him the observance of that positive command of not eating of the forbidden fruit The only thing then left is whether God be not lyable to this charge as he left man to the liberty of his will And that may be grounded on two things either that God did not create man in such a condition in which it had been impossible for him to have sinned or that knowing his temptation he did not give him power to resist it If neither of these will lay any Imputation of the Origine of evil upon God then God will appear to be wholly free from it First concerning mans being created a free agent if the determination of the Schools be good that possibility of â—inning is implyed in the very notion of a creature and consequently that impeccability is repugnant to the nature of a created Being then we see a necessary reason why man was created in a state of liberty but endeavouring to shew that the grounds of our Religion are not repugnant to natural reason I shall rather make use of the Testimony of such who professed to be followers of nothing else but reason and Philosophy Among whom I shall make choice of Simplicius both â—or the reason he produceâ—h and because he is farthest from any suspicion of partiality by reason of his known opposition to the Mosaick history of the Creation He then in his Commentaries on Epictetus professedly disputes this very subject of the Origine of evil and after having rejected that sond opinion of two principles one of good and the other of evil undertakes to give an account whence evil came into the world which because it tends so much to the illustrating our present subject I shall give an account of God saith he who is the â—ountain and principle of all good not only produced things which were in themselves good nor only those things which were of a middle nature but the extreams too which were such things which were apt to be perverted from that which is according to nâ—ture to that which we call evil And that after those bodyes which were as he supposeth incorruptible others were produced which are subject to mutation and corruption and so after those souls which were immutably fixed in good others were produced which were lyable to be perverted from it that so the riches of Gods goodness might be displayed in making to exist all beings which were capable of it and that the Universe might be perfect in having all sorts of Beings in it Now he supposeth that all these Beings which are above this sublunary world are such as are immutably good and that the lowest sort of Beings which are lyable to be perverted to evil are such which are here below Therefore saith he the soul being of a more noble and immutable nature while it is by its self doth not partake of evil but it being of a nature apt to be joyned with these terrestrial bodyes by the providâ—nce of the author of the Universe who produced such souls that so both extreams might be joyned by the bonds of vital union thereby it becomes sensible of those evils and pains which the body is subject to but thâ—se things are not properly evils but rather good considering our terrestrial bodyes as parts of the Universe which is upheld by the changes and vicissitudes which are in this lower world Wâ—â—ch he largely discourses on to shew that those particular alterations which are in bodyes do conduce rather to the perfection and beauty of the Universe then are any real evils in it But now saith he for the origine of those things which are properly evils viz. moral evils which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tâ—e lapses and errors of the humane soul we are to consider that there are souls of a more excellent nature then ours are which are immutally good â—nd the souls of brutes are of a lower kinde then ours are and yet are middle between the rational and vegetative having something in them parallel both to the appetites and evils which are in men which will therefore be understood by an account of the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul of man is nexus utriusque mundi in the middle between those more excellent Beings which perpetually remain above with which it partakes in the sublimity of its nature and understanding and those inferiour terrestrical Beings with which it communicates through the vital union which it hath with the body and by reason of that freedom and indifferency which it hath it sometimes is assimilated to the one sometimes to the other of these extreams So that while it approacheth to the nature of the superior Beings it keeps it self free from evil but because of its freedom it may sometimes sink down into these lower things and so he calls the cause of all evil in the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its voluntary descent into this lower world and immersing its self in the faeculency of terrestrial matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For though the soul be of a kind of Amphibious nature yet it is not forced either upwards or downwards but acts either way according to its internal liberty But saith he while the rational soul keeps that power which it hath in its hands over the body and makes use of it only as an instrument for its own good so long it keeps pure and free from any stain of evil but when it once forgets the similitude it hath with the morâ— excellent Being and throws away the Scepter of its power and drowns it self in the body and brutish affections preferring the pleasure of sense above that of reason when it so far degenerates below the principles of reason that in stead of commanding the brutish faculties it becomes a slave to them then it conceives and brings forth evil but this it doth not through any coaction or necessity but through the abuse of that power and liberty which it hath For the choice is a proper action of the soul its self which he proves from hence because God and the Laws and all good men do not measure the good and evil of actions so much by the event as by the will and intention of the person and that punishment and reward have chiefly a respect to these And therefore men are pardoned for what they do out of constraint and force and the fault is ascribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to him that did it but to him that forced him to the doing of it And so from hence he concludes that because of the freedom of the will of man nothing else can be said to be the author of evil properly but the soul of man and concludes that discourse with this excellent speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having thus found out the true Origine of evil let us cry out with a loud voice that God is not the author of sin because the soul freely doth that which is evil and not God for if
away the rational grounds of faith and placing it on self-evidence Of the self-evidence of the Scriptures and the insufficiency of that for resolving the question about the authority of the Scriptures Of the pretended miracles of Impostors and false Christs as Barchochebas David el David and others The rules whereby to judge true miracles from false 1. True Divine miracles are wrought to confirm a Divine testimony No miracles necâ—ssary for the certain conveyance of a Divine testimony proved from the evidences that the Scriptures could not be corrupted 2. No miracles Divine which contradict Divine revelation Of Popish miracles 3. Divine miracles leave Divine effects on those who believe them Of the miracles of Simon Magus 4. Divine miracles tend to the overthrow of the devils power in the world the antipathy of the doctrine of Christ to the devils designs in the world 5. The distinction of true miracles from others from the circumstances and manner of their operation The miracles of Christ compared with those of the Hâ—athen Gods 6. God makes it evident to all impartial judgments that Divine miracles exceed created power This manifested from the unparalleld miracles of Moses and our Saviour From all which the rational evidence of Divine revelation is manifested as to the persons whom God imployes to teach the world pag. 334 BOOK III. CHAP. I. Of the Being of God The Principles of all Religion lie in the Being of God and immortality of the soul from them the necessity of a particular Divine revelation rationally deduced the method laid down for proving the Divine authority of the Scriptures Why Moses doth not prove the Being of God but suppose it The notion of a Deity very consonant to reason Of the nature of Idea's and particularly of the Idea of God How we can form an Idea of an infinite Being How far such an Idea argues existence The great unreasonableness of Atheism demonstrated Of the Hypotheses of the Aristotelian and Epicurean Atheists The Atheists pretences examined and refuted Of the nature of the arguments whereby we prove there is a God Of universal consent and the evidence of that to prove a Deity and immortality of souls Of necessity of existence implyed in the notion of God and how far that proves the Being of God The order of the world and usefulness of the parts of it and especially of mans body an argument of a Deity Some higher principle proved to be in the world then matter and motion The nature of the soul and possibility of its subsisting after death Strange appearances in nature not solvable by the power of imagination pag. 360 CHAP. II. Of the Origine of the Universe The necessity of the belief of the creation of the world in order to the truth of Religion Of the several Hypotheses of the Philosophers who contradict Moses with a particular examination of them The ancïent tradition of the world consonant to Moses proved from the fonick Philosophy of Thales and the Italick of Pythagoras The Pythagorick Cabbala rather Aegyptian then Mosaick Of the fluid matter which was the material principle of the universe Of the Hypothesis of the eternity of the world asserted by Ocellus Lucanus and Aristotle The weakness of the foundations on which that opinion is built Of the manner of forming principles of Philosophy The possibility of creation proved No arguing from the present state of the world against its beginning shewed from Maimonides The Platonists arguments from the goodness of God for the eternity of the world answered Of the Stoical Hypothesis of the eternity of matter whether reconcilable with the text of Moses Of the opinions of Plato and Pythagoras concerning the praeexistence of matter to the formation of the world The contradiction of the eternity of matter to the nature and attributes of God Of the Atomical Hypothesis of the Origine of the Universe The World could not be produced by a casual concourse of Atoms proved from the nature and motion of Epicurus his Atoms and the Phaenomena of the Universe especially the production and nature of Animals Of the Cartesian Hypothesis that it cannot salve the Origine of the Universe without a Deity giving motion to matter pag. 421 CHAP. III. Of the Origine of Evil. Of the Being of Providence Epicurus his arguments against it refuted The necessity of the belief of Providence in order to Religion Providence proved from a consideration of the nature of God and the things of the world Of the Spirit of nature The great objections against Providence propounded The first concerns the Origine of evil God cannot be the author of sin if the Scriptures be true The account which the Scriptures give of the fall of man doth not charge God with mans fault Gods power to govern man by Laws though he gives no particular reason of every Positive precept The reason of Gods creating man with freedom of will largely shewed from Simplicius and the true account of the Origine of evil Gods permitting the fall makes him not the author of it The account which the Scriptures give of the Origine of evil compared with that of heathen Philosophers The antiquity of the opinion of ascribing the Origine of evil to an evil principle Of the judgment of the Persians Aegyptians and others about it Of Manichaism The opinion of the ancient Greek Philosophers of Pythagoras Plato the Stoicks the Origine of evil not from the necessity of matter The remainders of the history of the fall among the Heathens Of the malignity of Daemons Providence vindicated as to the sufferings of the good and impunity of bad men An account of both from natural light manifested by Seneca Plutarch and others pag. 470 CHAP. IV. Of the Origine of Nations All mankind derived from Adam if the Scriptures be true The contrary supposition an introduction to Atheism The truth of the history of the flood The possibility of an universal deluge proved The flood universal as to mankind whether universal as to the earth and animals no necessity of asserting either Yet supposing the possibility of it demonstrated without creation of new waters Of the fountains of the deep The proportion which the height of mountains bears to the Diameter of the earth No mountains much above three mile perpendicular Of the Origine of fountains The opinion of Aristotle and others concerning it discussed The true account of them from the vapours arising from the mass of subterraneous waters Of the capacity of the Ark for receiving the Animals from Buteo and others The truth of the deluge from the Testimony of Heathen Nations Of the propagation of Nations from Noahs posterity Of the beginning of the Assyrian Empire The multiplication of mankind after the flood Of the Chronology of the LXX Of the time between the flood and Abraham and the advantages of it Of the pretence of such Nations who called themselves Aborigines A discourse concerning the first plantation of Greece the common opinion propounded and
great irregularities in the observation of it for it is expresly said That a multitude of the people had not cleansed themselves yet they did eat the Passeover otherwise then it was written And yet it is said upon Hezekiah's prayer that the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah and healed every one So that we see God himself did dispense with the strict ceremonial precepts of the Law where men did look after the main and substantial parts of the worship God required from them Nay God himself hath expresly declared his own will to dispense with the ritual and ceremonial Law where it comees to stand in competition with such things as have an internal goodness in them when he saith he desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more then burnt-offerings Thus we plainly see that the ceremonial Law however positive it was did yield as to its obligation when any thing that was moral stood in competition with it And so the Iews themselves suppose an open violation of the judicial Law to have been in the hanging up of Sauls sons a long time together directly contrary to Deut. 21. 23. which they conceive to have been from the 16. of Nisan to the 17. of Marchesvan which is as much as from our March to September whereas the Law saith expresly that the body of one that is hanged shall not remain all night upon the tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day One of the Iewish Rabbies as G. Vorstius tells us is so troubled at this that he wisheth that place in Samuel expunged out of Scripture that the name of God might be sanctified But whether this were done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the command of the Oracle or no or whether only by a general permission we see it was acceptable unto God for upon that the Gibeonites famine was removed and God was intreated for the Land Thus we have now proved that there is no immutable and indispensable obligation which ariseth from the things themselves Secondly it is no ways inconsistent with the wisdom of God to repeal such a Law when once established The main argument of that learned R. Abravanel whereby he would establish the eternity of the Law of Moses is fetched from hence That this Law was the result of the wisdom of God who knows the suitableness of things he appoints to the ends he appoints them for as God hath appointed bread to be the food of mans body Now we are not to enquire why God hath appointed bread and no other thing to be the food of man no more saith he are we to enquire why God hath appointed this Law rather then another for the food of our souls but we are to rest contented with the counsels of God though we understand not tht reasons of them This is the substance of that argument which he more largely deduceth To which we answer that his argument holds good for obedience to all Gods positive precepts of what kind or nature soever they be so long as we know their obligation to continue but all the question is whether every positive precept must always continue to oblige And thus far his similitude will hold good that whatever God doth command we are to look upon it to be as necessary to our souls as bread to our bodies but hence it follows not that our souls must be always held to the same positive precepts any more then our bodies to the same kind of food Nay as in our bodies we find some kind of food always necessary but the kind of it to alter according to age health and constitutions so we say some kind of Divine revelation is always necessary but God is graciously pleased to temper it according to the age and growth of his people so he fed them as with milk in their nonage with a ritual and ceremonial Law and trained them up by degrees under the Nursery of the Prophets till the Church was grown to age and then God fed it with the strong meat which is contained in Gods revelation of his will by the Gospel of his Son And therein was abundantly seen Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his variegated wisdom that he made choise of such excellent and proportionable wayes to his peoples capacity to prepare them gradually for that full and compleat revelation which was reserved for the time of the appearance of the true Messias in the world For can any thing be more plain then the gradual progress of Divine revelation from the beginning of the world That fair resemblance and portraicture of God himself and his will upon his word if I may so express it had its ground work laid upon mans first Apostacy in the promise made Gen. 3. 15. whereon some further lines were drawn in the times of the Patriarchs but it had its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was shadowed out the most in the typical and ceremonial Law but was never filled up to the life nor had its perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till the Son of God himself appeared unto the world If then it be inconsistent with the wisdom of God to add any thing to the Law of Moses why not to the revelation made to Adam or the Patriarchs or especially to the seven precepts of Noah which they suppose to have been given to all mankind after the flood If it were not repugnant to the wisdom of God to superadd rituals and ceremonials to morals and naturals why shall it be to take down the Scaffolds of Ceremonies when Gods spiritual Temple the Church of God is come to its full height Is there not more reason that rituals should give place to substantials then that such should be superinduced to morals There are only two things can be pleaded by the Iewes why it should be more repugnant to the wisdom of God to add to the Law of Moses then to any former revelation which are the greater perfection they suppose to be in this revelation above others and that God in the promulgation of it did express that he would never alter it But both these are manifestly defective and insufficient in order to the end for which they are produced For first what evidence is there that the Law of Moses contained so great perfection in it as that it was not capable of having any additions made to it by God himself We speak not now of the perfection of the Moral Law which it is granted contained in it the foundation of all positive precepts for this we never contend for the abrogation of but the ritual Law is that we meddle with and is it possible any men should be so little befriended by reason as to think this to be the utmost pitch of what God could reveal to the world as to the way of his own worship Let any indifferent rational person take the precepts of the Gospel and lay them in the ballance with those of the
