continues its pursuit that which is now good in the appetitive faculty will presently become evil because it acts contrary to its immediate rule Tho' there may be policy yet there is but little piety in the practice of those who perswade their Proselytes That light puts out the fire of devotion and an implicit belief is the perfection of Religion The truth is They are so conscious of the infirmity of the foundation they build upon that they use their best endeavours to deprive others of their sight that they may be in no capacity to discover it As we must Worship with our Understanding so likewise with our Will that which is free and of our own election is most acceptable to God Josephus says That God rejected Cain because he offered a Sacrifice which was extorted by force out of the earth and accepted Abel because his victim was free and natural Tho' he missed of the true Reason yet he hit upon a great Truth That a free and uncompelled obedience is most agreeable to the Divine Will God being a Spirit is concerned chiefly in the frame of our Spirits and disvalues that Service which doth not proceed from them 1 Kin. 6.4 The windows of the Temple which Solomon dedicated to him were broad within and narrow without his eye looks more within upon the temper and composure of our hearts than without upon our external performances All the faculties of our Soul must be screw'd up to the highest pitch In the Intellect there must be a superlative esteem of the Divine Majesty in the Will the deepest devotion Every sacred performance challengeth the most reverential regards Altho' there may be culpable excesses in the imperate acts of the Body yet there is no fear of them in the elicite operations of the Soul It is impossible to value love and obey God too much An infinite good requires the utmost vigour of a finite Spirit when it is conversant about it 2. God must be worshipped outwardly with the Body It is to be presented as a living Sacrifice Rom. 12.1 holy and acceptable to him We must not imitate them who use to take to themselves all the flesh of their victims and offer up nothing but the Blood and Soul to their Deities Our Bodies being the Lords as well as our Spirits and very proper instruments to commend the practice of Religion to others they are not to be exempted from this Service Outward profession which cannot be without the acts of the body is a duty as well as inward devotion Adam did wear the skins of the beasts which he sacrificed to God The Scripture never censures bodily Service but the want of the heart and a right direction of the intentions in the performance of it He who Worships God with his Body and suffers his Soul at the same time to be under irrelative motions is like a Souldier who imploys his Scabbard in the service of his Commander and his Sword to some other purpose 3. All the modes of the Body must be decent orderly and tending to Edification It is the pleasure of him who is the Supreme Head of the Church to give this general rule and to furnish subordinate Governours with such discretion as will enable them to make convenient deductions from it in particular cases Upon this account the Apostle appeals to Nature that is natural reason when he treats about matters of order 1 Cor. 11. and asserts That disorder will administer occasion to unbelievers to charge the Congregation with madness that is with a deportment contrary to the rule of common reason 1 Cor. 14. 4. Different deductions from this general rule is no just ground for distinct Churches to commence a contest one against another and by this means violate the Unity of the Universal Decency is not confined to a point but has a certain latitude Under a Genus there are more Species than one The Carthaginian and Roman Army at Cannae were not drawn up in the same form and yet in both there was a mode agreeable to the rules of Military Order Upon this account the present Church has no quarrel with the antient altho' she differs from her in matters of this nature Formerly it was thought to be very decent to stand at Prayer on the Lord's day in token of the Resurrection To plunge three times those who were to be Baptised in signification of the Trinity to cloath them when they came out of the water with a white garment Altho' these customs are now laid aside yet we are so far from reproaching those who did use them that we highly value their authority in the important concerns of Religion The several parts of the ancient Church altho ' they differed in things of this Nature yet they had communion together Euseb l. 5. c. 24. Irenaeus in his Letter to Victor says That some conceived that they were to fast but one day before the Passover some Two some Forty nevertheless they had Peace Those Churches which dissented in such matters Sozom. use to send the Sacrament one to another as a token of their agreement in the Faith They thought it a vain thing to be divorced upon the account of some different customes when there was a harmony betwixt them in the great concerns of Religion Firmilianus asserts Epist ad Cypr. That the same Rites were not at Rome and Jerusalem and the like differences were in other places yet the Unity and Peace of the Catholick Church was not broken S. Austin takes notice Ep. ad Casulan 86. That in the garment of the King's Daughter there is variety of work to import that there may be diverse Rites in the Church and yet all reconcileable with the Unity of the Faith 5. Tho' this variety is very excusable in different Churches yet it is highly expedient and desirable that in the same Church there should be the same external mode of Religion Edification is the great design which ought to be aimed at in an Ecclesiastical Community There is nothing which is more opposite to this end than discord and contention and nothing will sooner kindle and blow up the fire of contention than differences of this nature Tho' Men at distance do bear one with another in such variations yet when they are near and in frequent Communion under the same constitution they are apt to take great distaste We like well the different fashions of another Country and treat Strangers which are in them with significations of a due respect yet if any of our own Community affect such an exotick Garb they are usually the object of vulgar scorn and derision The different dress of one is a reproach to another and charges him with folly and weakness as tho' he was not able to discern what is convenient and under such an imputation Men are commonly very uneasie and break out into an exchange of the greatest unkindness The animosity occasioned by a variation in Religious Rites
proportion to the other parts of it as one does to ten So that if a Man weighs two hundred pounds the Blood makes twenty of them Whereas in other Animals it is but as one to twenty For the distiling and straining of the Spirits out of this matter there is an elaboratory namely the Brain which in a Man is twice as much as in a Beast four times bigger in body As Men are designed for more action than brute Animals so the preparations conducing to that purpose are greater these Spirits commanded by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul into any part of the Body swell the Muscle and cause it to attract and pull the part which it is tied unto That the Soul may have a sensation of external objects their preparations are not inferior to those for motion and nutrition The Nerves which arise in the Brain are dispersed into all the parts of the Body So that no member can be touched by any object but the impression is presently conveyed into the Head Tho' there is great variety in the modification of the external Senses yet there is nothing superfluous I will instance only in the Eye It is lapped about with two coats to defend it against the injuries of the Air the outward is diaphanous in the forepart for the admission of the raies of light The inward has an aperture for the same reason which like a Curtain is moveable that the Pupilla may be greater or less according to the dimensions or distance of the object These Coats are filled with three Humours which refract the raies proceeding from the same point and make them to meet again at the bottom of the Eye which very much promotes distinct Vision The Crystalline Humor has on both sides the Processus Ciliares which serve as Tendons to alter the figure of it according as the object is nearer or farther off It will never enter into the belief of any intelligent Man that this provision for nutrition motion and sensation should be accidental and if any Wisdom be interested in the contrivance of it it must be our own or our Parents or the Wisdom of an invisible Being neither we or they know any thing of it and therefore there must be a Being in the World infinitely Wise which can be no other than what the true notion of a God imports As the Body so the Soul of Man evidently demonstrates the existence of a Deity the Powers of it are Two Understanding and Will These Two are so linked together that what conduceth to the perfection of the one never tends to the prejudice of the other The Will is no loser by any accomplishment of the Understanding nor the Understanding by any thing which is of sincere advantage to the Will If there be no God the contrary will be true For it is the perfection of the Understanding to know it truth being its proper object but the greatest damage to the Will No immorality will be disgusted when it comes to be informed that there is no Supreme Being to punish Vice and reward Virtue If the Understanding know it not this ignorance is a blemish to it but a true advantage to the Will there being nothing more efficacious to confine it within the bounds of Sobriety than this perswasion that there is a God The Principles as well as the Powers of the Soul give evidence in this matter As the false gods had their characters impressed upon the bodies of those who worshipped them So the True God has set