their polluted Vehicles less of Heaven then the meanest Regenerate Soul that dwels in these Tabernacles of Earth and that of the Prophet is most true of them that their Sun is gone down at mid-day 3. Sixthly That the Destruction of these Aethereal Vehicles was not an utter Extinction of life to them but onely an Exclusion from the life and pleasures of that Supernal Paradise which they enjoyed in those Heavenly Vehicles For that they now live and move and act is manifest in that the whole World rings of their exploits and villanies 4. Seventhly That the Souls of men which are as much Immortall they being Spirits as those of the faln Angels are are not devoid of life after the death of this Body For as the Souls of the fallen Angels descended from thinner to thicker without the loss of Sense and Life so do our Souls ascend from thicker to thinner habitations with the like if not greater security of acting and living after the Death of the Body 5. Which we shall the easilier believe if we consider how contemptible and homely a thing that Organ is which is the ultimate and immediate conveigher of whatever we perceive in the outward world and which is most remarkable in which alone the Soul has any Sense at all of any thing that arrives to her cognoscence Which if it be not the Animal Spirits within the Brain which makes most of all for us I confess with Cartesius I think it most probable to be the Conarion then which nor Water nor Air nor Aether nor any other Element else seems more Simple and Homogeneal So that the advantage seems not to be in the nature of that Organ but it is because the Soul by those lawes that brought her into the Body has placed her Centre of Perception there 6. Which little Pavilion of the Soul's Centre of Perception being of so gross consistence as it is and becoming thereby less Passive and Alterable it was very requisite that there should be that curious frame of the external Organs of the Eye the Ear the Nose and other parts to strengthen those motions and impressions that they transmit so that they may be able forcibly enough to strike upon the Conarion or at least strike through the Organs and penetrate to the Animal Spirits in the Brain supposing them the most inward and immediate Organ of Perception And that the Conformation of the external Organs of Sense is such that they are to admiration fitted to this end is a thing so well known amongst the Anatomists that I need not insist on the proof of it as it is also among Physitians That none of the external Organs have any Sense at all in them no more then an Acousticon or a Dioptrick glass From whence is discovered the Unreasonableness of their Despair that conceit that when the Soul is devested of her Organical Body she can have no Sense nor Perception of any thing For this curious Organization tends to nothing else but the proportionating the vigour of Motion to the difficulty of its passage through the Nerves or to the grossness of the consistency of the Conarion Which Organical contrivance therefore may not be at all needfull in the Soul separate from the Body the Centre of Perception being placed bare in a more tender and passive Element such as Air Aether and the like So that it will be the greatest wonder in the world that the Soul should sleep after death so small a thing being able to waken her 7. Besides it is not Unreasonable but that She and other Spirits though they have no set Organs yet for more distinct and full perception of Objects may frame the Element they are in into temporary Organization and that with as much ease and swiftness as we can dilate and contract the pupil of our Eye and bring back or put forward the Crystalline humor 8. And not only to respect the Natures of Humane Souls but also the Will and Purpose of God there was never any yet that pretended to knowledge in Philosophy that denied the Immortality of the Soul in this sense which we contend for but they deni'd first a Particular Divine Providence which for my own part I think it is impossible for any one to deny that will diligently and indifferently search into the matter And therefore this Seventh Assertion may very well stand That the Souls of men are Immortal and act and live after Death Of this Subject I have wrote more lately and more fully in my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul to which the Reader may have recourse CHAP. V. 1. The Eighth Assertion That there is a Polity amongst the Angels and Souls separate both Good and Bad and therefore Two distinct Kingdomes one of Light and the other of Darkness 2. And a perpetual fewd and conflict betwixt them 3. The Ninth That there are infinite swarms of Atheistical Spirits as well Aereal as Terrestrial in an utter ignorance or hatred of all true Religion THE Eighth Assertion is That every Angel Good or Bad is as truly a Person as a man being endued also with Life Sense and Understanding whence they are likewise capable of Ioy and Pain and therefore coercible by Laws And mutual Helps being able to procure what Solitude cannot they must of necessity be Sociable and hold together in Bodies Politick and obey for either hope of advantage or fear of mischief Out of the whole masse therefore of the Angelical Nature taking in also according to Philo the Souls of men be they in what Vehicles they will there arise since their Fall two distinct Kingdoms the one of Darkness whose Laws reach no further then to the Interest of the Animal life the other of Light which is the true Kingdom of God and here the Animal life is in subjection and the Divine life bears rule as the Divine life is trodden down in the other Kingdom and the Animal life has the sole Jurisdiction 2. Now the inward life and spring of Motion in each Kingdom being so different it follows that these two Kingdoms must alwaies be at odds and that there must be a perpetual conflict till victory Which we shall still more easily conceive if we admit what is very reasonable That the Kingdom of Light reaches from Heaven to Earth that is That as there are found on the same surface of the Earth Animals both wilde and gentle harmless and poisonous and men good and bad pious and impious so likewise even in the same Regions of the Air that there are scatter'd Spirits of both Kindes good and evil Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light In the order of those Aereal Angels the ancient Philosophers ranked the Souls of men deceased whether Vertuous or Wicked unless they had reached to an extraordinary and Heroical degree of Purity and Perfection for then they conceited that they were carried up to those more high and Aethereal Regions 3. Ninthly That there
of our Bodies in the Resurrection Because say they the Anthropophagi or Cannibals are continually fed with mans flesh as also they feed one upon another To give therefore the highest instance against this Assertion How can that man say they that has been fed with mans flesh in a manner perpetually and at last himself fed upon by men have the same Body at the Resurrection For he will be left as bare of flesh as the Crow was of feathers when every bird had pecked away what belonged unto themselves Besides the hazard of losing that flesh that was his own if any was his own by being himself devoured and digested into the flesh and body of others 5. Their second Objection is against mens Bodies rising out of their graves and runs thus It implies say they that all men were buried whenas Myriads have been drowned in the seas and eaten by fishes Besides infinite numbers that have had the usual burial of their Nations have had a very inconsiderable part of their bodies committed to the ground only a few ashes in an Urn the rest of their body in the burning vanishing into Air. Which in some sort comes to pass in them that are wholy buried in the Earth For the Body rots and melts away there into fume and vapours which the heat of the Sun exhales and draws into the Air. Some it may be shoot up into the blades of Grass which either rots upon the ground or is food for horses to whose shares it doth not fall to have honest burial but lie to rot also in the open fields or else are eaten by those Creatures that at length doe so So that the Soul if she were to seek for her Body would hear more likely news of it in the Air then in the Earth So incredible is it that it is kept circumscribed in so particular a part of the Earth as the Grave 6. And lastly to make all sure They endeavour to enervate the very grounds and dig down the deepest foundation of this Assertion of Identity of bodies at the Resurrection by alledging that the very end thereof implies a contradiction For whereas the reason is given That the Body that was partner either in unlawfull pleasures or the laudable pains and labours of the Soul might partake also of her Punishment or Reward here they pretend that the Bodie is not the same numerical body throughout the whole life of a man no more then a river is the same river but that the Bodie wasts and is restored that the present Spirits Bloud and Flesh are passing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Heraclitus speaks and new supplies are perpetually made by food and that therefore we have no more the same numerical body always then the same numerical cloaths but that in both we wear out the old and get new but in our cloaths at once in our Bodies by degrees Wherefore to contend that the same numerical body shall rise that was buried and that upon point of Justice is to contend for the greatest piece of Injustice that may be For so shall the Body of an old man be punished for the sins of that Body he had when he was young 7. These and such like are the Arguments of those that would overthrow Religion upon this advange as they deem it and something they drive at that seems to tend to a perswasion of some kind of incongruity and incredibility in the matter but it will not all amount to an utter Impossibility But to me it seems so inconsiderable that I shall not vouchsafe it an Answer upon those terms and that Hypothesis they goe upon I shall soar a little higher that my way being aloft as the Wise man speaks I may be free from the snares beneath But what I answer I would be understood to direct to the Atheist and the Infidel permitting them that already believe the substance to vary their phansies with what circumstances they please But for these others I must hold them to hard meat and cut my skirts as short as I can that they sit not upon them CHAP. IV. 1. An Answer to their first and last Cavil from those Principles of Plato's School That the Soul is the Man and That the Bodie perceives nothing 2. An Answer to their second by rightly interpreting what is meant by Rising out of the grave in the general notion thereof 3. That there is no warrant out of Scripture for the same numerical bodie but rather the contrary 4. The Atheists Objection from the word Resurrectio answered whose sense is explained out of the Hebrew and Greek 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the meaning of them is in that general sense which is applicable as well to the Resurrection of the unjust as of the just 1. I Answer therefore first out of the best sort of Philosophers That Animus cujusque is est quisque and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Soul of every man is his individual Person and That she alone it is that hears that sees that enjoies pleasure and undergoes pain and That the Body is not sensible of any thing no more then a mans doublet when he is well bastinado'd And this Answer takes away all occasion of the First and Last Cavil For why are men solicitous of the same numerical body but that they may be sure to find themselves the same numerical persons But it being most certain there is no stable Personality of a man but what is in his Soul for if the Body be Essential to this numerical Identity a grown man has not the same individuation he had when he was Christned it is manifest that if there be the same Soul there is exactly the same Person and that the change of the Body causes no more real difference of Personality then the change of cloaths And why do men plead for the consociation of the Soul 's numerical body in Reward or Punishment but that they phansie the Body capable of pleasure and pain But they erre not knowing the nature of things the Body being utterly uncapable of all sense and cogitation as not only the best of the Platonists but also that excellent Philosopher Des-cartes has determined and is abundantly demonstrated in my Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul 2. This therefore being cleared I answer also to their second Cavil concerning mens rising out of the very graves they wery buried in That the expression is only Prophetical and Symbolical though I do not deny but that in some it may happen literally to be true and that it signifies no more then thus That the same men that die and are buried shall as truly appear in their own persons at the Day of Iudgment as if those Bodies that were interred should be presently actuated by their Souls again and should start out of their graves and to give an instance they shall be as truly the same persons as Lazarus when he rose body and
soul out of the Grave after he had lien there four daies together But that universal expression of mens rising out of the Grave is but a Prophetical Scheme of Speech the more strongly to strike our senses as I have already intimated in my exposition of the 15 of 1 Cor. against the Psychopannychites And therefore the greater accumulation of absurdities that can be made against that circumstance it will the more confirm that usefull Interpretation of mine 3. This succour we have against the Atheists out of Philosophy but I answer further as concerning the Scripture it self which is the only certain measure of the truth of our Religion and to which alone I dare finally stand not thinking my self bound to make good every conceit that either the Pride Precipitancie Inadvertencie or Ignorance of fallible Teachers have obtruded upon the World That I dare challenge him to produce any place of Scripture out of which he can make it appear That the Mysterie of the Resurrection implies the resuscitation of the same numerical body The most pregnant of all is Job 19 which later Interpreters are now so wise as not to understand at all of the Resurrection The 1 Cor. 15. that Chapter is so far from asserting this curiosity that it plainly saies it is not the same body but that as God gives to the blades of corn grains quite distinct from that which was sown so at the Resurrection he will give the Soul a Body quite different from that which was buried Now if it be not the same Body that was buried what need it run into the Earth to come out again Wherefore it is plain that the Apostle there writes as I said before in a Prophetical and Symbolical style 4. But the Atheist will still hang on and object further That the very term Resurrectio implies that the same body shall rise again for that only that falls can be said properly to rise again But the Answer will be easie the Objection being grounded merely upon a mistake of the sense of the word which is to be interpreted out of those higher Originals the Greek and Hebrew and not out of the Latine though the word in Latin does not alwaies implie an individual Restitution of what is gone or fallen as in that verse in Ovid Victa tamen vinces subversaque Troja resurges But this is not so near to our purpose let us rather consider the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Resurrectio supplies in Latin and therefore must be made to be of as large a sense as it Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so far from signifying in some places the Reproduction or Recuperation of the same thing that was before that it bears no sense at all of Reiteration in it As Matth. 22.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Genes 7. there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie merely a living subsistence and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an active signification according to this sense will be nothing else but a giving or continuing life and subsistence to a thing The word in the Hebrew that answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Translators interpret a Living substance whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to this analogie may very well bear the same latitude of sense that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they being both words that are rendred Resurrectio but simply of themselves signifie only Vivification or erection unto life or the being made a living Creature But seeing that men are Creatures that have been once alive and are to be made alive again and to become sensible and visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the day of Judgment therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordinarily translated Revivificatio and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be understood in the same sense that implies a Recuperation of life 5. Now the Iewish Rabbins as Buxtorf has noted are very critical in these words appropriating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Resurrection of the just but the other to the Revivification of the wicked though they sometimes again confound them But that which is nearest to our purpose is to consider in what signification of the words the thing signified is competible to the unjust as well as to the just And I conceive it is that which the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Tribunal of Christ that every man may receive according to what he has done in his body whether good or evil But as well the wicked as the just before they thus appear are really in life and Being though to us they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead vanisht and invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. But all are alive and visible to God even the bad as well as the good Therefore the Resurrection or Revivification for the word signifies no more then so that is common to both is this That they become palpable and visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and appear at that general Assizes at the last Day For then all the World good and bad shall not only be alive to God but also alive and visible to one another And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revivificatio that is common to all And that this notion is solid appears from hence in that Luke by saying For they all live to God implies that they are dead in reference to men Wherefore so far forth as they are said to be dead so far forth may they be said to be revived or to be raised from the dead as the Ghosts of men are said to be by art Magick because they are made to appear But the Devil is not said to be raised from the dead because he was never properly said to be alive amongst us or to live amongst us CHAP. V. 1. An Objection against the Resurrection from the Activity of the Soul out of her Body with the first Answer thereto 2. The second Answer 3. The special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first belonging to the unjust the latter to the just 4. That the life that is led on the Earth or in this lower Region of the Air is more truly a Death then a Life 5. The manner of our recovering our Celestial Body at the last Day 6. And of the accomplishment of the Promise of Christ therein 1. I Should proceed but that I must be contented to be interrupted by one Objection more which is this If the Souls of men live and act out of their Bodies before the Resurrection what need is there of any Resurrection of the Body For what want have they of any Bodies at all if their Soul can live and act without them But I answer First That we are not infallibly assured but that the Souls as well of the Good as the Bad after Death have
end So that the completion of all the Prophets ends in the Triumph of Familism the same which David George boasted of himself See also chap. 15. sect 5. Lastly in his Evangely chap. 35.8 Behold in this same day namely of the Love is the Resurrection of the Lords dead come to pass through the appearing of the coming of Christ in his Majesty according to the Scriptures And a little after sect 9. In which resurrection of the dead God sheweth unto us that the time is now fulfilled that his dead or the dead that are fallen asleep in the Lord rise up in this day of his judgement and appear unto us in Godly glory which shall also henceforth live in us everlastingly with Christ and reign upon the Earth Of which the plain sense is That the Souls deceased so many hundred years agoe are alive again in these of the Family of Love and shall reign everlastingly in them with the Mystical Christ on the Earth Which plainly excludes that other Iudgement or Resurrection in the Literal sense as I said before Again chap. 4. sect 15. For this cause our hope standeth now in this day very little on many of the Inhabitants of the world but we hope with joy much more on the appearing of the dead that die in the Lord or are dead in him to wit that they in their resurrection from the death shall livingly come unto and meet with us For all the dead of the Lord and members of Christ shall now live and rise with their Bodies and we shall assemble us with them and they with us to one body in Iesus Christ into one lovely Being of the Love and be altogether concordable in the Love and peace of Iesus Christ. CHAP. XVII 1. His perverse Interpretation of that Article of the Creed concerning Life everlasting 2. His misbelief of the Immortality of the Soul proved from his forcible wresting of the most pregnant Testimonies thereof to his Dispensation and Ministry here on Earth 3. Their interpreting of the Heavenly Body mentioned 2 Cor. 4. and the unmarried state of Angels to the signification of a state of this present Life 4. That H. Nicolas as well as David George held there were no Angels neither good nor bad 5. Further Demonstrative Arguments that he held the Soul of man mortall 6. How sutable his laying aside of the Person of Christ is to these other Tenets 7. That H. Nicolas as highly as he magnifies himself is much below the better sort of Pagans His irreverent apprehension of the Divine Majesty if he held that there was any thing more Divine then himself 1. FInally as for that Article of the Creed concerning Life everlasting his exposition is this We confess that the same everlasting life is the true Light of men and that God hath made and chosen him the man thereto that he should live in the same light everlastingly Where by him the man he means the succession of mankind as any one may know that is but a little acquainted with his manner of writing and by everlasting life and the true light of men he means the Light of the Love and the Service thereof which he presages shall abide for ever Which therefore he cals the house of God's dwelling the eternal rest of his holy ones the everlasting fast-standing Ierusalem the true and indisturbable kingdome full of all Godly Power Ioy and of all heavenly Beautifulness wherein the land of the Lord with fulness of Eternal life and lively sweetness is sung from everlasting to everlasting With such sweet Charms and pleasing enchantments does this grand Deceiver lull asleep his little ones into an utter oblivion and perfect misbelief of those precious Promises of Everlasting Happiness made to us by Christ who hath brought Life and Immortality to light 2. For that there is with no other Life but this nor any Immortality of the Soul or blessed Resurrection which consists in the Soul 's being invested with an Heavenly and Spiritual body according to the plain and literal sense of Scripture his gross abuse of those two main proofs thereof 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thes. 4. do plainly demonstrate which he does wildly distort as he doth the rest of the Scripture to a mere prediction of his Service of the Love in which he will have every thing of the last Day and of the Resurrection fulfilled that we may be sure that there is nothing else to be expected but this For in this the last trump sounds Christ appears in the Heavens being come to judgement those very Saints that in time past died and fell asleep in the Lord are now raised up in glory and that with their bodies and livingly come unto and meet with us according to that in 1 Thes. 4. and lastly these raised Saints that is the Family of Love shall thus reign with their mystical Christ upon earth for ever world without end What interpretation of Scripture can more accurately and radically take away all expectation of Christs personal coming to Judgement and the hope of a Blessed Immortality included therein by the resurrection of the dead then this of this bold Author Which we may be the better assured he intends in that his applications are so miserably forced and yet he has no better proofs then these for the ratifying of his Service of the Love For if he thought they did signifie that which all Christians think they do he could fancy no force at all in them for the establishing of his Doctrine but the orthodox meaning seeming to him utterly incredible makes him confident that he has found out the right sense if he deal bonâ fide and takes not the Scripture for a mere Fable which he may abuse as he pleases 3. For we may observe him using the same industry in eluding the force of such places as are plain for an Immortal state after this life even there where he may seem unconcerned if he held the Soul of man Immortal As that 2 Cor. 5. where the Promise of the Heavenly or Spiritual body is evidently set down as appears further out of the last verses of the precedent chapter and yet these Familists are not ashamed to expound it of the most holy of the true Tabernacle in their canting language whereby they mean the perfection of the Love a state in this life as you may see in their Mirabilia Dei. And in the Spiritual Land of peace That which is writ Luk. 20.35 concerning the children of the Resurrection that they are neither married nor given in marriage but are as the Angels of God he applies to the state of the Service of the Love and makes it fulfilled in his life Which is an Allegory so cross and crooked that nothing but an unbelief of the literal sense could ever have put a man upon the framing of it besides that scurvy intimation it bears along with it of community of wives the very same doctrine that David George is said to
Theologers by so muchâ— the more pleasant to the ears of the Atheists 2. That the Resurrection in the Scholastick Notion thereof was in all likelihood the great Stone of offence to those two Enthusiasts of Delph and Amsterdam and emboldened them to turn the whole Gospel into an Allegorie 3. The incurable condition of Enthusiasts 4. The Atheists first Objection against the Scholastick Resurrection proposed 5. His second Objection 6. His third and last Objection 7. That his Objections do not demonstrate an absolute impossibility of the Scholastick Resurrection with the Author's purpose of answering them upon other Grounds 221 CHAP. IV. 1. An Answer to their first and last Cavil from those Principles of Plato's School That the Soul is the Man and That the Body perceives nothing 2. An Answer to their second by rightly interpreting what is meant by Rising out of the grave in the general notion thereof 3. That there is no warrant out of Scripture for the same numerical body but rather the contrary 4. The Atheists Objection from the word Resurrectio answered whose sense is explained out of the Hebrew and Greek 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the meaning of them is in that general sense which is applicable as well to the Resurrection of the unjust as of the just 223 CHAP. V. 1. An Objection against the Resurrection from the Activity of the Soul out of her Body with the first Answer thereto 2. The second Answer 3. The special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first belonging to the unjust the latter to the just 4. That the life that is led on the Earth or in this lower Region of the Air is more truly a Death then a Life 5. The manner of our recovering our Celestial Body at the last Day 6. And of the accomplishment of the Promise of Christ therein 226 CHAP. VI. 1. That he has freed the Mystery of the Resurrection from all Exceptions of either Atheists or Enthusiasts 2. That the Soul is not uncapable of the Happiness of an Heavenly Body 3. And that it is the highest and most sutable Reward that can be conferr'd upon her 4. That this Reward is not above the power of Christ to confer proved by what he did upon Earth 5. That all Iudgment is given to him by the Father 6. Further arguings to 〈◊〉 same purpose 228 CHAP. VII 1. Caecilius his scoffs against the Resurrection and Conflagration of the World That against the Resurrection answered already 2. In what sense the soberer Christians understood the Conflagration of the World 3. That the Conflagration in their sense is possible argued from the Combustibleness of the parts of the Earth 4. As also from actual Fire found in several Mountains as Aetna Helga and Hecla 5. Several instances of that sort out of Plinie 6. Instances of Vulcanoes out of Acosta 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla 8. Vulcanoes without smoak having a quick fire as the bottome 9. Vulcanoes that have cast fire and smoak some thousand of years together 10. Hot Fountains Springs running with Pitch and Rosin certain Thermae catching fire at a distance 230 CHAP. VIII 1. A fiery Comet as big as the Sun that appeared after the death of Demetrius Comets presages of Droughts Woods set on fire after their appearing 2. Of falling Starres Of the tail of a Comet that dried up a River 3. Hogsheads of Wine drunk up and men dissipated into Atoms by Thunder 4. That the fire of Thunder is sometimes unquenchable as that in Macrinus the Emperours time and that procured by the Praiers of the Thundering Legion 5. Of conglaciating Thunders and the transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt 6. The destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven That universal Deluges and Earthquakes do argue the probability of a Deluge of Fire 7. That Plinie counts it the greatest wonder that this Deluge of fire has not haâ—â—ed already 233 CHAP. IX 1. The Conflagration argued from the Proneness of Nature and the transcendent power of Christ. 2. His driving down the Powers of Satan from their upper Magazine 3. The surpassing power and skill of his Angelical Hosts 4. The efficacy of his Fiat upon the Spirit of Nature 5. The unspeakable corroboration of his Soul by its Union with the Godhead and the manner of operation upon the Elements of the World 6. That the Eye of God is ever upon the Earth and that he may be an Actour as well as a Speculatour if duly called upon 7 8. A short Description of the firing of the Earth by Christ with the dreadful effects thereof 236 CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithfull 239 CHAP. XI 1. A Recapitulation or Synopsis of the more Intelligible part of the Christian Mystery with an Indication of the Usefulness thereof 2. The undeniable Grounds of this Mystery The existence of God A particular Providence The Lapsableness of Angels and men The natural subjection of men to Devils in this fallen Condition 3. God's Wisdome and Iustice in the Permission thereof for a time 4 5. Further Reasons of that Permission 6. The Lapse of Men and Angels proved 7. The Good emerging out of this Lapse 8. The exceeding great Preciousness of the Divine Life 9. The Conflagration of the Earth 10. The Good arising from the Opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdome 11. That God in due time is in a special manner to assist the Kingdome of Light and in a way most accommodate to the humane Faculties 12. That therefore he was to send into the World some Venerable Example of the Dâ—vine Life with miraculous attestations of his Mâ—ssion of so sacred a Person 13. That this Person by reason of the great Agonies that befall them that return to the Divine Life ought to bring with him a palpable pledge of a proportionable Reward suppose of a Blessed Immortality manifested to the meanest Capacity by his rising from the dead and visibly ascending into Heaven 14. That in the Revolt of Mankind from the Tyranny of the Devil there ought to be some Head and that the Qualifications of that Head ought to be opposiâ—e to those of the old Tyrant as also to have a
power of restoring us to all that we have lost by being under the Usurper 15. That also in this Head all the notable Objects of the Religious propensions of the Nations should be comprized in a more lawfull and warrantable manner 16. That this Idea of Christianity is so worthy the Goodness of God and so sutable to the state of the World that no wise and vertuous Person can doubt but that it is or will be set on foot at some time by Divine Providence and that if the Mâ—ssias be come and the Writings of the New Testament be true in the literal sense it is on foot already 242 CHAP. XII 1. That the chief Authour of this Mystical Madness that nulls the true and literal sense of Scripture is H. Nicolas whose Doctrine therefore and Person is more exactly to be enquired into 2. His bitter Reviling and high Scorn and Contempt of all Ministers of the Gospel of Christ that teach according to the Letter with the ill Consequences thereof 3. The Reason of his Vilification of them and his Injunction to his Followers not to consult with any Teachers but the Elders of his Family no not with the Dictates of their own Consciences but wholy to give themselves up to the leading of those Elders The irrecoverable Apostasie of simple Souls from their Saviour by this wicked Stratagem 4. His high Magnifications of himself and his Service of the Love before the Dispensation of Moses John the Baptist or Christ himself 5. That his Service of the Love is a Third Dispensation namely of the Spirit and that which surpasses that of Christ with other Encomiums of his doctrine as That in it is the sounding of the last Trump the Descent of the new Jerusalem from Heaven the Resurrection of the dead the glorious coming of Christ to Judgment and the everlasting Condemnation of the wicked in Hell-Fire 6. That H. Nicolas for his time and after him the Eldest of the Family of the Love in succession are Christ himself descended from Heaven to judge the World as also the true High Priest for ever in the most Holy 247 CHAP. XIII 1. An Examination of all possible Grounds of this fanâ—tick Boaster's magnifying himself thus highly 2. That there are no Grounds thereof from either the Matter he delivers or from his Scriptural Eloquence Raptures and Allegories 3. The unspeakable Power and Profit of the Letter above that of the Allegorie instanced in the Crucifixion Resurrection Ascension of our Saviour and his coming again to Iudgment 4 That Allegorizing the Scripture is no special Divine gift but the fruit of either our Naturall Phansie or Education 5. That he had no grounds of magnifying himself from any Miracles he did 6. Nor from being any Special Preacher of Perfection or Practiser thereof 7. Of that Imperfection that is seated in the impurity of the Astral Spirit and ungovernable tumult of Phansie in Fanatick Persons 251 CHAP. XIV 1. That neither H. Nicolas nor his Doctrine was prophesied of in Holy Scripture That of the Angel preaching the Everlasting Gospel groundlesly applied to him 2. As also that place Iohn 1.21 of being That Prophet 3. His own mad Application of Acts 17. v. 31. to himself 4. Their Misapplication of 1 Cor. 13. v. 9 10. and Hebr. 6. v. 1 2. to the Doctrine of this new Prophet 5. Their arguing for the authority of the Service of the Love from the Series of Times and Dispensations with the Answer thereunto 6. That the Oeconomie of the Family of Love is quite contrary to the Reign of the Spirit 7. That the Author is not against the Regnum Spiritûs the Cabbalists also speak of but only affirms that this Dispensation takes not away the Personal Offices of Christ nor the External comeliness of Divine Worship 8. That if this Regnum Spiritûs is to be promoted by the Ministry of some one Person more especially it follows not that it is H. Nicolas he being a mere mistaken Enthusiast or worse 255 CHAP. XV. 1. That the Personal Offices of Christ are not to be laid aside That he is a Priest for euer demonstrated out of sundry places of Holy Writ 2. That the Office of bâ—ing a Iudge is also affixed to his Humane Person proved from several Testimonies of Scripture 3. Places alledged for the excluding Christ's Humanity with Answers therein 4. The last and most plausible place they do alledge with an Answer to the same 258 CHAP. XVI 1. That Hen. Nicolas does plainly in his Writings lay aside the Person of Christ as where he affirms That whatever is taught by the Scripture learned is false and That all the Matters of the Bible are but Presigurations of what concerns the Dispensation of his blessed Family 2. Other Citations to the same purpose and his accursed Allegory of Christ's celebrating his Passeover with his disciples whereby he would antiquâ—te and abolish the true Historical knowledge of him 3. Several places where he evidently tâ—kes away the Priestly Office of Christ. 4. Others that plainly take away his glorious Return to Iudgment and the Resurrection of the dead in the true and Apostolical sense 262 CHAP. XVII 1. His perverse Interpretation of that Article of the Creed concerning Life everlasting 2. His misbelief of the Immortality of the Soul proved from his forcible wresting of the most pregnant Testimonies thereof to his Dispensation and Ministry here on Earth 3. Their interpreting of the Heavenly Body mentioned 2 Cor. 4. and the unmarried state of Angels to the signification of a state of this present Life 4. That H. Nicolas as well as David George held there were no Angels neither good nor bad 5. Further Demonstrative Arguments that he held the Soul of man morâ—al 6. How sutable his laying aside of the Person of Christ is to these other Tenets 7. That H. Nicolas as highly as he magnifies himself is much below the better sort of Pagans His irreverent apprehension of the Divine Majesty if he held that there was any thing more Divine then himself 268 CHAP. XVIII 1. The great mischief and danger that accrues to the World from this false Prophet 2. The probable Ferocity of this Sect when time shall serve and eagerness of executing his Bloudy Vision 3. That Familisme is a plot laid by Satan to overthrow Christianity 4. What the face of things in likelihood would be supposing it had overrun all 5. The Motives that inforced the Authour to make so accurate a Discovery of this Imposture 271 CHAP. XIX 1. That Familism is a Monster bred out of the corruptions of Christianity and ill management of affairs by the Guides of the Church 2. The first Particular of ill Management intimated 3. The second Particular 4. The third Particular 5. The fourth 6. The fifth Particular 7. That this false Prophet H. Nicolas was raised by God to exprobrate to Christendome their universal Degeneracy Prophaneness and Infidelity 8. That though the Evil be discovered it is not to
rejecting their Messias 2. From the many Sects amongst Christians 3. Their difference in opinion concerning the Trinity 4. The Creation 5. The Soul of Man 6. The Person of Christ 7. And the Nature of Angels 1. HItherto we have argued the Obscurity of the Christian Mystery from the Reasons and Causes thereof whereby we have evinced That it ought to be Obscure and that therefore in all likelyhood it is so But the Effects are so manifest that if we do but briefly point at them it will be put beyond all doubt That it is so indeed Let us now instance in some few Why are the Iews yet unconverted or rather why did they at first cast off their Messias but because the Prophesies in Scripture were so Obscure that they had taken up a false Notion of him and of the Condition he was to appear in For they expected him as a mighty Prince that should restore the kingdome to Israel and that Victory Peace Prosperity and Dominion should be accumulated upon the Iewish nation by his means Which opinion I conceive the Lowness of the Mosaical dispensation under which they lived that perpetually propounded to them worldly advantage as a reward of their obedience and the Obscurity of the Predictions of the Messias engaged them in For they being either Figurative and Allegorical or mingling sometimes the state of his Second coming with his First their eager eye being so fully fixt upon what sounded like worldly happiness they could mind no other sense but that in these Enigmatical writings Which yet proved clear enough to as many as God had prepared and belonged to the election of Grace But he might if it had pleased his Wisdome so to do have made all things so plain that we should not need at this day to expect the calling of the Iews but they might have been one Body with us long since But their Rejection is a greater assurance to us of the Truth of our Religion we being able to make it good even out of those Records that are kept by our professed Enemies Besides a man can no more rationally require that all Israel should have flowed in at the first appearance of Christ then that his Second coming should be joyned with his First or his First drawn back to the next Age after Adams fall nor that more rationally then that Autumne should be cast upon Summer and both upon Spring The Counsels of God are at once but the fulfillings of them ripen in due order and time 2. But though we let go the Iews and contain our selves within the compass of those that either are or would be accounted Christians their Opinions and Sects both have been and are so numerous that the very mention of so confessed a Truth may sufficiently evince the Obscurity of those Divine Oracles to which they all appeal I will instance only in things of greater moment which will be a sure pledge of the certainty of their innumerable dissensions in smaller matters 3. Wherefore to say nothing of that more intricate Mystery of the Triunity in the Godhead where the curious Speculators of that difficult Theory are first divided into Trinitarians and Anti-Trinitarians and then the Trinitarians into Heterusians Homousians and Homoeusians we shall see them disagreeing not onely in the Distinction of the Persons but concerning the Essence it self Some affirming God to be Infinite others Finite some a Spirit others a Body othersome not onely a Body but a Body of the very same shape with mans Of which opinion the Aegyptian Anthropomorphites were so zealously confident that they forced the Bishop of Alexandria out of fear of his life to subscribe to their gross conceit 4. Again concerning the Creation of the world some affirme That God made it of Matter coaeternal with and independent of himself Others that he created it of Nothing Others that he made it not at all but that it was made as some would have it by good Angels others by the Devil 5. Concerning the Soul of man some say it subsists and acts before it comes into the Body Others onely in the Body and after the solution of the Body Others in the Body alone Others not there neither as holding indeed no such thing as a Soul at all but that the Body it self does all Which some hold shall rise again others not but that the whole Mystery of Christianity is finished in this life 6. Concerning Christ some were of Opinion that he was onely God appearing in humane shape others onely man others both others neither 7. Concerning Angels some affirm them to be Fiery or Aery Bodies some pure Spirits some Spirits in Aery or Fiery Bodies Others none of these but that they are momentaneous Emanations from God Others that they are onely Divine Imaginations in men which can be by no means allowed unless we should admit the Holy Patriarch Abraham to have arrived at such a measure of dotage as to provide cakes and a fatted calf to entertain three Divine Imaginations which visited him in his tent But certainly such slight and exorbitant glosses as these can argue nothing else but a misbelief of the Text and indeed of all Religion and that the Interpreter is no Christian but either Atheist or Infidel Wherefore to leave such Spirits as these to the confident Dictates of their own foul Complexion we shall rather take into consideration some Few but Main points wherein certain men otherwise Rational enough in their sphere and hearty Assertors of the Authority of Scripture disagree from the Generality of other Christians The first of them is Concerning the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead The second Concerning the Divinity of Christ. The third and last Concerning the State of the Soul after Death Which Points though I must confess they are of subtle speculation yet they seem so necessary and essential the two former especially to Christian Religion that I think it fit not to pass them over with a bare mention of them nor yet to speak much in so profound and Mysterious a matter CHAP. IV. 1. That the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church by the Fathers 2. A Description of the Platonick Trinity and of the difference of the Hypostases 3. A description of their Union 4. And why they hold All a due Object of Adoration 5. The irrefutable Reasonableness of the Platonick Trinity and yet declined by the Fathers a Demonstration that the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church 6. Which is further evidenced from the compliableness of the Notion of the Platonick Trinity with the Phrase and Expressions of Scripture 7. That if the Christian Trinity were from Plato it follows not that the Mystery is Pagan 8 9 10. The Trinity proved from Testimony of the Holy Writ 1. NOw concerning the First The Trinity say they objecting against it in general is nothing else but a Pagan or Heathenish Figment brought out of the Philosophy
of Pythagoras and Plato and inserted into the doctrine of the Church by the ancient Fathers who most of them were Platonists But to this I answer That it is very highly improbable that the Fathers borrowed the Mystery of the Trinity from the School of Plato which you shall easily understand when we have so far as serves to our purpose explained the doctrine of the Platonical Triad which is briefly thus 2. There are Three Hypostases say they in the Deity namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Good or First self-originated Goodness Intellect or the Eternal Mind and lastly Soul or Spirit Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they distinguish all Three after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Good Intellect Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First One. One All. One and All. If we would ease our Apprehension here by the help of our Phansy we might compare the First to Simple and pure Light the Second to Light variegated into Colours as in the Rainbow the Third to those Rayes of light for all is Light that receive and carry down these Colours to the ground and impress them and reflect them from some standing pool or plash of water Again the First Hypostasis is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially the Good Causally the Intellect The Second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially Intellect Causally Soul Participatively the Good The Third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially Soul that is Love and Operation Causally Matter and the World Participatively the Good and Intellect 3. Now for the Union of the Three Hypostases we shall understand the accuracy thereof by degrees As first That the proper life and energie as I may so say of each Hypostasis is not contein'd within it self but like a vocal and audible Sound in a still silent Night perpetually re-ecchoes through the whole Deity Or as when a Song of Three parts is sung each Musician enjoys the harmony of the whole But this I must confess looks more properly like Communion then perfect Union we step therefore a degree further and affirme That as Body and Soul is conceived to make up one man and this Individual Body and this Individual Soul to make up this Individual man so these Three Hypostases to make up one Individual Deity their Union and Actuation one of another being infinitely and unspeakably more perfect then in any other Being imaginable And as the Motions of the Body are perceptible to the Soul of man and the Impressions of the Soul upon the Body would be perceptible to it if it had of it self a Faculty of Perception So likewise by this ineffable close Union and mutual Actuation of the Three Hypostases all their proper Energies become fully perceptible to one another And the Life of the first so infinitely and unexpressibly gratifying the Second and Both the Third by an immutable necessity and congruity of nature it is evident they can have but One Will which is as it were the Heart the Centre or Root of the Deity the Eternal Self-originated Good But thirdly and lastly These three Hypostases are not One onely by this actuating Union which may seem to admit of a real separability but there is also a real Unity or Identity in them the distinction among them being as Tatianus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Rayes of the Sun in respect of the Sun or if you will as the Centre Rayes and Surface of a Globe which implyes a Contradiction to be conceived without them or as the Faculties of the Soul are to the Soul which are as inseparable from her as she is from her self The Union therefore of them all and the Emanation of the Second and Third from the First being so Necessary Natural and Inevitable For the First can be no more without the Second or the Second without the Third then the Sun can be without his Rayes or the Soul without her Faculties there is no scruple say they but we may call all this the Godhead or Deity the Second and Third coming so unavoidably out of the First Root and being so inseparable from it And therefore there is nothing here properly Creature Creation being a free act and if not Creature what can it be but God 4. And since from these Three are all things that are made and in their hands is the guidance of all things Nothing less then Divine Adoration can of right belong unto them For though there may be some allay of Excellency in their descent from the First yet they being all our Creators and Governors none ought to fall short of Divine worship 5. This is a brief Summe of the Platonists Doctrine concerning the Triunity of the Godhead Which as it seems in it self Rational enough so it is not obnoxious to several bold cavils that over-daring Wits make against the Sacred Mystery of the Trinity alledging against Distinction of Persons without difference of Essence That there are only Three Logical Notions attributed to one single and individual nature and against Three Essences of the same Nature That it looks like an unnecessary and groundless repetition and That that great Chasma betwixt God and Matter will be as wide as before That it is unconceivable but the Last being of the same nature with the First that it should be also Prolifical and so in infinitum That these Three must of necessity be Three Gods if any of them be God because they are all exquisitly of the same Kind whenas in the Platonick Triad the First is only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some have also ventured to affirm in the Christian Trinity Now I say all being so easy and unexceptionable in the Platonical speculation of this Mystery it seems almost impossible but that if the Fathers had borrowed this Notion of the Trinity from the Platonists they would have explain'd it in this more facile and plausible way 6. But you 'l object That though it may seem more Rational in it self yet it might not be so happily applied to Places of Scripture and that 's the reason why the Fathers though they took the Mystery from Plato in the gross yet did not particularly explain it after the way of the Platonists But without doubt there is not only no place of Scripture that plainly clashes with the above-described Mystery but sundry Places that may be very speciously alledged for it It is plain that as the Second Hypostasis in Platonisme is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in Christianity called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if Wisdome and Intellect were acknowledged his proper Character in both They might also plausibly enough draw to their sense what Christ speaks John 14.28 My Father is greater then I
Reason who pretend not to dictate but demonstrate out of Scripture the Sleep of the Soul confidently suggesting to the better gaining Proselytes to their own that the contrary opinion is not Christian but Heathenish derived from the Philosophy of Plato which the Greek Fathers had imbibed and thence introduced into the Church of Christ. To the First of which I answer That our Adversaries Demonstrations for the Sleep of the Soul are but their own Imaginations and Dreams upon the mistaken Text. It is beside my scope to insist long on this matter I shall onely give you a tast of the weakness of the rest of their Arguments by proposing and refuting of those that seem the strongest Their main proof is from the whole tenor of the 15 of the 1 Cor. and more particularly from the 32 verse If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not Hence they think may certainly be concluded That the Soul before the Resurrection of the Body has not the Perception or Enjoyment of any thing otherwise the very Remembrance of those sufferings for Christ might be a solace for Paul when he was out of the Body 3. But to answer this Difficulty with the fuller satisfaction let us premise some few things to prepare the way to it As first That the Schemes of speech in Prophets and men inspired are usually such as most powerfully strike the Phansie and most strongly beat upon the Imagination they describing things in the most sensible palpable and particular representations that can be According to which Figure the General Resurrection is set off by mens awaking out of the dust of the Earth and coming out of the Graves when as yet many thousands have wanted Burial their bones rotting on the surface of the Earth and as many thousands have had their intombement in the Waters 4. Secondly That the Holy Writers do not pen down their Conceptions in so strict a Scholastick Method that they keep precisely and punctually to one Title but by a free vibration of Phansie give a touch here and a touch there according as they were moved and actuated by that Spirit that exhibits more to their Minds at once then their Tongue has leasure orderly and distinctly to utter and are more earnestly taken up in making good the main and most usefull scope of their discourse then to satisfie mens Curiosities in particular Niceties 5. Thirdly That many Words in Scripture have a lax and ambiguous sense and that therefore they are to be understood according as Circumstances and Likelyhood of Truth determine and that these Termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of that nature they sometimes signifying the raising up again of a Body out of the grave sometimes merely vivificating of the Body or recovering a Person to life other sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very same with the Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius observes which signifies nothing else but Eternal life or a Blessed Immortality Others enlarge the Signification further and make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conservation in Being And Death seeming to us so dangerous a passage as if we were in hazard of either falling asleep or sliding into a Non-subsistence Divine Conservation because we begin then a new state of life is not unfitly termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as giving us as it were a new Subsistence setting us upon our feet again and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as keeping us awake when we seemed in danger of letting go all functions of life Which meaning of the words a late Interpreter handsomely makes good comparing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9.17 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 9.16 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Conservation is excellently set out by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may imply a kinde of jogging or stirring up which is used to recover or prevent ones falling into a swoon and God is the grand Author of Life and Motion as the Apostle speaks 6. Fourthly and lastly That the Corinthians being a people given notoriously to the pleasures of the Flesh there is no question to be made but the Temptations of the place had also drawn away some Members of the Church there at Corinth and made them also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there being nothing that does so much extinguish all Hopes and Apprehensions of a Life to come as Carnal and Sensual pleasures it is very likely that those corrupted members fell away in their own judgments from the belief of any Reward after this life and so with Himeneus and Philetus or with the David-Georgians and our modern Nicolaitans allegorized away the real meaning of the Resurrection or the Blessed Immortality into a mere moral sense under pretence whereof they might ostentate themselves more Spiritual and knowing Christians then the rest and yet with less fear and remorse of conscience indulge to themselves all loosness and liberty of enjoying every tempting pleasure of this mortall life 7. Wherefore to the present Argument I answer in general out of this last and the foregoing Premiss That the purpose of the Apostle in this 15 to the Corinthians is to shew That there is a Life after the death of this Body and a Blessed Immortality to be expected A palpable pledge whereof was God's raising of Christs body out of the grave and exhibiting him alive to his Disciples Which was a Sign very significant and expressive of the thing this Blessed Immortality mainly consisting in being clothed with those Heavenly Ethereal and Paradisiacal bodies which Christ will bestow upon those that belong to him at the last day 8. Out of the First I answer That though S. Paul speak in such a Phrase as fixes our Imagination on the Earth only as is plain from that comparison of seed sown and rotting in the ground for men sow not seed upon the Water yet in whatsoever Element the Souls or Bodies of the Saints be found Earth Water or Air nay though we should grant with some that sundry Souls of holy men act in Aery vehicles in this interval betwixt their Death and the Day of Judgment yet it is no more prejudice to them then to those that are found alive in the flesh For none are excluded from the enjoyment of their glorified bodies 9. Out of the Second and Third I answer That S. Paul might very well have Three conceptions vibrating in his minde while he wrote concerning this Mystery the one more Simple and General of the Life and Subsistency of the Soul out of this Earthly Body the other more Special of a Blessed Immortality and the Third most Determinate of all which represented the manner of this Blessedness in being invested with glorified bodies And out of this General I shall direct a
