many as receive they become the sons of God as being born 2 Cor. 4.16 not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh but of God And this also is that inward man of which Paul professes that though the outward perish is yet in the true Saints of God renewed day by day Wherefore he that is arrived to this Substantiality of life will be fixt in all useful Divine Truths and the Reasons that grow on such a Root will be found solid and permanent by him that has the Root but where they are merely verbal and imaginarie and float onely in the Brain the Heart being animal and brutish they may easily prove very weak fugitive and vanishing Not that they are so in themselves but may appear so to those who have onely the Picture of the Flower in their Brain not the Root in their Heart in which is the Pavilion of Life and inmost Tabernacle of God in the Soul He that lives in this dispensation of life O Hylobares can never be dissettled in his thoughts touching the Existence of God and his Providence or the Immortality of the Soul For he cannot be prone to suspect the Soul's capacity of living separate from the Body whiles he perceives her to live at that distance and defiance with the Body already while she is in it nor at all doubt of the Existence of God whose power spirit impulse and energie he so distinctly perceives in his own Soul For such is the nature of the Divine Life that none that feels it but must confess it not to belong to any creature as such but to be the very Power and Spirit of God actuating the Soul How can he then doubt of Him whose power and presence he so sensibly feels Wherefore this Dispensation of Life Hylobares is all in all to him that desires to philosophize with steddiness and solidity Hyl. These are great and magnificent things which you declare O Philotheus but yet such as seem to me neither incredible nor unimitable And therefore God willing I shall endeavour as well as I can to steer my course according to the Rules you have intimated and make it my main scope to attain to that state which you call the Dispensation of Life For I see all is very vain and shadowy without it But in the mean time I must crave pardon of Philopolis that I have occasioned Philotheus to mis-spend so much of that time that he thought too little for his own design and for the present purpose in hand Philop. Philotheus speaks so favourly and edifyingly of every subject he is put upon that it is ever pitty to interrupt him But sith he has now desisted of himself if he please at length to enter upon the Subject I first of all propounded it will very much gratifie my desires Hyl. It is therefore now Philopolis very seasonable to propound your Quere's to him Philop. My First Quere V Philopolis his Quere's touching the Kingdome of God O Philotheus was What the Kingdome of God is the Second When it began and where it has been or is now to be found the Third What progress it has hitherto made in the world the Fourth and last What success it is likely to have to the end of all things These are the Quere's Philotheus which I at first propounded concerning which if you please to instruct us plainly and intelligibly though not so accurately and scholastically we shall think our selves eternally obliged to you for your pains Philoth. I shall doe my best I can to serve you herein Philopolis and that as briefly and perspicuously as I can with all plainness of speech and without any affectation of Scholastick Scrupulosities being desirous onely to be understood and to convince And the God of Heaven assist us in this our discourse of his heavenly Kingdome that we may so understand the Mysteries of it as that we may faithfully endeavour the promoting the Interest thereof both in our selves and in all men to the Glory of God and Salvation of the World Amen Philop. Amen I pray God Philoth. VI What the Kingdome of God is in the general Nation thereof with a defence of the truth of the Nation Your first Quere O Philopolis though it be very short yet is exceeding comprehensive and by reason of the multisarious signification of the terms involves much matter in it at once which yet I shall endeavour to comprise and take in as well as I can by this brief Definition of the Kingdome of God in general The Kingdome of God is the Power of God enjoyning exciting commissioning or permitting his creatures to act according to certain Laws which considering all circumstances or upon the compute of the whole are for the best Philop. I partly understand you Philotheus and conceive you intend such a Definition of the Kingdome of God as takes in the Kingdome of Nature also and respects those Laws whereby both the brute Animals are guided and the senseless Plants and dead Meteors and Elements according to the extent of your defence hitherto of Divine Providence running from the highest and most Intellectual Order of things even to those Material Beings which are framed and actuated by the Spirit of Nature or Seminal Soul of the World Sophr. Why that is no more then the Scripture it self will warrant him to doe Philopolis The Psalmist is very frequent in such expressions The Lord has prepared his throne in Heaven Psalm 103.19 21 22 and his Kingdome ruleth over all Bless ye the Lord all his Hosts ye Ministers of his that doe his pleasure Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion Bless the Lord O my Soul This in the 103. Psalm And in the 148. Psalm he makes all the several degrees of the Creation from Heaven to Earth from Angels to Brutes Plants and Meteors the Hosts of God and exhorts them all to praise the name of the Lord For he spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created he hath made them fast for ever and ever he hath given them a Law which shall not be broken And again in the 119. Psalm O Lord thy word endureth for ever in Heaven thy Truth also remaineth from one generation to another Thou hast laid the foundation of the Earth and it abideth they continue this day according to thy ordinance for all things serve thee Whence it is plain that the Dominion of God and his Kingdome reaches as far as the whole comprehension of the Creation Cuph. Why then in some places O Sophron the Kingdome of God will be coincident with the Kingdome of the Devil Bath Why Cuphophron what greater inconvenience is there in that then that the Kingdome of Nature and the Kingdome of God should be coincident which you seem not to gainsay Cuph. Methinks it sounds very odly and besides we may conceive a subordination betwixt the Kingdome of God and the Kingdome of Nature but the
the truest Grounds of the Certainty of Faith This is the common Protestant Doctrine and a great and undeniable Truth and will amount to the greatest Certainty desirable if the Spirit of Life and of God assist For that will seal all firm and close and shut out all Doubts and Waverings In the mean time even in mere Moral men but yet such as use their Sense and Reason rightly-circumstantiated in their Dijudications touching the truth of Holy Writ and Religion it is plain they are upon the truest Grounds of Faith they can goe or apply themselves to forasmuch as the Holy Writ is the truest and most certain Tradition and no Tradition to be discerned true but upon the Certainty of rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason as appears by the first Conclusion These Advertisements though something numerous are yet brief enough but very effectual I hope if strictly followed to make thee so wise as neither to impose upon thy self nor be imposed upon by others in matters of Religion and so Orthodox as to become neither Enthusiast nor Romanist but a true Catholick and Primitive Apostolick Christian THE END DIVINE HYMNS DIVINE HYMNS An HYMN Upon the Nativity of CHRIST THe Holy Son of God most High The Historicall Narration For love of Adam's lapsed Race Quit the sweet Pleasures of the Sky To bring us to that happy Place His Robes of Light he laid aside Which did his Majesty adorn And the frail state of Mortals tri'de In Humane Flesh and Figure born Down from above this Day-Star slid Himself in living Earth t' entomb And all his Heav'nly Glory hid In a pure lowly Virgin 's Womb. Whole Quires of Angels loudly sing The Mystery of his Sacred Birth And the blest News to Shepherds bring Filling their watchfull Souls with Mirth The Application to the Emprovement of Life The Son of God thus Man became That Men the sons of God might be And by their second Birth regain A likeness to His Deity Lord give us humble and pure mindes And fill us with thy Heav'nly Love That Christ thus in our Hearts enshrin'd We all may be born from above And being thus Regenerate Into a Life and Sense Divine We all Ungodliness may hate And to thy living Word encline That nourish'd by that Heav'nly Food To manly Stature we may grow And stedfastly pursue what 's good That all our high Descent may know Grant we thy Seed may never yield Our Souls to soil with any Blot But still stand Conquerours in the field To shew his Power who us begot That after this our Warfare's done And travails of a toilsome Stage We may in Heav'n with Christ thy Son Enjoy our promis'd Heritage Amen An HYMN Upon the Passion of CHRIST THe faithfull Shepherd from on high The Historicall Narration Came down to seek his strayed Sheep Which in this Earthly Dale did lie Of Grief and Death the Region deep Those Glories and those Ioys above 'T was much to quit for Sinners sake But yet behold far greater Love Such pains and toils to undertake An abject Life which all despise The Lord of Glory underwent And with the Wicked's worldly guize His righteous Soul for grief was rent His Innocence Contempt attends His Wisedome and his Wonders great Envy on these her poison spends And Pharisaick Rage their Threats At last their Malice boil'd so high As Witnesses false to suborn The Lord of Life to cause to die His Body first with Scourges torn With royal Robes in scorn th' him dight And with a wreath of Thorns him crown A