aut sine Deo corum tantas animorum ficri conversiones ut cum carnisices unci aliique innumeri cruciatus quemadmodum diximus impendeant credituris vâ—luti quadam dulcedine atque omnium virtutum amore correpti cognitas accipiant rationes atque mundi omnibus rebus praeponant amicitias Christi That no fears penalties or torments were able to mâ—ke a Christian alter his profession but he would rather bid adiâ—u to his life then to his Saviour This Origen likewise frequently takes notice of when Celsus had objected the novelty of Christianity the more wonderful it is saith Origen that in so short a time it should so largely spread its self in the world for if the cure of mens bodies be not wrought without Divine Providence how much less the cure of so many thousands of souls which have been converted at once to humanity and Christianity especially when all the powâ—rs of the world were from the first engaged to hinder the progress of this doctrine and yet notwithstanding all this opposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word of God prâ—vailed as not being able to be stopt by men and became master over all its enemies and not only spread its self quite through Greece but through a great part of the world besides and converted an innumerable company of souls to the true worship and service of God Thus we have now manifested from all the circumstances of the propagation of the doctrine of Christ what evidence there was of a divine power accompanying of it and how useful the first miracles were in order to it CHAP. X. The difference of true miracles from false The unreasonableness of rejecting the evidence from miracles because of impostures That there are certain rules of distinguishing true miracles from false and Divine from diabolical proved from Gods intention in giving a power of miracles and the providence of God in the world The inconvenience of taking away the rational grounds of faith and placing it on self-evidence Of the self-evidence of the Scriptures and the insufficiency of that for resolving the question about the authority of the Scriptures Of the pretended miracles of Impostors and false Christs as Barchochelas David el-David and others The rules whereby to judge true miracles from false 1. True Divine miracles are wrought to confirm a Divine testimony No miracles necessary for the certain conveyance of a Divine testimony proved from the evidences that the Scriptures could not be corrupted 2. No miracles Divine which contradict Divine revelation Of Popish miracles 3. Divine miracles leave Divine effects on those who believe them Of the miracles of Simon Magus 4. Divine miracles tend to the overthrow of the devils power in the world the antipathy of the doctrine of Christ to the devils designs in the world 5. The distinction of true miracles from others from the circumstances and manner of their operation The miracles of Christ compared with those of the Heathen Gods 6. God makes it evident to all impartial judgements that Divine miracles exceed created power This manifested from the unparalleld miracles of Moses and our Saviour From all which the rational evidence of Divine revelation is manifested as to the persons whom God imployes to teach the world HAving thus far stated the cases wherein miracles may justly be expected as a rational evidence of Divine authority in the persons whom God imployes by way of peculiar message to the world and in the prosecution of this discourse manifested the evidences of Divine authority in Moses and the Prophets and in our Saviour and his Apostles the only remaining question concerning this subject is how we may certainly distinguish true and real miracles from such as are only pretended and counterfeit For it being as evident that there have been impostures and delusions in the world as real miracles the minds of men will be wholly to seek when to rely upon the evidence of miracles as an argument of Divine authority in those persons who do them unless a way be found out to distinguish them from each other But if we can make it appear that unless men through weakness of judgement or incogitancy deceive themselves they may have certain evidence of the truth of miracles then there can be nothing wanting as to the establishment of their minds in the truth of that doctrine which is confirmed by them There hath been nothing which hath made men of better affections then understandings so ready to suspect the strength of the evidence from miracles concerning Divine testimony as the multitude of impostures in the world under the name of miracles and that the Scripture its self tells us we must not hearken to such as come with lying wonders But may we not therefore safely rely on such miracles which we have certain evidence could not be wrought but by Divine power because forsooth the Devil may sometimes abuse the ignorance and credulity of unwary men or is it because the Scripture forbids us to believe such as should come with a pretence of miracles therefore we cannot rely on the miracles of Christ himself which is as much as to say because the Scripture tells us that we must not believe every spirit therefore we must believe none at all or because we must not entertain any other doctrine besides the Gospel therefore we have no reason to believe that For the ground whereby we are assured by the Scriptures that the testimony of Christ was Divine and therefore his doctrine true is because it was confirmed by such miracles as he did now if that argument were insufficient which the Scriptures tell us was the great evidence of Christs being sent from God we cannot give our selves a sufficient account in point of evidence on which we believe the doctrine of the Gospel to be true and Divine But the only rational pretence of any scruple in this case must be a supposed uncertainty in our rules of judging concerning the nature of miracles for if there be no certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or notes of difference whereby to know Divine miracles from delusions of senses and the impostures of the Devil I must confess that there is an apparent insufficiency in the evidence from miracles but if there be any certain rules of proceeding in this case we are to blame nothing but our incredulity if we be not satisfied by them For the full clearing of this I shall first make it appear that there may be certain evidence found out whereby we may know true miracles from false and Divine from diabolical And Secondly Enquire into those things which are the main notes of difference between them First That there may be certain evidence whereby to know the truth of miracles I speak not of the difference ex parte râ—i between miracles and those called wonders as that the one exceed the power of created agents and the other doth not for this leaves the enquirer as far to
pimple any the most trivial thing with a word speaking or the touch of the hand Upon this Arnobius challengeth the most famous of all the Heathen Magicians Zoroastres Armenius Pamphilus Apollonius Damigero Dardanus Velus Iulianus and Baebulus or any other renowned Magician to give power to any one to make the dumb to speak the deaf to hear the blind to see or bring life into a dead body Or if this be too hard with all their Magical rites and incantations but to do that quod à rusticis Christianis jussienibus factitatum est nudis which ordinary Christians do by their meer words So great a difference was there between the highest that could be done by Magick and the least that was done by the Name and Power of Christ. Where miracles are truly Divine God makes it evident to all impartial judgements that the things do exceed all created power For which purpose we are to observe that though impostures and delusions may go far the power of Magicians further when God permits them yet when God works miracles to confirm a Divine Testimony he makes it evident that his power doth infinitely exceed them all This is most conspicuous in the case of Moses and our blessed Saviour First Moses he began to do some miracles in the presence of Pharaoh and the Aegyptians turning his rod into a Serpent but we do not finde Pharaoh at all amazed at it but sends presently for the Magicians to do the same who did it whether really or only in appearance is not material to our purpose but Aarons rod swallowed up theirs The next time the waters are turned into blood by Moses the Magicians they do so too After this Moses brings up Frogs upon the Land so do the Magicians So that here now is a plain and open contest in the presence of Pharaoh and his people between Moses and the Magicians and they try for victory over each other so that if Moses do no more then they they would look upon him but as a Magician but if Moses do that which by the acknowledgement of these Magicians themselves could be only by Divine Power then it is demonstrably evident that his power was as far above the power of Magick as God is above the Devil Accordingly we finde it in the very next miracle in turning the dust into Ciniphes which we render lice the Magicians are non-plust and give out saying in plain terms This is the finger of God And what greater acknowledgement can there be of Divine Power then the confession of those who seemed to contest with it and to imitate it as much as possible After this we finde not the Magicians offering to contest with Moses and in the plague of boyles we particularly read that they could not stand before Moses Thus we see in the case of Moses how evident it was that there was a power above all power of Magick which did appear in Moses And so likewise in the case of our blessed Saviour for although Simon Magus Apollonius or others might do some small things or make some great shew and noise by what they did yet none of them ever came near the doing things of the same kind which our Saviour did curing the born blind restoring the dead to life after four dayes and so as to live a considerable time after or in the manner he did them with a word a touch with that frequency and openness before his greatest enemies as well as followers and in such an uncontrouled manner that neither Iews or Heathens ever questioned the truth of them And after all these when he was laid in the grave after his crucifixion exactly according to his own prediction he rose again the third day appeared frequently among his Disciples for forty dayes together After which in their presence he ascended up to heaven and soon after made good his promise to them by sending his holy Spirit upon them by which they spake with tongues wrought miracles went up and down Preaching the Gospel of Christ with great boldness chearfulness and constancy and after undergoing a great deal of hardship in it they sealed the truth of all they spake with their blood laying down their lives to give witness to it Thus abundantly to the satisfaction of the minds of all good men hath God given the highest rational evidence of the truth of the doctrine which he hath revealed to the world And thus I have finished the second part of my task which concerned the rational evidence of the truth of Divine Revelation from the persons who were imployed to deliver Gods mind to the world And therein have I hope made it evident that both Moses and the Prophets our Saviour and his Apostles did come with sufficient rational evidence to convince the world that they were persons immediately sent from God BOOK III. CHAP. I. Of the Being of God The Principles of all Religion lie in the Being of God and immortality of the soul from them the necessity of a particular Divine revelation rationally deduced the method laid down for proving the Divine authority of the Scriptures Why Moses doth not prove the Being of God but suppose it The notion of a Deity very consonant to reason Of the nature of Idea's and particularly of the Idea of God How we can form an Idea of an infinite Being How far such an Idea argues existence The great unreasonableness of Atheism demonstrated Of the Hypotheses of the Aristotelian and Epicurean Atheists The Atheists pretences examined and refuted Of the nature of the arguments whereby we prove there is a God Of universal consent and the evidence of that to prove a Deity and immortality of souls Of necessity of existence implyed in the notion of God and how far that proves the Being of God The order of the world and usefulness of the parts of it and especially of mans body an argument of a Deity Some higher principle proved to be in the world then matter and motion The nature of the soul and possibility of its subsisting after death Strange appearances in nature not solvable by the power of imagination HAving in the precedent book largely given a rational account of the grounds of our faith as to the persons whom God imployes to reveal his mind to the world if we can now make it appear that those sacred records which we embrace as Divinely inspired contain in them nothing unworthy of so great a name or unbecoming persons sent from God to deliver there will be nothing wanting to justifie our Religion in point of reason to be true and of revelation to be Divine For the Scriptures themselves coming to us in the name of God we are bound to believe them to be such as they pretend to be unless we have ground to question the general foundations of all religion as uncertain or this particular way of religion as not suitable to those general foundations The foundations of all
religion lie in two things that there is a God who rules the world and that the souls of men are capable of subsisting after death for he that comes unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him so that if these things be not supposed as most agreeable to humane reason we cannot imagine upon what grounds mankind should embrace any way of religion at all For if there be not a God whom I am to serve and obey and if I have not a soul of an immortal nature there can be no sufficient obligation to religion nor motive inducing to it For all obligation to obedience must suppose the existence of such a Being which hath power to command me and by reason of the promisâ—uous scatterings of good and evil in this life the motives engaging men to the practice of religion must suppose the certainty of a future State If these things be sure and the foundations of religion in general thereby firmly established it will presently follow as a matter most agreeable to reason that the God whom we are to serve should himself prescribe the way of his own worship and if the right of donation of that happiness which mens souls are capabâ—e of be alone in himself that he alone should declare the termes on which it may be expected For man being a creature endued with a free principle of acting which he is conscious to himself of and therefore not being carried to his end by necessity of nature or external violence without the concurrence of his own reason and choice we must suppose this happiness to depend upon the performance of some conditions on mans part whereby he may demonstrate that it is the matter of his free choice and that he freely quits all other interests that he might obtain the enjoyment of it Which conditions to be performed being expressions of mans obedience towards God as his Creator and Governour and of his gratitude for the tenders of so great a happiness which is the free gift of his Maker we cannot suppose any one to have power to prescribe these conditions but he that hath power likewise to deprive the soul of her happiness upon non-performance and that must be God himself But in order to mans understanding his duty and his obligation to obedience it is necessary that these conditions must not be locked up in the Cabinet Council of Heaven but muâ—â— be so far declared and revealed that he may be fully acquaâ—ted with those terms which his happiness depends upon else his neglect of them would be excusable and his misery unavoidable Had man indeed remained without offending his Maker he might still have stood in his favour upon the general terms of obedience due from the creature to his Creator and to all such particular precepts which should bear the impress of his Makers will upon them beside which the whole volume of the Creation without and his own reason within would have been sufficient directors to him in the performance of his duty But he abusing his liberty and being thereby guilty of Aâ—ostacy from God as is evident by a continued propensity to sin and the strangeness between God and the souls of men a particular revelation is now become necessary that mankind may thereby understand on what terms God will be pleased again and by what means they may be restored into his favour And lastly it not agreeing with the free and communicative nature of Divine goodness which was the first original of the worlds Creation to suffer all mankind to perish in their own folly we must suppose this way for mans recovery to be somewhere prescribed and the revelation of it to be somewhere extant in the world So that from the general principles of the existence of God and immortality of the soul we have deduced by clear and evident reason the necessity of some particular Divine revelation as the Standard and measure of religion And according to these principles we must examine what ever pretends to be of Dâ—vine revelation for it must be suitable to that Divine nature from whom it is supposed to come and it must be agreeable to the conditions of the souls of men and therefore that which carries with it the greatest evidence of Divine revelation is a faithful representation of the State of the case between God and the souls of men and a Divine discovery of those wayes whereby mens souls may be fitted for eternal happiness A Divine revelation then must be faithful and true in all its narrations it must be excellent and becoming God in all its discoveries And therefore all that can with any reason be desired for proof of the Divine authority of the Scriptures will lie in these three things First That the foundations of religion are of undoubted certainty or that there ie a God and that mens souls are immortal Secondly That the Scriptures do most faithfully relate the matters of greatest antiquity therein contained which do most concern the history of the breach between God and man Thirdly That the Scriptures are the only authentick records of those Terms on which happiness may be expected in another world I begin with the first of them which concerns the existence of God and immortality of the soul both which seem to be supposed as general Prolepses in the writings of Moses and as things so consonant to humane nature that none to whom his writings should come could be supposed to question them And therefore he spends no time in the operose proving of either of these knowing to how little purpose his writings would be to such who denyed these first principles of all religion But beside this there may be these accounts given why these main foundations of all religion are no more insisted on in the first books of the Scripture which contain the originals of the world First Because these were in the time of the writing of them believed with an universal consent of mankind In those more early dayes of the world when the tradition of the first ages of it was more fresh and entire it is scarce imaginable that men should question the Being of a God when the history of the flood and the propagation of the world after it by the Sons of Noah and the burning of Sodom and Gomorrab were so fresh in their memories as having been done so few Generations before them And by what remains of any history of other Nations in those elder times men were so far from Atheism that Polytheism and Idolatry were the common practice of the world as is most evident in all relations of the antient Chaldeans Aegyptians Phaenicians and other Nations who all supposed these two principles as well as those who served the true God And in all probability as men are apt to run from one extream to another Polytheism was the first occasion of Atheism and Idolatry of irreligion And thence we finde the