more Particular answer to that of the 32 of this Chapter where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be either interpreted if the Souls of just men deceased obtain not their glorified or heavenly Bodies For though it were granted that they did in the mean time live and act in Aery vehicles yet that State and Region as the Earth being common to good and bad they had yet obtained no peculiar reward for their hardship and toil here Or else which is the more safe sense by far it may be interpreted at large of the life and subsistency of the Soul after its departure according to the last signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the third Premiss And thus is the strength of the main proof of the Psychopannychites utterly enervated 10. But there are other places of Scripture which they misapply to the same purpose as the Answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees question concerning the Resurrection I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Hence our Adversaries would conclude That the Souls of the departed do not live because if they did our Saviour's argument would be invalid for the Resurrection For if Abraham's Spirit were now alive God might be his God though his Body never rise But this is easily satisfied out of the second Premiss By Resurrection there being understood a Life hereafter and the Opinion of the Sadducees being That there is neither Angel nor Spirit nor Life to come he does not exactly tie himself to that particular circumstance of a blessed Immortality that consists in the enjoyment of glorified Bodies but answers more at large concerning the subsistence of Souls of men departed that they are and live and that therefore there are Spirits and so handsomly confutes the whole Doctrine of the Sadducees by that citation out of their own Pentateuch and a skilful application thereof CHAP. VII 1. A General Answer to the last sort of places they alledge that imply no enjoyment before the Resurrection 2. A Particular answer to that of 2 Cor. 5. out of Hugo Grotius 3. A preparation to an Answer of the Author 's own by explaining what the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie 4. His Paraphrase of the six first Verses of the forecited Chapter 5. A further confirmation of his Paraphrase 6. The weakness of the Reasons of the Psychopannychites noted 1. THE third and last way of proving the Sleep of the Soul is from such Passages in Scripture as seem to joyn the Hour of our Death immediately with the Day of our Resurrection as in 2 Cor. 5. Where the Apostle seems to intimate that there does nothing intercede betwixt the solution of our Earthly Tabernacle and being clothed with the Heavenly which not being till the Day of Judgment it is a sign that the Soul is in no condition unless that of Sleep till then So likewise in 2 Tim. chap. 1. and chap. 4. In the former he speaks of his Depositum which he intrusts God with till that Day and prays that Onesiphorus may finde mercy at that Day and in the latter he speaks of a Crown of righteousness that the Lord the righteous Judge will give him at that day as if all were defer'd till then But in my conceit it is a weak kinde of Argument Because the Souls of the Saints receive not their great reward till the Day of Iudgment that therefore they receive nothing at all nay that they are in a worse state then in this life as having lost all Sense of Existence or Being Their opinion to me seems more tolerable then this who though they do not presently mount them up in their Ethereal Chariots to Heaven yet permit them to move and to act in their Aereal Vehicles at a less distance from the Earth But that Last day being a day of that high Solemnity dreadful Glory and Majesty it is no wonder that for the better moving of the Minds of men he so often mentions that time without taking any notice of the interceding Space For thereby it also seems more nigh as a distant Object does to the sight no visible thing coming between 2. Now for the second to the Cor. 5. chap. There be two waies of clearing that difficulty there The one of Hugo Grotius in which a late learned Interpreter of our own does also insist expounding as they may well the third verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus If so be we shall be found in the number of those that are still clothed with these Earthly bodies not stript naked of them by death This Interpretation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 going afore makes still the more warrantable as also that following phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used by the Apostle in a parallel case This Exposition utterly destroys all the force of the Psychopannychites Argument taken from this place For whereas the Apostle seems to speak as if immediately upon the solution of this Earthly they were to be invested with a Heavenly Tabernacle which is mainly to be gathered out of the second and fourth verses it is only upon the supposition that the day of the Lord might come while they were yet clothed with flesh 3. But because this Interpretation may seem to be something derogatory to the Apostle's Knowledge as if he were pendulous and uncertain whether the day of Iudgment might not be in his time which some men will not bear I shall propound another that they may take their choice The former seems to have a special advantage in the proper sense of those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if we can but come off well here we shall carry on the rest handsmooth We premise therefore thus much concerning the meaning of those two words That as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies simply to put on a garment so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well signifie to put on an inward garment For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie within in composition as the Latine word In does in Inducula Inducium and Interula all which signifie an inward Garment and the two former they ordinarily derive from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this proper signification of the word And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie to put on an inward garment so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie an addition of an inward garment to an outward for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie in composition as if the sense were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be content to wear an upper garment only but to put on also an inward as we do in winter add an half-shirt or a wastcoat Or if this look like too curious a Criticism let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
would be which would signifie then at large only the adding of further clothing whether within or without but is to be expounded as circumstances require 4. Being thus fitted for the purpose we shall now briefly paraphrase the six first verses of the 15. chap. which they alledge against us thus 1. For we know that if this Earthly and Mortal Body of ours were destroyed that yet we have an Heavenly one whose Author and Maker is God 2. And for this cause is it that we groan so earnestly to be clothed also with our Heavenly Body within this Earthly 3. Because we being thus clothed when we put off our Earthly Body we shall not be found naked nor our Souls left to float in the crude Air. 4. For we that are in these Earthly Bodies groan earnestly being burdened not as if we had a desire to be stript naked of all Corporeity or that we should be presently rid of these Earthly Bodies before God see fit but that we may have a more Heavenly and Spiritual clothing within that mortality may be swallowed up of life 5. Nor do we arrive to this pitch by our own power but it is God who works upon us as I said both Body and Soul and frames us into this condition by the operation of his holy Spirit which he has given as a pledge of our Eternal Happiness 6. And therefore we are alwaies of a good courage not discontented at any thing For whether we be in this Earthly Body it is tolerable as being our usual and natural home or whether we go out of it which is most desirable we shall then go to the Lord our inward man being so fitly clad for the journey 5. That this is the genuine sense of these verses the 16 verse of the Chapter immediately going before will further confirm where the Apostle saith That though his outward man perish yet his inward man is renewed day by day which is Though his Earthly Body be in a perishing and decaying condition yet his Spiritual and Heavenly gets strength and flourisheth every day more and more Now the Resurrection and Attainment of the Heavenly Body being all one it were worth the while to enquire into the meaning of the Apostle Philipp 3. v. 11. where he professes his unwearied endeavours to attain to the Resurrection of the dead where presently it follows Not as if I had already attained it or as if I were already perfected For if he meant not this Inward Spiritual body inveloped in the Earthly he need not tell the Philippians that he had not yet attain'd it But the Point in hand is sufficiently plain already 6. We have seen what weak Demonstrators the Psychopannychites are against the Life and Operation of Souls out of the Body in their appeals to Scripture We shall now see how improbable their aspersion is of the Opinion being a Pagan or Heathenish invention derived as they say merely from the School of Pythagoras and Plato and from thence introduced into the Church CHAP. VIII 1. That the Opinion of the Soul 's living and acting immediately after Death was not fetched out of Plato by the Fathers because they left out Preexistence an Opinion very rational in it self 2. And such as seems plausible from sundry places of Scripture as those alledged by Menasseh Ben Israel out of Deuteronomy Jeremy and Job 3. as also God's resting on the seventh day 4. That their proclivity to think that the Angel that appeared to the Patriarchs so often was Christ might have been a further inducement 5. Other places of the New Testament which seem to imply the Preexistence of Christ's Soul 6. More of the same kinde out of S. John 7. Force added to the last proofs from the opinion of the Socinians 8. That our Saviour did admit or at least not disapprove the opinion of Preexistence 9. The main scope intended from the preceding allegations namely That the Soul 's living and acting after death is no Pagan opinion out of Plato but a Christian Truth evidenced out of the Scriptures 1. AND I think it is not hard for a man to prove that this sinister conceit of theirs is almost impossible to be true For if the ancient Fathers by vertue of their conversing so much with Plato's writings had brought this opinion of the Souls living and subsisting after death into the Christian Religion they could by no means have omitted the Preexistence of it afore which is so explicite and frequent a Doctrine of the Platonists especially that Tenet being a Key for some main Mysteries of Providence which no other can so handsomly unlock and having so plausible Reasons for it and nothing considerable to be alledged against it For is it not plain that the Soul being an Indivisible and Immaterial Substance can not be generated Now if it be created by God at every effectual act of Venery besides that in general it is harsh that God should precipitate immaculate Souls into defiled Bodies it seems abominable that by so special an act of his as Creation he should be thought to assist Adultery Incest and Buggery Of this see more at large in my Trestise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 12 13. But they 'l still urge That it was not the Unreasonableness of the Opinion but the Uncompliableness of it with Scripture that made them forgoe the Preexistency of the Soul though they retained her Subsistency Life and Activity after death 2. But it had assuredly been no hard matter for them to have made their Cause plausible even out of Scripture it self The Jewes would have contributed something out of the Old Testament Menasseh Ben Israel cites several places to this purpose as Deuteronomy 29.14 15. insinuating there that God making his covenant with the absent and the present that the Souls of the posterity of the Jewes were then in Being though not there present at the Publication of the Law For the division of the Covenanters into absent and present naturally implies that they Both are though some here some in other places This Text is seriously alledged by the generality of the Jewes for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls as Grotius has noted upon the place Also Jeremy 1. verse 5. The forenamed Rabbi renders it Antequam formassem te in ventre indidi tibi sapientiam reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel not in Cal. Before I formed thee in the belly I had made thee of a wise ingenie fitted thee to all holy Knowledge c. We will add a third place Job 38. He renders it Nosti te jam tum natum fuisse Knowest thou that thou wast then born and that the number of thy daies are many Then viz. from the beginning of the Creation or when the Light was made a symbol of Intellectual or Immaterial Beings The Seventy also plainly render it to that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know that thou wast formed then and that the number
Adversaries term it of the Soul 's being able to act after the death of the Body from the Philosophy of Plato it had been even impossible for them to forgoe the latter part concerning the Pre-existent life of the Soul before she comes into these Bodies which is the thing I have all this while driven at CHAP. IX 1. Proofs out of Scripture That the Soul does not sleep after death as 1 Peter 3. with the explication thereof 2. The Authors Paraphrase compared with Calvin's Interpretation 3. That Calvin needed not to suppose the Apostle to have writ false Greek 4. Two waies of interpreting the Apostle so as both Grammatical Soloecisme and Purgatory may be declined 5. The second way of Interpretation 6. A second proof out of Scripture 7. A third of like nature with the former 8. A further enforcement and explication thereof 9. A fourth place 10. A fifth from Hebr. 12. where God is called the Father of Spirits c. 11. A sixth testimony from our Saviours words Matth. 20.28 1. BUT that this so Usefull and Comfortable a Doctrine of the Soul 's living and subsisting after the shipwrack of this Body may be firmly established I shall further adde what plain Evidences there are in Scripture for the proof thereof For as for those of Reason I shall refer you again to my above-named Treatise Book 2. ch 16 17 and 18. And I conceive that of 1 Pet. 3. v. 18 19 20. is none of the meanest if Prejudice and Violence wrest it not out of its genuine sense which any man may easily apprehend to be this For Christ also has once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death as to his Body or Flesh but yet safe and alive as to his Soul and Spirit By which also he went and preached unto the separated Souls and Spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient viz. in the days of Noe. 2. That solid interpreter of Scripture Iohn Calvin expounds it in the main according to this Paraphrase only for being alive as to his Soul or Spirit he reads it vivificatus Spiritu meaning by Spirit the Spirit of God But it is plain that the Antithesis is more patt and punctual as we have rendred it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as warrantably interpreted to be alive as to be made alive as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be grave not to be made grave Beside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Septuagint signifies not only to revive one dead but to save alive according to which sense we have translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is also another slight difference betwixt us in that he had rather have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated a watch-tower then a prison Which we should easily admit who alledge this place against the Sleep of the Soul but he acknowledging also that the other sense is good we have not varied from the common Translation The greatest discrepancy is that he conceives that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Dative for a Genitive absolute but I leave him there to compound that controversie with the Grammarians The truth is the learned and pious Interpreter thought it more tolerable to admit that the Apostle writ false Syntax then unsound Doctrine the fond opinion of the Papistical Purgatory being a worse Soloecisme in Religion then to Latinize in Greek or put a false Case is in Grammar 3. But this being too loose a Principle wholy unsatisfactory to our Adversaries to phansie the Holy Writers to soloecize in their language when we do not like the sense he had better have taken some other course more allowable to save us from the peril of Purgatory and in my judgment there are two either of which will suffice to fence us from the Assaults of the Romanists 4. The first is By observing a latitude of sense in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as Aristotle notes in his Metaphys lib. 4. cap. 12. the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition does not only signifie perfect privation but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence we may well translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in times past were not so obedient or so believing as they should be and who were so bad that they might be punished in their bodies and perish in the Deluge but yet so good that at length they must attain to an higher degree of eternal life by Christ's preaching to the dead as is also intimated in the following chapter of this Epistle ver 6. Wherefore acknowledging but Two states viz. of either Hell or Paradise we say that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were in the very lowest degree of Paradise in which they were kept as in an inferior Mansion which was as a kind of prison or close custody unto them their desires aspiring higher till there was made a great accession unto their happiness upon Christ's appearing and preaching unto them And this is the very sense that Calvin aims at in his Commentarie upon this place 5. But there is yet another Interpretation which we will propound in the second place as free from the fear of any Purgatory as the former and requires no immutation at all in our foregoing Paraphrase We 'll admit therefore that these Disobedient Souls were in Hell not in the lowest Region but in the more tolerable parts thereof It does not at all from hence follow because Christ in his Spirit exhibited himself to these preached to them and prepared them by the glad tidings of the Gospel after carryed them to Heaven with him in Triumph as a glorious spoil taken out of the jaws of the Devil that there is any Redemption out of Hell now much less any Purgatorie For there were two notable occasions for this such as will never happen again For it respects the Souls of them that were suddenly swept away in the Deluge and the Solemnity of our Saviours Crucifixion and Ascension He even in the midst of Death undermining the Prince of Death and at his Ascension victoriously carrying away these First-fruits of his Suffering and presenting them to his Father in the highest Heaven But to expect from this that there should be still continued a daily or yearly releasment out of Hell or Purgatory is as groundlesly concluded as if because at the solemn Coronation of some great Prince all the prison-doors in some City were flung open Malefactors should infer that they will ever stand open all his whole Reign Thus we see how safe also the easy and obvious sense of this place is which I thought fit to rescue from the torture of other more learned and curious Expositors that it might be able to give its free suffrage for the Confirmation of a Point so usefull as this we have in hand For it is plain that if Christ preached to the dead they
were not asleep at so concerning a Sermon 6. Again 2 Cor. 5. v. 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly intimates a going out of this Mortal Body not a change of it into an Immortal one therefore we may safely conclude that this courage and willingness of the Apostle to die implies an enjoyment of the presence of Christ after death before the general Resurrection Else why should he rather desire to die then to live but that he expects that Faith should be presently perfected by Sight as he insinuates in the foregoing verse But assuredly better is that enjoyment which is onely by Faith then to have no enjoyment at all as it must be if the Soul cannot operate out of this Body 7. A like Proof to this and further Confirmation of the Truth is that of Philipp 1.21 22 23 24. where the Apostle again professing his courage and forwardness to magnifie Christ in his body whether by life or by death uses the like Argument as before For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain But if I live in the flesh it will be worth my labour yet what I should chuse I wote not For I am in a strife betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you 8. The genuine sense of which Place is questionless this That while he lived his life was like Christ's upon Earth innocent but encumbred with much hardship and affliction bearing about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus but if he died he should then once for all seal to the Truth of his Martyrdome and not onely scape all future troubles which yet the love of Christ his Assistance and Hope of Reward did ever sustain him in but which was his great gain and advantage arrive to an higher fruition of him after whom he had so longing a desire But if to be with Christ were to sleep in his bosome and not so much as to be sensible he is there it were impossible the Apostles affections should be carried so strongly to that state or his judgement should determine it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so exceedingly much better especially his stay in the flesh being so necessary to the Philippians and the rest of the Church and what he suffered and might further suffer in his life no less a Testimony to the Truth then Death it self 9. Fourthly Those phrases of S. Peter 2 Pet. 1.13 Yea I think it meet so long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up and put you in remembrance Knowing that I must shortly put off this Tabernacle c. And so vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all likelyhood alludes to the same as if his Soul went out of the Body as out of a Tabernacle All these Phrases I say seem to me manifestly to indicate that there is no such necessary Union betwixt the Soul and the Body but she may act as freely out of it as in it as men are nothing the more dull sleepy or senseless by putting off their cloaths and going out of the house but rather more awakened active and sensible 10. Fifthly Hebr. 12. There God is called the Father of Spirits the Corrector and Chastiser of our Souls in contradistinction to our Flesh or Bodies and then vers 22. lifting us up quite above the consideration of our Corporeal condition he brings us to the Mystical mount Sion the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the Universal assembly and Church of the first-born which are inrolled in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect Now I demand what Perfection can be in the Spirits of these just men to be overwhelmed in a senseless Sleep or what a disproportionable and unsutable representation is it of this throng Theatre in Heaven made up of Saints and Angels that so great a part of them as the Souls of the Holy men deceased should be found drooping or quite drown'd in an unactive Lethargie Certainly as it is incongruous in it self so it is altogether inconsistent with the magnificency of the representation which this Author intends in this place 11. Sixthly Matth. 10.28 The life of the Soul separate from the Body is there plainly asserted by our Saviour Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell i. e. able if he will to destroy the life both of Body and Soul in Hell-fire according to the conceit of those whose opinions I have recited in my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 3. chap. 18. or else miserably to punish or afflict both Body and Soul in Hell the torments whereof are worse then Death it self For as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perire signifie to be excessively miserable so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perdere may very well signifie to make excessively miserable But now for the former part of the verse but are not able to kill the Soul it is evident that they were able if the Soul could not live separate from the Body For killing of the Body what is it but depriving it of life wherefore if the Soul by the death of the Body be also deprived of life it is manifest that she can be killed which is contrary to our Saviour's Assertion CHAP. X. 1. A pregnant Argument from the State of the Soul of Christ and of the Thief after death 2. Grotius his explication of Christ's promise to the Thief 3. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. How Christ with the Thief could be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise at once 5. That the Parables of Dives and Lazarus and of the unjust Steward implie That the Soul hath life and sense immediately after death 1. WE have yet one more notable Testimony against our Adversaries Our Saviour Christ's Soul and the Thief 's upon the Cross did subsist and live immediately upon the death of the Body as appears from Luke 23.42 43. And he said unto Iesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome And Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise As if he should thus answer Thou indeed beggest of me that I would be mindfull of thee when I come into my Kingdome but I will not deferre thee so long onely distrust not the unexpected riches of my goodness to thee For verily I say unto thee That this very day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And there is no evasion from this Interpretation the Syriack as Grotius noteth interpointing betwixt I say unto thee and Today and all the Greek copies as Beza affirmes joyning
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of them also having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that all subterfuge is quite taken away 2. Grotius his Commentary upon this place is very ingenious wherein he supposes Christ to speak to the Thief being a Jew according to the Doctrine of the Hebrews who called the state of the piously-deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garden of Pleasure or Paradise where though they enjoyed not that consummate Happiness which they were in expectation of at the Resurrection yet they were at the present in a great deal of Joy and Pleasure so much indeed that they held none to arrive to it after their death but such as had their Souls well purified before they departed their Bodies whom he parallells to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above mentioned out of the Author to the Hebrews chap. 12. and therefore there was great cause saith he that our Saviour said This day thereby signifying that he should not be any longer deferred according to the Doctrine of their Rabbins notwithstanding the vainness of his life but upon this his Repentance should immediately be with Christ in Paradise even that very day he spoke unto him 3. Nor need we with S. Austin sweat much in labouring to make that Article of the Apostles Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agree with his being in Paradise in the Intervall betwixt his Death and Resurrection For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general as this Expositour makes good signifies nothing else but the invisible state of Souls separate from the Body nor does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 restrain it to a descent into Hell For as for this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is spoken of the whole Person of Christ as it is also of others that enter into the state of the dead by the defixion of our Phansy upon what is most gross and sensible viz. the going down of the body into the grave we are easily drawn to make use of it to express the whole business both of the Bodie 's and the Soul 's receding from amongst the number of the living as Iacob does Genes 37.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when notwithstanding his Son was not buried but torn in pieces with wild beasts as he thought Wherefore the sense is my Body descending into the Grave with my Soul shall I go unto my Son into the Region of the dead 4. Again Though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usually signifies to descend or go downwards yet it signifies sometimes merely to vanish or go out of sight and very often as in other words so in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has no signification at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go of which it were easie to give plenty of Examples out of the Septuagint but that I account it needless Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be rendred not that he descended into hell but that he went into the Region of Souls separate or of the Spirits of men departed this life And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bears this General sense Grotius makes good not only from the forecited place of Genesis but from the use of the word in sundry Greek Authors as Diphilus Sophocles Diodorus Siculus Iosephus Plato and others That of Plutarch is very remarkable where he expounds that verse of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same Author elsewhere To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating that the Air is that Invisible Region of the dead into which the Spirits of dying men depart And it is confessed of all sides that whereas those other Elements Fire Water Earth are visible that the Air and Aether are utterly invisible and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well contain in it both Hell and Paradise Whence it is plain that Christ might be at the same time both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise as a man may be both in England and in London at once And his Promise to the Thief of the immediate enjoyment of that Bliss was as it were a Proclamation from the Cross to all the World That the Souls of men live and subsist out of their Bodies Which he further demonstrated by reassuming his own and ascending with it up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples 5. Which Truth he seems to me also plainly to suppose in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus as also of the Unjust Steward For Dives his desiring Abraham to send Lazarus to his brethren to inform them of his sad condition in what trouble and torment he was does manifestly imply That the Souls of the Wicked are in Torment and in Trouble before the Day of Judgment yea immediately upon their Death and That the Souls of the Godly are forthwith in Joy after their departure out of this life as is intimated by the Transportation of Lazarus his Soul into Abraham's bosome and our Saviour's application of the Parable of the Steward exhorting us to be liberal of these worldly goods that when this life and the pleasures thereof fail we may be received into joy everlasting But we need not insist upon what is more obnoxious to the Cavils and Evasions of our slippery Adversaries we having produced already so many and unexceptionable Testimonies of Scripture for the Confirmation of the present Truth viz. That it is no Paganism but sound and warrantable Christianity to assert That the Souls of the deceased do not sleep but do live understand and perceive what condition they are in after death be it good or evil BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. He passes to the more Intelligible parts of Christianity for the understanding whereof certain preparative Propositions are to be laid down 2. As That there is a God 3. A brief account of the Assertion from his Idea 4. A further Confirmation from its ordinary concatenation with the Rational account of all other Beings as first of the Existence of the disjoynt and independent particles of Matter 1. WE have at length passed through the most dark and doubtful part of our journey and have given what Account we were able of the most Obscure and Abstruse points in Christianity We begin now to enter into a more lightsome Region and easier prospect of Truth the day breaking upon us and the morning-light tinging the tops of the mountains from whence we are ascertain'd of a further and a more full discovery of that Grand Mystery we seek after which the Spirit of God in the plain Records of Scripture will afterward so ratifie and confirm that to those that have a judgment to discern it will be secured from all future controversie But in the mean time we are to contemplate the Reasonableness and Intelligibleness thereof from some chief Heads or
reaching to every Individual thing or Person in the world It being as easie for God to see all things as to see any one thing his Perception being Infinite and therefore Undistractable and Indefatigable Now his Goodness and Power being no less immense it will necessarily follow That there is not any thing that befalls the meanest Creature in the whole Creation but that it was suitable to the Goodness of God either to cause it or permit it For though it may seem at the present harsh to that particular Being yet at the length it may prove for its greater Advantage at least it may be deemed good for the Universe as Marcus Aurelius solidly and judiciously ever and anon does suggest and I think he is but a shallow Philosopher that cannot maintain this Cause against all Atheistical surmises and cavills whatsoever CHAP. III. 1. His Third Assertion That there are Particular Spirits or Immaterial Substances and of their Kinds 2. The Proof of their Existence and especially of theirs which in a more large sense be called Souls 3. The Difference betwixt the Souls or Spirits of Men and Angels and how that Pagan Idolatry and the Ceremonies of Witches prove the Existence of Devils 4. And that the Existence of Devils proves the Existence of Good Angels 1. MY Third Assertion is That there are Particular Spirits or Immaterial Substances Which will easily flow from what is so firmly proved already That there is one Omnipotent Omniscient and infinitely-Benign Spirit which we call GOD who therefore acting according to his nature we cannot doubt but that he has created innumerable companies of Spirits to enjoy themselves and their Creatour Which are either purely Immaterial having no communion at all with Matter with the Greeks again divide into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into pure Intellects or Minds and simple Unities or else such as although according to their very Substance or Essence they be Immaterial yet have a propertie of being vitally united with and also affected by the Matter To these Spirits for want of a better term I must take the boldness to abuse a known word to a greater latitude of sense and give the name of Souls to them all because they do vitally actuate the Matter be it Aethereal Aereal or Terrestrial Whether there be not also a middle sort betwixt these Souls and pure Intellects a man may well doubt which differ from Intellect in having an immediate power of moving the Matter and from Souls in not being vitally joined therewith but acting merely as Assistent Formes such as the Aristoteleans phansie their Intelligencies to be 2. For the Existence of the Three first Orders we have intimated already a considerable Argument which reaches all the Orders of Spirits indifferently The last Order falls not only under the knowledge of more abstracted Reason but also under Experience it self For that there is a Spirit in the Body of Man is evident to us because we find such Operations in us as are incompetible to Matter if we more closely and considerately examine them This Spirit that thus acts in us is called a Soul But that there is some such analogical Principle in the Aereal or Aethereal Genii the actions and conditions of some of them do confirm For if their Nature were not such as we have described that is if they did not inhabit and vitally actuate corporeal Vehicles how could they ever sin or fall For it is out of the conjunction of these two Principles Spirit and Vehicle that there ever could be brought in any inward Temptation Distraction or Confusion in any of the Orders of the Genii or Angels But Pure and Simple Abstract Beings seem utterly Impassible and therefore Impeccable Wherefore it is very highly probable That all fallen Angels which we ordinarily call Devils are of the Fourth Order of Spirits which we have described 3. Which Spirits of the Genii fallen or not fallen notoriously differ from these Spirits of men in that they are not capable of informing an Humane or Terrestrial Body and therefore bear themselves above them as a Superior Being and out of their pride and scorn have ever since their fall either by fraud or force universally entangled poor contemptible Mankinde in sundry performances of Idolatrous worship unto them which they could not have done if men were not lapsed as well as they Wherefore the Pagans Superstitions and the History of Witches will make good that there are Devils and that they are of that nature we speak of 4. And I think this being evinced no man will question but that there are also Good Angels to conflict with and moderate the Bad. For God will not let the great Automaton of the Universe be so imperfect as to be forced to step out perpetually himself to do that which some Noble part of his Creation might perform nor set those things one against another that are quite of another kinde Besides those Philosophers that have wrote of these things with most judgment do not easily conclude That there are any other created Intellectual Beings but such as are capable of being vitally united with some Vehicle or other Which if it were true is nothing prejudicial to us the admission of the Three First Orders being little or nothing serviceable to our design And lastly it is improbable but that the Fall of the Angels being from a Free principle as some fell so others stood and that there has ever been since their fall both Good and Bad Angels in the world in that sense as I have explained the Nature of the Angels or Genii whether Good or Bad. CHAP. IV. 1. His Fourth Assertion That the Fall of the Angels was their giving up themselves to the Animal life and forsaking the Divine 2. The Fifth That this fall of theirs changed their purest Vehicles into more gross and feculent 3. The Sixth That the change of their Vehicles was no extinction of life 4. The Seventh That the Souls of Men are immortal and act and live after death The inducements to which belief are the Activity of fallen Angels 5. The Homogeneity of the inmost Organ of Perception 6. The scope and meaning of External Organs of Sense in this Earthly Body 7. The Soul's power of Organizing her Vehicle 8. And lastly The accuracy of Divine Providence 1. WE add Fourthly That these Angels before their Fall had a twofold Principle of Life in them Divine and Animal and that their Fall consisted in this In leaving their obedience to the DIVINE LIFE and wholy betaking themselves to the ANIMAL LIFE without rule or measure 2. Fifthly That this Rebellion had an effect upon their Vehicles and changed their pure Aethereal Bodies into more Feculent and Terrestrial understanding Terrestrial in as large a sense as Cartesius does which will take in the whole Atmosphere They have forfeited therefore these more resplendent mansions for this obscure and caliginous Air they wander in and have now in
The three Branches from this Root Humility Charity and Purity and why they are called Divine 3. A Description of Humility 4. A Description of Charity and how Civil Justice or Moral Honesty is eminently contained therein 5. A Description of Purity and how it eminently contains in it what ever Moral Temperance or Fortitude pretend to 6. A Description of the truest Fortitude 7. And how transcendent an Example thereof our Saviour was 8. A further representation of the stupendious Fortitude of our Saviour 9. That Moral Prudence also is necessarily comprized in the Divine life 10. That the Divine life is the truest Key to the Mystery of Christianity but the excellency thereof unconceivable to those that do not partake of it 1. AND now I have advanced the Animal life so high by adding this Middle Nature to it that you may perhaps marvail upon what I shall pitch that may seem more precious and desirable unless it be some wonder-working Faith whereby a man might cast out Devils and command mountains to remove and be carried into the midst of the Sea But it is so far from proving any such like priviledge that the Tumour of the natural Spirit of man would please it self in that I am afraid when I shall describe it he will have no relish at all of it scarce understand what I mean and if he do yet he will look upon it as a dry insipid Notion without any fruit or pleasure therein But however I will declare it to him as well as I can and that nothing may be wanting I shall First give a short glance at the Root of this Divine life also which is an Obediential Faith and Affiance in the true God the Maker and Original of all things From this Faith Apostate Angels and lapsed Mankind are fallen but the Soul of the Messias ever stood upright wading through the deepest Temptations that humane Nature could be encumbred with 2. But this Holy and Divine life to such as have an eye to see will be most perceptible in the Branches thereof though to the Natural man they will look very witheredly and contemptibly These Branches are Three whose names though trivial and vulgar yet if rightly understood they bear such a sense with them that nothing more weighty can be pronounced by the tongue of men or Seraphims and in brief they are these Charity Humility and Purity which where-ever they are found are the sure and infallible marks or signes of either an unfallen Angel or a Regenerate Soul These we call Divine Vertues not so much because they imitate in some things the Holy Attributes of the Eternal Deity but because they are such as are proper to a Creature to whom God communicates his own nature so far forth as it is capable of receiving it whether that Creature be Man or Angel and so becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For such a Creature as this and Christ was such a Creature in the highest manner conceivable has conspicuously in it these three Divine Vertues namely Humility Charity and Purity 3. By Humility I understand such a Spirit or gracious property in the Soul of man or any Intellectual Creature as that hereby he does sensibly and affectionately attribute all that he has or is or can do to God the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift This is the highest piece of Holiness and the truest and most acceptable sacrifice we can offer to God thus lively and freely to acknowledge that all we have is from him From whence we do not arrogate any thing to our selves nor contemptuously lord it over others In this Grace is comprehended an ingenuous Gratitude which is the freest and most Noble kind of Iustice that is A full renouncing of all Self-dependency a firm and profound Submission to the Will of God in all things and a Disgust or at least a Deadness to the glory of the World and the applause of men 4. By Charity I understand an Intellectual Love by which we are enamoured of the Divine Perfections such as his Goodness Equity Benignity his Wisdome also his Iustice and his Power as they are graciously actuated and modified by the forenamed Attributes And I say that to be truly transformed into these Divine Perfections so far forth as they are communicable to Humane nature and out of the real sense of them in our selves to love and admire God in whom they infinitely and unmeasurably reside is the truest and highest kind of Adoration and the most grateful Praising and Glorifying God that the Soul of man can exhibit to her Maker But in being thus transformed into this Divine image of Intellectual Love our Mindes are not onely raised in holy Devotions towards God but descend also in very full and free streams of dearest Affection to our fellow-Creatures rejoycing in their good as if it were our own and compassionating their misery as if it were our selves did suffer and according to our best judgement and power ever endeavoring to promote the one and to remove the other And this most eminently conteins in it whatever good is driven at by Civil Iustice or Moral Honesty For how should we injure those for whose real welfare we could be content to die 5. By Purity I understand a due moderation and rule over all the Joyes and Pleasures of the Flesh bearing so strict an hand and having so watchful an eye over their subtil enticements allurements and so firme and loyal affection to that Idea of Celestial Beauty set up in our Mindes that neither the Pains of the Body nor the Pleasures of the Animal life shall ever work us below our Spiritual Happiness and all the competible enjoyments of that life that is truly Divine And in this conspicuously is contain'd whatever either Moral Temperance or Fortitude can pretend to For ordinarily he is held Temperate enough that can but save his brains from gross sottishness and his Body from diseases but this Purity respects the Divine life it self and requires such a Moderation in all the affairs of the Flesh that our Bodies may still remain unpolluted Temples and meet Habitations for the Spirit of God to dwell in and act in whether by way of Illumination or Sanctification and Animation to interiour duties of Holiness And as for Fortitude it is plain that this Purity of the Soul having mortified and tamed the exorbitant lusts and pleasures of the Body Death will seem less formidable by far and this mortal Life of lesser value 6. But the greatest Fortitude of all is when Love proves stronger then Death it self even in the deepest and most bitter sense of it and not so much the weakness and insensibleness of the Body nor yet the full carreer or furious heat and hurry of the naturall Spirits makes Pain and Death more tolerable but the pure courage of the Soul her self animated onely by an unrelinquishable
Love of the Divine life and whatever design is imposed upon her by that Principle 7. The Example of this Fortitude is admirable in our blessed Saviour and transcends as much the general Valour recorded by the Pens of Poets and Historians as the valour of those Heroes does exceed the salvage fierceness and boldness of Bears Wolves and Lions For a man to encounter Death in an exalted heat and fire of his agitated Spirits is not much unlike a mere drunken fray where their blood being heated with the excesse of Wine the Combatants become unsensible of those mortal Gashes they make in one anothers bodies But to fight in cold blood is true valour indeed and the greater by how much more the occasion of the enterprise approves it self noble and the parties are not at first engaged by any rage or passion For then they sacrifice their lives but to a rash fit of Choler or at least to that Tyrant in them Pride which they for the better credit of the business ordinarily call The sense of Honour else they could willingly upon better thoughts save themselves the pains and danger of the Combate 8. But to speak of Valour more lawfull and laudable which is to meet the enemy in the field where their minds are enraged and heightned by the sound of the Drum and the Trumpet which are able to put but an ordinarily-metall'd man out of his wits it is yet counted a very valiant and honourable Act if a man in this hurry and tumult of his Spirits makes his sword fat with the blood of the slain and mows down his Enemies on every side as a Sacrifice to his Country and Friends I mean to his wife and children and all that are near unto him Which yet may be parallel'd with the Courage and Rage of Wolves and Tigres who will fiercely enough defend their young by that innate valour and animosity in them without help of any external artifice to heighten their boldness But the Valour and Fortitude of the ever-blessed Captain of our Salvation has no parallel but is transcendently above whatever can be named For what comparison is there betwixt that Courage which is inspired from the pomp of Warre or single Combat from the heat and height of the Natural Spirits from the rage and hatred against an Enemy or from the love to a Friend and such a Fortitude as being destitute of all the advantages of the Animal life nay clogg'd with the disadvantages thereof as with a deep sense of Death Fear Agony and Horror yet notwithstanding all this in an humble Submission to the Will of God and a dear Respect to that lovely Image of the Divine life wades through with an unyielding constancy and this which is not to be thought on without astonishment and amazement not to rescue or right a Friend but to save and deliver a malevolent Enemy 9. We have seen how Iustice Temperance and Fortitude are in a supereminent manner comprehended in the Divine life which taking possession of the Middle life or Rational powers must needs beget also in the Soul the truest ground of Prudence that may be For this Divine life is both the Light and the Purification of the Eye of the Mind whereby Reason becomes truly illuminated in all Divine and Moral concernments Which Mystery though it cannot be declared according to the worthiness of the matter yet some more external intimations may serve for a pledge of the Truth thereof As for Example in that it does remove Pride Self-interest and Intemperance that clog the Body and cloud the Soul it is plain from hence of what great advantage the Divine life is for the rectifying and ruling our Judgements and Understandings in all things 10. I have endevoured according to the best of my Abilities briefly to set before you the Excellency of that Life which we call Divine But it is impossible by words to conveigh it to that Soul that has not in her in some measure the Sense of it aforehand Which if she have it is to her the truest Key to the Mystery of Christianity that can be found and in this light a man shall clearly discern how decorous and just a thing it is that This Life which is transcendently better then all should at last after long Trials and Conflicts triumph over all and that for this purpose Jesus Christ should come into the world who is the Author and Finisher of this more then Noble and Heroical Enterprise BOOK III. CHAP. I. 1. That the Lapse of the Soul from the Divine life immersing her into Matter brings on the Birth of Cain in the Mystical Eve driven out of Paradise 2. That the most Fundamental mistake of the Soul lapsed is that Birth of Cain and that from hence also sprung Abel in the mystery the vanity of Pagan Idolatry 3. Solomon's universal charge against the Pagans of Polytheisme and Atheisme and how fit it is their Apology should be heard for the better understanding the State of the World out of Christ. 4. Their plea of worshipping but one God namely the Sun handsomely managed by Macrobius 5. The Indian Brachmans worshippers of the Sun Apollonius his entertainment with them and of his false and vain affectation of Pythagorisme 6. The Ignorance of the Indian Magicians and of the Daemons that instructed them 7. A Concession that they and the rest of the Pagans terminated their worship upon one Supreme Numen which they conceived to be the Sun 1. HAving with a competent clearness as I hope set forth the Nature of the Divine life to such as have a Principle to judge thereof as also of the Animal we shall the more fully understand wherein consists the lapse or revolt as well of the rebellious Angels as of fallen Man Which was in that they forsook the Law of the Divine life and wholy gave themselves up to the Animal life ranting it and revelling it there without any measure or bounds Of which this seems to be the sad effect that the Soul of man had quite forgot his Creatour being fully plunged and immersed into the very feculency of the Material world For that Faculty in him whereby he is capable of Corporeal joy which is the Mystical Eve had grown so rampant and lawless that it had quite devoured and laid waste those more noble and delicate Senses of the Mind and had so intimately joyned him in love and dependance on the Matter that his Soul having forsaken God her true Lord and Husband by a lively adhesion stuck so close to this gross Corporeal Fabrick this outward sensible Universe that in this near and affectionate conjunction with it she made good in the Mystery that which is said in the Letter concerning Eve after she was driven out of Paradise She brought forth her first-born Cain whose birth in the Mystical sense is nothing else but that false conceit that the reason of his name imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have got a man or
other World But of this enough CHAP. XVII 1. The Third Observable The Mediation of Daemons 2. This Superstition glanced at by the Apostle in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that Daemons are the Souls of men departed according to Hesiod 3. As also according to Plutarch and Maximus Tyrius 4. The Author's inference from this position 1. THE Third thing Observable is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Daemons I mean their Dii Medioxumi or rather Those Spirits that were Mediatours as I may so call them betwixt the Supreme Deities and Men. According to this sense is that of Plato in his Symposion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God intermingles not himself with man but all the Converse and conference betwixt the Gods and Men is performed by Daemons And the same Philosopher saies plainly and expresly That these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive the praiers and oblations that men make and present them to the Gods and bring back from them rewards and injunctions which they communicate some way or other to men But this is not Plato's opinion alone but of most of the ancient Philosophers that would venture to say any thing at all in Religion as of Zoroaster Thales Pythagoras Celsus Plutarch Apuleius and who not Nay this conceit is so natural that it is found among the rude Americans who profess that their Zemes are no other then Mediatours and Messengers from the great God that is Eternal and Invisible as Peter Martyr relates in his first Decad lib. 9. concerning the Inhabitants of Hispaniola 2. This opinion of the Heathen was glanced at by the Apostle Coloss. 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius observeth upon the place Nor does the difference of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make any difference in the thing the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo has noted and either of them is competible to the Soul out of the Body as the same Author also acknowledgeth But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies also the Soul in the Body according to Xenocrates in Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. In like manner that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. happy who has a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Genius as Xenocrates says that be is happy or has a good Genius that has a good Soul For the Soul is every man's Daemon or Genius But the more proper sense and that which we mean in this place is that of Philo to whom we may add the suffrage of Hesiod out of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But Soules that have quit themselves from Generation and are for the future free from the incumbrances of the Body become Daemons carefull Inspectours over mankind according to Hesiod From whence haply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divido it signifying the very same that Anima separata 3. And Plutarch himself subscribes to Hesiod's opinion That Souls freed from their Bodies become Daemons or Genii and that they goe up and down the Earth as being observers and rewarders of the actions of men and that though they be not actors themselves yet they are abbettors and encouragers of them that act as old men that have left off the more youthfull sports love to set the younger sort to their games and exercises themselves in the mean time looking on So Plutarch in his De Genio Socratis and Maximus Tyrius endeavour at large to prove that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Genii are nought but the Souls of men departed who are occupied much-what in such emploiments as they were in the flesh 4. From whence it will follow that Good men that were full of humanity love to mankind will prove good Genii by how much their Love is greater and their Spirits more free and universal that they will have a more generall inspection or at least they will be more fit for it were they but armed with sufficient Power and Authority from above answerable to that noble dear affection they bear to man and in that themselves have been in the flesh and tasted what belongs to our condition they will be the more kindly Mediatours and Negotiatours in our affairs So reasonable is this opinion of the Pagans concerning the Intercession of their Genii but their Worshipping of them as rash they having no sufficient warrant thereunto CHAP. XVIII 1. The Fourth and last thing to be noted namely their Heroes who were thought to be either begot of some God or born of some Goddess the latter whereof is ridiculous if not impossible 2. The former not at all incredible 3. Franciscus Picus his opinion of the Heroes feigned so by the Poets as begot of the Gods that they were really begotten of some impure Daemons with Josephus his suffrage to the same purpose 4. The Possibility of the thing further illustrated from the impregnation of Mares merely by the Wind asserted by several Authors 5. The application of the History and a further confirmation from the manner of Conception out of Dr. Harvey 6. Examples of men famed for this kind of miraculous Birth of the Heroes on this side the tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. THE Fourth and last thing I would propound to your view is their Heroes which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also that is the Souls of men departed this life but there was something special in their Birth in that they were conceived to be born of some Goddess impregnated by a man or of some woman impregnated by some God From whence Plato would give the reason of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love Because the Heroes were begot by some God or Goddess falling in love with Mortals Such was the birth of Aeneas as Antiquity has conceited who was begot on Venus by Anchises and of Achilles the Son of Thetis by Peleus But that Goddesses that is Spirits susteining the person of Women should bring forth Children though there be pretended true stories of such things and that it may be it is not impossible yet it seems to me very incredible 2. But that the Genii or Spirits which Antiquity called Gods might impregnate Women so that they might bring forth children without the help of a man seems not to me to be at all incredible and most of your Heroes have been reported to be such the greater number of the most famous of them being certain By-blows of Iupiter upon several women he fell in love with For he is said to beget Hercules upon Alcmena Pelasgus of Niobe Sarpedon of Laodamia Dardanus of Electra Amphion of Antiope Minos and Rhadamanthus of Europa of Leda Castor and Pollux and Perseus of Danae His four last Adulteries are handsomely comprized in a Distich by the Epigrammatist with the fashion or fraud he
a Specimen of a wonderfull power residing in him in his Transfiguration on the Mount and that he carried that about him then that was able to swallow up mortality into life though it was usually restreined as a light in a dark lanthorn His Divinity therefore with his inward exalted Humanity I mean his Soul took hold again of His Body and did vitally irradiate it so that he was as naturally united with it as any Angel is with his own Vehicle or any Soul of man or any other Animal with their Bodies Nor was it any greater wonder that Christ should rarifie his Body into a disappearing Tenuity then that Angels and Spirits condensate their Vehicles into the visibility and palpability of a Terrestrial Body the same Numerical Matter still remaining in both CHAP. III. 1. The Ascension of Christ and what a sure pledge it is of the Soul's activity in a thinner Vehicle 2. That the Soul's activity in this Earthly Body is no just measure of what she can doe out of it 3. That the Life of the Soul here is as a Dream in comparison of that life she is awakened unto in her Celestial Vehicle 4. The activity of the separate Soul upon the Vehicle argued from her moving of the Spirits in the Body and that no advantage accrews therefrom to the wicked after death 1. THere is no reasonable allegation therefore against the Resurrection of Christ And as Usefull and Intelligible a Mystery is his Ascension For we are not less assured by his ascending into Heaven of the life and activity of the Soul out of an organical terrestrial Body then by his Resurrection of her Immortality For the body of Christ in his Ascension though it left the earth in all likelihood organiz'd and terrestrially modified yet passing through the subtil Air and purer Aether it cannot be conceived but that it assimilated it self to the Regions through which it passed and became at last perfectly Celestial and Aethereal whatsoever was Earthly or Feculent being absorp't or swallowed up into pure Light and Glory 2. Nor can it seem harsh to any that has well considered these things that the Soul freed from this Terrestrial dungeon should have so great power and activity over a thinner Vehicle the subtiltie thereof in all likelihood contributing much to this activity and vigour Of which though she have but a small spark at first yet the power of the Minde being kindled therewith may as she pleases convert her whole Vehicle into an Aethereal flame For we are no more to measure what she can doe being rid of the fatall Entanglements of this Earthly prison by what she does in it then we can of the prowess and activity of some Captive Champion when he is set free by what he does in fetters and hard bondage or of her own agility reason and perspicacitie when she is awake by her stupidity and inconsistency of thoughts while she is asleep 3. For the whole life of man upon Earth day and night is but a Slumber and a Dream in comparison of that awaking of the Soul that happens in the recovery of her Aethereal or Celestial body Which though it be unless it please her occasionally to mould it into any organiz'd shape one Simple and Uniform Light which we may call an Aethereal star as Ficinus calls those of less purity stellas aereas yet all the more noble functions of life are better performed in this Heavenly Body then in the Earthly such as Intellection Volition Imagination Seeing Hearing and the like The same may be said of the Passions of the Mind they being more pure more pleasing and more delicate then can possibly happen or at least for any time continue with us in this life 4. What I have affirmed of this Aethereal Body this Uniform and Homogeneal Orbe of Light cannot seem rashly spoken to them that understand the immediate Organ of Sense in those Bodies we are now united with Which I have already intimated to be either the Animal Spirits or the Conarion as unlikely a seat of Sense as the Air or Aether and either of these as unlikely to be disobedient to the power of the Soul as the Animal Spirits now are in the state of conjunction And therefore it being undeniable but that the Soul does move them some way in the Body I see no difficulty but in her releasement from the Body she may be able to act upon her Vehicle of like Tenuity with them so as to mould and transfigure it even as she pleases that natural charm that lull'd her Active powers asleep while she was in the Body loosing its force now she is out of it Which notwithstanding will prove no advantage to the wicked they being thereby awakened into a more eagre and sharp torment and more restless Hell CHAP. IV. 1. Christ's Session at the Right hand of God interpreted either figuratively or properly 2. That the proper sense implies no humane shape in the Deity 3. That though God be Infinite and every where yet there may be a Special presence of him in Heaven 4. And that Christ may be conceived to sit at the Right hand of that Presence or Divine Shechina 1. TO the Ascension of Christ we are to add his Session at the Right hand of God his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Intercession with God for his Church And for the First there is no difficultie therein whether we understand the phrase Figuratively as Calvin seems to doe For then by his Sitting at the Right hand of God nothing else is signified but that he is next to God in the administration of his Kingdome that he is as his Right hand to sway his Scepter over men and Angels to bruise the wicked as with a rod of Iron and to receive the righteous into favour or whether we understand it Properly as some others would have it to be understood For there is no inconvenience to acknowledge the Glorified body of Christ to be in humane shape and that this organized light will sit as steadily on an Aethereal throne as a Body of flesh and bones on a throne of Wood or Ivory 2. Nor does that expression of the Right hand of God implie any absurdity in it as if God himself were an Essence also in Humane shape and that he had a Left hand as well as a Right and the rest of the parts of the Body of a man For from the words of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man may as well prove that he has many Right hands as any at all which shews plainly that the Anthropomorphites have no ground for their fond conceit from such passages of Scripture as these 3. But yet though God be Infinite and consequently every where at once nothing hinders but that there may be some special presence of him in one place more then another whither if a man had access he may be truly said to converse with God face to face We will