his signatures upon the Soul there is a Law and a Conscience in every Man a Rule and a Judge a Law which points out the difference betwixt Just and Unjust Good and Evil Virtue and Vice This Rule is reduced in the Imperial Institutions to these Maximes Nothing must be done which is a violation of Piety Modesty Reputation We must not prejudice the estimation liberty and safety of others We must give to every one that which is his own These Axioms have the immediate effect of a Law which is to bind and take away our freedom to do that which is contrary Every Man is sensible that he is not at liberty to oppose the sence of these Propositions in his conversation In case he does if there be any remains of humane nature in him he finds himself under remorse and is really punished in the loss of that contentment which a sence of being employed in a good action is always accompanied with There cannot be a stricter obligation than this that a man must either do that which the propositions import or else lose his true felicity If this rule has the effect of a Law which is to bind it must have the essence and nature the operation is always a true indication of the nature of every thing and if the nature it must be made and impressed by some Sovereign Power The Legislative Power is never vested in an Inferior This Sovereign which made and impressed this Law must have a dominion over all mankind because all whether Princes or Peasants are sensible of their obligations in this particular Therefore there must be a Superior and invisible Power in the World which is that which we mean by the Deity As there is a Law in the Soul which argues the existence of God so likewise a Conscience This signifies the judgment of every Man imployed about his own actions as they bear a proportion or disproportion to the Divine Law Upon a discovery of guilt condemnation presently passeth and as great a consternation follows as that in a malefactor when he hears the sentence of death denounced against him Tho' in a time of prosperity when all things are quiet and serene the intellectual pulse may be very slow yet when a storm ariseth it is quickly awakened in the most exorbitant persons Every clap of Thunder is believed to be a messenger sent from Heaven to serve an Arrest upon them When they make the fairest appearance in the World they are like a Tragedy bound up in guilt leather without there is splendor within tumults and murder Their external Triumphs like the Drums of Tophet help only to drown the unwelcom reports of their uneasie Spirits These direful fears which haunt the Soul when it is no way obnoxious to the animadversions of humane justice evidently declare that there is an invisible power in the World which has impressed them and stands prepared to give it a taste of the most severe animadversions of his displeasure They cannot be imputed to melancholy because persons of all humours the most airy Tempers have been molested by them The Poet speaks of all in general But thinkst thou Curtman hoâ— in a vasâ—sse puteâ— c. they go free whose conscience make Whips that unheard their guilty Soul doth shake The Apostle asserts of the whole Community of the Gentiles Rom. 2. that their thoughts accuse them Neither are they the injections of politick Princes to keep their
Sphere of their activity We perceive not with any of our Senses and yet the effects produced by them will not suffer us to doubt of their reality 2. We have as much assurance of the Truth of this Proposition a Deity doth exist as we have of the clearest Axiom in Philosophy the ground of certainty is nothing but a necessary and evident connexion betwixt the Subject and Predicate But there is no Maxim whose Subject and Predicate are more closely united than the parts of this Proposition In the notion of a Deity necessary existence is included and in the notion of necessary existence the nature of a Deity God doth necessarily exist and that which necessarily exists can be no other but God The parts of the Enunciation are reciprocal which argues Truth in the highest Degree 3. This Proposition is not only equal to others but has the advantage in some respects If it be supposed that the existence of a Deity is possible it will from thence follow that it is actual For that is properly said to be possible when there is no repugnancy at all why it may not exist and if there be no repugnancy to hinder the existence of a Deity It is supposed that there is a cause in Being which is able to make it exist A passive power in any thing to be what it is not supposeth an active power which is able to make the mutation This active power cannot be lodged in the Deity it self considered only as possible No meer possible can be the subject of an active power If in any thing distinct it must be either an Inferior or Superior or that which is equal to the Deity An Inferior can produce nothing which is more excellent than it self There can be no Superior to that which is boundless in perfection If in an equal then there is something already in Being which is infinite in power which can be no other but God If it be supposed as impossible that a Deity should exist the same consequence will follow For if it be impossible then all Beings are naturally finite and limited and if so the number of them must be either infinite or finite An infinite number cannot be The parts of all number being essentially finite the product must be of the same nature If finite then it must have the common bounds a first and a last If a first that first must be of it self without any dependence in point of causality for Entity in order of Nature preceding Energy if the first Being was produced by an operation that action must slow from a pre-existent Being and if it be of it self it must be infinite Whatsoever is finite receives its bounds from some cause Entity considered as possible being limitable divers ways and indifferent to what species it is determined to there can be no account given why it should come forth into Act and exist rather under one species than another were there not some pre-determining Cause The thing it self cannot be this Cause for then it had a Being before it was finite nor any other distinct thing because the Being we speak of is supposed to be first This Truth is so vigorous that the depressing of it with this supposition makes it like the Palm to arise with the greater force Lastly If we do but consult the familiar dictates of our understandings they will not fail to lead us into the knowledge of this Truth They naturally suggest to us that something must be Eternal This Eternal must be either the present Systeme of the World or the Cause of it The first cannot be asserted as I have before demonstrated If the second this Cause must be either meer matter or else an immaterial and spiritual substance Matter it cannot be In its productions the deepest Wisdom is discovered which Matter is utterly uncapable of If an immaterial and intellectual substance then there is an eternal Spirit invested with supereminent Power and Wisdom which is the true notion of a God If it be objected that such a Spirit cannot be the efficient of the World because he had no matter to frame it out of and it is universally acknowledged that out of nothing nothing can be made I answer that this Maxim must be limited to a finite power A Being invested with that which is infinite must necessarily be able to create all things out of nothing If an imperfect Being is able out of nothing to make a new mode as we daily see in the cogitations of the Mind and in the motions of the Body Much more must that which is absolute in perfection be able to form a new substance He who eminently contains all things in himself cannot be denied a power to exert a transient action and by it to give some outward expression of what is in himself insensible and permanent effects It is more difficult to conceive how a thing should be eternal without any cause which all grant to be true than to apprehend how a finite Being may be produced out of nothing by an Infinite Power He who seriously ponders the evidence that is given for the existence of a Deity and yet continues in his infidelity has nothing to lay the blame upon but his own obstinacy or unwillingness to have any thing true which may be a curb to his enormous inclinations If he will not be perswaded that any thing is certain but that which is the object of his sense all testimonies whether divine or humane to him are made of no signification and no place will be left for Faith which is conversant about things not seen and rests satisfied with testimonies whose verity there is no just reason to suspect Every thing is not capable of the same degree of evidence but if it has so much as its nature requires common reason will condemn us if we believe it not Now I have finished the first Proposition There is a God who made the World 2. In the Godhead there are Three Persons That we may the better arrive at the knowledge of this great Mystery the following steps are to be taken 1. When God is spoken of in the Sacred Oracles sometimes the plural number is used Let us make man Gen. 1.26 Behold man is as one of us Gen. 3.23 Let us go down and confound their language Gen. 11.7 This is not done in imitation of the stile of Princes who to express their grandeur make use of this number If this mode of speaking had been occasioned by that custom it would have been constantly used at the giving of the Law when the Divine Majesty was displaied in the most awful circumstances and yet then we meet with the singular number Princes use it only in the first person We Constantine We Maximilian In the Bible it frequently occurs in the third and in such construction as is not to be parallell'd in any Record as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos 24.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 10.10 None speak of