Scepter-Reed in farther spight They adde unto his Purple Gown Then scoffingly they bend the knee And spit upon his Sacred Face And after hang him on a Tree Betwixt two Thieves for more Disgrace With Nails they pierc'd his Hands and Feet The Bloud thence trickled to the ground The Pangs of Death his Countenance sweet And lovely Eyes with Night confound Thus laden with our weight of Sin This spotless Lamb himself bemoans And while for us he Life doth win Quits his own Breath with deep-fetch'd Groans Affrighted Nature shrinketh back To see so direfull dismall sight The Earth doth quake the Mountains crack Th' abashed Sun withdraws his Light The Application to the Emprovement of Life Then can we Men so senseless be As not to melt in flowing Tears Who cause were of his Agonie Who suffer'd thus to cease our Fears To reconcile us to our God By this his precious Sacrifice And shield us from his wrathfull Rod Wherewith he Sinners doth chastise O wicked Sin to be abhorr'd That God's own Son thus forc'd to die O Love profound to be ador'd That found so potent Remedie O Love more strong then Pain and Death To be repaid by nought but Love Whereby we vow our Life and Breath Entire to serve our God above For who for shame durst now complain Of dolorous dying unto Sin While he recounts the hideous Pain His Saviour felt our Souls to win Or who can harbour Anger fell Envy revengefull Spight or Hate If he but once consider well Our Saviour lov'd at such a rate Wherefore Lord since thy Son most just His natural Life for us did spill Grant we our sinful Lives and Lusts May sacrifice unto his Will That to our selves we being dead Henceforth to him may wholly live Who us to free from Dangers dread Himself a Sacrifice did give Grant that the sense of so great Love Our Souls to him may firmly tie And forcibly us all may move To live in mutuall Amity That no pretence to Hate or Strife May rise from any Injurie Since thy dear Son the Lord of Life For love of us when Foes did die An HYMN Upon the Resurrection of CHRIST The Historicall Narration WHo 's this we see from Edom come With bloudy robes from Bosrah Town He whom false Jews to death did doom And Heav'n's fierce Anger had cast down His righteous Soul alone was fain Isa. 63.3 The Wine-press of God's Wrath to tread And all his Garments to distain And sprinkled Cloaths to die bloud-red 'Gainst Hell and Death he stoutly fought Who Captive held him for three days But straight he his own Freedome wrought And from the dead himself did raise The brazen Gates of Death he brake Triumphing over Sin and Hell And made th' Infernall Kingdomes quake With all that in those Shades do dwell His murthered Body he resum'd Maugre the Grave's close grasp and strife And all these Regions thence perfum'd With the sweet hopes of lasting Life O mighty Son of God most High The Application to the Emprovement of Life That conqueredst thus Hell Death and Sin Give us a glorious Victory Over our deadly Sins to win Go on and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. Iud. Flesh and bloud in the moral sense Edom still subdue And quite cut off his wicked Race And raise in us thine Image true Which sinfull * The old Adam Rom. 6.6 Edom doth
I perceive that it cannot proceed from any vain curiosity but from a sincere desire of entring into life and holiness The most effectual means in the general is intimated up and down in the Gospels by our Blessed Saviour As where he compares the Kingdome of Heaven to a Treasure hid in the field Matt. 13.44 45. and to a single Pearl of great price for which one sells all that he has to purchase it and where he tells us that the Kingdome of God suffers violence Matt. 11.12 and that the violent take it by force and again where he declares that he that lays his hand to the plough Luk. 9.62 and looketh back is not fit for the Kingdome of God and in like passages For all these signifie thus much to us That whosoever would acquire so excellent a state of the Soul as this which we call the Kingdome of God he must forthwith quit all things else whatsoever that stand in competition with it That he must with all imaginable earnestness of spirit and with a kind of holy violence reach at it and endeavour the taking of it through all dangers hardships and resistences whatsoever as he that would scale the walls of a City to obtain the Crown and lastly That this pursuit be without any intermissions or lazy relapses into the power of the World or the Flesh again but that it be peremptory constant and continued till we have wone the prize and finde all that fulfilled in us which we desired or expected which is the perfect subduing of all our corruptions and the establishing of the Reign of the true Melchizedek in us the living Righteousness of God and the replenishing of our hearts with purity peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Philop. This is excellently good in the general O Philotheus But have you no farther directions more particularly to recommend to us Philoth. Truth lies in a little room especially that of it that is most usefull O Philopolis And therefore I will trouble you with no farther instructions then what are comprized in these few Principles As first That we have a firm and unshaken Faith in the Power of God and in the assistence of the Spirit of the Lord Iesus for the subduing all Envy Pride Lust all Worldliness and Selfishness and what-ever is contrary to the Kingdome of God in us that we may have a comfortable conquest over these and all like corruptions through him that strengthens us This is the first necessary Principle we ought to be imbued with if we mean seriously to set our selves to the atchieving so great and weighty an enterprise This I say is the first necessary Principle namely A full and firm belief that the Atchievement is possible The second is That we believe it to be our duty to arrive to this blessed state and not to satisfie our selves with any condition on this side of it much less out of any Antinomian Sophistrie or Witchcraft to phansie our selves released from all obligation to any real and living Righteousness in us but to be entirely obedient to the voice of Wisedome and Truth Matt. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect and to remember that it was the end of Christ's coming into the world Matt. 15.13 to pluck up every plant that was not of his Father's planting and to raise such a seed upon earth as have neither spot nor wrinkle Ephes. 5.27 nor any such thing but are holy and without blemish If either of these two Principles be wanting the defect will be notorious in the success For who can with any courage attempt such difficulties as he thinks either impossible to be overmastered or not his duty to grapple with Wherefore being sound in these Philopolis he must adde Meditation Circumspection and Devotion Meditation in private especially Circumspection in his dealing with externall objects whether men or things that he be not carried away unawares against those rules and resolutions he made to himself in private but ever stand upon his guard and if he be assaulted with any temptation to call to Heaven for succour and to trust in the strength of God against the surprize Which I think is the true meaning of praying continually But in a more particular manner to adde to your private Meditation the fervency of Devotion and earnestly to beg of God that he would every day more and more discover to you the ugliness of Sin and the amiableness of Righteousness and that your hatred may be more keenly edged against the one and your love more highly inflamed towards the other that the work of the Heart may go on and not those umbratile skirmishes of the Brain in Phancie and exteriour Reason but that we may effectually feel the difference of the contrary actings of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light and the Kingdome of Darkness charging one another in the field Life against life and Substance against substance till Hell and Death be absorpt into victory and the evil Nature be quite consumed into a glorious flame of Love and Triumph These all are the Mysteries of the Heart O Philopolis not of the Head which in comparison is but an outward Shop of Phancies and fine Pictures but the transactions of substantial life and Reality are in that other part which is the secret Tabernacle of God and hidden Temple for most effectual Prayer For the Heart is the proper Pavilion of either the spirit of the World or the Spirit of God which kindles there the holy desire and thirst after Righteousness Which vehement sincere and cordial desire the true gift and fruit of the Spirit is the very soul and substance of Prayer and a certain Divine Magick that draws all the heavenly Powers into the centre of our Souls imbibing the comfortable dews of Paradise to the ineffable refreshing of the Garden of God Through this sluce is let in all the nourishment to the new Birth and it is the seat of the first living seed thereof Whence the Centre of our Soul in the Heart requires more diligent observation then that more peculiar one in the Head For though this seems more peculiarly ours yet the other joyns us with that which is more to us then we are to our selves whether it be the spirit of the world or of God and makes us feelingly communicate with Life and Substance whenas the other without this would onely lead us into a field of Shadows and Dreams Wherefore O Philopolis he that is a Candidate for the Kingdome of God let him above all things cultivate the Heart for through this onely is the Inlet into the Kingdome of Light Matt. 5.6 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied I stretch forth my hands unto thee Psalm 143.6 my Soul gaspeth unto thee as a thirsty Land where no water is Psalm 84.5 6