Example of Good and a Reprover of Evil to all the Orders of Intellectual Beings that are peâ—cable and mutable and of so generall a kindness and compassion to all rational Souls that he could dy a most shameful and bitter death to reduce them from their rebellion and confederacy with the Kingdome of darkness to return to the Kingdome of God this person I say whose influence is so great upon all is fit to be made Head over all according as himself has declared To me is given all power in Heaven and in Earth Whence it is plain that there is none save God himself above him at whose right hand he fits and intercedes for his Church 7. Which is the last thing I propounded His Intercession upon which I need make no stay there being no difficulty at all in it but a very great congruity and such as is incompetible to any Angel as I have already intimated The Author to the Hebrews takes notice of it Chap. 4. For we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Who therefore must needs prove a very compassionate and potent Intercessour for us with his Father not onely for forgiveness of sins but for all needfull supplies of grace and assistance to his Church Militant here on Earth 8. Thus we have seen how in the Birth Passion Ascension and Intercession of Christ is comprehended a full and warrantable completion of those four notable parts of the Pagan Religion which relates to their Heroes to their Catharmata their Apotheoses and Intercessions of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dii Medioxumi For what they were naturally groping after and mistaken in in these points all that is rectified here and made lawfull and allowable nay meritorious and effectual for both present and future happiness I mean in Christ Iesus all businesses betwixt God and us being to pass through his hands if we look for grace and success Which accommodation contriv'd by the wisdome of God was of very great virtue for the bringing of the Nations of the World to close with the Truth of the Gospel they being invited to that upon good grounds which their blind propensions carried them out to in a way of errour and mistake CHAP. VII 1. That there is nothing in the History of Apollonius that can properly answer to Christ's Resurrection from the dead 2. And that his passage out of this life must go for his Ascension concerning which reports are various but in general that it was likely he died not in his bed 3. His reception at the Temple of Diana Dictynna in Crete and of his being called up into Heaven by a Quire of Virgins singing in the Aire 4. The uncertainty of the manner of Apollonius his leaving the World argued out of Philostratus his own Confession 5. That if that at the Temple of Diana Dictynna was true yet it is no demonstration of any great worth in his Person 6. That the Secrecy of his departure out of this world might beget a suspicion in his admirers that he went Body and Soul into Heaven 7. Of a Statue of Apollonius that spake and of his dictating verses to a young Philosopher at Tyana concerning the Immortality of the Soul 8. Of his Ghost appearing to Aurelian the Emperour 9. Of Christ's appearing to Stephen at his martyrdome and to Saul when he was going to Damascus 1. WE have spoken of the Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ we will come to the Three last things we propounded when we have briefly considered what in Apollonius is parallel to Christ's Resurrection and Ascension For there is alwaies some glance or other in his Life at the most notable passages in our Saviour's But I can finde nothing that must go for Apollonius his Resurrection from the dead but his escaping out of the hands of Domitian which danger was so great that all men took him for a dead man But what a whifling business it was and a mere piece of Magical ostentation I have already noted 2. His real passage therefore out of this World must go for his Ascension as his escape out of that desperate danger for his Resurrection But the reports concerning his departure are various some affirming that at a full Age being fourscore or an hundred year old he died at Ephesus But it seems not likely Philostratus professing that he had travailed the greatest part of the habitable world to enquire of his Sepulchre and that he could hear no news of it any where But so grave and divine a person as Apollonius was reputed could not fail to be honoured with a very pompous Funeral and sumptuous Monument whereever he happened to dy he being so famously known over all the World wherefore it is likely that he did not dy as they say in his bed but in some solitude either by a sudden surprizal of death or on set purpose as Empedocles who cast himself into the flames of Aetna that he might be thought what Apollonius professed himself before Domitian an Immortal God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Others report that having entred into the Temple of Minerva at Lindus in Rhodes he suddenly disappeared before the people and went no man knows whither Others affirm that he left this mortal life in Crete where approaching the Temple of Diana Dictynna the doors flew open of themselves to the admiration of the Keepers of the Temple who suspected him for a sacrilegious Enchanter in that the fierce Mastives that kept the Treasury fawned on him with more kindness and familiarity then on them that fed them Wherefore the Sextons bound Apollonius with fetters to secure the Treasury but about midnight he set himself free and calling the guards by their names that they might not think he would steal away privately he went to the door of the Temple which as I said opened of it self and when he had entred in shut of it self again Whereupon were heard voices from Heaven as it were of young girles singing melodiously and chanting forth a Stanza to this sense Come from the Earth come leap hither up to Heaven mount from the earth on high 4. But concerning this History of his leaving of the World two things are observable First that Philostratus does invalidate his Narration by varying the story so much as he does For he professing that he made it his business to enquire of this matter travailing most part of the habitable world for his better satisfaction and not determining which of these three reports is the truest it is a sign that he was not ascertained of the truth of any of them but that his end may be such as I at first intimated 5. But suppose the last and most glorious of these Three stories was the truest yet Apollonius his credit is much obscured by parting thus in the night though we allow him a moon-shine
an Aereal Body in which if Stories be true they have sometimes appeared after their decease And that they may act think and understand in these Aiery vehicles as well as other Spirits doe is not at all incredible nor improbable the Faculties of an humane Soul being not inferiour to the Faculties of some Orders of Spirits whose Understandings are not so clear but that they are divided in their judgments some being of one Sect of Philosophers some of another as those that appeared to Cardan's father professed themselves Avenroists 2. But secondly if it were granted that the Souls of the deceased were stript of all Corporeity and yet could act we may nothwithstanding very well conceive that that which once had so intimate union with the grossest of Bodies has certainly a very strong propension natural complacency or essential aptitude alwaies to join with some Body or other Which power if we may not infallibly affirm to be so catching that the Soul is never disappointed of some kinde of Vehicle yet we may safely pronounce that when that natural capacity is satisfied there accrues a greater accomplishment and more vigorous enjoiment to the Soul her Operations thereby being made more sensible and vivid And therefore that great Reward of an Heavenly Aethereal or Immortal body which shall be given at the last day is of very high concernment for the compleating of the happiness of the Souls of the faithfull whether we suppose them in the mean time to live without Bodies or to be alive only in Aiery vehicles the latter whereof if examined to the bottome will appear the most unexceptionable opinion and least liable to the Cavils of Gainsaiers But whether of them be most true I leave to the grave and wise to determine 3. This Rub being thus removed out of the way we now proceed to the special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former of which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection to Condemnation the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection to life the Resurrection of the just and simply the Resurrection as it is 1 Cor. 15. and elsewhere Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they belong to the wicked have no further sense of Revivification then in that general way we have explained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying that they were raised and made to appear at this day of general Summons merely to receive the sentence of Eternal Death Goe ye accursed into everlasting fire c. But now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is appropriated to the Resurrection of the just and is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies in it a further and more peculiar Revivification or Re-enlivening viz. into that life which was lost by the first Fall that Paradisiacal life that Aethereal and Heavenly life which is unrecoverable unless we recover those Heavenly glorified bodies which are promised to us by Christ at his coming 4. For this muddy Earth and vaporous polluted Air which is the very Region of Death wherein all the Pleasures Joyes and Triumphs of this Present Life are but like the grinning laughter of Ghosts or the dance of dead men these foul Elements I say can afford no such commodious habitation for the Soul as to arrive any thing near to the height of that Happiness which she shall be possessed of when Christ shall be pleased to change these our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious bodie and so to recover us into the enjoiment of that Heavenly Life which we unhappily forfeited by our first Fall For which purpose he came into the world as himself professes John 6. v. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever sees me and believes in me should have everlasting life and that I should raise him up at the last day 5. And so certainly it will be at his coming to Judgment that they that then see him and firmly believe on him ardently loved him and vehemently desired his Appearing shall find such a warming change in themselves partly by the glorious approach of his Person and Lustre of his numerous Retinue partly by the wonderfull secret workings of the Divine Presence in their very Bodies and Souls that at last there will be kindled such an irresistible Faith so rapturous a Joy and transportant Love that breaking out upon the Body be it what it will it will turn all into a pure Aethereal flame and so Elias-like in those Celestial chariots shall they ascend up to Christ and meet him in the Air and join with his Armie whereever it moves as becoming then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Vehicles being transformed by the power and presence of Christ and the working of his Divinity into a pure Paradisiacal and Angelical nature 6. And thus shall he make his word good of raising us up at the last day in that he does re-enliven us and restore us to that Life and Joy which we had fallen from re-enthrone us into that Glory we had defaced in our selves and was lost in these dark Bodies of ours and raise us up to that pristine state of Happiness and that superiour Paradise which we could not re-enter into or be re-estated in but by becoming wholly Aethereal or Celestial CHAP. VI. 1. That he has freed the Mysterie of the Resurrection from all Exceptions of either Atheists or Enthusiasts 2. That the Soul is not uncapable of the Happiness of an Heavenly Body 3. And that it is the highest and most sutable Reward that can be conferr'd upon her 4. That this Reward is not above the power of Christ to confer proved by what he did upon Earth 5. That all Iudgment is given to him by the Father 6. Further arguings to the same purpose 1. AND now I think we have so disentangled the Mystery of the Resurrection from all the Prejudices and conceived Difficulties that it was involved in that I may challenge all the World the Atheist Infidel and new-fangled Enthusiast if they can frame any solid Exception against it which they can manage by Reason and is not a mere sullen dictate of their own dark and dull minds 2. For this precious Crown of Immortality which Christ shall then crown us withall is neither beyond his power to give nor our capacity to receive For the offers and fluskerings as I may so say of the Faculties of the Soul of man even in this state of Death and Imprisonment are so High so Noble and Divine as well in Speculation as Devotion especially when our Spirits are more then ordinarily pure and come nearer to an Aethereal kind of defecacy that they that have the experience thereof cannot distrust but that if she had the advantage of an Angelical Bodie her operations would prove little inferiour to theirs Which is a demonstration that she is as well capable of such Bodies as they As
also of the worth and value and of the fitness and accommodateness of so ample a Reward 3. For Philosophy herself can witness That according to the greater purity of our Spirits the Motions and Passions of our Minds are changed and become more holy and divine our Thoughts and Apprehensions more clear our Love to God more ardent and sincere our Benignity to men more free and general and all the Faculties of our Soul in a ready posture to comply with the best commands or suggestions of Reason or Religion Of what infinite importance therefore must it be to have such a Body as is not only perpetually thus compliable with the Best motions of the Soul but by virtue of its Heavenly purity does naturally encline the Mind to such Thoughts Motions and Affections as are most acceptable to God and most enravishing to her self Which consideration does evidently demonstrate that high Reason that is in our Religion in the Promise of a glorified Body as the greatest Reward of our earnest colluctations and obedient endeavours in this life For nothing but Divine Inspiration or some infallible Method of Philosophy could discover to the Mind of man so concerning a Point 4. But to doubt whether Christ can cloath us with such Bodies as those or enliven our whole man in whatsoever bodies we be found into that Immortality and Life which accrues to us by transforming our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious Bodie is either to forget or not to believe what mighty power he had when he was here upon earth how merely by his word he calmed the raging of the seas silenced the tempestuousness of the windes multiplied a few loaves and a few fishes so in the very eating of them that he fed many thousands therewith in the wilderness which was an eminent specimen of his power of transforming Matter into what modification he pleased besides his healing of the sick not only those that were present and believed on him but also the absent to which you may add the raising of the dead which comes nearer to our purpose as also the Resurrection of those that rose with him to signifie his enlivening power who himself so miraculously rose from the Grave 5. By which wonderfull works he did plainly demonstrate That what he professed of himself was true That as the Father has life in himself so he has also given the Son to have life in himself that is the power of vivification or enlivening of others as you may see by the context John 5. v. 26. And not only so but he has given him also the power of punishing as well as rewarding as it follows in the next verse And he hath given him authority to execute judgement because he is the Son of man viz. That Son of man that upon his sufferings and after his being risen from the dead should have all power given to him in Heaven and in Earth Which we may easily believe whenas he had so vast a power in the lowest ebbe of his Humiliation when he went up and down afflicted despised and neglected being attended only by a few contemptible fisher-men and others of like inferiour condition and yet then he opened the eyes of them that were born blind and at a distance healed the sick and being unaccompanied with any visible pomp or power with one word of his mouth drove away a Legion of Devils at once What shall he not then be able to doe when he shall return in the highest Glory and Majesty that the visible Divinity can appear in when the Heavens shall be filled with the brightness of his Camp and all the Nations of the World shall be astonished at the dreadfull splendour of his coming 6. Shall not he then who in his dejectment could raise to life not only a faithless but senseless corps enliven those that at his glorious Appearance are so filled with Faith Love Joy Desire and Admiration that their empassioned Souls are ready to leave their Bodies if it were possible to come and doe their homage to their long-expected Saviour and Redeemer Shall not that Divine and Omnipotent Power then that worketh round about him so cooperate with those kindled Affections as to change their very Bodies into an ability of naturally ascending up to him and joining with him Or is it hard for him to convert Flesh or Air into a pure Aethereal Fire to awake such a Facultie in the Soul as shall kindly and vitally inactuate it who turned Air into Flesh and prepared the dead carcase of Lazarus so fittingly for reunion with the Soul that he raised him out of the Grave on the fourth day Wherefore this Resurrection Life and Immortality we speak of being neither impossible for Christ to give nor our nature uncapable to receive it remains that we shall enjoy it because Christ both himself and by his Apostles has so plainly and expresly promised it CHAP. VII 1. Caecilius his scoffs against the Resurrection and Conflagration of the World That against the Resurrection answered already 2. In what sense the soberer Christians understood the Conflagration of the World 3. That the Conflagration in their sense is possible argued from the Combustibleness of the parts of the Earth 4. As also from actual Fire found in several Mountains as Aetna Helga and Hecla 5. Several instances of that sort out of Plinie 6. Instances of Vulcanoes out of Acosta 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla 8. Vulcanoes without smoak having a quick fire at the bottome 9. Vulcanoes that have cast fire and smoak some thousand of years together 10. Hot Fountains Springs running with Pitch and Rosin certain Thermae catching fire at a distance 1. THe Third thing we propounded comprized in Christ's Return to Judgment is the Conflagration of the world a Point as incredible to most of the Heathen as the Resurrection of the dead and the comparing of them both together made it the more ridiculously-incredible to them as you may see by that Jear that Caecilius gives the Christians in Minucius Felix Quid quod toti Orbi ipsi Mundo cum sideribus suis minantur incendium ruinam moliuntur quasi aut Naturae divinis legibus constitutus aeternus ordo turbetur aut rupto omnium elementorum foedere coelesti compage divisâ moles ista quâ continemur cingimur subruatur Nec hâc furiosâ opinione contenti aniles fabulas astruunt annectunt Renasci se ferunt post Mortem Cineres Favillas Nescio quâ fiduciâ mendaciis suis invicem credunt Putes eos jam revixisse Anceps malum gemina dementia Coelo astris quae sic relinquimus ut invenimus interitum denunciare sibi mortuis extinctis qui sicut nascimur interimus aeternitatem repromittere To which you may add how they menace burning and meditate ruine to the whole Earth and to the Heaven it self with the Stars thereof as if the Eternal Order constituted by the divine
laws of Nature could be disturbed or that this huge Fabrick wherein we are contained and surrounded by the breaking of that league amongst the Elements and division of the celestial Compages could tumble down And not content with this furious opinion alone they join and stitch to it old wives fables They affirm that they shall rise again after death and live after the being turned into embers and ashes I know not upon what confidence they can thus believe one anothers lies You would think they were men started out of their Graves already A twofold mischief and double madness to denounce destruction to the Heavens and Starres which we leave in the same condition that we find them and to promise Eternity to our selves once dead and extinct who as we are born into the world so we die But the double sting of this twofold Jear is easily pulled out and that indeed concerning the Resurrection already we having plainly shewed That that mysterie implies nothing more then this That the same individual Persons shall be revivificated body and soul and made happy with Eternal life But the same individual Person does not involve any necessity of the same numerical body as has been shewn at large 2. The very point and sting of this Scoff against the Conflagration is also a presumptuous mistake as well as that against the Resurrection though I deny the possibility of neither and it lyes in these words ipsi Mundo cum sideribus suis minantur incendium ruinam moliuntur Such a clatter as this indeed though some of the Pagan Philosophers as Lucretius and Seneca are not affraid to admit yet might well scare the more sagacious from giving assent to it But the Conflagration of the World according to the truth thereof in the Christian Mystery is limited with more modest and credible bounds it not concerning the Starry Heavens unless you will call these Heavens Starry that are the receptacle of Sublunary Comets and falling Starres So that all the destruction that is threatned by the better-knowing Christians is onely to the Globe of the Earth and the circumjacent Aire with all the garnishings of them which shall be burnt up and destroyed But the Aire and Earth shall continue Aire and Earth still but with such alteration as this terrible Burning shall work upon them 3. That this is possible many things may induce us to believe which are to be found as well in the Earth as in the Aire For what of the Earth is not combustible The exteriour turfy part is ordinary fewel and Stones themselves are calcined into lime and chalk by fire And the Pyrenean mountains betwixt France and Spain took fire so whether from thunder or by certain Shepheards that the Gold and Silver mines ran streaming down for many days together From which accident some will have these Hills to have their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying Fire Besides there are many Mines of Minerals in the Earth that do not onely yield to the power of Fire but covet it in a manner and catch at it as Naphtha Sulphur and Bitumen to say nothing of sundry sorts of Coals vast Woods and Wildernesses which are so combustible that the mere excesse of the heat of the Aire has sometimes set them on fire as it hapned in several places Anno 1474. 4. We may adde to all this in how many places of the Earth there are found actual Fires by Natures own kindling as if she kept house under ground and made several Hills her chimneys such as Vesuvius in Italy Aetna in Sicily Helga and Hecla in Islandia mountains so terrible for thunder flamings out of fire casting abroad stones ashes stink and smoak that the more phansifull conceit that Hell is begun there aforehand Which were more plausible if the Apparitions that are seen there were as true as they are said to be frequent 5. Plinie will furnish us with more instances of this nature as of Chimaera a Hill of Phaselis in Pamphylia the Hephaestian Mountains in Lycia Cophantus in Bactriana Near Hesperius a Mountain in Aethiopia the fields in the Night all glitter with light as also a certain piece of ground in Babylonia Nymphaeus a Mountain of Apollonia flings out Fire and Bituminous matter the fury whereof is increased by rain as also the fire of those ignivomous Mountains in Lycia and Pamphylia That Aeolian Iland Hiera near Italy was all on fire and the sea round about it for some days together which he reports as a known truth and an instance near at hand But he concludes with the burning of that high and vast mountain in Aethiopia called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The chariot of the Gods as the most famous example of this kind adding to all this short Epiphonema Tot locis tot incendiis rerum Natura terras cremat 6. And yet these Vulcanoes are not less frequent in America as Acosta writes and gives this description of them in general That they be rocks or pikes of very high mountains having upon their tops a plain and in the midst thereof a pit or great mouth which descends to the very foot of the Hill a thing very terrible to behold as he saies Out of those mouths is vomited smoak and sometimes fire and sometimes neither as it fares ordinarily with that of Arequipa as also with that of Mexico near the village of Angels which sends out smoak and ashes onely by fits but never fire and yet the Inhabitants are affraid it will sometime break out and burn all the Country 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla are more terrible In the year 1586. almost all the City of Guatimalla fell with an earthquake This Vulcanoe had then for six months together day and night cast from the top and vomited as it were great flouds of fire a notable instance of what treasures of combustibles Nature is stored with As is also observable in the Vulcanoe of Quitto which cast such abundance of ashes that in many leagues compass thereabouts it darkned the light of the day 8. There are also other kind of Vulcanoes which never cast either smoak flame or ashes but in the bottome they are seen to burn with a quick fire never dying This imposed upon a greedy Priest and made him think it was nothing else but heaps of Gold melted in the fire which he thought to have fetched up by letting down an iron Kettle with chains But his device was not fire-proof his kettle and chain melting so soon as they approached near the bottome 9. But the greatest wonder of all is that which Acosta noteth of some Vulcanoes that for some hundred nay some thousands of years have cast out continually smoak fire and ashes These visible instances of particular burnings of the Earth are notable Presumptions that there are laid in in the hidden Mines of Providence such a provision of Combustible matter as will serve for that universal Conflagration we speak of when the day of
Truth whose Foundation is no less firm then what is built upon these undeniable Grounds That there is a God and a Perfect and Particular Providence That there are Angels and Spirits of men really distinct from their Bodies and That the one as well as the other are lapsable Which things I have demonstrated partly in this present Treatise partly in other Writings and I appeal to all the World if they have any thing solid to oppose against what I have writ Moreover That this Lapse of Men and Angels is their forsaking of the Divine Life and wholy cleaving to the Animal without any curb or bounds whereby as well the fallen Angels or Devils as Man himself are become as much as respects the inward life mere Brutes being devoid of that touch and sense of the Divine Goodness And therefore their Empire is generally merely like that of the Beasts according to Lust and Power where the stronger rules with Pride and Insolency over the weaker and so the Devils being a degree above men of more wit and power then they it naturally falls to their shares to tyrannize over Mankind who were in the same condemnation with themselves having become Rebels to God as well as they 3. And it is but a piece of Wisdome and Justice in that great Judge and Dramatist God Almighty to permit this to be for a season And therefore the generality of the World were to be for a time under the Religion and Worship of Devils who were wild and enormous Recommenders of the mere Animal life to the sons of men without any bounds or limits themselves in the mean time receiving that tribute of abused Mortals which was most agreeable to their Pride and Tyrannical natures that is Religious Worship and Absolute Obedience as I have proved by many Examples in History 4. And that God should stand silent all this time is no wonder partly from what I have intimated already and partly because he is out of the reach of any real injury in all this as also because the Object of this irregular Fury of both Men and Devils in which they please themselves so much is but the Effect of that one Power from whence are all things or some shred or shadow of the Divine Attributes For I have shewn fully enough That all the Branches of the Animal life are good and laudable in themselves and that only the Unmeasurable Love and Use of them is the thing that is damnable The great Rebellion therefore of both Men and Angels is but a phrantick dotage upon the more obscure evanid and inconsiderable operations or manifestations of that Power which hoots into all 5. In this low condition is held the Kingdome of Darkness who maugre all their Lawlesness and Rebellion do ever lick the very dust of his feet from whom they have revolted For there is no Might nor Counsell against the Eternal God but his Will shall stand in all That all-comprehending Wisdome therefore was not outwitted by these Rebels but she suffered them to introduce a Darkness out of which herself would elicite a more marvellous and glorious Light and let them prime the tablet with more duskish colours on which she was resolved to pourtray the most illustrious beauty that the eyes of man could desire to look upon 6. And that there is a Lapse of Men and Angels is very manifest That of Man is so plain that not only the better sort of Philosophers such as the Pythagoreans and Platonists but the making of Laws and appointing of Punishments and mens general confession of their Proneness to Vice and Wickedness doth abundantly testifie And that there are wicked Spirits or evil Genii as well as good the Religion of the Pagans and the Confession of Witches and the Effects of them in the possessed are a sufficient argument 7. Now that Wisdome as I have said that orders all things sweetly is not in the least measure baffled by this Misadventure of the fall of Angels and Men but looks upon it as fit fuel for a more glorious triumph of the Divine Life And that noted Aphorisme amongst the Pythagoreans who laid no Principles for mean ends comes in fitly here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Worser is made for the service and advantage of the Better And the Kingdome of Darkness no question by Him that rules over all is very dextrously subordinated to the greater advantage of the Kingdome of Light it yielding them a due exercise of all their Faculties in the behalf of the Divine life which God most justly does magnifie above all things as also a most successfull victorie and triumph So that the Period of Ages ought to end so exact a Providence attending things as a very joyfull and pleasant Tragick Comedie This the Reason of man will expect upon supposition that there is a God and Providence as most certainly there is both especially if one quality of Souls and Spirits be better and more precious then another and the Divine life the most lovely Perfection of all 8. Which is as true as touch to all that have once tasted the Excellency of it and the Ignorance of the blinde is no argument against the certain Knowledge of them that see For one Soul Angel or Spirit though they may be the same in Substance as all Corporeal things are the same in Matter may differs as much from another as Gold Diamonds and Pearls do from common Dirt or Clay or the most exquisite Beauty from the horriblest Monster That therefore that is base shall be rejected and that which is precious and noble shall be gathered up in that day that the Lord shall make up his Jewels 9. And that there will be such a visible Day of Vengeance wherein the whole Earth shall burn with the wrath of God not only the common Fame throughout all Ages and Places of the Final Conflagration of the World and natural Reasons in Philosophy but also a necessity of some universal palpable and sensible Punishment on impudently-prophane and Atheistical People is a warrantable Inducement to believe 10. The great Good therefore that does arise out of this Revolt of Men and Angels is a setting the Activity of the Creation at an higher pitch and making the Emanations of all manner of Life felt more to the very quick exciting and employing all the Faculties and Passions of Souls and Spirits in a greater degree of life and motion with more vigilancy and a more favoury sense of acquired enjoiments then if there had been no such opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdomes 11. Now therefore though God may seem at first to give the Dark Kingdome and Animal life the start of the Divine yet he is in due time by some very effectual means so to raise up so to back and assist the Divine Life against the Powers of Darkness that she may be found to have very visible Victories against the usurpation of Satan over the sons of men Wherefore
being required on their part but to believe that Christ died for them and upon no other condition then that bare belief as if Christ did not give himself to redeem us from sin but to assert our liberty of sinning which is the most perverse and mischievous misconstruction of the grace of God revealed in Christ that possibly could be invented and point-blank against the end and design of his coming into the world For he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 5. Yet as repugnant and irrational as this Errour is it had attempted the Church betimes as appears by sundry monitions of the Apostles when exhorting their charge to holiness of life and real righteousness they often intimate their proneness of being deceived in thinking they had leave to be remiss in these matters Some instances you may have observed already to which you may add that of S. Iames Be ye doers of the word and not hearers onely deceiving your own souls But that of S. Iohn is most express and emphaticall Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous that is even as Christ was righteous who was not putatitiously and imaginarily righteous but really so indeed though it seems by this caution there were that went about in those times to perswade it might be otherwise And I could wish that this errour were not so taking in the Church as it is at this day then which notwithstanding no greater I think can be committed nor more dangerous it rendring this admirable Engine as I have termed it which God has set up in the world for the advancement of Life and Godliness altogether invalid and useless 6. Wherefore all the following Powers of this Instrument depending on this first unless we can make good this the rest will have no force nor motion Therefore that I may make all throughly glib and expedite I find an obligation upon me not to rest in these though never-so-evident testimonies That we are strictly bound to inherent sanctity and holiness but to clear also to the judicious the unwarrantableness and weakness of the grounds of this Errour which they would obtrude upon the world as the chief Mystery of the Gospel namely That if one do but believe though devoid of all sanctification yet he is approved as holy and righteous by the imputation of Christs righteousness and so consequently shall inherit everlasting life let him live here as he will I shall take the rise of my discourse from that grave and affectionate counsel the holy Apostle has given to young and weak Christians and which I even now mentioned Little children let no man deceive you c. CHAP. V. 1. The Apostle's care for young Christians against that Errour of thinking they may be righteous without doing righteously 2. Their obnoxiousness to this contagion with the Causes thereof to be searched into 3. The first sort of Scriptures perverted to his ill end 4. The second sort 5. That the very state of Christian Childhood makes them prone to this Errour 6. What is the nature of that Faith Abraham is so much commended for and what the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. A search after the meaning of the term Justification 8. Justification by faith without the deeds of the Law what may be the meaning of it 9. Scriptures answered that seem to disjoin Reall righteousness from Faith 10. And to make us only righteous by imputation 11. Undeniable Testimonies of Scripture that prove the necessity of real Righteousness in us 1. THAT which Plato commends in Law-givers and Institutors or Governors of Commonwealths that they have a special and prime care of Childhood and youth as the diligent in Husbandry make peculiar fences for their young plants to save them from the dangers their tenderness exposes them to that also is observable in the blessed Apostle who amongst many other provisions he has made in the behalf of all younglings in Christianity has also armed them and fenced them with this caution against being mistaken so dangerously in Christianity as to conceit they may by a bare professing themselves Christians be righteous though there were neither any real Righteousness in their hearts nor any fruits of it in their hands A wicked Errour which several Seducers tempted men to such as were Nicolaus Marcio and Carpocrates as Historians have taken notice of 2. And because there can be no better Antidote then the being convinced that there is an obnoxiousness in younger Christians to this contagion I shall diligently search out and set forth the causes whereby they become obnoxious that finding themselves so they may have the greater care to keep themselves from being smitten with this pestilentiall infection Where we shall finde that come to pass in Spirituall things that often happens in Natural For as weak bodies contract diseases from meats and drinks nay from that which is so perpetual and palpable a principle of life that we can scarce live one moment without it I mean the refreshing Aire which casts many tender bodies into Agues and Feavers and other distempers so tender and weak Souls often by ill concoction turn the very bread of Eternal life the Word of God into morbifick matter and in stead of getting growth and strength by feeding thereon weaken the Divine life in them and sink themselves into most dangerous and desperate maladies 3. The first cause then of the proneness of young Christians to this present Errour is certain places of Scripture the meaning whereof they not rightly understanding make bold to interpret them in favour to their own carnality and fleshly desires It would be too voluminous a business to cull out all the places that are perverted to this ill purpose We shall content our selves in producing the chiefest in answering to which we shall naturally satisfie all the rest And these I may cast into two sorts For they are such as either seem to import That a bare Faith will justifie us and so we may become righteous by an empty belief or else such as seem to say That the righteousness of Christ becomes ours or That we are righteous by that righteousness that is in him And of the first kind is that Rom. 4. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness And Rom. 5. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. And Rom. 10. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth And at the ninth verse of the same Chapter If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God
this was in stead of all other Righteousness to him and that he was reputed as righteous all over now although he were not so at all in any other things 7. Now for Iustification we shall best understand the meaning of the word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First therefore besides the forensal acception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be just Gen. 38.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamar is more righteous then I. So Eccles. 31.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that loves gold will not be just Secondly it signifies to appear just Psa. 51.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that thou maist plainly appear or approve thy self to be just And Psal. 143. â— For in thy sight no man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall appear just Thirdly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make just and pure to free from vice and sinfulness Psalm 73. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore have I cleansed my heart in vain And Eccles. 18.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec tuam probitatem usque ad mortem differas saies the Translation And Rom. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is freed from sin Also Act. 13.39 And by him all they that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. Ye are more throughly cleansed and purged from sin and wickedness then you could be ever under the Law of Moses Which is consonant to other passages in Scripture as That the Law makes nothing perfect and again If there had been a Law that could have given life then verily righteousness might have been of the Law And now we have found out a warrantable sense of these words we shall be able more expeditely to discover the sense of the foregoing places of Scripture alledged for this pernicious conceit of a Christians being righteous without any real Righteousness in him 8. Wherefore to that in the 4. to the Romans whose force will be the greater if we adde that also which is written a little before in the 3 chap. v. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and what he inferrs also vers 9. That Iews and Gentiles and all are under sin Wherein the meaning of the Apostle is to magnifie as was most fit the ministration of the Gospel and so he signifies to the world that whatsoever is discovered hitherto is imperfect lapsed and ruinous all but weak and sinful before the coming in of Christ even the works of the Law themselves and that smooth external Righteousness of mere Morality and Ceremony So that all the world are found guilty before God and by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight For by the Law is but the knowledge of sin vers 20. it gives no strength to perform Wherefore now reckoning nothing upon all these things we are as it were to begin the world again and to endeavour after such a Righteousness as is by Faith in Christ Jesus and not to rest in any thing that may be done by the ordinary power of the flesh but to aspire after that Righteousness which is communicable to us by that Spirit which raised Jesus Christ from the dead But neither Abraham nor any one else can be justified by any carnal righteousness of their own but that highly-spiritual act of Abraham reaching beyond the common rode of Nature who against hope believed in hope that was that which commended Abraham so much to God And thus from the Example of Abraham would the Apostle commend the Christian faith to the world and in particular to the Jews the Offspring of Abraham For at the end of the fourth chapter he makes this use of Abraham's faith being imputed to him for Righteousness that is reputed by God as a very excellent good act as it indeed was that we might also be brought off to believe on him that raised up â—esus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification In which verse are contained the two grand priviledges of the Gospel that is the forgiveness of sins upon the satisfaction of Christs death and the justifying of us that is the making of us just and holy through a sound faith in him that raised Jesus from the dead Which interpretation the 11 verse of the 8 Chapter doth sufficiently countenance But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you viz. to Righteousness as is plain out of the foregoing verse And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse that is The body of death which we desire to be delivered from as the Apostle speaks appears by the presence of Christ in us to be thus deadly a body by reason of sin we feeling for the present nothing but an heavy indisposition to all holinesse and goodnesse in the body and its affections and all sinfulnesse and unclean Atheisticall suggestions from the flesh which is death to the Soul For to be carnally-minded is death So that by reason of the sinfulnesse of our body and the sad heavinesse thereof it appears as deadly and ghastly a thing to us as Mezentius his tying the living and the dead together when once Christ is in us but our Life is then that Righteousnesse which is of the Spirit we finding a comfortable warmth and pleasure in the gratefull arrivals of that holy and Divine sensation But he that raised Christ from the dead will in due time even quicken these our mortall bodies or these dead bodies of ours and make them conspire and come along with ease and chearfulnesse and be ready and active complying Instruments in all things with the Spirit of Righteousness Which belief is a chief Point in the Christian Faith and most of all parallel to that of Abraham's who believing in the Goodness and Power and Faithfulness of God had when both himself and his wife Sara were dry and dead as to natural generation and so hopeless of ever seeing any fruit of her womb who had I say Isaac born to him who bears Ioy and Laughter in the very Name of him and was undoubtedly a Type of Christ according to the Spirit For Isaac is the Wisedom Power and Righteousness of God flowing out and effectually branching it self so through all the Faculties both of mans Soul and Body that the whole man is carried away with joy and triumph to the acting all whatsoever is really and substantially good even with as much satisfaction and pleasure as he eats when he is hungry and drinks when he is dry And thus by our entrance and progress in so holy a
our love and loyalty to him If you love me keep my commandements Of which a principal one is That as I have loved you ye love also one another So he gives his disciples an Example of being humble one to another in that he washed their feet If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye ought also to wash one anothers feet For I have given you an Example that you should doe as I have done to you John 13. And Matth. 11. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls 8. But I need not insist much upon this subject I having amply enough shewn in the Second part of my Discourse how the whole History of Christ all his actions and deportments of himself tend to the most effectual recommending of the Divine Life unto us We shall only take the opportunity here to wipe off such stains as the foul and unsound breath of some blasphemous mouths have of old or of late endeavoured to stain this bright Mirrour of Divine perfection withall Which will be not only a piece of indispensable duty and loyalty to the Person of our Saviour but also the better encouragement to his sincere followers especially when I have added the Parallel of such accusations and imputations as bear very close analogie with those of our Saviours himself For he has foretold of old what would come of it That the disciple should not be above his Master nor the servant above his Lord. And if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the houshold But how just the calumnies are against the one and the other we shall now see CHAP. XIII 1. That Christ was no Blasphemer in declaring himself to be the Son of God 2. Nor Conjurer in casting out Devils 3. That he was unjustly accused of Prophaneness 4. That there was nothing detestable in his Neutrality toward Political Factions 5. Nor any Injustice nor Partiality found in him 6. Nor could his sharp Rebukes of the Pharisees be rightly termed Railing 7. Nor his whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple tumultuary Zeal 8. Nor his crying out so dreadfully in his Passion be imputed to Impatience or Despair 9. The suspicion of Distractedness and Madness cleared 10. His vindication from their aspersions of Looseness and Prodigality 11. The crooked and perverse nature of the Pharisees noted with our Saviours own Apology for his frequenting all companies 12. That Christ was no Self-seeker in undergoing the Death of the Cross for that joy that was set before him 1. THE former part of which Task though it may seem needless if not ridiculous amongst Christians who cannot entertain any evil thoughts of that Person whom they deservedly worship yet because all that live in Christian Commonwealths are not cordially such in no manner at all for the convincing of them if it were possible of the Excellency of Christ or at least for the better stopping of vain mouths from rash and unskilfull censures I hold it not improper to recite to you a Charge or Bill of Inditement exhibited against that innocent and immaculate Lamb Christ Iesus by malicious and ignorant men to the intent that he whom they have so unworthily charged may be as honourably dismissed and acquitted That his righteousness may be brought forth as the morning and his judgement as the noon day And here that they may fly high enough at first and strike deep enough even to a deserved taking away of life Blasphemy must stand in the front to give countenance and strength to the rest of their following accusations 2. Then Conjuring and dealing with the Devil 3. Prophanation of the Sabbath 4. Neutrality or cold indifferency in publick Controversies 5. Injustice 6. Railings 7. Tumultuary and injurious Zeal 7. Impatience and Despair 9. Phrensy or Madness 10. Debauchery and Looseness of Life 11. Lavishment and Prodigality 12. And lastly Ambition and Self-interest These are the several dunghills from whence wicked and perverse men would industriously dig out dirt to cast in the face of him who was the perfect Pattern of divine Purity and Righteousness But let them ply themselves as fast as they can in these several foul pits it will not be hard to find wherewith to wipe it off as fast as their impious diligence shall be able to cast it on And first let us consider what work they make in the first place as concerning Blasphemy John 10. For declaring God his Father and that He and his Father was one he is there furiously accused of Blasphemy and ready to be stoned And John 8. They are also there ready to stone him for saying He was before Abraham And Matth. 9.3 He is there also accused of Blasphemy for saying Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee And here in this first accusation de facto constat Christ confesses That he is one with God That he is the Son of God and that he has power to forgive sins That he was before Abraham but it is utterly denied that in any of all this Christ did blaspheme For first consider the very words of Christ I and my Father are one How unreasonably and inconsequently did these dull and peevish Perverters of the words of him whom they so entirely hated for his good life and doctrine deduce from that saying I and my Father are one that he being a man made himself God For it is as childishly and ineptly inferred from thence by them That he made himself God as if they should conclude That the Body is the very Soul because the Body and the Soul are one that is one man And it is no more Falshood much lesse Blasphemy for the Humanity of Christ who was so really and lively actuated informed and united with God as the Body is with the Soul to pronounce of himself as if he were very God then it is for the Tongue to say I understand I believe I perceive when neither the Body nor it believes perceives or understands any thing but only the Soul with which it is so intimately united and of which that which the Tongue speaks in such cases is to be understood And if this be duely considered and taken in Christs saying also That he was before Abraham will not prove any Blasphemy For Christ by reason of his so near union and essential conjunction with God which Athanasius well resembles to that of the Body and Soul may as properly and naturally professe himself to be before Abraham yea to have been before the world was made as the Tongue of man may utter I shall survive after the death of this my body in which there is no ill sense nor incongruity in the judgement of most sober men But besides this that which the blinde Jews understood not being hoodwinked with the thicknesse of their own particular Religion
to it for his cure as the Israelites in the Wildernesse as often as they were bit with the fiery flying Serpents were to look up unto the Brazen Serpent which Moses had erected in their Camp And those that make no use of the benefit thereof I should suspect them to be no Israelites but a genâ—ration of Vipers or Serpents themselves to whom the poison of Sin is so congenerous that it is their nature and pleasure no pain at all to them so that they desire no cure but flee from the Crosse as Scorpions do quit the place where a Telesme is erected against them 7. But our Saviour Christ knew the power and efficacy of his Passion so well that he made a speciall provision for the Commemoration of that often which it was fit he should suffer but once This we usually call the Eucharist or the holy Communion A Solemnity never to be antiquated till our Saviour return again to judgement visibly in the clouds of Heaven as S. Paul intimateth 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as you eat this bread or drink this cup you do shew the Lords death till he come For the solid use of it cannot cease till then when all is accomplished For so long as men are to have any growth in Godlinesse or are to animate themselves to any holy designes or sin is to be encountred with or thanks to be given for the victories of the Cross the holy Eucharist cannot possibly cease For the most proper Preparation for the receiving of the Sacrament is a serious Meditation on the Passion of Christ which is commemorated therein The consideration whereof what mighty power and efficacy it has for the vanquishing and subduing of all manner of sins and corruptions I have given sufficient intimation So that every Celebration of the Communion should be as it were a repeated Resolution and corroborated Conspiracy in the bloud of the New Covenant to do our utmost against all the Powers of Sin of Darkness and of the Devil and this upon the sense of that great Love and Loialty we owe to our dear Saviour and Soveraign Iesus Christ who died for us and poured out his own bloud to glue and cement us to himself and to one another So that the Mystery of Christian Religion is a Mystery of the deepest and dearest Friendship and of the most indissoluble Union of Affection that can possibly be excogitated Wherein neither Distance of Place nor Time can make any division but it holds together Heaven and Earth and bindes what is past to what is present and actuates and invigorates what is present to a prosperous and successful bringing on that which is to come Thus it is with all those that are true Christians and do really communicate in the bloud of Christ They have one Minde and one Heart they have one Vote and one Interest which is the Advancement of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world in Truth and Holiness and that Christian Peace Faith and Love may flourish even to the ends of the Earth CHAP. XVII 1. The sixth Gospel-Power is the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The priviledge of this Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality above that from the Subtilty of Reason and Philosophy 2. The great power this consideration of the Soul's Immortality has to urge men to a Godly life 3. To wean themselves from worldly pleasures and learn to delight in those that are everlasting 4. To have our Conversation in Heaven 5. The Conditions of the Everlasting Inheritance 6. Further enforcements of duty from the Soul's Immortality 1. THe sixth Gospel-Power is the Contemplation of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ in respect of which stupendious event the Apostle has declared how it is Christ Jesus that has abolished death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel For truly whatsoever Traditions there were amongst the Iewish Rabbins whatever Disquisitions or Conclusions amongst the Philosophers whether Platonists or Aristoteleans concerning the Soul's Immortality they were either so uncertain and fallacious in themselves or so subtil and unintelligible to the People that they could not satisfie the World concerning this so important a matter And if a man should write never so accurately and Apodictically of this point the use thereof would reach but to a few namely such as are of a very patient and comprehensive Spirit that have leisure and take delight in perusing of subtil and close-wrought contextures of Reason which to most men is a toilsome and tedious thing And when a man has writ and read all he can of this Subject and has met with the very best and most Demonstrative arguments for the Conclusion yet for use and service the Recollection of them is voluminous and cumbersome as well as the Collections from them doubtful and fallible at least to them that are not fully masters of their Reason But as the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour is certain as known to be de facto by abundance of Witnesses so is the Remembrance and Representation of it to our mindes at once and strikes strong upon our Phansie and reaches our Reason with that powerful conviction that believing this we cannot any longer doubt of either the Existence of God or our own Immortality And if we once be but well assured of the Existence of God and of our own Immortall state after this Life methinks this alone should be able to lift us above all the Snares that Satan has laid in this World to entangle us 2. Mortality one would think if well considered might give us some check from too eager pursuit of Honours and Riches from worldly Plots and Designes as also for fear of diseases that accelerate death from over-lavish Indulgence to Sensuality and Intemperance But the Certainty of a Life to come the condition whereof shall be such as our Demeanour here layes the seeds of whether for Happinesse or Misery and that in a measure unspeakably above what happens or can happen in this life this consideration must have such virtue in it if we duly meditate upon it that it should win us with all willingnesse to forsake all the unlawful Pleasures and Projects of this transient World to get some sure Interest in that which is to come and not to trust all in one bottom if any thing at all I mean in the leaking vessel of this mortal Body which is ever and anon ready to sink or topple over and so to drown all the hopes we placed in it Wherefore as ye heard out of Saint Peter we are like Strangers and Pilgrims in this life to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul that our Minds going out impolluted of the Foulness and Contagion of this defiled Earth they sojourn in may be received into the happy Society of just men made perfect as the Author to the Hebrews speaks Whenas if they go out foul and impure their Reception must be accordingly
