and in that upon the flesh and Blood of Christ They differ in their Apparel Saints put on the Lord Jesus his righteousness as imputed and his grace and holiness as imparted to them but the wicked are clothed only with the defiled and defective rags of their own righteousness and the deformities of the old man and corruption 2. When the Israelites departed from Egypt their Exodus or departure was e terra afflictionis as 't is call'd Gen. 41.52 from a troublesome and afflicting Country therefore Scripture frequently speaks concerning their afflictions in Egypt Exod. 3.7 their being bond-men in Egypt Deut. 6.21 concerning the murther of their Infants in Egypt concerning their iron furnace in Egypt Dent. 4.20 called an iron-furnace because much imployment of the Israelites was spent in the melting and mollifying of iron which doubtless was the sorest and hottest work and a little before they went away their bricks were doubled their burthens were increased in one word the Egyptian cruelties were extended to the very highest pitch of extremity And when the people of God go out of the world is not their Exodus their departure from an Egypt too in this regard It is a troublesome hating persecuting world that they depart from Mundus turbatur amatur the world is troubled and troublesome saith Austin yet too much lov'd and God makes the place of our distance from heaven an house of bondage and trouble lest we should make it the place of our delight 'T is better for Gods Israel that Egypt should be a house of bondage than hospitality and God will have his people afflicted in it that they may not be infected with it and say it is good for us to be here When the people of Israel were coming into Egypt how kindly did Pharaoh entertain them how welcome were they to the Egyptians but when they went out from thence how were they persecuted When the people of God are looking towards the world and seeming to comply with it then they shall be respected but when they will leave it in their deportment and practice then they are hated 'T is good that Egyptians should hate Israel that they may not hurt them When the world is most kind 't is most corrupting and when it smiles most it seduceth most Were it not for the bondage of Egypt we should too much delight in the Idols and Onyons of Egypt 3. When the Israelites departed out of Egypt they departed e terra proâ—â—ana out of a wicked idolatrous sinful Country therefore you so often read concerning the idols of the Egyptians the gods of the Egyptians Jer. 43.12 Jer. 46.25 and particularly you have mention made Josh 24.14 concerning the people of Israel their serving the gods of the Egyptians which doubtless they did too frequently when they were amongst them so you read concerning the whoredoms of Egypt Ezek. 23.8 And is not this as the world that we are leaving the Egppt from which we are departing when we are dying The whole world says the Apostle lies in wickedness like a Swine in the midst of the mire wallowing and tumbling immersed in all kind of lewdness and profaneness and it is called therefore this present evil World Gal. 1.4 And the truth is the people of God while here they abide are too ready in this Egypt to learn the Language and imitate the sinful practises of Egypt Water though never so pure running through a Brimstony or Allomy Myne will have something of the savour tang and tast of it And the people of God as frequently we see and should sadly observe although they are holy purified and cleansed yet running through the Myne of a sinful profane World have too great a tang and savour of its Impiety I doubt not but the people of Israel learned their Idolatry of worshipping the golden Calf of the Egyptians who worshipped such Idols Thus you see from whence the Exodus or departure of the Israelites was it was from Egypt that carries too great a resemblance to the World which the Saints leave when they die 2dly What was the way of the Israelites departing out of Egypt It was through a red-Sea a kind of living-death in appearance or sepulcher wherein they expected every moment to be swallowed up Pharaoh also pursuing of them And the people of God must pass to life sometimes through a red-Sea of Persecution and Bloud as this great Apostle Peter did according to the prediction that he had from Jesus Joh. 21.18 but always they must pass to life through death there is no going any other way till the fetters of the body be knockt off the Soul cannot get up to God Death must be the threshold of Life we must be absent from the body before we can be present with the Lord. This is as the way of sins merit so of Gods method He writes death upon all things and persons before he enlivens and raiseth them Nor is the passage of the Saints through the red-Sea of Death without a pursuing Pharaoh the Devil with his Army of Tentations who will ever disturb where he cannot destroy and pursue though he cannot prevail But blessed be Christ who not only disappoints but destroys the destroyer 3dly To what Countrey did they design to go when they departed out of Egypt 'T was to the Land of Canaan thither they were tending and marching And so likewise do the People of God when they leave this Egypt they go to a better Land of Canaan than that which is earthly a Heavenly Countrey an heavenly Canaan though shadowed out and typified by the earthly I shall open it to you in three particulars 1. The Land of Canaan was Terra Promissa it was a Promised Land therefore Neh. 9.15 it is there called the Land which God both promised and sware