their souls compounded of who first fancied themselves to be immaterial What strange agitations of matter were those which first made men think of an eternal state which thoughts have ever since so stuck upon these little sphaerical bodyes that they could never yet disburden themselves of them Whence come such amazing fears such dreadful apprehensions such sinking thoughts of their future condition in minds that would fain ease themselves by believing that death would put a period both to soul and body whence on the other side come such encouraging hopes such confident expectations such comfortable prepossessions of their future state in the souls of good men when their bodyes are nearest to the grave Seneca who was somewhat dubious sometimes as to the future condition of the soul yet could tell his dear Lucilius with what pleasure he could think of it and could elsewhere say of the soul Eâ— hoc habet argumentum divinitatis suae quod illum divina delectant nec ut alienis interest sed ut suis the soul had that mark of Divinity in it that it was most pleased with Divine speculations and conversed with them as with matters which nearly concerned it And when it hath once viewed the dimensions of the heavens contemnit domicilii prioris angustias it was ashamed of the cottage it dwelt in nay were it not for these speculations non fuerat operae prâ—tium nasci it had not been worth while for the soul to have been in the body and as he goes on detrahe hoc inaestimabile bonum non est vita tanti ut sudem ut aestuem Could there be now so great an Epicurisme in contemplation were the soul of man of Epicurus his mould a meer complexion of Atoms would dull and heavy matter ever have delighted to have searched so much into the causes of things to have gone over the world in its speculations and found more sweetness in knowledge then the little Epicure the Bee tasts in his choicest flowers Epicurus his own Philosophy is a demonstration against himself if his soul had not been of a purer nature then he fancied he would never have made his study of Philosophy a part of his Epicurisme Had his soul been such Atoms as he fancied when his brain had been well heated at his study those more vivid and spirituous particles like the spirits of wine had been in danger of evaporation and leaving the more lumpish matter to compleat his work Of all persons I most admire that Philosophers who make so much use of their understandings should so ungratefully requite them and serve them like old horses when they have made them do all the service they could turn them into the high-wayes and let them dye in a ditch But yet all Philosophers have not been so unthankful some have understood the worth of their souls and asserted it if they have not used too high i. e. Platonical expressions of it making it a particle not of matter but of the Divine nature its self a little Deity in a Cottage that stayes here a while and returns to that upper region from whence it came As Manilius speaks An dubium est habitare Deum sub pectore nostro In coelum que redire animas caelóque venire And while the soul is here in its cage it is continually fluttering up and down and delighting to look out now at this part and then at another to take a view by degrees of the whole Universe as the same Poet goes on Quid mirum noscere mundum Si possunt homines quibus est mundus in ip sis Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parvâ The soul hath nothing more delightful to it then knowledge and no knowledge so pleasing and satisfactory as of him whose image and superscription it bears who makes himself most known to such as enquire after him Seque ipsum inculcat offert Ut bene cognosci possit I conclude this with that of Seneca in that excellent Preface to his natural questions O quam contempta res est homo nisi supra humana se erexerit What a pittiful thing is man were it not that his soul was apt to soar above these earthly things And by this aptness to soar so high above these terrene objects and to converse with so much freedome with spiritual Beings as well as abstracted notions we may certainly infer that our rational souls are of a far more noble and refined nature then that more feculent principle of imagination which alwayes converses in faece Romuli and can go no further then our senses carry it And thus I have made good the first proof that there is something above matter and motion in the world which is from that immaterial Being which is in man The next evidence which we have of a Being above matter and motion is from the extraordinary effâ—cts which have been in nature I speak not now meerly of such things which by their natures and effects are manifested to proceed from some Beings which bear ill-will to mankind multitudes of which are related by men Philosophical and inquisitive with such enumerations of circumstances and particular evidences that they are not meer impostures that one may on the same grounds question any matter of fact which himself did not see as such relations which are delivered by persons without interest or design and such as were able to judge of the truth of circumstances such are both ancient and modern Philosophers Physitians Statesmen and others Neither shall I insist on such prodigies which ofttimes presage revolutions in states if we believe Machiavel himself who in a whole chapter designedly proves it and professeth himself utterly to seek for the causes of them unless they may be attributed to some spiâ—its and Intelligences in the air which give the world notice of such things to come But those things which I suppose have the most clear and undoubted evidence of true and undoubted miracles the matters of fact being affirmed by eye-witnesses who sealed the truth of them with their lives are those recorded in the Holy Scriptures which there are only two wayes to evade either by questioning the truth of the things which I suppose in the precedent book we have proved with as much rational evidence as any thing of that nature is capable of or else that the things therein recorded might be salved without a Deity For which only two wayes have been excogitated by Atheistical spirits either attributing them to the power and influence of the Stars the foundations of which fond and absurd opinion have been taken away by those many writers who have rationally consuted the whole art of judicial Astrology or else that they are done by the meer power of imagination which is the way of Avicenna and some other Arabick writers which is so wilde an effect of the power of imagination that nothing doth so much demonstrate the irregular motions of it as such
thè soul were forced to do what it doth one might justly lay the blame on God who permits such a force to be offered it neither could it be properly evil which the soul was constrained to but since it acted freely and out of choice the soul must alone be accounted the author and cause of evil Thus we see that God cannot with any shadow of reason be accounted the author of evil because he gave the soul of man a principle of internal freedom when the very freedom of acting which the soul had put it into a capacity of standing as well as falling And certainly he can never be said to be the cause of the breaking of a person who gave him a stock to set up with and supposed him able to manage it when he gave it him indeed had not man had this freedom of will he could not have fallen but then neither had he been a rational Agent which supposing no corruption doth speak freedom of action So that while we enquire after the Origine of evil we have no other cause to assign it to but mans abuse of that free power of acting which he had but if we will be so curious as to enquire further why God did create man with such a freedom of will and not rather fix his soul immutably on good if the order of beings be no satisfactory reason for it we can give no other then that why he made man or the world at all which was the good pleasure of his Will But secondly supposing Gods giving man this freedom of will doth not entitle him to be the author of evil doth not his leaving man to this liberty of his in the temptation make him the cause of sin I answer no and that on these accounts 1. Because man stood then upon such terms that he could not fall but by his own free and voluntary act he had a power to stand in that there was no principle of corruption at all in his faculties but he had a pure and undefiled soul which could not be polluted without its own consent Now it had been repugnant to the terms on which man stood which were the tryal of his obedience to his Creator had he been irresistibly determined any way Simplicius puts this question after the former discourse Whether God may not be called the author of sin because he permits the soul to use her liberty but saith he he that says God should not have permitted this use of its freedom to the soul must say one of these two things â—ither that the soul being of such a nature as is indifferent to good or evil it should have been wholly kept from the choosing evil or else that it should have been made of such a nature that it should not have had a power of choosing evil The first is irrational and absurd for what freedom and liberty had that been where there was no choice and what choice could there have been where the mind was necessitated onely to one part For the second we are to consider saith he that no evil is in its self desirable or to be chosen but withall if this power of determining its self â—ither way must be taken away it must be either as something not good or as some great evil and whoâ—ver saith so doth not consider how many things in the world there are which are accounted good and desirable things yet are no ways comparable with this freedom of Will For it excells all sublunary Beings and there is none would rather desire to be a Brute or Plant then man if God then shewed his goodness in giving to inferior beings such perfectiâ—â—s which are far below this is it any ways incongruous to Gods nature and goodness to give man the freedom of his actions and a self determining power thâ—ugh he permiâ—ted him the free use of it Besides as that author reasonâ— had God to prevent mans sin taken away the Liberty of his will he had likewise destroyed the foundation of all vertue and the very nature of man for vertue would not have been such had there been no possibility of acting contrary and mans nature would have been divine because impeccable Therefore saith â—e though we attribute this self-determining power to God as the author of it which was so necessary in the order of the Universe we have no reason to attribute the Origine of that evil to God which comes by the abuse of that liberty For as he further adds God doth not at all cause that aversion from Good which is in the soul when it sins but only gave such a power to the soul whereby it might turn its self to evil out of which God might afterwards produce so much good which could not otherwise have been without it So consonantly to the Scripture doth that Philosopher speak on this subject 2. God cannot be said to be the author of sin though he did not prevent the fall of man because he did not withdraw before his fall any grace or assistance which was necessary for his standing Had there been indeed a necessity of supernatural grace to be communicated to man for every moment to continue him in his Innocency and had God before mans fall withdrawn such assistance from him without which it were impossible for him to â—ave stood it would be very difficult freeing God from being the cause of the Fall of man But we are not put to such difficulties for acquitting God from being the author of sin for there appears no necessity at all for asserting any distinction of sufficient and efficacious grace in man before his Fall that the one should belong only to a radical power of standing the other to every act of good which Adam did For if God made man upright he certainly gave him such a power as might be brought into act without the necessity of any supervenient act of grace to elicite that habitual power into particular actions If the other were sufficient it was sufficient for its end and how could it be sufficient for its end if notwithstanding that there were no possibility of standing unless efficacious help were superadded to it God would not certainly require any thing from the creature in his integrity but what he had a power to obey and if there were necessary further grace to bring the power into act then the substracting of this grace must be by way of punishment to man which it is hard to conceive for what it should be before man had sinned or eâ—se God must substract this grace on purpose that man might â—all which would necessarily follow on this supposition in which case Man would be necessitated to fall veluti cum subductis columnis dom us necessario corruit as one expresseth it as a house must needs fall when the pillars on which it stood are taken away from it But now if God withdrew not any effectual grace from man whereby he must necessarily fall then
the general defect for want of timely records among Heathen Nations the reason of it shewed from the first Plantations of the World The manner of them discovered The Original of Civil Government Of Hieroglyphicks The use of letters among the Greeks no elder then Cadmus his time enquired into no elder then Joshua the learning brought into Greece by him ENquiries after truth have that peculiar commendation above all other designs that they come on purpose to gratifie the most noble faculty of our souls and do most immediately tend to re-advance the highest perfection of our rational beings For all our most laudable endeavours after knowledge now are only the gathering up some scattered fragments of what was once an entire Fabrick and the recovery of some precious Iewels which were lost out of sight and sunk in the shipwrack of humane nature That saying of Plato that all knowledge is remembrance and all ignorance forgetfulness is a certain and undoubted truth if by forgetfulness be meant the loss and by remembrance the recovery of those notions and conceptions of things which the mind of man once had in its pure and primitive state wherein the understanding was the truest Microcosm in which all the beings of the inferiour world were faithfully represented according to their true native and genuine perfections God created the soul of man not only capable of finding out the truth of things but furnished him with a sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or touchstone to discover truth from falshood by a light set up in his understanding which if he had attended to he might have secured himself from all impostures and deceits As all other beings were created in the full possession of the agreeable perfections of their several natures so was man too else God would have never closed the work of Creation with those words And God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good that is endued with all those perfections which were suitable to their several beings Which man had been most defective in if his understanding had not been endowed with a large stock of intellectual knowledge which is the most natural and genuine perfection belonging to his rational being For reason being the most raised faculty of humane nature if that had been defective in its discoveries of truth which is its proper object it would have argued the greatest maim and imperfection in the being it self For if it belongs to the perfection of the sensitive faculties to discern what is pleasant from what is hurtful it must needs be the perfection of the rational to find out the difference of truth from falshood Not as though the soul could then have had any more then now an actual notion of all the beings in the world ocexisting at the same time but that it would have been free from all deceits in its conceptions of things which were not caused through inadvertency Which will appear from the several aspects mans knowledge ledge hath which are either upwards towards his Maker or abroad on his fellow-creatures If we consider that contemplation of the soul which fixes its self on that infinite being which was the cause of it and is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be found necessary for the soul to be created in a clear and distinct knowledge of him because of mans immediate obligation to obedience unto him Which must necessarily suppose the knowledge of him whose will must be his rule for if man were not fully convinced in the first moment after his creation of the being of him whom he was to obey his first work and duty would not have been actual obedience but a search whether there was any supreme infinite and eternal being or no and whereon his duty to him was founded and what might be sufficient declaration of his Will and Laws according to which he must regulate his obedience The taking off all which doubts and scruples from the soul of man must suppose him fully satisfied upon the first free use of reason that there was an Infinite Power and Being which produced him and on that account had a right to command him in whatsoever he pleased and that those commands of his were declared to him in so certain a way that he could not be deceived in the judging of them The clear knowledge of God will further appear most necessary to man in his first creation if we consider that God created him for this end and purpose to enjoy converse and an humble familiarity with himself he had then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the language of Clemens Alexandrinus Converse with God was as natural to him as his being was For man as he came first out of Gods hands was the reflection of God himself on a dark Cloud the Iris of the Deity the Similitude was the same but the substance different Thence he is said to be created after the Image of God His knowledge then had been more intellectual then discursive not so much imploying his faculties in the operose deductions of reason the pleasant toyl of the rational faculties since the Fall but had immediately imployed them about the sublimest objects not about quiddities and formalities but about him who was the fountain of his being and the center of his happiness There was not then so vast a difference between the Angelical and humane life The Angels and men both fed on the same dainties all the difference was they were in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the upper room in heaven and man in the Summer Parlour in Paradise If we take a view of mans knowledge as it respects his fellow-creatures we shall find these were so fully known to him on his first creation that he needed not to go to School to the wide world to gather up his conceptions of them For the right exercise of that Dominion which he was instated in over the inferiour world doth imply a particular knowledge of the nature being and properties of those things which he was to make use of without which he could not have improved them for their peculiar ends And from this knowledge did proceed the giving the creatures those proper and peculiar names which were expressive of their several natures For as Plato tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The imposition of names on things belongs not to every one but only to him that hath a full prospect into their several natures For it is most agreeable to reason that names should carry in them a suitableness to the things they express for words being for no other end but to express our conceptions of things and our conceptions being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Philosopher speaks the resemblances and representations of the things it must needs follow that where there was a true knowledge the conceptions must agree with the things and words being to express our conceptions none are so fit to do it as those which
are expressive of the several natures of the things they are used to represent For otherwise all the use of words is to be a meer vocabulary to the understanding and an Index to memory and of no further use in the pursuit of knowledge then to let us know what words men are agreed to call things by But something further seems to be intended in their first imposition whence the Iews call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mercer tells us a separation and distinction of the several kinds of things and Kircher thus paraphraseth the words of Moses And whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof i. e. saith he Fuerunt illis vera germane nomina rerum naturis propriè accommodata But however this be we have this further evidence of that height of knowledge which must be supposed in the first man that as he was the first in his kind so he was to be the standard and measure of all that followed and therefore could not want any thing of the due perfections of humane nature And as the shekel of the Sanctuary was if not double to others as men ordinarily mistake yet of a full and exact weight because it was to be the standard for all other weights which was the cause of its being kept in the Temple So if the first man had not double the proportion and measure of knowledge which his posterity hath if it was not running over in regard of abundance yet it must be pressed down and shaken together in regard of weight else he would be a very unfit standard for us to judge by concerning the due and suitable perfections of humane nature But we need not have run so far back as the first man to evince the knowledge of truth to be the most natural perfection of the soul of man for even among the present ruines of humane nature we may find some such noble and generous spirits that discern so much beauty in the face of truth that to such as should enquire what they find so attractive in it their answer would be the same with Aristotles in a like case it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Question of those who never saw it For so pleasing is the enquiry and so satisfactory the finding of truth after the search that the relish of it doth far exceed the greatest Epicurism of Apicius or the most costly entertainments of Cleopatra there being no Gust so exquisite as that of the mind nor any Iewels to be compared with Truth Nor do any persons certainly better deserve the name of men then such who allow their reason a full employment and think not the erectness of mans stature a sufficient distinction of him from Brutes Of which those may be accounted only a higher species who can patiently suffer the imprisonment of their Intellectuals in a Dungeon of Ignorance and know themselves to be men only by those Characters by which Alexander knew himself not to be a God by their proneness to intemperance and sleep So strange a Metempsychosis may there be without any change of bodies and Euphorbus his soul might become a Brute without ever removing its lodging into the body of an Ass. So much will the soul degenerate from its self if not improved and in a kind of sullenness scarce appear to be what it is because it is not improved to what it may be But if this knowledge of truth be so great so natural so valuable a perfection of humane nature whence comes so much of the world to be over-run with Ignorance and Barbarism whence come so many pretenders to knowledge to court a cloud instead of Juno to pretend a Love to truth and yet to fall down and worship errour If there were so great a sympathy between the soul and truth there would be an impatient desire after it and a most ready embracing and closing with it We see the Magnet doth not draw the iron with greater force then it seems to run with impatience into its closest embraces If there had been formerly so intimate an acquaintance between the soul and truth as Socrates fancied of friends in the other world there would be an harmonious closure upon the first appearance and no divorce to be after made between them True but then we must consider there is an intermediate state between the former acquaintance and the renewal of it wherein all those remaining characters of mutual knowledge are sunk so deep and lie so hid that there needs a new fire to be kindled to bring forth those latent figures and make them again appear legible And when once those tokens are produced of the former friendship there are not more impatient longings nor more close embraces between the touched needle and the Magnet then there are between the understanding and discovered truth But then withall we are to consider that they are but few whose souls are awakened out of that Lethargy they are fallen into in this degenerate condition the most are so pleased with their sleep that they are loth to disturb their rest and set a higher price upon a lazy Ignorance then upon a restless knowledge And even of those whose souls are as it were between sleeping and waking what by reason of the remaining confusion of the species in their brains what by the present dimness of their sight and the hovering uncertain light they are to judge by there are few that can put a difference between a meer phantasm and a real truth Of which these rational accounts may be given viz. Why so few pretenders to knowledge do light on truth First Want of an impartial diligence in the search of it Truth now must be sought and that with care and dilgence before we find it jewels do not use to lye upon the surface of the earth Highways are seldom paved with gold what is most worth our Finding calls for the greatest search If one that walks the streets should finde some inestimable jewel or one that travels the road meet with a bag of gold it would be but a silly design of any to walk the street or travel the road in hopes to meet with such a purchase to make them rich If some have happily light on some valuable truths when they minded nothing less then them must this render a diligence useless in inquiries after such No Truth though she be so fair and pleasing as to draw our affections is yet so modest as to admit of being courted and it may be deny the first suit to heighten our importunity And certainly nothing hath oftner forbid the banes between the understanding and Truth inquired after then partiality and preoccupation of Iudgement which makes men enquire more diligently after the dowry then the beauty of Truth its correspondency to their Interests then its evidence to their understandings An useful error hath often kept the Keys of the mind for free admission when important
