their Enemies Is it not more truly honourable and glorious to serve that God who commandeth the whole World than to be a slave to those Passions and Lusts which put men upon continual hard service and torment them for it when they have done it Were there nothing else to commend Religion to the minds of men besides the tranquility and calmness of spirit that serene and peaceable temper which follows a good Conscience wheresover it dwells it were enough to make men welcom that Guest which brings such good entertainment with it Whereas the amazements horrors and anxieties of mind which at one time or other haunt such who prostitute their Consciences to a violation of the Laws of God and the Rules of rectified Reason may be enough to perswade any rational person that Impiety is the greatest folly and Irreligion the greatest madness The wisest and greatest of men in all Ages at or not long before their death when freest from worldly designs and sensual delights have owned that God and His Truth which they did not embrace and acknowledge as they ought to have done in their lives and the nearer death did approach to them the more serious were they in Religion and did disclaim and abandon those Atheistical and irreligious courses wherewith they or some of them had been formerly entangled Nimrod the Founder of the Assyrian Monarchy when carried away by Spirits at his death as Annius in his Berosus relates the Story cryed out Oh one year more Oh one year more before I go into the place from whence I shall not return Ninus that great King next from Nimrod save Belus at his Death left this Testimony Look on this Tomb and hear where Ninus is whether thou art an Assyrian a Mede or an Indian I speak to thee no frivolous nor vain matters Formerly I was Ninus and lived as thou doest I am now no more than a piece of earth All the Meat that I have like a Glutton devoured all the Pleasures that I like a Beast enjoyed all the beautiful Women that I so notoriously abused all the Riches and Glory that I so proudly possessed I am now deprived of And when I went into the invisible state I had neither Gold nor Horse nor Chariot I that wore the rich Crown of Gold am now poor Dust Cyrus the Persian left this Memento behind him to all Mankind as Plutarch and others tell us Whosoever thou art O O Man and whence-soever thou comest for I know thou wilt come to the same condition that I am in I am Cyrus who brought the Empire to the Persians Do not I beseech thee envy me this little piece of ground which covereth my Body Alexander the Great who conquered the World was at last as we find in Plutarch Curtius and others so possessed with the sense of Religion that he was under much trouble and anxiety of spirit and look'd upon every little matter as portentous and ominous so dreadful a thing saith Plutarch is the contempt of God which sooner or later filleth all mens minds with fears and terrors Julius Caesar who Conquered so many Nations and at last subdued and possessed the Roman Empire could not Conquer himself and his own Conscience which troubled him with Dreams and terrified him with Visions putting him upon Sacrificing and consulting all sorts of Priests and Augures though he found comfort from none in so much as a little before he died he was as heartless as the ominous Sacrifice was that he offered professing to his most intimate Friends That since he had made an end of the Wars abroad he had no Peace at home The like may be said of Tiberius Caesar Nero and other Roman Emperours Hadrian the Emperour celebrated his own Funerals carrying before him his Coffin in triumph when he lived and when he was a dying cried out lamentably Animula vagula blandula quae abibis in loca Ah poor Soul whither wilt thou go what will become of thee Thus the greatest Princes have especially near their latter end a deep sense of Religion of the Souls Immortality and their Eternal estate in another World Nor did ever any Prince Captain or Law-giver go about any great matter but at length he was glad to take in the assistance of a God as Numa Lycurgus Solon Scipio and others Titus and Nerva two Roman Emperours had such serious thoughts and were so sensible of a Deity in the Government of the World that neither of them as the Historian saith was ever seen to smile or play Septimius Severus that Victorious Roman Emperour having had experience of the vanity of this Worlds Riches and Greatness said at his Death I have been all things and it profiteth me nothing Charles the Fifth that Famous German Emperour after twenty three pitch'd Battels six Triumphs four Kingdoms won and eight Principalities added to his other Dominions resigned all these in his life time to his Son and betook himself to a retired life and to his private Devotions This great and wise Prince had his own Funeral Celebrated beforre his face and left this Testimony of the Christian Religion That the sincere profession of it had in it those sweets and joys which the Courts of Princes were strangers to grounding his hope and assurance of Salvation upon the sole Righteousness and Satisfaction of Christ his Mediator and not upon his own Works and to this purpose divers little Papers were written by him and found immediately after his Death as is Recorded by an Author who wrote the Life of Don Carlos his Grand-child Philip the Third King of Spain lying on his death-bed the last of March 1621 sent thrice at Midnight for Florentius his Confessor who gravely exhorting him patiently to submit to the will of God the King could not choose but weep saying Lo now my fatal hour is at hand but shall I obtain eternal felicity at which words great grief and trouble of mind seising on the King he said to his Confessor You have not hit upon the right way of healing Is there no other Remedy Which words when the Confessor understood of his Body the King replied Ah ah I am not solicitous for my Body or temporary Disease but for my Soul Cardinal Wolsey that Great Minister of State who for some years gave Law to England and to other Nations poured out his Soul in these sad words Had I been as diligent to serve my God as I have been to please my Prince He would not have forsaken me now in my gray Hairs Sir Francis Walsingham that great and wise Statesman towards the latter end of his Life grew very melancholy and wrote to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh to this purpose We have lived enough to our Countrey to our Fortunes and to our Sovereign it is now high time we begin to live to our selves and to our God In the multitude of Affairs which have passed through our Hands there must needs be great miscarriages for which a whole Kingdom cannot
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
such quantity and colour and in such a place but if he conceive him in his mind then it is an universal notion agreeing to all Horses Now then as the thing conceived in the mind or understanding is not visible because it hath no colours it is not audible because it hath no sound nor is big or little because it hath no quantity so the Soul it self must needs be of this nature namely without all quantity quality time and place And therefore according to the Light of Reason the Soul cannot be Corruptible but must be Immortal Secondly If we further consider the manner of the Souls Operation she must needs be an immortal spiritual substance There are two undoubted Axioms and Maxims in Philosophy which cannot be gainsayed namely That every thing is received according to the quality of the receiver and That every thing hath the same manner of Essence as it hath of Operation Now the Soul of Man can easily receive impressions and thoughts of Immortality and discourse thereupon and therefore it is in its own nature and essence Immortal Aristotle observes That the Soul in understanding is made as it were the Object that is understood because as the Wax after it is stamp'd is in some sort the very Seal it self that stamp'd it namely representativè so the Soul in receiving the species of any Object is made the Picture or Image of the thing it self Now then the Understanding of a man being able to apprehend Immortality yea indeed apprehending every Corporeal substance as if it were Immortal I mean by refining and purging it from all gross material and