7. And again Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are thy ways Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a Well and the rain filleth the pools with water They go from strength to strength till every one of them appear before God in Sion By which is intimated that firm Faith and holy desire brings us at last to the fruition of God and his Kingdome To all which I need not adde for a conclusion the perpetuall and constant performance of what-ever we find our selves able and bound in duty to perform For he that has this Faith and sincere desire can never sin against the Power of God and the Dictates of his own Conscience This Philopolis is a brief but faithfull direction for the obtaining that great prize the Kingdome of God within us Philop. And I am infinitely obliged to you Philotheus for your hearty and serious Instructions in so important a Mysterie I hope they will never slip out of my mind Cuph. I am sure his Indoctrinations touching the Centre of the Soul in the Heart stick so fast in mine that I shall never forget them But I beseech you Philotheus what will become of that Centre of the Soul in the other state when we have left our Hearts behind us Philoth. It is much O Cuphophron that your Philosophy should scruple at this unless you be also at a loss what will become of the other Centre of the Soul because we leave our Brains behind us They retain the same offices still the one to joyn us with the Spirit of the World or else with the Spirit of God the other to be our common Percipient Philop. This is a Curiosity which I for my part took no notice of X The externall Kingdome of God properly so called what it is And I pray you Philotheus be no farther engaged in the point but proceed to the externall Kingdome of God and declare to us what it is Philoth. The External Kingdome of God amongst men is much-what the same in a larger acception of the word that the pure and true Church of God is Which is a body of such people as make profession of the onely true God the Maker and Creatour of all things and the Supervisour of all the affairs of the Vniverse a Punisher of offenders and a Rewarder of all those that seek him This profession of one God joyn'd with the pure worship of him devoid of all Idolatry and gross Superstition as also of all Cruelty and Barbarity and of all foul and unclean Customs but on the contrary it being a declared Law amongst them That they ought to love this one and onely true God with all their heart and all their Soul and their neighbour that is all mankinde as themselves and to deal with others as themselves would be dealt withall they in the mean time living in no opposition or defiance to any sufficiently-revealed Law of God This profession I say does constitute any Family Countrey Nation or Kingdome the Church of God or Kingdome of God In which description O Philopolis if you rest satisfied it will be easie according to the sense thereof to answer the first part of your second Quere namely When the Kingdome of God began Philop. I am not so curious as not to rest satisfied in this description XI When this Kingdome of God began O Philotheus and therefore I desire you to proceed to the second Quere Philoth. It is manifest therefore O Philopolis out of this description that the Kingdome of God began as timely as the first Family of the world and was continued in the succession of the Patriarchs before and after the Floud to Moses and through the Mosaick Polity which some in a more peculiar manner contend to be a Theocracy to the coming of Christ. Philop. But what shall we think in the mean time therefore of the ancient Philosophers which had nothing to doe with either the Patriarchs or Moses and yet believed One onely true God the Authour and Governour of the Universe and were singularly good and vertuous in their conversations were they any part of the Kingdome of God Philoth. That the Philosophers had nothing to doe with Moses and that their wisedome derived not it self from that fountain is more then I dare averr But if they were such as you describe for profession and life and communicated not with the Idolatries and pollutions of the Gentiles I should look upon them as very much a-kin to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dare not debarr them from being certain scattered Appendages to the Kingdome of God Philop. If you think so favourably of them Philotheus for my part I cannot be of so sour and severe a temper as to grudge them that honour In the mean while I am not onely satisfied touching the so timely commencement of the Kingdome of God or the Church but of the succession of it to the coming of Christ which answers to the second part of my second Quere Where it has been to be found since its beginning And truly that God had his Church so timely seems to be intimated by that timely Martyrdome begun in it in the Murther of Abel Matt. 23.35 from whose righteous bloud Christ seems to begin the Martyrology in his commination to that murtherous City the carnal Ierusalem Bath This is notably well observed of Philopolis O Philotheus and puts me in minde of something a dark passage in the Apocalypse which haply may receive light from hence namely Apoc. 13.8 there where it is said That all would worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that is à mundo condito Which passage I conceive alludes to the murthering of Abel it being so early an example of the wicked martyring the good And therefore by the Lamb is here understood according to the Prophetick style the whole succession of the holy ones or elect of God spotless in life and invincible in their patience no persecution being able to subdue their minds to evil or to make them violate their Consciences For there is no deceiving or overcoming the Elect whose Names are written in the Book of Life which Book is called the Book of the Lamb or of the Elect of God because their names are enrolled there and this Lamb said to be slain from the foundation of the world because the example of the wicked murthering the innocent and just began so early in Cain's murthering of his brother Abel But to understand by the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world the Lamb that was to be slain is so bold an abuse of all Grammar and Logick that I must confess till this consideration came into my minde the Text seemed to me to be of a desperate obscurity unless we should have taken the liberty to understand by this slaying of the Lamb in the ordinary sense that is
waters issuing out of the Sanctuarie in Ezek. 47.1 12. the form of a mighty River and of the Trees bringing forth fruit according to their months the fruit whereof should be for meat and the leaves for medicine Is not this perfectly answering to that River of Water of life Apoc. 22.1 2. clear as crystall proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb and to the Tree of life on either side of the River yielding her fruit every month whose leaves also are said to be for the healing of the Nations Philop. I must confess it is exceeding probable Philoth. Now they being one and the same Vision as to the Object of their Prediction the new Ierusalem and the River and the Trees being mystically to be understood Ezekiel's Vision also is to be mystically understood Philop. As for S t. Iohn's Vision methinks it is a marvellous childish conceit to expound it literally as if there should be a City made of diaphanous Gold the Wall of precious Stones and the Gates of Pearl Philoth. And yet methinks this is more marvellous That the City should be as a Cube Apoc. 21.16 as high as it is broad or long And yet it is so declared and twelve thousand furlongs is the Cubical measure thereof Philop. What then is the meaning of that passage I pray you Philotheus Philoth. I think two things are hinted thereby The one I have noted already That this City cannot be understood literally The other is what was intimated before by the names of the Apostles This solid Cube twelve thousand signifies that this City will be wholly and entirely Apostolicall in Life and Doctrine and Discipline The square Root also of the measure of the Wall 144 Cubits intimating the same Apostolicalness of Dispensation For the saying a hundred forty four Cubits is the measure of the Wall Apoc. 21.17 implies that it is 12 cubits high and 12 cubits broad nor could the intimation reach any farther speaking suitably to the nature of a City wall For what kinde of City must that be the compass of whose Wall is but 144 Cubits Philop. Some say Philotheus that the Root of that Cube you mentioned being extracted and so the Perimeter of this City S. Iohn describes discovered it is found to be the same in a manner with the Perimeter of that City Ezekiel describes Ezek. 48.35 What does that signifie think you Philoth. I know not what else it should signifie but that these two Visions aim at the same thing and that the meaning of that also in Ezekiel is spiritual and that those Prophetick Figures that strike the phancy and the flesh are to be fulfilled in the dispensation of the Spirit which the whole Iudaicall Oeconomy seals to as a Type to the thing typified And from hence is to be interpreted that sixth verse And he that sate on the Throne said It is done All is finished now Now we are come to the Dispensation of the Spirit all is fulfilled I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End I began with that Mosaicall Oeconomie which consists most-what in Figures and carnal Formalities which was in a manner revived again in an exteriour Christianity but this oldness of the Letter is to be done away and all shall be ended and accomplished in the dispensation of the Spirit and by the real Renovation of the humane nature into the new Creature the living Image of God according as it is written And he that sate on the Throne said Behold I make all things new These are the days in which the Lord has promised that he will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah Jer. 31.31 33 34 namely that he will put his Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts so that they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord For they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest Apoc. 22.4 For as S. Iohn saith they shall see his face and his Name shall be in their foreheads According as our Saviour has foretold Matt. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God All which denotes the Dispensation of the Spirit According as Ezekiel also witnesses of these Times Neither will I hide my face any more from them Ezek. 39.29 for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel saith the Lord. This therefore is the meaning of that passage in the sixth verse Apoc. 21.6 And I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of Life freely viz. I will freely communicate unto him the power of my Spirit According as Isay likewise has foretold Isa. 44.3 For I will pour water on him that is thirsty and flouds upon the dry ground and I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring Whence I should interpret the crystalline River S. Iohn mentions of externall Prosperity also Apoc. 22.1 the Joy and Peace and Security of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To all which you may adde that our Saviour compares the Spirit to living waters John 7.38 Philop. I remember it very well Philoth. And now for that last verse Philopolis I see little difficulty in it Abomination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it usully signifies an Idol And the sense I conceive is That all Idolaters and Impostours or Liars in any sense will be excluded the Holy City nothing being admitted there but Truth and Simplicity of Life onely those that are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. Philop. I what 's the meaning of that Philotheus Philoth. Onely the Elect of God Bath It is much that such an innumerable company of Souls should be all of the number of the Elect such as of whom it is said Jer. 1.5 I sanctified thee from the womb and knew thee before thou wast born Philoth. I call all Elect that upon the privilege of their new Birth or the retaining of the Divine Life have their names enrolled as Citizens of the new Ierusalem in the Book of Life of the Lamb. Philop. A sober Interpretation And now Philotheus I warrant you you think you have run through all the Particulars I proposed Philoth. Why have I omitted any of them Philopolis Philop. IX The Angel's measuring the City with a golden Reed what the meaning thereof Onely one but that a main one I think viz. Why the Angel is said to measure the City here with a golden Reed whenas S. Iohn is said to measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein simply with a Reed Philoth. This is well recovered Philopolis For it is in my apprehension a notable testimony of the transcendent condition of the new Ierusalem even above those Times of the Church which were accounted symmetral viz. the first four hundred years or
repugnant to humane Nature and Vertue and Righteousness so harmoniously agreeable thereunto For this Rectitude of spirit that belongs to the true Israel of God is the possession of so perfect Pleasure and Happiness that the Soul of man feels it to be her peculiar Satisfaction and that the state of Vice and Sin is a state of Diseasement and Unnaturalness not onely plainly and demonstratively repugnant to right Reason but most hideously and harshly grating against that inmost and most Divine and delicious sense of the Soul which is the Repullulation of the pure Love and is the Excitation of the Life of God in the humane Nature whereby we have a natural delight in all the ways of Goodness Purity and Righteousness This is the natural Sanity of the Soul the contrary her Disease this her state of Sobriety the other a mere fit of Drunkenness And therefore methinks the World should not continue in it for ever but that even the Misery and Confusion of this drunken state should forcibly awaken them at length to follow Peace and Righteousness Which time methinks the Prophet Isay may seem to point at Isa. 24.18 c. where he saith The windows from on high are opened and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolved the Earth is moved exceedingly The Earth shall move to and fro like a Drunkard and shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the Host of the high ones that are on high and the Kings of the Earth upon the Earth This I conceive Philopolis is under the effusion of the last Vial. Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Sion and in Ierusalem and before his Ancients gloriously that is to say Apoc. 4.4 in the new Ierusalem before the four and twenty Elders in white Raiment and with golden Crowns on their heads And in this Confusion the Earth will be not onely upon the account of their Wickedness but Ignorance also and gross Errours in Religion For mankinde are held down in these things by an hard violence to their own Reason and Nature as well in Popery as Turcism and Paganism those Religions being not onely groundless but foolishly fabulous and contradictious to all sound Reason But when the windows from on high shall be opened upon them and the heavenly Grace and Truth showred down and the pure Light of the Gospel let in upon them the Foundations of the Earth shall shake under them and they will finde the falseness and unstableness of the Fundamental Frauds and Lies of men which shall utterly perish and all those that cleave to them This therefore Philopolis by way of Prudence and Sagacity may be presumed That those days having shone upon us that Daniel has foretold when many shall run to and fro Dan. 12.4 and Knowledge shall be increased this liberty of searching after Truth and the success of finding it will contribute very much to the ruine and subversion of those stately Structures of Lies which Superstition or false Policy has so magnificently built up and would have all men to bow to as to the golden Image Nebuchadnezzar had set up But that Illustrious Heros on the white Horse Apoc. 19.11 13. the Word of God and right Reason will trample this Image under foot And the meaning of the Scripture even in the Propheticall passages thereof will be so plainly understood against Turcism Papism Paganism and Iudaism or what-ever Religion in the world or Irreligion even against Atheism it self that I am persuaded this very Advantage alone will be of infinite consequence for the converting of Souls to Christ. There will be such an assured sense of all the Visions of the Apocalypse besides those of Daniel that this one peculiar Privilege of Christianity in having the whole Scene of Divine Providence and of all the Affairs of the Church of God and indeed of all the World so far forth as they respect the Church so lively set off and prefigured for so many hundreds of years nay for some thousands this I say alone must of necessity drive all the world to a firm belief that Iesus is the Messiah the Saviour of the World and that there is a God whose Providence watches over the Affairs of mankinde and that there is a Life to come and a blessed Immortality for all true Believers I tell you succinctly Philopolis the clear Completion of so many so weighty Prophecies and so many hundred years distant from the Event seems to me to be a more convictive ground of the truth of Christianity then all the Miracles done by Christ and his Apostles to those that liv'd in those days especially to as many as did not see them themselves and observe the Circumstances of them Philop. This is very considerable that you say Philotheus and I should be absolutely of your minde could I persuade my self that the Prophecies would be so vulgarly and universally understood by Christians For this skill added to Sobriety of Life and a sincere Zeal for the Gospel would be a marvellous Engine in their hand to bear down all before them and subdue all Nations under the feet of the Lord Christ. Philoth. Do not doubt of that Philopolis Wisedome is easie to him that understands Pro. 14.6 And the times are coming and will be at hand before the pouring out of the last Vial wherein the understanding of the Divine Prophecies touching the Affairs of the Church will be as common and ordinary as of the Childrens Catechism The ways of God and the faithfulness of his Providence corresponding to the Divine Predictions or Prophecies will be known to all from the greatest to the least And it will be an easier task to their Capacities then many of those things that have been heretofore Catechistically put upon them XV That there is no fear that either Familism or Behmenism will supplant the expected glory of the Apostolick Church Sophr. This Conjecture of yours Philotheus in my judgement is not at all extravagant as to the unhinging of the World from the false Religions they have been so long held captive under But when I have been thinking with my self on these things I have been often cast into a fear that the pure Apostolick Christianity may not then take place for all that but some other mode of Christianity which some pretend to be the Reign of the Spirit but is as errant a Nulling of that Christianity which was taught by the Apostles as that Christianity was of Iudaism if not more or as Mahometism is of both Euist. I believe Sophron has in his eye the Love-service of the Modern Nicolaitans with their more visible Off-spring the Quakers For indeed their Prophet in his Prophecy of