Jesus is said to return in the power of the Spirit Luk. 14. S. Paul prays that the Romans may abound in hope thro' the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15 14. Mighty signs and wonders are said to be done by the power of the Spirit of God If the Spirit in these places did signifie no more than a divine power the meaning would be that Christ returned the Romans abounded miracles were wrought thro' the power of a Power The Spirit is likewise evidently distinguished from effects or gifts The Apostle saies that There are diversity of gifts but the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit v. 8. And that all these worketh this one and the same Spirit So that there can be nothing left in these Texts for the Spirit to signifie but a Person He being manifestly distinguished from the Divine Power and the gifts and products of that Power Now I have finished the second Proposition In the Godhead there are Three Persons 3. These Three are One God Unity is essential to the Deity Plurality proceeds from the fecundity and fruitfulness of Causes but God is of himself without dependence upon any Cause If there be more Gods there must be more Infinites in the same kind which implies a contradiction for one infinite Being contains all perfection not only as considered in the general notion but actually and therefore there is none for any other Deity to be invested with and possessed of in the same manner If there be more Gods they must be distinct one from another This distinction must arise from some diversity in Nature to attribute such diversity to the Divine Nature is to make a dishonourable reflection upon the simplicity of it The Father Son and Holy Ghost are this One God 1. The Scripture plainly asserts that they are one 1 John 5.7 Tho' these words are not found in some Copies yet they are extant in more than they are wanting in and in that which is dubious the decision is according to the suffrage of the major part If such an addition has been made to the Text it must be done before or after the two first General Councils If before it was either accidental or intentional Not Accidental thro' the inadvertency of the Scribe For tho' a Scribe may mistake and leave out letters and words yet it cannot be imagined that he should casually without any design add a whole sentence and not presently upon a review which may be justly presumed in a Writing of such importance discover and correct his errour Not Intentional no good reason can be given why any should industriously make such a spurious insertion before the controversie concerning the Deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost did commence Neither was the addition which is pretended made after the two first General Councils Because the words we speak of are found in those Copies which the Fathers who lived before those Councils made use of S. Cyprian asserts de Patre Filio c. Of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it is written and these Three are One. This gives us just reason to believe that the Copies in which these words are wanting fell into the hands of the Arrians and that a rasure was made by them 2. As the words of S. John assure us that The Father the Son and the Spirit are One so we are assured by other texts of Sacred Writ that this Unity is in the Divine Essence They have all one and the same infinite Nature This is evident by the attribution of the Name Properties and peculiar Operations of the most High God to them None doubt of this relation to the Father The matter is likewise clear concerning the Son and the Spirit Christ is called the mighty God Isa 9.6 God blessed for evermore Rom. 9.5 The true God 1 Joh. 5.20 The most high God Psal 58.17 56. The most High which the Israelites tempted and provoked in the wilderness is expresly called Christ 1 Cor. 10.9 The name of God is never attributed in the sacred Oracles with such emphatical Epithets to any finite Being They are intentionally inserted to signifie that Jesus is stiled God not upon the account of his Embassy from his Father or a deification in the state of Glory but his infinite Nature He who is made God and is not so essentially cannot be said to be the true mighty most High God blessed for evermore As the Name of God so the Properties of the Divine Nature are attributed to him Omniscience Joh. 21.17 Immutability Heb. 1.11 Omnipotence Rev. 1.8 Eternity He is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is which was which is to come v. 4. Eternity comprehends all differences of time Was he but a meer Creature such perfections could not reside in him A finite Being under the greatest Elevation has not a capacity large enough to entertain and receive such boundless excellencies The peculiar Operations of God are likewise attributed to him as Creation Joh. 1.2 Coloss 1.16 God is said to create all things by Jesus Christ Eph. 3.9 The Son did concur with the Father and the Spirit in this great Work as a co-ordinate cause The Nature of Creation will not admit the interposals of an instrument There being no matter to prepare a physical instrument has nothing to do in the case And Christ is represented as more than a Moral The infinite power whereby all things are made is often ascribed to him which is never done to a meer moral instrument such as the Apostles were in the production of Miracles Conservation is likewise ascribed to him He is said to uphold all things with the word of his power Heb. 1.3 It was usual for the Jews to express the Deity by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here inserted to assure them that Christ sustains the World and prevents its relapse into its primitive Abyss by virtue of his Deity Lastly He is said to work Miracles He made the blind to see the lame to walk the dead to revive This he did not bring to pass by any mutuatitious power When he healed the multitude it is said Virtue went out of him Luk. 6.19 The power whereby he did it was not adventitious but innate When S. Peter wrought a miracle that Christ by whose power it was effected might not be deprived of the glory of it he names him as the principal cause His name thro' faith in his name hath made this man whole Act. 3.16 As the name properties and operations of the Divine Nature are attributed to the Son of God So likewise to the Holy Ghost The Spirit of the Lord 2 Sam. 23.2 is stiled the God of Israel Ananias who lied unto the Spirit Act. 5.3 is said to lie unto God v. 4. The body which is the Temple of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 is stiled
adversaries were as peremptory in this as the other charge Tertullian reckons the report that the Christians were Crucis religiosi amongst those scandals which were raised by malice in order to the eclipsing their reputation As for the Relicks of Saints we find no mention of any religious respect which was paid to them Those who have the greatest zeal for them are usually mounted upon tradition but finding it not able to carry them thro' the first Centuries in this particular they think good to alight and content themselves with some instances in Scripture which are nothing to the purpose as the hemm of Christ's garment the shadow of S. Peter the Handkerchiefs and Aprons that touched the body of S. Paul Because the Woman diseased with an issue of blood was healed by touching the first the sick were brought into the streets that they might be overshadowed by the second many were delivered from evil spirits by the third They have a mind to perswade us without any good reason that these particulars with all Relicks of an equivalent Nature challenge religious veneration No doubt Peter himself was every way as valuable as his shadow and yet when Cornelius made an attempt to worship him he prevented him by an express prohibition The Fathers in the ages next to the Apostles were not such good husbands as to make such an advantagious improvement of these instances but on the contrary we find them charging the Heathens with Superstition of a like nature as the worshipping the Monuments of the Dead and we never read that the Heathens did retort upon them their guilt in the same kind which no doubt they would have done in case there had been any such practice among them Celsus Lucian c. were not so dull as to overlook so signal an advantage They which use to charge them with too much would have paid them their own in case there had been the least appearance of reason for it As the most early Writers next to the Apostles never mention the Worshipping any else but God so all the words which import Divine Worship are by them exclusively applied to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Justin Martyr Apel. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Theophilus Antiochenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Tatianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 1. Cont. Cels Servire by Irenaeus Huic servire soli oportet discipulos Christi Colere adorare by Tertullian Apol. c. 17. Inst l. 1. c. 20. Quod colimus unus Deus est Praescribitur ne quem alium adorem Venerari by Lactantius veneratio nulla alia nisi unius Dei tenenda est Hitherto I have asserted the verity of this Proposition God only is to be Worshipped In the next place I will consider the opposition that has been made against it by the Church of Rome and those who adhere to Her Maldonate makes no scruple to pronounce n Mat. 5. v. 34. that it is a wicked error to maintain that religious Honour is to be tendered to none but God The Inquisitors have blotted out such Words and Sentences out of Books as cast a favourable aspect upon this Doctrine In a Sentence cited out of Gregory Nyssen by Antonius in his mellifluous Sermons in these words eam verò folummodò naturam quae increata est colere venerari didicimus they condemn the word Index Exp. solummodò to an expunction The Index to Athanasius's Works Printed at Basil has been treated with the same respect These words adorari solius Dei est are not permitted to remain in it The Gloss in the Margin of the Bible upon 1 Sam. 7.3 Prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only has not escaped their severity Their decree concerning it runs in these terms deleantur illa verba serviendum Deo soli They have done with these Testimonies as Caesar Borgia used to do with men namely contrive the death of those who did impede the accomplishment of his designs This practice doth evidently declare that they are conscious that their Worship cannot stand without this Principle be taken out of the way The sence of it is opposed by them in many particulars as the Worship of the Sacrament the Invocation of Saints the Adoration of Images c. 1. The Worship of the Sacrament The Church of Rome hath given too much occasion to believe that the Accidents of the Bread and Wine are to be honoured with supreme Veneration The Council of Trent in plain words asserts that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is granted to signifie supreme honours is to be given to the Sacrament It does not say to a part only of it but useth the Word in general which must necessarily imply the whole and extend to all which is appointed to be received Now it is evident that the Accidents are a part of the Sacrament which is to be received They constitute the outward and visible sign L. 4. Saâ—r Bellarmine represents them as the principal ratio Sacramenti magis convenit speciebus ut continent Corpus quà m corpori Christi ut est sub speciebus The following words of the Council confirm this Interpretation nec enim minùs adorandum c. neither is it the Sacrament to be less adored because it hath been instituted by Christ the Lord that it may be taken for him the same God we believe to be present in it whom the eternal Father bringing into the World saith Let all the Angels adore him c. Here the Sacrament is represented as that in which our blessed Lord is present and contained under and by consequence as distinct from it That which contains any thing is always diverse from that which is contained in it Now what is there left for the Word Sacrament to import but the outward Elements the signifying part under which it is supposed that the Sacred Body of our blessed Lord is latent His Presence in the Sacrament is alledged as the reason of the Adoration given to it Tho' this is not sufficient to justifie the practice for then every thing in which God is present would be an adorable object as the Sun and Moon and whole Creation yet it leads us into the meaning of the Word Sacrament as it lies in the Council and assures us that it imports some thing besides our blessed Saviour which can be nothing but the outward Elements whereby he is represented A command to give civil honour to the Throne of a Prince because the Prince himself sits in it evidently implies that the Throne and the Prince are distinct one from the other To expound the Decree by the Canon in which there is mention only of Worshipping Christ in the Sacrament is very preposterous They aim at two distinct things The first obligeth us to Worship the Sacrament the second to Worship Christ who is present in the Sacrament These two are as different as to Worship the Palace in
are led by the context This do in remembrance of me When he pronounces the demonstrative This he points at that which he took and had in his hand and this is called Bread and therefore in the Latin Translation of the Aethiopick Version these words occur Hic panis Corpus meum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must import his dead body as it is in the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc cadaver meum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a dead body 1 Sam. 17.46 Isa 14.19 These we have reason to believe were the words of our blessed Lord who at the institution of the Sacrament did undoubtedly use that language which was then familiar to the Jews and that was the Syriack which by reason of its affinity with the Hebrew is sometimes called by the same name Joh. 19.13 17. Act. 21.20 Now it is evident that what Christ gave at his last Supper could not be his dead body in a literal sence and therefore it must be so in a figurative which will amount to this This is a memorial of my Body as crucified for you Christ's body in the Sacrament is not given as living but dead upon our account and his blood not as contained in his veins but shed for our sins We have not only the Words to justifie our interpretation but the scope aimed at by him that spoke them It is agreed on all sides that God did design by them the institution of a Sacrament It is as unanimously asserted that in every Sacrament there must be a visible Sign and a Thing signified There is nothing here to import the outward Sign but the Demonstrative This or the Thing signified but that which is predicated of it my Body Now the sign is never essentially but always figuratively the thing which is signified by it As when we say of the formal sign or picture of Augustus or Tiberius This is Augustus This is Tiberius we do not mean their persons really but representations of them In the other part of the Sacrament it is said This Cup is the New Testament This cannot be true essentially as tho' the Cup was changed into the nature of the New Testament but figuratively only We have just reason to believe the same concerning the Words under debate that the Bread is no otherwise the Body of Christ than the Cup is the New Testament When this manner of Speech is used in relation to other Sacraments as Circumcision and the Passover Circumcision is my Covenant the Lamb is the Lord 's Passover it constantly bears this sence Neither Circumcision or the Lamb were really and essentially the things which are predicated of them but signs and memorials only The admitting a Trope in the Words is not contrary to the design of Christ in his last Will which undoubtedly was to deliver his mind clearly We may speak as plainly when we use a Trope or Figure as when our speech is without it If we walk in a Gallery adorned with Pictures and say this is Julius Caesar this is Constantine the Great we are as well understood as if we had said this is the Picture of such a Person That is not obscure whether figuratively or literally spoken which is expressed according to the manner which is familiar to those to whom the words are directed The known custom at the time when these words This is my Body were used was to speak after the like manner about the Passover into whose place the Sacrament of the Supper came It was the usual language of the Jews to call the Lamb the Body of the Passover The Lamb being a Figure of Christ our Passover and he putting a period to the old Institution and substituting Bread in the room of it to be a memorial and Type of himself under the Gospel he calls it by the same name As the Paschal Lamb had been his Typical Body under the Old Testament So now he declares that the Bread shall be his figurative Body under the New If a Trope makes the Words obscure and unfit to be a branch of the last Will of Jesus Christ then the interpretation of the Church of Rome is condemned by her own acknowledgment For she believes that when it is said This is my Body a living Body is meant and therefore Body by a Synecdoche is put for the Body and Soul The other part of the Sacrament is contained in his last Will as well as this and yet in the words which set it forth there is no less than two Tropes This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood The Cup is put for the Wine contained in it and the New Testament for the Sacrament of the New Covenant As the scope of our Saviour confirms the sence which we have given So likewise do the antecedents and consequences Before these words This is my Body were spoken it is said Jesus took Bread and blessed and brake it c. what can he mean by This but that which he took into his hand and blessed and brake and that is expresly called Bread After Consecration as that which is termed his Blood is stiled the Fruit of the Vine so that which he named his Body is by his Spirit in the holy Apostle said to be Bread As often as ye eat this bread 1 Cor. 11.26 Whosoever shall eat of this bread v. 27. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this bread v. 28. If before and after Consecration that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This doth import is called Bread then no such mutation is made as is contended for and the words must be interpreted in a Sacramental and Figurative Sence We have not only the Antecedents and Consequences to favour our interpretation but likewise the Analogy of Faith This says that Christ as man was made like unto his Brethren Heb. 2.17 This car not be true if he be corporally in the Sacrament The bodies of his Brethren are naturally confined to a certain place But according to this apprehension his Body may be in a thousand places at once even upon all the Altars in the World Wheresoever the Host is consecrated it is wholly in the whole and wholly in every part of it The Analogy of Faith asserts that Christ it gone to heaven in his bodily presence I am no more in the world Jo. 17.11 The interpretation which the Church of Rome gives of the words under debate makes him to be more in the World than when he conversed with his Disciples upon the Earth For then he was but in one place at a time but now according to the Creed of the Romanists he is the same moment in Millions of places The Analogy of Faith assures us that the body or flash of Christ shall see no corruption Act. 2.27 31. But if it be in the Sacrament then it is corporally eaten turned into Chyle and Nutriment and subject to all the corruption