corruptible qualities must be much more it self of an immaterial and immortal nature The Soul depends not as do other Forms either in her Being or Operation upon the Body For as to the Act of Understanding she works without the concurrence of any Bodily Organ and therefore can subsist by her own nature when separated from the Body without the concurrence of any matter to sustain her The Independence of the Soul in her Being and Operation upon the Body is manifest because she hath in some measure the knowledge of Truth of God of Angels and of her Self She can assent discourse abstract invent contrive and do the like none of which Acts depend upon any material faculty And then further this Independence of hers appears in those Raptures and Extasies wherein the Soul is rais'd above and from the Body and bodily Organs though not from informing the Body yet certainly from borrowing any assistance or help there from for the producing of its Operation The truth is the Soul of Man is such a spiritual substance that it receiveth perfection from all things for Intellectus omnia intelligit yea wherein all Contraries are reconciled and lay aside their Opposition For as a Noble Writer truly observes (i) Morney de verit Relig. Christian cap. 14. Those things which destroy one another in the World maintain and perfect one another in the Mind one thing being a means for the clearer apprehension of another Thirdly This is also evident to Reason That if the Soul were a mortal perishing thing then it would undeniably follow That those natural desires which are planted in every man's Soul should be frustrate and in vain But such desires being not sinful cannot be frustrate for Natura nil facit frustra Nature doth nothing in vain Now these natural desires of the Soul should be in vain if there were not something to content and satisfie them which being not found upon Earth must be sought for in Heaven yea in God himself And this plainly shews that the Soul is divine and immortal Indeed a sinful desire should not be fulfilled as if a Man should vainly desire to be transformed into an Angel But as for meer natural desires in Man as the desire to live happy and to be free of misery these are not sinful and forasmuch as they cannot be fulfill'd in this life therefore they must be fulfill'd in the life to come Naturally every man desires to have a being after his Body is dissolved Hence is that desire which men have to leave a good Name behind them and that it may go well with their Posterity and the like And from this Natural instinct come those ambitious desires in vain men to erect costly Sepulchres and Monuments after their death and to call their Houses and Lands after their own Names yea the poorest Tradesmen hath this desire when he can reach no higher he will have a Stone laid upon his Grave with his Name upon it Now this very ambitious desire that is in man is a testimony in his mind of the immortality of his Soul that it subsisteth after this life and dieth not with the Body Fourthly Another reason of the Souls Immortality which is also obvious to the Light of Nature may be drawn from the dignity and preheminence of Man above other Creatures which were appointed to be subject and serviceable to him Now this dignity cannot possibly stand with the Souls mortality For would not many other Creatures far excel Man in health strength swiftness and in the duration of their being if Man's Soul were not Immortal Alas how subject is the nature of Man to weakness faintness cares fears jealousies discontents and all other miseries of Mind and Body which other Creatures are not so obnoxious unto Is there not disturbance in our very peace and have not our contentments and comfort here their vexation and interruption And must not their miseseries be exceeding miserable whose very happiness in this Life is unhappy if there were not a Life to come Mortality and corruption make the want of Reason a priviledge to other Creatures And in this case the Beasts would be so much the more happy than Man by how much the less they know their own misery And therefore there must be some other thing wherein Man far excels the other Creatures and that is in the Spiritualness and Immortality of his Soul Fifthly Every corruptible mortal thing is subject to time and motion but the Soul of Man is neither subject to time nor motion and consequently she is not corruptible and mortal That the Soul is not subject to motion is cleared thus Motion hindereth the Soul from attaining its own perfection when the Soul is free from motion and perturbation then it is most perfect and most fit to understand spiritual things sutable to its own nature As Water when it is clear and not muddy receives the similitude of the Face with most clearness Again Reason it self will tell us That the things that are true need not a lie to further them But now to make use of the Souls Immortality as a means to further and incite us to the Duties which we are bound to do were to use a lie if the Soul were not Immortal For many Religious Duties which we are bound to perform require the contempt of this Life as the abstaining from
miles of Hadley where he was to be martyr'd Now sayes he lack I but two Stiles and I am even at my Fathers house John Ardeley If every hair of my head were a man it should suffer death for the Truth of Christ Alice Driver when the Chain was about her Neck Here is a goodly Hankerchief said she Julius Palmer To them that have the mind linked to the body as a Thieves foot to a pair of Stocks it is hard to dye indeed but if one be able to separate soul and body then by the help of Gods Spirit it is no more mastery for such a one to dye then for me to drink of this Cup. Elizabeth Folkes embracing the Stake Farewel all the World farewel Faith farewel Hope and welcome Love Picus Mirandula Death is welcome to me not as an end of trouble but of sin Martin Luther Thee O Christ have I taught thee have I trusted thee have I loved into thy hands I commend my spirit Phillip Melancton I desire to depart out of this World for two causes one that I may behold the face of Christ in the Church Triumphant the other that I may be freed from the bitter contentions of Brethren Tremelius a Christian Jew Let Christ live and Barrabas perish John Buisson I shall now have a double Gaol-delivery one out of my sinful flesh another from a loathsome dungeon Lewis Marsake Knight seeing his Brethren go to their execution with Halters about their necks which they offered not to him because of his dignity Why I pray you quoth he deny me not the badge and ornament of so excellent an Order is not my Cause the same with theirs Henry Voes If I had ten heads they should all off for Christ God forbid I should rejoyce in any thing save in his Cross CHAP. XX. Shewing that humane Reason and the due exercise of it is a great mercy THat God should make thee a Man and not a Beast a Toad a Serpent that he should bestow upon thee all the internal and external Senses the Reason and Intellectuals of a man and should preserve and continue the same notwithstanding all the foggy mists vapours and distempers which the head and brain of man is subject unto this is no small mercy if we consider withal how many in our dayes are born Ideots blind and lame wanting the use of their Senses and Members yea and others who formerly had the free and comfortable use thereof are now deprived of this mercy without which all the friends riches honours and pleasures of this World are a burthen rather than a blessing Is it not a wonderful thing that mans brain and the exercise of his reason and intellectuals should be preserved by the Power and Goodness of God though many times there are as it were floods of water inclosed within his head and brain when he thinks but little of it which if the great God who sets bounds to the raging Sea did not restrain would presently distract and overwhelm him The flegmatick humour in man which is of the nature of water ascends up to the Brain by reason of vapours arising out of the Stomach like the vapour of a Pot boyling on the fire with liquor in it and like to vapours that ascend up from the Earth into the Air Now when these vapours are come up to the Brain they turn into the nature of those humours of which they were bred as