true Messias as appears by the sequel of the chapter but upon Christs revelation of himself to him he presently believed on him How strangely irrational were the Iews then in rejecting our Saviour when his miracles not only exceeded those of Moses both in number and quality but which was more they saw themselves the miracles which Christ did but they received those of Moses only upon the credit of their Fathers And from the strength of the evidence arising from the power of miracles it is that St. Peter tells the promiscuous Assembly Acts 2. 22. That Iesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves also knew He appeals to their own knowledge which he would not certainly have done had it not been in a case beyond all dispute among them Which was a thing so notorious among them that we find the Pharisees themselves confessing it What do we For this man doth many miracles Now then in a Nation whose religion had been established by miracles and the certainty of the truth of it among those who then professed it did depend so much upon the constant credit which the report of the miracles done at the setling of their Law had among them what could be a more rational convincing way of proceeding then for our Saviour to manifest by a greater power of miracles in himself the undoubted credentials of his commission from heaven and that he was the true Messias which was foretold by their own most sacred and authentical records Which will appear more Because the power of miracles did evidently declare that he was the very person promised For if the exact correspondency of the event to the predictions in a Nation owning them as Divine be an undoubted evidence that they are exactly fulfilled our Saviour was most certainly the person so often spoken of in the Old Testament For many of the Prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messias if they were not fulfilled in Christ in the conditions the Iews have been in since their dispersion which fell out exactly according to the prediction of Christ it is impossible they should be fulfilled at all So that either the predictions must lose their Divine authority or they must be accomplished in our Blessed Saviour For as Tertullian sharply sayes to the Iew Redde statum Iudaeae quem Christus inveniat alium contende venire let the people of the Iews be in their former condition and then plead for a Messias to come For can any thing be more plain then that the Messias was to be born in Bethlehem of Iudea but where is that now and how long since the Iews enjoyed any civil Polity there what is become of the second Temple in the time of which the desire of all Nations should come Is not Ierusalem already destroyed and the oblation there long since ceased which was to come to pass so soon after the Messias and did accordingly Is not the Scepter yet departed from Judah and the Lawgiver from between his feet and is not Shiloh yet come What strange unintelligible weeks were those of Daniel if they were extended to so indefinite a space of time as the Iews pretend and if indefinite what certain ground could from thence be gathered of any time wherein their accomplishment was to be expected but not to expatiate on those things which are already so largely proved beyond all possibility of contradiction by the antient and modern learned writers against the Iews To insist therefore on our present business are not the Prophecies concerning the miracles which the Messias should work exactly fulfilled in Christ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped then shall the lame man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing He must be a great stranger in the history of the New Testament that is to seek for an exact fulfilling of this Prophecy Nay and the Iewish Midrasch upon Psal. 146. 8. saith that when Messias comes he should open the eyes of the blind and the Iews themselves often speak of the great miracles which the Messias should do when he appears and therefore out of their own mouths will they be condemned when the miracles of Christ make it so evident that he was the true Messias Hence when Iohn Baptist sent his Disciples to Christ for them to be fully satisfied concerning him Christ gives this answer to them he bids them tell him the blind receive their sight and the lame walk and the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead raised up c. as though the mentioning of these miracles was sufficient to make it appear to them who he was whom they came to enquire after And therefore it is observable that Iohn Baptist himself though greater then the Prophets nay then whom there was not a greater born of women by our Saviours own Testimony yet of him it is said that he wrought no miracle of which no account can be given so probable and rational as that God in his infinite wisdom was pleased so to order it that the evidence of our Saviours being the Messias might be made more clear by the miracles which he wrought that the minds of people might not be distracted between Iohn and Christ he therefore reserved the glory of miracles wholly to the name of Christ that there might be no pretence of a competition between iohn and him Another reason of the necessity of miracles in our Saviour by way of rational evidence is the overthrowing the power and Kingdom of the Devil in the world For which purpose it is observable that the Devil had scarce ever greater power over the bodies of men as well as their souls then at that time thence we read of such a multitude of Daemoniacks in the Gospel For it seems very harsh to interpret those meerly of Epilepticall and Lunatick persons both because the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are mentioned distinctly and that it appears by the primitive Church afterwards how frequent it was to eject the Devil out of possessed persons Nay so far am I from thinking that the Daemoniacks were meer Lunaticks that I rather think with Vossius that the Lunaticks were truly Daemoniacks only they were not constantly under the power of the Devil but as their paroxysmes returned upon them the Devil loving to fifh in such troubled waters And thence the same person is called a Lunatick in one place who is called a Daemoniack in another because he did ruere in principiis lunationum as the Arabick version expresseth it or as Rusticus Elpidius more fully explains it Repserat in medium rabies horrenda furoris Daemonis afflatu propria qui peste nocivus Allidit captas foedo discrimine mentes Menstrua deciduos cum Luna recolligit
ignes Theophylact is of opinion that the Iews in the time of our Saviour supposed that the souls of dead men became Daemons and thence we read in Scripture of the Daemoniacks among the Tombs but it is far more probable which Grotius conceives that the Iews were of opinion that the souls of dead men did hover up and down about their bodies and that these were so long under the Devils power which many of the Iews to this day believe and make use of the instance of the Pythonisse raising Samuel on which account the Devils to favour an opinion so advantagious to their interest might appear with greater terror and fury about their burying places as we see they did in those possessed persons But on whatever account it was we finde it evident that about the time of our Saviours appearance and some time after the truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were very frequent whether it were that the Devil by such frequent possessions of persons and making them do such strange things might thereby endeavour to invalidate the evidence of our Saviours miracles from whence it is probable the Pharisees raised their calumny that Christ did miracles by Belzebub because they saw so many strange appearances caused by possessed persons or whether it were through the admirable providence of God which might give Satan the greater liberty at that time on purpose to heighten the glory of our Saviour in dispossessing of him and thereby to give the highest rational evidence that his power was of God which tended so much to the destruction of the Kingdom of Satan And hence the Primitive Christians did so much triumph and as it were insult over the Devil where ever they found him making him to remove his lodgings from possessed persons by a writ of ejection from the name of Christ. Thence Origen rationally concludes that Christ had his power given him from above because at his very name the Devils forsook the bodies which they had possessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he elsewhere tells us that even the meanest sort of Christians without any ceremony but meerly by their prayers did ordinarily eject the Devil out of mens bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordinary Christians saith he most commonly do this the grace of Christ by its word thereby discovering the contemptibleness and infirmity of the Devils that in order to their ejection they did not so much as want any learned or experienced Christian. And for this they appeal to the Heathens themselves as appears not only by the challenge of Tertullian already mentioned but by the Testimony of almost all of them who have writ against the Heathens in vindication of the Christian religion Thence Minutius Felix Haec omnia sciunt plerique Pars vestrum ipsos daemonas de semetipsis confiteri quoties à nobis torment is verborum orationis incendiis de coâ—poribus exiguntur Ipse Saturnus Serapis et Iupiter et quiequid daemonum colitis victi dolore quod sunt eloquuntur nec utique in turpitudinem sui nonnullis praesertim vestrum assistentibâ—s mentiuntur Ipsis testibus eos esse Daemonas de se verum confitentibus credite adjuratienim per Deum verum et solum inviti miseri corporibus inhorrescunt et vel exiliunt statim vel evanesount gradatim prout fides patientis adjuvat aut gratia curantis aspirat Can we now think the Devil should not only forsake his Tyranny over the bodyes of men but let go so advantagious a pillar of his tyranny over the consciences of men in Idolatroius worship as the concealing himself was had he not been forced to it by a power far greater then his own So Cyprian ad Demetrianum appeals to him being the Proconsul of Africa about the same thing who had written sharply against the Christians for speaking of the Devils whom they worshipped in their Idols O si audire eos velles et videre quando à nobis adjurantur et torquentur Spiritualibus flagris et verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur quando ejulantes et gementes voce humana et potestate divina flagella et verbera sentientes venturum judicium confitentur veni et cognosce vera esse quae dicimus and a little after videbis sub manu nostra stare vinctos et tremere captivos quos tu suspicis et veneraris ut Dominos Did ever any of the Heathen Magicians of which there were good store extort such things from the Devils as the Christians did meerly by their prayers and invocations of the name of God and Christ did they ever make them confess to be what they were not only in possessed bodyes but in their Temples too that was beyond the power of their Ephesian letters or any of their Magical incantations Did the Devils ever dread so much the name of Socrates or Aristides as they did that of God and of Christ Of which Lactantius thus speaks Quo audito tremunt exclamant et urise verberarique testantur et interrogati qui sint quando venerint quando in hominem irrepserint confitentur sic extorti et excruciati virtate divininuminis exulant propter haec verbera et minas sanctos et justos viros semper oderunt And even Apollo himself at the name of Christ trembled as much as ever the Pythian Prophetess did in her greatest furies so Prudentius tells us Torquetur Apollo Nomine percussus Christi nec fulmina verbi Ferre potest agitant miserum tot verbera linguae Quot laudata Dei resonant miracula Christi To these we may add what Firmicus saith to the same purpose Ecce Daemon est quem colis cum Dei et Christi ejus nomen audierit contremiseit et ut interrogantibus nob is respondeat trepidantia verba vix se colligit adhaerens homini laceratur uritur vapulat et statim de commissis sceleribus confitetur By which Testimonies it appears what power over Satan when he was in his Kingdom the Christians by the power of Christ had not as though the bare name of Christ had so great an efficacy in the ejection of Devils as Origen seemâ— to be of opinion in a discourse about the efficacy of names unworthy of so great a Philosopher but that God might manifest to the world the truth that was contained in that name he did give a power to such as made use of it of working miracles by it And thence we read in Scripture that some who were not throughly Christians but yet professed the truth of the Gospel and that what they did was for the honour of Christ had a power of casting out Devils and doing many wonderful things through his name By these and many other testimonies which might be produced out of the Primitive Church we finde an exact accomplishment of our Saviours promise to his Disciples when he took his leave of them And these signs shall follow
an heroickfreedom of spirit appears in these words what magnanimity and courage was there now in that person who durst in the face of this Court tell them of their murder and that there was no salvation but by him whom they had crucified Well might they wonder at the boldness of the men who feared not the same death which they had so lately brought their Lord and Master to Neither was this singly the case of Peter and Iohn but all the rest of the Apostles undertook their work with the same resolution and preparation of Spirit to under go the greatest hardship in the world sor the sake of the truths they Preached And accordingly as far as Ecclesiastical history can ascertain us of it they did all but Iohn and that to make good the prediction of Christ suffer violent deaths by the hands of those who persecuted them meerly for their doctrine And which is most observable when Christ designed them first of all for this work he told them before hand of reproaches persecutions all manner of hardships nay of death its self which they must undergo for his sake All that he gave them by way of encouragement was that they could only kill the body and not the soul and therefore that they should fear him only who could destroy both body and soul in hell all the support they had was an expectation in another world and that animated them to go through all the hardships of this Where do we ever read of any such boldness and courage in the most knowing Philosâ—phers of the Heathens with what saintness and misgiving of mind doth Socrates speak in his famous discourse suppoâ—ed to be made by him before his death how uncertainly doth he speak of a state of immortality and yet in all probability Plato set it forth with all advantages imaginable Where do we finde that ever any of the great friends of Socrates who were present at his death as Phaedo Cebes Crito and Simmias durst enter the Areopagus and condemn them there for the murther of Socrates though this would be far short of what the Apostles did why were they not so charitable as to inform the world better of those grand truths of the being of God and immortality of souls if at least they were fully convinced of them themselves Why did not Plato at least speak out and tell the world the truth and not disguise his â—iscourses under feigned names the better to avoid accusation and the fate of Socrates how doth he mince his excellent matter and playes as it were at Bo-peep with his readers sometimes appearing and then pulling in his horns again It may not be an improbable conjecture that the death of Socrates was the foundation of the Academy I mean of that cautelous doctrine of withholding assent and being both pro and con sometimes of this side and sometimes of that for Socrates his death had made all his friends very fearful of being too dogmatical And Plato himself had too much riches and withall too much of a Courtier in him to hazard the dear prison of his soul viz. his body meerly for an aethereall vehicle He had rather let his soul flutter up and down in a terrestrial matter or the cage it was pâ—nt up in then hazard too violent an opening of it by the hands of the Areopagus And the great Roman Orator among the rest of Plato's sentiments had learnt this too for although in his discourses he hath many times sufficiently laid open the folly of the Heathen worship and Theology yet he knows how to bring himself off safe enough with the people and will be sure to be dogmatical only in this that nothing is to be innovated in the religion of a Common-wealth and that the customs of our Ancestors are inviolably to be observed Which principles had they been true as they were safe for the persons who spake them the Christian religion had never gained any entertainment in the world for where ever it came it met with this potent prejudice that it was looked on as an innovation and therefore was shrewdly suspected by the Governours of Common-wealths and the Preachers of it punished as factious and seditious persons which was all the pretext the wise Politicians of the world had for their cruel and inhumane persecutions of such multitudes of peaceable and innocent Christians Now when these things were foretold by the Apostles themselves before their going abroad so plainly that with the same saith they did believe the doctrine they Preached to be true they must believe that all these things should come to pass what courage and magnanimity of spirit was it in them thus to encounter dangers and as it were court the slames Nay and before the time was come that they must dye to seal the truth of their doctrine their whole life was a continual peregrination wherein they were as so many Iobs in pilgrimage encounterd with perills and dangers on every side of which one of the most painful and succesful S. Paul hath given in such a large inventory of his perils that the very reading of them were enough to undo a poor Epicurean Philosopher and at once to spoil him of the two pillars of his happiness the quietness of his mind and ease of his body Thus we see what a hazardous imployment that was which the Apostles went upon and that it was such as they very well understood the diâ—â—iculty of before they set upon it Secondly We cannot find out any rational motive which could carry them through so hazardous an employment but the full convictions of their minds of the undoubted truth and certainty of the doctrine which they delivered We find before that no vulgar motives in the world could carry them upon that design which they went upon Could they be led by ambition and vain glory who met with such reproaches where ever they went and not only persecutions of the tongue but the sharper ones of the hands too we never read of any but the Primitive Christians who were ambitious of being Martyrs and thought long till they were in the flames which made Arrius Antoninus being Proconsul of Asia when Christians in multitudes beset his tribunal and thronged in to be condemned say to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O miserable people had not ye wayes enough to end your lives at hâ—me but ye must croud for an execution This was a higher ambition by far then any of those mancipia gloriae those Chamaeleons that lived on the breath of applause the Heathen Philosophers ever reached to who were as Tertullian expresseth it homines gloriae eloquentiae solius libidinosi unsatiable thirsters after the honour and eloquence of the world but the Spirit of a Christian did soare too high to quarry on so mean a prâ—y When the more sober heathens had taken a stricter notice of the carriages and lives of the Preachers of the Gospel and all