call the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament the Body and Blood of Christ 2. They say that they are not so essentially but figuratively and therefore stile them signs Symbols Figures Antitypes Memorials It is usual to call the sign and the thing signified by the same name 3. They affirm that after Consecration the substance of the Bread and Wine remains and the change made is only in respect of Use Office and Dignity 4. They say That they nourish our flesh and blood and have the same effect that other food has and therefore they use to give the remains of the Euchariscical Bread to boyes and to abstain from the Communion upon Fasting days 5. They assert that wicked men do not eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ but interpret the eating of his flesh Jo. 6. the receiving of him in a spiritual manner namely by Faith 6. When they deny the Eucharist to be a figure or sign they mean a bare sign The Sacrament is more than so It feals and exhibits It is a means whereby we receive the Body and Blood of Christ not only the benefits of them but Christ himself in a spiritual manner as crucified for us and is a real pledge to assure us thereof Tho' the crucified body of Christ is in Heaven yet that spirit which dwells in it being communicated to a worthy Receiver in the Sacramental action we are made to drink into one Spirit it produceth such a union betwixt us and Christ Jesus as laies a clear foundation of Communion with and participation of him 7. When they say there is a mutation in the nature of the Bread they mean by nature the use and property only as is manifest by their own explications Before Consecration it was appropriated to the nourishment of the body but now by Consecration it is exalted to a higher purpose A new dignity is put upon it It becomes a means whereby a worthy Communicant gains Communion with our blessed Lord. 8. When it 's said That the Senses are deceived and no competent judges of the mutation this may be very true altho' the change be Sacramental only The change is not the proper object of sense but of faith The knowledge of it with its effects is conveyed to us by a Divine Testimony extant in the holy Scriptures 9. When it is affirmed That under the species of Bread is given the Body and under the species of Wine the Blood by Species we must not understand the Accidents without their proper subjects This apprehension never entred into the thoughts of the antient Fathers They were perfect strangers to this kind of Philosophy S. Aust l. 4. cal â—â— Tâ—in Serm. de Temp. 38. S. Ambr. l. 4. de Init. By species they understand the specifical nature of a thing and by the species of Bread and Wine True Bread and True Wine as is manifest to any who consult their discourses 10. Where it is said That the Lord who changed Water into Wine could change in the Eucharist Wine into Blood the intention of Cyril is not to make these two conversions in every thing parallel Jerus as is manifest by the words that follow he presently asserts That the eating of Christ's flesh must be understood spiritually and calls the Table mystical and intellectual And therefore all that his words can import is this He who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changed Water into Wine by a corporal mutation changed at his mystical Table Wine into Blood not corporally but spiritually and mystically Lastly It must be acknowledged that there are many Hyperbolical expressions in the Fathers Hom 23. in Mat Par. 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostome and others in relation to the Sacrament The design of them is to secure it from contempt and to elevate and raise the devotion of Communicants They being improper Speeches must not be expounded in such a sence as is inconsistent with what is elsewhere expressed by the same Authors in plain words without any figure They all agree in this in as clear expressions as can be desired That the substance of the Bread and Wine remain in the Eucharist Their Rhetorical flourishes cannot be interpreted to the prejudice of that which is plain and manifest When S. Chrysostome says That Christ mingles himself with us and not by Faith only but indeed makes us to be his Body His meaning is not That there is any corporal mixture or immediate contact betwixt us and his body but that when we receive the figure of his body which is in Heaven the Spirit which dwells in it is communicated to the worthy Receiver and produceth a union betwixt them and therefore what we receive â— 870. he presently calls the Grace of the Spirit Damascen who lived in the eighth Century was one of the first who deserted the Orthodox doctrin of the Fathers He being concerned in the controversie concerning Images and the opposers of them asserting that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament were the only Image and representation which Christ allowed of himself he was transported with an intemperate zeal and affirmed they were no image or figure at all L. 4. c. sid Oâ—t ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tho' in these words he did not design any real conversion of the Elements but rather a corporal presence or consubstantiation yet he gave occasion to some in the ninth Age to dispute for a substantial mutation Paschasius Ratbertus was the first who writ seriously and copiously about it as Bellarmine asserts His sentiments about this argument were received with a warm opposition Rabanus Maurus Bertram Joannes Scotus Erigena did strongly assert the contrary doctrin In the tenth Age which was a night of ignorance all things fell asleep controversies were laid aside Darkness did reconcile them as the want of light does various colours In the eleventh Age Berengarius was awakened and did with great perspicuity assert the Truth Tho' the violence of his enemies and infirmity of his nature induced him to submit to a recantation The controversie all this while was managed with so much ambiguity that Joannes Duns Scotus asserts That it was not necessary for any to believe a substantial conversion or Transubstantiation till the Lateran Council held under Innocent the Third in the year 1215. and therefore the master of the Sentences who flourished in the Century before about the year 1145. useth these words What kind of conversion it is 〈…〉 illa 〈…〉 whether formal or substantial I am not able to determine The truth is that Transubstantiation was brought forth by Paschasius confirmed by Innocent the Third and at last so firmly married to the See of Rome by the Council of Trent that there was no possibility of a divorce tho' there is just reason to believe that the most Learned of that Community could heartily desire it The issue produced by this unhappy conjunction is the mutilation of the Sacrament the Adoration of the Host the Sacrince of
of Nazianzen can be nothing but an Oratorical excursion adapted to the circumstances of his own Age in which the remains of the Martyrs were held in great estimation sometimes expressed by such sort of Actions as he attributes to the Mother of the seven Brethren tho' nothing was intended which did exceed a civil deference and respect The Invocation of Saints by degrees did creep into the Church The First step was a belief That the Saints departed did freely without any asking implore the Divine Majesty in the behalf of those which were left upon the earth without any apprehension of a duty incumbent on them to address their Prayers to them The Second was the practice of some who when the Martyrs were going out of the World did before their departure intreat them to remember them in Heaven The Third was occasioned by the Rhetorical Expressions of some in the Fourth Age who in their Panegyrical Orations made Apostrophe's to the Saints departed in order to the moving the Passions of their Auditors but withal did often insert such words as plainly intimate they had no assurance they were heard by them So that all that can be made of them are rather Oratorical Wishes than proper Invocations When these Flowers of Rhetorick were transplanted into the minds of the Vulgar the badness of the Soil made them to degenerate into Weeds They not rightly understanding the meaning of the Orators did by their ill construction encourage themselves to pray to Saints in their private Devotions which practice is fully condemned by S. Austin and Epiphanius and manifestly declared to be grounded upon the Superstition of the People and not the Doctrin of the Church The publick Offices of the Church are the proper Standard whereby we are to judge of the Worship of every Age and none such are found so early in which Prayer is directed to Saints in a state of separation Now I proceed to the last particular which is plainly injurious to the divine Honour namely the using of Images in the Worship of God Those who are concerned in this practice may be reduced to Three sorts 1. Such as pretend they give no Worship to Images but use them as memorials to quicken their Devotion and excite in them the remembrance of what they represent These do that which has no propitious influence upon Religion It will be difficult for them to kindle the fire of their Devotion at an Image and yet so to order the matter that no sparks shall light upon the Image it self It is not easie to conceive how they should kneel pray burn incense before Images and yet give no religious honour to them This is contrary to the Cathecisme ad Parochos p. 321. and the Decree of the Council of Trent which say That due honour and veneration is to be given to them Material representations of the Deity tho' not intended for exact similitudes are very apt to indispose the mind and produce apprehensions very disagreeable to the nature of an insinite Spirit Tho' they are said to be Books adapted to the infirmity of the Vulgar and very fit to instruct them yet in the sacred Oracles they are represented as holding forth a doctrin of vanities Jer. 20.8 and as teachers of lies Hab. 2.18 They lessen reverential fear and impress incongruous notions upon the mind The mischief from them is greater than any good that can reasonably be expected by them When Books are more apt to lead us into errour than acquaint us with truth it is better to lay them