the spirit of Love does expresly promise his Followers the possession of the whole Earth that all Nations will submit unto them For though they will admit that the Service of Christ in the Belief is the Holy of the true Tabernacle yet they boast that the Holy of Holies is their Service of the Love which therefore ought to take place above all Bath In my judgement Euistor this fear of Sophron's is but a groundless fear For besides the many gross impossible and ridiculous Interpretations of Scripture upon which notwithstanding this Prophet would build himself the obvious Evidence from his Writings that he was a mere Sadducee and held neither Angel nor Spirit nor the Immortality of the Soul is a palpable assurance that in so great a Light as God has and is raising in the World this man's Dictates and Doctrines will never pass into any National Religion but it will appear to all that he was a mistaken Enthusiast Methinks it is infinitely more improbable that the World should take him for a true Prophet then that the plain Apostolicall Faith and Doctrine which has such convincing and miraculous Attestations to it and is so suitable to moral Goodness and Reason should not overrun all Euist. This gross Errour of Sadducism might indeed disenable this Prophet from doing any great injurie to the Personal Offices of Christ which he seems to undermine and beat down But the Reign of the Spirit in opposition to the personal Sceptre of the Lord Iesus has fallen into more refined hands that do expresly acknowledge the Immortality of the Soul and consequently the present Subsistency of Christ and his Personality and yet are altogether for the Spirit and Christ within them as if that part of Christianity that respects Christ without us were quite antiquated You know whose Motto that was Our Salvation in the life of Iesus Christ in us Bath Yes I do Euistor It was the Teutonick Philosopher's And do not you know who said That the Mystery hid from Ages and from Generations but then made manifest to the Saints was Christ in us the hope of glory Euist. You say true Bathynous S. Paul writes so to the Colossians Col. 1.26 Bath And therefore Euistor it was Iesus the Son of Mary with his Apostles that first conducted men into the Holy of Holies not H. Nicolas nor I. Behmen Sophr. A very pertinent Observation Bath But admit that I. Behmen drives all inward in his Writings as if he had forgot that Christ without him who suffered at Ierusalem whom yet I am sure he did not forget on his death-bed when he cried out Thou crucified Lord Iesus have mercy on me and take me into thy Kingdome and withall that he has healed Familism of that unsoundness and rottenness of corrupt Sadducism yet for all that the invincible Obscurity of his Writings will prevent his being over-popular and his mistakes in his pretended Inspirations in matters of Philosophy ruine his Authority amongst the more knowing and sagacious sort of persons In a Philosophicall Age they that pretend to Philosophicall Inspirations and have them not must needs be taken tripping Which if they be in any thing their credit falls flat in all and nothing will be believed merely for their saying it is true and inspired Euist. If this were indeed the Teutonick's case there were very little fear of his doing any great harm in that way Sophron's Jealousies did so sadly presage Sophr. It 's likely Bathynous would not speak thus unless he had some certain grounds for it I pray you what are they Bathynous Bath Do not you think XVI J. Behmen 's marvellous pretense to the knowledge of the Language of Nature O Sophron that it is a superlative strain of Melancholy for a man to conceit that he has the knowledge of the Language of Nature communicated to him Sophr. I suppose the skill of the Signatures of Plants and the Presages of Meteors and other such like Phaenomena of Nature Bath No to tell you syllabatim in the words of any Language what they naturally signifie As suppose he would take the word Tetragrammaton to task he would tell you what all the Syllables signifie from Te to Ton. Sophr. That 's marvellous pretty that even the Terminations of words should have their signification also Bath Nay the very Letters as in Tincture and others Sophr. This decides that ancient Controversie amongst Philosophers whether the Imposition of Names be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. Gell. Noct. Attic lib. 10. cap. 4. Bath Well Sophron you may jest at it as you please But this Philosophick Illumination has taught the Teutonick that the Names of the seven Planets are plainly derived out of the Language of Nature Sophr. Does he mean the Latin Greek or Hebrew Names or Dutch or French or Spanish Bath I suppose he either means all or high-Dutch onely as being his natural Tongue in which alone he was skilled Sophr. It was a great omission that he did not explain himself in that point But I pray you Bathynous why does he think that the Ancients gave Names to the seven Planets from the Language of Nature Bath Because their Names are according to the Properties of Nature viz. Astriction Compunction Anguish Fire Light Sound Body which answer to Saturn Mercury Mars Sol Venus Iupiter Luna Sophr. These are Mysteries above my capacity Nor do I see how the Names of the Planets signifie those Qualities But what does he drive at Bathynous Bath At a Philosophicall account of every Day 's Creation with a respect to the Name of the Day from the Planet which is said to rule the first Hour thereof and which corresponds with such a property of Nature As for example The Ancients called the first day of the week Sunday because God then moved the Sun-property in the Creation the second day Monday because he moved the Moon-property c. And thus the Explication of the six Days-works in Moses is made upon the Astrologicall Names of the Days of the Week Sophr. Is it possible Bathynous I had alwaies thought that the Planetary Names of the Days of the Week had proceeded from the orderly reckoning of the Planets from Saturn downward and so giving every one of them the dominion of an hour one after another through the four and twenty every first hour of the day will have a new Planet and that necessarily in such an order as the Names of the Days of the Week import As suppose let Saturn have the first hour of the Day From Saturn to Luna thrice inclusively there is twenty one hours Then say Saturn twenty two Iupiter twenty three Mars twenty four the next hour which is the first of the day following is Sol. Then again from Sol to Mars thrice is twenty one Then say Sol twenty two Venus twenty three Mercurie twenty four and the next hour which is the first of the day following is Luna And so quite
this cause God shall send him strong delusions that he shall believe a Lie that he may be damned for not believing the Truth but having pleasure in Vnrighteousness And I hope very few will venture upon those Pikes This Doctrine can hardly fright any away but such as have an explicite minde and purpose fully to plunge themselves into the filth of sin But what a vast company has broke from the Reformed Churches into private Sects upon pretence that their Doctrine tends not sufficiently to Perfection can be hid from no man's eyes that looks never so little into the World So far is this Doctrine from being against the Interest of Reformed Christendome To all which you may adde that it need not be imposed as an Article but allowed In the mean time that general Languour and Remissness in all Duties of Life or rather that universal Deluge of open Lewdness and wickedness which for ought I know has broken in upon us for want of such Doctrines as would more effectually engage us in all Holiness of Conversation is by far a more formidable Dis-interest to the Reformed Churches then the Profession or Permission of this Doctrine we speak of any way can be For Providence has no obligation to continue their Religion to those be it never so true who have no more Conscience then to hold the Truth of God in unrighteousness Sophr. Nay your Answer I must confess Philotheus is very home and pertinent Philop. And so think I too and am hitherto which I must acknowledge with many thanks to you Philotheus very competently satisfied and therefore am the more unwilling to urge you any farther in any more Particulars touching these Heads feeding my self with hopes of future Conference from your own comfortable Intimation But however I cannot but give you the trouble of passing to the last Point XXXVI Of the Duration of the glorious Times of the Church to gratifie my Curiosity touching the Duration and Permanency of this excellent state of the Church and of describing to me in what order and distinctness things will proceed to the end of all Philoth. This is an hard Probleme Philopolis as well as curious the second part especially For touching the Duration or Permanency of the Church in that glorious Condition the holy Oracles plainly intimate it will be for a thousand years Apoc. 20.3 though I do not think it necessarie to understand that expression as if it should continue no longer For the meaning of that number may be symbolicall But for the order and distinctness of the proceeding of Affairs to the end of the World this a man cannot well know unless he understood the Synchronalls to the seven Thunders into which the last Trumpet is so distinctly distributed Apoc. 10.3 Which I must confess Philopolis was ever out of my reach till I fortunately fell into acquaintance with one Theomanes a very good man XXXVII The Character of Theomanes and most passionate well-willer to the Affairs of the Kingdome of God Cuph. That 's a peculiar Privilege of yours Philotheus to be so intimately acquainted with Theomanes For my part I have often courted him with the best skill and diligence I could but could never yet get into any familiarity with him Sophr. And I think in my heart never will do so long as your name is Cuphophron Philop. I pray you Philotheus what is this Theomanes for a man and what did he impart to you touching the seven Thunders Philoth. I gave you part of his Character already And if you do not yet understand me Philopolis I adde farther That he is a man wholly devoted to the Knowledge of his Maker from his very youth and quitted the World almost as soon as he was born into it having never any design upon any thing that the World is so mad after neither Honour nor Power nor Riches nor carnal Pleasures but his mind has been wholly set to search out true Knowledge in the Light of the Simplicity of Life in which quitting all Self-relishes he became an entire Servant of God and of the Lord Iesus Christ and a faithfull