to give the Israelites Their only Title to it was by Promise God ow'd it to them no further than he had promised it to them And the heavenly Canaan to which the dying Saints do go is also a Land of Promise 1 John 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised Eternal life A Promise is a middle thing between Purpose and Performance first there is the Purpose of God to save his People his eternal Decree then he promises it in the Gospel then performs it after Death and so great is the Love of God to a true Israelite an Israelite indeed that he will not stay till the day of performance comes but shews his Love in promising before the time of performance And hence you read of the promise of eternal Life 2 Tim. 1.1 Heb. 9.15 the promise of the eternal Inheritance and the Saints called the heirs of Promise and hereby God both honours his own faithfulness in his peoples trusting him for Heaven and tries his Saints sincerity who embrace Gods Promises before the Worlds Performances and the Riches of the people of God on this side Heaven lies in this great Promise of Heaven A Saint that
hath a Promise of Heaven is richer than he is that hath all the Performances of the World 2dly The Land of Canaan to which the people of Israel went was Terra Sancta it was the Holy Land and therefore it is called Gods holy habitation Exod. 15.12 and Hierusalem the beauty of the land of Canaan the type of Heaven is called the holy City Matt. 4.5 And therefore was Canaan an holy place because that Land God had separated from all Lands to afford the visible tokens of his gracious presence in it and to it and to settle his Worship and Sanctuary in it for Communion with himself and to have the Israelites that inhabited it a peculiar people and set a-part for his own Honour and Service But much more may the Heavenly Canaan to which the Saints go when dying be called a Terra Sancta a Holy Land 'T is separated and set a-part for the glory of a holy God for holy performances holy persons The God of Heaven is Holy Holy Holy All that live with him there are holy only holy Ones enter there Holy Angels Souls of just men made perfectly holy Nothing defiled or defiling can there be admitted no sin no Sinner no more of unholiness is there than of unhappiness sorrow and sin came and shall go together There as all tears shall be wiped away from the eyes so all sin perfectly washt away from the Soul there shall neither be sin in the Soul nor Sinner in the Company as compleat an Holiness as God will and we can desire 3. The Land of Canaan was terra desiderii so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalm 106.24 a pleasant delightful Land described to be a Land of milk and honey and to have an affluence of all things desirable to sense as Corn Wine Balm Oil Fountains Pastures But what a faint resemblance do all these carry to the pleasures of the Heavenly Canaan Here are the true full and everlasting pleasures fulness of joy pleasures for evermore Eternal satisfaction without any satiety and glutting An Eternal fulness and yet an eternal freshness of delights All comforts are centred in God All sweetness and delights meet in him In him there 's infinitely more than the Soul can want or wish and he is in heaven perfectly enjoyed even to the utmost extent of the Souls capacity but yet the Oyl will be infinitely more plentiful than the Vessels are capacious which cannot hold all that oyl of joy that God can give out of himself The people of God in Heaven are said to enter into their Masters joy for their joy cannot fully enter into them there In Heaven there 's that we call enough a thing never to be had in this world there is in that Life mors desiderii the death of desire and perfect joy is nothing but the cessation of all our wishes Vse The Application of all this shall only be to counsel you To labour that your departure out of this world may be an happy Exodus or departure as a going from the Land of Egypt to a happy an heavenly Canaan And for the making this Counsel the more effectual I 'le present it to you in these four branches 1. Be sure you be Israelites otherwise there is no entring into Canaan when you depart hence Canaan was a Land of Promise but promised only to Israel and for your entrance into the heavenly Canaan there is no promise unless you be Israelites Nor is it enough for you to be carnal Israelites I mean only such in regard of outward priviledges and enjoyment of outward Ordinances Outward priviledges put lust to no pain The most eminent for priviledges are oft under the prevalency of corruptions But you must be as Christ speaks of Nathaneel truly and indeed Israelites Otherwise Publicans and Harlots enter into Heaven before a meerly nominal Israelite How woful is that Hell into which men fall by presuming of Heaven The Valley of Vision hath the heaviest burden The deeper a ship is laden even with Gold the deeper she sinks God is most dishonour'd by the sins of visible Professours by these the power of Godliness is oft most bitterly opposed He that was born after the flesh was the greatest persecutor of him that was born after the spirit The priviledges of grace without the grace of the priviledg give no admission into Glory True holiness only is the way to true happiness No grace but tried grace enters into Heaven Many of the children of the Kingdom shall be shut out of the Kingdom He is not an Israelite who is one outwardly but he is an Israelite who is one inwardly Rom. 2.28 The children of the flesh are not the children of God Rom. 9.8 