interest than
the Flesh and forforsaking the good of this World which a man would not do if he had not the hope of Immortality in which he findeth the recompence of his losses yea this very perswasion of the Souls Immortality made some Heathens willingly suffer death for the safety of their Countrey If our last End were only in this Life then all that we do should be for this last End to aim at it to procure it and never to cross it Doubtless it were great folly and madness in men to undergo so many hard things as they do if they had not a perswasion in their Hearts of this Immortality and if their hope were only in this Life of all men they should be most miserable But they are perswaded that the Soul is Immortal and they find that this World wherein they now converse is too steril and empty to fill the vastness and limit the desires thereof It must be the possession of an immortal infinite immutable good that must satisfie their Understandings and Wills both which faculties aim at the chiefest and highest object The Vnderstanding is carried ad summam Causam to the first of Truths and the Will ad summum Bonum to the last of Ends And therefore He only which is the First and the Last can satisfie the vast desires of the Soul Sixthly Upon this ground the Soul must needs be Immortal because God is just A man may as well say that there is no God at all as to say that God is unjust Now then God being the just Judge of all it behoves him to punish the Wicked and to reward the Just but if God did not this in another life he should never do it for in this life the Wicked flourish and the Just are oppressed Therefore as God is just there remains another Life after this wherein the Souls of the Just shall be rewarded and the Souls of the Wicked shall be punished If the Soul were Mortal forasmuch as in this World wicked men prosper in their Wickdeness and good men as to their outward being perish in a way of Righteousness how should the Justice of God who is the Supreme Being and whose ways are ways of Righteousness be vindicated Seventhly It may satisfie the Reason of any man that the Soul is Immortal since there is an universal consent and agreement of all Nations of the Earth in one or other kind of Religion and the Worship of some Deity which is raised out of this hope That that God whom they worship will reward their Piety if not here yet in another Life Nulla gens adeò extra leges est projecta ut non aliquos Deos credat saith Seneca Hence proceeded those Fictions of the Poets touching the Elysian Fields or places of Happiness for men of honest and well ordered lives and places of Torment for the wicked and irreligious It must needs be a visible Character of a a Deity imprinted in the Soul an irresistible principle in Man's nature that must constrain it unto those sundry Religious Ceremonies observed among all Nations wherein even in places of Idolatry some were so irksom and repugnant to Nature and others so void of Reason as that nothing but a firm and deep perswasion of a Divine Judgement and of their own Immortality could ever have imposed them upon their Consciences And besides this consent of men unto Religion in general we find it also unto this one part thereof namely the Immortality of the Soul All the wisest and best reputed Philosophers for Learning and Honesty and even Barbarians Infidels and savage people have discern'd it by the glimmerings of the Light of Reason CHAP. XI The verity and excellency of the Christian Religion evinc'd by Reason THe Light of Reason is of excellent use to convince Heathens and Infidels of the truth of the Christian Religion there being no Religion at this day professed throughout the World that hath so much reason in it and for it as the Christian Religion hath if we consider the way of cleansing and expiating Sin by Christ the dignity and excellency of the Person of the Mediator the exactness of Divine Justice which requires Satisfaction the Rewards and Punishment prescribed and appointed by the Christian Religion the excellent Doctrine and Instructions thereof the Exemplary Life of Christ and His Apostles How many things in our Religion are witnessed to and approved in the Writings of the most Rational and Learned Heathens and how the greatest Enemies of the Christian Religion as Julian Porphyry and others were once Christians and came to renounce the same meerly through Pride and Discontent If these and other things relating to our Religion be but duly weighed it will appear even to the Eye of Reason that there is much Truth and Excellency therein and that other Religions are but fictitious and vain having no rational Consistence in them But we will handle this matter more particularly though with as much Brevity as possibly we can First The Antiquity of the Christian Religion proveth it to be the true Religion Prima sunt vera verum est prius That is most true which is most antient Seeing the true Religion is the way whereby Man must come to God and have Communion with him and is copula relationis between God and Man it must needs be as Antient as Man is As for the Writings of most of the Heathens unless it be those that are forged and suppositious they are but of yesterday in comparison of Moses the Law-giver under God to the Jews even Orpheus the first Heathen Poet was eight hundred years after Moses as Strabo Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus testifie The most Antient Records of the Heathens began in Solon's time which was in the time of Esdras the Romans had their Religion from the Graecians and the Graecians from Caecrop an Egyptian and the Carthaginians had theirs from Cadmus a Phoenician Now these two Countries Egypt and Phoenicia with the Mediterranean Sea do compass about Judaea and therefore any man that 's rational may easily perceive that all their Religion came from the Jews This is sufficiently demonstrated by several Writers of ours and particularly by Mr. Gale in his late Books so that it would be superfluous for me to enlarge upon this subject When the Wise men of Greece ask'd their Gods whence the knowledge of Arts and Sciences should come they received this Answer Solus utique Chaldaeus sapiens and Orpheus their antient Poet tells us that when God was angry He destroyed the World committed the Truth uni Chaldaeo And Plato in his Epimenides referreth all uni Barbaro If it be demanded who this Chaldean this Barbarian should be the Egyptians call him Theut which signifieth a Stranger meaning Abraham for so Origen against Celsus and Josephus against Appian say plainly that when the Heathen Nations used to Conjure they would make use of Abraham's Name saying Per Deum Abraham Well then if the Jewish Religion be Ancient ours