Minister of his Kingdome Philop. You give the Character of an excellent person But what did he impart to you Philotheus Philoth. The Vision of the seven Thunders if I may so call it for brevity sake But his meaning is the Vision of things synchronall to the seven Thunders Philop. You will infinitely oblige me if you please to communicate them unto us O Philotheus But is he not a man something Enthusiasticall or Fanaticall Philoth. The greatest Fanaticism that I know in him is this That he professes he understands clearly the truth of severall Prophecies of the mainest concernment which yet many others pretend to be very obscure whether he will or no. But he is so far from being Enthusiasticall or Fanaticall that whereas Enthusiasm is a false Surmise of a man's self that he is inspired when indeed he is not he on the contrary does disclaim his being at any time inspired though a man would think sometimes that he is But he imputes all to the Light of the Simplicity of Life the greatest Gift of God that is communicable to the Soul Neither does he boast that this Vision of the seven Thunders is any over-bearing Inspiration though it was the most involuntary thing that ever happened to him perfectly awake Philop. I pray you therefore tell us in what Circumstances it happened to Theomanes For I believe he would conceal nothing from you by reason of your Intimacy with him Philoth. Time will not permit to make any long Story of it The Circumstances therefore in brief are these Upon a time after he had much worn away and exhausted his spirits by a long and serious study in the Divine Oracles he thinking to take a long and leisurely walk into the fields to recruit his Strength by the open fresh air and to let his Mind be perfectly vacant for the relief of his Body of a sudden in the midst of the fields this Vision of the seven Thunders surprised him without his desire or expectation which took fast hold on his Mind and Phancy insomuch that he could not be quiet for the working thereof though it made him so weak that he could scarce go on his legs till he had committed the same to writing Philop. This is something extraordinary Have you a Copy of it Philotheus For the Narration of such things ought to be very accurate Philoth. I have a Copy of it both in my Pocket and in my Memory it has left so strong an Impress upon my minde But I believe you will think it most safe if I reade the Copy for it is yet light enough and I brought it on purpose foreseeing the need thereof in this day's Discourse Philop. I pray you Philotheus reade it to us Cuph. There are ordinarily Politicall and Philosophicall Gazetts but it is our Privilege it seems to have a Propheticall one
rest of the Army of the great King with such splendour and luster as is ineffable their Mouths also being filled with Songs of Victory and their Ears with the Echo of their own Melodie For the Air was miraculously tuned into Musicall Accents to their Divine Ditties as if some invisible hand had play'd upon the Concave of the Heavens as upon some well-strung Harpsicall or Theorbo So that my Soul was so enravished with the sight and with the Musick that my Heart melted mine Eyes flowed over with tears and my Spirits failed within me for very excess of Joy Philop. Certainly Theomanes was in a very great Rapture when he was thus affected Philoth. And he was thus really affected Philopolis as he told me and I dare believe him for he is a man of the greatest Simplicity imaginable Philop. But I have interrupted you again Philotheus before I was aware I pray you go on Philoth. But part of this pleasure was quickly intercepted by a sudden overcasting of the Heavens as it were with an universal thick Cloud of a rusty hue But I heard the Musick still whereby I might discern the motions of that Triumphal Pomp. But a more dreadfull noise presently put an end to that Rapture also For this Cloud of Night broke into a Chasm near the celestial Army which was instantly filled with a most glorious Light and through that lucid passage I heard a mighty voice like the sound of a Trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the First and the Last the Beginner and Continuer and Ender of Ages I am he that lived and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore and have the Keys of Hell and Death Whereupon the Chasm closed again and the Souls of the forsaken were filled with horrour For they presently expected the execution of that dreadful Sentence Matt. 25.41 Go ye accursed into everlasting Fire And indeed after some pause and silence wherein I again heard that Heavenly Melodie but a little farther off that Triumphant Company ascending higher and higher through the bright azure fields of peacefull Bliss the arched roof of this hollow Dungeon seemed all on fire with cross Flashings and Lightenings running all over Which had no sooner ceased but the seventh Thunder uttered its voice which was accompanied with a rowling and tearing noise every way over the whole Sky Whereupon the Clouds set a-raining one continuall sad and direful showr of Fire and Brimstone upon this forlorn Crew till the whole Earth became but as one round Lake or Pond of burning Sulphur Apoc. 20.15 And whosoever had not his name found in the Book of Life his portion was in this Lake of fire burning with Brimstone Apoc. 21.8 which is the second Death This is Theomanes his Vision O Philopolis of the seven Thunders Which contains in it the most distinct order and succession of Affairs in the Church from the beginning of the seventh Trumpet to the end of all things that I ever met with I must confess the Distinctions are but general but if I had had any thing more precise and particular that great sincerity and nobleness of spirit and hearty love and zeal for the Interest of the Kingdome of God which I persuade my self I discern in you would have obliged me to have imparted it to you with a very good will Philop. I give you many thanks Philotheus for your good opinion and bountiful intention But what you have imparted is more then I could merit or hope to obtain from any other hand and such as I must acknowledge my self competently well satisfied with as having some guess what every one of those Thunders mean but should be better confirmed in my apprehensions thereof if you would briefly communicate your thoughts of them Philoth. That I shall doe XXXIX A brief Explication of Theomanes his Vision and very briefly O Philopolis These seven Things therefore are orderly contained in the seven Spaces of the seven Thunders In the first the Effusion of the seven Vials In the second The settling or establishing of the Church into the State of the new Ierusalem come down from Heaven In the third That more full and universal Reign of Christ called the blessed Millennium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in a more proper and eminent sense In the fourth The loosing of Satan or the visible vergency of the World to another Degeneracy or Apostasie from the Kingdome of Christ. In the fifth An Attempt of the apostatized part of the World to get the Dominion again over the Godly and the danger of the Wicked's again captivating the Iust. In the sixth The visible appearance of Christ in the last Judgement wherein he gives Sentence upon both the bad and the good In the seventh and last The Execution of this Sentence the Godly and sincere Believers ascending with the holy Angels towards their Heavenly Inheritance prepared for them while Hypocrites and Unbelievers are tumbling with the Devils in the Lake of Brimstone burning with Fire Philop. I thought there was some such meaning of this Vision and plainly see through the Symbols and Iconisms of it that there is nothing contained in it that is at all dangerous or Heterodox But the manner of his being affected in his receiving these orderly-ranged Truths seems to me something extraordinary Does not Theomanes highly relish such a peculiarity of Dispensation O Philotheus Philoth. XL The important Usefulness of Theomanes his Vision together with the Iustifiableness of his yielding to such an Impression Not at all Philopolis so far as I can discern He onely expresses himself well pleased with the Reasonableness and Usefulness of the Vision For he professes it consonant to both Scripture and Philosophy and has taken notice severall times in my hearing how useful it is both for the digesting all those Visions in the Apocalypse that appertain to the last Trumpet into their right Order according to Synchronism and also to discover the Ignorance of some that have pretended to Inspiration who guessing that the last Trumpet is the Trumpet of the last Judgement in a Politicall sense but not discerning these distinct parts of it I mean the distribution thereof into the seven Thunders have adventured to conclude to the prejudice of the Apostolick Faith that there is no other Judgement but this nor any other Trumpet to raise the Dead and to summon them before the Tribunal of Christ then the Evangelization of a certain Doctrine of their own broaching But assuredly Philopolis that Resurrection which S t. Paul treats of in his first Epistle to the Corinthians is not a Moral nor Politicall Resurrection as cannot but be palpably manifest to any one that impartially peruses his Discourse and therefore the last Trumpet there mentioned cannot bear a mere Moral or Politicall signification As it is manifest that cannot in his first to the Thessalonians For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout 1 Thess. 4.16 17. with the voice of