the vapours that ascend up into the Air turn again into the same nature of water of which they were ingendered Thus we carry about us and within us floods of water which if they should be suffered to run with violence would overflow and bear down all before them bodily health and strength and the use of reason and understanding would be quite overwhelmed by them If we had no Examples of other Floods and Inundations of Earthquakes and many other Judgments of God whereby he punisheth this wicked World yet these Water-floods which we carry about us should put us in mind of our sin and misery and should admonish and induce us to bless the Name of the Lord for preserving us and our reason and understanding in the midst of these water-floods whereby many men are destroyed We read of a great King that was driven from the society of men and his dwelling was with the beasts of the field he did eat grass as the Oxen and was wet with the dew of Heaven till he acknowledged that the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.25 32 33. This was a sore Judgment upon Nebuchadnezzar thus to be deprived of his reason and understanding as a man He was not really transform'd into a Beast as Bowin and others imagine but he was smitten by the Lord with frenzy and madness of mind and deprived for a time of the use of his reason for it is said that his understanding returned to him And besides this his body was much changed and altered in feeding and living among brute Beasts his hairs were grown like Eagles feathers and his nails like Birds claws As we may read in several Authors of some wild brutish Men taken in Forrests that went upon all four as Beasts do they were swifter then a Horse and did howl like a Wolf and were covered all over with hair And thus it was in a great measure with Nebuchadnezzar till the Lord had mercy on him and restored him What are we more then others that God should deal more graciously with us then with them in giving us better intellectuals and more reason and understanding as men and preserving to us the use and exercise thereof In this respect truly God hath put a great excellency upon man and upon us in particular so that we may well say with the Psalmist Lord what is man that thou art thus mindful of him Psal 8.4 Man by the wise contrivance of God is a little World a curious piece of Embroydery an excellent piece of Workmanship wherein the Wisdom and Power and Goodness of God doth wonderfully appear I will praise thee saith David Psal 139.14 15 16. for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Marvellous are thy workes and that my Soul knoweth right well my substance was not hid from thee when I was curiously wrought in the lowest part of the Earth 'T is a speech Borrowed from those that work Opus Phrygionicum the Phrygian or Arras work which is curiously wrought and contrived Man in respect of his frame and constitution is like a piece of curious Tapestry or Embroydery First In respect of his body and the parts and members thereof which are curiously wrought and put together by the wise contrivance of God The forming and composing the body of man of so many bones veins arteries sinews is a curious piece of workmanship God hath with infinite wisdom disposed and placed the several members of mans body some members are called radical members as the Liver
Society is also endowed with a power to maintain it self in Peace and Purity which cannot be without some way or other to decide Controversies and remove Scandals Now this is agreeable to the light of Nature and Reason when such differences arise in the Society either that the lesser number should acquiesce in the determination of the greater for Pars major jus habet universitatis The greater part hath the power of the whole or else which indeed is founded upon the Law of Nature there must be a subordination of powers in Congregations and a right of Appeal granted to an injured person from the lower and subordinate Power to the higher and superiour And in order to a redress of wrongs and ending Controversies our Reason will tell us that Appeals must not be infinite but there must be some Power or other from whence there shall be no appeal And truly it is against the natural reason and right of every man for any particular Society under what denomination soever so to ingross all Ecclesiastical power into their own hands that no liberty of appeals for redress can be made from them This is to usurp upon and invade the Civil and Religious Rights of Christians for it leaves men under a causeless Censure without any Authorative vindication of them from it And it is not much better in this Case and more agreeable to Reason to have matters in controversie either as to Doctrine or Practice judiciously debated and determined in a grave pious Assembly or Synod than by two or three men who perhaps by their parts or Popular interest without any sufficient ground from Scripture and Reason can easily sway those Societies or Congregations that are of their particular Opinion and so be it right or wrong the supposed Offendor must be determined by it Shall it be thought rational and fit that every particular Society though consisting but of a few persons shall have power over its own members to determine Controversies arising between them But yet if one or many of these particular Societies shall erre and go astray there shall be no Authorative power left for deciding what shall be done in this Case Surely if Christ who is the wise Governor of His Church hath made sufficient provision for the Cases of particular persons he hath also made sufficient provision in a rational way for the Cases of particular Societies Thus we have briefly shewed what use may be made of the Light of Reason both in Civil and Ecclesiastical Societies we shall now briefly declare how it may be proved by Reason That there is a God or supreme Being That the Soul of Man is Immortal That the Christian Religion is the only true Religion and That the Scriptures are the Word of God which Points you may find proved at large by Reason in the Learned Books of Lessius Morney Grotius and Sir Charles Woseley a Gentleman so well qualified and employed that I could heartily wish that our English Gentry would Imitate him CHAP. IX The light of Reason proves that there is a God THere is no Nation so Barbarous saith the Heathen Orator (h) Cicero de Natura Deorum no people so savage in whom there resteth not this perswasion That there is a God Even those Nations which in other respects seem very little to differ from bruit Beasts yet keep up and maintain a kind of Religion and Worship and have some sense of the Eternal Godhead impress'd upon their Hearts Yea Idolatry it self is a substantial proof of this perswasion for how willingly doth Man abase himself to honour other Creatures above himself when he will rather worship a Block or a Stone than to have no God at all Hence it appears that this imprinted perswasion of the Godhead is of great force and impossible to be quite oblitegated and razed out of the mind of Man To come to the knowledge of an Eternal Deity there are two ways namely by Faith and by Reason Faith indeed is the much better and nearer way for our Reason is much weakned and depraved and God Himself who is the supreme Being is infinitely above our Reason No man can make a perfect demonstration by his Reason in natural things he cannot fully demonstrate that his Father is his Father or that he is his Son so that in these and the like things there is a necessity of some faith or belief If a man tell you that he hath seen such or such a place he can make no demonstrative reason of it for the circumstances are not capable of demonstration In this Case there must be belief and much more in Religious and Divine matters Howbeit the Light of Reason so far as it reacheth for it is but an inferiour derivative Light like the light of the Moon and Stars will prove unto us that there is a God or supreme Being The Creatures afford Arguments and our Reason gathers by the force of those Arguments that there is a God First It may be clearly proved and made evident to our reason by the Frame of this great Universe even those things which the Eye seeth and the Ear heareth Rom. 1.20 Suppose a man forty years old who had never