was converted from Plato to Christ and then found that true which he speaks of in his Dialogue with Trypho that after all his enquiries into Philosophy speaking of the doctrine of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I found this at last to be the only sure and profitable Philosophy And when Trypho after derides him as a man of very easie faith who would leave the doctrine of Plato for that of Christ for it seems by him the Iews then had a more favourable opinion of the state of Platonists then Christians Iustin is so far from being moved with such reproaches that he tells him he would undertake to demonstrate to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Christians did not give credit to empty fables and unprovable assertions but to such a doctrine as was full of a Divine spirit and power and flourished with grace The proving of which is the subject of that discourse At Alexandria we meet with a succession of excellent persons all which were not only embracers themselves but defenders of the Christian faith for setting aside there Abilius Iustus Cerdo Eumenes Marcus Celadion Agrippinus Iulianus Demetrius and others who flourished about the second Century I shall only fix on those persons who were famous enquirers after truth and noted for excellency in Heathen learning yet these persons after all their inquiries found nothing to fix on but the Christian faith and valued no other discovery of truth in comparison with that Such was Pantaenus who as Eusebius tells us was an excellent Stoick before he became a Christian and was after so eminent a one that in imitation of the Apostles he wenâ— into India to convert the inhabitants to the Christian faith and at his return was made Rector of the School at Alexandria which as the same author tells us was much frequented by such who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well skild in humane as well as Divine learning How excellent Pantaenus was in humane learning may appear in that Origen and Hierome both make his example their plea for the studying of it After him succeeded Clemens Alexandrinus Pantaenus his Schollar a person of great depth of learning and exquisitly skild in all Heathen Antiquities as appears by his remaining writings The Learning of Origen is sufficiently known which was in such great reputation in his own time that not only Christians but Philosophers flocked to his Lectures at Alexandria as Eusebius tells us wherein he read the Mathematicks and other parts of Philosophy as well as the Scriptures and the same author informs us that the Philosophers did dedicate their books to him and sometimes chose him as arbitrator between them in matters of dispute and Porphyrie himself in his books against the Christians vouchsafed a high encomium of Origen for his excellent learning In Origens time Heraclas a Presbyter of Alexandria for five years together frequented the Schools of the Philosophers and put on the Philosophick pallium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was very conversant in the books of the Grecian Learning Besides these we read of Pierius and Achillas two Presbyters of Alexandria who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nicephorus Callistus speaks persons well skild in the Grecian learning and Philosophy If from Alexandria we go to Caesarea there we not only meet with a School of learning among the Christians but with persons very eminent in all kinds of learning such were the famous Pamphilus and Eusebius so great an admirer of him that ever since he is called Eusebius Pamphili At Antioch was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nicephorus speaks a person versed in all kind of ingenuous literature Anatclius Bishop of Laodicea one versed in Geometry Astronomy and all kind of Philosophy as well as in the doctrine of Christ. Thus we see how in those early dayes of the Greek Church what excellent persons many of those were who were zealous Professors of Christianity and concerning those of the Latin Church I shall only mention that speech of St. Austin who was himself an instance of the same nature and a star of the first magnitude among them Nonne aspicimus quanto auro argento vâ—ste sâ—ffarcinatus exierit de Aegypto Cyprianâ—s Doctor suavissimus Martyr beatissimus quanto Lactantius quanto Victorinus Optatus Hilarius ut de vivis taceam quanto innumerabiles Graeci quod prior ipse fidelissimus Dei servus Moses fecerat de quo Scriptum est quod eruditus fuerit omni sapientia Aegyptiorum To whose catalogue of learned persons among the Latin Christians Tertullian Arnobius and several others may be deservedly added But as St. Austin there well observes though the Israclites went rich out of Aegypt yet it was their eating the Passover which saved them from destruction so though these were accomplished with those perfections and riches of the soul the ornaments of learning yet it was their eating the true Passover which was Christ by their adhering to his doctrine was that which would be of more advantage to them then all their accomplishments would be Now then since in the first ages of the Christian Church we find not only innumerable multitudes of persons of great integrity and sobriety in their lives embracing the doctrine of Christ but so many persons that were curious enquirers after the truth of things we can certainly have no reason to distrust such a Testimony which was received in so unanimous a manner by persons as able to judge of the truth of things and as fearful of being deceived in reference to them as any now in the world can be 2. As this testimony was received by persons inâ—uisitive after the truth of things so the doctrine conveyed by it was a matter of the highest moment in the world and therefore we cannot conceive but persons ordinarily inquisitive about other things would be more then ordinarily so about this because their eternal welfare and happiness did depend upon it All persons that are truly religious must at least be allowed to be persons very inquisitive after the state and condition of their souls when they shall be dislodged from their bodyes And if we do but grant this can we in any reason think that such a multitude of persons in so many ages should continue venturing their souls upon a Testimony which they had no assurance of the truth of And that none of all these persons though men otherwise rational and judicious should be able to discover the falsity of that doctrine they went upon if at least any upon consideration of it can imagine it to be so It is not reconcileable with the general presumption of humane nature concerning Divine providence and the care God takes of the welfare of men to suffer so many persons who sincerely desire to serve God in the way which is most pleasing to him to go on in such a continual delusion and never have it at all discovered to them If all then who
have believed the doctrine of Christ to be the only way to salvation have been deceived either we must deny altogether a Divine Providence or say the Devil hath more power to deceive men then God to direct them which is worse then the former or else assert that there are no such things at all as either God or Devils but that all things come to pass by chance and fortune and if so it is still more inexplicable why such multitudes of rational and serious men and the most inquisitive part of the world as to such things should all be so possessed with the truth and certainty of these things and the more profane wicked and ignorant any persons are the more prone they are to mock and deride them If such men then see more into truth and reason then the sober and judicious part of mankind let us bid adieu to humanity and adore the brutes since we admire their judgement most who come the nearest to them 3. The multitude of these persons thus consenting in this Testimony could have no other engagement to this consent but only their firm perswasion of the truth of the doctrine conveyed by it because those who unanimously agree in this thing are such persons whose other designs and interests in this world differ as much as any mens do If it had been only a consent of Iews there might have been some probable pretence to have suspected a matter of interest in it but as to this thing we find the Iews divided among themselves about it and the stiffest denyers of the truth of it do yet inviolably preserve those sacred records among them from which the truth of the doctrine of Christ may be undoubtedly proved Had the Christian Religion been enforced upon the world by the Roman Emperours at the time of its first promulgation there would have been some suspicion of particular design in it but it came with no other strength but the evidence of its own truth yet it found sudden and strange entertainment among persons of all Nations and degrees of men In a short time it had eaten into the heart of the Roman Empire and made so large a spread therein that it made Tertullian say Hesterni sumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia conciliabula castraipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum sola vobis relinquimus Templa We have but newly appeared saith he yet we have filled all places with our company but only your Temples and before speaking of the Heathens Obsessam vociferantur civitatem in agris in castellis in insulis Christianos omnem sexum aetatem conditionem etiam dignitatem transgredi ad hoc nomen quasi detrimento moerent All sorts and conditions of men in all places were suddenly become Christians What common tye could there be now to unite all these persons together if we set aside the undoubted truth and certainty of the doctrine of Christ which was first preached to them by such who were eye-witnesses of Christs actions and had left sacred records behind them containing the substance of the doctrine of Christ and those admirable instructions which were their only certain guides in the way to heaven 4. Because many persons do joyn in this consent with true Christians who yet could heartily with that the doctrine of Christianity were not true Such are all those persons who are sensual in their lives and walk not according to the rules of the Gospel yet dare not question or deny the truth of it Such who could heartily wish there were no future state nor judgement to come that they might indulge themselves in this world without fear of another yet their consciences are so far convinced of and awed by the truth of these things that they raise many perplexities and anxieties in their minds which they would most willingly be rid of which they can never throughly be till instead of having the name of Christians they come to live the life of Christians and become experimentally acquainted with the truth and power of Religion And withall we find that the more men have been acquainted with the practice of Christianity the greater evidence they have had of the truth of it and been more fully and rationally perswaded of it To such I grant there are such powerful evidences of the truth of the doctrine of Christ by the effectual workings of the Spirit of God upon their souls that all other arguments as to their own satisfaction may fall short of these As to which those verses of the Poet Dante 's rendred into Latine by F. S. are very pertinent and significant for when he had introduced the Apostle Peter asking him what it was which his faith was founded on he answers Deinde exivit ex luce profundâ Quae illic splendebat pretiosa gemma Super quam omnis virtus fundatur i. e. That God was pleased by immediate revelation of himself to discover that divine truth to the world whereon our faith doth stand as on its sure foundation but when the Apostle goes on to enquire how he knew this came at first from God his answer to that is larga pluvia Spiritûs Sancti quae est diffusa Super veteres super novas membranas Est syllogismus ille qui eam mihi conclusit Adâ—ò acutè ut prae illâ demonstratione Omnis demonstratio alia mihi videatur obtusa i. e. That the Spirit of God doth so fully discover its self both in the Old and New Testament that all other arguments are but dull and heavy if compared with this It is true they are so to a truly inlightened conscience which discovers so much beauty and glory in the Scriptures that they ravish the soul although it be unable to give so full an account of this unto others who want the eyes to see that beauty with which a heart truly gracious hath We see ordinarily in the world that the attraction of beauty is an unaccountable thing and one may discern that which ravisheth him which another looks on as mean and ordinary and why may it not be much more thus in divine objects which want spiritual eyes to discover them Therefore I grant that good men enjoy that satisfaction to their own Consciences as to the truth of the Doctrine of Christ which others cannot attain to but yet I say that such do likewise see the most strong rational and convincing evidence which doth induce them to believe which evidence is then most convincing when it is seconded by the peculiar energy of the Spirit of God upon the souls of true Believers But yet we see that the power and force of the truth of these things may be so great even upon such minds which are not yet moulded into the fashion of true goodness that it may awe with its light and clearness where it doth not soften and alter by its heat and influence Now whence can it be that such
them which were sanctified by faith in Christ. And the efficacy of this doctrine in order to these great â—nds was abundantly seen in the preaching of that Apostle who was so instrumental in converting the world to piety and sobriety as well as to the doctrine of Christ. What strange persons were the Corinthians before they became Christians for when the Apostle had enumerated many of the vilest persons of the world he presently adds And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Iesus and by the spirit of our God The more dangerous the distemper is the more malignant its nature the more inveterate its continuance the greater the efficacy of the remedy which works a cure of it The power of grace is the more seen in conversion the greater the sins have been before it It is an easie matter in comparison to remove a disease at its first onset of what it is to cure it when it becomes Chronical The power of the Gospel wrought upon all sorts and kinds of persons to manifest to the world there was no distemper of mens souls so great but there was a possibility of a remedy for it and not only so but pregnant and visible instances were given of the power and efficacy of it For they themselves shew of us saith the Apostle what manner of entring in we had among you and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Iesus which delivered us from the wrath to come Now that which manifests the exceeding great power and excellency of the Gospel was that it not only turned men from one way of worship to another which is a matter of no great difficulty but that it turned men together with that from their lusts and sensuality to a holy and unblameable life For being more in love with their sins then with their opinions it must needs be a greater power which draws men from the practice of habitual sins then that which only makes them change their opinions or alter the way of worship they were brought up in This is that which Origen throughout his books against Celsus triumphs in as the most signal evidence of a divine power in the doctrine of Christ that it wrought so great an alteration on all that truly embraced it that of vitious debauched and dissolute it made them temperate sober and religious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The doctrine of Christ did convert the most wicked persons who imbraced it from all their debaucheries to a life most suitable to nature and reason and to the practise of all vertues Therefore certainly the Gospel could not want that commendation among all ingenuous Moralists that it was the most excellent instrument in the world to reform the lives of men and to promote real goodness in it When they could not but take notice of so many persons continually so brought off from their follies and vain conversations to a life serious sober and unblameable nay and some of the Christians were of so much integrity and goodness that their greatest enemies were forced to say that their only fault was that they were Christians Bonus vir Cajus Sejus tantum quod Christianus A very good man only a Christian. But one would think this should have made them have a higher opinion of Christianity when it did so suddenly make so many good men in the world Especially when this power was so manifest on such persons who were supposed uncapable of being reformed by Philosophy young illiterate and mean-spirited persons therefore it may be justly supposed that it was not by the strength of their own reason that this alteration was wrought within them but by that Divine power which was able to tame the most unruly to instruct the most ignorant to raise up the most sordid persons to such a generous temper as to slight the good things of this life in comparison with those to come And so remarkable was the difference of life then between those who were Christians and those who were not as there is still between true Christians and meer pretenders that Origen dares Celsus to compare them in point of morality with any other Societies in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Churches of God which are discipled to Christ being compared with other Societies shine among them like lights in the world For who can but confess that even the worser part of the Christian Churches exceeds the best of the popular Assemblies For as he goes on the Church of God which is at Athens that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very quiet and peaceable because it seeks to approve its sels to God but the popular Assemby at Athens that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seditious and quarrelsom and in nothing comparable to the Church of God there So it is if we compare the Churches of Corinth and Alexandria with the Assemblies of the people there So that any candid enquirer after truth will exceedingly wonder how such fair Islands should appear nantes in gurgite vasto in the midst of such a Sea of wickedness as was in those Cities how these Churches of God should be planted in such rude and prophane places So the same Author goes on to compare the Churches Senate with that of the Cities the Churches Officers with theirs and appeals to themselves that even those among them who were most luke-warm in their office did yet far exceed all the City Magistrates in all manner of vertues From whence he rationally concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If these things be so how can it but be most rational to adore the Divinity of Iesus who was able to accomplish such great things And that not upon one or two but upon such great multitudes as were then converted to the Christian faith We read of one Phoedon and one Polemon brought from their debaucheries by Socrates and Xenocrates but what are these compared with those who were turned from their sins to God by the Gospel of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The twelve Apostles were but the first fruits of that plentiful harvest of converts which followed afterwards And although Celsus like an Epicurean seems to deny the possibility of any such thing as conversion because customary sins become a second nature that no punishments can reform them Yet saith Origen herein he not only contradicts us Christians but all such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who owned any generous principles of Philosophy and did not despair of recovering vertue as a thing feasible by humane nature and gives instances ad hominem to prove the possibility of the thing from the antient Heroes Hercules and Ulysses from the two Philosophers Socrates and Musonius and the two famous converts to Philosophy Phoedon and Polemon But yet saith he these are not