for a fuller and a more general understanding the obscurest Passages in the Divine Oracles The truth of this Assertion is so clear that it seems little better then Blasphemie to contradict it For to say the Holy Writ is in it self unintelligible is equivalent to the pronouncing it Non-sense or to averre that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not onely play with the children of men but even fool with them This is but a Subterfuge of that conscious Church that is afraid of the fulgour of that Light that shines against her out of such places of Scripture as have for a long time seemed obscure The twenty sixth That there are innumerable Passages of Scripture as well Preceptive as Historicall that are as plainly to be understood as the very Articles of the common Faith and which therefore may be very usefull for the clearing those that may seem more obscure This wants no proof but Appeal to Experience and the twentieth Conclusion The twenty seventh That no Miracle though done by such as may seem of an unexceptionable Life and of more singular Sanctity can in reason ratifie any Doctrine or Practice that is repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or Natural Truths or Science or the common Christian Faith or any plain Doctrine or Assertion in Scripture The Truth of this is manifest from hence That no man can be so certain that such a man is not a crafty and cautious Hypocrite and his Miracle either a Juggle or Delusion of the Devil or if he was not an eye-witness of it a false report of a Miracle as he is certain of the truth of rightly-circumstantiated Sense of Common Notions and Natural Science of the Articles of the Apostolick Faith or of any plain Assertion in the Scripture And therefore that which is most certain in this case ought in all reason to be our Guide The twenty eighth That it is not onely the Right but the Duty of private men to converse with the Scriptures being once but precautioned not to presume to interpret any thing against rightly-circumstantiated Sense Natural Truth common Honesty the Analogie of the Catholick Faith or against other plain Testimonies of Holy Writ The truth of this appears from the Conclusion immediately preceding For why should they be kept from having recourse to so many and so profitable and powerful Instructions from an infallible Spirit when they are so well fore-armed against all Mistake and are so laid-at by so many not onely fallible but fallacious and deceitful persons to seduce them And why is there not more danger of being led into Errour by such as are not onely fallible but false and deceitfull then by those Inspired men that wrote the Scripture who were neither fallible in what they wrote nor had any design to deceive any man Wherefore there being no such safe Guide as the Scripture it self which speaks without any Passion Fraud or Interest it is not onely the Right but the Duty of every one to consult with the Scripture and observe his times of conversing with it as he tenders the Salvation of his own Soul The twenty ninth That even a private man assisted by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and rightly-circumstantiated Reason being also sufficiently furnish'd with the knowledge of Tongues Historie and Antiquity and sound Philosophy may by the help of these and the Blessing of God upon his industry clear up some of the more obscure Places of Scripture to full satisfaction and certainty both to himself and any unprejudiced Peruser of his Interpretations That this Assertion is true may be proved by manifold Experience there having been sundry persons that have cleared such Places of Scripture as had for a time seemed obscure and intricate with abundant satisfaction and conviction But it is to be evinced also à priori viz. from the seventeenth and eighteenth Conclusions which avouch the Scripture to be the most Authentick Tradition that is as also from the twenty fifth that concludes it not unintelligible in it self nor to mankinde and lastly out of the first that asserts that Certainty of Faith presupposes Certainty of Reason For thus the Object of our Understanding being here certain and we not spending our labour upon a Fiction or Mockery and our Reason rightly-circumstantiated not blinded by Prejudice nor precipitated into Assent before due deliberation and clear comprehension of the matter if after so cautious a Disquisition she be fully satisfied she is certainly satisfied or else there is no certainty in rightly-circumstantiated Reason which yet is presupposed in the Certainty of Faith by the first Conclusion So that the Certainty of Faith it self seems ruinous if no private man have any Certainty of any Interpretation of Scripture that has once been reputed obscure Not to add that all the Scripture that has been once obscure and the Interpretation thereof not yet declared by the Church universal has been hitherto and will be God knows how long utterly useless Which is a very wilde Supposition and such as none would willingly admit unless those that would rather admit any thing then that Light of the Scripture that discovers who they are and what unworthy Impostures they use in their dealings with the children of men The thirtieth That no Tradition can be true that is repugnant to any plain Text of Scripture The Reason is because the Scripture is the most true and the most Authentick Tradition that is and such as the universal Church is agreed in The thirty first That if any one Point grounded upon the Autority of Tradition that has been held by the Church time out of minde prove false there is no Certainty that any Tradition is true unless such as it has not been in the power of the Church to forge corrupt deprave or else their Interest not at all concerned so to doe The Reason is because the Certainty of Tradition as Tradition is placed in this by those that contend so much for it that nothing can be brought into the Church as an Apostolick Practice or Doctrine but what ever was so from the Apostles Wherefore if once a Point be brought into the Church and profest and practised as Apostolicall that may be clearly proved not to be so this Ground for Tradition as Tradition is utterly ruined and considering the Falseness and Imposture that has been so long practised in Christendome can be held no Ground of Certainty at all As not Reason quà Reason nor Sense quà Sense but quatenus rightly-circumstantiated can be any Ground of Certainty of Knowledge so not Tradition quà Tradition can be the Ground of the Certainty of Faith but onely such a Tradition as it was not in the power of the degenerate Church to either forge or adulterate And such were the Records of the Holy Bible onely The thirty second That rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason and Holy Writ are
deface Teach us our Lusts to mortify In virtue of thy precious Death That while to sin all-dead we lie Thou maist infuse thy Heav'nly breath To Righteousness our Spirits raise And quick'n us with thy Life and Love That we may walk here to thy Praise And after live in Heav'n above Grant we in Glory may appear Clad with our Resurrection-Vest When thou shalt lead thy Flock most dear Up to the Mansions of the Blest An HYMN Upon CHRIST's Ascension The Historicall Narration GOd is ascended up on high With merry noise of Trumpet 's sound And Princely seated in the Sky Rules over all the World around The Tabernacle did of old His Presence to the Jews restrain But after in our Flesh enfold A larger Empire he did gain For suffering in Humane Flesh For all he rich Redemption wrought And will with lasting Life refresh His Heritage so dearly bought Sing Praises then sing Praises loud Unto our Universal King * Act. 1.9 He who ascended on a Cloud To him all Laud and Praises sing Captivity he captive led Triumphing o're the Powers of Hell And struck their eyes with glory dread Who in the Airy Regions dwell In Humane Flesh and Shape he went Adorned with his Passion-Scars Which in Heav'n's sight he did present More glorious then the glittering Stars O happy Pledge of Pardon sure The Application to the Emprovement of Life And of an endless blissful State Since Humane Nature once made pure For Heav'n becomes so fit a Mate Lord raise our sinking Minds therefore Up to our proper Country dear And purifie us evermore To fit us for those Regions clear Let our Converse be still above Where Christ at thy right hand doth sit And quench in us all worldly Love That with thy self our Souls may knit Make us all Earthly things despise And freely part with this World 's good That we may win that Heav'nly prize Which Christ has purchas'd with his Bloud That when He shall return again In * Act. 1.11 Clouds of Glory as he went Our Souls no foulness may retain But be found pure and innocent And so may mount to his bright Hosts On Eagle's wings up to the Sky And be conducted to the Coasts Of everlasting Bliss and Ioy. An HYMN Upon the Descent of the Holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost The Narration WHen Christ his Body up had born To Heav'n from his Disciples sight Then they like Orphans all forlorn Spent their sad days in mournfull plight But he ascended up on high More Sacred Gifts for to receive And freely showr them from the Sky On those which he behind did leave He for the Presence of his Flesh To them the Holy Spirit imparts And doth with living Springs refresh Their thirsty Souls and fainting Hearts While with one minde and in one place Devoutly they themselves retire In rushing Wind the promis'd Grace Descends and cloven Tongues of Fire The house th' Amighty's Spirit fills Which doth the feeble Fabrick shake But on their Tongue such power instills Acts 2. That makes th' amazed Hearer quake The Spirit of holy Zeal and Love The Application And of Discerning give us Lord The Spirit of Power from above Of Unity and good Accord The Spirit of convincing Speech Such as will every Conscience smite Act. 2.37 And to the Heart of each man reach And Sin and Errour put to flight The Spirit of refining Fire Searching the inmost of the mind To purge all foul and fell desire And kindle Life more pure and kinde The Spirit of Faith in this thy Day Of Power against the force of Sin That through this Faith we ever may Against our Lusts the Conquests win Pour down thy Spirit of inward Life Which in our Hearts thy Laws may write That without any pain or strife We naturally