in it but what they themselves have bestowed upon it For every Substance is of it self an Individual Substance and Universals but a Logical notion arising from our comparing of Substances of like nature together Neither is there any Substance but by due preparatory modifications may be capable of being united with some other Individual Substance and these Two Individual Substances become One whole Substance Which yet are not so One as that they cease to be Two Numerical Substances because they arâ—â—o otherwise said to be One I am sure are no otherwise One then by the apt Union of one with another Which yet hinders not but that they are still and if they are they are Two namely my Soul and Body are still this Individual Soul and this Individual Body though they be as they term it Hypostatically united For it onely implies conjunction not confusion of Substances nor any losse of the Individuality of the Substances thus conjoined For there is no Substance conjoinable with another but remains this Individual Substance even for that very reason because it is a Substance every Substance being of it self Individual as I have already said and yet conjoinable with another Substance whence it is plain that the Scholastick notion of Suppositum is a mere foolery 6. Out of which we may easily understand how that the Humanity of Christ and the Eternal Word may be Hypostatically united without any contradiction to humane Reason unsophisticated with the fopperies of the Schools and both their Hypostases remain still entire Of which I will exhibite this as a more sensible representation Suppose a vast Globe made all of solid Gold saving one very small section which we will suppose of Silver This individual Gold and this individual Silver remaining still this individual Gold and Silver make up one entire Globe which is not an entire Globe without either So in Christ made up as I may so speak of the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity and of that humane Person that conversed at Jerusalem He is that individual Silver and the other that individual Gold and both these together One Christ the sphere of whose Divinity filling all things and being every where at hand cannot but be a warrantable Object of our Praiers and Invocations as the passive Humanity of Christ the prop of our Faith and confidence by his bitter Passion and Intercession 7. What Superstition therefore can there be or least suspicion of Idolatry when we pray unto Christ if we do but think of him to whom we pray For the Eternal Godhead does so outshine every thing in this Object of Devotion that our minde is in a manner wholly transported into God though with a due reflexion of honour upon the Person of our Saviour in virtue of whose Death and Intercession we make our addresses Which Truth might also passe with the Jew without any scruple at all if he do but call to minde with what devout Humility their fore-fathers have adored the presence of Angels To whom in their Law Iehovah the most holy name of God is also attributed And if an Angel that sustains the Person of God onely by way of Embassy has this divine honour how much more then is due to Christ who is Iehovah not onely by Title and external Function but by real Union with the Eternal Son of God Which the Platonists in their Triad also call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same in Greek that Iehovah is in Hebrew 8. Or if they could imagine that there was so extraordinary a kind of Union of these Angels with God where so high a name is attributed to them as being in such an universalizing Rapture that they had lost the sense of their own Personalities and were wholly actuated by God who used them as fully and commandingly as our Soul does our Bodies yet this may fall short in a two-fold respect of that Union which is betwixt the Humanity of Christ the Eternal Word For first it may not be of the same kinde but differs as much it may be as the union of a Spirit with a dead Corps does from the union of the Soul of Man in an healthful body Or if it could be admitted that there was some Principle excited and awaked or some way inserted into the Essence of an Angel whereby he might have real and vital union with God yet it being but temporary it is not to be compared with this lasting and durable union in the Messias Nor does the visible presence of the Angel warrant Divine worship more to him then to Christ. For Christ according to his higher and more adorable nature is every where present 9. I conclude therefore that the Divinity of Christ is not at all repugnant to Reason I mean his Real and Physical union as I may so call it with the Eternal Word For being that it was this VVord or Eternal VVisdome whereby God made all things it is very decorous and congruous that that great Instrument of the restoring so choice a piece of his Creation as Man is should be united particularly to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eternal VVord Nor is it unconceivable how he may be united particularly and immediately to this Hypostasis and not the other two from what we observe in Nature For even the Faculties of the Soul residing in the same part of the Soul according as the part of the Body is tempered or modified one Faculty may exert it self in the part and another be silent and take no hold thereon And further it is evident that though the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of Nature be every where present in the World and lie in the very same points of space yet their actions applications or engagings with things are very distinct For the Spirit of Nature takes hold only of Matter remanding grosse bodies towards the centre of the Earth shaping Vegetables into all that various beauty we finde in them but does not act at all on our Souls or Spirits with divine illumination no more then the Holy Spirit meddles with remanding of Stones downwards or tumbling broken tiles off from an house Which things rightly considered and improved make this Mystery intelligible enough for those that are fit for such Speculations So that I need adde nothing more having already proceeded further then I intended in zeal against the fraud of some and indiscretion of others who so confidently maintain That some main Points in Christian Religion are not onely obscure which I willingly acknowledge and that thereby our Religion is the more Venerable but also repugnant to Reason which I utterly deny and shall in its due place shew the sad inconvenience of so rash an Assertion CHAP. III. 1. That the Communicableness of Christian Religion implies its Reasonableness 2. The right Method of communicating the Christian Mystery 3 4. A brief example of that Method 5. A further continuation thereof 6. How the Mystagogus is to behave himself towards
to him and from his being a Sacrifice for sin 5. That to deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ or to make the Union of our selves with the Godhead of the same nature with that of Christ's subverts Christianity 6. The uselesness and sauciness of the pretended Deification of Enthusiasts and how destructive it is of Christian Religion 7. The Providence of God in preparing of the Nations by Platonisme for the easier reception of Christianity 11 CAAP. VI. 1. The danger and disconsolateness of the Opinion of the Psychopannychites 2. What they alledge out of 1 Cor. 15. set down 3. A Preparation to an Answer advertising First of the nature of Prophetick Schemes of speech 4. Secondly of the various vibration of an inspired Phansie 5. Thirdly of the ambiguity of words in Scripture and particularly of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. And lastly of the Corinthians being sunk into an Unbelief of any Reward after this life 7. The Answer out of the last and foregoing Premisse 8. A further Answer out of the first 9. As also out of the second and third where their Objection from verse 32. is fully satisfied 10. Their Argument answered which they urge from our Saviours citation to the Sadducees I am the God of Abraham c. 15 CHAP. VII 1. A General Answer to the last sort of places they alledge that imply no enjoyment before the Resurrection 2. A Particular Answer to that of 2 Cor 5. out of Hugo Grotius 3. A preparation to an Answer of the Author 's own by explaining what the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie 4. His Paraphrase of the six first Verses of the forecited Chapter 5. A further confirmation of his Paraphrase 6. The weakness of the Reasons of the Psychopannychites noted 19 CHAP. VIII 1. That the Opinion of the Soul 's living and acting immediately after Death was not fetched out of Plato by the Fathers because they left out Preexistence an Opinion very rational in it self 2. And such as seems plausible from sundry places of Scripture as those alledged by Menasseh Ben Israel out of Deuteronomy Jeremy and Job 3. As also God's resting on the seventh day 4. That their proclivity to think that the Angel that appeared to the Patriarchs so often was Christ might have been a further inducement 5. Other places of the New Testament which seem to imply the Preexistence of Christ's Soul 6. More of the same kinde out of S. John 7. Force added to the last proofs from the opinion of the Socinians 8. That our Saviour did admit or at least not disapprove the opinion of Preexistence 9. The main scope intended from the preceding allegations namely That the Soul 's living and acting after death is no Pagan opinion out of Plato but a Christian Truth evidenced out of the Scriptures 21 CHAP. IX 1. Proofs out of Scripture That the Soul does not sleep after death as 1 Peter 3. with the explication thereof 2. The Authors Paraphrase compared with Calvin's Interpretation 3. That Calvin needed not to suppose the Apostle to have writ false Greek 4. Two waies of interpreting the Apostle so as both Grammatical Soloecisme and Purgatory may be declined 5. The Second way of Interpretation 6. A second proof out of Scripture 7. A third of like nature with the former 8. A further enforcement and explication thereof 9. A fourth place 10. A fifth from Hebr. 12. where God is called the Father of Spirits c. 11. A sixth testimony from our Saviours words Matth. 20.28 25 CHAP. X. 1. A pregnant Argument from the State of the Soul of Christ and of the Thief after death 2. Grotius his explication of Christ's promise to the Thief 3. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. How Christ with the Thief could be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Paradise at once 5. That the Parables of Dives and Lazarus and of the unjust Steward imply That the Soul hath life and sense immediately after death 28 BOOK II. CHAP. I. HE passes to the more Intelligible parts of Christianity for the understanding whereof certain preparative Propositions are to be laid down 2. As That there is a God 3. A brief account of the Assertion from his Idea 4. A further Confirmation from its ordinary concatenation with the Rational account of all other Beings as first of the Existence of the disjoynt and independent particles of Matter 31 CHAP. II. 1. That the wise contrivances in the works of Nature prove the Being of a God 2. And have extorted an acknowledgement of a General Providence even from irreligious Naturalists 3. That there is a Particular Providence or Inspection of God upon every individual person Which is his Second Assertion 32 CHAP. III. 1. His Third Assertion That there are Particular Spirits or Immaterial Substances and of their Kinds 2. The Proof of their Existence and especially of theirs which in a more large sense be called Souls 3. The Difference betwixt the Souls or Spirits of Men and Angels and how that Pagan Idolatry and the Ceremonies of Witches prove the Existence of Devils 4. And that the Existence of Devils proves the Existence of Good Angels 34 CHAP. IV. 1. His Fourth Assertion That the Fall of the Angels was their giving up themselves to the Animal Life and forsaking the Divine 2. The Fifth That this fall of theirs changed their purest Vehicles into more gross and feculent 3. The Sixth That the change of their Vehicles was no extinction of life 4. The Seventh That the Souls of Men are immortal and act and live after death The inducements to which belief are the Activity of fallen Angels 5. The Homogeneity of the inmost Organ of Perception 6. The scope and meaning of External Organs of Sense in this Earthly Body 7. The Soul's power of Organizing her Vehicle 8. And lastly The accuracy of Divine Providence 35 CHAP. V. 1. The Eighth Assertion That there is a Polity amongst the Angels and Souls separate both Good and Bad and therefore Two distinct Kingdomes one of Light and the other of Darkness 2. And a perpetual fewd and conflict betwixt them 3. The Ninth That there are infinite swarms of Atheistical Spirits as well Aereal as Terrestrial in an utter ignorance or hatred of all true Religion 37 CHAP. VI. 1. His Tenth Assertion That there will be a final Overthrow of the Dark Kingdome and that in a supernatural manner and upon their external persons 2. The Eleventh That the Generations of men had a beginning and will also have an end 3. To which also the Conflagration of the world gives witness 39 CHAP. VII 1. His Twelfth Assertion That there will be a Visible and Supernatural deliverance of the Children of the Kingdome of Light at the Conflagration of the World 2. The Reason of the Assertion 3. His Thirteenth Assertion That the last vengeance and deliverance shall be so contrived as may be best fit for the Triumph of the
and more full Interpretation of the whole Transaction 11. Some brief touches upon the Prophesies of Christ. 117 CHAP. IX 1. The Miracles of Apollonius compared with those of Christ. 2. His entertainment at a Magical banquet by Iarchas and the rest of the Brachmans 3. His cure of a Dropsy and of one bitten by a mad dog 4. His freeing of the City of Ephesus from the plague 5. His casting a Devil out of a laughing Daemoniack and chasing away a whining Spectre on Mount Caucasus in a Moon-shine night 6. His freeing Menippus from his espoused Lamia 120 CHAP. X. 1. Apollonius his raising from death a young married Bride at Rome 2. His Divinations and particularly by Dreams 3. His Divinations from some external accidents in Nature 4. His Prediction of Stephanus killing Domitian from an Halo that encircled the Sun Astrology and Meteorology covers to Pagan Superstition and converse with Devils 5. A discovery thereof from this prediction of his from the Halo compared with his phrantick Ecstasies at Ephesus 6. A general Conclusion from the whole parallel of the Acts of Christ and Apollonius 122 CHAP. XI 1. A Comparison of the Temper or Spirit in Apollonius with that in Christ. 2. That Apollonius his Spirit was at the height of the Animal life but no higher 3. That Pride was the strongest chain of darkness that Apollonius was held in with a rehersal of certain Specimens thereof 4. That his whole Life was nothing else but an exercise of Pride and Vain-glory boldly swaggering himself into respect with the greatest whereever he went 5. His reception with Phraotes King of India and Iarchas head of the Brachmans 6. His intermedling with the affairs of the Roman Empire his converse with the Babylonian Magi and Aegyptian Gymnosophists and of his plausible Language and Eloquence 7. That by the sense of Honour and Respect he was hook'd in to be so active an Instrument for the Kingdome of Darkness 8. That though the Brachmans pronounced Apollonius a God yet he was no higher then the better sort of Beasts 124 CHAP. XII 1. The Contrariety of the Spirit of Christ to that of Apollonius 2. That the History of Apollonius be it true or false argues the exquisite Perfection of the life of Christ and the Transcendency of that Divine Spirit in him that no Pagan could reach by either Imagination or Action 3. The Spirit of Christ how contemptible to the mere Natural man and how deare and precious in the eyes of God 4. How the several Humiliations of Christ were compensated by God with both sutable and miraculous Priviledges and Exaltations 5. His deepest Humiliation namely his Suffering the death of the Cross compensated with the highest Exaltation 127 CHAP. XIII 1. The ineffable power of the Passion of Christ and other indearing applications of him for winning the World off from the Prince of Darkness 2. Of his preceding Sufferings and of his Crucifixion 3. How necessary it was that Christ should be so passive and sensible of pain in his suffering on the Cross against the blasphemy â—f certain bold Enthasiasts 4. Their ignorance in the Divine life and how it alone was to triumph in the Person of Christ unassisted by the advantages of the Animal or Natural 5. That if Christ had died boldly and with little sense of pâ—in both the Solemnity and Usefulness of his Passion had been lost 6. That the strange Accidents that attended his Crucifixion were Prefigurations of the future Effects of his Passion upon the Spirits of men in the World 7. Which yet hinders not but that they may have other significations 8. The third and last reason of the Tragical unsupportableness of the Passion of Christ in that he bore the sins of the whole World 9. The Legâ—â—leious cavils of some conceited Sophists that pretend That it is unjust with God to punish the Innocent in stead of the Guilty 10. The false Ground of all their frivolous subtilties 129 CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasements of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The disservice some corrosive Wits do to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 132 CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Hâ—storians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted by several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Farther That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirme this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not imply that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 134 BOOK V. CHAP. I. OF the Resurrection of Christ and how much his eye was fixed upon that Event 2. The chief Importance of Christ's Resurrection 3. The World excited by the Miracles of Christ the more narrowly to consider the Divine quality of his Person whom the more they looked upon the more they disliked 4. Whence they misinterpreted and eluded all the force and conviction of all his Miracles 5. God's upbraiding of the World with their gross Ignorance by the raising him from the dead whom they thus vilified and contemned 6. Christ's Resurrection an assurance of man's Immortality 137 CHAP. II. 1. The last End of Christ's Resurrection the Confirmation of his whole Ministry 2. How it could be that those chief Priests and Rulers that hired the Souldiers to give out that the Disciples of Christ stole his body away were not rather converted to believe he was the Messias 3. How it can be evinced that Christ did really rise from the dead and that it was not the delusion of some deceitfull Daemons 4. The first and second Answer 5. The third Answer 6. The fourth Answer 7. The fifth Answer 8. The sixth and last Answer 9. That his appearing and disappearing at pleasure after his Resurrection is no argument but that he was risen with the same Body that was laid in the grave 139 CHAP. III. 1. The Ascension of Christ and what a sure pledge it is of the Soul's activity in a thinner Vehicle 2. That the Soul's activity in this Earthly Body is no just measure of what she can do out of it 3. That the Life of the Soul here is as a Dream in comparison of that life she is awakened unto in her
Solomon in defining her to be the true Mother that could not endure that the Child should be divided and killed And whatever Church is cruell and remorsless in either Temporall persecution or the Eternall damnation of such men as believe in Christ according to the plain and easie meaning of the Scripture and live accordingly she may approve her self to be an imperious Harlot but no discerning spirit will ever take her for the true Mother that new Ierusalem which is the Spouse of Christ or Wife of the Lamb. Wherefore those are very weak Christians that are so low-belled by this terror as to be taken up and captivated by the Church of Rome and acknowledge her the mother-Church by force of that Argument that demonstrates the contrary to say nothing of their disingenuous abuse of the Charity of the Reformed Churches But for my own part I confess that for sureness I had rather exercise my Charity in wishing them Converts from Popery then express any great confidence of their being safe in that Religion Not that it is possible for me who cannot infallibly demonstrate to my self that all that lived under Paganisme are certainly damned to imagine that all that have gone under the name of Papists have tumbled down into Hell But the case is much like that in Shipwrack on the sea or Pestilence in a City where we will suppose not a house free no man can pronounce that it is impossible that such or such a person should escape nor that any of them are in any tolerable safety The danger is alike to them that adhere to the Apostate Church for though there be a possibility of some mens being saved by an extraordinary or miraculous Providence they breaking through all those impediments and snares that are laid in their way and attaining to a Dispensation above the Church they live in as haply some under Paganisme did yet it cannot be denied but that the Oeconomie of that Church naturally tends to the betraying of Souls to Eternall destruction that falling out which our Saviour said of old of the Pharisees They compass sea and land to make one profelyte and when he is made he becomes twofold more the child of the devil then themselves For he will not stint his Hypocrisie in Religion by the measure of their gain that invented the forme and submit to it for their End but for his own namely that he may excuse himself from all reall holiness by keeping to the observation and profession of their vain inventions And thus are the Commandements of God made of none effect by their Traditions In brief the whole frame of that Church is fashioned out so near to the ancient guise of Idolatrous Paganisme or else to the liveless and ineffectual forme of Judaisme both which Christ appeared on purpose to destroy as either contrary or ineffectuall to Salvation and does explicitly recommend to the world a pure and spirituall worship that we should worship the Father in Spirit and in truth or lastly is so full of Contradictions and Impossibilities in their feigned Stories and imperiously-obtruded Opinions that the natural result of being born under such a Religion or of turning to it is either to become a besotted Superstitionist to believe or do any thing that others will have him to do which is a sign the Spirit of Regeneration has not yet passed upon him and that there is no life nor light in him or else which is too frequent to turn down-right Atheist it being so grosly discernable that the Tenents of their Church are impossible and their Practices fraudulent fitted chiefly for filthy lucre and their Ceremonies useless thankless and ridiculous And therefore if any be saved in the Church of Rome they are such as are not truely of it but above it and fend for themselves as well as they may by some pardonable sleights of Prudence accompanied with an impregnable innocency of Spirit and readiness of doing all possible good they can they sparing their own lives and liberties upon no other account then that and out of a perswasion that he that commanded them to be wise as Serpents as well as innocent as Doves has given them no commission inconsiderately and to no purpose to betray themselves into the power of his usurping Enemy But for others that are perfect Papists and swallow down all that Church proposes to them without chewing or distasting any thing it is a Demonstration there is no Principle of life in them but that they are like dead earthen pitchers which receive poison and wholesome liquors with a like admittance And if there be no principle of life there is no seed of Salvation in a man For it is most certainly true and the Scripture it self doth witness to it That unless a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdome of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This is the new Creature that is created in wisdome righteousness and true holiness The first of which the Church of Rome expunges in that it gives no leave to a man never so regenerate to judge for himself but he must say as the Church sayes right or wrong and for the other two all their superstitious Ceremonies put together adde nothing to them but rather stifle and sufflaminate them Again S. John tell us That he that hates his brother is in the dark and walketh in the dark and knows no whither he goes But others may know it as appears by another saying of the same Apostle Every one that hates his brother is a murderer and no murderer hath eternall life abiding in him But on the contrary he affirms That Love is of God and that he that loveth is born of God and knowes God Now to apply the Case to these Rules If Love be an essential Character of a Regenerate soul and Hatred of Errour Darkness and Eternal Death or to come yet closer If Hatred it self be Murder what will Murder it self be added thereunto And if any thing be Murder I demand whether this be not namely to take away the life of a member of Iesus Christ who does fully and freely profess the Ancient and Apostolick Faith according to the Letter or History of the New Testament and does seriously compose his life according to the Precepts therein contained and does onely declare against and reject the Contradictious Opinions and Idolatrous Practices that have no ground at all in Scripture nor Reason but are quite contrary to both I say if this be no Murder there is no Murder in the world and how guilty the Church of Rome is of this Crime all the world knowes Wherefore this being one of the Principles of that bloudy Church and he that is a perfect Papist being of one mind and suffrage with his Church in all things for she will be held no less then Infallible 't is apparent that no through-paced Papist can ever go to
own Prejudice Of which violence they do thereto they cannot well be sensible they thinking they have full commission to distort it into any posture rather then to let it alone in that which so plainly points to a Mystery which they hold impossible and self-contradictious For so has their bold and blind reasoning concluded aforehand concerning the Trinity and Divinity of Christ. But to those that are indifferent this Text bears such evidence with it that it cannot but settle their belief 2. For why should the Euangelist omit the manner of Christ's Birth as he was Man but that he was intent upon his Eternal Generation as he was God Or why should he not call him by that name that was given him at his Circumcision or by the name of Crist or the Messias who was a Person expected in time but that his thoughts were carried back to that of him which was from all Eternity Nor is it imaginable that he should be here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of Iesus or Christ unless there were some valuable Mystery in it which the learned easily unriddle from Iewish Interpreters they speaking often of The Word of the Lord as an Hypostasis distinguishable from God and yet that by which he created Adam and the rest of the Creatures And for my own part I make no question but that the Greek Philosophers as Pythagoras and Plato had not onely their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the whole Mystery of their Trinity from the Divine Traditions amongst the Jews Philo the Jew speaks often of this Principle in the Godhead calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and attributes unto it the Creation of the World as also the Healing of the diseases of our Mindes and the Purging of our Souls from sins insomuch that this Author might be a good Commentator upon this first Chapter of S. Iohn 3. Wherefore there being this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Jews to which the Creation and Government of the World is attributed the same also being done here what can be more likely then that S. Iohn means the very same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Creator and Governor of all Which the very Phrase and Posture of things will yet further confirme For assuredly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gospel is the same with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first Epistle of S. Iohn and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the same Epistle will explicate chap. 2.14 I write unto you Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because you have known the Eternal and Christ by the Prophet Esay is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Father For that is the most proper meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appears Esay 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabits Eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhabiting Eternity Nor is it incongruous for the same Being to be the Son of God and the Father and Governour of all the Creatures And the Prophet Micah chap. 5. prophesying of Christ describes him thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His emanations are from the Beginning from the dayes of Eternity Which agrees well with what Christ professes of himself Iohn 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if he was before Abraham there is little question but he was before all things and that of the Psalmist is but his due attribute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the mountains were brought forth or the Earth was formed even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God And now for the Posture of things after the Evangelist has twice asserted That he was from the beginning that you may not mistake and think he means the beginning of his Ministry as the Messiah he tells you according to the Doctrine of the Jews That all things were created by him and at the tenth verse that you may have no subterfuge he sayes That even that world that was made by him knew him not which excludes all Moral and Mystical interpretations and shews plainly that wicked men though not their wickedness are his Creation and consequently all the world besides And the Author to the Hebrews is a farther witness of this Truth citing that of the Psalmist concerning the Son of God Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands There is yet another argument of the Divinity of Christ which I need not prove it being acknowledged even by our Adversaries and it is Religious worship due to him which I conceive is due to none but God 4. The Holy Trinity and Divinity of Christ we have hitherto proved out of the Scriptures and might adde many places more but the Reason and Nature of the thing it self shall be the last Confirmation That Christ is to be worshipped is acknowledged of all hands But to worship one that is not God is to relapse into the ancient rites of the Pagans who were Men-worshippers and eaters of the sacrifices of the dead For Iupiter Belus Bacchus Vulcan Mercurius Osiris and Isis and the rest of the Gods of the Heathen what were they but mere men whose Benefactions extorted divine honours from Superstitious posterity after their Death Wherefore Christ ought not to be a mere man but God that is he ought to be really and physically united to the Deity it being present not by Assistance onely but by Information that as Body and Soul are one Man so God and Man may be one Christ. But if there were no Trinity but One Hypostasis in the Deity and the Humanity of Christ thus joyn'd with it How could he be a Sacrifice for sin there being none beside himself to whom he should be offer'd or How could he be sent by another when there is none other to send him and the Son of God out of the bosome of his Father could not be said to suffer but he that is offended to be sacrificed to pacifie himself which things are very absurd and incongruous But you 'l say the Absurdity still remains in the Second Hypostasis For was not Sin as contrary to Him as to the First and Third and consequently He as much offended and therefore He dying in our nature was sacrificed to pacify Himself In answer to this I admit that all Three Hypostases were alike offended at Sin and withall alike compassionate to Sinners Which Compassion was in the Deity towards Mankind before the Incarnation and Death of Christ. But the formal Declaration and visible Consignation of this Reconcilement was by Christ according as he is revealed in the Gospel whose Transactions in our behalf are nothing else but a sweet and kind Condescension of the Wisdome of God in this Mystery accommodating himself to our humane capacities and properties to win us off in a kindly was to Love and Obedience And
therefore all the Three Hypostases being alike offended at Sin and alike prone to pardon the Sinner and recover him to Obedience contrived such a way of declaring their pardon as might shew their highest dislike of sin and win most upon the Sinner by moving his affections to a serious Sorrow and Remorse Wherefore the Divine complotment was this That the Eternal Son of God should be made Flesh and to testifie the Hatred of God to Sin and his Love to mankind should be sacrificed for an Atonement for the sins of the world Then which a greater Engine cannot be imagined to move us to an Abhorrence of sin and to the Love of his Law that thus redeemed us and wrought our reconciliation with the Father To whom being as I may so say the Head in the Divinity and of all things and having in his Paternal right the First power of punishing and pardoning this Pacification is naturally directed For it is as if a Father of a Family or the Prince of a Nation having a minde to pardon some Malefactor that he might not seem too prone to Mercy and so encourage men to Rebellion should plot with his Eldest Son to be an earnest Intercessor in the behalf of the party when yet the Son disrelisheth the crime of him he intercedes for as much as his Father did There is the same Reason in the Intercession of Christ with the Eternal Father saving that it was with more earnestnesse and greater agony even unto death and of farre higher consequence But that such an Intercession and Pacification as this should be made up in the solitary Scene of one Person is impossible 5. Wherefore the denying of either the Divinity of Christ or the Trinity seems a Subversion of the Christian Religion And not onely so but that Fanatical piece of Magnificency of some Enthusiasts who would make their Union with God the same with that of Christ's For then were they truly God and Divine Adoration would belong unto them or if not it is a sign they are not God and that therefore Christ is not Either of which confounds or destroys our Religion But if you demand what the Difference is betwixt the Union of Christ and Ours with the Divinity I have intimated it before In one the Divinity is Forma informans in the other but Forma assistens in the one it is as Lux in Corpore lucido in the other as Lumen in Corpore diaphano The Divinity in Christ is as the Light in the Sun the Divinity in his Members as the Sun-shine in the Aire 6. And this distinction and due distance being kept which some saucy and high-flown Enthusiasts do not observe there is yet scope and encouragement enough for them to strive to be full as good as they pretend I am sure farre better then they are there ordinarily being no difference betwixt them and the meanest Christians but that their Tongues are swelled with greater tumor and turgency of speech and their Minds filled with more vain phantasyes and exorbitant Lunacyes whenas the other speak conformably to the Apostolick Faith and with less noise live more honestly But that no less Union with God then Real and Physical Deification must make them Good is a sign they are stark naught and that Pride has laid wast their Intellectuals For is not that Spirit that created and framed all things able to reforme us unto the most unblamable pitch of Humility Self-denial Dependency upon God Love of our neighbour Obedience to Magistrates Faith Temperance and Holiness without being any more Hypostatically united with us then with the Earth Sea Sun Moon and Starres and the Natural parts of the Creation Wherefore we conclude That to assert That the Union of any true Christian with God is the Same with that of Christ's is a bold useless and groundless Opinion and inconsistent with and destructive of the Christian Religion 7. We have seen How Necessary and Essential to Christianity the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ is and consequently of the Trinity without which the other cannot be rightly conceived and therefore we do not onely disapprove of those frivolous slanders and cavils that would brand that Sacred Mystery with the infamous note of Paganisme but highly magnifie and humbly adore the Providence of God that that Truth should be kept so long warme and be so carefully polished by those Heathens that knew not the main Use thereof or to what end the Tradition was delivered to the ancient Patriarchs Prophets or holy Sages of old in either Aegypt or Iudaea from whence Pythagoras and Plato had it and prepared those parts of the World where their Philosophy had taken foot-hold to an easy reception of Christianity but this we have glanced at elsewhere CHAP. VI. 1. The danger and disconsolateness of the Opinion of the Psychopannychites 2. What they alledge out of 1 Cor. 15. set down 3. A Preparation to an Answer advertising First of the nature of Prophetick Schemes of speech 4. Secondly of the various vibration of an inspired Phansie 5. Thirdly of the ambiguity of words in Scripture and particularly of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. And lastly of the Corinthians being sunk into an Unbelief of any Reward after this life 7. The Answer out of the last and foregoing Premisse 8. A further Answer out of the first 9. As also out of the second and third where their Objection from verse 32. is fully satisfied 10. Their Argument answered which they urge from our Saviours citation to the Sadducees I am the God of Abraham c. 1. WE proceed now to the Third and Last Point propounded which is Concerning the state of Souls departed which we assert not to sleep that is not to be void of all Operation and Sense of Joy or Punishment but that they have a Knowledge and Apprehension of their own condition be it Good or Bad. Which Article I hold as undoubtedly True though not so indispensable as the Two former and though not so Necessary yet exceeding Convenient to be entertain'd It being a great Abater to our zeal and fervency in Religion to think that in the end of our life we shall be dodged and put off by a long senseless and comfortless Sleep of the Soul under the sods of the Grave for many hundreds if not for some thousands of years Besides an indulgence to such a Dulness and Heartlesness of Spirit as to be content to intermit the Functions of Life for so long a time may at last work the Soul into a sottish mistrust of ever being awaked and make her conclude the Mystery of Christianity within the narrow verges of this mortal life as David George and other Enthusiasts did who were more in love with many Wives then with any Article of Faith that promised such pleasures as might not be reaped in this Flesh. 2. But we are here to deal not with such vain Fanaticks but with severely-devoted Sons of
of thy years are many The Author of the Book of Wisdome who though he be not Canonical yet is acknowledged a very venerable Writer speaks out plainly concerning the Soul of Solomon chap. 8. v. 19 20. For I was a witty childe and had a good Spirit Yea rather being good I came into a body undefiled 3. Besides they might have alledged how inconsistent the daily Creation of Souls is with God's resting on the Seventh day as having then finished the whole work of his Creation 4. Moreover their inclination to think that in sundry of those Apparitions of Angels to the ancient Patriarchs it was Christ himself that appeared would further have enticed them to retain this Doctrine of Preexistence of Souls that that opinion of Christ's appearing then might be more entire and determinate as it would be also in those that hold Melchisedec that blessed Abraham to have been Christ which opinion Cunaeus looks upon as true nor can Calvin look upon it as strange if he do but hold to his own words in his readings upon Daniel In eo nihil est absurdi quòd Christus aliquam speciem humanae naturae exhiberet antequam manifestatus esset in carne And that the Angel that led the Israelites into the land of Canaan was Christ seems plainly asserted 1 Cor. chap. 10. v. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted him and perished by Serpents But Christ is a complexion of the Humane nature with the Divine Consider also Hebr. 11.26 which seems to implie that the Soul of the Messias was a Patron and Protector of the Holy seed betimes and had a special relation to the Iews above any other Nation And therefore when he came into the world i. e. was born brought up and conversed among the Jews he might the more properly be said to come to his own though his own knew him not John 1.11 And verily that the Soul of the Messiah was in Being before he took upon him our flesh the most easie and natural meaning of 1 Joh. 4.2 seems also to import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here S. Iohn seems to cabbalize as in several places of the Apocalypse that is to speak in the language of the Learned of the Jews For the genuine sense is He that confesses that Iesus is the Messiah come into the flesh or into a Terrestrial Body is of God Which implies that he was before he came into it Which is the doctrine of the Jews and expressed so exactly according to their sense that themselves could not have uttered it more naturally and significantly and therefore might they say it is unnatural and violent to put any other meaning upon it 5. Again He being happily before the Generation of men and the peopling of the earth the Messiah Elect as I may so speak united also with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and resplendent with Celestial glory and beauty amongst the Angels in Heaven this Hypothesis will give a very easie and natural sense to sundry places of the New Testament that otherwise seem very obscure As that of Philipp 2.6 7 8. For it has racked many mens minds to conceive how an Exinanition of himself can belong to the Eternal and Immutable God by becoming man which the Text seems to point at But it may very properly belong to the Soul of the Messiah who was yet truly God by a Physical union with the Godhead So likewise John 17.4 5. I have glorified thee upon earth for which purpose I was sent down thither And now Father bring me up back again to thy self that I may again enjoy that Glory which I had with thee in the Heavens before the world and Generations of men were This is the easie meaning of those two Verses For that this is to be understood of the Humanity of Christ Grotius is so confident that he is fain to turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I was to have or which I was designed to have before the world was But this present gloss needs no such distortion or force done to words but is very natural and genuine 6. Again John 6.38 I came down from Heaven not to doe mine own will but the will of him that sent me and chap. 3.31 He that comes from Heaven is above all and yet clearer chap. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father But clearest of all chap. 3.13 where speaking of his Ascension and that was Local he mentions also his Descension which it is most natural to understand in the same sense No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man who is in Heaven i. e. whose mind and conversation is there though his Personal and visible presence be here on earth as Grotius also interpreteth these last words To all which you may adde John 6.26 What if you shall see the Son of man ascend where he was before 7. These Scriptures which we have cited bear so strong towards a Local descending from as well as ascending up to Heaven that some have thought that Christ was besides his Ascension after his Resurrection bodily taken up into Heaven and that he there received instructions from God and was then sent down to publish the Gospel But certainly so notable a Transaction of Christ then in the flesh would never have been omitted by the other three Evangelists nor so slightly and obscurely intimated by this 8. But this Evangelist flying higher then to be kept within the compass of the time since his Incarnation it had been very easie for the Fathers to have pleaded for the Preexistence and Descent of the Soul of the Messiah from Heaven into an Earthly Body from those passages of Scripture which we have quoted And to make all sure they might have further alledged for this opinion of the Soul's Preexistence that it was at least unreproved if not approved of by our Saviour himself as appears out of John 9. where he being asked by his Disciples whether it was the blind mans own fault or his parents that he was born blind which question plainly implies a Preexistence before this life he seems to admit it is certain he does not reprehend the Hypothesis No more then he does Mark 8.27 28. or Matthew 16.14 where his Disciples telling him that some took him for Elias others for Ieremias or for some one of the old Prophets or other he there again admits or not gainsaies the opinion of the Jews concerning the Preexistence or Transmigration of Souls as Grotius himself acknowledges that of Ieremie to be referred ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but passes to a questioning of them whom they thought him to be 9. I conclude therefore there being such plausible pretensions to prove the Preexistence of Souls not only out of Reason but Scripture it self if the Fathers had been imbued with that Heathenish and Pagan opinion as our
and palpable Overthrow of the Kingdome of Darkness such as themselves shall feel with a vengeance a whirlwind of destruction ratling about their ears as I may so speak the visible wrath of God seizing upon their external persons but there shall be also a visible deliverance of the other Kingdome from this storme of fire and brimstone from this fierce anger of God and the rorings and boilings of incensed Nature against the Wicked For who can imagine the horror the stench the confusion the crackling of Flames of Fire those loud murmurs and bellowings of the troubled Seas working and smoking like seething Water in a Caldron the fearfull howlings and direfull grones of those rebellious Ghosts who besides the general defacement of whatsoever they heretofore took pleasure in are in an unexpressible torture of Body with an unimaginable vexation of Minde Self-love then the centre of the Animal life proving the depth and bottom of Hell as being inflamed and boiling up with the highest indignation and vengeance against it self that when it had so many opportunities it provided no better for its own happiness being now convinced that there is a Special Providence over the Good and that Righteousness has its Eternal Reward For in that day shall all the Faithful renew their strength and shall mount up with wings as Eagles and be carried far above the reach of this dismal Fate that is they shall ascend up in those Heavenly Chariots or Ethereal Vehicles the ancient Philosophers speak of and so enter into Immortality and Eternal rest 2. But if there were not this Visible deliverance of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light the Powers of the contrary Kingdome let them suffer what they would they would imagine it a piece of blind and inevitable Fortune as well as partial Earthquakes and Inundations and particular Conflagrations which have destroyed Towns and Countries heretofore and therefore deem their ill condition a fad Calamity indeed but no Punishment Which will seem the more probable if we consider that Epicures and Atheists themselves admit of a Final Destruction of the World as you may see in Lucretius who speaking of the Earth the Sea and the Heavens presages thus of them Tres Species tam dissimiles tria talia Texta Una dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Three Species of things so different Three such contextures shall one fatall day Ruine at once and the world's Machina Upheld so long rush into Atomes rent 3. My Thirteenth Assertion is That this palpable and visible Difference which Divine Providence is to make betwixt the Evill and the Good will be and is so wisely contrived that it shall not onely be a manifest Conviction and Confutation of Atheists and Epicures and an undoubted Revelation of God's Existence and Soveraignty in the world but in a speciall manner for the high Honour and Triumph of the Divine life over the Animal life Which through so many Sorrows Afflictions Temptations scornfull Reproaches of the Wicked their cruel and barbarous usages shall at last with all the Embraces of her be enthroned in Everlasting Peace and Glory 4. And that this may be done more exquisitely That Wisdome that contrives all for the best was to lay aside all those things that seem so goodly and precious to the Animal life such as are The outward Power and Pompe of the world Highness of Rank Transcendency in natural Knowledge Beauty Birth bodily Strength or whatsoever the Animal life divided from the Divine takes pleasure in and can perform by it self all this I say was to be laid aside in the choice of that Person by whom this great conquest over the Kingdome of Darkness was to be atchieved as it is written He has no pleasure in the strength of an horse neither delighteth he in any mans legs But the delight of the Lord is in them that fear him and put their trust in his mercy Which I onely cite for illustration sake it being undeniably true in it self That God preferres his own Glory that is the Divine life or the Image of himself shining in his Creatures before any Natural accomplishment whatsoever Thus therefore it was to fare in the choice of the Chieftain of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light As if some great Prince being highly displeased at the general Luxury Rebellion and Persidiousness of his Nobles to shew how little he esteemed the Highness of their Ranks in respect of true Vertue should take some one of the Lowest of the Commons yet indued with eminent Prudence Loyalty and Valour and set him next to himself in Honour Trust and Power in the administrating the affairs of his Kingdome So the Almighty passing by those more Superior Orders of Angels that his high esteem of the Divine life might be more apparent and conspicuous was to make his choice in the rank of Humane Souls and to lay the Government upon some one who being designed to that Office from the beginning of the world should win notorious victories against the Kingdome of Darkness and rescue at last all such as the Devil has held captive into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 5. Lastly therefore to make an end at length of my Preparatory Assertions the main Mystery of Christianity consists in this That it is a wise contrivance of Providence upon the lapse of Men and Angels to slur and defeat all the Pride and practices of the Devil and his accomplices and to reduce all Penitent and Regenerate Souls to that Glory and Happiness they heretofore forfeited and fell from Or if you will briefly but more significantly thus Christianity is that Period of the VVisdome of God and his Providence wherein the Animal life is remarkably insulted or triumphed over by the Divine CHAP. VIII 1. That not to be at least a Speculative Christian is a Sign of the want of common Wit and Reason 2. The nature of the Divine and Animal life and the state of the World before and at our Saviour's coming to be enquired into before we proceed 3. Why God does not forthwith advance the Divine life and that Glory that seems due to her 4. The First Answer 5. A Second Answer 6. A Third Answer 7. The Fourth and last Answer 1. WE have now laid down such Conclusions either so Evident from themselves or Demonstrable from Reason or so Allowable by the Authority of the wisest men that have been in the world and yet uninterested in Christianity that the hardest difficulties thereof being resolvable into these it will appear that it is not only an Indisposition to all Religion whatever but the Want of Common Wit and the laudable parts of a man that keeps any one off at least from being a Speculative Christian. 2. There are only Two things more for a further Preparation to be proposed to our view before we come to a Particular application of the several Branches of Christianity to the foregoing
Theorems The One is Concerning the Animal life and the Divine The other is Concerning the Condition of the World upon these times and before the Prince of the Kingdome of Light began that great enterprise of redeeming of lapsed mankind out of the bondage of Satan 3. Concerning the First it is likely some will be forward to enquire What is this Animal life and what the Divine that this must so pompously triumph over the other and why if the one be so much more pretious in the eyes of God then the other is does he not without so long ambages and tiresome circumstances enthrone her at once giving her her due honour without delay and mistaken and lapsed Souls that happiness they are capable of without so tedious and irksome trouble The rudeness and unmannerliness of this latter Question or rather bold and unskillful Expostulation provokes me beyond the laws of Method to dispatch it before the former especially we wanting nothing further to answer it then what is supposed in the very Expostulation viz. That the Divine life is more transcendently excellent and precious then the Animal life is 4. But as Transcendent as it is if we understand it aright that of it which is kept from us is not any thing of it self but an high and precious modification of our own Minds whereby we become unspeakably Good and Happy and are made thereby capable of enjoying God the Highest Good that is conceivable But the Divine life in God is impassible and cannot by any means be disturb'd diminished or incommodated any way and That Life in us viz. that Divine modification of our Souls when it is not in us is not at all and therefore by not being bears no calamity nor indeed being in us does it feel any either pain or pleasure gratification or discontent For it is the Soul it self that has the sense of all and 't is She that feels this Divine sense or life but there is no Sense feels it self else there would be as many Persons as Senses Wherefore the Divine life it self is not injured troubled nor pain'd by any impatiency or expectance of that Honour and Triumph that is intended 5. Secondly That estate that the Souls of the Blessed at last arrive to which is the crowning of the Divine life in them with Glory and Immortality is so Excellent and Transcendent a Condition that it is very just and congruous that no free Agent should ever arrive to it but through a competent measure of Tribulation and Distress as a Tryal of that Loyal affection he owes to so fair and lovely an Object And if the Waies of Providence be something tedious and tiresome in bringing the Souls of men to this haven of rest and quietness yet because we are so certainly and highly rewarded at the last if Self-love do not blind our eyes we cannot but confess that the whole progress was very becoming and decorous and that things were carried on as they ought to be as Aristotle notes of Poetical History where laborious and calamitous Vertue ever at last attains to Victory and Glory And therefore in that regard the Philosopher prefers the reading of Epick Poets before Historians because they write of Affairs as they ought to be but Historians only as they are which do often seem not to be so well as they should be But Fools and Children as the Proverb is are unfit Spectators of things in motion and transaction they knowing not at all whither they tend And it is no wonder if the stupid World be much amuzed at Providence till that great Dramatist God Almighty draw on the Period towards the last Catastrophe of things For then certainly Heaven and Earth will ring with this Plaudite or Acclamation Verily there is a Reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judges the Earth But it is a wayward and impatient Temper in us that we will neither expect nor approve that Method in the full course of Providence which the most curious and judicious Phansies have set out to the great Gratification of our Faculties though but in feigned History as if Humane contrivance could be more just and exact then Divine Wisdome it self Wherefore I say again That assuredly at the last Passive and Perseverant Vertue shall ascend her Triumphant Chariot and be drawn through the wide Theatre of the world in all imaginable pomp and glory 6. Thirdly There is not only a due price set upon the Reward by this long Trial and Probation but there are Peculiar Vertues very noble and laudable that are exercised therein which might for ever have lien asleep without this occasion Such are Heroical Fortitude unconquerable Patience sedulous and watchfull Prudence dexterous and subtile Invention and clear and solid management of Reason against the perverse suggestions or more impudent declarations of the Sophisters of the dark Kingdome Besides we are in a more sensible School of profound Humilitie and Submission to the will of God in all things and have the opportunity cast upon us of so strong Trials of our Loyaltie in the times of Desertion that the remembrance of that Fidelitie cannot but make us find our selves far more dear to God and raise an ineffable Joy and Content to our Minds that we have had such Occasions to shew our Faithfulness and Constancy to him whom our Soul loveth Wherefore from the going on thus by degrees there seems to arise a natural accrewment of greater Happiness But to require of God that he should at once command the Soul into that state that it is thus kindly to ripen into in succession of time is to expect that the Seasons of the Year should be thrown headlong one upon another on an heap and that there neither should be Buds nor Blossoms though they have their peculiar Use Beauty and Fragrancy but that it should be Autumne all the year long as I have answered already in the like case But the Divine Wisdome is the best dispenser of his Goodness who to set all the Powers of Nature aworking brings in Monsters as well as Hercules into the world that Valour may have a proportionate Object And were not the Kingdome of Darkness it self some way usefull and did not some Homage or other to the high Soveraignty of Divine VVisdome and Goodness I dare pronounce it would not subsist one moment but be quite exterminated out of Being 7. Fourthly and lastly There being nothing detrimented but our selves if we be detrimented by this delay of our Happiness as I have already demonstrated and our selves being lapsed and revolted from God it is very just that we do a very competent Penance in that regard that that Divine excellency that we are to return to may not be dishonoured by so vile and cheap a prostitution and too easie and sudden reconcilement For though God be at once reconciled to us in his Son yet it does not excuse us from undergoing a due order of Penalties before we enjoy the