Montelion Knight of the Oracle Hodders Arithmetick in twelves Ovid de tristibus in English Bishop Hall's Soliloquies in twelves The Poems of Ben. Johnson Junior A plain and familiar Exposition of the ten Commandments by John Dod. A TABLE of the chief Heads of this TREATISE CHAP. I. Of distinguishing betwixt Faith and Reason Page 1 1. HEre is shewed that it requires much spiritual Skill rightly to distinguish them 2. That Morality is one thing and Christianity another CHAP. II. Shewing that Reason is useful both in Civil and Divine things Yet withal 't is presupposed Page 4 1. That the Light of Reason in us is much darkened 2. That it wrangles against the greatest Mysteries of the Gospel 3. That men of great Reason and parts have promoted the greatest errors CHAP. III. How far the Light of Reason extendeth Here is shewed Page 6 1. That this light is but a derivative light like the light of a Candle and not like the light of the Sun 2. 'T is but a diminutive light 3. 'T is notwithstanding a quiet and peaceable light so far as it goes 4. 'T is an ascendant light and cannot find the chiefest good in things below CHAP. IV. How the Heathen Philosophers themselves have complain'd of great defects in Nature and Reason Page 13 1. Here are several Instances given 2. Solomon himself was sensible of much darkness though his intellectual Lamp burnt far brighter then others 3. Christians should not magnifie the light and power of Nature the defects whereof are acknowledged by moral Heathens CHAP. V. Of them that give too little to the Light of Reason As Page 15 1. Such as will not admit of a rational discourse in matters of Religion 2. Such as rely on Enthusiasms 3. Such as hold an annihilation of the faculties of the Soul in Regeneration 4. Such as will not be regulated by Reason in civil Circumstances relating to worship but cause disorder and confusion in Church-Assemblies CHAP. VI. Of those that ascribe too much to Reason As Page 18 1. The Socinians who reject the greatest mysteries of the Gospel because they cannot comprehend them by their corrupt Reason 2. Pellagius and his followers whereof there are many in our times who derogate from the Grace of God and extol the power of Nature CHAP. VII Of the use of humane Reason in civil matters Here is shewed Page 21 1. That it is the most rational and prudent way to be governed by known Laws 2. That such Laws are best as are most agreeable to Reason and tend most to the publick good 3. That the most rational Men are fittest to be Law-makers 4. That such are also of best ability and capacity to administer the Laws and Government CHAP VIII Of the exercise of Reason in Church affairs Page 27 1. Reason suggests that men should joyn together in Societies for the visible worship of God 2. That there should be order and Government in these Societies and that all should not be Rulers but some should obey 3. That such as administer the worship of God in Religious Societies should have due reverence and maintenance 4. That every Christian ought to joyn himself to a Chureh-society that he may visibly worship God with others 5. That men ought not to assign any other Conditions of Church-communion then what Christ hath prescribed in his Word 6. That such as are admitted into a Church-society should freely consent to be governed by the Laws and Rules thereof 7. That they should remain in such a Society and not break off communion on slight grounds 8. That all things in Church assemblies should be administred with much seriousness and gravity that so the Ordinances of God may be rendred majestical 9. That there must be some way or other for determining differences arising in such Societies Here is shewed 1. That Appeals are founded upon the Law of Nature and Reason 2. That it is a more rational and prudent way to have Controversies determin'd by a grave Assembly of godly learned Pastors then by a few ingaged persons in a particular Society CHAP. IX The Light of Reason proves that there is a God Page 40 1. By the frame of this World 2. By the Original of all things here it is demonstrated that the Creatures cannot have their being or beginning from themselves 3. That there must be a first Cause or Mover of all else there would be before every Mover another Mover and so in infinitum 4. It appears to the eye of Reason that there is a God by the distinction of good and evil 5. By the great and glorious Miracles that have been wrought in the World 6. By the wise governing and ordering of the several Creatures and the plentiful provision that is made for them 7. By the testimony of mans Conscience which sheweth that there is a supreme Judge that commandeth the inward thoughts and bindeth the Conscience 8. By the vast desires and capacity of mans Soul which will not be satisfied without the enjoyment of the chiefest good 9. By the continual assaults of Satan who would utterly extinguish the knowledge of God in men 10. By the wonderful preservation of the Church of God which though it hath been as a burning Bush yet it is not consumed This Principle That there is a God hath shewed it self even in Atheists especially in three Cases 1. When they have been surrounded with difficulties 2. In the time of bodily sickness 3. When old age comes and multitude of years teach them experience CHAP. X. The immortality of the Soul of man proved by Reason Page 54 1. Because it abstracts from that which it understands all quantity quality time place c. 2. Because the Soul receives impressions of Immortality and is spiritual in its operations 3. No mortal corruptible thing can satisfie the desires of the Soul 4. If Mans Soul were not immortal then the sensitive Creatures would excel Man 5. The Soul is not subject to motion being most perfect when most free from motion therefore she is not corruptible 6. Another Reason is taken from the Justice of God 7. From the universal consent of all Nations in one kind of Religion or other CHAP. XI The truth of the Christian Religion proved by Reason Page 62 1. From the Antiquity of it 2. From the excellent way and means of atonement and propitiation held forth therein 3. From the glorious divine Miracles and Works of Christ and his Apostles Objections against the same answered 4. From the precious excellent Doctrine and Life of Jesus 5. From the nature and success of Christs Kingdom 6. From the strange Conversions that have been wrought by the Christian Religion 7. From the desperate opposition of Satan and his Instruments against it notwithstanding which it hath still prevailed Here is discovered the unreasonableness and absurdity 1. Of the heathenish Idolatry 2. Of the Jews Enmity against Christ and the Christian Religion 3. Of the Mahumetan Superstition CHAP. XII The Divine