Luk. 16.25 I read of a Son of Abraham in Hell The children of Israel have oft been the children of the Devil No promise of salvation is made more to the Member of a visible Church unless he have a changed heart than to an Heathen 2dly Take heed of turning in your hearts back again into Egypt many that went out of Egypt did not go into Canaan the Holy Ghost tells us how forward they were to return back into Egypt Numb 14.3 4. Turn not from your professions imbrace not the present world take heed of being backsliders better you had never gone out of Egypt than to turn back again into it You must hold it out unto the death if you would have a Crown of life it is not he that sets out first but he that holds out last that shall be crowned 3dly Take heed of unbelief distrust not the promises that God hath made of entring into his rest Unbelief was the killing mother murthering sin of the Israelites they could not enter in Heb. 3.15 because of unbelief no difficulties in the way give a dispensation to distrust the promise of bestowing the happiness of the end Unbelief is the sin that of all other discredits God rejects mercy offered hinders from Salvation puts a necessity of destruction upon you other sins make us obnoxious unto death but Unbelief makes us opposite unto life 4thly Think not of entring into Canaan without your Joshua your Jesus there is no getting to the heavenly Canaan but by him He must be improved in these two regards 1. As your Conquerour one that is to conquer all the enemies you are to meet withall in your entrance into Canaan he only can overcome Death Devil Guilt it is he who by death overcomes him that hath the power of death he overcomes him by price in satisfying the Justice of God by force in the destroying of his works by his Spirit in the Souls of his Saints And 2dly You must improve Jesus not only as your Conquerour but also as your Leader to follow him they followed Joshua into Canaan Jesus must be our Captain as well as Conquerour Follow him as your Example If he be not your Pattern he never procures your Pardon You must follow him in the way unto
rather than a loss by Doctor Seaman's decease 5. Must Ministers die Pray for them to him that hath the power of Life and Death It was Paul's great Prayer to be pray'd for 'T was through Prayer that he trusted to be given to them Phil. 2.2 'T will be your deserved trouble when your faithful Ministers die that you while they lived pray'd no more for and profited no more by them and these two have a common Conjunction Prayer is the mean to get Ministers when we want them and to keep them when we have them 6. Must Ministers die Maintain them while they stay The unkind World storms them do not you starve them or hinder them from Studying by your neglecting to supply them I neither speak nor have cause to speak in this kind for my self but for my Brethrens-sake I cannot be silent Make that Proverb cease London loves a Cheap Gospel The best of Ministers walk in the flesh acknowledg this as your priviledg but such as points to your Duty If they die let not your penuriousness be the disease of which they die Consider they will not long be chargeable 7. Lastly Must the best of Ministers dye Be willing to follow them The sweetest Flowers wither soonest God takes away the best of his Servants his Enochs often hastily why do we love so much then to linger behind We should like the world the less while we stay and the lesâ— to stay in it because holy men and Ministers so speedily forsake it We delight not in a room without furniture nor in an house that hath only naked walls Sanctity is the best furniture of souls and Saints of places both for use and ornament why do we then love so much to stay when they are taken down And of all others we Ministers methinks should be most willing to follow our Brethren and dear Companions in the Ministry by long acquaintance frequent and indearing visits sweet innocent chearfulness fraternal counfels learned debates prayer yea promises and re-promises of prayer of late so nearly linkt and intimately twisted to and with us Sometimes methinks when I recall them I cannot the memories of the great Gouge and Gataker the holy and delightful Whitaker the prudent Calamy that man of Prayer Ash and of Tears Nalton that sweet name and man of affection Love whose great love to me was match'd with nothing more than my fidelity to him and I would kiss even the feet though else I perfectly despise the tongue of Calumny would they be which yet they never durst be the bearers to me of the least proof to the contrary also of learned Cranford true-hearted Taylor victorious Vines laborious and upright Jackson richly adorned Drake who knew every thing better than his own rare accomplishments Marshal that Master in the art of preaching Burroughs another great ornament of the Pulpit judicious and painful Caryl that great Pattern of industry and sanctity Doctor Wilkinson and now lastly the profound Doctor Seaman When I say I recall the memories of these now blessed Worthies I am ready to say Lord why do I long no more to get among them and yet what are these to Jesus Christ for drawing out my affection and longings for Heaven in whom are centred all the excellencies of these and of all those millions of Saints that have been from the beginning of the world that now are or ever shall be and compared to him are no more than the faint and feeble flame of the smallest Candle to the Sun when shining forth in greatest glory and without whom Heaven it self with all its other furniture