lovely as he could in those notable ornaments of Wit and Manners and other more miraculous accomplishments that were found in that person But his constant devotions he did to the Sun though they shew him to be a very skilful and orthodox Hierophanta in the Pagan Superstition yet his ignorance in Philosophy demonstrates him no genuine Pythagorean but that he did craftily abuse that name and profession the better to promote his Heathenish design 6. It seems those Spirits that the Indian Magicians and Apollonius were acquainted withall were either very Envious or very Ignorant or at least Philostratus that wrote their Story For in the opening of their Mysteries such things fall from them as are inconsistent with the most Essential parts of Pythagoras his Philosophy and Truth it self But as for this of making the Sun the Supreme Numen these lapsed Spirits being haply as much concerned in the benefit of it as we Mortals as Homer intimates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He rose to shine to Gods as well as men it is not improbable but being fallen so low from the true God that themselves make this the Object of their Worship from whom they finde the most sensible good and are kept from that utter darkness that a sad fate at the long run may bring upon them 7. All which things considered we may well grant what Macrobius so industriously drives at That the worship of the Heathen was terminated in One Supreme Deity which the profounder Mystagogi conceiv'd to be the Sun and they were taught by the Clarian Oracle to call him Iao as if he were the true Iehovah CHAP. II. 1. That the above-said concession advantages the Pagans nothing for as much as there are more Suns then one 2. That not only Unity but the rest of the Divine Attributes are incompetible to the Sun 3. Of Cardan's attributing Understanding to the Sun 's light with a confutation of his fond opinion 4. Another sort of Apologizers for Paganism who pretend the Heathens worshipped One God to which they gave no name 5. A discovery out of their own Religion that this innominated Deity was not the True God but the Material world 1. BUT it is easily demonstrated that they get nothing by this grant For whereas they please themselves most of all in the Unity of this Numen there being as they fancy but one Sun in the world as the Latine word Sol implies and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek Nay Macrobius dotes so much on this Notion that he will not have him called Apollo Delphicus from the place of his worship but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old Greek word which signifies Unus from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be derived quasi jam non unus yet the noble and free Spirit of Philosophy will not be carried captive with these cobweb-fetters of Superstition and verbal Criticism and therefore those that are more knowing in Nature boldly point us to as many Suns as there are discovered Fixed Stars in the Firmament as is to admiration made clear in that never-sufficiently-extolled Philosophy of Des-Cartes Then which if rightly understood there cannot be found a stronger bar against either the Folly of Paganism or the Profaneness of Atheism 2. But not only this obvious Attribute of Unity is wanting to this Pagan Deity but several others also that are as necessarily included in the Notion of a God such as are Sprituality Immensity Omnipotency Omnisciency and the like For the reflexion of his beams is a demonstration that Light is a Body and therefore unless all Bodies were Light or at least diaphanous he cannot be Immense but he must be excluded by other Bodies And hence he is not Omnipotent no not so much as in his most eminent Property For he cannot illuminate both sides of the Earth at once nor free his own face of those importunate spots that ever and anon lie upon it like filth or scum maugre all the power of his Divinity as Scheiner and Des-Cartes have diligently observed He is also so far from being Omniscient that he has no knowledge at all a Body being uncapable of Cogitation as the Cartesian School judiciously maintains and I have fully demonstrated in my Book Of the Immortality of the Soul 3. But Cardan attributing Understanding to this Luminary writes more like a Priest of the Sun as indeed both himself and his Father have been suspected for Magicians then a man of Reason or a sound Philosopher But that the charge may not seem incredible I will produce his own words Cumque Sol luceat intellectu saies he qui ei est tanquam anima si ab eo secedere posset Intellectas non aliter luceret Sol quà m Terra That is And whereas the Sun shines by Understanding which is to him as a Soul if so be that Understanding should recede from him the Sun would shine no otherwise then the Earth In which he plainly makes Visible light and Intellect all one From whence yet it would follow That the Sun discerns nothing done in the dark and that therefore he is not Omniscient and that a Glow-worm or Rush-candle are better witnesses what is transacted in the Night then he can be For if Visible light and Intellect be all one every new-lighted Lamp or Taper will prove an Intelligence So vain is this Supposition that the Sun is the supreme Numen of the World 4. But there is another sort of Apologizers for Heathenism that frame their Defence more cautiously averring only in general That the various Rites done to Particular Deities were meant to One Supreme Cause of all things though they have the discretion not to venture to name him For the proof whereof they alledge First that when they invoked any particular Deity that was proper for them then to invoke the Priests afterwards added an invocation of all the Deities in general as Servius notes upon that of Virgil Diique Deaeque omnes studium quibus arva tueri Secondly that all the Deities were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is there were Altars that were consecrated to them all in general with such Inscriptions as these DIS DEABUSQE OMNIBUS and DIBUS DEABUSQE OMNIBUS and the like Thirdly that they had one common Feast for them all which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mr. Selden notes Lastly The Aegyptians a people more infamous for Polytheism and variety of Religions then any nation under the cope of Heaven yet their Priests are observed more compendiously to do their Ceremonies to certain Spheres or round Globes whereof there was one in every Temple but kept very close from the sight of the vulgar the Priests reserving the knowledge of the Unity of the Object of their worship as an Arcanum only belonging to themselves 5. But that This One Object of Worship was not the true God but the Material World the very figure they make use of does most naturally intimate and
naturally expose them to the Tyranny of Satan 6. That their affectation of blinde impulses is but a preparation to Demonical possession and a way to the restoring of the vilest Superstitions of Paganism 1. WHat shall we say then is there no real difference at all betwixt Iudaism and Paganism Yes a great deal For though they both seem to agree in this that they neither reach further in their End then the gratifications of the Animal life it being indeed incredible that their Souls that are so low sunk that they cannot see beyond this present state should emerge to so high a pitch of Sanctification as is understood by that life we call Divine yet Iudaism has the preeminence far above Paganism First In that those rich discoveries of the Gospel are so exactly adumbrated and shadowed out in the Mosaical Types that a man may be assured that they were prefigured by them Secondly That the worship of God according to the Rites of Moses is more pure and devoid of all suspicion of Idolatry which the Religion of the Heathen was not as has been already declared 2. Lastly In that God himself was the Institutour of the Religion of the Jews whenas the Rites of the Heathen were found out and appointed either by Angels as some would have it such as were the Overseers and Guardians of severall Nations and Countreys who if they were good the Inhabitants of the earth it seems revolted from them and corrupted their primitive institutions so long ago that the knowledge of them never arrived to or hands or else at the best they were but the better sort of lapsed Spirits or crafty Political men or impure and malicious Devils And so far as History will give us light all the Religions of the World saving those of Moses and Christ have no better Authors then those of the Three last kinds as you may gather out of what has been already spoken and too many of them I suspect have been ordained by the foulest and wickedest of all the lapsed crew 3. For Mankinde being so much sunk and fallen from God by the temptation of the Devil like a Bird or prey he follows his prize and hunts there where his game is most hovering over the sons of men whom he having struck down to the earth le ts not his hold go but having once seized upon them keeps them as long as he can within his own power it falling to his share to domineer over men as naturally as wicked men to circumvent and domineer one over another I mean the more powerful and subtle over the more weak and unwise 4. Of which the whole New-found World seems to be an ample Testimony there being very few places in America but such as were discovered to be palpably and visibly under the power of the old Serpent their religious Rites and Ceremonies being as uncouth and antick and more bloody and cruell then those that Witches are known to be tied to here For the mind of these Apostate Spirits is that the Remnant of the Law of Nature and Light of Reason in man should be quite obliterated and that mankind should be wholy their Vassals and that they should forget the Nobleness of their own condition and stoop to whatsoever they require of them which are commonly such things as become none but Mad-men and Beasts 5. And therefore it is a very dangerous and false kind of Resignation in those that would pretend to a more then ordinary pitch of Religion to bid adieu to the Rules of Humanity and Reason under the pretence of the exercise of Self-denial For thus giving away their own Will in those things that are laudable and good they give room for the Devil to enter and to possess them Soul and Body and to drive them to the most vile sordid the most uncivil and ridiculous nay the most wicked and impious actions that Humane Nature is liable to as is too much already found in some of that Fanatick Sect of the Quakers who under pretence of crucifying the Dictates of Reason and Humanity and every thing they find their Spirit carried to smother that Lamp of God in them and being thus got in the dark are the scorn and laughing-stock of Satan that sworn enemy of mankind the Devil and delusive Spirits like so many Ignes Fatui lead them about in this bewildring Night that they have voluntarily brought upon themselves by not making use of that Talent that God already had given them but flinging of it away as an unholy thing 6. This is true of several of them by their own Confessions and things of a like Nature to these are evident in most of them whether themselves will confess it or no but let them pretend what they will most certain it is That that Spirit that leads them from the Scriptures from the use of Reason from common Humanity from their Loyalty to Christ that died for them and whom God has exalted above all powers and principalities whatever either amongst men or Angels that Spirit I say that seduces them from such indispensable points as these is none other then he that seduced man at first and would again bring him into a slavish subjection to himself by despoiling of him utterly of all those tender touches of Spirit and warrantable suggestions of Reason and Natural Conscience or the laudable Customes of his Education to act merely upon blind impulses of which no account is to be given that thereby he may be the easier possessed by him and be hurried to any vileness of wickedness to any cruelty or uncleanness without stop or resistance and that the Law of Christ being extinguished the most foul and barbarous forme of Religion amongst the Gentiles may be restored For the virulent enmity of this Sect against the Ministers of the Gospel is no obscure argument that they are acted by the Envy of the Devil whose Kingdome already has in part and shall still fall more and more by the hand of our Saviour whose Triumphs that we may see how just they are we must not passe over Paganisme so favourably as we have but discover the beastly and bloody Tyranny of Satan upon the Nations of the Earth in his more execrable Rites and Ceremonies the abominableness whereof demonstrates That they had no other Institutour but himself CHAP. X. 1. The Devil 's usurped dominion of this world and how Christ came to dispossess him 2. The Largeness of the Devil's dominion before the coming of Christ. 3. The Nation of the Iews the light of the world and what influence they might have on other Nations in the midst of the reign of Paganisme 4. That if our Hemisphere was any thing more tolerable then the American it is to be imputed to the Doctrine of the Patriarchs Moses and the Prophets 5. That this Influence was so little that all the Nations besides were Idolaters most of them exercising of obscene and cruel Superstitions 1. THat the Kingdomes of
external force and violence but by the wonderfull Wisdom of God discoverable in the Gospel there being such winning compliances and condescensions to the Faculties of Man and so powerfull endearments upon his Affections that at the first hearing it is able to carry away the ingenuous captive into obedience to it with joy in their hearts and tears in their eyes their whole man melting into an easie pliableness to this new gracious law in the sense of so great Joy Love and Sorrow besides their being surprized with a just slighting or indignation against the Religions they were formerly ingaged in for either their beggerly Elements or abominable Sacrifices and Ceremonies 2. For whatsoever is defective in any Christ makes a full supply and where their Rites are execrable and detestable he treads quite contrary there to both the foul obscenities and bloody cruelties of Satan But what Propensions in Mankind were more warrantably natural he gratifies them in a truer and higher manner then ever they were yet in the World So that of a very truth Christianity is not only the Compleatment and Perfection of Iudaisme but also of universal Paganisme the Summe or Substance of whatever was considerable in any Religion being comprehended in the Gospel of Christ which was reserved to the last Periods of time as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or summing up of all that went before as the Apostle speaks in his Epistle to the Ephesians That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might summe up all together in Christ whether things in Heaven or things in Earth 3. For as for Things in Heaven whether it be the Objects of the worships of the Heathen namely their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men canonized for Gods and their Heroes or the trust they had in their Dii Medioxumi in the mediation and intercession of their Daemons or whatsoever obscure hopes they had of enjoying the life of the Gods themselves in Heaven after the dissolution of the Body all these things are more compendiously and yet more truly plainly and warrantably comprehended in Christ. As also the Things in Earth as the Jewish Sacrifices and the Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so many and so curious Ceremonies of expiation and purification they are all more fitly and more effectually contained in the Sacrament of Baptisme and in the celebration of the Death of our Saviour then in any of the Rites of the Nations 4. And truly all things are so shrewdly levelled at the Religion of the Heathens in the transactions of Christ and matters belonging to him that he may rather seem to be meant for them then the Jews themselves though they had the first refusal of him so that the counsel of God is made evident as well in the Contrivance as the Effect thereof And this may serve for a General hint concerning the Nature and Composure of Christianity 5. But we shall not content our selves therewith but descend to a more Particular account applying the Grounds which we have laid down to all the Considerable matters contained in the History of Christ which we shall refer to these Heads His Birth His Life His Crucifixion His Resurrection His Ascension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intercession Principality over Men and Angels His Mission of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles The Success of all this in changing of the affairs of the World and ruining of the Kingdome of the Devil His visible returning again to Iudgment to take vengeance of the wicked and to compleat Redemption to the faithfull crowning all their labours and sufferings with Glory and Immortality and reestablishing of them in those Paradisiacal Ioys which they had forfeited and fallen from by the Envy and Subtilty of the Devil Of all these we shall speak with what brevity we can BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 1. That Christ's being born of a Virgin is no Impossible thing 2. And not only so but also Reasonable in reference to the Heroes of the Pagans 3. And that this outward birth might be an emblem of his Eternal Sonship 4. Thirdly in relation to the Sanctity of his own person and for the recommendation of Continence and Chastity to the world 5. And lastly for the completion of certain prophesies in the Scriptures that pointed at the Messias 1. COncerning the Birth of Christ or whatsoever else happened miraculously to him or was done by him I conceive I shall give a sufficient account if I shew not only their Possibility but their Reasonableness And it is not at all Impossible that a Virgin should bring forth a Son if we understand the meaning of that term aright which signifies a Woman that never had any thing to doe with a Man For it implies no Contradiction for her to conceive from some other hidden cause and therefore at least the Omnipotent Power of God can bring it to pass For whether is it easier to create all things of nothing to make Plants and Animals to spring out of the Earth without the help of either Male or Female or to prepare the wombe of a woman so as to make her conceive without the help of a man Wherefore to deny the Possibility thereof is to deny the Existence of God in the world 2. But it is not only Possible but Reasonable For besides that in general it is fit that so extraordinary a person as our Saviour in his coming into the World should be accompanied with miraculous indications of his eminencie there is a peculiar accommodation in this of his being conceived and born by a supernatural Power to those either true stories or strong suspicions of the Pagans who did so easily believe that their famous Heroes whose memory continued so long with them and was so sacred that they did divine honours to them were not sprung of mortal race but were ex stirpe Deorum as you have already heard which is in a most true and eminent manner accomplished in the Birth of our Saviour 3. Again Christ considered out of the body he being not a mere humane Soul but being truly livingly and really united with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by union the Eternal Son of God Now that being to come to pass which S. Iohn speaks of in the beginning of his Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word was made flesh he that was to be born of Mary the Spouse of Ioseph he being I say the true and genuine Son of God begotten of the Father from all eternity when he was to be born here into the world in time who was so fit to be entitled to his procreation as he that was the Author of his Eternal generation and therefore he was to be born of a Virgin and to be conceived by a supernatural way that his visible Humanity as well as his inward Divinity might have a just occasion of being called the Son of God and that the one might be the Emblem as it were of the other 4. Thirdly you have seen how full of
abominable obscenity and uncleanness the Superstition of the Heathen was to say nothing of the carnality and uxoriousness of the Jews and of that impuritie which by almost all nations unless where Superstition has emboldened them to Beastliness is confessed to be in the acts of Venerie they commonly concealing those parts which Nature ordained for such uses from the eyes of men as being ashamed to acknowledge themselves subject to so low a kind of sense It was therefore unfit that Christ should be born according to that common way of generation that he might give no encouragement to that which men are so madly set upon notwithstanding that bridle of shame that Nature would curb them in by especially himself coming into the world to be the highest Pattern of Purity that can be exhibited to Mankind for which reason he also abstained from Marriage and commended the Virgin-life which he might doe with better reason then any he being a more certain pledge of those holy heavenly and eternal joyes then ever was yet manifested to the world Wherefore partly in opposition to the uncleanness of Paganisme and partly for an invitation to his followers to set a due price upon Continence and Chastity as great helps to the purifying of the Soul and the making of her relish those delights which are truly divine himself did not vouchsafe to take our flesh upon him in that way which is accompanied with the height of gross carnal pleasures nor when he had taken our flesh to reap the Joyes thereof no not so much as upon those allowable terms of Marriage he coming into the World on purpose to slight and slur that which is to the greatest esteem and sweetest relish with the Natural Man 5. Fourthly and lastly the being born of a Virgin being one of the notes of the Messias as the very first prophesie of him in the more proper and emphatical sense thereof seems to imply That the seed of the woman in opposition or exclusion of the mans seed should break the Serpents head as also that more plain allusion and lively Type in the Prophet Isaiah of a Virgin conceiving of a Son whose name was Immanuel does exquisitely prefigure This I say adds also to the congruity of this miracle of Christ's conception in the Wombe of a Virgin All which things put together are more then enough to sufflaminate those blasphemous suspicions of witless and ungodly men and to convince them that it was not the colouring of some casuall miscarriage in the Mother of Christ that he was said to be begotten of the Holy Ghost but that it was so indeed and so determined by the Wisdom and counsel of God The greatest reason whereof was as I conceive the Sanctity of our Saviour's Soul and his purpose of discountenancing of the pleasures and pollutions of the flesh and the drawing of mens minds to the study of Purity a very considerable branch of the divine life which he came to raise in the World CHAP. II. 1. That as the Virginity of Christ's Mother recommended Purity so her Meanness recommends Humility to the world as also other circumstances of Christ's Birth 2. Of the Salutation of the Angel Gabriel and of the Magi. 3. That the History of their Visit helps on also belief and that it is not Reason but Sottishness that excepts against the ministery of Angels 4. His design of continuing a Parallel betwixt the life of Christ and of Apollonius Tyaneus 5. The Pedigree and Birth of Apollonius how ranck they smell of the Animal life 6. The Song of the Angels and the dance of the musical Swans at Apollonius's birth compared 1. NOW as his being born of a Virgin is a recommendation of Purity so his being born of so mean a Virgin as the Spouse of a Carpenter is a recommendation of Humility For it is observable that Christ on set purpose vilified and slighted that which is most esteemed and most dear to the Animal life and such are all those things that make for our honour and reputation amongst men And Nobleness of parentage is not one of the meanest of them Other circumstances of his Birth tend also to the same scope for no sooner came he into the world but he practised that which he after taught others he took the meanest place in the Inne and though he were heir of all things and the designed Soveraign of Angels and Men yet he was shouldered out from amongst them and was fain to take his lodgings in the Stable amongst the brute beasts But in this low condition while he is taken no notice of by supercilious mortals yet the Angels celebrates his Nativity with an Heavenly carol imparting the good news of his Birth not to the wise or noble of this World not to the learned Rabbies or Rulers of the People but to men of a lowly and innocent profession to Shepheards attending their flocks by night All which circumstances of his Birth you see how reasonable how significant and decorous they are 2. Nor is that Salutation of the Angel Gabriel concerning it and his prediction to Mary an useless and idle complement but it was requisite that what was to happen to her should be foretold her that the modest Virgin might not be abash'd to see her womb swell she not knowing the cause of it The same may be said also of the journey of the Magi that it is not a thing vainly inserted into the History to make a show but that the fame of the Jews expectation of their Messias about that time being spread all over the East these Genethliaci that lov'd to busie themselves about Nativities and strange events in the World amidst their viewing the Constellations discovering a New star as it seem'd to them and observing its motion were led to the very place where the young King of the Jews lay where they worshipped him not as the Son of God but as one that they expected would be a mighty secular Prince and therefore to engage him to favour themselves and their Country they did unto him this timely homage 3. But though they intended no more then thus yet it being so famous an accident could not but further the faith of those that were to be called in to the belief of the Gospel Besides that it was a prelusion to prefiguration of the forwardness of the Gentiles above the Jews to receive Christ as their Soveraign and Redeemer as also a prelibation of that glory that should at last accrew to Christ for the great debasement of himself and unparallel'd humiliation So that nothing can make the circumstances of the History of his Birth incredible unless it be the mention of the ministery of Angels in it which none can cavil at but such as believe no Angels at all neither good nor bad nor can any be of this unbelief but such as prefer the sottish suggestions of their own dull temper before the perpetual testimonies of all Ages and all Nations of the
World who have ever and anon had new Instances of Apparitions and Communications with evil Spirits and fresh occasions of executing the Laws they had made against Witches and wicked Magicians 4. I should now pass to the second head I propounded could I abstain from touching a little upon the circumstances of the Birth of that famous Corrival of our Saviour Apollonius Tyaneus whose story writ by Philostratus though I look upon it as a mixt business partly true and partly false yet be it what it will be seeing it is intended for the highest Example of Perfection and that the Heathen did equalize him with Christ you shall see how ranck his whole History smells of the Animal Life and how hard a thing it is either in actions or writings to counterfeit that which is truly holy and divine For which end I shall make a brief Parallelisme of the Histories of them both in the chief matters of either that the Gravitie and Divinitie of the one and the Ridiculousness and Carnality of the other may the better be discerned 5. As in this very First point is plain and manifest which is dispatched in a word For in that Philostratus writes how Apollonius was of an ancient and illustrious Pedigree of rich Parents and descended from the founders of the City Tyana where he was born is not this that which is as sweet as honey to the Natural man and such as an holy and divine Soul would set no esteem upon Like to this is his Mother's being waited upon by her Maidens into a Meadow being directed thereto by a Vision where while her servants were straying up and down making of posies and chaplets of flowers O what fine soft pompous doing is here and her self disporting her self in the grass she at last falls into a slumber the Swans in the mean time rangeing themselves in a row round about her dancing and clapping their wings and singing with such shrill and sweet accents that they filled the neighbouring places with their pleasant melody they being as it were inspired and transported with joy by the gentle breathings of the fresh and cool Zephyrus whereupon the Lady awaking is instantly delivered of a fair Child who after his Fathers name was called Apollonius 6. The amenity of the story how gratefull and agreeable it is to flesh and bloud But how ridiculous is that dance and rountlelay of the musical Swans compared with that Heavenly Melody of the holy Angels at the Nativity of Christ For that if it could be true is but a ludicrous prodigie and presignification that Apollonius would prove a very odde fellow and of an extraordinary strein and serves only for the magnifying of his person But this is a grave and weighty indication of the Goodness of God and the Love of his holy Angels to men and a prediction of that peace and grace which should be administred unto them through Jesus Christ that was then born Behold said the chief Angel whose glorious presence surrounded the shepheards with light Behold said he I bring you good tidings of Great joy which shall be unto all people For unto you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord whereupon there was suddenly with this Angel a multitude of the heavenly Hoast praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men CHAP. III. 1. That whatever miraculously either happened to or was done by our Saviour till his Passion cannot seem impossible to him that holds there is a God and ministration of Angels 2. Of the descending of the Holy Ghost and the Voice from Heaven at his Baptisme 3. Why Christ exposed himself to all manner of hardship and Temptations 4. And particularly why he was tempted of the Devil with an answer to an Objection touching the Devil's boldness in daring to tempt the Son of God 5. How he could be said to shew him all the Kingdoms of the Earth 6. The reason of his fourty daies fast 7. And of his Transfiguration upon the Mount The three first reasons 8. The meaning of Moses and Elias his receding and Christ's being left alone 9. The last reason of his Transfiguration That it was for the Confirmation of his Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul 10. Testimonies from Heaven of the Eminency of Christs person 1. WE have done with the Birth of Christ we proceed now to his Life wherein we shall consider only those things that extraordinarily happened to him or were miraculously done by him till the time of his Passion wherein nothing will be found impossible to them that acknowledge the Existence of God the active malice of Devils and the Ministery of Angels But that which I intend mainly to insinuate is the comeliness and sutableness of all things to so Holy and Divine a person which that it may the better appear I shall after shew the difference of this true example of solid Perfection Christ and that false pattern of feigned holiness in that Impostour Apollonius whom the later Heathen did so highly adore 2. The chief things that happened in an extraordinary way to Christ before his Passion are these Three 1. The descending of the Holy Ghost upon him in the shape of a Dove at his being baptized and the emission of a Voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2. The Temptation of the Devil upon his fasting and 3. His Transfiguration upon the Mount Concerning the First there is great reason for that Miracle For God having a design to set on foot the Divine life in the World by his Son Iesus Christ why should he not countenance the Beginning of his Ministery by some notable sign by which men might take notice that he was the Messias sent of God And Iohn the Baptist confesses himself assur'd thereof by this Indication And being there was to be some extraordinary appearance what could be more fit then this of a Dove a known embleme of Meekness and Innocency inseparable branches of the Divine life and Spirit and at what better time then when Iesus gave so great a Specimen of his Meekness and Humility as to condescend to be wash'd as if he had been polluted when he was more pure then light or snow and to be in the form of a disciple to Iohn when he was able to teach him and all the world the Mysteries of God Which may be noted to the eternal shame of our conceited Enthusiasts who phansying they have got something extraordinary within contemn and scorn the laudable Institutions of the Church which is an infallible argument of their Pride as this of our Saviour's Humility But while he humbled himself thus God did as highly advance him adding to this silent show an articulate voice from Heaven the better to assure the by-standers that he was the Messias the Son of God 3. As for his being tempted of the Devil it has the same meaning that the
hardship of his whole life For being that the Kingdome of God on earth which is the Church was to overcome the kingdome of Satan by suffering our Saviour Christ gives himself an example of all manner of trials and troubles of the most tedious difficulties that could occurre like a wise and couragious Commander animating his Souldiers by his own willingness to suffer as deeply as they that he commands Which Polyaenus relates to be the stratagem of Iphicrates who when he saw it convenient to draw out his souldiers in a cold frosty night to assault the enemy and observed their aversness by reason of the bitterness of the season and the thinness of their clothing he straitway clad himself more thin then the thinnest of them and on his bare feet trudged from tent to tent to shew himself to his Camp which did so encourage the souldiers that they set upon the enterprize without delay under the conduct of so wise and valiant a Commander 4. And therefore Christ in like manner for the incouragement of his followers went before in all manner of difficulties not onely in poverty in reproach and in a constant refusal of all the pleasures riches and honours of this present World as being to establish the faith of a better but he was given up also to be tempted of the Devil that we may not be dismai'd by such encounters and know how to behave our selves when we are ingaged in them For his being transported thus securely in the aire by the hand of Satan like some innocent bird in the talons of a rapacious Hawk and yet not fainting under it what can it be but an eminent effect of his Faith in the living God which is the very Root and inmost original of the Divine life The same may be said of his miraculous Fast For himself in answer to the Tempter did profess man lived not onely by bread but by Faith in that Word that sustaineth all things That also is worth the noting that Grotius observes upon the place That this Threefold temptation wherewith the Devil tempted Christ is the most usual and most prevalent that he assalts mankind withall viz. Egestas Confidentia Praedestinationis Spes splendoris humani especially those that have disentangled themselves from the more soft and sensual desires of the Flesh and the advantage of Christs Temptation is that we are punctually instructed aforehand how we are to oppose Wherefore this History of his Temptation is very decorous and agreeable to Reason Nor does the relation of the Devil 's assalting of the Son of God make it the less credible for it is most likely that he was not sure yet he was such in that sense that we understand the Son of God and a question whether all the Devils be yet convinced that he is what we rightly believe him to be But for his own curiosity to try what he was as well as out of a malicious design to pervert him if he could he assalted him after this manner in the Wilderness 5. That of shewing him all the Kingdomes of the Earth from an exceeding high mountain seems to have some difficulty in it For if it was onely a prestigious representation of the glory of the Kingdomes of the Earth what needed a transportation of him to the top of a mountain or at least of a mountain so exceeding high But if it was a real view of them the highest mountain in the world will not enlarge our prospect so as to take in one ordinary Kingdome under our sight But to this I answer That this cunning Prestigiator took the advantage of so high a place to set off his Representations the more lively and to make them the more probable to be true For the Prospect seeming so great to the eye and ruder phansies imagining the Earth a round flat this old Jugler might easily hope that he might delude the Carpenters son with so large a show and perswade him that what was so great was all especially perstringing his sight so as that the whole Horizon should seem full of the pompous varieties of the Powers and Principalities of the world 6. As for the long and solemn Fast of Christ and his retirement into solitude for fourty dayes after notice was given from Heaven that he was the Messias the Son of God this was very seemly and convenient to sharpen the desire of the people to receive him when he did return and to gain more Authority to his doctrine which he was to teach them and to inculcate to his successors by his Example how fit it is to starve the Animal Life and quite vanquish all the pleasures of the Body before they take upon them to be instructers in Divine matters which are of eternal concernment to the Soul When as now-a-daies by how much more a mans skin is full treg'd with flesh blood and natural Spirits and by how much the more eager appetite he has to the things of the World by so much impatienter he is to get into the Pulpit to exercise his voice and lungs and thereby to approve himself for a preferment whenas Christ would not exercise this office of preaching the Kingdome of Heaven before he had at once despised all the riches pomp and pleasures of the Earth And as his Wisdome is discovered in undertaking this solemn Abstinence and Retirement so is also his Humility in affecting no innovation therein but he took up the example of Moses and Elias who after conferr'd with him in the mount at his Transfiguration which is the Third and last eminent accident which happen'd to our Saviour before his Passion and which is not recited to fill up the Story but is of very deep and weighty consequence 7. Our Saviour takes unto him Peter Iames and Iohn three of the prime of his Apostles to be spectatours and witnesses of what they should see on the Mount whither he carried them where he was transfigured before them his face shining like the Sun and his raiment becoming as white as the light where Moses also and Elias talked with him concerning his Death and glorious Resurrection Which conference was First a great Cordial to animate our Saviour the better to go through his heavy sufferings and Secondly a great Satisfaction to as many of the Jews as should be converted to Christianity that Moses and Elias that is their Law-giver and ther chiefest of their Prophets were abettours to Christ in this new Dispensation he was to set up in the World and Thirdly there was a particular injunction even while Moses and Elias were present with him face to face to hearken and yield obedience now to Christ as to the beloved Son of God and to let Moses and Elias go all things being compleated in him For a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud saying This is my wel-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him 8. And the very Vision was a representation
of what was to come to pass For after this Moses and Elias vanished and his disciples when he had raised them up from the ground for they had fallen flat on their faces out of fear lifting up their eyes saw no man save Iesus onely 9. Fourthly and lastly It was a very fit and powerful Instance to assure men of the Immortality of the Soul and to beget a more unshaken belief of the Resurrection of Christ out of the grave and therefore Christ bad his disciples tell no man of the Vision but reserve it till its due use and time that is till Christ had risen from the dead to be added as a further confirmation of that mystery of enjoying of Life and Immortality in a glorified Body against that dull infidelity of Atheisticall men that think the Soul of man cannot act unless in the flesh 10. In the First and Last of these memorable accidents we rehearsed there is an eminent witness from Heaven of the Excellency of Christs person to which that nothing remarkable may be omitted we shall adde also that recorded in John 12. where Christ praying Father glorify thy name there came a voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again CHAP. IV. 1. What miraculous accidents in Apollonius his life may seem parallel to these of Christs His superstitious fasting from flesh and abstinence from wine out of a thirst after the glory of foretelling things to come 2. Apollonius a Master of Iudiciary Astrology and of his seven Rings with the names of the seven Planets 3. Miraculous Testimonies given to the eminency of Apollonius his Person by Aesculapius and Trophonius how weak and obscure 4. The Brachmans high Encomium of him with an acknowledgment done to him by a fawning Lion The ridiculous Folly of all these Testimonies 1. WE have now gone through the chiefest things that happened to Christ in an extraordinary manner before his Passion Before we proceed any further being mindful of our promise we shall give a glance at what may seem parallel in the life of Apollonius And to the miraculous Fast of Christ undergone for so sober purposes which he was carried to by the power of the Spirit I finde nothing to be compared in that famous Philosopher if he deserved so solid a Title but his continual voluntary abstinence from flesh and wine Which needless Superstition is coloured with as contemptible an End that is a vain affectation of glory by foretelling of things to come a faculty that mightily pleases and tickles the natural man and the affectation thereof shews the Levity and Pride of Apollonius his Spirit as also of his grand Instructers in that Science the Brachmans of India who having asked Damis if he had any skill in Divination and he professing that his study and knowledge reached no further then to things usefull and necessary laughed him to scorn 2. But Philostratus writes of Apollonius as wholy giving himself up to the study of Divination and Iudiciary Astrology and how Iarchas the chief of the Brachmans gave him seven Rings with the names of the seven Planets inscribed upon them as also that Apollonius wrote four books of this Art Which things are a demonstration of his gross ignorance in Nature and Philosophy and of the petty temper of his Spirit and that there was nothing truly divine in him though the deceived Pagans adored him for a God For those that descend to such Arts it is a sign there is no solid knowledge in them much less any supernatural principle either in them or assisting to them but that their predictions are Diabolical or else that they are mere Whiflers and Juglers and have no extraordinary assistance at all 3. I shall adde but another parallel and so proceed and that is the Testimonies concerning the Eminencie of their persons in which there is as great a difference as of their persons themselves The person of Christ being witnessed to by an audible voice from Heaven God affirming thereby to the World that he was his beloved Son and requiring their obedience to him but the Eminency of Apollonius being recommended by none but the Ghost of Aesculapius and Trophonius whose den he entred and as it became a Necromancer confabulated there a long time with him as he did also with Achilles at his tombe who imploy'd him to renew his annual Rites and Honours in Thessalie But this recommendation of his was not immediate from either but by their Priests who being informed the one by a dream the other by some obscure voice in the Temple of which there was no witness but the Priest himself gave out great matters of Apollonius 4. We may adde also the Testimony of the Brachmans those famous Magicians whom Apollonius so much applauding they claw'd him again and concluded among themselves that he was worthy to be honored as a God both alive and after Death Nay we will give him in all to make up the weight A certain tame Lion in Aegypt seem'd also to acknowledge his Divinity coming to him as he was sitting in the Temple and crouching under him who when Apollonius told the people that he was that ancient Aegyptian King Amasis come into a Lions body the Beast began to roar and lament and weep bitterly as begging his succour in so bad a condition Which Apollonius being sensible of got the Lion to be sent to Leontopolis a City of Aegypt and there to be kept in such sort as was more sutable to his Royal Soul How obscure confounded and ridiculous are all these Testimonies of the Eminency of the person of that subtil Impostor So base and evanid is all humane contrivance against the Glory and Soveraignty of Christ the true Son of God CHAP. V. 1. Three general Observables in Christs Miracles 2. Why he several times charged silence upon those he wrought his Miracles upon 3. Why Christ was never frustrated in attempting any Miracle 4. The vanity of the Atheists that impute his Miracles to the power of Imagination 5. Of the delusive and evanid viands of Witches and Magicians 1. VVE come now to what Jesus miraculously did in his life-time We may referre the most of his Miracles to these four heads His feeding the hungry multitudes His healing the sick His raising of the dead and his dispossessing of Devils In all which you may observe First That his wonder-working power was exercised upon known and familiar objects such as often occurre amongst men For such are Hunger Sickness Death and Possession of Devils or Witchery not that I think them both one but that sundry persons are possessed that way and it may be most frequently Secondly That Christ puts forth his power no where out of any levity or vain ostentation but as the necessities of men required it all his Miracles being a perpetual exercise of love and compassion to mankind To which we might adde also in the Third place what is likewise general to them all his purpose
Bloud as common and unholy as that of the malefactors that were crucified with him the Wrath of God being not all atoned as they say by his suffering because it is unjust that an Innocent man should be punished for those that are guilty But what Unjustice is done to him that takes upon him the debt or fault of another man willingly if he pay the debt or bear the punishment provided that he that may exact or remit either will be thus satisfied 10. But such trivial and captious intermedlers in matters of Religion that take a great deal of pains to obscure that which is plain and easie deserve more to be flighted and neglected then vouchsafed any answer For all their frivolous Subtilties and fruitless intricacies arise from this one false ground That the Soveraign Goodness of God and his kind condescensions and applications to the affections of man are to be measured by Iuridical niceties and narrow and petty Laws such as concern ordinary transactions between man and man But let these brangling Wits enjoy the fruits of their own elaborate ignorance while we considering the easie air and sense of Sacrifices in all Religions shall by this means be the better assured of the natural meaning of it in our own CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasments of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The great disservice some corrosive Wits doe to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 1. HOW General the Custome of Sacrificing was in all Nations of the World is a thing so well known that I need not insist upon it and That their Sacrifices were accounted an Appeasment of the Wrath of the Gods and Expiation for their faults is also a Truth so conspicuous that it cannot be denied Hence these Sacrifices we speak of were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Placamina Februa Piamina Much of this nature you may read in Grotius De Satisfactione Christi cap. 10. where he does not only make good by many Expressions and Examples That the Sacrifices of the ancient Heathen pacified the Anger of the Gods but also which is nearer to our purpose That the Punishment of those that were thus reconciled and purged was transferred upon the Beast that was sacrificed for the clearing whereof he alledges many citations and these two amongst the rest One out of Cato Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur victima pro te Since thou thy self art guilty why Does then thy Sacrifice for thee die The other out of Plautus Men ' piaculum oportet fieri propter stultitiam tuam Ut meum tergum stultitia tuae subdas succedaneum that is to say Is it fit that I should be made a piacular Sacrifice for your foolishness that my back should bear the stripes that your folly has demerited 2. Wherefore this being the sense of the Sacrifices we speak of in all the Religions in the World it is more fit to interpret the Death of Christ who gave himself an Expiation for the sins of the World according to that sense which is usual in the mysteries of Religion then according to the entangling niceties and intricacies of secular laws 3. But as for those busie and Pragmatical spirits that by the acrimonie of their wit eat off the comely and lovely gloss of Christianity as aqua Fortis or rather aqua Stygia laid on polish'd metal what thanks shall they receive of him whom yet they pretend to be so zealous for the most winning and endearing circumstances of his exhibiting himself to the World being so soiled and blasted by their rude and foul breath that as many as they can infect with the contagion of their own Errour Christianity will be made to them but a dry withered branch whenas in it self it is an aromatick Paradise where the Senses and Affections of men are so transported with the Agreeableness of Objects that they are even enravished into Love and Obedience to him that entertains them there And nothing can entertain the Soul of man with so sweet a Sorrow and Joy as this Consideration That the Son of God should bear so dear a regard to the World as to lay down his life for them and to bear so reproachfull and painfull a Death to expiate their sins and reconcile them to his Father 4. But this is not all the Advantage he had to win the Government of the World unto himself For not only his exceeding Love to Mankind was hereby demonstrated but the cruel and execrable nature of that old Tyrant the more clearly detected For whereas the Devil who by unjust usurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest cruelty and scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane bloud and in most parts of the World as I have already shewn required the sacrificing of men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Iesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became a Sacrifice for us making himself at once one Grand and All-sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Piamen to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Historians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted be several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Further That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirm this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not implie that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 1. WE have seen how Reasonable the History of Christ's Passion is neither do I know any thing that may lessen the Credibility of it unless it be the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun Not that the Eclipse it self is so incredible but that it may seem incredible that so wonderfull so generally-conspicuous an Accident of Nature should be recorded by none but by the Evangelists themselves Learning and Civility in those times so universally flourishing and there being no want of Historians to recount such things This Objection makes a great shew at first but
grant therefore a Divine Shechina and a peculiar visible Glory of God which no creature can imitate residing in the Heavens which Presence he may manifest in many places at once if he please But whereever it discovers it self it is a most certain and infallible sign that God himself is in a special manner there Which ineffable and unimitable Glory is of this great consequence that the holy Saints and Angels receive commands from thence as from the very mouth of God are recreated more by that wonderfull lustre then we Mortals are by the light of the Sun and that it is an Oracle with whom they may consult and receive answers of clear and indubitable certitude and doe divine worship and honour to the external Substance and visible Presence of the Deity 4. At the Right side of this Glory might Christ in his humane shape be placed as at the Right hand of his Father that sent him into the world to whom also he praied with his eyes lift up to Heaven and to whom he said that he was to return when he left the Earth with whom also Steven saw him standing and comforting him at his Martyrdome whether his Visive facultie was in a wonderfull and stupendious measure fortified to discern so distant an Object or whether that Object was not so distant as the false conceits of some vain Philosophers would determine For for my own part I think that if the true Philosophy were known and rightly understood there would nothing more facilitate the belief of Christianity then it CHAP. V. 1. The Apotheosis of Christ or his Receiving of Divine Honour freed from all suspicion of Idolatry forasmuch as Christ is God properly so called by his Real and Physical union with God 2. The Real and Physical union of the Soul of Christ with God being possible sundry Reasons alledged to prove that God did actually bring it to pass 3. The vain Evasions of superficial Allegorists noted 4. Their ignorance evinced and the Apotheosis of Christ confirmed from the Immortality of the Soul and the political Government of the other World 5. That he that equalizes himself to Christ is ipso facto discovered an Impostour and Lier 1. THere is nothing therefore harsh or incongruous in the Session of Christ at the Right hand of God the Father the Mystery being fitly explained His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be found as Reasonable if rightly understood By his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean his Residence in Heaven and his receiving of Divine Honour and adoration from the Church In which there can be nothing suspicable unless there be any danger of Idolatry there where he that is truly God is worshipped The Apology of the Gentiles you have heard already and how far guilty they were of that miscarriage in the worshipping of Creatures under the pretense of their being only more eminent manifestations of that One Eternal Deity which they did adore But the immediate Object of our worship is not simply a Creature but God properly so called forasmuch as he is as Really and Physically united with God as our Soul is with our Body Now as a man is truly said to be a Body or a Corporeal substance because of the real or physical union of his Soul with the Body so Christ is truly and properly said to be God because his whole Humanity is joined with God This is a very easie and intelligible way of conceiving this Mystery neither does it implie any contradiction or inconsistency in it no more then is found in the natural Union of Soul and Body God being as able to find fitting means of really and vitally uniting the Soul of the Messias to himself as of uniting an Humane Soul to a Terrestrial Body 2. Now this which was in the power of God to doe we may be the better ascertained that he did doe it or is to doe it some time For I will not anticipate and fall upon the Third part of my Discourse before I come at it if we consider the Congruities thereof I have recited to you Examples of the Pagan Apotheoses how they did Divine honour to men that liv'd amongst them and were considerable to their Generations for several benefactions and gratifications of the Animal life whether they were the improvers of their pleasures or their profit Law-givers successfull Commanders in War or happie Inventours of some usefull things to supplie humane necessities Hence it came to pass that Venus Mercurius Zamolxis Mars Bacchus Ceres and others were deified by them Now there being so transcendent an advantage to accrew to Mankind by the coming of the Messias into the World and he being to suffer for the Sins of the people and so by his Death to vanquish the power of Death and to set open the gates of Heaven to all believers that that strong natural and at least pardonable propension in Mankind of exhibiting the highest honours they can to their most Heroical benefactors might not be frustrated and seem ever to be in vain as also that the great humiliation and reproachfull Passion that the Messias was to undergoe might be largely compensated and that that which is most lovely of all things and yet in the eyes of men most despicable I mean the Divine life might be exalted even in an outward Homage and Worship as high as ever the Animal life was in the World and that warrantably and without any guilt of Idolatry God when he sends the Messias into the World is so to communicate his own Nature to him or so really and physically to unite himself with him that he may be a lawfull Object of Divine worship Which he is if not only by a Moral adhesion or Political institution but by a Natural and Real union with the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he truly become the Son of God 3. We see then upon what warrantable and rational grounds the Messias is exalted to so high a pitch of honour God having made him supreme head over Men and Angels I speak of the very Person of Christ as well as his Nature For the shuffling and superficial Allegorist will acknowledg that the Divine Nature or upright Being as some of them call it is above all But that they are so shie of taking any notice of the Person of Christ is either out of ignorance in their understanding or out of a total misbelief of the History of Christ wherein is asserted the Existence of Angels and the Immortality of the Souls of men 4. Now if there be Angels and if the Souls of men subsist and act out of their Bodies they must also as I have already demonstrated in my preparative Assertions needs fall into Political order and government and therefore must have some Head over them Which here the Scripture does plainly assert to be Christ who is the Captain of our Salvation for to assist direct and encourage all the Powers of the Kingdome of light to defend themselves and rescue
night for his voiage For then the highest Mystery if it be not a mere forgery that may be in it is but thus much That these young girles the Nymphs of Diana called and carried away the old Wizzard to the enjoyment of those disportments and pleasures that such ludicrous Spirits together with old Hags and others of the fraternity use to make with one another in farre remote solitudes under some broad-spred Oake or on the top of some steep Mountain environ'd with woods and shady Trees which Solemnity is called Ludus Dianae by the Ancients as I have noted already out of Mirandula where out of a special favour to him for the great service he did the Powers of darkness they might break his neck in a frolick from some precipice cracking the shell to enjoy the Kernell or some more handsome way or other uncase him of his wrinkled and loathed vestments of mortality that so being stript more naked then when he appeared before the Tribunal of Domitian he might be entertain'd with the more loving embraces of the Officers of the dark Kingdome and receive the wages thought due to so faithfull and industrious a servant which were but such though it may be in an higher degree as other Magicians and Enchanters do receive So vain so frivolous and vulgar are all things in the life of Apollonius if compared with what is recorded in the life of Christ. 6. But be his departure out of this world what way it will it is likely that the secrecie thereof conciliated much credit to his person and by adding to his Pagan zeal the spurious pretences of Abstinence Chastity Contempt of the World and other plausible showes of Morality besides those Miracles as a man may call them which he did by the assistance of the powers of the dark Kingdome he did not fail to be thought by some to have been carried Body and Soul into Heaven as Enoch and Elias were and to have obtain'd an happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Gods In confidence whereof they erected Statues to him here on earth as Philostratus relates and particularly in Tyana the town where he was born 7. Grotius relates out of an Ecclesiastical Writer that there was a Statue of his that spoke being actuated by some assistent Daemon but that his mouth was soon stopped by the power of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel He dictated also certain Verses to a young Student of Philosophy in Tyana concerning the Immortality of the Soul who had for some ten months together earnestly prayed to him to resolve him of that point which Verses he recited to his fellow-students in a frantick posture starting out of his sleep and averring Apollonius was there present though none see him but himself Which would make a man think it was nothing else but the continuation of a confused dream which he compleated betwixt sleep and waking it being no rare thing for men asleep to answer to more questions then his fellow-students put to this young Philosopher 8. But his real appearance to Aurelian the Emperour seems more probable For his forces as Vopiscus writes marching against Tyana and the Citizens shutting the gates of the Town against him incensed the Emperour so that he made a rash vow that he would not leave one Dog alive in the City But Apollonius his Ghost appearing to him in his tent and dehorting him from so great a cruelty and threatning him into a better minde prevented the mischief so that the town being taken he merrily interpreted his resolution to the destruction of the doggs onely but strictly charged his Souldiers to spare the Citizens This story if it was not true it was handsomly contrived both for the keeping up of the honour of the deified Apollonius by making him so seasonably deliver his native Town in so great an exigency and also for the saving of the Emperour's Credit with the Souldiers that he might seem by the Divine powers to be absolved from that rigid vow of giving the whole Town up to the slaughter and plunder of the Souldiery 9. These are the main things I have met with concerning Apollonius his manner of leaving of the World and the Effects of his supposed Divinity after he had left it But besides the uncertainty and suspicability of the Story it is evident that they are very sorry and obscure indications thereof if they be compared to the evidences that are produced for the real 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ. For Stephen while he was a stoning to the great corroboration of his Spirit in his cruel Martyrdome saw the Heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God in glory and great majesty And Paul as he was going to Damascus to persecute the Disciples of Christ was struck off from his furious purpose by the glorious appearance of Christ from Heaven For there shone a very great light about him and a voice was heard from Heaven saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me c. His fellow-travailers saw also the coruscation of the light and were astonished and heard the sound from Heaven though they understood not the meaning of it they hearing it not so articulately as he that was most concern'd in it Which are Two notable demonstrations of the truth and legitimateness of Christ's Apotheosis to which there is nothing comparable in the story of Apollonius CHAP. VIII 1. The use of this parallel hitherto of Christ and Apollonius 2. Mahomet David George H. Nicolas high-pretending Prophets brought upon the stage and the Author's Apology for so doing 3. That a misbelief of the History of Christ and a dexterity in a moral Mythology thereof are the greatest Excellencies in David George and H. Nicolas 4. That if they believed there were any Miracles ever in the world they ought to have given their reasons why they believe not those that are recorded of Christ and to have undeceiv'd the world by doing Miracles themselves to ratifie their doctrine 5. If they believed there never were nor ever will be any Miracles they do plainly betray themselves to be mere Atheists or Epicures 6. The wicked plot of Satan in this Sect in clothing their style with Scripture-language though they were worse Infidels then the very Heathen 7. That the gross Infidelity of these two Impostours would make a man suspect them rather to have been crafty prophane Cheats then honest through-crackt Enthusiasts 8. That where Faith is extinct all the rapturous Exhortations to Vertue are justly suspected to proceed rather from Complexion then any Divine principle 1. WE have now stretch'd the Parallel as far as it will go the line failing on Apollonius his side but so long as the matter would afford we thought it worth our pains to continue the Comparison that the Excellency of our Saviour's Person might more clearly appear so illustrious a Counterfeit becoming his competitour and that all the world may be satisfied that it was not chance or luck