seen the beauty of this World before should now behold it would not the sight thereof make him wonder and inquire after the maker and contriver of it and force him to conclude that Man being not able to perform such a great and glorious work it must needs be effected by one that is infinitely wiser and better and more able than Man And who should that be but God Himself Who can cause such a consent and agreement amongst the Creatures so different and contrary one to another hot and cold moist and dry but this wise and sovereign Commander As in a Musical Instrument on which are twenty dissonant strings whence comes the Harmony but from some excellent skilful Musician that had the tuning of it Whence comes the fitting and composing of one thing to another but from this wise God As we say he is an Artist that fits the Wheels of a Watch one to another and 't is the skill of a Joyner or Smith which makes curious Tools and Works one fitted to another the sheath to the knife and the scabberd to the sword Whence comes the dependance of the Creatures one upon another and their mutual help and assistance one of another but from God! Beasts nourish Men the Grass nourisheth them and the Influence or Dew of Heaven maketh the Grass to grow and all from God Hos 2.21 These things can no more come to pass by accident than a multitude of Letters cast together by chance can without the Art of man make a Poem or History and therefore they direct us even by the light of reason to a supreme Providence Secondly It is proved by the Original of all things whence is this Original but of God As for Man he must needs be made by God for the Father that
are proved by the Scriptures but as for the Scriptures they prove and evidence themselves sufficiently to the judgment of every true Christian by their own light manifesting their divine Original They are primum visibile not like colour that cannot be seen till light make it apparent but like light it self which maketh all other things manifest and it self too by its own proper quality Now then if a true believer should be ask'd why he believes the Articles of the Christian Religion he may truly answer thus because they are revealed in the holy Scriptures If it be further demanded how he can assure himself that the Scriptures are the word of God he may answer that he knows it by the Scriptures themselves the Spirit of God enlightning his understanding to see those lively characters of divine truth which are imprinted upon those sacred Volumes If yet it be further demanded how he knows whether that is the right meaning of such or such a place of Scripture he may likewise truly say that he knows it by the Scriptures which being diligently examined and compared together do plainly discover to the humble teachable Soul their own true sense and meaning in the things which concern everlasting Salvation And thus the faith of a Christian is finally and ultimately resolved into the infallible word of God or a divine Testimony and into nothing less As for the Authority and Testimony of the Church and the judgments and writings of the Godly learned they are good helps to make us see the Truth but no causes why we believe it this we do for its own sake not for their sayings or determinations which if they do not accord with the Scriptures we ought not to assent thereunto Though we should give due Reverence to the Assemblies of Godly judicious men and thoroughly examine and weigh with humility and self-denyal the grounds of our dissent from them yet the bare Authority of men though never so eminent for learning and piety should not command our assent to any Article of Religion that shall be proposed to us For our faith should not stand in the wisdome of men as the Apostle speaks but in the power of God and the Testimony and demonstration of his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.4 5. The first and chiefest ground whereon is built the certainty of faith's assent is the infallible truth and Authority of divine Revelation because God hath said it we are to believe it and assent to it for whatsoever God saith is true now this is a principle of Nature and Reason which is deeply ingraven into the heart and Conscience of every Rational man that God himself is so infinitely wise that he can be ignorant of nothing nor can any Creature circumvent and over-reach him and withal he is so infinitely good holy and just that no lye or untruth can proceed from him wisdome it self cannot be deceived truth it self cannot deceive and God is both And therefore wheresoever any Revelation is certainly known or believed to be of God there the reasonable Creature doth fully assent to the truth of things revealed But now the great question will be how we know infallibly that God is the Author of the Scriptures and that what we find written therein is of divine inspiration the very Oracles of God Here lyes the great yea the irreconcileable difference between the Church of Rome and us for whereas we maintain according to the truth that the Scriptures are known to be of God by themselves and by their own light and power they hold that we cannot be certain of their divine Authority but by the Testimony of the Church which as they say doth infalliby propose unto us what is to be believed and what is not to be believed And so by this means our faith shall be resolved either into nothing at all for they differ exceedingly about the Church representative and the supreme Judge of controversies here on Earth or at the furthest it shall be resolved but only into humane Authority and so shall be but a humane faith That Circle which they falsly charge upon us (m.) Mr. W. Pemble nature and properties of grace and faith P. 210 211. they themselves are guilty of and can never be dis-intangled therefrom by their Principles For ask a Romanist why do you believe that the Pope cannot err he will tell you because the Scripture saith so thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I have prayed that thy faith may not fail and the like Texts of Scripture But how know you that this is the infallible word of God and that your interpretation is the right sence and meaning of these places To this he answers because the Pope and the Councel of Trent say so or as some of them hold because the Pope only saith so or as others of them because a general Councel saith so If we further urge him yea but how know you infallibly that the Pope and Councel do not err in saying so he will answer you because the Scripture affirms they cannot err for thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church c. And thus they run round in a Circle (n.) The Popish Circle described and are so intangled that the wisest and most learned of them know not how to deliver themselves Indeed they accuse us with open mouth as if we were intangled in a Circle running round from the Scriptures to the Spirit and again from the Spirit to the Scriptures as thus how know you the Scriptures to be the word of God by the Spirit revealing the same to my heart and Conscience but how know you this Revelation of the Spirit to be true By the Scriptures which testifie that the secret of the Lord is revealed to them that fear him But then further how know you this and the like places of Scripture to be the word of God we know it by the Spirit which reveals to us the things that are freely given us of God And thus they pretend that they have caught us in a Circle but they greatly mistake us though we do not mistake their Doctrine we teach indeed that we know the Scriptures infallibly to be the word of God by the Spirit of God inwardly revealing and testifying the truth of them to our Consciences But what kind of Revelation or Testimony is this It is not any inward suggestion or immediate inspiration different from those Revelations of Divine truth that are in the Scriptures themselves as if the Spirit of God did by a second private immediate Revelation assure me of the truth of those former Revelations contained in the Scriptures we have no warrant for this in an ordinary way but the Spirit of God reveals and testifies to our Consciences the divine Authority and truth of the Scriptures by removing those impediments that hindred as namely our ignorance and unbelief and by bestowing upon us those graces that make us capable of