of Saints and Angels deckt with the most shining Attire of all their possible perfections would be but as a sheet of Cyphers without a figure and could entertain us only with pleasures in the notion and delights of meer Imagination 2. I shall shut up this Point concerning the decease of godly Ministers with but naming a second Use by way of Relief and Refreshment For 1. Though the Prophets of God do die yet the God of those Prophets never dies He is the living God and only hath immortality Though the Streams be dried up the Fountain hath a constant fulness out of which the faithful may draw all supplies of Grace and Comfort by a due improvement of the Promises and keeping up Communion with God who obligeth us indeed to the participation of the Ministry when we may enjoy it yet never tied himself from exhibiting to his people even in the driest Wilderness the sweetest and fountainous delights of special grace and goodness 2. Though the Propets die yet the Souls of the Prophets die not Their decease is the Exodus or departure of their Souls to God with whom they rest for ever after their short labours in this troublesome World The Jewel is laid up in a better state than when it was in the torn feeble Casket of their Bodies 3. Though the Prophets die yet in a sense the sons of the Prophets die not There shall be successively a Ministry and Ministers to the end of the World Christ hath promised to be with them and therefore certainly they shall be even to that period His Ordinances shall continue till the Lord come and therefore there shall be dispensers of them He will have an House always and therefore Stewards ever in it Let the Devil and Antichrist rage and puff never so furiously they shall never extinguish the light of the Ministry Could they have accomplisht that design it had been done above a thousand years ago 4. Though the Prophets die yet their memory dies not The fragrancy of their names like a precious Ointment breathes forth even after yea by the breaking the brittle boxes of their bodies Their heavenly Instructions or Writings or Examples at least live when they are dead And thus this eminent Servant of Christ dies not 5. Though the Prophets die yet their Prophesies do not die Though they pass away as a wind yet their words neither are but wind nor pass away as such Their word whereby they convert Souls dies not as to the effect thereof Grace in the Soul Their threatning words for sin die not The Prophets do they live for ever Zech. 1.5 But my words and my statutes which I commanded by my Servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your fathers The Word of God even in this sense may be said not to be bound namely to the abode of the Prophets upon Earth Threatned Sinners shall know by feeling the Truth threatned that they have had a Prophet among them 3. In the third and last place we considered these words After my decease as intending the season designed by Peter for benefiting the Church and that was after his decease And from this my third and last Observatian is It is the Duty of the servants of God especially Ministers to endeavour that they may savingly benefit others even after their deaths The things that thou hast heard of me commit
to faithful men saith Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.2 Upon which words Reverend Calvin well notes Here the Apostle shews Quantum sit solicitus de propaganda sana doctrina ad posteros His sollicitousness to propagate sound Doctrine to Posterity and that the Servant of Christ must not only quamdiu vivit while he lives labour to preserve the purity of Doctrine sed quam longissime ejus cura studiam se extendere poterit as far as ever his care and study should be able to extend The like some Learned men have observed upon 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment without spot and unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ No faithful Servant of Christ is willing that the fruit of his Endowments or Employments should die with him but that they may live when he is dead for the furthering your Salvation that Instructions may abide with you to inform you Exhortations to quicken you Examples if holy to be imitated by you his sufferings for the Truth to strengthen and confirm you in the Truth thereby sealed And this is their Duty First That thereby they may keep up the name of God and promote his glory in the World This we should desire may be done after our death yea by it It was excellent Counsel of Luther Disce mori ut vivat Christi gloria Learn to die that the glory of Christ may live If Christ may increase by or after our decrease our very diminution should be our Option whatever makes Christ great should please us The end of living or dying is Gods glory if living or dying we are the Lords our living and dying should be to the Lord we should serve our generation that the generations after us may serve him 2. Hereby the Servants of God best provide for their own names 'T is this that makes our names to be a sweet Perfume to Posterity and gives them as much of Eternity as in this World they are capable of obtaining The rotting of the name is a wicked mans Curse and the preservation of our memories by doing good is both a Duty and a Blessing As an useless unserviceable person is dead while he lives so service is that that makes us live when we are dead and makes the places where we lived like the Civet-box when the Civet is taken out of it to savour of our holy Endeavours when we our selves are gone from and out of them 3. Thirdly Love