but the incomparable Dignity of the Person of Christ and the weighty circumstances of Providence that gave such ample testimony to him which made the world turn Christians rather then Apollonians that is made them rather embrace the Gospel then continue in Paganisme though reformed after the neatest and most refined manner by the noblest and gallantest personage that ever was purely Pagan the famous Apollonius 2. But that he may have the field clear to himself it will not be amiss to digress a little further and take notice of some few others that put in for an Equality with him or a Superiority above him and the chief of them are these Three Mahomet David George and the begodded man of Amsterdam whom I dare not venture to bring into the list without a Preface for pardon and excuse for that which looks so like a piece of dishonour and disrespect to our blessed Saviour But Duessa till unstripped will compare with Una you know the story in Spencer and the bold ignorance of some does ordinarily make others take a great deal of pains to explain and evince that which to any indifferent man is usually true at first sight Which kind of undertakings though they be no great arguments of a mans wit yet they are of his faithfulness and sincere love to the Truth which is far better 3. First therefore to speak a little of the two latter David George and him of Amsterdam those two meal-mouth'd Prophets that court the world to follow them by so many mystical good-morrows making the whole Gospel but as one long-winded Fable and themselves the onely inspired and infallible Lights of the World because they phansie they have found the right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it So that their excellency seems to consist mainly in these Two things in a resolved infidelity or stout misbelief of the History of Christ so far as it is Miraculous and a dexterity in a moral Mythology thereof whereby the Gospel is utterly abrogated and more fundamentally destroy'd then the Law of Moses is by the Gospel For there was never any Christian so immodest as to deny the Miracles of Moses and so consequently the Truth of the History of the Old Testament which these do in the New by which you may judge what they do concerning the Old also For it is most likely they believe there were never any such things as Miracles done any where 4. But if they believe there were Miracles let them shew their Reasons why they distrust that what is recorded of our Saviour is but a Fable and let them produce Miracles themselves to demonstrate to us that we believe a falsehood and that God has sent them upon such a special errand as they pretend If they can do no Miracles God is no witness unto them but they witness only of themselves and therefore are mere Fanaticks and distemper'd Enthusiasts having nothing to drive them forwards to so bold and prodigious an enterprise as the superannuating of Christianity and the abrogating of the office of the Person of Christ but the pride and fury of their own inflam'd Spirits and a phantastical conceit of themselves as if God had inlightened them more then all the world besides 5. If according to the impulse of that Spirit of infidelity in them they conceive there never was nor ever will be any Miracles done in the world but that all things are carried according to the course of Nature they betray themselves in this that they are so far from being extraordinarily illuminated that they are more blinde and blockish then every ordinary man that has the fear of God before his eyes and that they are what some suspect them to be a skulking kinde of Epicureans and Atheists But this I dare boldly say that strip their style of all Scripture-phrases and all allusions to the History of Christ and of the old Testament you shall finde nothing affirmed in these Authors that will rise higher then the faith of Epicurus Democritus or Lucretius they positively affirming nothing but what any ordinary moral Pagan would affirm nay not so much as the Better sort that held the Immortality of the Soul 6. But this is the wicked plot of the Devil in this Sect that he clothes their Style with Scripture-language that they may as it were wear the colours of the Kingdome of Light and so covertly destroy or win the Christian Souldiers from their allegiance to Christ and lapse them into the bondage of the dark Kingdome So that that mighty prop of Faith in those precious promises of the Gospel being taken away their heart may fail them in the hour of temptation and they may be wrought by degrees into a full compliance with every transitory pleasure which the natural man relishes whether in riches honour or satisfaction of the flesh and that upon whatever terms the world shall propound it to them So far therefore are those two forward fellows of Delph and of Amsterdam from approving themselves so great lights of the World as they pretend that they are more dark in their Understanding then many of the Heathen who had some kind of glimpse of a world to come believed the Existence of Spirits and the power of Miracles 7. Which Consideration would make a man think that they were not so much as honest through-crackt Enthusiasts but rather knowing Cheats and Impostours who being down-right Epicureans but of something a finer contexture could abuse their rapturous and Enthusiastick complexion to deceive the whole Christian world calling them off from Christ to an admiration of themselves which might be a considerable profit as well as no small pleasure to them and under pretense of teaching them the Great Mystery of the Gospel might endeavour to undermine the Gospel by taking away the Substantial History of it wrapping up ordinary Precepts of life such as any moral Pagan can give concerning Vertue in the mysterious dress of the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ making the whole Mystery of Christianity nothing but a finely-contrived Fable to set out some trivial moral Truths such as are acknowledged by almost every Atheist and Epicurean and the practice whereof reaches no further then the more advantageous managements of the pleasures and enjoiments of this present life 8. I do not deny but that the frequent use of Scriptural allusions and phrases in their writings may raise in well-meaning men a sense beyond the feeling of them that wrote them But where Faith in Christ is extinct and of those promises that he made so clearly known to the world by his Resurrection and Ascension I conceive that this is an infallible argument that the Divine life is extinct also and that it is from some impurity of Body Soul or Spirits that a man sinks below that belief and that his Vertues then are but Complexional or merely Moral such as are found in a cicurated Beast or some better-natur'd Brute This in all likelihood was the
that they that obey it not shall be damned That Christ knew the very thoughts of mens hearts that he raised the dead that he healed men of incurable diseases that he gave sight to the blind and made the dumb to speak That the Apostles of Christ Matthew Peter and Paul healed one Habib Anaiar of the Leprosie at Antioch and raised the King's daughter from the dead as also gave sight to a childe that was born blinde And lastly three Preeminences the Alcoran gives to Christ which it gives not to any other Prophet to Abraham Moses no nor Mahomet himself The first is That he was carried up to Heaven bodie and soul where it is expresly added in Zuna that he shall return from thence to judge the world with righteous judgment The second That he shall be called The Word of God The third That he should be called The Holy Spirit of God These things you may read more at large in Iohannes Andreas his Confusio Sectae Mahometanae as also in others out of whom you may also add that the Turks have so venerable an esteem of S. Iohn's Gospel that they wear it next their bodies as an amulet when they goe to war to keep them from gun-shot 8. This I thought worth the noting partly that that Honour which is due to Christ may not be given to Mahomet of whom the best that can be said is only this That he did not so utterly pervert and deprave the mystery of the Gospel by either his ignorance political tricks or fanatical humours and whimsies but that there was so much of the substance and virtue thereof left as being seconded with the dint of the Sword was able enough to hew down the more gross Heathenish Idolatry chastise the disobedient Hypocritical Christians and ruine the external dominion of the Devil in the World and partly that we may discern what great hopes there are that in due time when the chief scandals of Christendome are taken away they being so far prepared already in their reverend opinion concerning our blessed Saviour the whole Turkish Empire may of a sudden become true Christians that which is vain and false among them having no better prop then the foolish and idle Visions false pretended Miracles and groundless fables of a mere wily phansifull and unclean Impostour whenas the pure Christian Religion comprehended in the Gospel is so solid sincere rational that no man that is master of his wits but may be throughly satisfied concerning the truth thereof CHAP. XIII 1. The Triumph of the Divine Life not so large hitherto as the overthrow of the external Empire of the Devil 2. Her conspicuous Eminency in the Primitive times 3. The real and cruel Martyrdoms of Christians under the Ten Persecutions a demonstration that their Resurrection is not an Allegorie 4. That to allegorize away that blessed Immortality promised in the Gospel is the greatest blasphemy against Christ that can be imagined 1. YOU see then how large the Success or Event of our Saviour's coming into the World is in reference to the external overthrow of the Kingdome of the Prince of this World that old Usurper over the sons of men If you demand of me how great the Triumph of the Divine Life has been in all this victory I must answer I could wish that it was greater then it is that it had been larger and continued longer but something has been done all this time that way too 2. For Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a firm Belief of a Life to come and the Effect of this Faith which is the very nature and Spirit of Christ dwelling in us consisting of Purity Humility and Charity this sound constitution was very much in the Church in the Primitive times even then when they had no succour nor support from the hands of men nay when they were cruelly handled by them they chusing rather to be banish'd imprisoned tortured and put to any manner of death then to deny him who had redeemed them with his most precious Bloud and had prepared a place of Eternal happiness for them with himself in Heaven 3. Here Faith and the Divine Life was very conspicuously victorious and triumphant in that in the eyes of all the world it set at nought all the cruel malice of the Devil and the terrour of death it self in the most ghastly vizard he could put on as you may see innumerable Examples in the Ten bloudy Persecutions under the Heathen Emperours Which History must needs make a man abominate such light-headed and false-hearted Allegorists that would intercept the Hopes of a future life by spirituallizing those passages in Scripture that bear that sense into a present Moral and Mystical interpretation as if the Gospel and the precious Promises therein conteined reached no further then this life we now live upon Earth 4. Which is the highest reproach and blasphemie that can be invented against Christ Iesus as if he were rather a Betraier then a Saviour of Mankind and that he was more thirsty after humane bloud then those Indian Gods we have spoken of who were so lavish thereof in their sacrifices and as if it were not Love and dear Compassion towards us that made him lay down his life but hatred and a spightfull plot of making myriads of men to be massacred and sacrificed out of affection to him that thus should betray them Wherefore whosoever interprets the New Testament so as to shuffle off the assurance of Reward and Punishment after the death of the Body is either an arrant Infidel or horrid Blasphemer CHAP. XIV 1. The Corruption of the Church upon the Christian Religion becoming the Religion of the Empire 2. That there did not cease then to be a true and living Church though hid in the Wilderness 3. That though the Divine life was much under yet the Person of our Saviour Christ of the Virgin Mary c. were very richly honoured 4. And the Apostles and Martyrs highly complemented according to the ancient guize of the Pagan Ceremonies 5. The condition of Christianity since the general apostasie compared to that of Una in the Desart amongst the Satyrs 6. That though this has been the state of the Church very long it will not be so alwaies and while it is so yet the real enemies of Christ do lick the dust of his feet 7. The mad work those Apes and Satyrs make with the Christian Truth 8. The great degeneracy of Christendome from the Precepts and Example of Christ in their warrs and bloudshed 9. That though Providence has connived at this Pagan Christianism for a while he will not fail to restore his Church to its pristine purity at the last 10. The full proof of which Conclusion is too voluminous for this place 1. WE have given a light glance upon the condition of the Primitive Church before Christianity became the Religion of the Empire what change would be wrought then a man might
God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the First Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years There was never any Book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down which is manifest out of other places as well as this In which I conceive a double design is aimed at a prediction of a proper Resurrection of the Witnesses to the Truth by their deaths and of a Political Resurrection to the true and Apostolical Church that does survive upon Earth The former are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter those that worshipped not the Beast c. which if they were not distinct from the other it had been better to have omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore this is the first intimation that there are two Orders of men there set down The one that suffered death for the cause of the Gospel The other that are still alive but resolute Opposers of the Beast But there is also a second hint in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned The Spirit of God seems on set purpose to make choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not bear too hard toward the sense of a literal Resurrection and so urge the Reader too forcibly to understand both these Orders above distinguished to be Candidates of a real and literal Resurrection at this time And therefore he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will naturally implie a literal Resurrection and in reference to the other no literal Resurrection they being not supposed naturally dead but merely a living upon Earth and reigning there with Christ which is their Moral and Political Life and Resurrection The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall reign with Christ in Heaven and those other with Christ on Earth he being universal Prince over both Churches and therefore neither Heaven nor Earth is here mentioned that the sense may be accommodated to either the reigning with Christ in Heaven or in Earth according to the distinct capacities of the persons And the like caution is used in the prefiguration of the time of which there is no necessity to conceit that it signifies just a thousand years literally but that it signifies at least a thousand years and certainly not more then there are daies in that thousand nor in likelihood near so many But the signification is rather Symbolical as the ten daies are chap. 2. v. 10. And ye shall have the tribulation of ten daies that is the utmost extent of tribulation beyond which there is nothing further as there is no number beyond Ten by which therefore must be meant death And that is the reason why presently is added Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life So this thousand years upon earth is a symbol of the Churches stable duration to the end of the world that there shall no Politie flourish beyond it it being a Cube whose root is Ten. And the application of it to the reigning of the children of the Resurrection with Christ in heaven discovers the unshaken stability and endless duration of that celestial Kingdome also beyond which absolutely there is nothing at all But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again The using of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has plainly respect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intimates that their Resurrection was real and literal to which others should not attain till after the Thousand years upon earth After which it is plainly said that there is a general Resurrection and that all the dead do rise ver 12 13 14. Wherefore this general Resurrection being literal and real it is too too harsh and violent to understand this First Resurrection mentioned in this fifth verse to be only Figurative and Mystical But understanding it literally that which follows has a wonderfull natural and easie sense Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection which he speaks thus in the singular number one would think on purpose to keep men off from conceiting he means it of the successive body of the Church during the thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these the second death has no power namely The lake of fire ver 14. into which Hades or the whole region of mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But blessed are those that have part in the First Resurrection for they are sped already safe having obtained those celestial bodies that do certainly exempt them from this Fate For these and all such as God shall afterward make partakers of this blessed kind of Resurrection are naturally free from the reach of the second death But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for sureness and for distinction sake simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They shall be holy sacred and divine persons and live with Christ in his immutable and everlasting Kingdome in Heaven for ever and ever This I conceive to be the most easie and natural sense of this place and that the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and of his holy Martyrs is a very rash and groundless and unsafe conceit fit for nothing but heat and tumult both of phansie and action Nor do I think it necessary that the Sons of this first Resurrection should at all appear to us their celestial bodies into which they are vivificated being naturally invisible and therefore a kind of miracle for us to see them and no more necessary then the exhibiting those Souls to view which Christ carried to Heaven in triumph after his Resurrection which yet he did not exhibit to the sight of the world And if he doe here I can imagine no better end then that of Mr. Mede's that it may be for a sign or beckening to the Jews to help on their Conversion but I can affirm nothing of these things Only I am well assured that if Christendome were once well purged of all her Idolatries foolish and contradictious opinions and wicked practices it would be a very great Miracle if the Jews could be kept off from being converted 7. Wherefore in brief to conclude seeing the truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms as far as respects this present subject is
Person in his coming to Judgment that no tolerable Allegorie can elude them 3. That there will be a Resurrection of the dead in a natural not a moral sense at the same time is as evident from the very last words I cited For who but a mad-man will interpret the meeting of Christ in the air in a moral sense If it had been written in the Heavens they would have shuffled it off and said in the Heavenly being or Heavenly nature mystically understood But will they have the impudence not to acknowledg the aieriness and phantastry of their Mysteries of Incredulity when they must according to the same analogy be driven to say that we shall at the Resurrection meet Christ in the Aiery Being mystically understood But it is as false a gloss to interpret the doctrine of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. so as to exclude the Natural and Physical sense of it it being plain that such a Death and such a Resurrection is spoken of concerning us as is argued from the Death and the Resurrection of Christ who is said to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sins which is impossible to be interpreted mystically Read from the first to the eleventh verse it is a plain History From whence the Apostle inferres that there is a blessed Resurrection or glorious Immortality in Body and Soul which Christ will bestow on all true believers at the last day As himself has promised over and over again in the sixth of S. Iohn's Gospel and I will raise him up at the last day Many other places there are to this purpose in Scripture which I willingly omit 4. The third and last is the Conflagration of the World of which I hold that of S. Peter an undeniable Testimonie But the Day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up The explication of which Prophecie Mr. Ios. Mede has set down with a great deal of caution and judgment To which I should wholy subscribe did I not believe that this execution of Fire were the very last visible judgment God would doe upon the Rebellious generations of Adam leaving them then to tumble with the Devils in unsupportable torment and confusion 5. And therefore I would expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 13. But yet Notwithstanding or Nevertheless before this Conflagration of the Earth we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in a Political sense in which Righteousness shall dwell Nor does that phrase verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking for hastning the coming of the Day of God warrant any one to restrain this Prophecie to a Moral meaning as if it were only high expressions signifying something in our own power and to be done by us For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be either an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denote no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with great earnestness and diligence to expect or if so be you take them for two several things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie hastning that sense is also consistent enough with our Interpretation For being the Day of the Lord is a day of great Joy and ample Remunerations to the Godly as well as of Destruction to the Wicked and suppose it also comes not till Righteousness has had its reign upon Earth we may well be exhorted by our prayers and conversations to hasten and accelerate as much as in us lies the coming of either 6. But that by no such mystical Interpretation as this the Earth can be excused from being burnt by a visible and palpable Fire is clear beyond all exception from the 5 6 and 7 verses of this Chapter Where the Apostle alledges against that usual Refuge and Security of Atheists to wit The sameness and immutableness of the Law of Nature and the order or course of things that all things are as they were from the beginning and ever will be so and that therefore God will never step out in such an extraordinary way to Iudgment To this the Apostle opposes that eminent Example of God's Vengance in bringing the Floud upon the old World and drowning the Earth in an immense Deluge of Water But the Heavens and the Earth which are now saith he are reserved unto fire against the day of Iudgment and perdition of ungodly men Were the Waters in Noah's time natural when God had a controversie with all flesh and shall the Fire that the world shall be destroyed with be spiritual But light-minded men whose hearts are made dark with Infidelity care not what Antick Distorsions they make in interpreting Scripture so they bring it but to any shew of compliance with their own Phansie and Incredulity 7. I know there be that would understand by this burning of Heaven and Earth the destruction of the City of Ierusalem But the description is too big by far for so small a Work and not likely to be understood of them it was intended as a comfort to it being so exceedingly well fitted to the Conflagration of the World and so disproportionated to the other Event Moreover it is manifest from the Scoffer's arguing against the Promise of Christ's coming ver 4. That nature keeps still the same course it did since the beginning that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by S. Peter of the burning of a City by war For such things have hapned often and so they might not think it improbable Ierusalem might be burnt in due time but of that final glorious coming of Christ to judge the World which Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend 8. And truly if a man will but weigh things without prejudice he shall find the main matter of these two Epistles to be nothing else but an Exhortation to grow perfect and established in all Christian Vertues from the hope of that excellent Reward that shall be bestowed at the appearing and coming of the Lord Jesus as you may see in this second Epistle the first Chapter For so an entrance shall be administred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Which is parallel to that in his first where the Promise is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens and so on to the thirteenth verse Which verses doubtless no unbiassed judgment will ever understand of a delivery from any Temporal calamity much less the destruction of Ierusalem from which place those dispersed Jews were far enough removed as far as Pontus Cappadocia Asia Galatia Bithynia To say nothing that the so-carefull an Inculcation of that sad Theam of the fatal destruction of the holy City would not so much become the pen of this venerable Apostle nor the gust of them he wrote to being Jews by Nation
overcharged with Pride and Melancholy and deeply baptized into the doctrine of this Sect shall by his fanatick heat parts and language emerge to that height of honour as to be approved the Eldest of that Family the same is presently become in his own conceit and in theirs also God himself returned to Judgement and all his host Saints and Seraphims if ever opportunity arme them to execute their design And then will they think that that is to be fulfilled which is figured out in that Vision of a man clothed with an Habergion and Harness and girded with an iron chain whose hands and leggs to the very girdle were wet with bloud with a sword in his left hand also red and bloudy and another in his right which was altogether a glowing fire glisning crackling very terribly with many fire-flames Which direful Spectre gives out his voice in the following Sections Vengeance Vengeance Vengeance Now swiftly now swiftly yea now very swiftly Wo Wo Wo unto all the enemies of the Lord and his holy ones and to all the enemies of the Family of Love So great Darlings do they give out themselves to be of God and his Providence and so miserable an end do they prefigure to themselves shall befall those that are not of their blessed Family God of his mercy open the eyes of all men that they may see the fearful purposes of this Diabolical Impostor and quit themselves of these subtil delusions of Satan 3. For if I have any sense or foresight at all in me it is a plot to overrun and subjugate if it be possible all Christendome and perfectly to extirpate the worship of Christ and to extinguish the belief of all his Promises under pretence of a greater Holiness and Perfection then there is in Christian Religion though this Familisme be such as I have abundantly set out to you See his Prophesie of the Spirit of Love Chap. 11. also Chap. 14. Sect. 8 9. and Chap. 16. Sect. 3 4 7 8. and Chap. 19. Sect. 4.5.7 c. In which places he promises to his followers that they shall have the day at last that is That Familisme shall thrust Christianity out of the World 4. Which because they have so great minde should be fulfilled let us suppose a while that they have got the mastery over Christendome and compute with our selves the consequences thereof Without all question although every page of this Divine Authour as they would have him be so thick painted with the sweet repetitions of Love and Lovely the issue of such a victory would be the most beastly Tyranny that ever appeared yet upon the stage of the earth worse by farre then Mahometisme it self For first all hope of a Future life being taken away every man according to his power will be more free and eager to satisfie his lust in the superfluous pleasures of this From whence those that are weak will be oppressed without pitty to satiate the desires of the proud and injurious Oppressour And then again for peace in matters of Religion upon which score especially this flattering Deceiver would recommend himself to the World the interpretations of Scripture whereby he would establish his authority with men are so wilde and fanatick and so dissonant to all sense and reason that he has sown therein the seeds of perpetual Contention unless it be prevented by a Remedy worse then the Disease that is a perfect slavery of the Conscience and an implicit faith That their Prophet is infallible without any examination and doubt Which is the most base and villainous Degeneracy that the Spirit of man can be forced into and is ever there attempted most where the Religion of a Nation is the most rotten and false But that this latter would be the way seems too-too probable both from the necessity of the case and from such intimations out of his Writings as I have already produced To which you may adde that in his Revelatio Dei Where he plainly forbids to try the Spirits by Reason or Knowledge or Scripture-learning but by the true Being of the living Godhead Which are high words but signifie nothing but that we never attain to the living Godhead till we think as he thinks and therefore intercepting all information of Reason expects an immediate assent that is such an assent as we know not why we do assent then which nothing can be more mad and furious or at least relish more of Knavery and Deceit and of a ready Reproach to all Dissenters as if they were utter strangers to the living Godhead But that Religion certainly is false at the bottome that will not suffer it self to be enquired into by Reason as he saith very excellently of Mahometisme Meritò suspecta merx est quae hâc lege obtruditur ne inspici possit 5. You see what a wild and exorbitant thing this blind Enthusiasm is the very Vehicle of Hell that carries to Antheisme and Prophaneness and the Triumphal Chariot of the Devil in which questionless this begodded Mock-Prophet was hurried away though haply he might not know it but gloried in his shame and prided himself in his own Captivity The condition of whose Spirit what it is and whitherto it tends if I know mine own heart I have thus carefully discovered out of no other Principle at all but that Love and Loialty I owe to my crucified Saviour and Sovereign and out of that dear Compassion I bear to my fellow-members of his Body the Church For verily I cannot but melt into sorrow and pitty to consider how deceivable many well-meaning Souls are and how captivable by the witchery of a Fanatick Eloquence into a strange belief that there is a more then ordinary share of Divinity residing upon this Person whom I am so well assured is but Epicurus turned Enthusiast and one sunk as low beneath the light of the Gospel as any wretched Pagan that never heard thereof And therefore I hope all his Admirers that are not so far baptised into his way as to have celebrated his Pascha and slain Christ according to the flesh that is according to the Letter and History and so become perfect Infidels will take it well at my hands that I have so faithfully discovered the deceit that they may no longer give countenance to so horrid an Imposture And for as many as have thus slain the Lord of Life which yet I hope are not very many how they should take ill this my freeness of speech I can in no wise imagine For I dare say for them in that they have thus slain him as S. Peter said in another case they have done it out of ignorance through the prestigious enchantments of this grand Deceiver and therefore they can no sooner acknowledge their errour but find their pardon through him who was truely slain and sacrificed for the sins of the World and rose again for an assurance to us of a blessed Immortality after the death of the Body
are competible to Jesus whom we worship and to him only 1. THE first mark of the Messiah was his Rejection that he should be rejected of the Jews but those places that foretel his Killing more strongly implying his Rejection we need add nothing particular thereof That the Messiah was to be slain and be a Sacrifice for sinne besides that full and copious prediction of Isaiah is clear out of Daniel who saith that after sixty nine weeks the Messiah was to be cut off and then adding afterwards that in the half of the seventieth week he should make the sacrifice to cease it is plain that his Death and ceasing of the Jewish sacrifices and oblations were in one Week and that thereupon his Death was a Sacrifice whereby those Iudaical Oblations were antiquated For it is well known that the Temple and their Oblations continued about forty years after the Passion of Christ so that it cannot be understood of the outward destruction of the Temple and Prohibition of Sacrifices and therefore it must be understood of the nulling of the Validity and Authority of them their Law of sacrificing being abrogated by that transcendent Sacrifice of the body of our blessed Saviour upon the Cross. For there is nothing else that can be imagined to cease or take away the Iudaical Sacrifices in the midst of the last Week but that To these we might adde Psalm 22. and Zachar. 12.10 but what has been alledged already is more then enough 2. Let us now rather see what has been foretold of his Resurrection from the dead And in my mind that is a very clear Prediction thereof Psalm 16. v. 8. where David being transported in his Spirit by a divine power writes higher matters then are competible to any but the true David the Messiah himself I have set the Lord alwaies before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of Ioy and at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore This is so natural a description of one raised out of the Grave before he corrupt there and ascending into the presence of God in the Heavens to enjoy Eternal Life that nothing can be more express But David was never raised out of the grave himself but his flesh saw corruption Wherefore it appears that it was a Prophecie of some other viz. the Messiah of whom David was a Type 3. The Ascension of the Messiah is lively prefigured Psalm 68. The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is amongst them as in Sinai in the holy place Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led Captivity captive thou hast received gifts or men for the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them If this be applied unto Christ the sense is easie especially if you take notice how the Lord was amongst them in Sinai that is there was one chief Angel whom some would have to be Christ which sustained the person of God who might have the name of Adonai as Christ also has and is styled the Angel of the Covenant Malachi 3.1 In lieu of him is here the Messiah himself attended with many Squadrons of Angels and receiving gifts of his Father to communicate to the World that God might dwell amongst them that they might be brought in to be of his Church 4. This Prophecie also plainly points at his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but there are also other places that make it still more clear as Psalm 110. The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool and then vers 4. The Lord has sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The Jews themselves of old acknowledged this Psalm to be a Prophecie of the Messiah and the first and fourth verses are such that they can bear no other sense but that the Messiah was to be greater then David and to be a King Priest and Intercessour at the right hand of God for ever Also Psalm 45.6 Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the Sceptre of thy Kingdome is a right Sceptre Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of Gladness above thy fellows Him that the Psalmist speaks of here he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it cannot signifie an ordinary King or Magistrate because he saies his throne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is for ever absolutely as R. Moses Aegyptius expounds that Phrase Wherefore most justly does the Chaldee Paraphrast make this Psalm a Prophecie of the Messiah whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divinity is plainly expressed in these verses I have recited I will add one place more out of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 9. v. 6. For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller The mighty God The everlasting Father The Prince of peace of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdome to order and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and for ever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will doe this I do not doubt but that this Prophecie is in some sort referrable also to Hezekiah and hits upon him first but the main scope of it is the Messiah and that therein his Divinity and the Eternity of his Kingdome is set out both the Testimony of the Chaldee Paraphrast the Translation of the Septuagint and the expressions in the Prophecie according to the Hebrew Text is evidence enough For they translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller The mighty God The everlasting Father The Prince of peace after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which exposition cannot possibly be sense if referred to Hezekiah but agrees very well with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Messiah Besides the English translation Of the increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no end is so exactly according to the Hebrew that it is plain all the expressions are not competible to Hezekiah and Grotius himself who loves to stretch the sense of every particular expression of these kind of Prophecies to the person they first aim at yet he acknowledges ingenuously that they are more fitly and more plainly applicable to the Messiah Which to any indifferent man is satisfaction enough that they were meant of him especially if he consider that the ancient Iews who may well be thought to understand the Genius of their own Prophets the
and Miraculous in him Whence he could not escape having his Life and Death written by some Pen or other especially it being so certain he rose from the dead as it is 5. For the Jews having crucified him nothing could be more odious to them then that report of his Followers That God miraculously raised him from the dead whereby Christ was acquitted by a special hand of Providence of all their wicked aspersions and false accusations and themselves condemned of the highest crime they could imagine themselves capable of even the murdering of their Messiah Wherefore the attestation of that which would make them so odious and execrable even in their own eyes if it were true must needs make the Attestors thereof very hatefull to them and unsupportable and therefore raise against them all the mischief they possibly could Whence it is impossible that the Disciples of Christ should maintain so hainous a falshood no not if they had made no conscience of lying and yet still more impossible if we consider their Simplicity and Innocency a property in them of which I think it never came into the mind of any one to doubt I conclude therefore That a Person so plainly prefigured by ancient and sacred Prophecies so refulgent in miraculous Vertues and unheard-of Providences one who for the Wonders he did by the unbelieving Iews was accounted a Magician by the Heathen Philosophers and Atheists acknowledged a Worker of Miracles and by his own Followers proclaimed the expected Messiah and the onely-begotten Son of God whom he had miraculously raised from the dead after the Iews had crucified him I say That a Person thus wonderfully qualified above any that ever yet came into the World should fail of having his Life historically recorded is a thing farre more incredible then the greatest Miracle that ever was yet upon Record 6. And now in the second place That this History or Record of his Life and Death was timely enough written viz. while the Eye-witnesses of those things which he did or hapned to him were yet living is also very clear if we consider the great importance of compleating such an History in due time For certainly it could not but seem a matter of very weighty moment Christ being believed by his Disciples to be so holy and divine a Person as he was and that their faithful adherence to him was their onely assurance of Everlasting Life Which great Truth of a blessed Immortality they were evidently taught by that success their Messiah had upon earth which was as ill as could be he being so spightfully abused and crucified in so ignominious a manner whenas yet they might with the rest of the Iews have expected that he should have broke the Romane yoke and been a glorious and victorious Prince to their great advantage in this World But they saw that Providence waved this and by an high hand exalted him into another Kingdome raising him from the dead and taking him visibly into Heaven Which was so palpable a Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality and of a peculiar advantage to the followers of this great Favourite of the Almighty when they were to enter into that other state that the power of Conscience and the Sense of their own good in the other Life would make them very careful and officious to preserve the memory of their Divine Teacher who both shewed them the way to and the certainty of Immortal Happiness Which piece of Gratitude they were still more strictly bound to perform it being so obvious for them to look upon Christ as a publick gift of God to the World not to be restrained to that Age then present but to be transmitted to all Posterity nor confined within that little handful of Followers he left behind him but to be made known to all Israel nor could they long be ignorant but that the Gentiles also should have share in him especially upon his Rejection by the Jews and so he was to become the Light and Salvation of all Nations from Age to Age according to the Prophets 7. That this was the early sense of the Church concerning the knowledge of Christ for eternal Salvation the nature of the thing it self as I have already intimated doth plainly demonstrate For what meaning could they possibly make of God's raising him from the dead and visibly assuming him into Heaven but that he should be a palpable Pledge of that future Happinesse which was to accrue to them that would be his faithfull Adherents and Followers This questionlesse was the belief of the Apostles and all succeeding Christians as the Heathens themselves witnesse of them though in a jearing manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But being catechized and instructed be perswaded by me if you desire to live for ever This Theam is much insisted upon by the Apostle Paul every where in his Epistles Which though I may seem too hasty in naming so soon while I am but driving on a method to demonstrate That there are very timely Records of Christianity within the Ages of Eye-witnesses of the things that are recorded yet I think I have not done preposterously if we consider that there is a peculiar kind of Self-evidence in that Apostle's writings that they are not supposititious or fictitious It being in my judgement out of the power of man to imitate that unaffected fervour those natural and yet unexpected Schemes of high and serious zeal those parenthetical exundances of weighty sense and matter swelling out I had almost said beyond the bounds of Logical coherence that vigorous passion and elevation of spirit and yet all so unsuspectable of any humane artifice that we cannot but be assured that he that wrote these Epistles was throughly possessed and transported with the belief of the things he wrote I am sure I cannot but be assured and find my self in an utter incapacity of doubting thereof who yet am naturally as melancholy and suspiciou◠as other Mortals as I could prove by early specimens of this kind if modesty would permit me to parallel the follies and errours of my childhood with the mature conclusions of such as have affected the repute of being the great Wits of the World 8. Wherefore being so fully perswaded in my self and never meeting with any one that could have the face to deny but the Epistles of S. Paul were the Writings of one that was in very good earnest my appeal to them in this place for the sense and meaning of the first and Apostolick faith I could not hold unseasonable But it is evident in these Epistles that the Writer of them lived within the Age of the Eye-witnesses of the wonderful things that were either done by or hapned to Christ. Whence it plainly appears also That that sense of the Gospel which Paul declares in these Epistles was the first and most early meaning that the Apostles conceived concerning the Mystery of Christianity viz. That Christ's Passion was an
that Iustice Meekness and power of working of Miracles were deriv'd upon our Saviour from the Natural influence of the Configuration of the Heavens at his Birth and as if he did not willingly lay down his life for the World as he himself professes but were surprized by Fate and lay subject to the stroke of an Astrological 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sidereal Interfector As also to meet with that enormous Boaster and self-conceited Wit the prophane and giddy-headed Vaninus a transported applauder and admirer of that wild and vain supposition of Cardan upon which he so much dotes that it is the very prop and master-piece of his impious Writings the both Basis and Finishing of all his villainous distorted doctrines against the Truth and Sacredness of Christian Religion To which two you may add also Apollonius though long before them a high pretender to divine Revelations and hot Instaurator of decaying Paganism but withall a very silly affected of Astrological predictions by which it is easily discoverable at what a pitch he did either divine or philosophize And methinks it is a trim sight to see these three busie sticklers against Christianity like three fine Fools so goodly gay in their Astromantick Disguises exposed to the just scorn and derision of the World for their so high pretensions against what is so holy and solid as the Christian Faith is and that upon so fond and frivolous grounds as this of Astrology BOOK VIII CHAP. I. 1. The End and Usefulness of Christian Religion in general 2. That Christ came into the World to destroy Sin out of it 3. His earnest recommendation of Humility 4. The same urged by the Apostle Paul 1. WE have no finished the Third part of our Discourse and have sufficiently proved That Christianity is not only a Reasonable and Intelligible Idea of something that may be worth Providence's setting on foot some time or other or as a seminal Form lurking unactive in the seed under ground but that it has shot it self into Real existence and is as a grown Tree that spreads its arms far and wide It remains now that we consider the Branches and Fruit thereof And I dare boldly pronounce that this is the Tree whose leaves were intended for the Healing of the Nations not for a Pretence and Palliation for Sin and that the Fruit thereof to the true Believer is Life and Immortality This is a brief comprehension of the glorious End and great Usefulness of the Gospel But we shall be something more explicate in a matter of so mighty importance You may understand out of what has been said in the First part concerning the Nature of the Mystery of Godliness that the Gospel is a kind of Engine to raise the Divine life into those Triumphs that are due to it and are designed for it from everlasting by the all-seeing Providence of God Let us now consider how fit the Dispensation of the Gospel is for this purpose that is to say Those things that are testified in it or prophesied of it or intimated by it how all these things aim and conspire to this End partly by affording the most effectual means imaginable for the re-installing the Soul into an higher state of Righteousness here then any other Dispensation that has yet appeared in the World and thereby more certainly transplanting her hereafter into a blessed state of immortal Life and partly by exhibiting such warrantable grounds of doing Divine Homage to the Lord Jesus Christ in whom this Life we speak of resideth so plentifully he being anointed therewith far above the measure of his fellows So that in this respect though the other design has taken so little effect in the World yet we cannot but acknowledge that the Divine life has not been disappointed of all her exteriour Pomps and Triumphs We shall begin with the former kinds of the Powers of this Engine 2. The First wherof consists in this In that it is so plainly and clearly declared in the New Testament That the great End of Christs coming into the World was to remove Sin out of it and to purifie mens Souls from all uncleanness and wickedness as is apparent from sundry places As 1 John chap. 3. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Again Tit. chap. 2. For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works Also Ephes. ch 5. v. 25. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish I might add several other places but I shall content my self with but one ratification more of this truth from the mouth of our blessed Saviour who professes he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it that is to set it at an higher pitch as appears by the whole scope of his Sermon upon the Mount The observance of which Precepts he does seriously require of his disciples and followers as appears from that Similitude he closes his discourse withall where he pronounces that they that kept and practised his sayings should be safe as one that builds his house upon a Rock but those that heard and practised not should be as he that built on the Sand that is upon a false and deceitfull foundation And a little above he does plainly protest even against such that may have prophesied cast out Devils and done Miracles in his name which yet are greater matters then either the making or hearing of long Praiers or long Sermons because they kept not this Law of Righteousness he there propounds he does protest that in the day of Judgment he will not know them but bid them depart from him as Workers of Iniquity This is sufficient to demonstrate That the End of the Gospel is to renovate the Spirits of men into true and real inherent Righteousness and Holiness which in counter-distinction to the Animal life which had domineered in the World so long not only in the prophane Actions but also in the very Religious Rites of the Heathens as I have already shewn at large I have denominated the Life Divine and numbred out those Three parts
fruit of Godliness properly so called Nor can we applie our hearts seriously and sincerely to this kind of Godliness long but we shall find answers to our praiers and breathings after God beyond both our own expectation and the belief of others and therefore enjoying the victory through the Divine grace that is sufficient for us and getting so glorious a triumph over our lusts we finding our Souls transported with an high sense of thankfulness to our Redeemer and Benefactour who wants nothing of our retributions himself the stream of our affections is naturally driven downwards to his Church to the Saints that dwell upon earth and those that excell in vertue or at least pretend unfeigned endeavours after it And this is properly brotherly Kindness which carries our affections to those that profess the same Religion with our selves Which brotherly Kindness arises not only out of this consideration of thankfulness toward God but out of the very temper and condition of the Soul thus purified according to what S. Peter intimates that having purified our Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit the end and result thereof is the loving our brethren Or else what serves this Purification for Shall Envy shall Hatred shall Lust shall Ambition shall Luxury shall those enormous desires and affections be cast out of the Soul by Sanctity and Purity that she may be but a transparent piece of ice or a spotless fleece of snow Shall she become so pure so pellucid so crystalline so devoid of all stains and tinctures of all soil and duller colours that nothing but still shadows and Night may possess that inward diaphanous Purity Then would she be no better then the nocturnall Air no happier then a statue of Alabaster All would be but a more cleanly sepulchre of a dead starved Soul But there is no fear of so poor an event upon so great preparations For Love and Desire are so essentiall to the Soul that she cannot put them off but change them She is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Psellus calls her an immaterial and incorporeal fire an unextinguishable activity and will catch at some Object or other And therefore if she has ceased to love the world and the Lusts of her own body she will certainly love the body of Christ the Church and study how to help them and advantage them Nor can she stop here but this pure and quick flame mounts upwards and is reflected again downwards and vibrates every way reaching at all Objects in Heaven and in Earth as natural fire enters all combustible matter And therefore in her pure and ardent speculations of the Godhead and his unlimited Goodness and also her observations of the capacity of the whole Creation of receiving good both from him and one another she overflowes those narrow bounds of brotherly Love and spreads out into that ineffably-ample and transcendently-divine grace and vertue universal Charity which is the highest accomplishment the Soul of man is capable of either in this life or that which is to come and thus at last she becomes perfect as her Father which is in Heaven is perfect 5. This is that most excellent way which S. Paul speaks so transportedly and triumphantly of 1 Cor. ch 13. Where having first numbred out the manifold Gifts that God bestowed upon his Church as Preaching Prophesying working of miracles gifts of healing and diversity of tongues he immediately breaks out in the rapturous commendations of Charity above all Though I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels and have not Charity I am become as a sounding brass and a tinckling cymball And though I have the gift of Prophecie and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have no Charity I am nothing And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing And after he has raised our expectation and estimation of this Heavenly grace with these high words of his he does not as the vain Enthusiast does heat our phancies and leave our judgment in the dark but he does very distinctly and copiously describe to us the nature of this Divine vertue so that we may plainly know where to be and what to seek after and how to be satisfied whether we have attained to it or no. 6. Charity suffereth long and is kinde Charity envies not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave her self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evill complies not with iniquity but rejoiceth with the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things This is a very full and lively description of Love and Charity and the character of the sweetest and Heavenliest perfection that is communicable to the nature of man and so warmly poured out from the sincere heart of this rich possessour of it the holy Apostle that it is to me more moving then all the canting language of the highest fanatical Pretenders to the profession of this Mystery 7. This is the highest participation of Divinity that humane nature is capable of on this side that Mysterious conjunction of the Humanity of Christ with the Godhead and therefore this is that whereby we become the Sons of God as S. Iohn has evidently declared in his 1. Epistle general ch 4. Beloved let us love one another for Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love And vers 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another No man hath seen God at any time If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us And again vers 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Several other Testimonies there are of the high estimate the true Church of Christ has of this holy Vertue of Love but what I have already cited is sufficient to shew how urgent the Precepts of the Gospel are for this excellent branch of the Divine life which we call Charity as also how inexcusably injurious impious and blasphemous to Christ those fanatical Impostors are that revolt from the Church superannuate Christ's offices and antiquate the Christian Religion under a pretence of an higher dispensation and Revelation upon which they have set the Title or Superscription of Love adorning themselves with the Churches colours that by this evil stratagem they may the more safely fall upon her and destroy her at least seduce the most simple and many times the best-meaning members of the Church from their true Head Christ Jesus who ransom'd them with his own most precious bloud Whose Soveraignty over
said Does this offend you What if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That will be a very strange and stupendious spectacle to you and such as will assure you of my Divinity but withall remove my body so far from you that you cannot then if you would mistake so grosly as to think I speak of this body and bloud I carry now about with me It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life that is to say They are touching the spiritual body which is the inmost Temple of the holy Ghost and which you are in some measure to partake of here and which shall have its compleat refinement when I shall crown you with the perfection of Life Eternal at the last day Or They are simply concerning the Spirit and that Life which I my self am according to my Divinity viz. The Eternal Word in whom is the Life and that Life is the light of men This is that which you are to feed on and to drink into your Souls when you have not my particular bodily presence with you For this Word and Spirit is every where to be taken in by them that breath and thirst after this Heavenly sustenance of their Souls and so is that fulfilled which he declares v. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him For the eating of the flesh is in some measure partaking of the spiritual body and the drinking of the bloud the imbibing that life therewith that rayes out from the Eternal Word into all purged and purified hearts whereby Christ dwelleth in them and they in him and God in all 3. Again Iohn 7.37 In the last day that great day of the Feast Iesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believes on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Which he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive as the Text it self expounds it And therefore is a good ratification of the Mystical sense of those Prophecies we rehersed out of Esay But these things are spoken more plainly and without a Metaphor Ioh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Which Precept and Promise is like that of Esay chap. 58. which is that if we seriously compose our mindes to do due acts of obedience to God he will pour out his Spirit upon us Then shall thy light break forth like the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward He shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not That is as any spiritual Christian would be apt to interpret the place If thou thirst after Righteousnesse and in the mean time to thy utmost power do the outward functions thereof in thy duties to God and man at length this Spirit of truth will break forth like the morning light within thee and the emanations of the holy Ghost will so throughly refresh thee and strengthen thee that with ease and pleasure thou shalt walk in all the wayes of God which shall be like the flowry Alleys of a Paradise to thee both to thine inward and outward man 4. Not that our endeavours or desires are any obligation to God by way of merit on our part but it is his mercy to the Soul that does in good earnest pant after him For till he has compleated his work in us all our works are worth nothing and whenever they are worth any thing they are not ours but his And to this sense speaks Paul to Titus chap. 3. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us or poured out upon us as the Original has it abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Like that of the Prophet Thou shalt be like a watered garden 5. Adde to these Ioh. 3.5 Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit And Rom. 8.9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his And vers 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered And also 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And lastly Ephes. 3.14 For it were infinite to reckon up all places of Scripture that tend to this purpose For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inward man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us To him therefore be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulnesse of the Gospel and the Necessity of undeceiving the world in those points that so nearly concern Christian Life 2. The ill condition of those that content themselves with Imaginary Righteousnesse figured out in the Fighters against Ariel and Mount Sion 3. A further demonstration of their fond conceit 4. That a true Christian cannot sin without pain and torture to himself 1. VVE have now abundantly proved out of places of Scripture The necessity of inward Sanctification and reall in-dwelling Righteousness