this Divine knowledge and assurance illuminating our understanding renewing our wills and sanctifying our hearts and affections In which sence the Spirit of God in the Scripture is to us a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation opening the eyes of our understandings that we may see by a spiritual light the excellency of those divine Mysteries that are in the Word of God Ephes 1.17 18. Now this Doctrine of ours is no such Circle as the Papists pretend it to be but a plain and strait way for a sober Christian to walk in Thus How know you that the Scriptures are Gods Word We answer By the Scriptures themselves by that wonderful light and excellency of truth and holiness that shineth in them here we would rest and go no further But yet if we be asked How we come to see this light We answer It is by the only work of the Spirit of God giving us eyes to see and hearts to embrace and love the light If we be further urged for some are thus importunate But how know you that you do indeed perceive such a heavenly light as you speak of Or how can you make it appear to others that you are not deceived Now truly this is but a vain question it being an absurd thing to demand a reason of sense which is as if one should ask him that gazeth on the Sun How know you that you see the light Why he is certain that he sees it and knows that he is not deceived though he cannot convince a blind man of it and if in case he that is blind requires him that sees to prove unto him by sound argument that he beholds such an object he demands an impossible thing of him unless he could give him eyes to see it Some of the most learned Papists after all their disputing and wrangling are driven at last to acknowledge this inward illumination and testimony of the Spirit of God Stapleton himself even in that Book where he defends the Authority of the Church saith That the godly are brought to faith by the voice of the Church but being once brought and enlightened with the light of divine Inspiration then they believe no more for the Churches voice but because of the heavenly light And again in the last Book that ever he wrote against learned Whitaker he tells us plainly That the inward perswasion of the holy Ghost is so necessary and effectual for the believing of every object of faith that without it neither can any thing by any man be believed though the Church testified with it a thousand times and by it alone any matter may be believed though the Church held her peace or were never heard Hereby it appears that we may be infallibly assured of the divine Authority of the Scriptures though the Authority and testimony of the Church be not so regarded by us as the Papists would have it But yet when we have to do with Infidels and Atheists that scoff at this divine light and inward testimony of the Spirit we have more Reason on our side as hath been shewed at large to convince them and to prove that the Christian Religion is the true Religion and that the Scriptures do contain the Word and Laws of the most high God then any other Religion nay then all other Religions in the world As for the inward testimony of the Spirit witnessing the divine authority of the Scripture and how it is to be considered take these following Rules * Rules concerning the Spirits testimony for preventing mistakes First That the Spirit of God doth assuredly perswade the Conscience of a Christian that the Scriptures are the Word of God not by an immediate Vision or Revelation under which pretence Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light hath deluded and ensnared many poor souls but by enlightening the eyes of our understanding to behold the light writing the Law in our hearts and inward parts as God hath promised in the new Covenant sealing up the Promises to our souls and causing us experimentally to feel the powerful effects thereof Secondly This divine supernatural perswasion wrought in Believers by the Spirit of God is more certain and more satisfactory then can be proved by our weak imperfect Reason or expressed in words for things doubtful may be proved but as for things that are in themselves most clear and certain we say they need no rational proof or demonstration as the shining of the Sun which discovers it self by its own light needs not be confirmed by any rational Arguments to him that hath his eyes open to see the light thereof Thirdly It is such a testimony and demonstration of the divine Authority of the Scriptures as is certain and manifest to him that hath the Spirit for it makes it self evident where it comes but this is private and particular not publick and common testifying only to him who is endued therewith but not convincing others nor confirming doctrines to them In this case men must have recourse to the visible standing Rule to the written Law and Testimony if any man speak not according to this let him pretend never so much to the inward testimony and revelation of the Spirit it is because the light and truth of God is not in him Fourthly This testimony of the Spirit therefore is not to be severed from the Word which is the Instrument of the holy Ghost and his publick authentick testimony Nor is it injurious to the Spirit of God to be tried by the Word seeing there is a mutual relation and correspondence between the truth of the party witnessing and the truth of the thing witnessed And this holy Spirit the Author of the Scriptures is every where like unto and doth every where agree with himself as it is in a pair of Indentures there is no difference at all between them but the very same things that are mentioned in the one are also mentioned in the other so it is between the Spirit revealing and the truths of God revealed in the Scriptures Fifthly The testimony of the Spirit doth not teach or assure all and every one of the letters syllables and words of the Scriptures which are only as a vessel to carry and convey the heavenly light unto us but it doth seal in our hearts the saving truth contained in those sacred Writings into what language soever they be translated Hence it is that the Apostle tells the Corinthians that they are the Epistle of Christ written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of stone but in the fleshly Tables of the heart 2 Cor. 3.3 Sixthly and lastly The Spirit of God doth not lead them in whom he dwelleth and witnesseth absolutely and at once into every truth of God so as utterly to dispel all ignorance and darkness out of the soul but he leadeth them into all truth necessary to salvation and by degrees John 16.12 13. Being a free voluntary Agent he worketh when and
far thy inferiour So may our Reason say to the blessed Word of God I am far inferiour to thee and have need to be regulated and reformed by thee and comest thou to me No no it is my greatest honour to submit my self to thee and thy Divine Authority Thirdly Upon this ground also mans Reason is denyed to be the Rule and Judge in matters of Faith because one man cannot prove infallibly to another man that his Reason is the right Reason in such a case He pretends Reason so do I A third man comes and pretends to as much Reason as either of us and experience shews that divers men yea good men have different Reasons and different apprehensions in many points of Religion Nor can a man be certain that this or that is the true meaning of a Text if he have nothing to assure him thereof but the appearance and probability of his own Reason for others that differ from him think they have and may really have as much or more Reason on their side then he Indeed if we compare our own Reason with the Reason and Authority of other men which have decreed thus and thus then must we give the preheminence to our own Reason when a clearer evidence is propounded and presented to our Reason for every one is to judge for himself with a judgment of discretion and discerning as hath been formerly proved and 't is unreasonable and absurd for a man to assent to a lesser evidence when a clearer evidence is propounded to him 'T is true there are not many that are well able to judge for themselves in the Controversies of Religion and therefore God hath provided spiritual Guides and Shepherds to go before them and help them but yet Christians