aside than to use them The humane nature of Christ in glory and the spirits of just men made perfect cannot be represented in colours by the most curious Artist A blind man may as well draw a picture as those who have not seen them make a true delineation of them The Images which are used are as injurious to them as a deformed picture would be to the greatest beauty The hurt which they do to the Understanding by impressing false Idea's upon it is much greater than any advantage that can accrue to the Will and Affections by them That heat which is in the Affection is of small moment except it be produced by a true light in the Intellect 2. There are others which confess they give Honour and Worship to the Image but say it is inferiour to that which they give unto God Now these ought to declare whether this inferiour Worship be Religious or Civil only If Civil namely such a value as a man has for the memorial of his friend this nothing concerns the matter under debate the dispute being wholly about Religious Worship which ultimately terminates in God If it be Religious it is to be inquired whether it stays in the Image or only passeth thro' it to the Prototype If the first then God is not Worshipped by the Image which is supposed in this discourse for the Worship ends in the Image If the second a Worship is given to him inferiour to that which is due and so a double fault is committed Too much is given to the Image and too little to God 3. There are those who profess to give the same honour to an Image which is due to the Prototype They say That the Saints and their Images are to be honoured with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Virgin Mary and her Image with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and his Image with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When it is urged That the Image of God is but a creature and therefore not to be joyned with him in the same kind of Worship They endeavour to secure themselves against this inconvenience by taking Sanctuary under some nice distinctions They say that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given to the Image is not terminative but relative not absolute but respective such as is given to the Commissioner of a Prince It doth not stay in him but redounds to the honour of his Master Tho' it is a fault to give the same absolute honour to God and his Image yet there is no hurt in giving the same relativé But this will not salve the matter Absolute Worship is that which is given to an Image absolutely considered Relative as it stands in relation to God Now the relation which is the formal object of Worship being but an accident or finite mode inherent in the Image having no other foundation but humane invention There is as much hurt in giving the same Worship which is due to God unto the Image upon the account of this relation as if it was absolutely considered The Image is a substance the relation an accident appertaining to it If it be an injury to God to give his peculiar Honour to a finite substance which is of his own formation it can be no less to give it to a mode which is nothing but the product of imagination As for what is said concerning the honour done to a Commissioner it is true it does not stay in him but
is essential made the faculty He formed it with a design to find out Truth He requires no other condition in any object to qualifie it for assent but clearness We have as much clearness in all points necessary to Salvation as the nature of the thing will bear So that in this case we have a security from the divine Veracity and Goodness with which it is no reconcileable That our faculty should be so formed as to be deceived when the Proposition we assent unto is manifest and perspicuous So that the ultimate resolution of our Faith is not made into the fallible testimony of a private Spirit but a testimony given by an infallible attribute of the immutable nature of the Deity which assures us not only That what God has revealed is true but that those things are revealed by him in the Bible which are plain and manifest to a duely qualified mind Errour proceeds from the giving too hasty an assent to propositions upon such grounds as are irrelative to their Nature as Education Interest c. He who will devest himself of his prejudices which way soever contracted and sincerely apply himself to the use of such means as are of Divine designation as Praying Reading Hearing Meditating consulting the living Guides which God has set up in his Church will certainly arrive at the perception of that which is necessary to his Salvation He has the highest degree of assurance that this sublunary 〈…〉 â—â—pable of Nothing can be thought 〈…〉 an addition to it but a new revelation and if this was granted as many difficulties would emerge about the meaning of it as there are about the true importance of the old No acquiescence in it could be obtained but upon such considerations as now induce us to believe the Bible and the clear sence of it to be the Word and mind of God All this will evidence That there is not a peremptory necessity for such a Guide as the Church of Rome contends for 2. It is not true That the Church of Rome has all the evidence that can be reasonably desired that she is such a one Three Topicks are commonly made use of in this case Scripture-promises Universal Tradition Motives of Credibility As for the first Let the Text be cited where any such promise is made to the Church of Rome S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans is so far from insinuating any thing of this nature that he gives them advice which evidently imports the possibility of their fall He acquaints them if they boast against the branches as it is manifest they have done and grow insolent that they shall be cut off To mention those promises which respect the Universal Church is wholly irrelative The Church of Rome is so far from being the Universal that she is but a part exceedingly degenerated Pessimum acetum ex optimo Vino She hath obtained the title Catholick by the same method which Abimelech used to make himself King and Phocas Emperour She attempts to murder the right Heirs and true Sons of the Church with the unjust imputation of Heresie that she may enjoy the inheritance alone Her deportment has been as if one member of the body which has a distemper in it should value if self upon that account and pronounce all the other parts to have no interest in the whole because they are not infected with it Indeed it is said That the Catholick Church is One and always visible which can be applied to none but the Church of Rome But this may as easily be denied as affirmed She has not been in any age the One only Church The Eastern Churches have had always an existence as well as the Western in which from the first age there has been the Baptism of Christ the Creed of the Apostles an uninterrupted succession of Bishops In the Western when abuses began to insinuate themselves there was always a number not only of private but publick persons which gave their testimony against them as will be manifest to any who have leisure to peruse the History of the Ages betwixt Boniface the third and Luther These persons we have more reason to account the Church which God has promised always to preserve than those who were willing without any reluctancy to submit to the grossest innovations Tho' they were not equal in number yet there were enough of them to make the little flock to which a Kingdom is promised The Church of Rome as it is now has not been always visible There was no such thing in the three first Centuries Where was then the doctrin of Supremacy Infallibility Transubstantiation worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints Praying in an unknown Language keeping the Scripture from the People mutilating the Sacrament making the Apocryphal Books equal to the Bible These are some of the Characteristical notes of the present Church whereby she stands distinguish'd from others Those Ages were utterly unacquainted with these Tenents We dare appeal from the Church of Rome as it is now to the Church of Rome as it was then and stand to her arbitration In the following Ages errours began more to shew themselves yet they did not grow to such a height as to be received for the Faith of the Church The infernal Spirit has been always busie to sow his tares yet those Ages were not so blind as to take them for wheat Insomuch that we lawfully say That there was not a man in those days which may be properly called a Papist As for the Promises which respect the Universal Church the utmost that can be made of them is That there shall always be upon the Earth a people owning the fundamentals of Religion together with Teachers which shall have a sufficient assistance in order to the directing and inabling them to discharge their duty But there is no assurance given that this aid shall be so efficacious as to furnish them with such an universal Infallibility as the Church of Rome pretends to Such help is promised as is sutable to the exigencies of every Age. In the Primitive it was necessary That it should be so powerful as to secure the first Proponents of our Religion from errour But in after ages this necessity did not continue Greater skill is required to make an exact rule than when it is made to draw a line exactly conformable to it The foundation of Religion being completely laid and the rule of Faith and Worship given out by an unerring hand such aid only is ordinarily to be expected as if we be not wanting to our selves and prevent the effects of it by a voluntary neglect will lead us into the sence of what is revealed God has endued us with a faculty whereby we are in a capacity to make a free choice of that which is propounded unto us He helps us to do it by such means as are agreeable to an intellectual nature He does always enough to enable us to make an advantagious election and therefore