and the high pitch thereof together with the mighty assiâ—â—ance hereunto The Promise of the Spirit of God moving and cooperating in the inward man to the finishing and completing all his works in us that we may be holy and blameless without spot or wrinkle or any such thing We have also prevented all perverse glosses of false Teachers whereby they would slacken and enervate the strength and efficacy of these three Powers of the Gospel we have hitherto spoken of by introducing a bare fruitless and steril Faith or the Imputation of an external Righteousness that according to their compute is further removed from us then the highest Star Which errour were it as harmless as groundless any peaceable good Christian could be content to connive at it but it being an old mischievous Stratagem against the Church and so noted by the wisedom of the Apostles an evil Machination found out by the Prince of darkness to undermine the Kingdom of Christ no faithful Adherent to the interest of the Lord Jesus and the advancement of his Rule and Power in the World can with a good conscience slightly pass it over but will use his best endeavour to undeceive the world in so dangerous a mistake 2. And though I be now hasting apace to the next joynt of the Evangelical Engine I am describing yet I cannot passe on with satisfaction to my self before I have also added to the suffrages of the Apostles who unanimously have voted this opinion of being righteous without doing righteousnesse a very dangerous Imposture and Deceit some rational Considerations that may make us still more sensible of the ill consequences thereof For my own part I must confesse that it is to me a thing utterly inconceivable how a man can be righteous here without Righteousnesse or happy hereafter without Righteousnesse here or how any true Christian can please himself in a Palliation more then a Cure or can be satisfied with any thing but that Manna that came down from heaven the very Flesh and Bloud of Christ in that sense I have interpreted it or without feeding his Soul with that real Spirit of Righteousness or the Divine Nature which is meat indeed and drink indeed For I do not understand how the condition of these Opposers of so Essential and Fundamental a Truth can be any other then what the Prophet Esay has prefigured in those that fight against Ariel the Altar of Holocausts where the whole beastly nature is to be burned by the consuming Fire of God and that lay siege against Mount Sion the Hill of that Drinesse and Thirst which God has promised to irrigate with living Springs of water It shall be as when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint So shall the multitude of the Nations be that fight against Mount Sion This is the condition of all Sects whatsoever that are contrary to them that thirst and hunger after righteousness For these shall be really satisfied the dew of Divine grace shall plentifully showr down upon this Sion and they shall be filled with Spiritual Manna from Heaven whereas the other their hunger and thirst that is their wants and defects being real but not after real Righteousness are fed only by imaginations and dreams and whenever they awake out of them will finde themselves destitute 3. Nay what is yet worse a man may almost conclude that they are not so much as in a capacity of dreaming of celestial food For that is a function of life to dream of such things as are agreeable to such a species of living creatures and those that dream of such things as are congruous to their nature it is because they have had an enjoyment of them and do sometimes enjoy them according to the order of Nature And certainly he that is a true Christian is not a mere natural man but is that New Creature that is framed in righteousness and true holinesse and therefore he must be fed out of such Principles as he was generated from not of the will of man but the Spirit of God and therefore he does not only dream of but really feed of that Manna that is from Heaven that inward essential Righteousnesse that is from God And as it is impossible for one man to eat to drink and to breath for another in a natural way so also is it alike impossible for any one person to eat and drink and breath in a spiritual way for another And if we were wholly alive to that life that is most certainly in every Christian rightly so called we should think it as inconvenient that any one should be righteous for us as that he should be in health for us For what comfort would it be while we are in a tedious fever a sharp fit of the stone or gout that some other person should be sound and at ease for us 4. And therefore it is too shrewd an indication that men in this imaginary perswasion are in a manner past feeling as the Apostle speaks as being devoid of all divine life and sense otherwise Sin and Immorality would be as harsh to their Souls as these Diseases are painful to their bodies And hence it is that S. Iohn saith That he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God remaineth in him as I have noted above For what Principle of life sins against it self what Beast wilfully wounds it self what Tree blasts it self what life will so much as hurt it self any way Will the Eagle swim in the Sea or the Dolphin fly in the Aire Will not all Creatures keep them to their own Element and Original and fly their contrary Element as that which brings destruction or at least a great deal of diseasement to them What regenerate man then can endure to come near the Region of Sin It can be no more pleasant to him then the Smoke to his eyes or the Saw to his hearing How can I do this wickedness and sin against God Nay how can I cut and launce and scorch my self my better self even Christ which lives in me with whom I suffer as often as his image suffers And this may serve for a more generall taste of the unreasonablenesse of this wicked and mischievous Imposture that has ever more or lesse attempted the Church of Christ. But I shall bring you in a more punctual Bill of the losses and damages done thereby CHAP. XI 1. That the want of real Righteousness deprives us of the Divine Wisedom proved out of Scripture 2. As also from the nature of the thing it self 3. That it disadvantages the Soul also in Natural speculations 4. That it stifles all Noble and laudable Actions 5. And exposes the imaginary Religionist to open reproach 6. That mere imaginary Righteousness robs the Soul of her peace of Conscience 7. And of
abuse thus treacherously the great gift of God therefore the divine Wisdome may not lodge in his false heart but in stead of that any fortuitous Opinions which his own natural inclinations practices education or confusion of his own mind and conscience shall heap together in him hand over head which he taking for Truth shall notwithstanding abuse and shew the divine Wisdome how he would also use her if he could come at her 't is likely worse or rather he would abuse himself worse with her then with those that meat being worst for the sick which is best for them that are well But beside that the counsell of God is such that he will not give the gift of Wisdome to the wicked heart there is also an incongruity if not an incompossibility in the thing it self The wicked man is uncapable of it The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sun cannot be seen by the Eye unless the Eye receive the likeness of the Sun as Plotinus speaks Wherefore we doe very foolishly in that we bestow so much time in the exercise of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so little in the preparing and fitting of it that afterward the use of it may be with good effect If the Eyes be weak muddy and dim even almost to blindness we are not so foolish as to think to perfect our sight by looking long or often or on many Objects it makes our sight rather worse but the disease of the Eye is first to be taken away and then with ease and in a moment we may see more then before we could in many years by wearisome poaring with our short sight or rather which is more to the purpose we should be able to discern such things as in our former condition we should never have been able at all to discern So the Soul of man in its unrighteous and polluted condition does very unadvisedly with so much curiosity and anxious labour to endeavour the discoveries of divine Truths for there is as yet Laesum organum and she ought to commit her self first to the skill of a faithfull Physitian to Christ who is the healer of the Souls of men as well as he was of their Bodies and so to be re-estated again into that state of health and soundness and Righteousness is this soundness of the Soul and then to use her Faculty when it is able to receive that whereby the Object is discovered In lumine tuo videbimus lucem In thy light we shall see light But if the Eye receive no light it discovers no Object So if the Soul receive no impresse from God it discovers nothing of God For it is most certainly true That like is known by like and therefore unless the Image of God be in us which is Righteousness and true Holiness we know nothing of the Nature of God and so consequently can conclude nothing concerning him to any purpose For we have no measure to applie to him because we are not possessed of any thing homogeneal or of a like nature with him and this only can be a measure for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks But when we are arrived to that Righteousness or rectitude of Spirit or uprightness of Mind by this as by the Geometrical Quadrate we also comprehend with all Saints what is that spiritual breadth and length and depth and height as the Apostle speaks What the Rectitude of an Angle does in Mathematical measurings the same will this Uprightness of Spirit doe in Theological Conclusions 3. And not to make this loss of Wisdome a jot less then it is I further add That Unrighteousness is encumbred with many distempers and impediments whereby even Natural knowledge as well as Divine Wisdome is much hindred in a man Such are Anger Impatience Self-admiration or Self-conceitedness Admiration of persons or a pusillanimous Over-estimation of them Desire of Victory more then of Truth Too close attention to the things of the world as Riches Power and Dignities Immersion of the Mind into the Body and the slaking of that noble and divine fire of the Soul by Intemperance and Luxury with such like All which certainly are very great enemies to all manner of Knowledge as well Natural as Divine And as for Anger which appears in disputes that it blinds the Judgement is an acknowledged truth as those Proverbial sayings witness Impedit ira animum c. and Ira furor brevis and Madness and Wisdome do not consist together This Passion placed upon Religious objects is called Zeal and the Apostle that there may be no mistake calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter Zeal But this inordinate Anger be it in things Humane or Religious it is really a Whirlwinde in our Soul and carries up with it dirt and straws and dust and all in to the Understanding and does alwaies more or less blind the Judgment And how great an enemy Impatience is to that choice piece of Natural knowledge which lies in Mathematicks is evident from hence That those Sciences either find or make the studiers of them of calm and quiet Spirits as Petiscus truly observes But whether the Admiration of our selves or of other Persons be more mischievous to the Truth is not easie to define For though we be more prone to admire our selves yet we may with less checking admire another it looking something like Friendship or Modesty though commonly if not alwaies we have some lurking interest involved in the same and so admire our selves in another with less Envy and Suspectedness Wherefore the next way not basely to admire another is not conceitedly to admire ones self or more favourably to look on a mans own conceits then on a strangers For it will be very hard for one whom Self-love does not impose upon to be imposed upon by any other person whom he cannot love better then himself And as for Desire of Victory the sense of that folly is That a man had rather seem wise then be so or have the glory and fame then the possession of Wisdome And he that is thus affected must of necessity follow such things as are most obvious plausible and popular and so become a fool amongst wise men as well as seem a wise man amongst fools And as for close Attention to the world that man ought to hold there be more Souls then One in a mans body that will hold that ambitious and covetous men have any leisure to be much seen either in Divine or Natural things For their plottings after Wealth and Honour and the putting of their plots in execution will take up the Animadversion of the Soul so much that one Animadversive will not suffice for both these Provinces So that it is possible that men that have not addicted themselves to any such projects but have been ever imploied in
the single search after Wisdome may understand more in Divinity and Nature then they who by long diligence and industry have at last scrambled up to the top of Honour and Riches a Position never allowed of either by the Iewish Prelates of old or the present Cardinals Which has made the one bold persecutors of Christ the other of the chief Christian Philosophers As is manifest in the story of Galileo Lastly Immersion of the Mind into the Body Sensuality and Intemperance that these be main impediments to Knowledge is most plain For seeing that the Soul in this state does depend on the Brain for Phansy and Memory without which there can be no Understanding as well as on the Eye and Ear for seeing and hearing it will follow that the Brain being altered and distempered by frequent excess the Faculty of Understanding will also goe to wrack For if the very clime or temper of the Air wherein men are bred and born does avail so much for wit or dulness as has been alwaies acknowledged that it does whence is that by-word of a Boeotian wit certainly distemper in Diet will as much if not much more And it is known by too frequent and wofull experience how many men of good natural parts have either buried them in Gluttony or drowned them in Drunkenness or consumed them by Lust. This Truth indeed is more easie to be understood then worthily to be deplored 4. I have now sufficiently proved That we are assuredly cheated of true Wisdome and a sound Mind by that mischievous conceit That a man may be righteous though he be not righteous as Christ was righteous that is really righteous And that we are also cheated of all noble and profitable Actions is as plain For from whence should they arise but from these two fountains Righteousness and Wisdome And the former is here supposed to be wanting from whence has been clearly proved the want also of the other Wherefore the good and happiness of Mankind does here most miserably goe to wrack 5. And therefore thirdly There is no ground of deserved Reputation amongst men But their mouths will be closed in silence if not opened in reproach For the unrighteous Nature will work in those that be really unrighteous and the actions of unrighteousness in those that will however be reckoned in the number of the righteous for some other cause then for being so indeed will be more lavishly spoken against for their numbring of themselves amongst those that are godly For the miscarriages of those that make no shew of Religion nor pretend to Holiness are noted only by them that are holy and they only take offence at it but when they that are reckoned amongst the Religious do transgress even the Wicked themselves that are willing to wink at one another will take great offence at these and talk very loud against them For their wicked Acts breaking through that external covering and outside of Religion they are deservedly laught at as the Ass by the beasts of the Forrest when his unsutable ears appeared through the Lions skin and his rude braying betraied his nature 6. This imaginary Righteousness does rob us also of Tranquillity and Peace of Mind For he that acts unrighteously is in actual rebellion against right Reason and the Spirit of God and he that is only imaginarily righteous will not fail to act unrighteously for real Unrighteousness will have its real effects as well as poisonous Plants their fruit and Serpents their spawn Wherefore he that has no more then imaginary righteousness carries a Kingdome of Rebellion in himself and unless he be given up to a reprobate sense the peace and tranquillity of his mind cannot but be shaken For verily the Rational Soul of man is not so utterly estranged from all Vertue and Goodness nay indeed there is that congruity and connaturality betwixt them that it will be a hard task utterly to break off that ancient league For Vertue is natural to the Soul Vice and Immorality extraneous and adventitious else why do they call the cleansing of the Soul from Vice the Purging of her For Purgation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Platonists well define it the taking away of what is unnatural and improper Wherefore seeing that Vertue is natural to the Soul it is reasonable to conceive it is better rooted then to be expunged quite or a sudden by any one Phansy or Opinion and that the sense thereof will not so easily be washed out And therefore it remaining there and yet a man acting according to some unnatural or irrational conceit that he has taken up he knows not how unawares he acting I say against this noble and innate sense of the Soul he must needs be wounded and disquieted 7. Divine Ioy and Triumph of the Soul is taken away For what is Ioy and Triumph but the more fully and easie of any Nature according to its own principle As the Flame when it has broke through the smoke and raw smotherings of the fewel into more free activity and more uncurb'd vibrations of its own splendour and light And verily the Soul has found its own freedom and force and easie activity and natural complacency in the Spirit of Righteousness when once it has from many incumbrances of the flesh and of the world broke out into that Divine flame and so felt what is most perfective of her self and of her own happiness and what suits her better then any thing that ever she had a sense of before Which is a sign again that this is most natural to the Soul her sense being most satisfied therewith And in the high enjoiment of so enravishing a good what can she doe less then breath out her pleasure in such like ejaculations as these Rejoice in the Lord alwaies and again I say rejoice and with the Psalmist Rejoice in the Lord O ye righteous for it becometh the just to be thankfull 8. That Health and Safety is taken away by this substituting of Imagination for real Righteousness is plain For if the keeping of the Law is health to the navel and marrow to the bones as the wise man speaks what must Unrighteousness be but a canker in the flesh and rottenness to the bones And if that of the Apostle be true Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good then what harm may you not fall into if you adhere to what is evil 9. As we are deprived of Health and Safety here so also shall we be defrauded of our Eternal Happiness hereafter by this imposture wherewith we are imposed upon by our own selves For to say nothing by way of argument from the Reason of the thing how incompetible and incongruous Heaven is to an unrighteous Soul the Testimony of Scripture is plain in this matter For no unclean thing may enter into the holy City And 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdome
them reproach the person of Christ in his highest Agonies on the Crosse and impute that to a sinful weaknesse and imperfection that was but the due effect of the weight of his Sufferings who bore the Sins of the whole world and made an atonement with God for them Yet because he cryed out in the words of that Psalme which is a lively Prophecie of his Sufferings My God my God why hast thou forsaken me therefore must that Fanatick Fool of Amsterdam and his illuminate Elders that boast so much of Perfection be more perfect then the Son of God himself whose certain appearance in the World is so clearly demonstrated out of the ancient Prophecies of the Old Testament and so manifestly ratified by the Miracles recorded in the New 11. I appeal to all men if Satan himself could vent any thing more despightful and scornful against the endearing sufferings of our ever-blessed Saviour who out of tender love to Mankind underwent those dreadful agonies of Death and waded through the heavy wrath of God for sinners then these Wretches have that would recommend themselves to the VVorld under the false Flourish and Hypocritical Title of the Family of Love whereas by antiquating the use of the Passion of Christ and thus villainously reproaching Christ upon the Crosse they demonstrate to all the world that they have not the least sense or skill in so Divine a Mystery but are wicked Apostates from God who is that pure and Divine Love and Underminers of the Kingdome of his Son Jesus Christ In which neither such high-flown Enthusiasts nor any dry churlish Reasoners and Disputers shall have either part or portion till they lay down those Gigantick humours and become as our Saviour Christ who is the unerring Truth has prescribed like little Children for of such as these onely is the Kingdome of Heaven as the Prince of that Kingdome has declared These therefore he embraced and blessed when he was alive these he dying on the Crosse stretched out his armes to receive to these he wept drops of bloud that they might shed tears for these he was scourged that they might chastise the exorbitancy of their own lusts and evil concupiscences for these he shed his most precious bloud that they might die to Sin and live to Righteousnesse by that power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead This is the Foolishness of the Crosse a Scandal not onely for such as are Unbelievers but even to many of them also that would be accounted zealous and knowing Christians CHAP. XVI 1. The End of Christs Sufferings not onely to pacifie Conscience but to root out Sin witnessed out of the Scripture 2. Further Testimonies to the same purpose 3. The Faintnesse and Uselesnesse of the Allegory of Christs Passion in comparison of the Application of the History thereof 4. The Application of Christs Sufferings against Pride and Covetousnesse 5. As also against Envy Hatred Revenge vain Mirth the Pangs of Death and unwarrantable Love 6. A General Application of the Death of Christ to the mortifying of all Sin whatsoever 7. The celebrating the Lords Supper the use and meaning thereof 1. BUT that this is the meaning of Christs Sufferings that is That we should also suffer in the Flesh and mortifie our sinfull members besides what our Saviour himself has intimated in comparing himself to the Brazen Serpent in the VVildernesse the sight whereof did not onely asswage the pain of them that were bitten but take away the poison whence we may reasonably conclude that the looking on Christ on the Crosse is not onely to heal the Stings of Conscience upon sin committed but to destroy the Poison and corruption of Sin out of us that we may not sin any more is plain in that the Apostles themselves also do urge the Use of Christ Crucified to both those ends and purposes Saint Iohn 1 Epist. chap. 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not But if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins But this use of the Crosse namely Propitiation and the Peace of Conscience all men catch at There is more need of producing such places as shew the other use thereof for the Mortification of our sins That of Saint Peter 1 Epist. chap. 4. is very expresse For asmuch therefore as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same minde for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God For the time past of our lives may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lust excesse of wine revelling banquettings and abominable Idolatries To which sense he speaks at least as fully Chap. 2. ver 19. For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the tree that we being dead to Sin should live unto Righteousnesse by whose stripes we are healed For ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls What can warrant the use of the Crosse for the cure of sins more plainly then this 2. But we will hear also what Saint Paul saith 2 Tim. chap. 2. ver 11. This is a faithful saying If we be dead with Christ then shall we also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us This is most certainly true as well of inward Mortification as of outward trouble and the mention of the death of Christ is to support our Spirits in the enduring of both And Philip. 3. ver 10. That I may know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death viz. That as Christ died upon the Crosse so he might be crucified to the world and all the vain Lusts thereof and those that walk otherwise he cannot but proclaim them enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who minde earthly things ver 18. And Galat. 6.14 But God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ by which the world is crucified to me and I unto the world that is The world is but a dead spectacle to me my affections being dead to it I will close all with that excellent place Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that as
they being given up into the power of those deformed Fiends of Hell the very thoughts of whose sight and company might be enough to affright any man that is not Atheistically sortish from assimilating himself to those nasty Gaol-birds by repeated acts of Vice and Wickedness Besides what smart of punishment shall reach both their outward Senses and guilty Consciences by the inevitable rod of God's Justice upon them 3. VVherefore it is most indispensably rational to use this VVorld as if we used it not and to addict our selves to such Pleasures as are most proper to the other State such as are those most delicious touches senses of the Divine Love or that pure and intellectual Affection which S. Paul calls Charity VVhereby we delight in the good of another as if it were our own whereby we rejoice in the wisdome goodness of God displaied his Creatures whereby we ardently desire the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ infinitely before any private advantage whatsoever and do faithfully assist and earnestly expect the joyful accomplishment and finishing of the great Mystery of Godliness in the fullest period thereof to a final Triumph over Sin and Satan and a perfect Redemption of the Church of Christ into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 4. These are the warrantable Pleasures of the Soul that has a designe upon the Life to come of a Soul that is risen with Christ and therefore seeks those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And upon this very consideration the Apostle enforceth his Exhortation Colos. 3. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth Fornication Uncleannesse inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry And our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Lay not up for your selves treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves break through and steal For where your treasure is there will your heart be also And therefore Saint Paul professes of himself and exhorts others to imitate him that his minde is wholly taken up with those things which are above Philip. 3.17 Brethren be followers of me and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an example For our conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our municipal affairs our negotiations of greatest concernment are in Heaven of which City we are and from whence we look for our Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 5. And verily he that through Faith is once possest of these things it is a wonder to me how he can think of any thing else As the Prisoner could not abstain from the pleasure of thinking of the known day of his Liberty or a poor man of an Inheritance that would certainly fall to him within the term of few years And if it were Conditional as this of the Kingdome of Heaven is we may easily conceive how much he were concerned to have a care punctually to observe the Conditions propounded or earnestly to endeavour to get such Qualifications as that he may not forfeit the enjoiment of that Fortune which otherwise would naturally fall to his share And how they are to be qualified that are to be Heires of that everlasting Inheritance the Scripture doth plainly set out there must no unclean thing enter into the Holy City None can be Heirs of this Kingdome but the sons of God nor any be the sons of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8. And what are the Fruits and Effects of that domestick Guide the Apostle has plainly told us already Galat. 5. That the fruits of the Spirit are Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse Faith Meekness Temperance And they that are Christs in whose Title alone it is that we can lay claim to Heaven have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And again Rom. 8. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live that is to say ye shall live the life of Peace and Joy and Righteousness here and of Eternal Glory hereafter 6. Wherefore we see what an urgent Power the Meditation of future Happiness is to the Believer to make him endeavour to the utmost to be Partaker of the Divine Nature and to aspire to a due measure of Holiness without which we shall necessarily be frustrate of our expected Happiness The consideration whereof cannot but wean him from all the exorbitant desires of the Pleasures Profits or Honours of this World Which though they had not intermingled with them many vexations and distasts much care and solicitude but were certain for this life and entire yet Life being uncertain and the longest terme thereof but like a Dream or a Post that goes by in comparison of our future abode elsewhere I dare leave it to the worldly mans own computation what a pittiful bargain he has made in forgoing what is to come for these temporary Enjoyments worse far then he that sold his Birth-right for a mess of Pottage But I shall not dilate any further on so plain a matter All the Wit and Rhetorick of Man cannot move him whom those known but weighty Words of our Saviour will not VVhat will it profit a man to gain the whole VVorld and to lose his own Soul CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace hâ—re shall be in better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happinesse 1. WE come now to the Seventh and last Power of the Gospel which is The consideration of the dreadful Solemnity of the Day of Iudgement the very mention whereof from the mouth of Paul made Felix the Governour to tremble And I must confess it is so hard an Engine that it is more fit to beat upon the obdurate hearts of the Unbeliever and Unregenerate that are crusted over with Iron and Flint then for battery against the truly Regenerate and sincere Believers for those other Powers of the Gospel are more proper and abundantly sufficient for carrying them on with courage and constancy in the waies of God But there is in the Day of Iudgement an Object not
the Earth and Air when once that Final Vengeance has seised upon the Wicked 5. This is the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord and the Morning-Appearance thereof will not be much more chearful to either the Hypocrite or Prophane person For the hopes of the Hypocrite cannot but fail and his heart sink like a stone while he sees the righteous Judge that tries the heart and reins coming in the clouds of Heaven to execute vengeance on the wicked and to deliver the godly from that imminent fate that attends the Earth And the proud scoffing Epicurean that laugh'd at Religion as a piece of weakness and foolery and impudently denied there was either God or Providence in the world he will then to his utter shame and confusion acknowledge his own Philosophy which he thought such an high piece of wit before the most unhappy Folly and Madnesse he could have light upon For he shall be confuted to his very outward Senses when he shall see Christ himself appear with all his Heavenly Host attending him when he shall hear the sound of the Trump and see forthwith the whole Air filled with his glittering Legions consisting of Saints and Angels For the Trump shall sound saith the Apostle and then those that have already departed this life shall immediatly appear in their celestial Harness in their glorified bodies For those that are alive shall not prevent those that are dead but rather the contrary For those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and harness them with the bright Armour of Life and Immortality whereby they become part of that glorious Angelical Host wherewith our dread Soveraign and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ will face the Earth a while to the exceeding great astonishment and terrour os the wicked World 6. Out of which by the Ministry of his Angelical Troops will he gather his Saints that are found alive in the flesh from all the corners of the Earth as the Angels plucked Lot out of Sodom when the City was to be destroyed with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven a Type questionless of this Final Judgement And whether it be by the quick descent of fiery Chariots like that of Elias who was safely thereby conveighed to Heaven and about a thousand years after conversed with our Saviour on the Mount or bright shining clouds glistering with the glory and lustre of their celestial guides be made foot-stools for them to get up on for there is no fear that the weight of their Bodies should break through their Earth and Flesh being of a sudden changed into pure Aether or whatever other pomp and solemnity there may be in their transportation from the rest of the World unto that glorious Company that strikes all mens eyes with amazement while they look up into the sky This visible Selection of the Good from the Bad must needs fill the hearts of the Wicked with unspeakable Dread and Horrour And that partly by reason of the present wonders of this unexpected supernatural Visitation which thus suddenly has surprised them through unbelief and partly from the sad presage of what will follow even that horrid and dismal Tempest which we have already described that endless Night of Thunders and Lightnings and Earthquakes of roarings and howlings and utter confusion and destruction for ever 7. Which direful vengeance having once entred upon that execrable crue forsaken of God and given up to the merciless Rage of the incensed Elements the victorious Church of Christ retreats with the rest of the Angelical Hosts marching up the Ethereal Regions in goodly Order and lovely Equipage filling as they go along the re-echoing sky with Songs of Joy and Triumph For this is the greatest day of Solemnity the highest Festival that can be celebrated in the Heavens whose Inhabitants if they rejoice at the conversion of one sinner what Joy and Rejoicing must they express at the complete Redemption of the whole Church when Jesus Christ the Prince of our Salvation who is able to save to the utmost has perfectly redeemed us body and soul and leading Captivity captive rescuing us from the power of Hell Death and the Devil does resettle us again in our own Land and reestablish us into the ancient Liberties of the Sons of God making us fellow-citizens with the pure and unpolluted Angels and free Partakers of all the Rights and Immunities of the celestial Kingdom even of that Kingdom where there is Order and Government without Envy and Oppression Devotion without Superstition Beauty without Blemish Love without Lust Sweetness without Satiety where there is outward Splendidness without Pride Musick without Harshness Friendship without Designe Wisedom without Wrinkles and Wit without Vain-glory where there is Kindnesse without Craft Activity without Weariness Health without Sickness and Pleasure without Pain and lastly where there is the Vision of God the Society of Christ the Familiarity of Angels and Communion of Saints where there is Love and Joy and Peace and Life for evermore Upon the consideration of which ineffable Happiness what inference can be more genuine then what S. Paul has made already on the same Subject Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendom 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 1. I Have now sufficiently exposed to your view the Nature and Use of this seven-fold Engine these Seven Powers of the Gospel how potent they are to beat down every strong hold of sin and to raise up the Divine Life and Spirit of Righteousness in us That they have done so little execution in Christendom hitherto that disquisition I shall deferre till its due place In the mean time I appeal to all the World if there can be invented a Religion more powerful for this purpose then the Christian Religion is 2. But for the external Triumphs of the Divine Life in reference to the Person of Christ the Usefulness of our Religion in that point is demonstrable not only from the Frame thereof in it self but from the long and constant Effects it has had in the Christian World For as for the Frame of our Religion we have therein a full warrant to do the highest Divine homage to Christ that we can express He being so clearly therein declared The true Son of God not only by several Testimonies from Heaven but also by that supernatural manner of his generation in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy
contract and covenant in a familiar and kind way one with another And the holy Writers are so far from giving any considerable occasion to title the Gospel by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they frequently set it in opposition thereunto And if at any time they attribute that term to it it is ordinarily not without some softning or mitigating qualification as the Law of Faith not of Works and the Law of liberty Jam. 1.25 So that we see that there is a very sufficient ground why notwithstanding the Jews call'd their Pentateuch and other holy writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law that the primitive Christians should call the Evangelical writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant it usually also signifying Testament to which the Author to the Hebrews alludes chap. 9.17 which comes exceeding near to the nature of a Covenant where one is constituted Heir upon Condition 9. The very Title therefore of that Authentical Volume of our Religion gives some general knowledge of the nature of it if it had been fitly translated out of the Greek But the Latine Christians as well in the old as in the new Testament ever translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testamentum etiam ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominatur as Grotius takes notice whenas God yet cannot die and therefore will never have occasion to make his last Will and Testament have given occasion to our English Translatours to follow them in the Title of this Book and to render it Testament rather then Covenant by which notwithstanding is to be understood Covenant Otherwise if you understand a last Will and Testament what sense will the Old Testament bear CHAP. VI. 1. That there were more Old Covenants then one 2. What Old Covenant that was to which this New one is especially counterdistinguished with a brief intimation of the difference of them 3 4. An Objection against the difference delivered with the Answer thereto 5. The Reason why the Second Covenant is not easily broken 6. That the importance of the Mystery of the Second Covenant engages him to make a larger deduction of the whole matter out of S. Paul 1. IN general therefore our Christian Religion is a Covenant the Terms and Conditions whereof are comprehended in those Books which we ordinarily call The New Testament which were better and more significantly rendred The New Covenant The nature whereof we cannot so well understand unless we reflect back upon the Old Covenants mentioned in the Scripture which preceded this and there being more then one take notice which of them especially this New one is set opposite to That there is mention of more Covenants then one is manifest from Ephes. 2.12 And particularly Circumcision in the book of Moses and the Prophets is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament Acts 7.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God gave unto Abraham the Covenant of Circumcision 2. But questionless that One most eminent most solemn and most formal Covenant which God made with the Children of Israel beginning it at their going out of Aegypt but perfecting it on Mount Sinai in Arabia this is that Old Covenant chiefly glanced at by them that styled our Religion The New Covenant and they had a very good warrant for it out of the Prophet Jeremy ch 31. v. 31 32. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Aegypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people Which promise also is recorded in the 54. of Esay And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children So that there is found an Old and a New Covenant set opposite the one against the other by the Prophets own ordering The difference of whose natures consists mainly in this That the Old Covenant is an external Covenant something without a man the other an inwardly-ingrafted principle of Life This is that word which is in our heart as well as in our mouth of which Paul professes himself a preacher and therefore must be the gospel of Iesus Christ. 3. But you 'l say The Evangelists and the Apostles Writings are without too as well as the letter of Moses I but yet for all that it is very manifest and plain that they have not reached the Dispensation of the Gospel that have not attained to an inward principle of life Which being the great distinguishing design of the Gospel we are to look upon it in this design and end and that it has not done its work and is in a manner nothing to us till this be done He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of water And John 6. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Which passages plainly enough import the most intimate principles of life that may be the divine nature being turned as it were in succum sanguinem within us being converted into the juice and nourishment of our Souls 4. But our conversation under the Mosaical Covenant and our frame of Spirit there is but an ordinary accustomary temper or habit of doing or not doing such and such things and consequently all that righteousness but a fleshly rational fabrick of minde which Fear and Custome have carved out in the surface as it were of our Souls which characters by the same instruments are so preserved legible But under the Covenant of Christ nor Fear nor Custome but an inward spirit of life works us into everlasting holiness and a permanent Renovation of nature and Regeneration of the hidden man 5. From whence the reason is to be understood of that difference the Prophet Ieremie intimates betwixt the Old Covenant and the New That the old Covenant was broken by his people but the new one should not be broken For the one being an external yoke and the other the inward pleasure of life and radicate desire of the Soul it is no wonder that what is forced lasts not long but that upon the first opportunity and provoking occasion like unmanaged horses we cast off the burden that so pinches us and galls us in lying so heavy upon us and being no part of us But the perfect Law of liberty becoming as it were our own life and nature our greatest burden would
which condition is to be freely and naturally righteous and good that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Divine nature which when we have attained to we may be properly said naturally and without straining to do that which is good and righteous we discover here a very eminent Object of our Faith viz. this Divine power by the help whereof we are to be wrought up into this happy condition of a living inward Righteousnesse that is as near to us as our own Souls and is the life and spirit of our Soul as our Soul is of our Body And thus are we made just by Faith as I have elsewhere intimated viz. by Faith in the power of God whereby he is able to raise Jesus Christ from the dead in us or what is all one whereby he is able to make the Spiritual Isaac grow in our withered and barren wombs and to bring to passe in us that by his assisting Grace which would never have come to passe by the mere strength of Nature This I say is a very eminent and highly-considerable Object of our Christian Faith And the want of this Faith the Prophet may seem to complain of in a mystical sense when he saies Who has believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed that is Men are very slow to believe that the power of God in Christ is so efficacious as it is to cast down every strong hold of Satan and to kill and slay the body of Sin in us that the spirit of Righteousnesse may be revived and restored in us And thus much briefly of the First point wherein the Second Covenant differs from the First The Second point is this That the state of the Second Covenant is a state of Liberty as that under the First of Bondage 8. And this Liberty consists in these three things especially First In that we are freed from the tedious and voluminous luggage of Ceremonies nor are any longer superstitiously hoppled in the toiles and nets of superfluous Opinions which tend not at all of their own nature to the advancement of the Divine life and the Kingdome of Christ in the world And verily it cannot sink into my minde how Zeal about unnecessary knowledge can be any better then the boiling of the natural heat in the behalf of that which is alike dear nay more dear to Devils and Natural men then to the true Children of God in whom the curious desire of Speculative knowledge is very much extinguished through their ardent thirst after Divine life and sense which will most vividly possesse them upon a due measure of Regeneration or the Resurrection from the dead when we have risen with Christ as well as died with him In the mean time while we are passing through the painful Agony of Mortification all fine Opinions and Curiosities of Religion will lie scattered and neglected about us as toies and gew-gawes by a child that is deadly sick 9. Secondly the Second part of our Liberty consists in this that we are free from Sin They are the very words of the Apostle For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroied that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin And hence I think it is very plain that a man that has had his due progress under the Second Covenant I mean the Gospel of Christ is freed from the rebellion and tumult of the body of sin And that we may not shuffle off so general a notion and elude the force thereof I will particularize He is freed from Pride from Envy from Hatred from Wrath from Grief from Covetousness and from sensual Lust. And some of these are so incompetible with the nature of a Christian as Pride and Envy that they are like the rankest poison not in the least degree consistent with the condition we speak of And though something in reason may be said for Hatred yet I believe it will lie very crosly and unevenly in the heart of a good Christian and I see no need of it whenas Anger and Sorrow that is Pity will supply the place of it And we may observe our Saviour Christ surprized with Anger and melted in Grief and Pity but there is not the least intimation of Hatred in any passage of our Saviours life So that it is the safest and most warrantable to be angry at or pity wicked men not to hate them lest we become in some measure hateful our selves by putting on that so deformed vizard As for sensual Lust and all Voluptuousness it is so conspicuous an Object of mortification that he that does not hit the mark there and strike dead kills nothing at all For it is the most crass and gross enormity of them all and the most scandalous and the most importunate disturber of men that make towards God and the greatest extinguisher of true Faith and Sense in Divine things and so besmears the wings of the Soul as it were with bird-lime that she cannot move upward nor at all release her self from the impediments of the Body nor have any phansy nor conceit of what is Heavenly and Divine But now Pride and Voluptuousness being exterminated it is plain that Covetousness will be set packing for it is ordinarily onely a purveior for those two Vices And those that are the most sordidly covetous are well aware that Mony being able to do all things let men talk what they will they really are not nor can be despicable 10. The Third and last is his Freedome to Righteousness And that this is true is very plain from what has been said before For he being free from that load of unnecessary Ceremonies and from the intanglements of fruitless and superstitious Opinions and from the body of Sin what can now hinder that Divine principle of Regeneration from acting chearfully freely and comfortably For every mountain is cast down and every valley is exalted and all is made plain and even before him that with pleasure ease and joy he may walk in the wayes of that Everlasting Righteousness that Christ brings into the world For the Eternal seed of the Word that is engrafted in him or that living law of Righteousnesse planted in his heart does as naturally guide and actuate him as the Soul does move an unshackled Body and it is no more constraint or bondage in him to do what is truly good and holy then it is to the unregenerate to do that which is natural or vitious And thus have I plainly and truly set before you the Idea of a well-grown Christian that has made his due proficiency under the mighty advantages of the New Covenant the Gospel of Christ that we may know what to aspire to and breath after and that we may never be quiet till we be possessed
I further add touching all this rest of Mankind which I speak of That there is Grace sufficient offered to them some way or other some time or other and that several of them according to their faithfulness to that light and power which God has given them shall be actually saved At which sentence neither the Arminian ought to repine nor the Calvinist For whatever good Arminianism pretends concerning all mankind is exhibited to this part not absolutely elected and to the other part the Goodness of God is greater then is allotted by Arminius And whatever good there is pretended in Calvinism to that part that is absolutely elected the same Goodness is here exhibited and besides that direfull vizard pull'd off that Ignorance and Melancholy had put upon Divine Providence and on the lovely Face of the Gospel 4. I may adde to this That he that finds himself in an extraordinary powerfull manner carried to that which is good may as fully ascribe it to God's free grace as in the Calvinistical Hypothesis and he that has no mind to Goodness cannot lay the fault on God but himself Nor can Satan tempt by that forcible stratagem to either despair or dissoluteness suggesting that if a man shall be saved he shall be saved or if damned he shall be damned and that he can neither help on the one nor hinder the other For unless a man be very deeply radicated in Faith and sincere Obedience I should hold it a piece of fond Self-Flattery to take himself for one of the Elect whenas he may hold of a more seasonable Tenure and act accordingly as a Probationer and when he has got to that irrelapsable condition of those whose Souls are after a manner perfected in Faith and Holiness it will better become him then to entitle God alone to all those Transactions wrought in him and to take up that saying of Jacob Verily God was in this place and I knew it not and name the place he slept in Bethel The Temple of God For such is the body of every Regenerate Christian and especially of the Elect. 5. This Concession of ours thus far as it is most true and certainly not unserviceable for the promoting that thankfull and humble frame of Spirit that would attribute all to the Irresistibleness of free Grace and to the force of their particular and irrevocable Predestination and Election so is it also a mighty safeguard from those dangerous miscarriages that too often happen the other way Wherein there being no mean but one must be either Elect or Reprobate how prone is it out of Self-love to take up a stout and peremptory conceit that a man is the Childe of God destinated thereto before the foundation of the World and that he can no more miss to be saved then he did to be born But as for others poor Offalls and Out-casts of the Creation that they can never find out the way to Heaven and Salvation do what they can let them importune God and vex and weary Nature never so much but are like Sampson with his eyes put out brought upon the stage of this World only to make the Philistims merry or at best to be mere foils and blacks to set off the beauty and lustre of the secure Saints who being unavoidably caught as it were in a nooze or fast snare of Salvation laid for them from all eternity so soon as they once phansy themselves taken by the leg do so bounce and dance in the string with that enormity and violence as if they tried by their wild tugs and jerks whether the force of their Corruption or the Decretall thread be the stronger 6. Nay do grow up to such a pitch of Fool-hardiness as to think themselves not possibly able to run themselves out of breath by the most wild and dissolute courses imaginable nor remove themselves one hairs breadth out of God's favour for all this In fine do proceed so far as to acknowledge no Law but their own Lust and the fulfilling their own masterless will and consequently do conclude that they cannot sin Thus imitating a false Pattern and making themselves compendious Puppets or Pocket-medals of that great Idol of theirs for it is no God that wills as they say merely because he wills And so they dance and sport about the imagination of their own heart as the children of Israel in the Law-givers absence did about the molten Calf Thus has this dark Conceit which some rash spirits have endeavoured to make essential to Christianity led many one into secure Libertinism first and after into most desperate Atheism CHAP. VI. 1. The Scholastick Opinions concerning the Divinity of Christ applied to the foregoing Rules 2. As also concerning the Trinity 3. The Application of the Antitrinitarian Doctrine to the said Rules It s disagreement with the third 4. As also with the second 5. The Antitrinitarians plea. 6. An answer to their plea. 7. How grosly the denying the Divinity of Christ disagrees with the third Rule 1. THE next Opinions that occur are those concerning the Divinity of Christ and the holy Trinity And first those of the Schools of which I shall only say in general That though their industry and sincerity of their design may be commendable which was to unite the Humanity of Christ of Hypostatically to the Divinity that there should be no suspicion of Idolatry in doing the highest divine Honour to Him we call the Son of God and that therefore what they drive at is very agreeable to the second Rule we have set down yet for my own part I think they have made so little proficiency to the main End that that one plain expression in Athanasius As the Body and Soul is one man so God and Man is one Christ is better then all their curious definitions of things which reach to no greater Hypostatical union then that of the Body and Soul whenas I dare say if it were searched to the bottom the Union betwixt the Divinity and Humanity in Christ is more one and more exact then that of Soul and Body which they call Hypostatical But they have defined things so unskilfully and perplexedly that though their design be agreeable to our second Rule yet their performance does clash much with the third and fourth Such contradictions or unintelligible spinofities weakening Faith and hindring the passage of the Gospel to them that are without 2. Which may be rightly said also concerning their subtil and inconsistent disquisitions and conclusions touching the Trinity Wherein though their design be in the same respect commendable as before yet they have made the mystery so intricate and contradictious that they weaken the Christian Faith to those that are within and make it less passable and recommendable to strangers and have given occasion thereby to some bold Spirits it being so disadvantageously represented to them to deny the whole Mystery whereby they have purchas'd to themselves the Title of Antitrinitarians 3. Whose Opinion I
having been contracted by our Lapse may justly by Religion be set on our score This Sincere Christian whose Character I have given will be so far from setting the Person of Christ at defiance and vilifying his Passion Intercession and holy Priesthood that he will with the greatest reverence of Devotion that can be imagined love him and adore him and will not quit that sweet Repose of minde he findes in the recounting with himself what an inestimable Friend he has with God for all the Pleasures and greatest Interests of this present life nor presume to be justified by his own Life or Works but by Faith in Christ whom he rejoices to think that he shall see his Judge at the last Day 3. This is the true and sound complexion of a Sincere Christian and he that does not faithfully endeavour to arrive at this state discovers himself to be an halting Hypocrite and one that is no Lover of the Divine Life nor has tasted the sweetness of Sanctity and of the holy Spirit of God nor known the power of his operations He that pretends to be above it he is self-condemned and betraies himself of what Kingdome he is that he is inacted by the envy of Satan against the Kingdome of Christ to antiquate his Offices and to lay aside his Person which he perswades sundry fanatical Souls to do puffing them up with the conceit of Self-perfection on purpose to exclude our Saviour The danger of which errour is no less then the utter forfeiture of their Eternal Salvation For no man shall inherit eternal life but by the donation of the crucified Iesus whom God has appointed Judge at the last day Besides that the very life and moral temper in these Revolters from the Son of God if we compare it with that of the Sincere Christian there is as much difference to them that can tast as betwixt the wilde grape and the sweet So hard a thing is it for either Nature or the Devil to imitate the true tincture of the Spirit of Christ. Their vine is the vine of Sodom and their fruit as the clusters of Gomorrah and their Churches as a field whom the Lord hath blasted there is the smell of the Sulphurous Lake and of the pit of Hell amongst them 4. The last thing I propounded was the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth Of which Opinion as the reasons are slender or none at all so the Usefulness thereof to me invisible not knowing that it promotes any End of the Gospel which I can take notice of But that there may be a Millennium as they usually call it or a Long Period of time wherein a more excellent Reign of Christ then has manifested it self yet to the World may take place truly it seems so reasonable in it self and there are such shrewd places of Scripture seem to speak that way that it is hard for an indifferent man to gainsay it But I conceive then that the Renovation of the state of things will be as S. Peter speaks into new Heavens and new Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell wherein real Sanctity and universal Peacefulness shall bear sway wherein the crucified Iesus shall not be onely complemented aloof off and saluted in Statues and Pictures both himself and his Mother and all his Apostles and most eminent Adherents whenas in the mean time Mars Venus and Pluto and other Idols of the Heathen are cordially lov'd and serv'd all Christendome giving themselves enormously to War and Bloudshed to Lust and Luxury to Wealth and Covetousness worshipping these Deities in Spirit and in truth but as the Divine honour done to our Saviours person shall not then cease so the power of His spirit shall be more potently felt for the unpaganizing of the World and for the destroying of this spiritual Idolatry which is the Inordinate Affections and fierce endeavours of the Animal Life and shall implant such a love and liking of the life of Christ that Peace and Righteousness shall overflow all Contentions about Opinions shall then cease they being priz'd onely by the Pride and Curiosity of the Natural man and all the goodly Inventions of nice Theologers shall then cease and all the foolish and perplexing Arguments of the disputacious Schools shall be laid aside and the Gospel alone shall be exalted in that day And truly the Millennium being in such a sense as this stated it is both probable and very desirable and an opinion that agrees with nay such as may very well further all the designes of the Gospel as any one may discern by making application to the Rules I have set down Of which Rules these few Examples may serve to shew the use and to teach a man how to extricate himself from that mighty cumbersomeness of the numerosity of Opinions whether they be suggested from his own thoughts or offer'd by other men For if he applies them to these Rules he will finde most of them either so little to the designes of the Gospel or so much against them that he will account some not worth the sifting others not worthy the naming much less the entertaining by a sober Christian. Which practises and considerations cannot but tend much to the advancement of the Gospel of Christ if diligently observ'd though but by private Christians I shall onely give some brief touch what is proper for the Magistrate to contribute for the Advancement of Christianity and then we shall conclude CHAP. X. 1 That in those that believe There is a God and a Life to come there is an antecedent Right of Liberty of Conscience not to be invaded by the Civil Magistrate 2. Object That no false Religion is the command of God with the Answer thereto 3. That there is no incongruity to admit That God may command contrary Religions in the world 4 5. The utmost Difficulty in that Position with the Answer thereto 6. That God may introduce a false perswasion into the mind of man as well for probation as punishment 7. That simple falsities in Religion are no forfeiture of Liberty of Conscience 8. That though no falsities in Religion were the command of God yet upon other considerations it is demonstrated that the Religionist ought to be free 9. A further demonstration of this Truth from the gross absurdities that follow the contrary Position 1. BEfore we can well understand the Power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion we must first consider the Common Right of Mankind in this point provided they be not degenerated into Atheisme and Prophaneness For he that believes there is no God nor Reward nor Punishment after this life what plea can he have to Liberty of Conscience or how unproper is it to talk of his Right in matters of Religion who professedly has no Religion at all nor any tie of Conscience upon him to make that wicked profession For Atheisme as it is very coursely false in it self to any man that has the clear exercise of his Reason so is