reason and the light of nature i. e. that the Idea of God or that which we conceive in our minds when we think of God is so far from being any wayes repugnant to any principle of reason within us that it is hard to pitch on any other notion which hath sewer entanglements in it to a mind so far Metaphysical as to abstract from sense and prejudice I grant it very difficult nay impossible for those to have any true setled notion of a God who search for an Idea of him in their fancies and were never conscious to themselves of any higher faculty in their souls then meer imagination Such may have imaginem Iovis or galeatae Minerva as he in Tully speaks some Idea of an Idol in their minds but none of a true God For we may as soon come by the sight of colours to understand the nature of sounds as by any corporal phantasmes come to have a true Idea of God And although sometimes an Idea be taken for that impression of things which is lodged in the P hantasie yet here we take it in a more general sense as it contains the representation of any thing in the mind as it is commonly said in the Schools that the Divine Intellect doth understand things by their Idea's which are nothing else but the things themselves as they are objectively represented to the understanding So that an Idea in its general sense in which we take it is nothing else but the objective being of a thing as it terminates the understanding and is the form of the act of Intellection that which is then immediately represented to the mind in its perception of things is the Idea or notion of it Now such an Idea as this is may be either true or false For better understanding of which we must consider that an Idea in the soul may be considered two wayes 1. As it is a mode of cogitation or the act of the soul apprehending an object now this way no Idea can be false for as it is an act of the mind every Idea hath its truth for whether I imagine a golden mountain or another it matters not here for the one Idea is as true as the other considering it meerly as an act of the mind For the mind is as really imployed about the one as the other as the will is about an object whether it be feasible or no. 2. The Idea may be considered in regard of its objective reality or as it represents some outward object now the truth or falshood of the Idea lies in the understanding passing judgement concerning the outward object as existent which doth correspond to the Idea which is in the mind And the proneness of the understandings error in this case ariseth from the different nature of those things which are represented to the mind for some of them are general and abstracted things and do not at all suppose existence as the nature of truth of a Being of cogitation other Idea's depend upon existence supposed as the Idea of the Sun which I apprehend in my mind because I have seen it but besides these there are other Idea's in the mind which the understanding forms within its self by its own power as it is a principle of cogitation such are those whâ—ch are called entiarationis and have no other existence at all but only in the understanding as Chimaera's Centaures c. Now as to these we are to observe that although the composition of these things together by the understanding be that which makes these Idea's to be only fictitious yet the understanding would not be able to compound such things were they not severally represented to the mind as unless we had known what a horse and a man had been our minds could not have conjoyned them together in its apprehension So that in these which are the most fictitious Idea's we see that although the Idea its self be a meer creature of the understanding yet the mind could not form such an Idea but upon praeexistent matter and some objective reality must be supposed in order to the intellectual conception of these Anomalous entityes By which we see that that strange kind of omnipotency which some have attributed to the understanding lies not in a power of conceiving things wholly impossible or fancying Idea's of absolute non-entityes but in a kind of African copulation of such species of things together which in nature seem wholly incompossible as the Schools speak or have no congruity at all in the order of the universe So that had there never been any such things in the world as matter and motion it is very hard to conceive how the understanding could have formed within its self the variety of the species of such things which are the results of those two grand principles of the Universe But because it is so impossible for minds not very contemplative and Metaphysical to abstract from matter thence it is we are apt to imagine such a power in the understanding whereby it may form Idea's of such things which have no objective reality at all I grant those we call entia rationis have no external reality as they are such but yet I say the existence of matter in the world and the corporeal phantasmes of outward beings are the foundation of the souls conception of those entityes which have no existence beyond the humane Intellect The great enquiry then is how far this Plastick power of the understanding may extend its self in its forming an Idea of God That there is such a one in the minds of men is evident to every one that consults his own faculties and enquires of them whether they cannot apprehend a setled and consistent notion of a Being which is absolutely perfect For that is all we understand by the Idea of God not that there is any such connate Idea in the soul in the sense which connate Idea's are commonly understood but that there is a faculty in the soul whereby upon the free use of reason it can form within its self a setled notion of such a Being which is as perfect as it is possible for us to conceive a Being to be If any difficulty be made concerning the forming such a notion in ones mind let the person who scruples it only enquire of himself whether he judges all Beings in the world equal whether a mushrome hath in it all the perfections which man hath which I suppose none who have a minde within them can question If then it be granted that man hath some perfections in him above inferiour creatures it will be no matter of difficulty to shew wherein man exceeds other inferiour Beings For is not life a greater perfection then the want of it is not reason and knowledge a perfection above sense and so let us proceed to those things wherein one man differs from another for it is evident that all men are not of equal accomplishments is not then forecast
wise and free who dispenseth this goodness of his in such a way and manner as is best pleasing to himself though ever agreeable to his Nature As God is infinitely good in himself so whatever he doth is suitable to this nature of his but the particular determinations of the acts of Gods beneficence belong to the Will of God as he is a most free and Independent Agent so that goodness as it imports the necessary rectitude of the Divine Nature implyes a perfection inseparable from the true Idea of God but as it is taken for the expressions of Divine bounty to somewhat without as the object of it it is not implyed in our conception of God as to his nature but belongs to the free determinations of his Will We cannot then neither ought we to determine any thing concerning the particular ways of Gods bounty towards the whole universe or any part of it any further then God himself hath declared it to us Now we see the world exists we have cause to adore that goodness of God which not only gave a Being to the Universe but continually upholds it and plentifully provides for all the Creatures which he hath made in it Which the Heathen was so sensible of that the Stoick in Tully taking notice of the abundant provision which is made in the world not only for mans necessity but for delight and ornament cryes out ut interdum Pronaea nostra Epicurea esse videatur Gods providence doth abundantly exceed mans necessity We see then from this discourse how unsafe and unsatisfactory that I may not say bold and presumptuous those arguments are which are drawn from a general consideration of the Divine nature and Goodness without regard had to the determinations of his Will as to the existence of things in the world It cannot certainly then be an argument of any great force with any candid enquirers after Truth and Reason which hath been lately pleaded in the behalf of that Pythagorean hypothesis of the praeexistence of souls viz. That if it be good for mens souls to be at all the sooner they are the better but we are most certain that the Wisdom and Goodness of God will do that which is best and therefore if they can enjoy themselves before they come into these terrestrial bodies it being better for them to enjoy themselves then not they must be before they come into these bodies Wherefore the praeexistence of souls is a necessary result of the Wisdom and Goodness of God who can no more fail to do that which is best then he can to understand it I now seriously enquire of such who love reason above Plato and Pythagoras whether if the eternity of the world were put into the argument instead of the Praeexistence of souls this argument would not hold as strongly for that as it doth for Praeexistence and if I am bound to believe Praeexistence on this ground I be not likewise bound to believe at least the souls of men eternal if not the Universe But how reconcileable the eternity of the world is to the Pythagorick Cabbala of the Creation I am yet to understand But if this Argument doth not at all infer the eternity of the world as we have shewed it doth not much less doth it praeexistence of souls We have thus far considered the first hypothesis which is repugnant to Moses concerning the Origine of the Universe which is that which asserts the eternity of the world as it is we come now to the second which attributes the Formation of the world as it is to God as the efficient cause but attributes eternity to the matter out of which the world was framed I am not ignorant that some who would be taken for the Masters of reason are so far from conceiving this Hypothesis to be repugnant to the text of Moses that they conceive it to be the genuine sense of it viz. that there was a praeexistent matter out of which God formed the World But I would willingly understand how Moses would have expressed that matter its self was created supposing it had been his intention to have spoken it for although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may not of its self imply necessarily the production of things out of nothing i. e. out of no praeexistent matter yet it is acknowledged by all that no word used by the Iews is more proper to that then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is and P. Fagius cites it from R. Nachmani that the Hebrew Language hath no other word to signifie such a production out of nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is therefore a very weak manner of arguing that because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used for no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore the world was created out of praeexistent matter all that can rationally be inferd is that from the meer force and importance of that word the contrary cannot be collected but if other places of Scripture compared and the evidence of reason do make it clear that there could be no praeexistent matter which was uncreated then it will necessarily follow that creation must be taken in its proper sense And in this sense it is evident that not only Iews and Christians but even the Heathens themselves understood Moses as is plain by Galen where he compares the opinion of Moses with that of Epicurus and ingenuously confesseth that of Moses which attributed the production of things to God to be far more rational and probable then that of Epicurus which assigned the Origine of things to a meer casual concourse of Atoms But withal adds that he must dissent from both and sides with Moses as to the Origine of such things as depend on Generation but asserts the praeexistence of matter and withall that Gods power could not extendits self beyond the capacity of the matter which it wrought upon Atque id est saith he in quo ratio nostra ac Platonis tum aliorum qui apud Graecos de rerum natura recte conscripserunt à Mose dissidet How true these words are will appear afterwards Chaleidius in his Commentaries on Plato's Timaeus where he speaks of the Origine of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in him is still translated sylva and enquires into the different opinions of all Philosophers about it takes it for granted that according to Moses this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had its production from God Hebraei sylvam generatam esse confitentur quorum sapientissimus Moyses non humana facundia sed divina ut ferunt inspiratione vegetatus in eo libro qui de genitura mundi censetur ab exordio sic est profatus juxta interpretationem LXX prudentium Initio Deus fecit coelum terram Terra autem erat invisibilis incompta Ut vero ait Aquila Caput rerum condidit Deus coelum terram terra porro inanis erat nihil vel nt Symachus Ab exordio condidit
must be credited how much more like a man did he speak who told us Natus homo est sive hunc divino semine fecit Ille opifex rerum Mundi melioris crigo Sive recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto Aethere cognati retinebat semina coeli Quam satus Iapeto mistam fluvialibus undis Finxit in effigiem moderantum cuncta Deorum Thus have we considered the Epicurean Hypothesis both as to the Principles on which it stands and the suitableness of it to the Phaenomena of the Universe and I suppose now there cannot be the least shadow of reason found from the Atomical Philosophy to make us at all Question that account of the Origine of the Universe which ascribes it not to the fortuitous concourse of Atoms but to the Infinite wisdom of a Deity I conclude then this discourse of the Epicurean Hypothesis with the words of Automedon in the Greek Epigram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Learn to be wise let Epicurus chase To find his Atoms and his empty space I come now to the last Hypothesis mentioned which undertakes to give an account of the Origine of the Universe from the meer Mechanical Laws of motion and matter Which is the Hypothesis of the late famous French Philosopher Mr. Des Cartes For although there be as much reason as charity to believe that he never intended his Hypothesis as a foundation of Atheism having made it so much his business to assert the existence of a Deity and immateriality of the soul yet because it is apt to be abused to that end by persons Atheistically disposed because of his ascribing so much to the power of matter we shall therefore so far consider it as it undertakes to give an account of the Origine of the Universe without a Deity His Hypothesis therefore is briefly this He takes it for granted that all the matter of the world was at first of one Uniform nature divisible into innumerable parts and divided into many which were all in motion from hence he supposeth 1. That all this matter of which the Universe is composed was at first divided into equal particles of an indifferent size and that they had all such a motion as is now found in the woâ—ld 2. That all these particles were not at first Sphaerical because many such little Globes joyned together will not fill up a continued space but that of what ever figure they were at first they would by continued motion become sphaerical because they would have various circular motions for seeing that at first they were moved with so great force that one particle would be disjoyned from the other the same force continuing would serve to cut off all angles which are supposed in them by their frequent occursions against each other and so when the angles were cut off they would become sphaerical 3. He supposeth that no space is left empty but when those round particles being joyned leave some intervals between them there are some more subtile particles of matter which are ready to fill up those void spaces which arise from those angles which were cut â—ff from the other particles to make them sphaerical which fragments of particles are so little and acquire thereby such a celerity of motion that by the force of that they will be dâ—vided into iâ—numerable little fragments and so will fill up all those spaces which other particles could not enter in at 4. That those particles which sill up the intervals between the sphaerical ones have not all of them the same celerity of motion because some of them are more undivided then others are which filled up the space between three Globular particles when their angles were cut off and therefore those particles must necessarily have very angular figures which are unfit for motion and thence it comes to pass that such particles easily stick together and transfer the greatest part of their motion upon those other particles which are less and therefore have a swifter motion and because these particles are to pass through such triangular spaces which lye in the midst of three Globular particles touching each other therfore he supposeth them as to their breadth and depth to be of a triangular figure but because these particles are somewhat long and the glâ—bular particles through which they pass with so swift motion have their rotation about the poles of the heavens thence he supposes that those triangular particles come to be wreathed Now from these things being thus supposed Des Cartes hath ingeniously and consonantly to his principles undertaken to give an account of the most noted Phaenomena of the world and those three sorts of particles mentioned he makes to be his three elements the first is that subtile matter which was supposed to arise from the cuttings off the angles of the greater particles and of this he tells us the Sun and fixed Stars consill as those particles of that subtile matter being in continual â—oâ—ion have made those several vortices or aethereal whirlpools The second element confists of the sphaerical particles themselves which make up the Heavens out of the third element which are those wreathed particles he gives an account of the formation of the earth and Planets and Comets and from all of them by the help of those common affections of matter size figure motion c. he undertakes to give an account of the Phaenomena of the world How far his principles do conduce to the giving mens minds satisfaction as to the particular Phaenomena of nature is not here our business to enquire but only how far these principles can give an account of the Origine of the Universe without a Deity And that it cannot give a satisfactory account how the world was framed without a Deity appears by the two grand suppositions on which all his elements depend both which cannot be from any other principle but God Those are 1. The existence of matter in the world which we have already proved cannot be independent on God and necessarily existent and therefore supposing that matter existent and put into motion would grind its self into those several particles by him supposed yet this cannot give any account of the Origine of the Universe without a Deity 2. The motion of the particles of matter suppose a Deity for matter is no self-moving principle as hath been fully demonstrated in several places by that judicious Philosopher Dr. H. More who plainly manifests that if motion did necessarily belong to matter it were impossible there should be Sun or Stars or Earth or Man in the World for the matter being uniform it must have equal motion in all its particles if motion doth belong to it For motion being supposed to be natural and â—ssâ—ntial to matter must be alike every where in it and therefore every particle must be supposed in motion to its utmost capacity and so every particle is alike and moved alike and therefore
though God permit man to use his liberty yet he cannot be said to be any ways the author of evil because man had still a posse si vellet a power of standing if he had made right use of his Liberty and God never took from man his adjutorium quo potuit stare sine quo non potuit as Divines call it man enjoying still his power though by the abuse of his Liberty he fell into sin so that granting Godâ—o â—o leave man to the use of his Liberty yet we see God cannot in the lâ—ast be charged with being the Author of sin or of the Origine of evil by the History of the fall of man in Scripture which was the thing to be cleared We come now in the third place to compare that account given of the Origine of evil in Scripture with that which was embraced by Heathen Philosophers in point of reason and evidence There was no one inquiry whatsoever in which those who had nothing but natural light to guide them were more to seek for satisfaction in then this concerning the Origine of evil They saw by continual experience how great a Torrent of both sorts of evils of sin and punishment did over flow the world but they were like the Egyptians who had sufficient evidence of the overflowing their banks by the River Nile but could not find out the spring or the head of it The reason was as corruption increased in the world so the means of instruction and knowledge decayed and so as the Phoenomena grew greater the reason of them was less understood the knowledge of the History of the first Ages of the world through which they could alone come to the full understanding of the true cause of evil insensibly decaying in the several Nations Insomuch that those who were not at all acquainted with that History of the world which was preserved in Sacred Records among the Iews had nothing but their own uncertain conjectures to go by and some kind of obscure traditions which were preserved among them which while they sought to rectifie by their interpretations they made them more obscure and false then they found them They were certain of nothing but that mankind was in a low and degenerate condition and subject to continual miseries and calamities they who cryed up the most the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the self-determining power of the soul could not certainly but strangely wonder that a Principle indifferent to be carried either way should be so almost fatally inclined to the worst of them It was very strange that since Reason ought to have the command of Passions by their own acknowledgement the brutish part of the soul should so master and enslave the rational and the beast should still cast the rider in man the sensitive appetite should throw off the power of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that faculty of the soul which was designed for the Government of all the rest The Philosophers could not be ignorant what slaves they were themselves to this terrestrial Hyle how easily their most mettalsom souls were mired in the dirt how deep they were sunk into corporeal pleasures that it was past the power of their reason to help them out Nay when the soul begins to be fledged again after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or moulting at her entrance into the body which Plato speaks of and strives to raise her self above his lower world she then feels the weight of such Plummets hanging at her feet that they bring her down again to her former fluttering up and