may doe what 's right On all the Earth thy Spirit pour In Righteousness it to renew That Satan's Kingdome 't may o'repow'r And to Christ's Sceptre all subdue Like mighty Winde or Torrent fierce Let it Withstanders all o'rerun And every wicked Law reverse That Faith and Love may make all one Let Peace and Ioy in each place spring And Righteousness the Spirit 's fruits With Meekness Friendship and each thing That with the Christian spirit suits Grant this O holy God and true Who th' ancient Prophets didst inspire Haste to perform thy Promise due As all thy Servants thee desire An HYMN Upon the Creation of the World WHen God the first Foundations laid The Narration Of the well-framed Universe And through the darksome Chaos ray'd The Angels did his Praise rehearse The Sons of God then sweetly sung Job 38.7 At first appearance of his Light When the Creation-Morning sprung To deck the World with Beauty bright Within six Days he finish'd all What-ere Heav'n Earth or Sea contain And sanctify'd the Seventh withall To celebrate his Holy Name Then with the Sons of God let 's sing Our bountifull Creatour's Praise Who out of nothing all did bring And by his Word the World did raise O Holy God how wonderfull Art thou in all thy Works of might Astonishing our Senses dull With what thou daily bringst in sight The fit returns of Night and Day The gratefull Seasons of the Year Which constantly man's pains repay With wholesome fruit his Heart to chear The shape and number of the Stars The Moon 's set course thou dost define And Matter 's wilde distracting Iars Composest by thy Word Divine The Parts of th' Earth thou holdest close Together by this sweet Constraint Thou round'st the Drops that do disclose The Rain-bow in his glorious Paint Thy Clouds drop fatness on the Earth Thou mak'st the Grass and Flow'rs to spring Thou cloath'st the Woods wherein with mirth The chearfull Birds do sit and sing Thou fill'st the Fields with Beasts and Sheep Thy Rivers run along the Plains With scaly Fish thou stor'st the Deep Thy Bounty all the World maintains The Application All these and all things else th' hast made Subject to Man by thy Decree That thou by Man might'st be obey'd As duely subject unto thee Wherefore O Lord in us create Clean hearts and a right spirit renew That we regaining that just state May ever pay thee what is due That as we wholly from thee are Both Gifts of Minde and Bodie 's frame So by them both we may declare The Glory of thy Holy Name An HYMN Upon the Redemption of the World through CHRIST in his Re-introduction of the New Creature THe Lord both Heav'n Earth hath made The Narration His Word did all things frame And Laws to every Creature gave Who still observe the same The faithfull Sun doth still return The Seasons of the Year And at just times the various Moon Now round now horn'd appears The Plants retain their Virtue still Their Verdure and their Form Nor do the Birds or Beasts their guize Once change or shape transform 'T is
onely Man alas that brake Betimes thy Sacred Law And from that Image Heav'nly pure To Beastly Shape did grow He headstrong left thy Holy Will His own Lusts to pursue Whence the true Manly form did fail And Brutishness ensue But thou O God who by thy Word Didst frame all things of Nought By the same Word made Flesh for Man Hast rich Redemption wrought Thy choice Creation-piece thus marr'd Thou dost again create And by th' incarnate Word restor'st Unto his pristine state The glory of which Work raying forth Whiles Christ from Death doth rise These two Creations one Seventh Day By right doth solemnize The Application 2 Cor. 4.6 God who commanded first the Light Out of the dark to shine Enliven and enlight our Hearts By his pure Word Divine That when this New-Creation work In us is finish'd clear The bright and glorious face of Christ May in our Souls appear That we thus once redeem'd from Sin * Hebr. 4.10 From our own works may cease And rest in God's eternall Love The Spirit 's Ioy and Peace And quit from this Earth's Toil at last May sing among the Blest In that long-lasting Sabbath-Day That Iubilee of Rest. Amen THE CONTENTS OF All the Five DIALOGUES The First Dialogue I. THE Preference of Vertue and assurance of an happy Immortality before the Pleasures and Grandeur of this present World II. The Description of Hylobares his Genius and of Cuphophron's Entertainments in his Philosophicall Bower III. Philopolis his Quere's touching the Kingdome of God together with his sincere purpose of proposing them IV. Hylobares his Interposall of his Quere's first touching the Existence of God and Divine Providence V. The Existence of God argued from the orderly Designs discoverable in the Phaenomena of Nature VI. Severall Instances of that general Argument VII That necessary Causality in the blind Matter can doe as little toward the orderly Effects in Nature as the fortuitous Iumbles thereof VIII That there is no Phaenomenon in Nature purely Mechanicall IX That there is no Levitation or Gravitation of the Aether or of the vulgar Elements in their proper places Whence 't is plain that the Matter 's Motion is moderated by some Diviner Principle X. That the Primordialls of the World are not Mechanicall but Vital XI Instances of some simple Phaenomena quite contrary to the Laws of Mechanicks XII The fond and indiscreet hankering after the impossible Pretensions of salving all Phaenomena Mechanically freely and justly perstringed XIII The Existence of God argued from the Consent of Nations from Miracles and Prophecies from his Works in Nature and from his Idea XIV The Obscurity of the Nature of God and the Intricacy of Providence with preparatory Cautions for the better satisfaction in those Points XV. The Attribute of Eternity XVI An Objection against the All-comprehension of Eternity with the Answer thereunto XVII Another Objection with its Answer XVIII The Attribute of Immutability XIX Of the Deity 's acting ad extra XX. The Attribute of Omnisciency XXI The Attribute of Spirituality and that God cannot be Material XXII The false Notion of a Spirit XXIII That there is a Spiritual Being in the World XXIV That Extension and Matter are not reciprocall XXV That there is an Extension intrinsecall to Motion XXVI That there is an immovable Extension distinct from that of movable Matter XXVII That this Extension distinct from Matter is not imaginary but real XXVIII A fresh Appeal touching the truth of that Point to Reason Sense and Imagination XXIX The essential Properties of Matter XXX The true Notion of a Spirit XXXI The Attribute of Omnipresency XXXII Cuphophron's Paradox of God's being no-where XXXIII The Confutation of that Paradox XXXIV That all Spirits are some-where XXXV The Grounds of Cuphophron's Paradox that Spirits are no-where produced and examined XXXVI That God is essentially present every-where XXXVII The Arborists affected liberty of dissenting in unnecessary Opinions and friendly Abusiveness of one another in their Philosophicall Meetings XXXVIII The Conclusion The Second Dialogue I. THe Introduction containing Philopolis his thanks for the last day's Discourse with a touch by the bye of Inspiration and of the Difficulty of the present Subject II. The two main Heads of Objections against Providence with certain Laws to be observed in disputing thereof III. Evils in general how consistent with the Goodness of God IV. The Arguments of Lucretius against Providence V. Providence argued against from the promiscuous falling of the Rain and undiscriminating discharges of Thunder-claps VI. An Answer to Lucretius his Arguments VII Of Death how consistent with the Goodness of Providence VIII Of Diseases IX Of War Famine Pestilence and Earthquakes X. Of ill Accidents happening to brute Creatures whereby their lives become miserable XI Of the Cruelty and Rapacity of Animals XII Of the Rage of the Elements the Poison of Serpents and the Wrath of wilde Beasts XIII Of Monstrosities in Nature XIV Of Fools Mad-men and men irreclaimably wicked from their-very Birth XV. The best Vse to be made of the saddest Scene of the things of this World XVI How the Entrance of Sin into the World can consist with the Goodness of Providence XVII Cuphophron's Lunatick Apologie whereby he would extenuate the Hainousness of Sin XVIII A solid Answer to the foregoing Apologie though ushered in with something a ludicrous Preamble XIX A more sober Enquiry into that Difficulty How the Permission of Sin in the World can consist with the Goodness of God XX. The first Attempt of satisfying the Difficulty from that Stoicall Position of the invincible Freedome of Man's Will XXI The second Attempt from the consideration of some high Abuses of a vincible Freedome as also from the nature of this Freedome it self XXII The third and last from the Questionableness whether in compute of the whole there does not as much good redound to the Vniverse by God's Permission of Sin as there would by his forcible keeping it out XXIII How consistent it is with the Goodness of Providence that God does not suddenly make men holy so soon as they have an hearty minde to it XXIV The Parable of the Eremite and the Angel XXV That the Adversity of the Good and the Prosperity and Impunity of the Wicked in this life are no Arguments against the Accuracy of Providence XXVI A civil but merry-conceited bout of Drinking in Cuphophron's Arbour XXVII The marvellous Conjuncture in Hylobares of an outward Levity and inward Soberness at once XXVIII His serious Song of Divine Providence XXIX The breaking up of the Meeting The Third Dialogue I. COnjectures touching the Causes of that Mirth that the Meeting of some persons naturally excites in one another II. Hylobares his Relapse into Dissettlement of minde touching Providence with the cause thereof III. Paucity of Philosophers no blemish to Divine Providence IV. Reasons in general of the gross Deformity in the Religions and Customs of the Savage Nations as also of the variety of this Deformity in Manners