is not worth the least stir or violence in diversities of actions or rather circumstances interpretable to so good a meaning And the reall exercise of our Charity in leaving every one free is every whit as suitable to this solemn performance as the most exquisite Uniformity if devoid of the spirit of Meekness and mutual Forbearance 14. Concerning Baptisme The more seriously a man looks into it the more certain he will find it That the Scripture has defined nothing concerning the time of baptising those that are born of believing Parents Some adventure further and affirm there is no Precept for baptizing them at all and that they are Members already of the Church by being born of them that are To the latter of which I answer That if they be capable of Membership how can they be uncapable of the Sign thereof But to those that acknowledge that they must be baptized it being plain that no time is set down in Scripture I say it is naturally left to the power of the Church to appoint that time which she thinks to be most convenient For though it may seem more excusable to call the Churches authority into question of appointing new Ceremonies or such circumstances of the old as are not necessary yet it cannot but be judged an unsufferable piece of temerity to question it here concerning such a circumstance as the substance cannot be performed without it For if any one be baptized he must be baptized some time or other And in my judgement though the Arguments of our adversaries make a bold shew she has pitched upon the safest For I am very inclinable to believe though I think I am as little superstitious as another that there does some reall good accrew to an Infant from thus early being dedicated to Christ by the sincere devotion of his Parents Which dedication he himself is more fully to ratifie and complete publickly in the Church when he comes to years of discretion when he will be able to make distinct Answers to such Questions as it is over-obvious to imagine were unseasonably asked him when he could not speak But for the Cross in Baptisme it was so seasonable at the first Institution thereof while professed Pagans were mingled among the Christians and so significant alwaies that if the Church cannot make such an additional as this she cannot make any at all But Unity of hearts being better then Uniformity in actions indifferent there ought to be no breach nor quarrel about these things But if the Parents conscientiously deferre the Childs Baptisme till years of discretion or desire it should be baptized in its infancy if they like the signing of it with the sign of the Cross or the omission of it the Minister will conciliate more authority to himself by professing his indifferency in these things and his high value of the Indispensables of Christianity and of his tender regard to the Consciences of men which is a thing more sacred then any Ceremony that is not of Gods own institution then if he drew too hard to an Uniforme compliance in things where Christ has left us free For the visible exercise of professed Charity and kind forbearance is a more comely ornament of the Church then constrained Uniformity Nay I will adde That a constant profession of an Indifferency may sooner make the Church Uniforme then the placing Religion in these things For contestation ceaseth when the Object is judged of little value 15. Touching Musick it is evident that Hymns and Songs were the timeliest piece of Publick worship that was offered to Christ. And truly I think the Church having Authority to frame a publick Liturgy in prose they should do well not to confine their singing to David's Psalms but also to compose Songs of their own in an easie and unaffected Style but in warrantable both language and meeter and get Tunes set to them not over-operose and artificial nor over-plain and languid which need not be many in number and might be taught children betimes so that there might be no need of the unsanctified throats of mere Mercenaries to fill up the Quire but that all Musical devotions might be performed by the whole congregation every Christian making it a piece of the Education of his children to learn the Tunes of the Church who therefore would be near-upon as soon fit to sing as to pray with the rest of the Assembly These Hymns composed by the Church should be chiefly for the main Holy-days thereof appointed for the celebrating suppose of the Nativity of the Passion of the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour and of the Mission of the Holy Ghost For it seems to me a thing almost beyond belief That a Nation should believe the History of Christ that he was God incarnate at such a time and that the same incarnate Deity suffered c. and yet not be so much transported with the consideration as to celebrate such stupendious passages by Anniversary Solemnities since that to adorn the year with Festivals and Holy-days is according to the very dictate of Nature and practice of all Nations Wherefore those that pretend to so much Spirituality as to cast out all observation of dayes I wish it be not a symptome of Infidelity in them and of a secret quarrell they have to the truth of Christianity it self For those that are most perfect in Divine accomplishments cannot enjoy the actual enravishments that may arise from this perfection without vacancy from secular emploiments for which these Holy-dayes therefore are most fit and those that are less perfect by their vacation from worldly drudgery have the opportunity of searching more closely into the state and condition of their Souls and of more serious Meditations and resolutions of composing their life to the most perfect patterns of Truth and Sanctity And for this very purpose The observation of every Seventh day should be inviolable not to be profaned by either secular imploiments or foolish pastimes but spent in Religious exercises either publick or private not as placing any Sanctity in dayes but in laying hold of so good an opportunity for the completing of the work of Godliness in us and meditating upon the infinite Goodness of God in the Mystery of the Creation and Redemption of mankind 16. The knowledge of the latter of which being so appropriate to us Christians that we are acquainted with the main strokes of the process thereof it is more worthy and becoming us not to huddle up all in one day but distinctly to celebrate the main Particularities of so concerning a Mystery such as are the Nativity of Christ his Passion Resurrection and the rest amongst which the celebration of his Passion being most useful and edifying the solemnity thereof ought to be at least as sacred and as frequented and as religiously celebrated with preaching praying and singing as any other day and that in a way appropriate to that solemnity with Hymnes and Songs also proper for the Passion
the hearts of all true Believers And what we have said of additional Ceremonies there is the same reason of deductional Opinions they are to have their recommendation from their Use and Efficacy in promoting Life and Godliness in the Souls of men But their obtrusion is as unwarrantable as of the other if not more Forasmuch as Ceremonies are most-what indifferent Opinions never but determinately true or false or to be held so by them that either doubt or think the contrary Which therefore is a greater violence to ingenuous Natures As also the Usurpation greater to intrude into either the Prophetick or Legislative office of Christ then to affect to be onely the master of the Ceremonies and the Superstition alike since Superstition is nothing else but a fear and scrupulosity about such things as bear no estimate in the eyes of God as certainly neither of these do one way nor other neither Opinions that concern not Life and Godliness nor Ceremonies that are of an indifferent nature and may of themselves be either practised or omitted And therefore for men to be affected timorously and meticulously in these things it is a sign they understand not the royal Law of Christian Liberty and commit that which is the main vice included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Superstition in that they phansy to themselves a pettish and captious Deity Whence it is manifest that the over-careful using or scrupulously omitting of indifferent Ceremonies as also over-much solicitude in the rejecting or embracing of useless and uncertain Opinions is no commendable Worship or Service but rather an implicite Reproach of the Holy Godhead they profess to adore THE END The CONTENTS PREFACE 1. THE Authors natural averseness from writing of Books fol. v 2. That there was a kind of necessity urged him to write what he has wrote hitherto ibid. 3. The occasion of writing his Psychozoia ibid. 4. As also of his Poem Of the Immortality of the Soul vi 5. His Satyricall Essays against Enthusiastick Philosophie ibid. 6. The great usefulness of his Enthusiasmus Triumphatus and of this present Treatise for suppressing Enthusiasme ibid. 7. The occasion and preparations to his writing his Antidote against Atheisme and his Threefold Cabbala vii 8. The urgent occasion of writing this present Treatise as also of his Discourse Of the Immortality of the Soul ibid. 9. His account of the Inscription of this present Treatise viii 10. His Apology for his so copiously describing the Animal Life x 11. And for his large Parallel betwixt Christ and Apollonius ibid. 12. The reason of his bringing also Mahomet upon the Stage and H. N. and of his so large Excursions and frequent Expostulations with the Quakers and Familists xi 13. That the wonderful hopes and expectations of the Religious of the Nation yea of the better-meaning Fanaticks themselves are more likely to be fulfilled by this happy restoring of the KING then by any other way imaginable xii 14. Wherein consists the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme xiii 15. That the Honour of beginning that pure and Apostolick Church that is so much expected seems to have been reserved by Providence for CHARLES the Second our gracious Soveraign with pregnant arguments of so glorious an hope ibid. 16. The reasons why he did not cast out of his Discourse what he had written concerning Quakerisme and Familisme notwithstandâ—ng the fear of these Sects may seem well blown over through the happy settlement of things by the seasonable return of our Gracious Soveraign to his Throne xiv 17. The reason of his opposing the Familists and Quakers above any other Sects xv 18. His excuse for being less accurate in the computation of Daniels weeks ibid. 19. As also for being less copious in the proving the expected restorement of the Church to her pristine purity together with a Description of the condition of those happy ages to come xvi 20. That this Discourse was mainly intended for the information of a Christian in his private capacities xvii 21. What points he had most probably touched upon if his design had urged him to speak any thing of Church-Government ibid. 22. A Description of such a Bishop as is impossible should be Antichristian xx 23. Why he omitted to treat of the Reasonableness of the Precepts of Christ. xxi 24. That the pains he took in writing this Treatise were especially intented for the Rationall and Ingenuous xxii 25. His Apology for the sharpness of his style in some places ibid. 26. An Objection against Mr. Mede's Apocalyptick Interpretations from the supposed sad condition of all Adherers to the Apostate Church with the Answer thereto ibid. 27. The Adversaries Reply to the foregoing Answer with a brief Attempt of satisfying the same xxv 28. An Apology for his free dislike of that abused Notion of Imputative Righteousness xxvi 29. His Defence for so expressly declaring himself for a duly-bounded liberty of Conscience xxvii BOOK I. CHAP. I. THe Four main Properties of a Mystery 2. The first Property Obscurity 3. The second Intelligibleness 4. The third Truth 5. The fourth Usefulness 6. A more full Description of the Nature of a Mystery 7. The distribution of the whole Treatise fol. 1. CHAP. II. 1. That it is fit that the Mystery of Christianity should be in some measure Obscure to exclude the Sensuall and Worldly 2. As also to defeat disobedient Learning and Industry 3. And for the pleasure and improvement of the godly and obedient 4. The high Gratifications of the Speculative Soul from the Obscurity of the Scriptures 3 CHAP. III. 1. The Obscurity of the Christian Mystery argued from the Effect as from the Iews rejecting their Messias 2. From the many Sects amongst Christians 3. Their difference in opinion concerning the Trinity 4. The Creation 5. The Soul of Man 6. The Person of Christ 7. And the Nature of Angels 5 CHAP. IV. 1. That the Triniâ—y was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church by the Fathers 2. A Description of the Platonick Trinity and of the difference of the Hypostases 3. A Description of their Union 4. And why they hold All a due Object of Adoration 5. The irrefutable Reasonableness of the Platonick Trinity and yet declined by the Fathers a Demonstration that the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church 6. Which is further evidenced from the compliableness of the Notion of the Platonick Trinity with the Phrase and Expressions of Scripture 7. That if the Christian Trinity were from Plato it follows not that the Mystery is Pagan 8 9 10. The Trinity proved from Testimony of Holy Writ 7 CHAP. V. 1. That the natural sense of the First of S. Iohn does evidently witness the Divinity of Christ. 2. A more particular urging of the circumstances of that Chapter 3. That S. Iohn used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Iewish or Cabbalistical notion 4. The Trinity and the Divinity of Christ argued from Divine worship due
Divine life over the Animal life 4. Whence it is most reasonable the Chieftain of the Kingdome of Light should be rather an Humane Soul then an Angel 5. His last Assertion an Inference from the former and a brief Description of the General nature of Christianity 41 CHAP. VIII 1. That not to be at least a Speculative Christian is a sign of the want of common Wit and Reason 2. The nature of the Divine and Animal life and the state of the World before and at our Saviour's coming to be enquired into before we proceed 3. Why God does not forthwith advance the Divine life and that Glory that seems due to her 4. The First Answer 5. A Second Answer 6. A Third Answer 7. The Fourth and last Answer 43 CHAP. IX 1. What the Animal life is in General and that it is Good in it self 2. Self-love the Root of the Animal Passions and in it self both requisite and harmeless in Creatures 3. As also the Branches 4. The more refined Animal properties in Brutes as the Sense of Praise natural Affection Craft 5. Political Government in Bees 6. And Cranes and Stags 7. As also in Elephants 8. The Inference That Political Wisdome with all the Branches thereof is part of the Animal life 46 CHAP. X. 1. That there is according to Pliny a kind of Religion also in Brutes as in the Cercopithecus 2. In the Elephant 3. A confutation of Pliny's conceit 4 That there may be a certain Passion in Apes and Elephants upon their sight of the Sun and Moon something a kin to that of Veneration in Man and how Idolatry may be the proper fruit of the Animal life 5. A discovery thereof from the practice of the Indians 6. whose Idolatry to the Sun and Moon sprung from that Animal passion 7. That there is no hurt in the Passion it self if it sink us not into an insensibleness of the First invisible cause 49 CHAP. XI 1. Of a Middle life whose Root is Reason and what Reason it self is 2. The main branches of this Middle life 3. That the Middle life acts according to the life she is immersed into whether Animal or Divine 4. Her activity when immersed in the Animal life in things against and on this side Religion 5. How far she may go in Religious performances 51 CHAP. XII 1. The wide conjecture and dead relish of the mere Animal man in things pertaining to the Divine life and that the Root of this life is Obediential Faith in God 2. The three Branches from this Root Humility Charity and Purity and why they are are called Divine 3. A description of Humility 4. A Description of Charity and how Civil Justice or Moral Honesty is eminently contained therein 5. A Description of Purity and how it eminently contains in it whatever Moral Temperance or Fortitude pretend to 6. A Description of the truest Fortitude 7. And how transcendent an Example thereof our Saviour was 8. A further representation of the stupendious Fortitude of our Saviour 9. That Moral Prudence also is necessarily comprized in the Divine life 10. That the Divine life is the truest Key to the Mystery of Christianity but the excellency thereof unconceivable to those that do not partake of it 52 BOOK III. CHAP. I. THat the Lapse of the Soul from the Divine life immersing her into Matter brings on the Birth of Cain in the Mystical Eve driven out of Paradise 2. That the most Fundamental mistake of the Soul lapsed is that Birth of Cain and that from hence also sprung Abel in the mystery the vanity of Pagan Idolatry 3. Solomon's universal charge against the Pagans of Polytheisme and Atheisme and how fit it is their Apology should be heard for the better understanding the State of the World out of Christ. 4. Their plea of worshipping but one God namely the Sun handsomely managed by Macrobius 5. The Indian Brachmans worshippers of the Sun Apollonius his entertainment with them and of his false and vain affectation of Pythagorisme 6. The Ignorance of the Indian Magicians and of the Demons that instructed them 7. A Concession that they and the rest of the Pagans terminated their worship upon one Supreme Numen which they conceived to be the Sun 56 CHAP. II. 1. That the above-said concession advantages the Pagans nothing forasmuch as there are more Suns then one 2. That not only Unity but the rest of the Divine Attributes are incompetible to the Sun 3. Of Cardan's attributing Understanding to the Sun 's light with a confutation of his fond opinion 4. Another sort of Apologizers for Paganism who pretend the Heathens worshipped One God to which they gave no name 5. A discovery out of their own Religion that this innominated Deity was not the True God but the Material world 60 CHAP. III. 1. The last Apologizers for Paganisme who acknowledge God to be an Eternal Mind distinct from Matter and that all things are manifestations of his Attributes 2. His Manifestations in the External World 3. His Manifestations within us by way of Passion 4. His more noble emanations and communications to the inward Mind and how the ancient Heathen affixed personal Names to these several Powers or manifestations 5. The reason of their making these several Powers so many Gods or Goddesses 6. Their Reason for worshipping the Genii and Heroes 62 CHAP. IV. 1. The Heathens Festivals Temples and Images 2. Their Apology for Images 3. The Significancy of the Images of Jupiter and Aeolus 4. Of Ceres 5. Of Apollo 6. Their Plea from the significancy of their Images that their use in Divine worship is no more Idolatrous then that of Books in all Religions as also from the use of Images in the Nation of the Iews 7. Their Answer to those that object the impossibleness of representing God by any outward Image 8. That we are not to envy the Heathen if they hit upon any thing more weighty in their Apologies for their Religion and why 65 CHAP. V. 1. An Answer to the last Apology of the Pagans as first That it concerns but few of them 2. and that those few were rather of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then pure Pagans 3. That the worship of Images is expresly forbid by God in the Law of Moses 4. That they rather obscure then help our conceptions of the Divine Powers 5. That there is great danger of these Images intercepting the worship directed to God 6. He referrs the curious and unsatisfied to the fuller Discussions in Polemical Divinity 68 CHAP. VI. 1. A new and unanswerable charge against Paganisme namely That they adored the Divine Powers no further then they reached the Animal life as appears from their Dijoves and Vejoves 2. Jupiter altitonans Averruncus Robigus and Tempestas 3. From the pleasant spectacle of their God Pan what is meant by his Pipe and Nymphs dancing about him 4 What by his being deemed the Son of Hermes and Mercury and what by his beloved Nymph Syrinx his wife
impossible 2. The former not at all incredible 3. Franciscus Picus his opinion of the Heroes feigned so by the Poets as begot of the Gods that they were really begotten of some impure Daemons with Josephus his suffrage to the same purpose 4. The Possibility of the thing further illustrated from the impregnation of Mares merely by the Wind asserted by several Authors 5. The application of the History and a further confirmation from the manner of Conception out of Dr. Harvey 6. Examples of men famed for this kind of miraculous Birth of the Heroes on this side the tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 94 CHAP. XIX 1. That out of the Principles we have laid down and the History of the Religions of the Nations we have produced it is easie to give a Reasonable account of all matters concerning our Saviour from his Birth to his Visible return to Iudgement 2. That Christianity is the Summe and Perfection of whatever things were laudable or passable in any Religion that has been in the world 3. The Assertion made good by the enumeration of certain Particulars 4. That our Religion seems to be more chiefly directed to the Nations then the Iews themselves 5. An Enumeration of the main Heads in the History of Christ that he intends to give account of 97 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. THat Christ's being born of a Virgin is no Impossible thing 2. And not only so but also Reasonable in reference to the Heroes of the Pagans 3. And that this outward birth might be an emblem of his Eternal Sonship 4. Thirdly in relation to the Sanctity of his own person and for the recommendation of Continence and Chastity to the world 5. And lastly for the completion of certain prophecies in the Scriptures that pointed at the Messias 99 CHAP. II. 1. That as the Virginity of Christ's Mother recommended Purity so her Meanness recommends Humility to the world as also other Circumstances of Christ's Birth 2. Of the Salutation of the Angel Gabriel and of the Magi. 3. That the History of their Visit helps on also belief and that it is not Reason but Sottishness that excepts against the ministery of Angels 4. His design of continuing a Parallel betwixt the life of Christ and of Apollonius Tyaneus 5. The Pedigree and Birth of Apollonius how ranck they smell of the Animal life 6. The Song of the Angels and the dance of the musical Swans at Apollonius's birth compared 101 CHAP. III. 1. That whatever miraculously either happened to or was done by our Saviour till his Passion cannot seem impossible to him that holds there is a God and ministration of Angels 2. Of the descending of the Holy Ghost and the Voice from Heaven at his Baptisme 3. Why Christ exposed himself to all manner of hardship and Temptations 4. And particularly why he was tempted of the Devil with an answer to an Objection touching the Devil's boldness in daring to tempt the Son of God 5. How he could be said to shew him all the Kingdoms of the Earth 6. The reason of his fourty daies fast 7. And of his Transfiguration upon the Mount The three first reasons 8. The meaning of Moses and Elias his receding and Christ's being left alone 9. The last reason of his Transfiguration That it was for the Confirmation of his Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul 10. Testimonies from Heaven of the Eminency of Christs person 103 CHAP. IV. 1. What miraculous accidents in Apollonius his life may seem parallel to these of Christs His superstitious fasting from flesh and abstinence from wine out of a thirst after the glory of foretelling things to come 2. Apollonius a Master of Iudiciary Astrology and of his seven Rings with the names of the seven Planets 3. Miraculous Testimonies given to the eminency of Apollonius his Person by Aesculapius and Trophonius how weak and obscure 4. The Brachmans high Encomium of him with an acknowledgment done to him by a fawning Lion The ridiculous Folly of all these Testimonies 107 CHAP. V. 1. Three general Observables in Christs Miracles 2. Why he several times charged silence upon those he wrought his Miracles upon 3. Why Christ was never frustrated in attempting any Miracle 4. The vanity of the Atheists that impute his Miracles to the power of Imagination 5. Of the delusive and evanid viands of Witches and Magicians 108 CHAP. VI. 1. Of Christs dispossessing of Devils 2. An account of there being more Daemoniacks then ordinary in our Saviours time As first from a possible want of care or skill how to order their Mad-men or Lunaticks 3. The second from the power of the Devil being greater before the coming of Christ then after 4. That not only Excommunication but Apostasy from Christ may subject a man to the Tyranny of Satan as may seem to have fallen out in several of the more desperate Sects of this Age. 5. An enumeration of sundry Daemoniacal symptoms amongst them 6. More of the same nature 7. Their profane and antick imitations of the most solemn passages in the History of Christ. 8. A further solution of the present difficulties from the premised considerations 9. A third and fourth Answer from the fame of their cure and the conflex of these Daemoniacks into one Country 10. A fifth from the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. The sixth and last Answer That it is not at all absurd to admit there was a greater number of real Daemoniacks in Christs time then at other times from the useful end of their then abounding 110 CHAP. VII 1. That the History of the Daemoniack whose name was Legion has no incongruity in it 2. That they were a Regiment of the Dark Kingdome that haunted most the Country of the Gadarens and that whether we conceive their Chieftain alone or many of his army to possess the man there is no absurdity therein 3. How it came to pass so many Devils should clatter about one forty person 4. The Reason of Christs demanding of the Daemoniacks name and the great use of recording this History 5. The numerosity of the Devils discovered by their possession of the Swine 6. Several other Reasons why Christ permitted them to enter into the Gadarens heards 7. That Christ offended against the laws of neither Compassion nor Iustice in this permission 114 CHAP. VIII 1. Of Christ's turning water into wine 2. The Miraculous draught of Fish 3. His whipping the Money-changers out of the Temple 4. His walking on the Sea and rebuking the Winde 5. His cursing the Fig-tree 6. The meaning of that Miracle 7. The reason why he expressed his meaning so aenigmatically 8. That both the Prophets and Christ himself as in the Ceremonies he used in curing the man that was born blind spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Typical Actions 9. The things that were typified in those ceremonies Christ used in healing the blinde as in his tempering Clay and Spittle 10. A further
Celestial Vehicle 4. The activity of the separate Soul upon the Vehicle argued from her moving of the Spirits in the Body and that no advantage accrews therefrom to the wicked after death 141 CHAP. IV. 1. Christ's Session at the Right hand of God interpreted either figuratively or properly 2. That the proper sense implies no humane shape in the Deity 3. That though God be Infinite and every where yet there may be a Special presence of him in Heaven 4. And that Christ may be conceived to sit at the Right hand of that Presence or Divine Shechina 143 CHAP. V. 1. The Apotheosis of Christ or his Receiving of Divine Honour freed from all suspicion of Idolatry forasmuch as Christ is God properly so called by his Real and Physicall union with God 2. The Real and Physical union of the Soul of Christ with God being possible sundry Reasons alledged to prove that God did actually bring it to pass 3. The vain Evasions of superficial Allegorists noted 4. Their ignorance evinced and the Apotheosis of Christ confirmed from the Immortality of the Soul and the political Government of the other World 5. That he that equalizes himself to Christ is ipso facto discovered an Impostour and Lier 144 CHAP. VI. 1. An Objection against Christ's Soveraignty over Men and Angels from the meanness of the rank of Humane Spirits in comparison of the Angelical Orders 2. An Answer to the Objection so far as it concerns the fallen Angels 3. A further inforcement of the Objection concerning the unfallen Angels with an Answer thereto 4. A further Answer from the incapacitie of an Angels being a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World 5. And of being a fit Example of life to men in the flesh 6. That the capacities of Christ were so universal that he was the fittest to be made the Head or Soveraign over all the Intellectuall Orders 7. Christ's Intercession his fitness for that Office 8. What things in the Pagan Religion are rectified and compleated in the Birth Passion Ascension and Inercession of Christ. 146 CHAP. VII 1. That there is nothing in the History of Apollonius that can properly answer to Christs Resurrection from the dead 2. And that his passage out of this life must go for his Ascension concerning which reports are various but in general that it was likely he died not in his bed 3. His reception at the Temple of Diana Dictynna in Crete and of his being called up into Heaven by a Quire of Virgins singing in the Aire 4. The uncertainty of the manner of Apollonius his leaving the World argued out of Philostratus his own Confession 5. That if that at the Temple of Diana Dictynna was true yet it is no demonstration of any great worth in his Person 6. That the Secrecy of his departure out of this world might beget a suspicion in his admirers that he went Body and Soul into Heaven 7. Of a Statue of Apollonius that spake and of his dictating verses to a young Philosopher at Tyana concerning the Immortality of the Soul 8. Of his Ghost appearing to Aurelian the Emperour 9. Of Christ's appearing to Stephen at his martyrdome and to Saul when he was going to Damascus 149 CHAP. VIII 1. The use of this parallel hitherto of Christ and Apollonius 2. Mahomet David George H. Nicolas high-pretending Prophets brought upon the stage and the Author's Apology for so doing 3. That a misbelief of the History of Christ and a dexterity in a moral Mythology thereof are the greatest excellencies in David George and H. Nicolas 4. That if they believed there were any Miracles ever in the world they ought to have given their reasons why they believe not those that are recorded of Christ and to have undeceiv'd the world by doing Miracles themselves to ratifie their doctrine 5. If they believed there never were nor ever will be any Miracles they do plainly betray themselves to be mere Atheists or Epicures 6. The wicked plot of Satan in this Sect in clothing their style with Scripture-language though they were worse Infidels then the very Heathen 7. That the gross Infidelity of these two Impostours would make a man suspect them rather to have been crafty prophane Cheats then honest through-crackt Enthusiasts 8. That where Faith is extinct all the rapturous Exhortations to Vertue are justly suspected to proceed rather from Complexion then any Divine principle 152 CHAP. IX 1. Mahomet far more orthodox in the main points of Religion then the above named Impostours 2. The high pitch this pretended Prophet sets himself at His journey to Heaven being waited upon by the Angel Gabriel His Beast Alborach and of his being called to by two Women by the way with the Angels interpretation thereof 3. His arrival at the Temple at Jerusalem and the reverence done to him there by all the Prophets and holy Messengers of God that ever had been in the world 4. The crafty political meaning of the Vision hitherto 5. Mahomet bearing himself upon the Angel Gabriel's hand climbes up to Heaven on a Ladder of Divine light His passing through seven Heavens and his commâ—nding of himself to Christ in the Seventh 6. His salutation of his Creatour with the stupendious circumstances thereof 7. Five special favours he received from God at that congress 8. Of the natural wilyness in Enthusiasts and of their subtile pride where they would seem most humble The strange advantage of Enthusiasme with the rude Multitude 9. And the wonderfull success thereof in Mahomet Other Enthusiasts as proud as Mohamet but not so successful and why 155 CHAP. X. 1. That Mahomet was no true Prophet discovered from his cruel and bloudy Precepts 2. From his insatiable Lust. 3. From his wildeness of Phansy and Ignorance in things What may possibly be the meaning of the black speck taken out of his Heart by the Angel Gabriel 4. His pretence to Miracles as his being overshadowed with a cloud when he drove his Masters Mules 5. A stock of a Tree cleaving it self to give way to the stumbling Prophet The cluttering of Trees together to keep off the Sun from him as also his dividing of the Moon 6. The matters hitherto recited concerning Mahomet taken out of Johannes Andreas the Son of Abdalla a Mahometane Priest a grave person and serious Christian. 158 CHAP. XI 1. Three main Consequences of Christ's Apotheosis 2. Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles power of doing Miracles 3. The manner of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them at the day of Pentecost 4. The substantial Reasonableness of the circumstances of this Miracle 5. The Symbolical meaning of them 6. What was meant by the rushing winde that filled the whole house 7. What by the fiery cloven tongues 8. A recital of several other Miracles done by or happening to the Apostles 9. The Congruity and Coherence of the whole History of the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles argued from the Success 161 CHAP. XII 1.
Nature 7. The fourth Gospel-Power The Example of Christ. 8. His purpose of vindicating the Example of Christ from aspersions with the reasons thereof 408 CHAP. XIII 1. That Christ was no Blasphemer in declaring himself to be the Son of God 2. Nor Conjurer in casting out Devils 3. That he was unjustly accused of Prophaneness 4. That there was nothing detestable in his Neutrality toward Political Factions 5. Nor any Injustice nor Partiality found in him 6. Nor could his sharp Rebukes of the Pharisâ—es be rightly termed Railing 7. Nor his whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple tumultâ—ary Zeal 8. Nor his crying out so dreadfully in his Passion be imputed to Impatience or Despair 9. The suspicion of Distractedness and Madness cleared 10. His vindication from their aspersions of Looseness and Prodigality 11. The câ—oâ—ked and perverse nature of the Pharisees noted with our Saviours own Apology for his frequenting all companies 12. That Christ was no Self-seeker in undergoing the Death of the Cross for that joy that was set before him 412 CHAP. XIV 1. The reason of his having insisted so long on the vindicating of the Life of Christ from the aspersions of the Malevolent 2. The true Character of a real Christian. 3. The true Character of a false or Pharisaical Christian. 4. How easily the true members of Christ are accused of Blasphemy by the Pharisaical Christians 5. And the working of their Graces imputed to some vicious Principle 6. Their censuring them prophane that are not superstitious 7. The Parisees great dislike of coldness in fruitless Controversies of Religion 8. Their Ignorance of the law of Equity and Love 9. How prone it is for the sincere Christian to be accounted a Railer for speaking the truth 10. That the least Opposition against Pharisaical Rottenness will easily be interpreted bitter and tumultuous Zeal 11. How the solid Knowledge of the perfectest Christians may be accounted Madness by the formal Pharisee 12. his Proneness to judge the true Christian according to the motions of his own untamed corruptions 13. His prudent choice of the vice of Covetousness 14. The Unreasonableness of his censure of those that endeavour after Perfection 15. His ignorant surmise that no man liveth vertuously for the love of Vertue it self 16. The Usefulness of this Parallelisme betwixt the Reproach of Christ and his true Members 422 CHAP. XV. 1. The Passion of Christ the fifth Gospel-Power the Virtue whereof is in a special manner noted by our Saviour himself 2. That the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness was a prophetick Type of Christ and cured not by Art but by Divine Power 3. That Telesmatical Preparations are superstitious manifest out of their Collections that write of them 4. Particularly out of Gaffarel and Gregory 5. That the Effects of Telesmes are beyond the laws of Nature 6. That if there be any natural power in Telesmes it is from Similitude with a confutation of this ground also 7. A further confutation of that ground 8. In what sense the Brazâ—n Serpent was a Telesme and that it must needs be a Typical Prophecie of Christ. 9. The accurate and punctual Prefiguration therein 10. The wicked Pride and Conceitedness of those that are not touched with this admirable contrivance of Divine Providence 11. The insufferable balsphemy of them that reproach the Son of God for crying out in his dreadful Agony on the Cross wherein is discovered the Unloveliness of the Family of Love 429 CHAP. XVI 1. The End of Christs Sufferings not onely to pacifie Conscience but to root out Sin witnessed out of the Scripture 2. Further Testimonies to the same purpose 3. The Faintness and Uselesness of the Allegory of Chrâ—sts Passion in comparison of the Application of the History thereof 4 The Application of Christs Sufferings against Pride and Covetousness 5. As also against Envy Hâ—â—red Revenge vain Mirth the Pangs of Deaâ—h and unwarrantable Love 6. A General Application of the Death of Christ to the mortifying of all Sin whatsoever 7. The celebrating the Lords Supper the use and meaning thereof 436 CHAP. XVII 1. The sixth Gospel-Power is the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The priviledge of this Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality above that from the Subtilty of Reason and Philosophy 2. The great power this consideration of the Soul's Immortality has to urge men to a Godly life 3. To â—ean themselves from worldly pleasures and learn to delight in those that are everlasting 4. To have our Conversation in Heaven 5. The Conditions of the Everlasting Inheritance 6. Further enforcements of duty from the Soul's Immortality 440 CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace here shall be in no better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happiness 443 CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendome 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 447 CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulness of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 449 BOOK IX CHAP. I. THe four Derivative Properties of the Mystery of Godliness 2. That a measure of Obscurity begets Veneration suggested from our very senses 3. Confirmed also by the common suffrage of all Religions and the nature of Reservedness amongst men 4. The rudeness and ignorance of those that expect that every Divine Truth of Scripture should be a comprehensible Object of their understanding even in the very modes and
42. r. in time who pag. 242. l. 4. r. true in l. 7. r. needfull Before l. 8. r. Idea we pag. 349. l. 46. r. is built but. pag. 376. l. 37. r. dangerously as in Christianity pag. 379. l. 27. r. righteous As. pag. 426. l. 14. r. sindge pag. 491. l. 37. r. near two thirds pag. 525. l. 10. r. any other Religion In Printing PAg. 25. l. 23. for Souls and Spirits read Souls or Spirits p. 42. l. 10. Embraces r. Embracers p. 80. l. 38. Pan Lycaeus r. Pan Lycaeus p. 87. l. 30. That r. 3. That p. 188. l. 22. but not better dele not p. 190. l. 12. clap ' r. clap'd p. 224. l. 7. wery r. were p. 372. l. 2. glisning r. glinsening p. 309. l. 39. or men r. for men p. 339. l. 42. hat r. thaâ— p. 342. l. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 379. l. 34. whatsoever So r. whatsoever So. p. 412. l. 33. 7. r. 8. p. 470. l. 5. conveies read conveighs The Authors naturall averseness from writing of Books That there was a kinde of necessity urged him to write what he has wrote hitherto The occasion of writing his Psychozoia As also of his Poem Of the Immortality of the Soul His Satyrical Essays against Enthusiastick Philosophie The great usefulness of his Enthusiasmus Triumphatus and of this present Treatise for suppressing Enthusiasme The occasion and preparations to his writing his Antidore against Atheisme and his Threefold Cabbala The urgent occasion of writing this present Treatise as also of his Discourse Of the immortality of the Soul His account of the Inscription of this present Treatise Revelat. 14. His Apology for his so copiously describing the Animal Life And for his large Parallel betwixt Christ and Apollonius The reason of his bringing also Mahâ—â—et upon the Stage and H. N. and of his so large â—xcursions and frequent Expostulations with the Qâ—akers and Familists That the wonderful hopes and expectations of the Religious of the Nation yea of the better-meaning Fanaticks themselves are more likely to be fulfiâ—led by this happy restoring of the KING then by any other way imaginable Wherein consists the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme That the Honour of beginning that pure and Apostolick Church that is so much expected seems to have been reserved by Providence for CHARLES the Second our gracious Soveraign with pregnant arguments of so glâ—rious â—n hope The reasons why he did not cast out of his Discourse what he had written concerning Quakerisme and Familisme notwithstanding the fear of these Sects may seem well blown over through the happy settlement of things by the seasonable return of our Gracious Soveraign to his Throne The reason of his opposing the Familists and Quakers above any other Sects His excuse for being less accurate in the computation of Daniels weeks As also for being less copious in the proving the expected restorement of the Church to her pristine purity together with a Description of the condition of those happy ages to come That this Discourse was mainly intended for the information of a Christian in his private capacities What points he had most probably touched upon if his design had urged him to speak any thing of Church-Government Revelat. 13.11 A Description of such a Bishop as is impossible should be Antichristian Why he omitted to treat of the Reasonableness of the Precepts of Christ. That the pains he took in writing this Treatise were especially intended for the Rationall and Ingenuous His Apology for the sharpness of his style in some places An Objection against Mr. Mede 's Apocalyptick Interpretations from the supposed sad condition of all Adherers to the Apostate Church with the Answer thereto The Adversaries Reply to the foregoing Answer with a brief Attempt of satisfying the same An Apology for his free dislike of that abused Notion of Imputative Righteousness His Defence for so expresly declaring himself for a duly-bounded liberty of Conscience a The Word of God b The Divine Word c God d The First-born Son of God John 8.58 See further of this Subject book 9. c. 1. sect 6. and chap. 2. throughout Chap. 1. v. 12. Chap. 4. v. 8. 2 Cor. 5. Job 38.19 21. Heb. 12.9 * The Spirits of just men made perfect * He descended into Hell * Hades ordinarily translated Hell * He descended * To descend into Hell * For I will go down into the grave to my Son mourning * To Hâ—ll or Haâ—â—â— * Into an obscure and invisible whether the air or some subterraneous place * The invisibility and uncolouredness of the Air is called Hades or Hell * Hades * See my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 2 4 5 6. * See my Treatise Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 7. sect 16 17 18. and chap. 8. throughout Book 2. chap. 17 18. * See The Immortality of the Soul Book 3. chap. 18. Lib. 1. Lib. 5. Psalm 147.10 11. Job 31.26 27 28. * a divine Man * a divine Daemon * a divine Angel * See further of this Book 8. chap. 11. * See Cabbala Philosophica on Gen. chap. 2 and 3. * The Natural Iupiter * i. e. The Natural Philosophers called the Sun the Minde or Soul of the world But the world is called Heaven which they name Iupiter * See book 5. chap. 16. sect 5. * See further of this Book 8. chap. 15. Rom. 1.19 20. Acts 17.30 * The inward Word * The outward Word or Speech 1 Cor. 2.14 2 Tim. 1.10 John 12.31 Lib. 1. * Adversus Valent cap. 1. * Therap l. 7. * In Protrepi See Purchaâ— his â—ilgrim Part 1. Book 1. Chap. 15. * i. e. That he burnt his own son offering him as an Holocaust according to the customes or superstiâ—ious rites of the Canaanites * The sacrifices of the dead Many Angels of God having to doe with women begot insolent and injurious children despisers of all goodness by reason of their confidence in their own strength Lib. 3. * The fabulos time * Heroical Ephes. 1.10 John 1. v. 32. Need Security or Confidence in Predestination or the Decrees of God and Hope of worldly honour and preferment Luk. 9.34 Mark 6.5 6 * Luk. 4.39 * in types * in words * It is for the same Author to restore what had perished who had made what before had no being 1 Cor. 12.3 John 7 3â— * See Book 7. chap. 17. sect 8. Lib. 1. Lib. 15. John 2.19 Matth. 12.39 40. Wisdom chap. 2.14 15. 1 Cor. 15.58 * See Book 7. chap. 4. * See my Discourse Of the Immortality of the Soul Book 2. chap. 8. * Mark 16.19 * See Book 3. Chap. 3. Matth. 20.22 Matth. 28. 18. See Book 3. ch 17. sect 4. Heb. 4.15 * See Book 4. Chap. 15. Sect. 6. Act. 7.56 Act. 9.4 * the moral meaning of a Fable * See Enthusiasmus Triumphatus sect 34. art 9. * See Iohan.
be not to act according to it and to act contrary thereto intolerable For it were the wounding and tormenting a principle of life in us or the Spirit of Christ in us whereby we are not only aided and assisted to every good work but take a natural delight therein whereas under the Mosaical law we have no conformity of Spirit to either the purer Moral precepts or any complacency in the luggage of a company of insipid and burdensome Ceremonies and yet the Mosaical Dispensation though it give no strength to perform what it requires yet like Pharaoh's hard task-masters requires the same tale of brick though they withhold the straw 6. And this gives us some light into the nature of the Two Covenants in reference to the Prophecie of Ieremie But it being an argument of very great consideration I will not content my self with so scant an account thereof but make a more copious deduction of the whole matter out of Paul Gal. 4. that we may the more fully understand so important a Mystery and when I have from thence discovered the excellency of the state of the Second Covenant I shall adde such things as tend to the more useful knowledge of the entrance into it and advance in it CHAP. VII 1. The different states of the Two Covenants set out Galat. 4. by a double similitude 2. The nature of the Old Covenant adumbrated in Agar 3. As also further in her Son Ismael 4. The nature of the New Covenant adumbrated in Sarah 5. As also in Isaac her Son and in Israel his offspring 6. The necessity of imitating Abraham's faith that the Spiritual Isaac or Christ may be born in us 7. The grand difference betwixt the First and Second Covenant wherein it doth consist With a direction by the by to the most eminent Object of our Faith 8. The Second main point wherein this difference consists namely Liberty and that First from Ceremonies and Opinions 9. Secondly from all kind of Sins and disallowable Passions 10. Lastly to all manner of Righteousness and Holiness 1. TEll me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law For it is written that Abraham had two Sons the one by a bond-maid and the other by a free-woman But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free-woman was by promise Which things are an Allegorie for these are the Two Covenants the one from the Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is Agar For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all Here the story of Agar and Sarah Ismael and Isaac is made to set out and that very appositely and lively the two different conditions of those that are under the Law and those that are under the Gospel that thereby the advantage and excellency of one above the other being laid open before the eyes of the Galatians they might not hereafter be any more in a tottering and fluctuating condition or sophisticate and adulterate the precious purity of the Gospel with Iudaical superfluities and useless if not now hurtfull Ceremonies but stick fast to Christ alone not going back from him to Moses nor yet mingling Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies with the plainness and sincerity of Christ. In the words we have recited there is a double Similitude We will in each first lay out the particulars of the Protases and then pass on to the Apodoses The particulars of the First are Agar Abraham's bond-woman Ismael the Son of the bond-woman and the manner of the birth of this Son of the bond-woman he was born after the flesh that is according to the ordinary course of Nature Now in the Apodosis Ierusalem that now is that is the Church of the Jews answers to Agar Abraham's bond-woman and those of that Church to Ismael the Son of the bond-woman and to the being born after the flesh the being born out of the outward letter of the Law The particulars in the Second Protasis are Sarah the free-woman and Isaac the Son of Abraham which he had of this free-woman and lastly the manner of his birth it was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not after the ordinary course of Nature but the extraordinary power of God signified in his promise And now in the Apodosis Ierusalem that is from above that is the Church of true Christians answers to Sarah the Free-woman and those of that Church to Isaac the Son of the Free-woman and their being born of the Spirit not of the letter to the being born by promise not according to the flesh And now if we compare the particulars of these two Protases one with another in their due order we shall find a main difference or rather contrariety For Agar and Sarah differ as Bondage and Freedome and Ismael and Isaac as bond and free and the condition of their births as Nature and God And consequently there must arise a real difference or contrariety in the particulars of the Apodoses viz. betwixt the Old terrestrial Ierusalem and the New one from above betwixt the Jew Pharisee or outward Legalist and the true and real Christian and lastly betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit And so to speak compendiously this Text of the Apostle is nothing else but a description of the different conditions of the Two Covenants set out in an historical Allegorie taken from Agar and Sarah and their two Sons c. I shall therefore now fall upon them in that order as I have laid them out 2. And First therefore of Agar the bond-woman which signifies the Covenant of the Law given upon Mount Sinai For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia Which is spoken Synecdochically from a Town there called Agra by Plinie and by Dion Agara and the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek Geographers as Grotius has pertinently observed This allusion therefore to Agar on Mount Sinai where the Law was given does commend to us more handsomely and facilitate the Allegory taken from the story of Agar and Sarah But if there were not this Geographical advantage the Application will be found very sutable and apposite even without it And much of the nature of the Old and New Covenant is hinted at even in the names themselves as in this of Agar which they ordinarily interpret Peregrina What the relation of habitude is betwixt the Soul of man and the things of the Old Covenant is very fitly set down in the meaning of this Name Agar For verily as for those things that were Positive and Ceremonial in the Law of Moses they are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things strange and of no affinity with the Soul and as for those things that are most precious and most indispensably good in the Law of Moses the Soul in
no better a dispensation then under the Law is plainly a Stranger to them For the Law conveies no life but all congruity sympathy and vital affinity must arise out of a Principle of life And hence it is that the Law makes nothing perfect and that Righteousness cannot be of the Law as I have above intimated out of the Apostle The Law therefore giving no life a mere Legalist is even a stranger to those things he practices and imitates under the Law and acts so as the Parot speaks by external imitation not from a due inward Faculty Secondly This Agar her condition was a bond-woman and what I pray you is it to be in bondage or not sui juris but to be constrained to act ad nutum alterius And in this condition are all those that are under the Law For they do not act according to a free inward and living Principle in them but are fain to be curb'd and fettered by an outward imposition which is perfect and proper bondage And there is no bondage but to doe or suffer otherwise then a man would himself 3. Thirdly Of this Agar is begot Ismael What 's that Ismael may signifie these two things viz. either one that has only a knowledge of God by hearsay from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus or so far as some external letter conveies it to him resolving all his faith in things concerning God into an outward Scripture only and haply is so earthly and carnal that he would scarce believe there were a God unless it were for the Scripture Or else from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedire from obeying God in a servile and external forc'd way For Obedience implies some kind of reluctancy or that that which we obey in goes something against the hair with us but yet in obedience to the Commander we doe it nevertheless as being bound to obey And this is most of all proper to them under the first Covenant For that Law not giving life there is no Principle of life and natural and genuine compliance of the Soul of man with the spirituality of the Law under the First Covenant and therefore that of the Law which he endeavours to perform must needs go cross to him and it will be merely the obedience to the Precept not the love of the thing that will make him endeavour the performance And this is the true condition of Agar's Son Ismael And it would not be unseasonable to add also that he is a great and fierce Disputer upon the letter a notable Polemical Divine and his ignorance and untamedness of his carnal heart makes him very bold and troublesome his hand is against every man and every mans hand against him as the Scripture witnesses of him But I will not insist upon these things Fourthly and lastly This Ismael the Son of Agar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was begotten and born after the flesh or according to the ordinary and accustomary power of Nature And such an one is he that is merely under the First Covenant He is not born of the Spirit or regenerated 〈…〉 nary power and assistance of God which he that is un 〈…〉 Covenant takes hold of by Faith in the Promise but toiles and tugs with that Understanding and ordinary Naturall power is in him of externally conforming himself to the proposed Rule and under this poor dispensation when he is come to the best of this his either birth or growth he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is but Flesh and not Spirit For that which is born of the Flesh that is of our own natural abilities is but Flesh but that which is born of the Spirit that is of God and his Divine seed in us that is Spirit the true Spiritual man the Lord from Heaven Heavenly in a Mystical sense But this under the Law is but the Son of the Flesh or the Earth is not a Son of that Ierusalem that is from above the Heavenly Ierusalem which is the Mother of as many as are real and true Christians For this is Sarah the Free-woman but the old Ierusalem is in bondage with her Children as the Apostle plainly tells us 4. And thus far have I described the condition or nature of the Old Mosaical Covenant so far forth as is intimated in the Text. I proceed now to the Second or New Covenant under Christ. And the first Particular in the Protasis here is Sarah Domina a Free-woman libera à vitiis ac ritibus as the Interpreter speaks very well one that is not commanded into obedience by others but is sui juris does what she pleases and so she may very well for nothing pleases her but what is good and therefore fit to be done For Sarah or the New Ierusalem from above is of one Spirit and one mind with Christ. And this is the true Church of Christians in whom the body of sin being dead they are free from it as the Apostle speaks to the Romans being quit thereof they walk freely and safely etiam custode remoto that surly Paedagogue the Law no longer dogging them at the heels For whatever it can suggest from without the Spirit of God whispers to them from within or indeed that living Form of all holinesse and righteousnesse the Image of Christ recovered in them guides them as easily and as naturally to as our external Senses guide our Natural man in this outward and visible world This therefore is the condition of the Church of Christ and every true member of it at least arrived to its due maturity and perfection that every Soul there is as Sarah Domina as a Queen Regent in her little world her self acting nothing forcedly but freely as from a living principle and keeping those under her in due order and subjection Which condition undoubtedly the Scripture does point at in such phrases as these He hath made us Kings and Priests and elsewhere You are a Kingly Priesthood and the like 5. Secondly Of this Sarah was born Isaac which signifies Laughter and is a signe of Chearfulness and Ioy. Because he that is a true Christian acts and walks with joy and chearfulnesse in the waies of holinesse and righteousnesse And herein is he mainly distinguished from Ismael who acts merely out of obedience to an external form and so forces himself against the hair to do or omit that which were it not that he was bound in obedience to do or omit he would take the boldnesse to neglect his inward principle being contrary to it As for example he would revenge did not the Law forbid him he would immerse himself into all manner of Sensual pleasures were he not aw'd as an hungry dog by the lash and penalty of the Law and so in other things But the Soul of a true Christian in whom Isaac is born does not act what is good or omit what is evil out of any force or fear of