down in her Cage of earth So Hierocles complains that when reason begins to carry the soul to the perception of the most noble objects the soul with a generous flight would soar above this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were it not horn down to that which is evil by the force of passions which hang like leads upon the souls feet What a strange unaccountable thing must this needs be to those who beheld the constancy of the effect but were to seek for the cause of it it could not but be clear to them that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were wont to extoll so high was in the state man was now in but a more noble name for slavery when themselves could not but confess the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or inclination in the soul was so strong to the evil and could that be an even balance where there was so much down-weight in one of the scales unless they made as some of them did the voluntary inclinations of the soul to evil an evidence of her liberty in this most degenerate condition as though it were any argument that the prisoner was the freer because he delighted himself in the noise of his shackles Neither was this disorder alone at home in the soul where there was still a Xantippe scolding with Socrates passion striving with reason but when they looked abroad in the world they could not but observe some strange irregularities in the Converse among men What debaucheries contentions rapines fightings and destroying each other and that with the greatest cruelty and that frequently among Country-men Friends nay relations and kindreds and could this hostility between those of the same nature and under the most sacred bonds of union be the result of nature when even beasts of prey are not such to those of their own kind Besides all this when they summed up the life of man together and took an account of the weaknesses and follies of Childhood the heats and extravagancies of youth the passions disquietments and disappointments of men in their strength and height of business the inquietude aches and infirmities of old age besides the miseries which through every one of these all men are subject to and few escape into how small a sum will the solid pleasure and contentment of the life of man be reduced Nay if we take those things in the world which men please themselves the most in enjoyment of and consider but with what care they are got with what fear they are kept and with what certainty they must be lost and how much the possession of any thing fails of the expectation of it and how near men are upon the top of Tenariff to fall into the depth of the Sea how often they are precipitated from the height of prosperity into the depth of adversity we shall finde yet much less that by the greatest Chymistrie can be extracted of real satisfaction out of these things Whence then should it come that mens souls should so delight to seed on these husks and to embrace these clouds and shadows instead of that real good which is the true object of the souls desire They could easily see there was no pure unmixed good in the world but there was a contemperation of both together according to that of Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a kind of continual mixture of
Plato and Pythagoras attributed the origine of evil to the malignity of matter and so they make evils to be necessarily consequent upon the Being of things For thus he delivers expresly the opinion of Pythagoras qui ait existente providentia mala quoque necessario substitisse propterea quod sylva sit eadem sit malitia praedita Platonemque idem Numenius laudat quod duas mundi â—â—mas autumet Unam beneficentissimam malignam alteram sc. Sylvam Igitur juxta Platonem mundo bona sua Dei tanquam Patris liberalitate collata sunt mala vero matris sylvae vitio cohaeserunt But Plutarch will by no means admit that Plato attributes the Origine of evil meerly to matter but he makes the principle of evil to be something distinct from matter which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a confused infinite self-moving stirring principle which saith he he else where calls Necessity and in his de Legibus plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a disorderly and malignant Soul which cannot be understood of meer matter when he makes his Hyle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Without form or figure and destitute of all qualities and power of operation and it is impossible saith he that that which is of its self such an inert principle as matter is should by Plato be supposed to be the cause and principle of evil which he elsewhere calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Necessity which often resisted God and cast off his reins So that according to Plutarch Plato acquits both God and Hyle from being the Origine of evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore attributes it to that malignant spirit which moves the matter and is the cause of all the disorderly motions in the world But what this spirit should be neither he nor any one else could ever understand what darkness and ignorance then was there among the wisest of Philosophers concerning the Origine of evil when they were so consused and obscure in the account which they gave of it that their greatest admirers could not understand them But though Plato seemed so ambiguous in his judgment of the Origine of evil whether he should attribute it to the Hyle or some malignant spirit in it the Stoicks were more dogmatical and plainly imputed the cause of evil to the perversity of matter So Chalcidius tells us that the Stoicks made matter not to be evil in its self as Pythagoras but that it was indifferent to either perrogati igitur unde mala perversitatem seminarium malorum causati sunt they made the perversity of matter the Origine of evil but as he well observes nec expediunt adhuâ— undeâ—â—psa perversitas cum juxta ipsos duo sint initia rerum Dâ—â—â—â— sylva Deus summum praecellens bonum sylva ut censent nec bonum nec malum They give no rational account whence this perversity of matter should arise when according to the Stoicks there are but two principles of things God and matter whereof the one is perfectly good the other neither good nor evil But this perversity they tell us is something necessarily consequent upon the Generation of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are affections viz. the disorders in the world which follow the Generation of things as rust comes upon brass and filth upon the body as the counterfeit Trismegistus speaks so Maximus Tyrius saith that evils in the world are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not any works of art but the affections of matter Non potest artifex mutare materiam saith Seneca when he is giving an account why God suffers evils in the world and elsewhere gives thâ—s account why evils came into he world non quia cessat ars sed quia id in quo exercetur inobsequens arti est So that the Origine of evil by this account of it lyes wholly upon the perversity of matter which it seems was uncapable of being put into better order by that God who produced the world out of that matter which the Stoicks supposed to be eternal And the truth is the avoiding the attributing the cause of evil to God seems to have been the great reason why they rather chose to make it matter necessary and coexistent with God and this was the only plausible pretence which Hermogenes had for following the Platonists and Stoicks in this opinion that he might set God far enough off from being the author of sin but I cannot sâ—e what advantage comes at all by this Hypothesis but it is chargeable with as many difficulties as any other For 1. It either destroyes Gods omnipotency or else makes him the approver of evil so that if he be not auctor he must be assentator mali as Tertullian speaks against Hermogenes because he suffered evil to be in matter for as he argues aut enim potuit emendare sed noluit aut voluit quidem verum non potuit infirmus Deus si potuit noluit malus ipse quia malâ— savit fic jam habetur ejus licet non instituerit quia tamen si noluisset illud essâ— non esset ipse jam fecit esse quod noluit non esse quo quid â—st â—urpius si voluit esse quod ipse noluit fecisse adversum semetipsum egit cum voluit esse quod noluit fecisse noluit fecisse quod voluit esse So that little advantage is gained for the clearing the true origine of evil by this opinion for either God could have taken away evil out of matter but would not or else would but could not this latter destroyes Gods omnipotency the former his good-ness for by that means evil is in the world by his consent and approbation for if God would not remove it when he might the Being of it will come from him when if he would have hindred it it would not have been and so God by not rooting out of evil will be found an assertor of it male si per voluntatem turpiter si per necessitatem aut famulus erit mali Deus aut amicus if Gods will were the cause why sin was it reflects on his goodness if Gods power could not hinder it it destroyes his omnipotency So that by this opinion God must either be a slave or a friend to evil 2. This principle overturns the foundations of Religion and all transactions between God and mens souls in order to their welfare because it makes evil to be necessarily existent in the world which appears from hence in that evil doth result from the Being of matter and so it must necessarily be as matter is supposed to be for whatever results from the Being of a thing must be coexistent with it and so what flows from what doth necessarily exist must have the same mode of existence which the Being its self hath as is evident in all the attributes of God which have the same immutability with his nature now then if evil did exist
the Greeks received from the Barbarians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they put it into a better fashion i. e. they disguise it alter and change it as they please and put it into a Greek habit that it might never be suspected to have been a Forraigner Thence Tertullian speaks with a great deal of truth and freedom of such Philosophers who did ingenii sitim de prophetarum fonte irrigare as he expresseth it that quenched their thirst after knowledge with the waters of Iordan though they did not like Naaman cure the leproâ—ic of the head by washing in them for as Tertullian saith theâ— came only ex negotio curiositatis more to please the i tch oâ— their curiosity then to cure it And wherein they seemed most to agree with the Scriptures their difference was beyond their agreement Siquidem vera quaeque consonantia Prophetis aut aliunde commendant aut aliorsum subornant cum maxima injuria veritatis quam efficiunt aut adjuvari falsis aut patrocinari Whatever the Philosophers speak agreeable to the Scriptures either they do not own whence they had it or turn it quite another way whereby they have done the truth a great deal of injury by mixing it with their corruptions of it and making that little truth a plea for the rest of their errors Neither was this only among the ancient Philosophers but the Primitive Christians began to discern the underhand workings of such who sought to blend Philosophy and Christianity together for Tertullian himself takes great notice of such who did Veritatis dogmata ad Philosophicas sententias adulterare suborn Christianity to maintain Philosophy which makes him cry out Viderint qui Stoicum Platonicum Dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt by which we see what tampering there was betimes rather to bring Christianity down to Philosophy rather then to make Philosophy truckle under the truth and simplicity of the Scriptures Whether Ammonius himself and some others of the School of Alexandria might be guilty in this kind is not here a place to enquire though it be too evident in the writings of some that they rather seek to accommodate the Scriptures to the Sentiments of the School of Plato then to reform that by the Scriptures but I say however it were with those who were Christians yet those who were not but only Philosophers made their great advantage by it For when they found what was reconcileable with the doctrine of Plato in the Scriptures done already to their hands by the endeavours chiefly of Ammonius and Origen they greedily embrace those improvements of their Philosophy which would tend so much to the credit of it and as contemptuously reject what they found irreconcileable with the dictates of their Philosophy Now what an unreasonable thing is it when what ever was noble and excellent in the Heathen Philosophy was derivative from 〈◊〉 Scriptures as the sacred Fountâ—in of it that the meeting with such things should in the least redound to the prejudice of the Scriptures from whence it was originally derived when on the other side it should be a great confirmation to our faith as to the Scriptures that they who were professed Philosophers and admirers only of reason did so readily embrace some of those grand Truths which are contained in the word of God For which we need no other instance then that before us concerning the Origine of evil the making out of which will tend to the clearing the last thing mentioned concerning it which was that the most material things in it are attested by the Heathens themselves And this honey which is gained out of the Lions mouth must needs tast sweeter then any other doth For it is a weak and groundless mistake on the other side which is the second which ariseth from meeting things consonant to the Scriptures in the writings of Philosophers presently to conclude from such things that they were Christians as it is said some have lately done in the behalf of Hierocles For there being such clear accounts given in Scripture of the grand difficulties and perplexities which the minds of men were troubled with when these came to the knowledge of such who were of Philosophick and inquisitive heads we cannot but think they would meet with acceptation among them especially if they might be made consistent with their former speculations Thus it was in our present case concerning the Origine of evil we have already beheld the lamentable perplexities the ancient Philosophers were in about it what Maeanders they were lost in for want of a clue to guide them through them now it pleased God after the coming of Christ in the flâ—shâ—o â—o declare to the world the only way for the recovery 〈◊〉 souls and their eternal salvation the news of which being spread so far that it soon got among the Philosophers could not but make them more inquisitive concerning the state and condition of their souls and when they had searched what the Philosophers had formerly discovered of it their curiosity would presently prompt them to see what account of things concerning the souls of 〈◊〉 delivered by the preachers of this New Doctrine B◠〈◊〉 they could not but presently understand that they declared all mens souls to be in a most degenerate and low condition by being so continually under the power of the most unreasonable and unruly passions that they were estranged from God and prone to fix on things very unsuitable to their nature as to all which their own inward sense and experience could but tell them that these things were notoriously true and therefore they enquire further how these things came to be so which they receive a full account of in Scripture that mans soul was at first created pure and holy and in perfect friendship with God that God dealt bountifully and favourably with man only expected obedience to his Laws that man being a free agent did abuse his liberty and disobeyed his Maker and thence came the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feathers of the soul whereby it soared up to heaven moulted away and the soul sunk below its self into a degenerate and apostate condition out of which it is impossible to be recovered without some extraordinary expression of Divine Favour Now what is there in all this account but what is hugely suitable to principles of reason and to the general experience of the world as to those things which were capable of being tryed by it And those Philosophers who were any thing ingenuâ—us and lovers of truth could not but confess the truth of those things which we are now speaking of viz. That mens souls are in a very degenerate condition That the most rational account of it is that man by the act of his own will brought himself into it and that in order to the happiness of mens souls there was a necessity of recovery out of this condition As to the degeneracy of the souls of men This
was the common complaint of those Philosophers who minded the government of themselves and the practice of vertue especially of the Platonâ—sts and Stoicks Seneca in all his moral Discourses especially in his Epistles may speak sufficiently in behalf of the Stoicks how much they lamented the degeneracy of the world And the Platonists all complain of the slavery of the soul in the body and that it is here by way oâ— punishment for something which was done before which makes me somewhat incurable to think that Plato knew more of the lapse of 〈◊〉 then he would openly discover and for that end disguised it after his usual manner in that hypothesis of prae-existence which taking it Cabbalistically for I rather think the opinion of prae existence is so to be taken then the history of the Fall of man may import only this That mens souls might be justly supposed to be created happy but by reason of the Apostacy of mans soul from God all souls now come into their bodies as into a kind of prison they being enslaved to the brutish part within them there having been such a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul being now deprived of her chiefest perfections in this her low and degenerate condition And it seems far more rational to me to interpret those persons opinions to a Cabbalistical or an Allegorical sense who are known to have designedly writ in a way obscure and ambiguous then to force those mens expressions to Cabbala's who profess to write a plain History and that with the greatest simplicity and perspicuity But it cannot but seem very strange that an hypothesis capable of being reconciled to the plain literal sense of the Scriptures delivered by a person who useth great artifice and cunning to disguise his opinions and sueh a person withall who by such persons themselves who make use of this opinion to that end is supposed to have been very conversant with the writings of Moses should be taken in its literal sense as it really imports prae-existence of each particular soul in the gâ—ossest manner and this should be made to be a part of the Philosophick Cabbala of the writings of such a person who useth not the least artifice to disguise his sense nor gives us anywhere the least intimation that he left behind him such plaited pictures in his History of the beginning of the world that if you look straight forward you may see a literal Cabbala on the one side a Philosophical and on the other a Moral But now if we remove the Cabbala from Moses to Plato we may finde no incongruity or repugnancy at all either as to Plato his way of writing or the consonancy of the opinion so interpreted to the plain genuine sense of Moses if by Plato his opinion of the Prae-existence and descent of souls be understood by the former the happy state of the soul of man in conjunctâ—â—â— with God and by the latter the low and degenerate condiâ—â—on which the soul is in after Apostacy from him Which â—he later Platonists are so large and eloquent in expressing Porphyrie where he speaks of somethings he counsels men to do hath these words But if we cannot do them let us at least do that which was so much lamented of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us at least joyn with our Fore-fathers in lamenting this that we are compounded of such disagreeing and contrary principles that we are not able to preserve divine pure and unspotted Innocency And Hierocles fully expresseth his sense of the degeneracy of mankind in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most of men in the world are bad and under the command of their passions and grown impotent through their propensity to earth which great evil they have brought upon themselves by their wilfull Apostacy from God and withdrawing themselves from that society with him which they once enjoyed in pure light which departure of mens souls from God which is so hurtfull to the minds of men is evident by their strong inclination to the things of this world The same Author mentions with much approbation that speech of Heraclitus speaking of those souls which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I cannot better render then undeclinably good he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We live their death and die their life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for man is now fallen down from that blessed Region and as Empedocles the Pythagorean speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which words cannot be better rendred then in the words the Scripture useth concerning Cain and he went from the presence of the Lord and was 〈◊〉 fugitive in the earth and under continual perplexitiâ—s For the soul of man having left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is Hierocles his own expression the pleasant meadow of truth a fit description of Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Through the violence of her moulting or deplumation she comes into this earthly body deprived of that blessed life which she before enjoyed Which he tells us is very consonant to Plato's senâ—e oâ— the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or descent of souls that when by reason of their impotency of fixing wholly â—on God they suffer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great loss and a deprivation of former perfâ—ctions which I suâ—pose is meâ—nt by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the â—â—uls impotency of flying up above this earthly world then they lapse into these terrestrial and mortal bodies So Hierocles concludes with this excellent and Divine speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As therefore by Apostacy from God and the moulting of those feathers of our souls whereby we may be raised up above this world we have fallen into this place of mortals which is compassed about with evils So by the casting off carnal affections and by the growth of vertues like new Feathers to the Soul we shall ascend to the place of pure and perfect good and to the enjoyment of a divine life So much more becoming Christians do these excellent Philosophers speak of the degeneracy of mens souls and the consequents of it then some who would be accounted the followers of reason as well as of Christ who make it so much of their business to extenuate the fall of man Which we find those who were meer Philosophers far more rational and ingenuous in then those who pretend so highly to reason but I think with as little of it as any supposing the Scriptures to be of Divine authority But it is not here our businesse to consider the opinions of those who pretend to Christianity but only of such who pretending only to reason have yet consented with the doctrine of the Scriptures as the 〈◊〉 of the Souls of men that it lyes in an Apostacy from 〈◊〉 and have lost those perfections which they had before That mans will is the cause of his Apostacy this we have already manifested at large from