must not resign up their wits and senses to follow them where-ever they go if they would lead us blindfold we should not put out our eyes to follow them but should rationally and impartially weigh and consider the grounds of their doctrine and practice Doth such a godly learned man tell you that this is firm ground you may go safe upon it And do you see it to be so by the eye of your Reason enlightened by the Spirit of God Then you may follow him as a man of judgment and understanding and not like a beast that is led he knows not whither and herein you have the advantage of his Reason and of your own too CHAP. XVI Of the difference between the meer rational and spiritual men and their knowledge and acts about spiritual things THe light of Reason should be made use of and improved by every Christian in searching the Scriptures and trying Spirits and Doctrines yet so as we must not confound the principles knowledge and operations of the natural man or meer rational man with the principles knowledge and operations of the spiritual man There is a twofold knowledge of spiritual things a natural or rational knowledge and a spiritual and supernatural knowledge The former is but Historical as when a man reads of such a Country in a History or sees it only in a Map at a great distance but was never there himself to take a full view of it and report the things that are there of his own certain knowledge The latter kind of knowledge is intuitive or a knowledge of spiritual vision beholding the things themselves in the light of Gods Spirit distinctly and at hand No Creature or created thing can go beyond its sphere or comprehend that which is beyond its capacity The vegetative creature cannot reach so far as the sensitive nor the sensitive so far as the rational nor can the meer rational creature comprehend that which the spiritual man doth Such as are alive to God and have spiritual union and conjunction with Christ the second Adam the quickening Spirit live and act from a higher principle and in another kind then meer natural or rational men do The soul of the natural man acts his body and the more he improves the light of reason the more rational and considerate he is in his actings and operations But the soul of the spiritual man is under the power of Gods Spirit and the glorious operations thereof and as far as Gods Spirit is above the spirit of man so far is the life of Grace or the life of the spiritual man above that of Nature 'T is true saith Luther (o) Luth. Com. on Gal. cap. 2. v. 20. that I live in the flesh but this life whatever it is I esteem as no life for indeed it is no true life but a shadow of life under that which another liveth that is to say Christ who is my true spiritual life which life thou seest not but only hearest and I feel as thou hearest the wind but knowest not from whence it comes or whither it goes even so thou seest me speaking eating walking sleeping and doing other things as other men do and yet thou seest not my true life This spiritual life which far transcends the meer natural or rational life must be discerned spiritually the spiritual man hath a white stone in which his name is written which none can read but himself He is the Son of God an Heir of Heaven therefore the world knows him not even as we know not the Sons of Princes were they amongst us who dwell in Countreys far remote from us but his life which now is hid with Christ in God shall fully appear when Christ appears in glory Col. 3.3 4. First Then the spiritual man hath Christ formed in him by the holy Ghost Christ is in him the hope of glory and he lives the life of Christ which a meer rational man doth not there is a spiritual supernatural principle or ability planted in him which still remains and abides and which differs much from natural habits for these are partly and sometimes wholly acquired by use and frequent practise whereas this spiritual principle is not gotten or acquired but infused nor can it be utterly lost as natural habits may but abides for ever John 14.16 Sometimes 't is called the Seed of God which shall grow up to perfection 1 John 3.9 Sometimes a Fountain yielding continual supplies of Grace John 4.14 sometimes from the Author from whom it is derived 't is called the life of Christ 2 Cor. 4.10 11. and sometimes the new birth or being regenerated and born again John 3.5 7. Doubtless it is a most powerful spiritual principle which raiseth and elevateth the soul far above natural strength and reason Those Creatures that have no higher principles and faculties then sense use them sensually but as for man who enjoyes the fame faculties under the command of a reasonable Soul he useth them rationally but when he is new born and becomes a spiritual man those faculties of the understanding will and affections which when they had no other command but Reason had no more but rational operations being now governed and acted by the Spirit of
of an inward complacency Whoever surfeited of rational joy Sensitive pleasures ingratiate themselves by intermission Voluptates commendat rarior usus whereas all intellectuals heighten and advance themselves by frequent and constant operations The pleasures of the body do but emasculate and dispirit the soul they do not at all satisfie it but rational pleasure raiseth and cheers the soul and oyls the very members of the body making them more free and nimble nay speculative delights will compensate the want of sensitive pleasures Hence it was that a Philosopher put out his eyes that he might be the more intent upon his study he shut his windows close that the Candle might shine the more clearly within Amongst all mental operations reflex acts tast pleasure best for without some reflection men cannot tell whether they rejoyce or no Now these acts are the most distant and remote from sense and are the highest advancements of Reason Indeed sensitive pleasures make more noise and crackling like thorns under a pot whereas mental intellectual delights like the touches of a Lute make the sweetest and yet the stillest and softest musick of all Intellectual vexations and troubles have most sting in them for a wounded Conscience who can bear why then should not intellectual delights have most honey and sweetness in them Sensitive pleasures are very costly and chargeable there must be much preparation and attendance much plenty and variety if a man will enjoy them 'T is too dear for every one to be an Epicure or Sensualist but the pleasure of the mind doth freely and equally diffuse it self we need not pay any thing for it if we can but love and imbrace it As for sensitive and corporal pleasures a sick man cannot relish them nor an old man imbrace them a Crown of Rose-buds becomes not a grey head nor a grave Senator but the pleasure of the mind is a delight most fit for a Senator for a Cato 't is an undecaying a growing pleasure 't is the only pleasure upon the bed of sickness and the staff for old age to lean upon when all other pleasures forsake a man the mind of him that has the Gout may delight it self and make musick whilst the body is in pain A moral Philosopher was so affected with the rational intellectual delights of the Soul when out of the body in another World that he breaks out into these expressions There saith he shall I have the pleasure of seeing all my Friends again there I shall have the pleasure of more enobled acts of Reason there shall I tast the so much long'd for sweetness of another world Now if Philosophers and Moralists have been so much affected with meer rational delights how much more should Christians prize and be affected with those spiritual supernatural and heavenly delights and pleasures which are revealed in the Gospel and which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath entred into the heart of a meer rational man With God is fulness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Here are the best and chiefest delights and pleasures which contain the very quintessence of all other delights Seneca could say Hoc habet animus Argumentum divinitatis quod eum divina delectant This is an Argument of the Souls Immortality that it is delighted with divine and spiritual things Indeed the spiritualiz'd Soul of a Saint by the perfect enjoyment of God comes near the