him and his Successours 2. Such a Guide as the Romanists would have who must be followed blindfold and his dictates received with an implicit faith without examination is not consistent with the nature of an Intellectual Being Our understanding is appointed to be our immediate Guide insomuch That if we act contrary to it we pervert the order of Nature and vitiate the action It is designed by a divine institution to make scrutiny and search into that which is propounded to us Therefore when there were infallible guides upon the Earth the people were commanded to look into the facred Oracles and make tryal by them of what was tendered to them They were not to rely only upon the words of them who spake but examine their Authority by a standing rule and inquire into the sence of what was spoken by them Joh. 5. Act. 17.11 Our blessed Lord directed the Jews to take this course and the Beraeans are commended for the using of it To suffer our understandings to be lapped up in an implicite belief is to keep our talent in a napkin Our Intellect was given to us to be exerted to the uttermost that all the Acts of our Religion might become a reasonable Service 3. Such a Guide is destructive of true Virtue in the Acts of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is defined by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an elective habit It disposeth us when good and evil are set before us to make a free election to chuse the good and reject the evil Now the Guide supposed who must be followed without scrutiny deprives us of this liberty He must be believed whatsoever he propounds whether right or wrong If he commands us to believe that to be black which appears white to our sence we must not dispute his dictate Amongst the Eighteen rules of the prevailing Order in the Church of Rome the Thirteenth runs in these words Vt ipsi Catholicae Ecclesiae omnino unanimes conformesque simus Si quod oculis nostris albus apparet nigrum illa definierit debemus itidem quòd nigrum est pronunciare Bellarmine is very agreeable to this rule as is manifest by the following expression Si autem Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas c. If the Pope should err in commanding Vices or prohibiting Virtues the Church would be obliged to believe Vices to be good and Virtues evil 4. Such a Guide can be of no advantage to us in our present circumstances We have already an infallible Rule to walk by the true sence of which if we receive and comply with we cannot err Now this sence may as easily be obtained as the sence of an infallible Guide If there was such a one as is supposed he could not be spoken with by one of a Thousand of those who are concerned in the meaning of his determination And therefore they must receive it from the relation of others or by some Writing under his hand The Relators being fallible and obnoxious to the like infirmities with other men can give us no infallible assurance They may be byassed with partiality and irrelative respects A Writing from him is liable to the same exceptions which are usually formed against the Scripture We see that all parties among the Romanists pretend favour from the determinations of the Church They are like Pictures which seem to look upon every one in the room where they hang. When interest is concerned it will find out as many evasions as the most subtle Adversary can devise to elude any text of Scripture There are many divisions among the Romanists yet all assert the sence of the infallible Judge is on their side Why may not we as well understand the sence of the Bible immediately as the meaning of a Decree in Writing of such a Judge The Scripture was written by an unerring hand with a sincere purpose that it might be understood Clearness of stile is a necessary condition in order to this end and therefore must be designed by the Composer God undoubtedly is able to write with as much perspicuity and with as manifest accommodations to the meanest capacity as men are Thousands have had so firm a Faith grounded upon the sence which they immediately derived from his Word That rather than they would depart from it they have with alacrity endured the loss of their sublunary comforts and chearfully resigned up their lives to the inhumanity of their Persecutors The Divine Spirit is ready to assist those who are sincerely desirous of true knowledge Peculiar persons are devoted to the study of the Scripture in order to the dissipating of Clouds and the clearing of what is obscure Why a Writing composed by an infinitely Wife Being and attended with these advantages in order to the gaining the true meaning of it may not be as easily understood as the decrees of a Pope or the Canons of a Council I could never discern any good reason 5. Such a Guide is not reconcileable to the Divine Intention in giving us the sacred Oracles These are evidently designed as a rule which every one is obliged to consult Blessed is he which readeth Rev. 1.4 Reading is enjoyned in order to the gaining understanding Let the word dwell richly in you in all wisdom The supreme Head of the Church commands us to search the Scriptures S. Peter whom the Romanists assert to have been his Vicegerent upon the earth requires us to attend unto them as unto a light without suggesting the necessity of having recourse to himself or his Successors for interpretation All this assures us That we are to take our measures from the Bible and judge for our selves what is to be done or not done with a judgment of discretion that our conformity to the Divine Will may be an act of our Understanding Now a Guide whose Dictates we are to swallow down without examination is not consistent with the practice here enjoyned us To be bound to examine the rule with all diligence and yet to resign up our selves to the decrees of a Guide about the sence of it without any scrutiny are two contrary obligations If the first be intended as it is plain it is the last cannot God never wills that we should be engaged to those things which are contradictory one to another In a civil Community where there is a Law and a Judge If it be commanded That every Subject read this Law search it diligently use his best endeavours to understand it That his conformity to it may be an act of his own Reason this would plainly signifie That the Judge is not to be followed blindfold whether right or wrong but his Decree is to be compared and fully considered Tho' the Judge has the power of decision which the subject is so far to acquiesce in as not to disturb the publick order by any inutinous demeanour yet the judgment of discretion
of the method of his operation with those to whom the Sacred Oracles are communicated but not so full a disclosure of it with others which are not admitted to a participation of that immunity That which is revealed is sufficient to demonstrate That God is not wanting to them and if they miscarry their destruction is chargeable only upon themselves It is manifest That they with all others are naturally so much under the power of that corruption which is contracted by the Fall That the Image of God is obliterated in them and they rendered unable to do any thing which is spiritually good The Second Adam has so far made a reparation That the light of Reason in some measure discovering their obligations to their Creator is impressed upon them He who is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lighteth every Man that comes into the World That which may be known of God is manifest in them not so much upon the account of the remains of the Divine Image which they received in the state of innocency as a secondary discovery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for God hath manifested it unto them There is a spirit in every man enclosed with darkness and the effects of the Primitive Apostasie but the inspiration of the Lord giveth understanding When men had benighted themselves it was the pleasure of the Lord to light a candle for them Prov. 20.27 This light is not only received but a power to comport with the meaning of it For it is plain they receive so much from God that for their defect in the glorifying of them they are rendered inexcusable Rom. 1.20 If light had been imparted to discover their obligations and a power denied to satisfie them no fairer excuse could have been devised than this That the Divine Benignity since their Primitive Apostasie whereby they lost their Light and Power has been pleased to give them some Light again to see their duty but withhold a Power to discharge it To all this we may add That the fault is in themselves that they enjoy no fuller a manifestation and those assistances which accompany it By not improvement of that which they have they are deprived of a just claim to that which is greater The Sound of the Gospel which went to the uttermost parts of the Earth was drowned with the clamour of their exorbitances Divine Providence notwithstanding these provocations has placed the Candlestick at no such distance from them as renders them uncapable of receiving benefit by it They traffick with those in temporal concerns which are acquainted with it And if their affection to him who is the desire of all Nations was not thro' a voluntary defect grown very languid they may do the same in Spirituals Tho' we are not able to delineate the manner of God's giving his aid to all in the concerns of Religion Yet we have no inferiour degree of assurance in the general That all do receive such an assistance as renders them inexcusable if they do not perform what he requires To assert That he withholds such help makes a very dishonourable reflection upon him It casts a cloud upon the glorious constellation of his Attributes in particular upon his Goodness as tho' he was less kind under the Second Covenant than under the First His Justice as tho' he did condemn men for that which it was never in their power to prevent His Mercy in offering external means to those who have