as a matter trivial and impertinent Which cannot arise but from one of these two grounds that either they think it no great wisdom to let go their present hold as to the good things of this world for that which they secretly question wheâ—her they shall ever live to see or no or else that their minds are in suspense whether they be not sent on a Guiana voyage to heaven whâ—ther the certainty of it be yet fully discovered or the instructions which are given be such as may infallibly conduct them thâ—her The first though it hath the advantage of sense fruition delight and further expectation yet to a rational person who seriously reflects on himself and sums up what after all his troubles and disquietments in the procuring his cares in keeping his disappointments in his expectations his fears of losing what he doth enjoy and that vexation of spirit which attends all these he hath gained of true contentment to his mind can never certainly beleive that ever these things were intended for his happiness For is it possible that the soul of man should ever enjoy its full and compleat happiness in this world when nothing is â—ble to make it happy but what is most suitable to its nature able to fill up its large capacity and commensurate with its duration but in this life the matter of mens greatest delights is strangely unsuitable to the nature of our rational beings the measure of them too short for our vast desires to stretch themselves upon the proportion too scant and narrow to run parallel with immortality It must be then only a Supreme Insinite and Eternal Being which by the free communications of his bounty and goodness can fix and satiate the souls desires and by the constant flowings forth of his uninterrupted streams of favour will alwayes keep up desire and yet alwayes satisfie it One whose goodness can only be felt by some tansient touches here whose love can be seen but as through a lattice whose constant presence may be rather wished for then enjoyed who hath reserved the full sight and fruition of himself to that future state when all these dark vails shall be done away and the soul shall be continually sunning her self under immediate beams of light and love But how or in what way the soul of man in this degenerate condition should come to be partaker of so great a happiness by the enjoyment of that God our natures are now at such a distance from is the greatest and most important enquiry of humane nature and we continually see how successless and unsatisfactory the endeavours of those have been to themselves at last who have sought for this happiness in a way of their own finding out The large volume of the Creation wherein God hath described so much of his wisdom and power is yet too dark and obscure too short and imperfect to set forth to us the way which leads to eternal happinesse Unlesse then the same God who made mens souls at first do shew them the way for their recovery as they are in a degenerate so they will be in a desperate condition but the same bounty and goodness of God which did at first display its self in giving being to mens souls hath in a higher manner enlarged the discovery of its self by making known the way whereby we may be taken into his Grace and Favour again Which it now concerns us particularly to discover thereby to make it appear that this way is of that peculiar excellency that we may have from thence the greatest evidence it could come from no other Author but God himself and doth tend to no other end but our eternal happiness Now that incomparable excellency which is in the sacred Scriptures will fully appear if we consider the matters contained in them under this threefold capacity 1. As matters of Divine Revelation 2. As a rule of life 3. As containing that Covenant of grace which relates to mans eternal happiness 1. Consider the Scripture generally as containing in it matters of divine revelation and therein the excellency of the Scriptures appeares in two things 1. The matters which are revealed 2. The manner wherein they are revealed 1. The matters which are revealed in Scripture may be considered these three wayes 1. As they are matters of the greatest weight and moment 2. As mâ—tters of the greatest depth and mysteriousness 3. As matters of the most universal satisfaction to the minds of men 1. They are matters of the greatest moment and importance for men to know The wisdom of men is most known by the weight of the things they speak and therefore that wherein the wisdom of God is discovered cannot contain any thing that is mean and trivial they must be matters of the highest importance which the Supreme Ruler of the world vouchsafes to speak to men concerning And such we shall find the matters which God hath revealed in his word to be which either concern the rectifying our apprehensions of his nature or making known to men their state and condition or discovering the way whereby to avoid eternal misery Now which is there of these three which supposing God to discover his mind to the world it doth not highly become him to speak to men of 1. What is there which it doth more highly concern men to know then God himself or what more glorious and excellent object could he discover then himself to the world There is nothing certainly which should more commend the Scriptures to us then that thereby we may grow more acquainted with God that we may know more of his nature and all his perfections and many of the great reasons of his actings in the world We may by them understand with safety what the eternal purposes of God were as to the wâ—y of mans recovery by the death of his Son we may there see and understand the great wisdom of God not only in the contrivance of the world and ordering of it but in the gradual revelations of himself to his people by what steps he trained up his Church till the fulness of time was come what his aim was in laying such a load of Ceremonies on his people of the Iews by what steps degrces he made way for the full revelation of his Will to the World by speaking in these last dayes by his Son after he had spoke at sundry times and divers manners by the Prophets c. unto the Fathers In the Scriptures we read the most rich and admirable discoveries of Divine goodness and all the wayes and methods he useth in alluring sinners to himself with what Majesty he commands with what condiscension he intreats with what importunity he wooes mens souls to be reconciled to him with what favour he embraceth with what tenderness he chastiseth with what bowels he pitieth those who have chosen him to be their God! With what power he supporteth with what wisdom he directâ—th with what cordials he
should discover further then Gods general goodness to such as please him but no foundation can be gatherd thence of his readiness to pardon offenders which being an act of grace must alone be discoverd by his Will I cannot think the Sun Moon and Stars are such itinerant Preachers as to unfold unto us the whole Counsel and Will of God in reference to mans acceptance with God upon repentance It is not every Star in the Firmament can do that which the Star once did to the wise men lead them unto Christ. The Sun in the Heavens is no Parhelius to the Son of righteousness The best Astronomer will never finde the day-star from on high in the rest of his number What St. Austin said oâ— Tullies works is true of the whole Volume of the Creation There are admirable things to be found in them but the name of Christ is not legible there The work of Redemption is not engraven on the works of providence if it had a particular divine revelation had been unnecessary and the Apostles were sent on a needless errand which the world had understood without their Preaching viz That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing to men their trespasses and hath committed to them the Ministry of Reconciliation How was the word of reconciliation committed to them if it were common to them with the whole frame of the world and the Apostles Quaere elsewhere might have been easily answered How can men hear without a Preacher For then they might have known the way of salvation without any special messengers sent to deliver it to them I grant that Gods long suffering and patience is intended to lead men to repentance and that some general collections might be made from providence of the placability of Gods nature and that God never left himself without a witness of his goodness in the world being king to the unthankful and doing good in giving rain and fruitful seasons But though these things might sufficiently discover to such who were apprehensive of the guilt of sin that God did not act according to his greatest severity and thereby did give men encouragement to hearken out enquire after the true way of being reconciled to God yet all this amounts not to a firm foundation for faith as to the remission of sin which doth suppose God himself publishing an act of grace and indempnity to the world wherein he assures the pardon of sin to such as truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel Now is not this an inestimable advantage we enjoy by the Scriptures that therein we understand what God himself hath discoverd of his own nature and perfections and of his readiness to pardon sin upon those gracious terms of Faith and Repentance and that which necessarily follows from these two hearty and sincere obedience 2. The Scriptures give the most faithful representation of the state and condition of the soul of man The world was almost lost in Disputes concerning the nature condition and immortality of the soul before divine revelation was made known to mankind by the Gospel of Christ but life and immortality was brrught to light by the Gospel and the future state of the soul of man not discoverd in an uncertain Platonical way but with the greatest light and evidence from that God who hath the supreme disposal of souls and therefore best knows and understands them The Scriptures plainly and fully reveal a judgement to come in which God will judge the secrets of all hearts when every one must give an account of himself unto God and God will call men to give an account of their stewardship here of all the receits they have had from him and the expences they have been at and the improvements they have made of the talents he put into their hands So that the Gospel of Christ is the fullest instrument of discovery of the certainty of the future state of the soul and the conditions which abide it upon its being dislodged from the body But this is not all which the Scripture discovers as to the state of the soul for it is not only a prospective-glass reaching to its future state but it is the most faithful looking-glass to discover all the spots and deformities of the soul And not only shews where they are but whence they came what their nature is and whether they tend The true Original of all that disorder and discomposure which is in the soul of man is only fully and satisfactorily given us in the Word of God as hath been already proved The nature and working of this corruption in man had never been so clearly manifested had not the Law and Will of God been discovered to the world that is the glass whereby we see the secret workings of those Bees in our hearts the corruptions of our natures that sets forth the folly of our imaginations the unruliness of our passions the distempers of our wills and the abundant deceitfulness of our hearts And it is hard for the most Elephantine sinner one of the greatest magnitude so to trouble these waters as not therein to discover the greatness of his own deformities But that which tends most to awaken the drowsie sensless spirits of men the Scripture doth most fully describe the tendency of corruption that the wages of sin is death and the issue of continuance in sin will be the everlasting misery of the soul in a perpetual separation from the presence of God and undergoing the lashes and severities of conscience to all eternity What a great discovery is this of the faithfulness of God to the world that he suffers not men to undo themselves without letting them know of it before-hand that they might avoid it God seeks not to entrap mens souls nor doth he rejoyce in the misery and ruine of his creatures but fully declares to them what the consequence and issue of their sinful practices will be assures them of a judgement to come declares his own future sâ—verity against contumacious sinners that they might not think themselves surprized and that if they had known there had been so great danger in sin they would never have been such fools as for the sake of it to run into eternal misery Now God to prevent this with the greatest plainness and faithfulness hath shewed men the nature and danger of all their sins and asks them before hand what they will do in the end thereof whether they are able to bear his wrath and wrestle with everlasting burnings if not he bids them bethink themselves of what they have done already and repent amend their lives lest iniquity prove their ruine destruction overtake them and that without remedy Now if men have cause to prize and value a faithful Monitor one that tenders their good and would prevent their ruine we have cause exceedingly to prize and value the Scriptures which give us the truest representation of the state and
condition of our souls 3. The Scripture discovers to us the only way of pleasing God and enjoying his favour That clearly reveals the way which man might have sought for to all eternity without particular revelation whereby sins may be pardond and whatever we do may be acceptable unto God It shews us that the ground of our acceptance with God is through Christ whom he hath made a propitiation for the sins of the world and who alone is the true and living way whereby we may draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience Through Christ we understand the terms on which God will shew favour and grace to the world and by him we have ground of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 access with freedome and boldness unto God On his account we may hope not only for grace so subdue our sins resist temptations conquer the devil and the world but having fought this good fight and finished our course by patient continuance in well doing we may justly look for glory honour and immortality and that crown of righteousness which is laid up for those who wait in faith holiness and humility for the appearance of Christ from heaven Now what things can there be of greater moment and importance for men to know or God to reveal then the nature of God and our selves the state and condition of our souls the only way to avoid eternal misery and enjoy everlasting Bliss The Scriptures discover not only matters of importance but of the greatest depth and mysteriousness There are many wonderful things in the Law of God things we may admire but are never able to comprehend Such are the eternal purposes and decrees of God the doctrine of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God and the manner of the operation of the Spirit of God on the souls of men which are all things of great weight and moment for us to understand and believe that they are and yet may be unsearchable to our reason as to the particular manner of them What certain ground our faith stands on as to these things hath been already shewed and therefore I forbear insisting on them The Scripture comprehends matters of the most universal satisfaction to the minds of men though many things do much exceed our apprehensions yet others are most suâ—table to the dictates of our nature As Origen bid Celsus see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it was not the agreeableness of the principles of faith with the common notions of humane nature that which prevailed most upon all candid and ingenuous auditors of them And therefore as Socrates said of Heraclitus his books What he understood was excellent and therefore he supposed that which he did not understand was so too so ought we to say of the Scriptures if those things which are within our capacity be so suitable to our natures and reasons those cannot contradict our reason which yet are above them There are many things which the minds of men were sufficiently assured that they were yet were to seek for satisfaction concerning them which they could never have had without Divine revelation As the nature of true happiness wherein it lay and how to be obtained which the Philosophers were so puzled with the Scripture gives us full satisfaction concerning it True contentment under the troubles of life which the Scripture only acquaints us with the true grounds of and all the prescriptions of Heathen Moralists fall as much short of as the directions of an Empirick doth of a wise and skilful Physitian Avoiding the fears of death which can alone be through a grounded expectation of a future state of happiness which death leads men to which cannot be had but through the right understanding of the Word of God Thus we see the excellency of the matters themselves contained in this revelation of the mind of God to the world As the matters themselves are of an excellent nature so is the manner wherein they are revealed in the Scriptures and that 1. In a clear and perspicuous manner not but there may be still some passages which are hard to be understood as being either prophetical or consisting of ambiguous phrases or containing matters above our comprehension but all those things which concern the terms of mans salvation are delivered with the greatest evidence and perspicuiry Who cannot understand what these things mean What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God that without faith it is impossible to please God that without holiness none shall see the Lord that unless we be born again we can never enter into the Kingdom of heaven these and such like things are so plain and clear that it is nothing but mens shutting their eyes against the light can keep them from understanding them God intended these things as directions to men and is not he able to speak intelligibly when he please he that made the tongue shall he not speak so as to be understood without an infallible interpreter especially when it is his design to make known to men the terms of their eternal happiness Will God judge men at the great day for not believing those things which they could not understand Strange that ever men should judge the Scriptures obscure in matters necessary when the Scripture accounts it so great a judgement for men not to understand them If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not least the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them Sure Lots door was visible enough if it were a judgement for the men of Sodom not to see it and the Scriptures then are plain and intelligible enough if it be so great a judgement not to understand them 2. In a powerful and authoritative manner as the things contained in Scripture do not so much beg acceptance as command it in that the expressions wherein our duty is concerned are such as awe mens consciences and pierce to their hearts and to their secret thoughts All things are open and naked before this Word of God every secret of the mind and thought of the heart lyes open to its stroke and force it is quick and powerful sharper then a two-edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The word is a Telescope to discover the great Luminaries of the world the truths of highest concernment to the souls of men and it is such a Microscope as discovers to us the smallest Atome of our thoughts and discerns the most secret intent of the heart And as far as this light reacheth it comes with power and authority as it comes armed with the Majesty