to Souls makes this a Duty Regard to these must be lengthened beyond the length of our lives A Servant of Christ must do good to as many as he can 'T is both his duty and disposition Paul tells us the design of all his condescensions was that he might gain the more 1 Cor. 9.19 No godly man needs or wishes to make a Monopoly of Heaven Every Saint loves Company to Glory he loves to be saved surely but not solitarily 'T is this that should be the great motive to writing to benefit others after our decease The Pen hath as one speaks the greatest Auditories and the advantage of levening Posterity with Holiness and it hath given the deepest wounds to Antichrist and been the best Antidote against Heresies 'T is a holy Covetousness to crave the saving of many both while we live and after death Besides this is a kind of countermining of Satan who after the death of able Instruments labours most to pervert the Truth and to subvert Souls After my departure saith Paul Acts 20.29 grievous Wolves shall enter in among you not sparing the flock 4. Fourthly The best in their life-time have done too little for the good of Souls How small is the number of those we have brought to Heaven compared with those that for ought we know we have undone for ever by our sinful Examples and other encouragements to sin There may be several that shall be saved who have occasioned the damnation of others by their sinful and scandalous carriages The colder the Winter hath been the hotter say some the Summer is like to be so the more benummed and frozen our endeavours for saving of Souls have been formerly the hotter should our Divine Zeal be afterwards to save them Never did a bad man do more against Christ than Paul did before his Conversion but never did a good man do more for him than Paul did afterwards I would to God saith he that all that hear me were such as I am As much as in me is Rom. 1.15 I will preach the Gospel I will gladly spend and be spent 2 Cor. 12.15 The grace of God was exceeding abundant in that faith and love 1 Tim. 1.14 which answered the former to his infidelity the latter to his persecution 5. Fifthly The reward that godly men and Prophets expect is Everlasting It shall last longer than their longest usefulness can do their Crown shall never fade away Why then should their helpfulness to Souls be short upon earth since their happiness in Heaven shall be perpetual And 't is the opinion of some That the Saints in Heaven have an addition made to their happiness there by the Conversion of every Soul that is converted by their means after their departure 6. Lastly In some regards they may do good to Souls after their decease with less disadvantage than they could while living upon earth for while here they lived their bodily presence and speech was weak and contemptible their outward man their constant familiar Converse with a people made them the more neglected But these hinderances after death are removed people then being ready to entertain more honourable thoughts of them than when they lived Every advantage for doing good should be embraced The higher thoughts any have of us the higher thoughts we should labour that thereby they may have of Christ Paul his bodily presence was despicable but how greatly have his labours benefited Posterity 1. For the Use of this Point 1. Heinous is the impiety of those who so live that they do more hurt to Souls after their death than ever they did while they lived whose practical immoralities and heretical opinions being transmitted to posterity prove its bane and poyson I might instance in Arrius Pelagius Socinus Arminius and other Innovators who by their Writings have perverted more since they left the world than ever they did by their tongues while they were in it and what rebuke I give to Heterodox Writings is as due to those Heterodox by some so called Practices of impiety wherewith men are destructive to those who follow their Examples in after-ages Our practices while we live should be so holy and exemplary that when we dye we may not be asham'd to say we desire that after our decease these things may be remembred Who ever heard of any impure Sensualist or any infamous for immoralities to be so senslesly impudent as to say Let posterity have these things always in remembrance for by the same reason that they desire to hide their impieties
in secrecy while they live they will wish to bury them in Oblivion when they are dead 2. If it were the duty of the now deceased Saints while here they continued with us to endeavour the spiritual welfare of those they left behind them by what they were and did 't is doubtless our duty who are Survivers to recall and recollect the Excellent accomplishments and performances of those deceased Saints we cannot be benefited by them if we be not mindful of them nor will their worth be imitated by us if it be not remembred by us nor shall we bless God the father of lights and the giver of every good and perfect gift for giving gifts and Graces to men unless we acknowledg their gifts and Graces nor do we duly encourage our selves or others to endeavour the welfare of Posterity if we observe not the honour that Usefulness hath reflected upon those that went before us And we are wanting in our respect to the memory of deceased Saints if we bury their Names with their Bodies it being as true a duty to preserve the former as to interr the latter ANd the due resentment of this true yea important duty engageth me to present you with a glimpse of those excellent endowments and performances