pleasure of God himself If that small tast which we have of God and spiritual pleasures here in this life bringeth much joy and satisfaction to the Soul far beyond all meer rational delights and Philosophical pleasures how great will the delights and pleasures of the Saints be in their most happy and glorious vision and contemplation of God in Heaven when they shall behold him face to face and know him as they are known of him whereas here they see him but darkly as in a glass and through a cloud CHAP. XIX Shewing that the light of Reason and much more the light of Faith fortifies men against the excessive fear of death ALthough there be a far more excellent way then that of reason and morality to overcome the fear of death namely by Faith in the death and resurrection and victory of Christ O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy victory Blessed be God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ Yet we find that the improvement of the light of Reason and moral Vertues in some Heathens have tended much to the composing of their spirits and the allaying of their passions in their greatest sufferings and when their immortal Souls were about to forsake their mortal bodies The wisest and most rational amongst them have dyed with most composedness and serenity of spirit Concerning Death The Reason of a man Arguments drawn from the light of Reason against the fear of death will suggest these and the like Considerations to him First That a wise man should not be like the inconsiderate vulgar sort of people that are of cowardly ignoble spirits and afraid to dye nor should he be led by opinion but by judgment in this matter No man knows what death is that he should fear it and there is no reason that he should fear a thing whereof he is wholly ignorant and therefore Socrates the wisest man amongst the Philosophers when he was about to dye by the sentence of the Magistrates speaks thus to his Friends That to fear death is to make shew of greater understanding and sufficiency then can be in a man by seeming to know that which no man knoweth And being sollicited by his Friends at his death to plead before the Judges for his life and in the justification of himself made this Oration to them If I should plead for my life saith he and desire you that I may not dye I doubt I may speak against my self and desire my own loss and hindrance because I know not what it is to dye nor what good or ill there is in death They that fear to dye presume to know it As for my self I am utterly ignorant what it is or what is done in the other World Perhaps death is a thing indifferent perhaps a good thing and to be desired Those things that I know to be evil as to offend my Neighbour I fly and avoid those that I know not to be evil as death I cannot fear and therefore I commit my self to you and because I cannot know whether it is more expedient for me to dye or not to dye determine you thereof as you shall think good Secondly That a man should continually torment himself with the fear of death argues great weakness and pusillanimity There is scarce a Woman though she be the weaker vessel but in a few dayes she will be pacified and contented with the death of her Husband or Child And why should not Reason and Wisdom in Man effect that in an hour which
safe harbour it is to him a sweet sleep a bed of rest after all his toyl and labour in a vain and troublesome world Isai 57.2 1 Thes 4.14 Rev. 14.13 There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest and hear not the voice of the Oppressor Job 3.17 18. It is the day of a Christians reward and of receiving wages Then is the servant set free and the Heir at full age then shall the banished and strangers from a far Countrey shall enter into their Fathers house and shall be received into everlasting habitations Heb. 11.13 John 14.2 Luke 16.9 Death is the Birth-day of a Christian the funeral of all his vices and corruptions and the resurrection of his Graces Death was the daughter of Sin and in death shall that be fulfilled The Daughter shall destroy the Mother 'T is the dissolution of the Body but the absolution of the Soul Then is the immortal Soul delivered out of a dark prison and then doth she throw off her old ragged clothes and foul garments that she may be deck'd and adorn'd with the glorious Robes of Salvation Isa 52.1 2 Cor. 5.2 3. Then doth a Christian remove from an old rotten house ready to fall about his ears to a sumptuous Pallace Doth that Landlord think you wrong his Tennant or offer him hard measure that would have him remove out of a base Cottage into his own Mansion-house which he hath freely given him Shall the Believer be unwilling to come to the end of his race and receive the prize even an incorruptible Crown of glory 1 Cor. 9.24 This is the day of his Coronation for though now he be an Heir of the heavenly Kingdom yet he shall not be crowned till death with that Glory which is unutterable 2 Tim. 4.8 Seventhly The good man is taken away by death from much evil to come and hath he any cause to quarrel with such a freedom Truly the consideration hereof should make us love this life the less because the Clouds gather thick about us and we know not what fearful alterations may shortly befal us either in our outward estate or in matters of Religion either by domestick broyls or by forreign invasion Should not a Christian rejoyce exceedingly to be delivered from the continual malicious suggestions and stratagems of the evil Angels and from a vile wicked World that hates and persecutes the Image of Christ where-ever it is A World whose seeming felicities as Honours Riches Pleasures Trade Beauty Friends Children Relations and Acquaintance are but vanities full of labour and toyl accompanied with much vexation and affording no true rest or contentment to that man that enjoyes them neither can they help him in the least when death seizeth upon him All these things will be forgotten and there will be no remembrance of them with those that shall come after Eccles 1.11 What a priviledge is it therefore to be delivered from these vanities Yea which is more from that body of sin and corruption which a Christian groans under as his greatest burthen and is the more grievous and intollerable because it infects and spreads over the whole man soul and body and is an inseparable companion of this life causing a troublesome yea an irreconcilable war in the Soul and swarms of evil thoughts affections desires and actions besides innumerable diseases and distempers which attend the Body And should not death be welcome to us to set us free from all these evils and miseries Thus may a Christian reason and argue against the fear of death upon far higher and more spiritual Grounds and Considerations then a moral Heathen can and therefore he should not be afraid to dye Eighthly and Lastly That we may be the better fortified against the fear of death let us call to mind and improve the living speeches of dying Christians some of which shall be here mentioned The famous sayings of some dying Christians Good old Simeon Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Stephen the first Martyr Lord Jesus receive my Spirit and lay not this sin to their charge Polycarpus to the Proconsul urging him to deny Christ I have served him eighty-six years saith he and he hath not once hurt me and shall I now deny him Ignatius I am the Wheat or Grain to be ground with the teeth of Beasts that I may be pure bread for my Masters tooth let Fire Racks Pullies yea and all the torments of Hell come on me so I may win Christ Cyprian God Almighty be blessed for this Gaol-delivery Theodosius I thank God more for that I have been a Member of Christ then an Emperor of the World Hillarion Soul get thee out thou hast served Christ these seventy years and art thou now afraid of death and loth to dye Vincentius Rage and do the worst that the spirit of malignity can set thee on work to do Thou shalt see Gods Spirit strengthen the tormented more then the Devil can do the Tormentor Gorgius to the Tyrant offering him promotion Have you any thing equal saith he or more worthy then the Kingdom of Heaven King Edward the Sixth Lord bring me into thy Kingdom free this Kingdom from Antichrist and keep thine Elect in it Bishop Latimer