no power to make use of them It has a tendency to deface that idea which we naturally have of God in our Souls and beget in the room of it very enormous conceptions As tho' he did require the Lame to walk and yet not furnish them with such supports as are of peremptory necessity to that motion It leaves no matter for the Worm of Conscience to breed out of If the damned knew That a sufficient power while they were upon the Theatre of this World was not given to them to escape the Torment they are in how can they reflect with indignation upon their own folly for the mis-spending their time and the loss of their opportunity to gain a more easie state No man is inclined to make pensive reflections upon himself for the not bringing to pass impossibilities It renders exhortation useless Counsel supposeth a power in him to whom it is directed to comply with it None will exhort a person to see who has irrecoverably lost his visive faculty or one who is dead to move It enervates the nature of repentance Who will believe himself concerned to grieve for the omission of that which was never in his power to do or for the doing of that which he never had power to omit As God created Angels with a Will confirmed to that which is Good brute Creatures with a Faculty determined to their proper Objects So he has made Man in a middle state not secured as the supernal Spirits are nor determined as inferiour Animals He has endued him with a sufficient power which he may use or abuse improve or neglect This is evident in the first Adam who undoubtedly had a power to persevere in his innocency and in those who are converted by the grace of the second Adam whom all confess to have a power to do more good than they do He who worketh after the counsel of his will is pleased to make man after his image and leave him in the hands of his own counsel Ecclus. 15 14. His concourse with him he adapts to his constitution As the sinite Spirit which animates the body has its several Organs by which its operations are modified So likewise the infinite Spirit who by his omnipotent interposal sustains the Universe All the Creatures are his Organs some free some necessary Every one he useth according to its Nature Those which are necessary he concurrs necessarily with Those which are free he ordinarily accommodates himself to their freedom and by this means keeps up the order which he has established This assertion is not prejudicial to his prescience It is manifest that he knows what Evil Men will do although they determine themselves to the doing of it By a parity of reason he must know the Good altho' they use their own freedom in the doing of it Neither is it injurious to his Sovereignty He has the hearts of all Men in his own hand He can interpose his determining influence He can take away the power whereby he inables them to determine themselves All their determinations he can so order as to make them subservient to the design of his Providence Neither doth it destroy the immediate dependence of the Will upon him It is dependent in its Being for conservation in its acts for his prevenient grace and simultaneous concourse Tho' God is the cause of every Being yet not of all the modes of a free Agent as is evident in the evil of sin which is such a mode and yet brought to pass without his efficiency
close a confinement takes its flight with the other two blended with it into the upper region of the Earth where they constitute Minerals Plants and whatsoever the earth we tread upon is adorned with This Hypothesis is no prejudice to us for it supposeth an intelligent Being as the first Creator of matter and Moderator of its motion And when it is managed with the greatest dexterity comes very short of giving true satisfaction about many terrestrial Phaenomena how they are produced in a Mechanical way In it no provision is made for any reasonble account of the variety of Plants how it comes to pass that out of one and the same soil should spring such great diversity as the earth is beautified with If these did originally emerg out of a combination of various Particles ascending from the interior region of the Earth there must be a continuation of the like emanations for the nourishing of them and if so it is unaccountable how the several streams of Particles should be able to find out amidst such great variety as is sometimes in a little spot of ground all those roots which they properly belong to Neither can any good reason be given in case all these should be pull'd up and Wheat or any other Grain sown in the room of them how all those Particles of which some are supposed inflexible when they miss of the roots they are accustomed to should presently change their figure and become as nutritive of the new body as they had been formerly of the old To say the Succus of the Earth is modified by the figure of the Root or Seed is contrary to the Hypothesis under consideration for it is supposed in it that the interior region of the Earth is the shop where all the Particles are forged But let it be so it is but necessary that those who say it should give some account in a Mechanical way how the Seed came to be in such a mode or figure This Hypothesis likewise leaves us as much at a loss about the curiosities which appear in the composure of Plants Whatsoever Particles may be drawn out of the bowels of the Earth and elevated to the surface of it yet it doth not appear by any Mechanical Law how they should fall into such exact order as to produce the elegant colours and curious proportions which are visible in them Were Archimedes present with his Compasses or Michael Angelo with his Pencil their imitations would fall very short of that exactness which is obvious to every eye There are as great difficulties about their various virtues Whatsoever Succus ascends to the exterior part of the Earth it is not conceivable how it should cause a Plant to spring up which is hot in its operation and within an inch of it another cold one astringent another laxative one poisonous another nutritive one grateful another displeasing to the palate If this variety were the product only of some juice modified within the Earth this juice must be Homogeneous or Heterogeneous NOt the first because it could not be the cause of so much variety Not the second because the soil many times where such Plants grow is found in every part of it to be of the same Nature as appears by its administring an equal nourishment when the Plants are rooted up to any kind of Seed which is sown in the room of them Lastly The Hypothesis we speak of gives no account how a little kernel comes to be improved into the vast body of a Tree How a grain of Mustard the least of all Seeds should become the greatest of Herbs Why the Thistle in Lebanon should not be as tall as the Cedar or the Oak in Bashan as low as the Hyssop upon the wall It has not yet been made to appear by what force the Succus ascends contrary to its own gravity How it comes to climb in some Trees a yard in others five by what Law it is engaged to spread it self into Arms and Branches and what Principle has set bounds which cannot be exceeded So inscrutable is the Wisdom of him who framed the Earth that the most profound inquiries into Nature are not able to discover all the methods of it Something is industriously concealed to teach us that the Wisdom which formed the Earth far transcends all finite capacities As the Earth so the Men which inhabit it declare the existence of a Deity in their Bodies and Souls 1. Their Bodies He who takes a deliberate view of the composure of them must necessarily be convinced of the interposals of Wisdom in the contrivance The usual indications of Wisdom are the aiming at some worthy design the election of congruous means for the accomplishment of it and the actual bringing to pass what is designed All these are manifest to any who consider the frame of a humane Body It is manifestly intended to be a convenient habitation for the Soul This immortal Tenant having a considerable term of time to spend in it and being of an active and vigorous nature delighted with variety of objects it is necessary that its dwelling should be repaired be moveable and furnished with avenues whereby it may entertain and perceive those objects it meets with In order to repairs there could not be a better provision of means contrived by all the Wisdom in the World Two rowes of Teeth are formed to prepare the nourishment by Mastication an acid humor in the Ventricle for the conversion of it into Chyle strait passages in the Intestines for the separation of the purer part from the excrementitious a conveiance for it to the common Receptacle Ductus to derive it from thence into the Veins where by the potency of the Blood it is converted into the same nature Ventricles in the Heart for the entertainment of it Valvulae to prevent the recess and the Hearts being charged with too great a quantity at one time which might occasion a suffocation a passage out of the Ventricle into the Lungs where the Air thro' the Larynk communicates a temper to it a passage out of the Lungs into the left and from thence by the branches of the great Artery into all the parts of the Body Anastomoses or pores for the transmission of it out of the Arteries into the Veins again that the circulation may be continued for the repetition of the same work That every part of the body may move there is likewise a wise and accurate provision The immediate instruments of motion are the Muscles Besides the Flesh which is predominant in their composition they have Filaments or Fibres which constitute the tendon or ligament whereby the Muscle is tied to the part which it is designed to move Besides the Fibres there are Nerves which serve as channels to convey the Spirits For the providing matter for the generation of Spirits a vast quantity of Blood is prepared far exceeding what is found in other Animals The Blood in the body of Man bears the same