that richly adorned the Soul and Conversation of this famous and worthy Servant of Christ Doctor Lazarus Seaman Of these in some respects I am as fit as most to speak because of my intimate acquaintance with him though in other regards I may possibly be deemed the unfittest of any because the known affection that was between us may seem to make me partial which yet I shall not be in commending him above his worth and desert This man of God as he seemed to some to resemble that great Prophet Elijah in his life-time who was an austere man and subject to passions for else he had not been a man and natural sweetness never saved nor did its defect ever damn any Saint so did he truly resemble him in his departure he having in his ascent let fall his Mantle Oh that some Elisha might take it up and succeed him with a double portion of his Spirit his Mantle I say that I mean of his sweet memorial he hath let fall among us and that so richly perfumed that it must a little though but a little while perfume the Pulpit where now I stand and the place where now I Preach I shall therefore view and present the excellent endowments and great worth of this deceased Servant of Christ as they are considerable in sundry of those his Capacities in which while living and dying he was concerned And First I shall consider him as concerned in the Theological School And here I am not a little afraid to enter into so large a field lest I should therein lose both my self and you and indeed so I should if I design'd to expatiate upon the whole field of his Scholastical worth a task to me impossible and not rather to walk in the known and beaten path of his ordinarily-understood abilities He was a Person of a most deep piercing and eagle-ey'd Judgment in all points of Controversal Divinity He had few Equals if any Superiors in ability to decide and determine a dark and doubtful Controversie He could state a Theological question with admirable clearness and acuteness and knew how in a Controversie to cleave as we say an hair Nor was he less able to defend than to finde out the truth He was I had almost said an invincible Disputant his Conquests were as many as were his Contentions with any adversaries of the truth and so conspicuous were his abilities herein that he sometimes disheartned Opposers in their very entrance into the lists of Disputation with him As a taste hereof I shall present you with this instance There was a Noble Family the Governess whereof a Right Honorable Lady being often solicited by some Romish Priests to embrace their false Religion It was thought fit that before there should be a consent to such a Solicitation some Learned Protestant Divine should be desired to Dispute some points of Popish Controversies with the Romish Priests in the presence of the Lord and Lady for their further satisfaction in Religion A Friend of the Lady advised her to make choice of Mr. Seaman for this agitation was long before he proceeded Doctor who undertakes the conflict with the Priests The meeting for Disputation being agreed upon Mr. Seaman and two Popish Priests the ablest that could be found came to the Nobleman's House where being met Mr. Seaman too soon discovering his Learning and Abilities having used all the means imaginable to engage them in a Disputation first by stating the Question the wary Seducers who like the first of their Order that made his onset upon the Woman delight only to go over where the hedg is lowest or like the Philistims to fight when there are no Swords in Israel these Priests I say perceiving the great abilities of their Antagonist and conscious either of their own or of the weakness of their Cause or as 't is most probable of both after all endeavours and provocations that in Civility could be used declined the question which was about Transubstantiation and would never be brought so much as to the stating of it much less to endure the shock of an Argument but shamefully quitted the field and durst never either give or take the stroke of a formed Syllogism They who were Popishly inclined hereupon stood amazed to see the Cowardliness of their Champions and ever after 't is thought grew cooler in their affections to Popery till at length they grew hot as still they are against it Did I desire to enlarge upon this head of Doctor Seaman's abilities in Polemical Divinity I might instance in that his Learned Performance the Divinity-Act which he kept in the University of Cambridg when he proceeded Doctor This Degree he took by performing his Exercises appointed by the Statutes of the University the obtaining that Degree by the favour of Majesty the fountain of Honour being termed by Bishop Brownrig the English wonder for Wit and Learning rather the receiving a kind of dubbing or Knighthood than a taking the Degree of a Doctor of Divinity though I interpose not my thoughts in the least herein as not knowing the important Reasons that have induced all men to this manner of proceeding And so Learnedly did he defend his Position that was the subject of Disputation in that Act that he repelled all the Arguments brought against it with great strength and dexterity in his answers And by occasion of my mentioning that his Divinity-Act I shall only signifie That the design of his Position which therein he maintained was to assert the Providence of God in disposing of Political Governments a Point till that time little studied and not so well understood though since that time several have received light therein from this burning and shining light 2. I