to Bishop Ridley going before him to the Stake Have after as fast as I can follow we shall light such a Candle by Gods Grace in England this day as I trust shall never be put out again Bishop Hooper to one that prayed him to consider that life is sweet and death is bitter True saith he but the death to come is more bitter and the life to come is more sweet Oh Lord Christ I am Hell but thou art Heaven draw me to thy self with the cords of thy mercy Thomas Bilney I know by Sense and Philosophy that fire is hot and burning painful but by Faith I know it shall only waste the stubble of my Body and purge my Spirit of its corruption Glover to his Friend He is come oh he is come meaning the Comforter Gods Spirit John Bradford to his fellow Martyr Be of good comfort Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord this night If there be any way to Heaven on Horseback or in fiery Chariots this is it Lawrence Sanders I was in prison till I got into prison and now sayes he kissing the Stake welcome the Cross of Christ welcome everlasting life My Saviour began to me in a bitter Cup and shall I not pledge him John Lambert None but Christ none but Christ Baynam I feel no more pain in the fire then if I were on a Bed of Down it is as sweet to me as a Bed of Roses Priest's Wife to one that offered her money I am now going saith she to a Countrey where money bears no mastery And when the Sentence was read Now have I gotten that which many a day I have sought for Doctor Taylor when he came within two
the Heart and the Brain and in these God hath placed the natural vital and animal spirits These spirits are carried by the veins arteries and Nerves the veins carry the vital spirits from the Liver the arteries carry the natural spirits from the Heart and the nerves carry the animal spirits from the Brain The several members of the body are helpful and serviceable one to another the superiour rule the inferiour as the Eyes guide and direct the whole Body and the inferiour support and uphold the superiour as the Feet Legs and Thighs support the whole Body and as for the middle members they defend the Body and provide things necessary for it as we see in the Hands and Arms. This variety of the members of the body sheweth the excellent Wisdom of God for if all were an Eye where would the seeing be 1 Cor. 12.15 So excellent is the body of man that there are sundry members thereof which God ascribes to himself as the Head the Heart the Eyes the Ears the Feet to express his Attributes to us yea God hath made the body of man a Temple for himself to dwell in and the Son of God hath assumed the body of man in one person to his Godhead a dignity which the Angels are not called unto After the making of man he left nothing unmade but to make himself man Secondly Man is curiously wrought and contrived in respect of his rational immortal Soul and those two noble faculties the Understandtng and the Will wherein man far excels all the sensitive Creatures The rational Soul is the better part of man more worth then all the World besides Mark 8.36 37. What is the body of man without the soul but a dead Trunk an empty Case 'T is the soul that is the pearl or precious jewel the creation infusion and operations whereof are like a curious piece of Embroydery well becoming the Creator and Contriver thereof who is a simple immaterial immortal Spirit the Spirit of spirits the Supream and Soveraign Spirit the God and Father of Spirits Numb 16.22 Bless God O man that hath given thee a reasonable Soul and inspired thee with an immortal Spirit wherein thou far excellest other Creatures For First The reasonable Soul of man can conceive of things by the light of understanding as well as by sense yea it can conceive of things that never were in the Senses as things absent which the Senses never saw nor apprehended it can conceive of things spiritual and immaterial as Angels and Spirits yea of the divine Attributes of God and that which is invisible by the things that are visible we come to the knowledge of God who is invisible Rom. 1.20 Secondly The rational Soul is able to reflect upon its self and its own acts and operations which no meer sensitive Creature can do it understands that it doth understand and knows that it doth know And this understanding and knowledge of the rational Soul is large and extensive for it can in a moment go over almost the whole World and view it all as it were at once whereas the Senses are limited and confined to a very narrow compass Thirdly The rational Soul can invent things that were never before in being What strange things for number and skill and variety are daily invented and contrived by mans wit and reason by which also many great matters both Civil Military and Ecclesiastical are ordered and regulated This is that Candle of the Lord which searcheth all the inward parts of the Belly Prov. 20.27 And God hath set the World in mans heart in regard of that reason and understanding that is in him Eccles 3.11 Fourthly The excellency of the reasonable Soul of man appears in this that his understanding after a sort is made one with and becomes the things that are understood in that it conceives a true Image and Idea of the things to be understood and herein the rational Soul doth somewhat resemble God himself who hath the perfect Idea of all other things in himself so the Soul of man doth as it were form Worlds of things within it self Fifthly The excellency of the rational Soul appears in that divine thing called Conscience which is more then a thousand Witnesses yet subordinate to a higher Tribunal beings Gods Deputy for God is greater then Conscience 1 John 3.20 No man be he never so great and potent can alwayes bribe Conscience but it will give an impartial verdict at one time or other either accusing or excusing him In these and other particulars men may contemplate the excellency of Reason and praise God for the exercise of it Thirdly and lastly The rational Soul of man becomes much more excellent and is like a curious piece of Embroydery by a new Creation being made partaker of the Divine Nature whereas by sin the Soul of man was corrupted and alienated from the Life of God yet now being born again of the Spirit of God and Christ being spiritually formed therein it recovers the Image of God and is restored to a holy fellowship and communion with him and will be a curious excellent Piece indeed when she is perfectly transformed as she shall be into the divine Image and cloathed with Glory and Immortality Psal 45.14 2 Cor. 5.2 Let us now briefly recapitulate the Heads of this Discourse * A Recapitulation of the several Heads touching Faith and Reason so far as we have proceeded It requires much spiritual Skill as hath been said rightly to distinguish between them and give to each its due though mans Reason be much weakened and obscured yet a good use may be made thereof both in Civil and Divine things There is a light in Reason though far inferiour to that of Faith How far this Light of Reason extendeth we have shewed The best Heathen Philosophers were sensible of great defects and languishings in their natural Reason and Abilities though they ascribed too much thereunto Some there are amongst Christians that give too little to Reason in Religious and Ecclesiastical concerns but others more generally offend in giving too much and therefore we have here declared how and in what respects Reason and moral Prudence should be exercised by us both in Civil and Church affairs The Light of Reason proves that there is a God or Supreme being and that the Soul of man is immortal and also the truth of the Christian Religion and the divine Authority of the Scriptures and is of excellent use in comparing and interpreting the Scriptures and judging of Controversies But though Reason be useful in these respects yet the internal testimony of the holy Ghost doth principally witness the divine Authority of the Scriptures and satisfie Conscience touching the same Here is shewed when it is that Reason is rightly used and when abused to the prejudice of the Spirits testimony in the Scripture and likewise the difference betwixt the meer rational and spiritual man and their knowledge faith and operations in and about
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